All posts by Augustus

Punk Rock, Seattle and Kent State

If you haven’t had the chance to visit Seattle’s Experience Music Project (EMP), then you can get a good taste of of the type of collections they have amassed through Taking Punk to the Masses: From Nowhere to Nevermind.  The book is assembled by Jacob McMurray, a Senior Curator at the EMP.   The book is packed with full-page photos of punk rock memorabilia with a facing 2 -paragraph story about the item and supplementary 1-paragraph quotes musicians and music industry workers.   And did I mention that there is a DVD full of oral history interviews from punk insiders?

Despite its coffee table book appearance, McMurray tries to keep the punk rock do-it yourself ethic by letting the artifacts and punk denizens speak for themselves.  There is something appropriately humorous about seeing pages of cut-and-paste zines and rock show posters on a full page in crisp full-color photographs.  The quotes from the publisher/artists who created them and musicians who were featured weave together to give a sense of moment.  And sometimes the creator and object merge such as the Nirvana show posters hand-drawn by Kurt Cobain.  Continue reading Punk Rock, Seattle and Kent State

Welcome Wilderside Friends

Update 12/1 at 9:30am: Difficulties solved. Our blog provider accidentally cut off service. We are back up and running, and received an apology.

We are temporarily having difficulties with the onthewilderside blog site.  The urls for our site are temporarily re-directed to this site while we correct the problem. If you have any questions, please contact us at ian.wilder@yahoo.com

Simon Weil’s Reflections on War

The Power of Nonviolence Writings by Advocates of PeaceThe tenth chapter of The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace contains a selection from  Simone Weils short 1933 essay Reflections on War .  Weil wrote this essay at age 24, and would die young eleven years later. Some would ascribe her death to her empathy for those suffering during World War II being too much for her frail health.

This section of the essay begins with the query: “Can a revolution avoid war?”  She rightly states that “Revolutionary War is the grave of revolution.”  This was the central to the nonviolent methods of Indian independence taking place at the time this essay was written.  And is central to the beliefs of today’s Occupation movement in the US.  Continue reading Simon Weil’s Reflections on War

Occupy the White House in 2012

white house occupiedI’m not just talking about putting the #occupy bat-signal across the White House.  Though that would be entertaining. And like I said last week about #OccupyCongress, I am not talking about pitching a tent on the South Lawn.  (And I am definitely not talking about @Moveon ‘s phony #OccupyCongress campaign where they are shilling for one corporate party over the other.)

In last week’s Occupy Congress post,  we discussed that this year has been about stepping out side of your comfort zone.  It is time for all of us to take back our democracy, and demand what we want rather than take what we are sold.  I plead for you to run for Congress last week, so that we finally had a representative of the 99% in Congress.  The 1% is represented by the party of the greater evil and the lesser evil.  To paraphrase Jerry Garcia, now is the time to stop choosing evil. We need to get  corporations out of the White House — out of our domestic and foreign policies. Continue reading Occupy the White House in 2012

Time Has Come Today: Peace Song 11/18

Time Has Come Today by the Chambers Brothers is the Peace Song of the Day for 11/18.  Today’s selection was inspired by Delphine Blue playing it on her Shocking Blue radio show today in honor of #N17.   Delphine play the whole amazing 11 minute version.  The 2 minute version is the only live one I could find.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niDmkXnWdVA&feature=related]

Dorothy Day’s Christian Pacifist Stand against US entry into WWII

The Power of Nonviolence Writings by Advocates of PeaceThe ninth chapter of The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace contains Dorothy Days short 1942 essay Our Country Passes from Undeclared War to Declared War; We continue our Christian Pacifist Stand. This essay is the sequel to last week’s pre-WWII essay Pacifism.

From its title onward, the essay is directed to a Christian audience as it opens with “Dear fellow workers in Christ”  The prior essay quoted the Pope.  This essay quotes a priest named Father Orchard for 5 paragraphs.

This essay seems to refer to Christian imagery more to reassure Day herself of the righteous of her non-collaboration with the war efforts than to convince her audience.  It is clear from the essay that Day’s work has suffered greatly from her pacifist stand in the face of overwhelming US support for entering the war: Continue reading Dorothy Day’s Christian Pacifist Stand against US entry into WWII