The Silver Mt Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band live on WNYC

I'm not sure how many people have had the privilege of seeing ASMZ live (many more than the last time I uploaded a live recording of them I'm sure) but they are certainly a band who shines more in the live setting than on record. This is especially true of their more recent material. There is a River in the Valley Made of Melting Snow, for example, didn't grab me until I had heard it performed live. I, as well as others, have posted various live recordings in the past, but this is among my favorites, for various reasons. Most importantly, I think it has the best sound of any of their live recordings, as it was engineered by the professionals over in the WNYC studio. The interview with David Garland is borderline amusing, but informative and interesting none the less. Some of you may remember when this was originally posted in fall 2005, but since it can now only be streamed on the web, here's the file.

Track Listing [59:43]

There's a River in the Valley Made of Melting Snow
Dead Marines
Horses in the Sky
Babylon was Built on Fire



http://www.mediafire.com/?bzucm2z2tge

Revenge

I hate to plug an article by Christopher Hitchens, but when he's right, he's right. (As we all know, he is often wrong, although he won't admit it, and when he is confronted with the flaws in his logic, he resorts to childish name calling.) That said, I found some of his recent articles on the hanging of Sadam and TJ's Koran to be quite good. Slate

Hitchens also references a fantastic short essay by George Orwell. The writer is most well remembered for his novels, 1984 and Animal Farm, but many have unfortunately not read his other works. In highschool I read Down and Out in Paris and London, and found it to be an engaging and interesting read, full of historicity, insightful personal observations, and exciting narrative pace.

Orwell's talent as a journalist and short story writer is almost unmatched; his ability to communicate complicated ideas in straightforward and direct prose in a first-person narrative style no doubt influenced much of the 'new journalism' of the '60's and '70's (although I will admit I have not yet done the work necessary to demonstrate this. I may be wrong, but I suspect that this is so. Slate even had a recent article in which a famous art critic sites Orwell as his primary influence.)Here is a short piece by Orwell, on the nature of revenge, which focuses on his recollection of visiting a prisoner of war camp following the end of the Second World War. Like Hitchens, I agree it is wildely relevant to todays discussions on war and torture.

the universal tragedy

"Though dead hands ring the garden/And these are violent times/And violence brings more violence/And liars bring more lies" -Efrim, ASMZ

"It is better to suffer wrong than do wrong."- Socrates

“Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.” - Thich Nhat Hanh quote

"Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love." -Martin Luther King Jr.

In the spirit of MLK, I think I shall use this space to renew a call for non-violence. Perhaps I will expand on this and provide arguments and citations and intellectual reasons. But I shouldn't have to. Maybe the above is enough to speak for me. People often ask me what I have faith in, if I do not subscribe to the commonly held belief in an anthropomorphic god who interferes in our lives. I have faith that one day we will all be able to realize that we are a community, like it or not, and that this fact is inseparable from our individual identites. I have faith that one day we will reassess our values and live in harmony with each other and our environment. That one day we will live rightly, live the message we preach, and that we will recognize institutionalization as a cause of dogma and restriction of freedom. Why do we waste so much energy defending out beliefs instead of living rightly? Why are we so sure our beliefs are right? Why do they have to be? Insecurity will fade when we bring back into focus love for the other. Violence always begets more violence. Non-violence, ahimsa, whatever you'd like to call it, is not a mere pacifism; it posits something much greater. Somethings are worth dying for. Unfortunately when most people say this, what they really mean is somethings are worth killing for. I renounce this attitude, one rooted in insecutiry and egocentrism. The variosu religions of the world all differ greatly; they cannot all be absolutely true. But they all urge us, at least in terms of there response to ontological questions, to submit to that which is greater than our meager selves. You can interpret that as you wish; call it god or nature or whatever. But as far as our being goes, we are a community, as a species, and it is time we submit to the truth of that and care for the wellbeing of all others as much as we care for the wellbeing of ourselves. Not just our kin, or our townspeople, or our classmates, fellow citizens, or whtvr. All. Loving others cannot be dependant on their being 'lovable,' but instead must be unconditional. On my readings, this is what Buddha urged, it is the message Jesus of Nazareth preached when speaking of the Kingdom of Heaven, it is essential to the concept of reincarnation, the god is love is all of sufi islam, and on and on. Be peace.

Why I don't have a problem with the expression y'all

The English language, unlike Romance Languages, among others, does not have a distinctive second person pronoun for singular and plural. This leads to much confusion, and occasionally produces such awkward expressions as "yous." Ick. Y'all is a perfectly logical solution to this silly linguistic oversight.

Some southerners, however, have confused matters more by using 'y'all' as a singular, and 'all y'all' for the plural. That's wont do, although I appreciate the effort to awknowledge all of our inner multiplicity.