Category Archives: Royal Song of The Day

antiwar, Nonviolence, Royal Book of the Week, Royal Song of The Day

Wise: War is Naive

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The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of PeaceThe Tim Wise 2001 essay Who’s Being Naive? War-Time Realism Through the Looking Glass is the penultimate chapter in The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace. This essay continues the Post-Vietnam to the Present (1975- ) section of the book.  Wise is an anti-racism educator and author.

His essay complements the previous Arundhati Roy essay War is Peace.  While Roy upholds the polite –but firm– criticism of a foreigner, Wise bluntly takes his fellow Americans to task for the Afghan War.  As someone who forces Whites to face up to their own privilege in US society,  Wise is at ease in ripping apart pro-war arguments in kitchen table language.

The criticism put forth by Roy and Wise reinforce each other by coming to the same conclusions from both external and internal vantage points.  Both 2001 essays were written when the Afghan invasion was fresh, and they have proved to be prescient as the Afghan War has dragged on for a dozen years.  Reminds me of the just departed Pete Seeger masterpiece,  Waist Deep in the Big Muddy. Continue reading Wise: War is Naive →

Food, Music, Occupy Wall Street, Royal Fashion, Royal Song of The Day, Social Justice, Video

Jen Chapin on Occupy, Parenting, Food, and Creativity

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Jen Chapin album Reckoning
Jen Chapin album Reckoning

OnTheWilderSide had a free-flowing  chat with Jen Chapin about her new album, Reckoning.   We covered topics ranging from Occupy to parenthood.

We started our discussion with Chapin by asking her about the balance between the intimate and the political on the new album, Reckoning. The album includes songs on both ends of the spectrum, such as Insatiable about never-ending war and “Don’t Talk” which praises making love as a needed form of marital communication.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWnouX5VSrg]

Chapin described the intimate and the political as “a balance I am always trying to strike.”  She saw it as something stretching back through her life:

Read the rest of the article on the original website.

environment, Music, Nonviolence, Peace, Royal Song of The Day

Richie Havens, Rest in Peace

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Richie Havens passed away April 22, 2013. Rest in peace, Richie Havens.

__________________________________

Dear Richie,

English: Richie Havens Live, Musikhalle Hambur...
Richie Havens

The loss of your bright shining heart and soul from our world is a shock.  I realized that that I had seen you perform four times.  More than I have seen any other nationally touring performer.

I first saw you at the Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett, NY when I was barely out of college.  My best friend had gotten concert tickets from his older brother.  His brother decided he didn’t want to go to see some oldies acts.  We were psyched to see Country Joe and the Fish.   We reveled in his famous anti-war song.  Joe was fun.  We stayed to see the next act that — in our ignorance — we had never heard of.  We figured we were there anyway.  Why not give you a listen?

You blew us through the doors.

Continue reading Richie Havens, Rest in Peace →

antiwar, Holiday, Music, Nonviolence, Occupy Wall Street, Peace, Royal Song of The Day, Social Justice, Video

Imagine an Occupy New Years Eve 2012

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On New Years Eve in Times Square they will probably play John Lennon’s  Imagine.  It has also resonated with folks from the Occupy Wall Street movement. “Imagine” was one of the tunes sung by the small group of stalwarts who gathered at Liberty Square/Zuccotti Park for Christmas. [See story at DNA Info: here]

Below the first video are links to lots and lot of videos of Occupiers singing Imagine.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5F5SK63voxE]

If you want to spend New Years Eve with Occupy:

http://www.nycga.net/events/occupy-new-years-eve-smash-the-baricades/

Date/Time: Mon. Dec 31, 2012 until Jan 1 2013, 9:00 PM – 6:00 AM

Location: Liberty Plaza (aka Zuccotti Park), New York, NY

A time to ring in the New Years with family and friends, this event is dedicated to the brave souls who last year took done the barricades in the park and danced in the New Years, come one and all and ring in 2013 in style and meet new friends old friends and map out the coming year.  Starts at 9:00pm to 12midnite and beyond. As always no drama, we are one! We will try to have small toy barricades for everyone to have at midnite and smash as a symbol of our right to protest any public space.

Contact: Apollo OWS Special Projects Affinity Group and OWS Outreach Working Group.

Email: owsspawg@Gmail.com or Phone: 917-225-3704 or Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/events/146642922152523/

 

Continue reading Imagine an Occupy New Years Eve 2012 →

antiwar, Holiday, Music, Nonviolence, Occupy Wall Street, Royal Song of The Day, Video

Progressive Holiday Music Mix

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Happy Holidays 2015. Here is a post from the Peace Couple Archives:

from 99 Silver Bells and other Occupy Christmas Carols ………(was our Peace Song of the Day for 12/13/11)

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FyroWM65rF4]

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMdo6l5x_7k]

from Happy Xmas (War Is Over): Peace Song for 12/12/2011  Continue reading Progressive Holiday Music Mix →

antiwar, Holiday, Music, Occupy Wall Street, Peace, Royal Song of The Day, Shopping, Social Justice, Video

Occupy Holiday Gifts

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Occupy This AlbumIt’s the eternal question for a gift-giving activist:

How do I give a good present and at the same time do good?

There is always fair trade, organic, vegan chocolates or non-toxic toys.

This year we added a musical choice.  Occupy This Album: a compilation of music by, for and inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement and the 99%.  Lots of good stuff here.  The album artists include: Ani DiFranco, Aeroplane Pageant, Crosby and Nash, Devo, Immortal Technique, Jackson Browne, Joseph Arthur, Lloyd Cole, Loudon Wainwright III, Lucinda Williams, Patti Smith, Stephan Said, Tao Rodriguez Seeger, The Guthrie Family, Third Eye Blind, Thievery Corporation, Tom Morello, Toots And The Maytals, Warren Haynes, Willie Nelson, Yoko Ono, Yo La Tengo & more.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws7zy5y1vN0]   Continue reading Occupy Holiday Gifts →

antiwar, Holiday, Music, Nonviolence, Nonviolent Communication, Peace, Royal Song of The Day

The Genius of “Alice’s Restaurant”

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I realized a little after 12 noon this Thanksgiving that Arlo Guthrie has had a much broader cultural impact in terms of bringing a progressive message to the general population than his father, Woody Guthrie.   As a reader of this post is probably aware, across the radio dial across the United States, it is a tradition to play Arlo Guthrie’s song, Alice’s Restaurant at 12 noon on Thanksgiving.  This tradition has been going on for four decades.  We are not just talking about the anti-war song being played on granola-crunchy college radio stations.  I listened to Alice’s Restaurant on a Clear Channel owned classic rock station that won’t even play Imagine most of the year.  The DJ announced and dedicated the song as a favorite Thanksgiving tradition of a recently deceased listener.  No mention was made of the song’s lengthy anti-war message.  The song had transcended into a widely-celebrated annual tradition for the general population who never expresses a sentiment about war for the rest of the year.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8DtpdXZi0M]

Continue reading The Genius of “Alice’s Restaurant” →