U2: A Window Into Conservativism
A mini-brouhaha over Bono’s recent video appearance at the Conservative Party Conference led to this Telegraph column by Neil McCormick about how U2’s lyrics could conceivably represent a conservative worldview. McCormick was inspired by a talk he heard at an academic conference devoted to the group, where Stephen Catanzarite, director of Pittsburgh’s Lincoln Park…
Study Says Live Earth Had No Impact On Public Opinion
Remember Live Earth? On July 7, 2007, 150 A-list acts performed around the clock on seven continents to a television audience of billions. The point was to draw attention to global climate issues. Each location brought its own vibe. Australia was earnest, China factory-fresh pop lite, and Keith Urban covered “Gimme Shelter” at Giants Stadium….
Marijuana Growers The Latest Environmental Enemy
There’s an environmentally correct new way to demonize cannabis consumers — and foreigners. In a post headlined “Marijuana growers worsening California drought,” the Christian Science Monitor‘s Bright Green Blog (a stoner name if ever there were one) interviews a Northern California police officer, who explains that large-scale cultivators of California’s largest cash crop are illegally…
Eating Locally With The Greenway Table
Sustainable agriculture is socially just, environmentally enhancing, and economically viable for the communities in which it exists. If we continually demand the cheapest food possible, we’ll continue to get food produced with cheap labor on land bereft of its beautiful resources from a company that most likely does not care about how it’s created, distributed,…
Brad Paisley Wears Pants And Plays A Bad Guitar
Brad Paisley‘s mostly instrumental Play was the guitar freak’s album of 2008. The cat rips in just about any style you throw at him (dig “Turf’s Up,” below). But Play was something of an aberration. A country superduperstar with more than a dozen number-one singles, Paisley has a Zappa-like propensity for casually clever lyrics that…
Sarah Silverman’s World Hunger Solution
She makes it sound so easy (and a little dirty, too).
Carlinhos Brown: ‘Poverty Is Not An Excuse For Anything’
Along with Gilberto Gil, Carlinhos Brown is one of the great Afro-Brazilian activist musicians. A seemingly ubiquitous drummer, Brown lead the great 100-strong bloco Afro percussion group, Timbalada, and is also a prolific songwriter (for Caetano Veloso, Sergio Mendes, and Marisa Monte, among many others) and community firebrand. On the DVD World Music Portraits: Carlinhos…
Interview: Security Pro Marshall Rodriguez On Nitrous
Over the last few years the battle between concert promoters and people who sell nitrous oxide balloons has escalated to almost an all-out war. Standing on the front lines is Marshall Rodriguez, a fan who launched a security company in 2000 that specializes in festivals and jamband-oriented concert events. His company, Marker Security, has since…
Pseudo Pot Legalization Hurts Drug Cartels. But Is It Enough?
It’s an argument marijuana legalization advocates have been using for years: If marijuana were legalized and regulated in America, drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) and gangs would be put out of business. But how much truth does that argument hold? The expansion of medical marijuana dispensaries and growers in California, Michigan, and Colorado could provide all the…
Animal Rights To Dominate All-Vegan World Peace Yoga Conference
A sometimes-vitriolic debate is raging in the yoga community about whether yogis should a) be politically active, and b) follow a vegetarian diet. Although ahimsa (nonviolence) is the primary yoga ethic, some teachers argue that vegetarianism is too restrictive and violates ahimsa by potentially causing harm to the student. Other teachers, notably Jivamukti Yoga founders Sharon Gannon…