Wonderland or Not » Independence Day

Happy Independence Day

cooper — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 19:08:31 +0000

I spent the morning at an outside cafe sipping coffee while enjoying the holiday comings and goings of this small city. A car full of quasi Neandertals wearing wife-beaters and baseball caps drove slowly past the cafe front. The Neandertals appeared to be early forties. The music blairing from the car speakers as the men did the car jive was Girls Just Wanna to Have Fun. It made me smile.

Only in America.

Or the Netherlands.

Maybe Montreal.

Happy 4th.

Peace

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The Promise Land

cooper — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 18:33:06 +0000

The Declaration of Independence

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness

I love the beginning of this declaration of ours. Yet, considering what we did to those who came before us, and to those who we brought here from lands afar, I puzzle at the ability of the founders to ignore the incongruity.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

I’m recovering from a night of Ethiopian fare, and some of the best live music I’ve heard in weeks. Hope you are likewise recovering from something or other. Fireworks from afar this evening.

[See post to listen to audio]

Give Us Your Tired And Weak And We Will Make Them Strong
Bring Us Your Foreign Songs And We Will Sing Along
Leave Us Your Broken Dreams We’ll Give Them Time To Mend
There’s Still A Lot Of Love Living In The Promiseland

Living In The Promiseland Our Dreams Are Made Of Steel
The Prayer Of Every Man Is To Know How Freedom Feels
There Is A Winding Road Across The Shifting Sand
And Room For Everyone Living In The Promiseland

So They Came From A Distant Isle Nameless Woman, Faitheless Child Like A Bad Dream
Until There Was No Room At All No Place To Run, And No Place To Fall

Give Us Your Daily Bread We Have No Shoes To Wear
No Place To Call Our Home Only This Cross To Bear
We Are The Multitudes Lend Us A Helping Hand
Is There No Love Anymore Living In The Promiseland

Happy Independence Day

Peace

a comments off holiday post

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The Weekend Five Hundred

cooper — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 17:06:45 +0000

If you are from the US and plan to celebrate Independence Day (despite living in a corporately owned nation where you are independent only to the extent that you can afford health insurance, have a decent base education from an exceedingly rare, good public school district, possess the ability to make a living after oil spills destroy your usual livelihood, pay your higher education loans, as well as the credit card bills that got out of hand because your school had a contract with various banks, and said school pushed those VISA cards on you at every turn, placing student Visa reps in every lobby almost around the clock. All this solicitation despite you having no stated income — what was your unemployed 18 year self supposed to do, you just wanted to fly to Monaco with the rest of your fraternity, and Visa made it so damn easy), be careful with those fireworks.

A little Americana on this 4th of July weekend.

The song 500 Miles is my my choice for this 4th, in lieu of my usual posting of Paul Simon’s American Tune. Recorded by the likes of Peter Paul and Mary, The Seekers, Peter and Gordan, Joan Baez, The Journeymen, The Hooters and Elvis Presley, this song was written by Hedy West. a coal mine labor organizer’s daughter (can’t get more American than that).

For those unwilling to endure the interim, the song begins at around 21 seconds.

More weekend 500 can be seen at Compulsions .

Peace

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