Stepping back into the future!

OPEN MIC RECAP 3 26 09

Well it was another entertaining night of music at Sharky’s last night. Again, a great mix of bands, solos and duos playing originals and covers.

Last week I was going to mention that with a few notable exceptions, the preponderance of participants at our open mics have been male, and I was going to put the shout out that we needed more female singers and players. Well last night our first participants put a “tick” in the female column.

A new duo to our stage, Jane and Derek (Jane Atticks and Derek Ely) opened the show to rave response. They admitted that they had not played out much but you wouldn’t know it by their performance. They opened their five song set of covers with Colbie Callait’s “Realize” and they had the room’s attention from that moment on. They then played a stirring version of Sir Elton’s “Tiny Dancer” and The Black Crowe’s “She Talks to Angels”. Sheryl Crow’s “Strong Enough” followed and they finished their set with the classic “Bobby McGee”. There are times when our five song limit is too stringent: this was one of those times. I hope to hear them again soon!

Second on the solo stage was a friend from 10 years past, Lin Boswell. I had the pleasure of sharing the stage with Lin about ten years ago at one of the Jewish Mother locations here in Richmond. He said he hasn’t performed on stage in quite a while and admitted that he suffered the usual “jitters’ we all get at the moment you’re walking on stage: those jitters did not show. He played a four song all original set beginning with “Wait”, which to my ear had a flavor of a cool G’n R’ ballad. He followed with a minor key “Imminent Void”. He then played “Taxi”, a song in ¾ time with a great falsetto ending, and ended his set with “Plasticene”. It was great fun to see and hear Lin after all this time. I hope he is once again hit by the muse and continues his musical work.

Next up on the solo stage was Mr. Tabb Justis. I gotta hand it to Tabb, he picks songs that you won’t often hear covered, and it’s definitely refreshing. He opened his five song set with a tip of the hat to the late Dan Seals of the ‘70’s light rock duo England Dan and John Ford Coley and performed “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight”. He followed with Nick Lowe’s “Cruel to be Kind”: after prompting by Tabb I joined in with a bit of harmony. I try not to bother the talent too much, but if they ask… His next song was a Burt Bacharach / Hal David gem “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again” which kept me scratching my head trying to figure out who originally recorded the song, and it now just occurs to me it was Dionne Warwick. He then stepped into the new millennium with Rob Thomas’s “Disease” and closed his set with his original “Party in the Fan”. Tabb always approaches his performance with humor and energy: two great traits.

Speaking of energy, another amalgam of the hard kicking Trouble Again took to the band stage and performed a five song tutorial of guitar driven blues. In addition to perennial members Chris Garrett / guitar and vocals, David Moody / guitar and vocals and Al Colgan / drums and percussion, they were joined with bass man James Richardson. They ripped through Joey B’s “Walk in My Shadow” with David on vocals and Clarence Gatemouth Brown’s “Dollars Got the Blues” with Chris on vocals. The boys traded lead guitar phrases on Kenny Wayne Shepherd’s “Shotgun Blues”. Chris took over lead duties on “Little Wing” and they once again shared leads on S.R.V.’s “Texas Flood”. They have a show this evening at Arizona Joe’s in Mechanicsville.

Check them out at:

http://www.myspace.com/troubleagainband

Gordy Gordon then took to the solo stage for the first time and performed four original songs from his forthcoming cd “Ten Tales to be Told”. Gordy accompanied himself with his very pretty Takamine “Santa Fe” (man, I wanted one of those when they first appeared) and harmonica. He began his set with “Chattanooga Boxcar Band” and followed with “Feeling Like a Country Song”. Next up was “Love Bound and Crazy” and although he was ready to end his set after just three songs his reputation must have preceded him and he was begged to play his ode to the tobacco industry – “Thunder Road”: I could hear this song being recorded by any number of artists. You can hear more about Gordy on his site:

http://www.gordygordon.com/

Why our final performer always ends up closing the show is a mystery to me, but Forest George, itinerant singer and videographer was joined by Paul Magill Smith on harmonica and me on guitar for the Otis Redding classic “Dock of the Bay”. Forest then performed ‘The Gambler” by special request and then set out on a three song Elvis Fest, performing “His Latest Flame” (I think he does that one for me), “Suspicious Minds” (I think he does this one for the staff at Sharky’s) and surprised us all by singing the Paul Anka penned “My Way” to an mp3 track. It’s good to know that some folks travel with their band in their pocket. I’d like to thank Forest once again for filming the evening’s artist and for also bringing out a group of his friends to enjoy the evening.

Thanks also to Paul Magill Smith, Forest George and everyone else who is helping to spread the word about our open mic at Sharky’s. You can check out some of Paul’s video work at:

http://www.rockitz.net/

and Forest George’s video at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/fgeorge76

Thanks to all,

Pat O’Brien

     After them, Carleigh Nesbit came up with her partner Carl Anderson, and she really wowed everyone with a Gillian Welch sound, her voice is as pure as the proverbial mountain stream.  She's a young singer from the Charlottesville area, and making quite an impact up there; glad to have her visit us. After playing Nacho Mamas, she went down to the 7-Eleven stage to play again, where word has it, she sold a CD to someone who asked her to play a house party. 

      I wandered down to the next stage at Crenshaw Street, and caught Haze & the Transients with their wonderful harmonies and lonesome country-flavored sound, they really have that style down. Phatback had done a great job there setting up a PA, and it sounded mighty fine, according to all the acts playing that stage.  Later, my wife caught Phatback's set and said how impressed she was with the singer's voice, Renee can certainly belt them out. Down the street, Tobacco Row Exchange sounded excellent at the 7 Eleven Stage, they perform classic country tunes.

       When I got down to Babe's Courtyard and caught Amy Henderson soloing, she was providing a very impressive sound, despite the lack of a band. Amy also heads up The Orderlies, who are currently working on their latest CD. The sandy area was filling up with people, and the Gentlemen came on with their reggae rock sound, a good style of music for the day. Also appearing that day at Babes was The Atkinsons doing their unplugged version of the band, featuring a jaunty folksy violin flavored sound.  The Ragdolls eventually played a very rocking set to an appreciative audience, Tara Lane has a great voice, she belted out "Come Together" to a packed house as the Babes stage drew to a close.

    Grover's Mill was doing "Comfortably Numb" at Crenshaw Street when I walked by; very good version, Dan Toxie has a great voice, and the lead guitarist really had the right sound. Down the street, West End Connection was presenting their instrumental jazz rock at Shepard Street, interesting beats, and structure of the songs was interesting. By the time I got back to the other end a local Neil Young tribute band called Broken Arrow at Nacho Mamas was in the middle of one of the best sets I've ever seen by them.  Chris Branch sings Neil Young like no one else, and "Southern Man" was particularly good, with Harry Gore's solid guitar playing and Maurice Seamster's steady beat. The Lost Vagabonds followed them with hot classic rock tunes at Crenshaw, it was their first appearance at the Watermelon Festival, they are based in King William County. Chip Hale has a great voice, and he plays a Hoffner bass, a rarity.

     Down the street, Chris Lucas was displaying his talents on guitar with Harry Gore on the front porch of Guitar Works, Gore had already played two sets at Nacho Mamas, he stays busy at the Watermelon Festival. Of note at this festival, Ominotago celebrated their five year anniversary during their appearance by playing Nacho Mamas stage, since Chelsea and Beau met at the Nacho Mamas stage at an earlier Watermelon Festival. It's always great to get musicians together, not to mention aiding and abetting relationships.  To top it off at Nacho Mamas, Chris Friedrich and Richmond Rock Exchange satisfied the crowd with rocking numbers by Cream and Bad Company.

By: Paul MaGill
For the past 5 years or so I have been racking my brain & intensely studying the prime problem America faces. First I had to determine what it was/is. It seems to all boil down to one word...energy. If America starts using brain power instead of force of arms will we be better off? Definitely.

Wouldn't we all be better off worldwide if we had invested the $3-5 trillion Nobel Prize winning economist Joeseph Stiglitz says is the ultimate long-range cost of the two wars over oil we are now engaged in if we had re-directed those funds toward building instead of destroying? And for what? Oil? A resource that is finite? Are we insane?

Although I fear very little, despite attempts by this oil administration to instill fear in all of us for their own fiancial & political gain, I'm certain we should fear the day oil runs out more than any backward terrorist living in a cave somewhere in Afghanistan, Pakistan, or even Crawford TX.

At the moment we are lulled into a sense of false security by falling gasoline prices. Is this because of increased supply...no, the refineries are still running at under capacity (intentionally at about 85%). New discoveries...no, there's only so much oil in the world, and the low hanging fruit has already been plucked. New drilling in ANWR or OCS will only decrease the pump price about a nickel or less...and by about 2030 according to those experts who know how to estimate such things.. So why has the price fallen from about $4 per gallon to (latest seen locally) $1.59? Several factors are involved.

First, let me relate what I watched on C-SPAN a few months ago. A top exec from each of the major oil companies testified before a congressional committee on energy. When asked what the price for a barrel of oil SHOULD be they agreed at about $55-60 per barrel. When asked why it spiked to $147 per barrel their reply was unanimous...manipulative speculation primarily in the futures market. Aside from the fact consumption (demand) has dropped in the US about 10% (which is a big factor to be sure), there are a couple more things to consider. (Note: The Wall Street closing price per barrel today... Dec-1-08...was just under $50) 

The economy overall has tanked, and the manipulative speculators are avoiding investing in the oil futures market as if it was like kissing lepers.  In an atmosphere like Wall Street, where the average trader employee's income is $366,000 it's difficult for them to comprehend how $4 a gallon gas impacts the average person, or represents in effect the largest regressive hidden tax increase on the American public...EVER. They just don't 'get' it that Wall Street is a superfitial sur-real existence far removed from the painful reaity of Main Street.

There is a third likely possibility for the drastic speedy price drop of gasoline prices. Many people are waking up to the fact oil is not our only source to power our vehicles, and even Henry Ford thought it wasn't the best over a hundred years ago. We have better options if we can force an oil bought off congress to do the right (excuse me...correct) thing and be part of the solution instead of impediment. This means investing heavily in alternate fuels, and alternate fueled vehicles. something the incoming administration has said it is more than willing to proceed with. One indication the paradigm is changing is even the present congress recently chastised the auto manufacturers for not advancing energy efficient vehicles, and especially the arrogant CEO's who came to DC separately in expensive wasteful private jets. As one congressman so aptly put it, "It's like a guy standing in a soup kitchen bread line in a tuxedo".

Some people have had the audacity to lay most of the blame for the Big Three's failures at the feet of unions & their members.  Well that's a dog that just won't hunt, folks, despite efforts to spin the discussion in that direction to deflect the blame from where it primarily lies...mismanagement by the executives. The union members have accepted reduced pay & benefits in he past two negotiations, and have even said they are willing to tighten their belts further if it means keeping the companies afloat. I watched the hearings carefully, twice even, but when Rep. Sherman asked each of the CEO's (assuming the bailout was approved) if they were willing to accept a maximum total compensation package of $1 million until their companies were once again profitable, two reluctantly agreed, but the third (the GM CEO) hemmed & hawed with a BS reply until time ran out. I might add this is the same company that killed the much loved very successful EV-1 electric car (http://www.ev1.org/), yanked 4,000 of them back from Californians who had even raised the funds to buy every one of them, and despite protests shipped them to Arizona where they were crushed & shredded. The main reason no one in their sane mind should buy into the "unions did it" (caused the financial failure of American auto manufacturers) kool-aide is despite comparable compensation packages for their workers, the foreign auto companies located in the US are profitable. What's wrong with this picture, and who is telling lies, huh?

By: Paul MaGill

Because of an outdated ideology from the 1930's, corporate greed, and massive lobbying efforts (bribes...disguised as 'campaign contributions'), our best energy source has been shunned, in fact even intentionally demonized...and that is hemp. Here's what I'm talking about:

1.      Hemp Plant Cannabis Sativa Information

——————————————————————————–

The following is excerpted from the mind-boggling and eye-opening book "The Emperor Wears No Clothes" by Jack Herer, a must-have book for anyone who cares about the future and well-being of our fragile planet. This visionary book makes clear why it is necessary to add hemp to our individual and collective lives today and why hemp is essential to our well-being as well as that of the earth.

Hemp is sustainable clothing, footwear, shelter, foods, tree-free paper, cement, gasoline, fuel, nutritious and delicious foods, paint, industrial sealants, industrial composites, and so much more. Its beauty, usefulness, and astounding versatility truly boggle the mind! Hemp oil, for example, has the highest percentage of usable essential fatty acids of any plant, period.

Why hemp? Because it is, by far, Earth’s premier, renewable natural resource. The hemp plant can single-handedly reverse the Greenhouse Effect, purify our air, water, & soil, and clothe and shelter us in a sustainable fashion.

Hemp paper lasts 50 to 100 times longer than most preparations of papyrus and is a hundred times easier and cheaper to make. It also does not yellow with age like acidic paper made from tree pulp.

If the hemp pulp paper process of 1916 were in use today, it could replace 40 to 70% of all pulp paper (from trees), including corrugated boxes, computer printout paper and paper bags. Imagine the effect this conversion to hemp paper alone would have on near-extinct species and all forms of wild life, on old-growth forests that are fast disappearing, on the quality of our water, air, and soil, as well as on our planet’s sensitive ecosystem!

Hemp stems are 80% hurds (pulp byproduct after the hemp fiber is removed from the plant). Hemp hurds are 77% cellulose–a primary chemical feed stock (industrial raw material) used in the production of chemicals, plastics, and fiber. An acre of full grown hemp plants can sustainably provide from four to 50 or even 100 times the cellulose found in cornstalks, kenaf, or sugar cane–the planet’s next highest annual cellulose plants.

Hemp will grow in any state in the US and most of Canada. In most places, hemp can be harvested twice a year and, in warmer areas such as southern California, Texas, Florida and the like, it could be a year-round crop. Hemp has a short growing season and can be planted after food crops have been harvested.

Farming only 6% of continental US acreage with biomass crops would provide all of America’s gas and oil energy needs, ending dependence upon fossil fuels.

Hemp is Earth’s number-one biomass resource; it is capable of producing 10 tons per acre in four months. Hemp is easy on the soil, sheds its lush foliage throughout the season, adding mulch to the soil and helping retain moisture. Hemp is an ideal crop for the semi-arid West and open range land.

Hemp is the only biomass source available that is capable of making the US energy-independent. Ultimately, the world has no other rational environmental choice but to give up fossil fuels.

From the farmers’ point of view, hemp is an easy crop to grow and will yield from three to six tons per acre on any land that will grow corn, wheat, or oat. It has a short growing season, so that it can be planted after other crops are in. It can be grown in any state of the union. Hemp’s long roots penetrate and break the soil to leave it in perfect condition for the next year’s crop. The dense shock of leaves, eight to twelve feet above the ground, chokes out weeds, eliminating the need for chemicals or pesticides, 50% of which is used today on conventionally-grown cotton plant alone to produce cotton clothing products that are inferior to hemp clothing in terms of durability, thickness, softness, and sustainability. Two successive hemp crops are enough to reclaim land that has been abandoned because of Canadian thistles or quack grass

The earliest known woven fabric was apparently of hemp, which began to be worked in the eighth millennium (8,000-7,000 BC).”

From more than 1,000 years before the time of Christ until 1883 AD, cannabis hemp–indeed, marijuana–was our planet’s largest agricultural crop and most important industry, involving thousands of products and enterprises; producing the overall majority of Earth’s fiber, fabric, lighting oil, paper, incense, and medicines. In addition, it was a primary source of essential food oil and protein for humans and animals.

Ninety percent of all ships’ sails (since before the Phoenicians, from at least the 5th Century BC until long after the invention and commercialization of steam ships–mid- to late-19th century) were made from hemp.

The word “canvas” is the Dutch pronunciation (twice removed, from French and Latin) of the Greek word “Kannabis.”

In addition to canvas sails, until this century virtually all of the rigging, anchor ropes, cargo nets, fishing nets, flags, shrouds, and oakum (the main protection for ships against salt water, used as a sealant between loose or green beams) were made from the stalk of the marijuana plant.

Even the sailors’ clothing, right down to the stitching in the seamen’s rope-soled and “canvas” shoes, was crafted from cannabis.

Additionally, the ships’ charts, maps, logs, and Bibles were made from paper containing hemp fiber from the time of Columbus (15th century) until the early 1900s in the Western European/American world, and by the Chinese from the 1st Century AD on.

Until the 1820s in America (and until the 20th Century in most of the rest of the world), 80% of all textiles and fabrics used for clothing, tents, bed sheets, and linens, rugs, drapes, quilts, towels, diapers, etc.–and even the US flag, “Old Glory,” were principally made from fibers of cannabis hemp.

From 70-90% of all rope, twine, and cordage was made from hemp until 1937. It was then regrettably replaced mostly by petrochemical fibers, but at what untold costs to the environment?

Hemp is the perfect archival medium for artists’ work, because it is acid-free. The paintings of Van Gogh, Gainsborough, Rembrandt, etc., were primarily painted on hemp canvas, as were practically all canvas paintings.

A strong, lustrous fiber, hemp withstands heat, mildew, insects, and is not damaged by light. Oil paintings on hemp and/or flax canvas have stayed in fine condition for centuries.

For thousands of years, virtually all good paints and varnishes were made with hempseed oil and/or linseed oil.

Until about 1800, hempseed oil was the most consumed lighting oil in America and the world. From then until the 1870s, it was the second most consumed lighting oil, exceeded only by whale oil.

Hempseed oil lit the lamps of the legendary Aladdin, Abraham the prophet, and in real life, Abraham Lincoln. It was the brightest lamp oil.

In the early 1900s, Henry Ford and other futuristic, organic, engineering geniuses recognized (as their intellectual, scientific heirs still do today) an important point–that up to 90% of all fossil fuel used in the world today (coal, oil, natural gas, etc.) should long ago have been replaced with biomass such as : cornstalks, cannabis sativa (hemp), waste paper and the like.

Biomass can be converted to methane, methanol or gasoline at a fraction of the current cost of oil, coal, or nuclear energy–especially when environmental costs are factored in–and its mandated use would end acid rain, end sulfur-based smog, and reverse the Green house Effect on our planet–right now!

Hempseed can be pressed for its highly nutritious vegetable oil, which contains the highest amount of essential fatty acids in the plant kingdom.

Because one acre of hemp produces as much cellulose fiber pulp as 4.1 acres of trees, hemp is the perfect material to replace trees for pressed board, particle board and for concrete construction molds.

Practical, inexpensive fire-resistant construction material, with excellent thermal and sound-insulating qualities, is made by heating and compressing hemp fibers to create strong construction paneling, replacing dry wall and plywood. William B. Conde of Conde’s Redwood Lumber, Inc, near Eugene, OR, has demonstrated the superior strength, flexibility, and economy of hemp composite building materials compared to wood fiber, even as beams.

Iso-chanvre (chanvre is French for hemp), a rediscovered French building material made from hemp hurds mixed with lime, actually petrifies into a mineral state and lasts for many centuries. Archeologists have found a bridge in the south of France, from the Merovingian period, built with this process.

Hemp has been used throughout history for carpet backing. Hemp fiber has potential in the manufacture of strong, rot-resistant carpeting–eliminating the poisonous fumes of burning synthetic materials in a house or commercial fire, along with allergic reactions associated with new synthetic carpeting, which may outgas volatile toxic fumes for months or even years, endangering human health.

Plastic plumbing pipes (PVC pipes) can be manufactured using renewable hemp cellulose as the chemical feedstock, replacing nonrenewable coal or petroleum-based chemical feedstock.

So we can envision a house of the future built, plumbed, painted, and furnished with the world’s number-one renewable resource–hemp.

We believe that in a competitive market, with all facts known, people will rush to buy long-lasting, biodegradable “Pot Tops” or “Mary Jeans,” etc, made from hemp grown without pesticides or herbicides.

It’s time we put capitalism to the test and let the unrestricted market of supply and demand as well as “Green” ecological consciousness decide the future of the planet.

A cotton shirt in 1776 cost $100 to $200, while a hemp shirt cost $0.50 to $1. By the 1830s, cooler, lighter cotton shirts were on par in price with the warmer, heavier, hempen shirts, providing a competitive choice, thanks to government subsidies.

People were able to choose their garments based upon the particular qualities they wanted in a fabric. Today we have no such choice. Conventional cotton growing, which depletes and pollutes our nonrenewable resources, is still heavily subsidized by the government, masking the true costs of production and costs to the environment, whereas hemp is not allowed to be grown at all in the US (hopefully this is changing, for our planet’s sake!).

The role of hemp and other natural fibers should be determined by the market of supply and demand and personal tastes and values, not by the undue influence of prohibition laws, federal subsidies and huge tariffs that are designed to keep the natural fabrics from replacing synthetic fibers.

Sixty years of government suppression of information has resulted in virtually no public knowledge of the incredible potential of the hemp fiber or its uses.

By using 100% hemp or mixing hemp with cotton, you will be able to pass on your shirts, pants, and other clothing to your grandchildren. Intelligent spending could essentially replace the use of petrochemical synthetic fibers such as nylon and polyester with tougher, cheaper, cool, absorbent, breathable, biodegradable natural fibers such as hemp and flax.

China, Italy and Easter European countries such as Hungary, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Russia currently make millions of dollars worth of sturdy hemp and hemp/cotton textiles–and could be making billions of dollars worth–annually.

These countries build upon their traditional farming and weaving skills, while the US tries to force the extinction of the hemp plant in the attempt to promote destructive synthetic technologies.

Additionally, hemp grown for biomass could fuel a trillion-dollar-per-year energy industry, while improving air quality and distributing the wealth to rural areas and their surrounding communities, and away from centralized power monopolies. More than any other plant on Earth, hemp holds the promise of a sustainable ecology and economy.

If all fossil fuels and their derivatives, as well as trees for paper and construction were banned in order to save the planet, reverse the Greenhouse Effect and stop deforestation…

Then there is only one known, annually renewable natural resource that is capable of providing the overall majority of the world’s paper and textiles; meeting all of the world’s transportation, industrial and home energy needs, while simultaneously reducing pollution, rebuilding the soil, and cleaning the atmosphere all at the same time…

And that substance is–the same one that did it all before–Cannabis Hemp!

Hempseed is the highest of any plant in essential fatty acids.

Hempseed oil is among the lowest in saturated fats at 8% of total oil volume. The oil pressed from hempseed contains 55% linoleic acid (LA) and 5% linolenic acid (LNA). Only flax oil has more linolenic acid at 58% , but hempseed oil is the highest in total essential fatty acids at 80% of total oil volume.

These essential fatty acids are responsible for our immune response.

In the old country the peasants ate hemp butter. They were more resistant to diseases than the nobility, who shunned hemp butter as peasant food.

LA and LNA are involved in producing life energy from food and the movement of that energy throughout the body.

Essential fatty acids govern growth, vitality and state of mind. LA and LNA are involved in transferring oxygen from the air in the lungs to every cell in the body. They play a part in holding oxygen in the cell membrane where it acts as a barrier to invading viruses and bacteria, neither of which can thrive in the presence of oxygen. Click here to continue reading about Cannabis Sativa Industrial Hemp.

http://rawganique.com/whyhemp.htm

Thank you, Jack Herer. These facts might seem incredible, but they are irrefutable. Here's something else to chew on...about a quarter of the 2.2 million prisoners we now have incarcerated, and the 7.5 million Americans in the correctional system money chain, are there for simple possession. Since the PIC (prison industrial complex) costs us about $60 billion per year that represents about $15 billion of your hard earned tax dollars wasted (not to mention the human cost of wasted potential). To give you an idea of what this sum of money is consider this...those much scorned & lambasted, despised & vilified items in the Federal Budget known as 'earmarks' add up to $18 billion yearly. In the recent elections did anyone hear any candidate raise objections to the billions we waste yearly locking people up for a plant? I didn't think so. The propaganda machine is very adept at only giving us what they want us to hear, and excluding any debate about the items we need to hear. Isn't it time we all grew up, and re-ordered our priorities in America?

“Critical of Critical Critics”
Of significance is the date this piece is being written—Independence Day—July 4^th, 2001. Many speeches will be made today; some inspiring, some dull and boring to the max. All, however, will be made in a spirit of free speech, which should be an inspiration in itself. When the speaker steps from the podium a number of people will probably slap them on the back, or shake their hand, telling them how good their speech was, how much they enjoyed the words & thoughts, or something to that effect. Rarely will anyone step up and say, “That was the biggest load of crap I ever heard, and you stink.”