Yes, Bakersfield made a national top ten list this week:
Top Ten Drunkest Cities In America.
California and Texas each had three of their cities make the list which, I guess, makes them the two drunkest states in the union. I can dig that. But what I'm having a hard time with is - why did Bako come in at #10? Behind Fresno and Riverside?? Guys (and gals,) you've got to start trying a little harder. I know that I did my part when I lived there. If I have to move back to help you make #1, well, I guess I'll just have to do my duty....
http://content.usatoday.com...communities/ondeadline/post/2010/02/fresno-calif--tops-list-of-drunkest-us-cities-boston-is-last/1
Fresno, Calif., tops Men's Health magazine's list of America's "drunkest" cities while Boston, home to the "Cheers" bar where everyone knows your name, was deemed the "least drunk," besting even Salt Lake City.
The magazine, which will publish the list of 100 major cities in i's March edition, drew upon such data as death rates from alcoholic liver disease, booze-fueled car crashes, frequency of binge-drinking in the past month, number of DUI arrests, and severity of DUI penalties.
See full list below, including grades for each city from A to F
"Drunkest" cities:
- Fresno, Calif.
- Reno, Nev.
- Billings, Mont.
- Riverside, Calif.
- Austin
- St. Louis
- San Antonio
- Lubbock, Texas
- Tucson
- Bakersfield, Calif.
Video
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I went down to the Brighthouse studio last week to tape some songs for their new show, Coffee House Sessions. It's a cool public access show they're working on that will showcase lots of local artists. It will be "On-Demand" on channel 300. I had never been on television before, so it was a unique experience for me. It was a little stressful, but it was also a lot of fun. They've got a nice studio, the crew is very professional, and I think they're having a good time doing local programming. They made it easy for me, and I had a great time, myself. I did three of my original songs, and they recorded me with two cameras and a stereo mic. I'm looking forward to seeing the final product, but here's a video that Erin made of them filming me. Thanks to Kevin Willey for inviting me to play, and making it such a pleasant experience.
video: http://www.youtube.com/watc...
I'll be playing a two hour show of my original songs at a real Coffee House, Mama Hillybeans, in Tehachapi, this Saturday, December 19th, from 7 to 9 PM. If you haven't been to Mama's yet, you're missing out on the coolest music venue in Kern County. The show is free, and all ages are welcome, so come down and see what happens. I haven't played there for awhile, so I've got a lot of new songs saved up. There'll be some rambling, some tuning, a train or two, some great coffee and maybe some music....
For details and directions:
http://www.mamahillybeans.c...
Lost Hills, September 5th, 2009
Written by Florence Reese and her daughters on the back of a calendar after being roughed up by thugs looking for her husband, who was a union organizer. People were beaten and murdered in this country for working for workplace equality, and some folks have forgotten that, and how important that battle was.
Labor Day, 2009, more Americans are unemployed than any time since the Great Depression. Fewer people are unionized, fewer people have pensions and fewer people have health insurance than any time in our lifetimes. Our government unloads trillions of dollars to the bankers and their wars, and has nothing to spare for honest workers who are losing their homes. It's time to ask the question, "Which side are you on."
Without unions, you have corporate dictatorship. The current health care crisis is a direct result of declining union membership due to exporting of American jobs overseas, sanctioned and orchestrated by both of our major political parties.
Which Side Are You On?
Come all of you good workers
Good news to you I'll tell
Of how that good old union
Has come in here to dwell
Chorus
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
My daddy was a miner
And I'm a miner's son
And I'll stick with the union
Till every battle's won
They say in Harlan County
There are no neutrals there
You'll either be a union man
Or a thug for J.H. Blair
Oh, workers can you stand it?
Oh, tell me how you can
Will you be a lousy scab
Or will you be a man?
Don't scab for the bosses
Don't listen to their lies
Us poor folks haven't got a chance
Unless we organize
http://www.losthillsroad.bl...
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"The Earth is not dying. She is being murdered, and we know who is killing her and we have their names and addresses."
Utah Phillips
He was a flawed individual, like most of the rest of us, but he stood for something and he had a very real effect on all of our lives for over forty years. He didn't have to work in the Senate until the day he died. He didn't need the salary. He could have retired a long time ago and been proud of his accomplishments. He was a very effective leader, and his name was used as a swear word by the right wing propaganda squads on a daily basis. You can know a man by his enemies...
Kennedy came to the U.S. Senate at a young age because his brother was president. He probably wasn't really qualified for the job, but he knew what he stood for and he stuck with his beliefs from the very beginning to the very end. He wasn't afraid to say, "I'm definately a liberal" in an era when most politicians run from the word. Coming from a family of wealth and privelege, he felt it was his duty to stand up for the poor, the powerless, and the ordinary working stiffs. He was proud to call himself "an activist." He went to Vietnam as a young senator, like a lot of other politicians, but he didn't see what the generals wanted him to see. Above all, he saw the civilian casualties and the refugees. He had the right instincts and his eyes saw the right things. Above all, he was a humanitarian.
I'm working class, and there are not a lot of friends of the working class in congress. Ted was a friend, he was a good friend and he was a dependable friend for forty years. Minimum wage, workplace safety, environment, civil rights, women's rights, healthcare, he was there for us and you never had to wonder where he would stand. Was he perfect? No, but he was a whole lot better than anyone else in that house of clowns. Maybe his passing will make some members of his party do a little thinking and some soul searching. We just lost a friend, and friends in Washington are in short supply these days.
A lot of nonsense is being shouted out by all sides over health care reform. Ted Kennedy called universal coverage, "the cause of his life." He wasn't swayed by all the B.S. slingers. He saw clearly through all the smoke and mirrors that, "Health care is a fundamental right, and not a privelege." He pointed out the hypocrisy of senate Republicans who receive government funded health care while denying it to the rest of us. He told president Bush that five months of Iraq War spending would pay for health care for every child in this country. The best way to remember Ted Kennedy is to insist on REAL health care reform with a government option.
Ted Kennedy, rest in peace. The dream lives on.
On the trail of Woody Guthrie, some friends and I visited Weedpatch Camp, in Lamont, the other day. I believe it's the last existing migrant camp that was set up under the New Deal, in the 1930s, to house the dust bowl refugees. I had heard that Woody Guthrie played there for the migrants, and I've been wanting to check it out for some time. Displaced farmers, fleeing the dust bowl, came to California by the thousands in the 1930s seeking employment. There was always more workers than there was work, and wages were abysmally low, and they wound up living in ramshackle camps on the edges of the fields enduring hunger, disease, prejudice and abuse until the government set up "clean" camps to house them safely and humanely. This is the story told by John Steinbeck's, The Grapes Of Wrath, and Woody Guthrie's great Dust Bowl Ballads. The Weedpatch Camp is still here, still in use by migrant farmworkers, and some of the original buildings have been preserved.
You can drive out there any time and see the old buildings. A couple of them can also be seen in the 1939 film version of The Grapes Of Wrath, with Henry Fonda. They're adjacent to the Arvin Migrant Housing Center on Sunset Road, between Weedpatch Highway and Comanche Road. If you make an appointment with the folks who take care of it they'll have a docent open it up for you and give you a guided tour. We were given a very authoritative presentation by researcher, Doris Weddell, and treated to the personal reminiscences of Earl Shelton, who actually lived in the camp in the 1940s and worked in the fields for much of his life. I highly recommend taking the tour. All you have to do is call them, or send them an email, and they're happy to do it. There's a public celebration called Dust Bowl Days that is held there every year in October. I've been meaning to go to Dust Bowl Days for a couple years now, but it seems that I'm always busy on that weekend, so I was glad for the opportunity to check it out in this way. I've been a Woody Guthrie scholar for years, and I'm working on a Woody Guthrie show, so it was inspiring and illuminating to walk around the grounds and stand on the fine old stage, there. I had an idea of recording a music video there, and I had my guitar with me, but it was just too doggone hot. We did get some video of Mr. Shelton telling his great old stories, though, and maybe we'll post some of that footage later. If you haven't seen the Grapes Of Wrath, I highly recommend checking it out from the video rental store. It's a great film, part of our local history and very appropriate for the times we live in.
For more information about Dust Bowl Days, and to book a private tour, check out the Dust Bowl Days Website.
Legendary labor leader, Dolores Huerta, gave the commencement address at CSUB this week, and was treated rudely by some of the parents. Her words were a breath of fresh air in this backward airhead city, and it's too bad that these people couldn't listen.
Dolores has spent her whole life working for social justice in our state. She is a co-founder, with Cesar Chavez, of the United Farmworkers Organization, and organized the first big grape boycot. She has worked tirelessly for farmworkers rights, minimum wage and gender equality. She has been arrested 22 times for protesting and had her spleen removed after being severely beaten by police in San Francisco. She's a recipient of an honorary degree from Princeton University, the Community of Christ International Peace Award, and the 2009 UCLA Medal. She is the president of the Dolores Huerta Foundation, which works for equality in health care, housing, education and jobs. Bakersfield should have been proud to listen to her. The people who booed her disgraced themselves and their city.
I'm putting up a video of her CSUB speech, and one from her address at UCLA. Compare and contrast The people at UCLA treated her with love and respect. The Bakersfield video is marred by smarmy comments added by the ignorant conservative who posted it. The comments are educational in that they illustrate the airhead viewpoint of the knee-jerk conservatism that continues to hold this community back.
Thank you, Dolores, your words needed to be heard here, and were very much appreciated by many of us.
peace.....
Holed up in an abandoned logging town
With Hippies, Outlaw Bikers and Cattle Thieves,
Slow Elk roasting on the coals.
A bottle of Tequila makes the rounds,
The holy sacrament of our Brotherhood.
In Jesus name, Amen.
Jesus was my brother.
We fished for trout on the Southfork
And raised the dead on Friday night.
He left me this book of parables,
Every line written in blood,
And I'm still trying to figure 'em out.
The Devil wears a suit and tie,
And carries a platinum card.
He married all my sisters
And branded all the cattle in the valley.
He drives a big threshing machine
And owns the only newspaper in town.
Pass me that guitar
and I'll play you the oldest song I know.
Twenty-three verses in a minor key.
It's about a knight and a silver chalice.
His lady has to die in the end
And he rides across the desert
Calling out her name for all eternity.
You know that Lawman's on our trail,
Big ol' Fourty-fours gleaming in the moonlight,
Heart filled with the wrath of Justice,
and the American way.
Take it easey, Big John,
We're only drinkin',
And plotting our next move.
Now pass me that bottle, bro.
Take this guitar and play us your song.
The stars up here tell no lies.
We have patience, my brothers and I.
Time kills off all our enemies.
Let that Lawman ride.
Jesus was a good man, for a hippie.
Let us forever remember his name.
The devil may take us all in the end
But tonight we will eat his beef.
It's a long ride up that mountain, Big John,
And it's going to be a longer night.
Lost Hills...
I've been working on this song for a couple of weeks, and I just posted a version on the tube.
Lyrics:
Bailout Blues
Lost Hills
Johnny works construction
When there's work to be had.
He fell behind on his child support,
Now he's a dead beat dad.
They took away his license,
Now he ain't supposed to drive.
Now how's gonna do
What he has to do to survive?
Now he's driving in to Oildale
To pick up his son.
He gets pulled over for a burned out tail light
And his troubles really begun
Now he's staring at the pavement
As the tow truck hauls his pick-up away.
Johnny needs a bailout--
But it ain't comin' today....
Johnny needs a job
That will pay a living wage.
So he can pay his bills on time
And hold his head up straight.
It ain't his fault no one's buying houses these days.
Johnny needs a bailout--
But it ain't comin' today...
Johnny's ex-wife, Susan,
Has been a waitress for years.
Now she's working two jobs,
But they've both cut back her hours.
Both her ex-husbands are out of work
And about out of time.
She's got two beautuful kids
That need more than what she can provide.
Now she's waitin' on Johnny
To come pick up little Joe.
She doesn't know that he's standing
There alone by the side of the road.
And Joe keeps asking,
"How come my Daddy's so late?"
Susan needs a bailout--
But it ain't comin' today....
Susan needs a bailout
in the worst kind of way,
Maybe she should change her name
To A.I.G.
If she had an office on Wall Street
The government would rush to her aid.
Susan needs a bailout--
But it ain't comin' today...
Susan's parents, Bob and Helen,
Have worked hard all their lives.
Well, they never got rich,
But they've done all right.
They were thinking about retiring early,
But that's not to be.
Because everything they've worked for
Has up and blown away.
They had some money with an invester
That turned out to be a fraud.
Bob's pension disappeared
When his company went belly up.
Now they're looking through the want ads
For anything that pays minimum wage.
Bob and Helen need a bailout--
But it ain't comin' today....
Bob and Helen need a bailout
Because they've worked hard all their lives.
They shouldn't have to be flippin' burgers
Or standing in a wellfare line.
And the president's on the radio
Saying, "Everything's gonna be okay!"
Bob and Helen need a bailout--
But it ain't comin' today...
Now Johnny's picking up cans by the roadside
Just to get himself a beer
And Susan's getting letters from the landlord
By certified mail.
Bob and Helen are selling their furniture
Just to help out Sue.
And little Joe's left wondering
What happened to the world he once knew.
America needs a bailout,
But it ain't comin' today.
Ain't no check in the mail,
Ain't no help on the way.
Seven Hundred Billion
To the crooks that put us in this place.
And the president's on the TV
Saying, "Everything's gonna be okay!"
America needs a bailout--
But it ain't comin' today...
Hell, I could use one, Brother--
And I need it today.
Hiroshima Day: America Has Been Asleep at the Wheel for 64 Years
