Friends, here is the first video of what I hope will eventually be a full album worth of animated videos for A Good Old Fashioned Protest.
I'd like to say a few words about this new video for "Bastards & Bitches," which I had the great pleasure of once again collaborating with Mr. Undertoon on.
In my interview with Glide Magazine, who were kind enough to premier and review the song and video, I summed it up thusly:
"Bastards & Bitches’ is a not-so-subtle middle-finger to the orgy of disingenuous men and women of power in government, business, banking, and other influential institutions and organizations who, despite their usual lip service to the contrary, actively work together against the interests of the public to ensure their own furthered ambitions, agendas, and financial prospects."
True.
For those who have been keeping an eye on what I've been saying and thinking for some time, perhaps you've noticed I've been trying to encourage and practice an elevated dialogue, not stooping to the levels of name-calling, but from a place of love, speak and listen and act in ways that further more understanding, empathy, compassion, and peace.
Perhaps in that light, a song and video titled "Bastards & Bitches" seems out-of-character, even hypocritical.
I do have reasons, but I also accept that I am a work-in-progress. I still feel the need to let steam out in ways that don't reflect my higher sensibilities.
Of course, this isn't an off-the-cuff reaction, but a premeditated song and video.
So what's my justification in the face of my sincere hope for us following our higher inclinations and possibilities?
Part of the answer is rooted in a belief in humor, political / social commentary, and satire as being effective weapons against oppression and inequality and absurdity being passed as normalcy.
Certainly one of the ways I deal with anger and frustration and feelings of hopelessness in the face of the mechanisms of power is humor, often expressed in dark, sardonic forms.
The frustration and problem, of course, isn't confined to the USA, and I intentionally asked that no specific politician or figure be represented in this video, as I also don't believe our problem is the fault of one political party or individual.
We're on a long slide over the course of many administrations.
The powers-that-be are happy to allow us to devour each other over various social and domestic issues -- and this is not meant to make light of those issues, simply to point it out as what I see it as, in addition to everything else it is: a tactic of societal division and an agent of unrest and distrust -- America's (and much of the West's) foreign policy has been one pretty unbroken, devastating line of interventionism, war, fear-mongering, world-police-ing, greed, callousness, nation-building, and so on.
My hope is that where this song and video divides is not between citizens of any given country against each other or others, but the citizenry of the world's various countries against the power structure that exists and individuals that, for their own gain and purposes, keep us at each other's throats, nationally and internationally, and make our world a much more dangerous, unequal, and ugly place in the process.
It is an attempt to laugh into the face of what I see as a great abyss with very little hope of redemption, a "joke" that I am trying to bring everyone in on who isn't in "the club" -- that's pretty much all of us.
As George Carlin said, "It's a big club, and you ain't in it."
By laughing together in the face of this ugly thing, perhaps a small step will be taken in the direction of bringing some slight fraction of the citizenry together to recognize their plight against the people who actually wield power in this world, fuzzy and vague as they can be to pinpoint.
Big thanks to my buddy Undertoon Sale for taking my rough idea for this video and realizing it in a fashion that's definitely greater than I imagined.
And a big thanks to Nick Loss-Eaton for arranging the premiere with Glide Magazine. And of course, thanks to Taylor Tatsch for his work engineering and co-producing A Good Old Fashioned Protest, and Todd Pipes for his work mastering.
I am on the road in Germany, but I will try to respond to anyone if a conversation is desired over my effectiveness, appropriateness, or the like. It may just take a minute.
And, I'd also like to mention again, I am hoping to commission a different animator for each song on the album, which leaves seven more songs and a poem to be done. If you or anyone you know might be interested, contact me.
Love to all of you good people around the world trying to make your way through this insanity.
Along these lines, one final thing: let's be wise and strong enough to not allow a war with Iran.
This would be a catastrophic, no-win situation, and we are getting closer and closer to this reality.
The Iraq War playbook is being repeated almost identically. We know that was a mistake now, a mistake with devastating consequences, consequences still being felt and dealt with.
Let's try and keep it from being repeated, if we can, though when the powers-that-be set their mind to something, it's very difficult to derail the plan. Still, we gotta try.