supporting the troops

I get all steamed up when I see one of those yellow ribbon "Support the Troops!" magnets on a car next to a "W" sticker. Really? Support the troops? By supporting the administration that is keeping them in a war where they are being inadequately fed, don't have access to clean water, are poorly paid, and oh yeah, being killed?

I support the troops. I want them to come home.

I know the military life more than most people. I was born on a military base. I have lived in military housing and seen military doctors. And we were poor. Really, seriously poor, living on military pay. GI Bill? I know all about that too. I watched my husband have to come up with his entire tuition and pay for it up front before being reimbursed for it. I have friends who came back from the first Gulf War sick and unable to find jobs.

My husband told me the other day that his boss's son is leaving for Iraq. I got that pit in my stomach and asked what branch of the military he is in. Turns out he's not in the military. He's a contractor. He's getting paid $60,000 to go there for 3 months. Some troops won't be paid that much in 3 years.



People should be ashamed.

bitter

i don't get why it's such a big deal that barack obama made a comment saying that voters are bitter.

i'm bitter. i admit it.

i'm bitter that more of our budget is being spent on the iraqi police force than on the u.s. education system.

i'm bitter that there are classrooms in portable buildings at my kids' school.

i'm bitter that oil companies are rolling in dough while gas prices are at an all time high.

i'm bitter that my husband works for a huge multi-national corporation, but we are only being offered catastrophic health insurance for our family this year.

i'm bitter that researchers have been able to reprogram embryonic stem cells to fight cancer, but it's too hard to fund research because most people don't bother to understand what stem cells even are, they just follow what the guy behind the pulpit says.

i'm bitter that more and more families are losing loved ones to war every single day.

i'm bitter that people would dare to say that i don't support the troops because i want them to come home alive, and as soon as possible.

i'm bitter that there are children who have never lived a day without hearing a war outside their windows.

i'm bitter that lobbyists have more say in what happens in my community than i do.

you know what i'm not bitter about? someone finally acknowledging that i'm bitter.

the year in music - 2008...thus far

and so begins my yearly ritual. more to keep track for myself than anything else. this year, i’m including cd purchases AND concerts. because i’m forgetful. and because these things need to be recorded for posterity.

well, that and i want your input on what should be my next purchases. (the list has been updated, upon request, and you can now just mouse over the pictures to see the artist and title. html coding is my friend.)

january:


february:
2/9/2008 glen phillips - avogadro’s number, ft. collins co.

march:
lemonheads - ned’s downtown, albuquerque nm.

april:
>

i chased evan dando down a dark city street

it’s true. i’m fairly ashamed. but more about that in a minute.

saw the lemonheads last night at this little place in downtown abq. i’ve been listening to the lemonheads for close to 17 years now, and maintain that "it’s a shame about ray" is one of the best albums of the ’90s. as much as i bitch and moan about the lack of concerts in abq, i can’t complain about this one. granted, it was a tuesday night, and the show didn’t start until 10:30. . . but i’m still giddy.









the concert was fun. they played almost all the songs from ray and a bunch from "come on feel..." so i spent a good part of the night bouncing around like a little kid.

my fan girl moment comes after the show. i had brought my cd cover from "lick" in hopes of an autograph, but it was getting late so we left. as i am pulling out of my parking spot, i see evan dando walking down the street with his guitar cases. i pull over, illegally park, grab my camera, sharpie, and cd case and start running down the road after him. i finally catch up to him an entire block later and wheeze something about listening to him for years. or something. i was on the verge of oxygen deprivation so i don’t remember much besides him asking me my name and being really cool about taking the picture since his arms are much longer than mine.

yeah, i’m a dork. and i’m okay with that.

calculating the worth of happiness

We all have that "thing" in our lives that soothes our soul, invigorates us, awakens our senses, ties together the experiences in our lives, and just generally brings us joy. It's different for everyone. For some that thing is art, film, hiking, cooking, playing sports, gardening. Mine is music.

My favorite singers tend to be indie singer-songwriters that only a select few people have even heard of. They work their tails off touring across the country, playing in tiny venues to their core group of fans, and a few curious newcomers. They rely on merch sales for their income and drive themselves around in rented cars from gig to gig.

My favorite singer posted a link to this article, on the brilliant blog BoingBoing, that speculates whether an artist could survive with just 1,000 true fans. The author states:

"The gist of 1,000 True Fans can be stated simply:

A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author - in other words, anyone producing works of art - needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.

Assume conservatively that your True Fans will each spend one day's wages per year in support of what you do. That "one-day-wage" is an average, because of course your truest fans will spend a lot more than that. Let's peg that per diem each True Fan spends at $100 per year. If you have 1,000 fans that sums up to $100,000 per year, which minus some modest expenses, is a living for most folks."

I try to do my part. I buy every album. I have drawers full of T-shirts that I honestly never wear. I take ridiculously long road trips and spend my leisure budget just to attend shows. I even buy CD's for other people, just to get the music to someone new, and to try to put one more penny in the artist's pocket. I always wondered if there was maybe something more I could do.

The aforementioned favorite singer set up a donation site, so fans could become "patrons of the arts". I've often said that I wouldn't know what to do with myself if that person stopped making music, so I clicked on the donate button and stared at the screen for several minutes trying to think of a number that accurately reflected how much the music meant to me, but for which I wouldn't have to deplete the college funds of my own children. I would type in numbers, click partway through the process, and then close the browser window. Nothing seemed appropriate. Plus, there wasn't an option for an anonymous donation, so I was also left with this dilemma: At what point do you stop being a devoted fan and start being creepy obsessive? (Dear friends, if you ever consider my behavior creepy obsessive, please promptly give me a swift kick hard in the ass to knock me back to reality. Thanks.)

This all led me to wonder - what is your "thing" worth to you? When all is said and done, how much dough do you spend to keep your thing going, and how much would you give if asked?

new favorite song

unless you live in scandinavia somewhere, you probably can't buy this album yet, but once it's available you should get it. it's so good it makes my brain tingle.

maternal duty vs. civic duty

i signed up a few weeks ago to chaperone my daughter's field trip this morning. which is always fun, but it's at the same time that barack obama is speaking down at the university. i really would have loved to have been able to hear him speak. damn.

p.s. for those following the saga with my brother - he's doing much better. thank you for asking.