I got on a total Buffy Sainte-Marie kick after watching that “Cindy” video, and I was thinking, “I wonder if there’s a youtube video of her singing my favorite song from that album where she’s looking like a total bad-ass ninja — the song that makes me goosebumpledy every time?”
And then I do my research, and guess what? 90-CENT HAD IT LOCKED FROM THE GET-GO.
Buffy Sainte-Marie and Pete Seeger, “Men of the Fields.”
WHAT YOU KNOW ABOUT THAT?
“Here comes the pitch.”
This is a totally rippin’ version of “Cindy,” which by the way originated in North Carolina. Tar Heel State representing very hard this week? By the way, I gotta put Buffy Sainte-Marie up there with Nina Simone and Stevie Nicks as one of the all-time great female pop voices. What a voice.
I’m feeling this one 1,000%. Destroying.
Doc Watson and Pete Seeger:
Reader FB writes in with news of an amazing TPM blog post I missed during last week’s blog blackout:
David, I don’t know if you are still participating in a blog blackout, but JMM needs you!
“Who can tell me the names of some good, up-and-coming political comics in New York City?”
JMM and MNFTIU on the road, doing political comedy … on a big tour bus … purple sheets … plenty of dope and MERLOT (it’s in the rider, nothing you can do about it) … playing sold-out arenas all over the country … “Seen a million faces / and I’ve blogged ’em all” … late-night breakfasts at the Waffle House … the dream can be a reality …
Listen to the first question/answer at this press conference!
The reporter was probably like, “Ooooookay.”
Sometimes speaking truth to power can be a bit of a downer. But I guess that’s how Pete 90 rolls …
Nice article about “Pete 90,” aka “90-Cent,” aka Pete Seeger.
Seeger, for me, is the hub around which a bunch of difficult existential issues pivot: irony versus earnestness, cleverness versus vulnerable honesty, isolation versus community, keeping quiet versus singing out.
LOL, if only I had any experience dealing with these tensions in my own life …
Elizabeth Cotten and Pete Seeger.
So I went all week without looking at a single political blog. I gotta say, I can’t believe I did it.
No Talkingpointsmemo.com …
No Ezra Klein …
No Matthew Yglesias …
No Huffington Post …
No other blogs, really, except I looked at a few of my friends’ blogs that don’t really cover politics …
What have I learned? What are my thoughts and impressions?
1. I feel less stress. I know, from looking at headlines and listening to the radio, that this would have been an “A-1 Classic Freak-Out Week” for me, if I had read blogs all day: Swine flu goin’ buck wild; Specter switch-a-roo; Obama press conference; more torture this-n-thats; dropped spy charges against the AIPAC dudes — I would have been all over all of that if I was reading my blogs. (Especially Swine Flu; I would have gone berserk on that.) I feel less anxiety and stress about the world, which in the end is probably good, right?
2. I have no idea what’s going on, really. I mean, I understand that the world is teetering on the edge of a pandemic, and that Chrysler was forced to declare bankruptcy by Fiat(?), and that Obama had his 100-day anniversary, but that’s about all I know. When I hit the cocktail party circuit tonight, I’ll probably do more listening than talking … hmm, is that healthy? Listening to other people’s words, instead of trying to crush them in an avalanche of my own words? This may require further study …
3. Not reading blogs makes me more reliant on — AND more skeptical of — what I hear on the radio. This morning I was making some red-pepper dip and listening to Public Radio. I really felt like I had to listen close, because I wouldn’t be able to hit the blogs if I missed a story. On the other hand, the whole time I was thinking, “How will I understand the secret bias in this coverage without hitting up my favorite blogs?” So I kind of ignored everything I was hearing, even as I listened closely to it. Is that what Zen buddhism is like?
More thoughts and impressions later … for now, let me say: THERE IS A WORLD BEYOND BLOGS, WHO WOULDA-HAVE A-THUNK IT.