Good Things

It's an unfortunate reflection upon the times we live in, but I realize it's not very often at all that I take time here at The Thorn Papers to speak of things good and right and hopeful. There'll be time enough for that come November, I tell myself when this comes to mind, but you know what? Life is too short, and given the lunatics in charge now, who knows if we'll make it that far. So in the interest of good things, I think I'm going to take some time, from time to time, to reccomend good books, good music, good movies. Life is short.

First on the block is Everyone Deserves Music from Michael Franti & Spearhead. I've been a fan of Michael's since an earlier project, the Disposable Heroes of HipHoprisy, but it is with Spearhead that he has truly fulfilled his promise as an artist. He is a force of positivity on album and in concert and that would be enough to earn our support, but first and foremost, on top of everything else, Spearhead puts out some pretty phenomenal music. For some full length samples, check here. If you like hip hop, if you like soul, if you like pop music, if you're a fan of rock and roll, you'll appreciate this band. They're also not opposed to taping of their live shows and understand the new paradigm of file sharing as distribution. I've been a fan for years, and I'm glad to have this sort of forum to introduce them to potential fans.

Michael is also an activist, and his efforts, the band's efforts, have not been lost on Bush and company. See this Rolling Stone article from April of 2003:

Performing at protest rallies is nothing new for the politically minded hip-hop/soul band Spearhead. What made their March 15th anti-war concert in San Francisco different is that bombs started falling on Baghdad a few days later.

But first, on March 16th, across the country in Boston, the mother of the group's human beatbox Radioactive received a visit from two plainclothes Army officers.

"She'd spoken in an interview about her daughter who has been deployed in the Gulf, and her son who is in this band Spearhead," says Spearhead frontman Michael Franti. "They showed her a picture of her son wearing a t-shirt that said 'Unfuck the world' on the front, and 'Dethrone the Bushes' on the back. They told her that was an un-American statement. She said, 'That's free speech,' and they said, 'Well, things are changing these days.'"

The men who visited the frightened woman told her that her daughter's CDs had been confiscated, and that her son had recently taken two flights to Japan. "Why would he do that?" they asked her, according to Franti.

The men then showed her a list of names of people who worked in Franti's management office in San Francisco and a photograph of her son performing with Spearhead at the peace rally one day prior. "It kind of put a scare into all of us," says Franti. "The fact that people would be paying this close attention to what we're doing as musicians is a bit freaky. We're human rights workers -- we don't believe that people should be killed. We're not about wanting to overthrow the government, but we want to speak out. It's made us deepen our belief in what we do and work that much harder."

Also notable, which I've just learned, is this:

Musician, activist and poet Michael Franti will lead a delegation of peace workers, musicians, artists and film makers who are traveling to Iraq and Israel from June 2nd through the 15th.

The intention of the trip is to see first-hand the affects of the war on all those involved from Iraqi civilians to men and women in uniform. Although no concerts are planned for the trip, Michael and the others are planning on meeting with as many Iraqi musicians and artists as possible as well as students and other youth organizations.

They will visit bomb sites, hospitals, women centers, universities, radio stations, cultural centers, social justice organizations & refugee camps among others. They will travel thru Amman, Baghdad, Jerusalem, Ramallah, Nablus, Jayyous, Bethlehem & Gaza Strip. Michael will be a correspondent for Pacific Radio Network station KPFA, and will call in reports to syndicated radio and tv program, Democracy Now! during the trip.

Michaels' Middle East diary is here. Support a bother.