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“OccupyThisAlbum” – 99 Artists on 99 Tracks for the 99%
Patriotism and Protest – inexorably bound and oftentimes indistinguishable – have always had their say through music. Whether it be the American Revolution (“The Liberty Song”), World War I (“Over There” competing with “I Didn’t Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier”), WWII (“God Bless America”), and the Vietnam War (“Ballad of the Green Beret” countered by “War – What is it Good For?”), and now our latest struggle – the 1% vs. the 99%.
Check out this story on Jerry Ashton’s Huffington Post blog
Without needing to think of it, we carry in our thoughts the musical heritage created by fabled artists Pete Seeger, Jimi Hendrix, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, Peter, Paul & Mary, Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton and so many more. Where are the songs for Occupy’s time in history? Who will write the words and music and poetry? Will we find our Voice?
These questions have been answered in full and emphatically with the debut on May 15, 2012, of “OccupyThisAlbum,” the brainchild of executive producer Jason Samel created in collaboration with scores of musicians, industry professionals and a spectrum of supporters in business as well as the private sector.
This improbable person (no industry experience) for this task used his well-honed sales ability, networking and Twitter talents to bring artists on board. Early on he connected with Maegan Hayward of SoundTrack Studios in NYC and her friend, Alex Emamuel, who then recruited entertainment attorney Shirley Menard. Jason welcomed their help, and knew he had found a great team to complete this project.
What has been created?
Artists both well-known and not offered to contribute their time and talent to create tracks for an album to benefit the Occupy Movement – Joan Baez, Arlo Guthrie, Lucinda Williams, Yoko Ono, Jackson Browne, David Crosby & Graham Nash, Patti Smith, Warren Haynes, Our Lady Peace, Thievery Corporation, UNKLE, Mogwai, DJ Logic, Immortal Technique, Toots & The Maytals, to reach a final – and symbolic – count of 99.
“100% of all monies less expenses are being donated to the Occupy Movement,” Jason declares proudly. With the dust barely settling, he is already planning his next albums with the intention of creating a new genre of music – properly tagged as Protest Music – also with a portion of the proceeds going to OWS.
You can locate Jason Samel on Twitter as @MusicForOccupy, on Facebook as MusicForOccupy, and via email: musicforoccupy@gmail.com.
And, not to forget – to pre-purchase, go to: http://amzn.to/HLC8ot.
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What is it about the Unions and the Occupy Movement?
What would appear to be a marriage-made-in-activist-heaven appears now to be a series of uncomfortable “dates” which could use some pre-marriage counseling.
At least in part, that is Bennett Kremen’s view on this matter, and this comes from someone who is both an activist (present, past and ongoing) and a union man…and a published author (his present work, Savage Days Haunted Nights, can be found on Amazon at http://amzn.to/IgZuUN).
I might also add that, as an author, he is prescient.
Bennett wrote a book of non-fiction published by The Dial Press in the early ‘70’s called “Dateline America” in which he somehow recognized in the protests of the time the potential for what we now know as Occupy Wall Street almost 50 years later.
His general theory at that time was that the baby-boom generation was about to take over America and that it doesn’t believe in the moral and working codes its predecessors did. Thus, when the younger generations takes charge, the country will drift leftward and somehow deal with economic and population problems in ways that reflect a lessening of concern with money and status.
Does that sound like “Deja Future” to you?
Chicago-born but now residing in New York City, Bennett has been writing in one form or another for many years. He’s contributed articles to The New York Times Book Review and Financial Pages and to The Nation, The Village Voice and many other publications and along the way gathered the credentials to open a psychotherapy practice which he has maintained on and off every since.
Take 15 minutes to listen to this veteran of the Alaskan pipeline, working class bars, and the 60’s protests as he compares and contrasts Occupy Wall Street with those times – and makes a solid case that both unions and occupiers need to stand together.
As he sees it, if ever the word “solidarity” had meaning before, it most definitely has meaning now…and it may decide the future of the United States for decades to come.
Write Bennett Kremen at bennettkre@aol.com or find him on on LinkedIn.com as Bennett Kremen where he can be found in the OccupyEverywhere chatroom. “Chat him up” – especially if you think you can keep up with him on politics or history.
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Why Will They Put You In Jail? Because It Is Profitable.
After my hosting an interview with a participant in the Occupy San Quentin protest earlier this week, I decided to do a bit more research on the subject that few people even believe to be necessary to discuss – the prison-industrial complex that has grown to huge size here in the U.S. over the past two decades.
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I first encountered today’s guest, Priscilla Grim, without knowing it, when I picked up my first issue of the Occupy Wall Street Journal at Zuccotti Park in September, 2011. As a founding editor, Director and Project Manager of Occupied Media, she has been described by none other than Dan Rather in his appearance on the Chris Matthews show as – and I quote – “the real moving force behind … what’s happening in the Wall Street protests.”
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Our telephone guest today on 15 Minutes of Fact would have to be considered a rare and controversial find: a veteran of banking, a trader and a salesman during the mortgage boom and bust which we now term “The Great Recession” who lines up solidly with the occupy movement when it comes to trying to correct the misdeeds and outright thievery in the banking industry.
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I first noticed our guest, Judith Katz, through her role with the Occupy Protest that was held at San Quentin on February 20, 2012. After a flurry of back-and-forth emails, she consented to appear on WGRNradio.com and to explain her position and thoughts on the need to advocate for Prisoner Rights.
No stranger to this subject and to activism, Judith worked at the ACLU of Illinois during which time she organized a speaking tour for a leading prisoners’ rights advocate and then cut her teeth on immigrant rights issues through her friendships with Latin Americans that she met in Chicago.
She subsequently moved to Berkeley, California, where she co-founded the The Connection Action Project. CAP builds networks of social activists, NVC practitioners, artists, healers, and spiritual leaders, and shepherds avant garde concepts on economy, politics and conflict transformation into the mainstream. Intrigued? More details can be found at: http://planetshifter.com/node/1991.
Listen to the arguments she makes and decide for yourself – are prisoners “guilty as charged” and justifiably destined to pay for their transgressions in any fashion deemed appropriate by the prison’s warden and staff and the legal system, or … ??
You can reach Judith directly at: Judith@connectionaction.org or on Twitter as @katzjudith.
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This phone interview with Kellie Terry-Sepulveda, Executive Director, and Sharon de la Cruz, A.C.T.I.O.N Program Director took place on November 17, 2011, almost two months into the Occupation of Zuccotti Park in NYC.
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There has been much pontificating and proclaiming by the Mainstream Media – and especially the pundits on the right – that since #Occupy people have been “evicted” from almost every encampment in the U.S. that the movement has withered and is passing away.
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Up until this point, Occupy Wall Street has been lacking its greatest natural ally – the Native American. If Activist William Underbaggage from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation has anything to say about it, that is about to change.
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This is the part 3 of the 4 part series of Interview with Mitch Gold
There is no better Test Tube for fomenting change than the Occupy Wall Street movement. Almost every specimen of social “outlier” has come into focus and found a way to broadcast its dissatisfactions, hopes and fears.
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Fifteen Minutes of Fact is brought to you by Jerry Ashton and the WeEarth Global Radio Network.
