Sunday, December 26, 2010

Matt Brown's Letter To Obama

In these days of pop AAA artists trying to pass themselves off as folk artists, it is refreshing to read thoughts of social consciousness from a contemporary musician.  Although there are many, they are graying and diminishing as time goes on. 
Enter Matt Brown, an old-time musician, producer and teacher residing in Pennsylvania.  If all goes as planned, Matt will be touring through the Northeast next November.




My Letter To Obama

by Matt Brown on Saturday, December 25, 2010 at 11:53pm



Mr. President,

My frustration with your Peace Prize Acceptance earlier this year is that you, of all people, are trying to outsource, or even worse, postpone, Peace. I understood your acceptance speech, and it Terrified me:

"We must begin by acknowledging the hard truth: We will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes. There will be times when nations -- acting individually or in concert -- will find the use of force not only necessary but morally justified."

REALLY?  "MORALLY JUSTIFIED"??????

 Are you a priest, too, Mr. President?

The ONLY WAY TO GUARANTEE PEACE IN THE FUTURE IS TO START WITH THE PRESENT.   Say that out loud. The only way to guarantee peace then is to start now: in your heart, in your White home (the irony is not lost), and in your dealings with everyone you meet. Here's an exercise: Imagine that every word, every gesture that everyone makes is their way of saying "I love you," to you, to Michelle and the girls, and to all your citizens.  You will start seeing red everywhere. And red is the most potent, vivid color.  The color of Native Americans, of Blood, of LOVE.  Of course, we are, as a nation, so terrified that someone will try to kill anyone with a good idea (Jesus, MLK Jr. Ghandi, John Lennon, etc), that we surround our leading diplomat with Tall Mysterious Secret Agent Wire-Eared Types who are supposed to protect him from the next loony.  But I digress.  

I am finding, as I meditate, practice yoga, and extend my gratitude, love, and hope beyond the reaches of my corporeal form, that love is revealing itself to be pulsing vibrantly here, there, and everywhere.  Maybe it's your law training, or your current position as a diplomat, but I do not agree with your defeatist (?!?) perspective.  We WILL eradicate conflict in MY lifetime. I am doing the best I can in my life. I am not at war with anyone. I am daily doing Every Thing with Increasing Love.

  • Compassion compounds.  Ask the Dalai Lama if you aren't sure.

If We accept you at your word and Also believe that we won't see peace in our life times, than our Passivity will Prove you right.  ICK!!!!  And though I voted for, even campaigned for you because you talked a really good talk, I am going to Prove you Wrong.

  • we cannot outsource peace.

We can send jobs to China, we can send our children to Afghanistan, but we cannot send peace anywhere. We can only, should only, Be At Peace.  And that's the end of the story.  Being full of peace, being peace-ful, is to love every human as much as we love ourselves, and to let that love nourish ourselves AND each other. A smile begets a hug, a hug births a promise, and that promise opens the door to marriage, hope, and a whole new world.  Can you see it????? Because I can. I am breathing that future into my present this very moment.

  • Peace is internal, and will be Eternal

As a twenty six year old desiring to start a family, I am leery to bring a new child into a world where we are stil! killing each other left and right; a world where we send our young folks off to kill, then when they come home traumatized, we mostly ignore them.  We don't even Guarantee our Veterans the dignity of Food, Water, and Shelter, let alone the emotional and spiritual help that is necessary for forcing them to play Kevorkian on the citizens, young and old, of other nations.  We have multitudes of veterans from previous wars shivering out in the cold, seeking solace wherever they can find it, but they can never escape the trauma that they LIVED, so that "We, The People" wouldn't have to.  Well, We are living it out.  The fact that there is a Single homeless person in The Land of Opportunity is a complete embarrassment.  And many, All too many of the homeless are the surviving cannon fodder from some Monarch's war game, whether it be your current battles or those of Bush, Clinton, the burning Bush, Reagan, Carter, Nixon, Kennedy, Roosevelt.............you can name the others, can't you?  Well, if not, it really doesn't matter so much.  What does matter, is this:

WE, the PEOPLE, Can Say "enough."  

We, the PEOPLE, Can Embrace the Truth that Each One of Us is Peaceful. If We Are All Peaceful, there will be no war.  It is that simple. 

BUT IF you, THE PRESIDENT, chose to Lead it, well, gosh, we could get there with startling velocity.  It would be the Lack of A Shot that Was Heard Around the World.  And it would happen before your girls get to college.  Imagine that.  What if your two little girls could go to college wherever in the world they desired, rather than feeling like they were nothing but potential victims for some horrid extortion plan?

I am praying for Peace on Earth. 

I am praying for Good Will Toward huMan(andWoMan)Kind.

I am PRAYING for A true Silent Night.  Like the one immortalized by Sam Broussard: http://itunes.apple.com/ie/artist/sam-broussard/id4264699

I see no reason to kill my brothers and sisters.  I see no reason to send my future babies to war, when they are eighteen, nineteen, or twenty.  Are you really comfortable with the thought of putting Your children in harm's way?  

Would you let Sasha and Maliah join the military???????????????

If I were their father, there WOULD BE NO QUESTION.

The Answer, MR. President, IS, WOULD BE, AND ALWAYS WAS:

NO.


Matt Brown
matt@brownsdream.us


Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Psssssssssssttt…WUMB-fm hired a local program manager in November

Dr. Strangelove: Of course, the whole point of a Doomsday Machine is lost, if you *keep* it a *secret*! Why didn't you tell the world, EH? 
Ambassador de Sadesky: It was to be announced at the Party Congress on Monday. As you know, the Premier loves surprises. 


No inference intended that "public" WUMB-fm is run as a Kubrickian war room, but why the need for secrecy?

According to his own Linked-In profile, Kim Grehn has been serving as the WUMB-fm “Local Program Manager” since November. 

Kim Grehn’s Experience
·         Local Program Manager
WUMB Radio
(Broadcast Media industry)
November 2010 — Present (2 months)
Responsible for managing and maintaining quality control of all aspects of the broadcast of local on-air programming and related material including staff, production and on-air promotions for WUMB Radio.

Visit My Blog:
http://ctmediamagr.blogspot.com/

NPR affiliate WUMB-fm, licensed to the the University of Massachusetts, Boston, has been operating without a program manager for over a year, since the departure of Brian Quinn, who had served in that capacity for over twenty years.   See Brian Quinn, WUMB program director, "laid off"dated November 9, 2009.


Mr. Grehn’s hiring was made public yesterday through the weekly online radio trade journal website "NorthEast Radio Watch".

*There's a new general manager at Boston's WBUR-FM (90.9), but Charlie Kravets is a familiar name in eastern MASSACHUSETTS broadcasting, where he spent the last two decades building New England Cable News from the ground up. Kravets was NECN's founding news director back in 1992, becoming the channel's president and general manager in 2008 before departing when Hearst sold its interest in NECN to Comcast. And he has deep ties to his WBUR predecessor: like Paul La Camera, Kravets has roots at WCVB (Channel 5), where he was the original producer of "Chronicle" and later assistant news director.
Kravets takes over the helm of WBUR on New Year's Day; La Camera will stick around as an ambassador for the station and as BU's administrator of public radio.
Meanwhile, WBUR has launched a new promotional campaign for the station; you can see one of the "UR BUR" TV spotshere, and you can read some pithy quotes from your friendly editor in a story about the ad campaign from Saturday's Boston Globe.
*Across town at WGBH (89.7), there's a new TV spinoff coming to radio. The Herald reports that January 8 will be the start date for a radio version of "America's Test Kitchen," which will air at 2 PM on Saturdays.
And completing the Boston public radio trifecta, there's a new program manager at WUMB-FM (91.9 Boston): Kim Grehn was VP of programming at Connecticut Public Radio until budget cuts eliminated that job last year.

Yet there has been absolutely no mention of this WUMB-fm management change in its own website, nor “Ripples” (formerly “Folk Ripples”, its monthly e-newsletter, nor has there been a posting for this position since Mr. Quinn’s departure two years ago.  WUMB’s jobs posting page reads
JOB OPPORTUNITIES
Below are a listing of current employment opportunities with WUMB radio:
Sorry - there are no jobs currently available

Neither is there any mention in WUMB-fm’s secretive friends-only Facebook friend page or its public fan page (which is rather inactive, the last post being 11/24/10) nor in the WUMB-fm watchdog page “Fans of Folk Radio WUMB”, whose motto is “we listen to WUMB so you don’t have to.”

Nor in the form of a press release.  And speaking of the press, where is the Boston media?  Is this posting a Boston-area exclusive?

Filling a senior management position at a public entity should be public news, so why the secrecy?

Stay tuned for developments.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

An Evening with Si Kahn and Friends to benefit the Nora Theatre Company’s Spring 2011 World Premiere Production of Silver Spoon





You Are Invited
An Evening with Si Kahn and Friends to
benefit the Nora Theatre Company’s Spring 2011
World Premiere Production of Silver Spoon
Against the backdrop of the grape boycott during the idealistic
days of the late 1960s, two young lovers fight for justice and
search for acceptance from their families, society, and each other.
Book by Amy Merrill, Music and Lyrics by Si Kahn
Sunday, December 12, 2010 / 6:30 - 8:30 pm
Central Square Theater
450 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Food, Drink and Camaraderie Provided
Featuring
Si Kahn ~ Longtime activist and Songwriter
Amy Merrill ~ Playwright
Daniel Gidron ~ Director
Mary C. Huntington ~ Artistic Director
Cast Members of Silver Spoon
Contribution Levels
Concerned Citizen $50
• One (1) ticket to "An Evening with Si Kahn"
Protester $100
• One (1) ticket to "An Evening with Si Kahn"
• One (1) autographed copy of Si Kahn's CD or book
Community Organizer $250
• Two (2) tickets to "An Evening with Si Kahn"
• One (1) autographed copy of Si Kahn's CD or book
Field Coordinator $500
• Two (2) tickets to "An Evening with Si Kahn"
• Two (2) tickets to any performance of Silver Spoon
• One (1) autographed copy of Si Kahn's CD or book
Farmworker $1,000
• Two (2) tickets to "An Evening with Si Kahn"
• Two (2) tickets to any performance of Silver Spoon
• One (1) autographed copy of Si Kahn's CD and book
• A keepsake photograph of you & guests with producers
and select cast of Silver Spoon
Cesar Chavez $2,500
• Four (4) tickets to "An Evening with Si Kahn"
• Four (4) tickets to any performance of Silver Spoon
• A quarter page ad in Silver Spoon program booklet
• A Si Kahn concert in your home
Sponsorship entitles you to recognition in the Silver Spoon Production program.
Please reply to: Central Square Theater, attn: Emilie Kershaw,
450 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139
Questions: eck@centralsquaretheater.org 617-576-9278 x208
“Hope hangs like fruit upon the tree
It calls to you and me
Love flourishes like grapes upon the vine
And ripens like the finest wine.”
From the song, “In California”
Silver Spoon



Si will be Jeff Boudreau's in-studio guest Tuesday, December 14, 7-8pm on WCUW, 91.3fm and streaming at www.wcuw.org.  More information.