Redemption of an Economic Hit Man

John Perkins, the self-confessed and apparently redeemed former Economic Hit Man, has been popping up on my radar frequently in the last few weeks, most recently in the September 2005 issue of The Sun, from which much of the following is drawn. His story is disturbing and compelling. Getting out of the Peace Corps in 1971, Perkins joined the international consulting firm Chas. T. Main (or MAIN). His job was to persuade third world leaders to agree to large scale development projects in their countries. The projects would be funded by the World Bank, and built by American companies, so there was no meaningful benefit to the normal inhabitants of the target countries. The people would, of course, be saddled with a huge debt, and punishing austerity measures which would ensure the country's resources could be exploited for the benefit of the elites of the country and their American masters in perpetuity.

In the 1980's Perkins quit MAIN, and founded his own alternative energy company, Independent Power Systems (IPS). However, he remained silent about his former activities. In the 1990's Perkins began to advocate for rainforests and indigenous peoples, and founded the Dream Change Coalition, which aims to raise our consciousness, and form a grassroots movement to "create a more compassionate and just world." Perkins has also studied the shamanic teachings of indigenous peoples around the world, and has led workshops and expeditions to share this knowledge. All of which sounds very cool, in my opinion.

Apparently he began writing about his experiences as an economic hit man 20 years ago. However, it was the 9/11 attack that compelled him to tell his story to a wide audience "because what happened on 9/11 is a direct result of what the economic hit men are doing." The result was Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. I haven't read the book, but it sounds like a good read.

I want to leave you with a story from the Sun interview that I found inspirational and funny. Perkins is responding to a question about what regular people can do against these incredibly powerful corporations,

One lesson the environmental movement has taught us is that corporations are vulnerable. A couple of years ago a major environmental group went up against a multinational corporation. The group launched a boycott of the corporation, and the corporation eventually came around. Not long after that, I was at a conference attended by both the leader of the environmental group and the head of the corporation, and one night the three of us wound up in the hot tub. I was extremely interested to see how these two would interact. To my surprise the corporate executive said to the activist, "Thank God you did what you did. I knew what we were doing was wrong, but I couldn't do anything about it for fear of losing my job. After the boycott, I could go to our board and push for us to do the right thing. (John Perkins, quoted in The Sun, September, 2005)

So, let that be our call to organize and continue putting pressure on governments and corporations to do the right thing!

Peace,

why rb is so great

The subject of today's post is Rocketboom, the daily video blog (vlog). Rocketboom is the collaboration of Andrew Baron behind the scenes, and Amanda Congdon performing the brilliant, lighthearted (but not always), pastiche of culture, politics, news and technology that is Rocketboom. My daily Rocketboom fix is three minutes of guaranteed joy every Monday through Friday. My life has definitely been improved by watching Rocketboom, and maybe yours would, too. Here's some reasons why.

1. Amanda is enormously telegenic. Speaking for myself, I don't have the hots for her, but she's just fun to watch. She's got the bubbly, kind of flirtatious thing going on, but always in a very demure way. She just seems to be enjoying herself so much, you can't help being uplifted watching her, even if she's just reading the news. And of course there are the Amanda "things" - the hair flip, the paper toss, the goofy dancing.

2. Drew is obviously a genius. Rocketboom is the brainchild of Andrew Baron, who is some kind of art student, programmer, renaissance man. In a recent article Andrew talks about how he was inspired around the time of the 2004 presidential elections. He posted an ad in Craig's List for an actress, and the rest is history. You can see footage from Amanda's original screen test here. The whole thing is done with consumer grade video equipment and a Mac G4.

3. Rocketboom has turned me on to zillions of things on the Internet that I wouldn't have otherwise known, like Flickr, Del.icio.us, Halloween gadget list, second life, not to mention dozens of interesting multimedia mavens, Internet artists and just plain kooks. I don't have time to read lots of blogs and scour the Internet for fascinating stuff. I feel if I watch Rocketboom I get a good sample, filtered through some very intelligent folks.

4. Represents the promise of what the Internet should be. It shows that anyone with access to fairly common equipment - a consumer grade video camera and a Macintosh computer, can create multimedia content and publish their ideas for the world. I truly think that Rocketboom is cutting edge, audacious, and obviously a work of considerable sophistication. But it shows that in a time when media is controlled by an ever smaller cartel of companies, we can truly create and share our own culture.

I'll close by saying that without the inspiration of Rocketboom, I would probably not have created the blog you are reading now. I wouldn't put my own personal meanderings in same the class with Rocketboom, but it's the idea that the Internet is a partcipatory, not a spectator experience. Here's a list of some of my favorite episodes:

switch drinking game where is amanda? blue light special John Lennon 25 yrs

why sk are so great

Photo by
eliah.

Okay, one of the mental blog entries I've had is to try and explain why sleater kinney are so great. Let me first say - I am not a music critic. I think in my head, like many lovers of music, I think o sure, I could write about music better than [insert name of actual music critic here] but in fact, my knowledge of music is not as great as i would like, nor do i have any practice at writing about music.

Nevertheless, I love sleater kinney, they are my favorite band, and I want to tell the world in my own words why they are so awesome. So here ya go-

1. They have integrity. Their first six albums were on small indy labels (Chainsaw & Killrockstars). Number seven was released by sub-pop, still a relatively cool label. I have never paid more than $15 to see a SK show (I think I've seen 6 or 7). When you can pay $35 or more to see some (crappy) big name act, I think it's awesome that SK continues to play killer shows for a price their target audience can afford.

2. Corin's voice. Okay, you either love or hate it, I suppose. You certainly can't ignore it :-) It's a big, gorgeous voice in my opinion, but often in a sort of get-under-your skin, finger nails on chalkboard kind of way. Carrie and Janet have great voices, too, but Corin's intense, vibrato-laden pipes are what makes the sound.

3. The music (duh). Probably the first time you hear SK it sounds like punk rock or grunge, or just plain rock & roll. But after the fourth or fifth listen, focus on the guitar parts. The elements are spare (just two guitars, no bass, only occasional overdubs) but the result is truly greater than the sum of the parts. I listen to their records over and over, but I never cease to be amazed at the interplay of the guitar parts, which is nothing like the cliche rhythm and lead of 99% of rock & roll. If Sleater Kinney consisted of nothing more than Carrie & Corin's guitar playing, it would still be amazing.

4. Janet f*cking Weiss - SK's drummer. Janet joined the band on the third album, Dig Me Out. The earlier drummers were good in their way, but Janet quite simply rocks. Obviously if you're going to have a power trio type sound, you need to have a great drummer. Janet is totally in the same league as Keith Moon, John Bonham and Ginger Baker. She is totally dedicated to her art. Janet's drumming is intense, but nothing is wasted, every beat is tasteful, on the money, and contributes to the song. She also sings great backup vocals, and on the new album even plays harmonica on one song. Also worthwhile is her "side project" Quasi. Check it out.

5. The music - part 2. Okay, I already mentioned the deceptively simple sounding, yet sophisticated guitar interplay above. They also write great songs. While they are capable IMHO of a fairly broad range, we love them best for the kick-ass, anthemic masterpieces like Call The Doctor, Turn It On, The End Of You, #1 Must Have, Entertain, and so on. Even though the instrumental break comes predictably after the second verse, it always reaches beyond the ordinary, the guitar parts shift rhythmically, harmonically, the intensity builds, the vocals interplay and layer, and for a moment time stops and all that exists is beauty...

Alright, there's nothing else I can say. And anyway, this post is way too long already. Check SK out and let me know what you think.

Tapeworm

This week's entry is dedicated to one of my heroes, Catherine Austin Fitts. I first heard Catherine on KPFA's Flashpoints. (The interview was several years ago, but here is a link to the earlist archived CAF interview I could find.) She was talking about how our government, hand-in-hand with drug dealers, and corrupt bankers, uses our tax dollars to destroy our communities, and suck up all the assets in an endless, insatiable cycle. Catherine was Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under Bush I, so she has first hand knowledge of how the corrupt system works. Later, when she tried to reveal this corruption, she and her company were attacked and nearly destroyed by Justice Department lawyers.

In one of her most powerful and chilling pieces, she describes the unholy alliance of corrupt governments, banks and powerful corporations as a tapeworm, which devours its host from within. If allowed to grow unchecked, ultimately the host and the tapeworm will die.

However, unlike many critics of our corrupt government and capitalist economy, Catherine has a real plan for how communities can reverse this deadly cycle, and take control of their own resources and financial destiny. Basically, her idea is to create local investment circles or Solaris. By investing (& borrowing) locally, we can make our resources work for us instead of being used against us by Citibank, Bechtel, Halliburton or whoever.

I'll confess I'm not really putting her ideas into practice in my life yet, but it's one of my goals. And I suggest you take a look at some of these links and find out more about Catherine Austin Fitts' writings and her radical ideas for how we can fight the tapeworm. Check it out!

My Better Self

I bought a new cd this weekend which is always a big event for me. As much as I love music and feel, as Wim Wenders, Lester Bangs and so many others that rock & roll makes life liveable, I can only afford a music splurge every couple of months or so. So there is pressure to make each purchase count. I went into Rasputin Records to get Aerial, the new Kate Bush cd, for my wife and something for myself. I was thinking maybe Dressy Bessy, an indy pop band Yahoo!Music introduced me to.

Anyway, I walked out of the store with Aerial and My Better Self, the latest cd by Dar Williams. I've been hearing about Dar, Cry Cry Cry, etc. for some time, and My Better Self was set up on the listening station. I listened to the first two cuts, Teen For God and I'll Miss You, and decided to go with the impulse.

I've listed to it about 3 or 4 times and I'm pretty happy with it. I think with the stuff I'm dealing with in my personal life at this moment in time, plus the general f*cked up state of the world, this soulful, somewhat poppy, sometimes sad, and irony-tinged cd is good for me now.

Dar has full, bright and beautiful voice. No screeching or guttural sounds like some of my faves. The songs have good melodies and high quality musicianship. It reminds me a little of Jewel, sound wise, but the lyrics are a lot more sophisticated. Teen For God is a catchy number about a girl at the Peace Branch Horse and Bible Camp. Trying to reconcile her desire to be a good Christian, and the other desires coursing through her teenage frame:

But God made love, God made the river run,
And cowboy boots and bathing suits
and the boys' skin dries in the sun.
Help me God.

Another song that's grabbed me is Empire, a stinging deconstruction of the horrors of the American juggernaut. Random line:

There's nothing that can harm me,
Cause the sun never sets on my dungeons or my army.

There are also covers of Neil Young's Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, and Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb. Devotees of Dar would probably say that some earlier classics are where I should start, but I think it supports the artists better to buy what they're doing now. Anyway, I recommend this cd and would probably buy more by Dar.

Take Care Gentle Reader!

Depleted Uranium

My goal is to post at least weekly. I'm a little late this time. I was listening to KPFA's Flashpoints on my way home from work today. The host Dennis Bernstein was interviewing this retired Army Major about depleted uranium (DU). It seems like I am reminded multiple times a day of the criminal blindness of the people who run this country. How anybody could think it's okay to use a chemically toxic and RADIOACTIVE munition, spraying it all over Iraq, where it not only poisons the environment FOREVER, but evens poisons our own troops!!?! It totally defies the imagination. Yet new revelations of the criminal insanity of the Bush administration come to light almost daily -- torture centers, Valerie Plame, the FTAA, etc. Unbelievable.

So as an antidote, I put on Sleater Kinney's 2002 CD "One Beat" as I drove across the San Mateo bridge. One Beat is the last John Goodmanson produced album and the last on their former label Kill Rockstars. One of the most overtly political SK albums, forged as it was in the post 9/11, Afghanistan invasion period. It's a brilliant CD, and I highly recommend you buy it if you like kickass rock & roll. I will leave you with a quote from the anthemic opening song, One Beat:

If you think like Thomas Edison
could you invent a world for me
now all that’s on the surface
are bloody arms and oil fields
could I turn this place all upside down
shake you and your fossils out? oh oh

Halloween

Here's a picture of Dawn and I at our friends Kristi & Jeff's Halloween party last night. Dawn was a rockin' Magenta and I was a sort of ok Riff Raff of Rocky Horror Picture Show fame. Dawn found a great resource for Rocky Horror makeup and costumes. The other adults were mostly all vampires - lots of gratuitous fake blood :-) The younger generation was styled out as Ninja Turtles, Ron Weasly & Hermione from the Harry Potter series, a grim reaper, a fairytopia, and a brother & sister pair of Aniken Skywalkers. It was a good time, with sangria and dancing to Goth music in the back yard with strobe light and fog machine. Yay!

Manifesto

Hey! I've been thinking for several days about what my first blog entry should say. Now it's 10:30 p.m. after a very long, ridiculous day, and needless to say, I've forgotten all my clever formulations. But, I'll take a stab anyway.

This blog is about the impossibility and necessity of living the rock & roll lifestyle at the age of 46, married, with children, responsible corporate job, and the whole - as they say - catastrophe. I have lots of things I should probably be doing besides writing a blog at 10:30 p.m. on a work night (I get up at 4:15 a.m.) but I feel compelled/inspired to express myself.

I guess I'll just explain the girlbandgeek thing, at least. I got that phrase from an article about the Donnas I read many years ago. The band member, I don't know which one, described one segment of their following as kind of geeky [losers?] who had a fetish for girl bands. At the time I just thought it was funny, but then I began to realize that I was a girl band geek! Over time, I came to realize that I was just such a fan of "women who rock". I began to fully accept the fact that fem-centric rock & roll provided some essential release, joy, expression of my soul, and it was a good thing.

My favorite band of the last 8 years is the incomparably sublime and senses shattering power trio Sleater Kinney. Thanks to a review by Johnny Angel in the Bay Guardian some time in 1997, I bought SK's third album, Dig Me Out. I bought it at Aquarius Records on Valencia St. in San Francisco. I brought it home and put it on. My wife, pregnant with our first child, had an immediate and visceral negative reaction and took refuge in the far end of our apartment. I loved it. I listened to it every day, at work, or in the car for the next year. Sleater Kinney has been a source of inspiration, oblivion, awe and sheer joy until the present day. That's enough for now...

Extensible!

Opening the Field

Hey, this is my first post. Girlbandgeek is definitely in "alpha" mode. I'll add some actual content later. Come back in a week or two.