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Download “Honor Amongst Thieves” | I’m heading out to DC for the inauguration this weekend, for what’s sure to be stressful, cheerful, overwhelming, magical times. The Obamas are walking at the parade even!, which scares the shit out of me, but everything will be fine and Michelle Obama will be divine. What’s more, on Saturday night These United States will play their special opening set at the Songs for Presidents show at Six and I Historic Synagogue, and it will be so good because they’ll squeeze their hearts out for their reinvigorated DC. I was so sure that Jesse Elliott was already fully immersed in reinvigoration that I asked him to have a one-word conversation with me this morning:
Will you be playing new songs? Maybe. Is Mark Charles of Vandaveer playing with you? Maybe. Are you playing a full-length opening set? ish. Just how are you feeling about the reinvigorated DC? Wow! When should we expect a new album? Summer.
A host of other bands are playing, of course: Nellie McKay, Denison Witmer, Jukebox The Ghost, J. Matthew Gerken, Christian Kiefer, Tim Fite, Jefferson Pitcher, Laura Burhenn, Joe Pug, Hiss Golden Messenger, Silver Darling, plus more. And the 44th song for the 44th President will be unleashed as well. Details.
Call the box office for no-fee tickets ($16 advance, $20 day-of): 202-408-3100
Of the several noteworthy gatherings hosted this year by New York Public Library’sLive from the NYPL series, the last one I attended was Zadie Smith’s lecture on “Speaking in Tongues”. Poking right away into the nature of lectures and how a novelist is faced with “tonal challenges” when attempting to deliver one, she rolled her premise out: whereas a speech demands a singular true voice, a novelist–whose area of expertise is the imagined, after all–speaks his truth in a diffused voice filled with multiple personalities. But is this ability to be many-voiced, moving from one register to another, also useful for citizens and Presidents, and not just novelists?
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“2 of us were driving across the rainy black West Virginia night, from DC to Kentucky, to pick up 2 other of us. By the end of the night, 2 am, when we finally hit Kentucky, the sky was clear for a million miles off, and all those good stars had finally started to sink in.” Pictured from left to right are J. Tom Hnatow, Robby Cosenza, Jesse Elliot, and Justin Craig of These United States, in Chicago the day after the election. You can read Jesse’s thoughts on Obama over at Largehearted Boy’s Why Obama column.
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Barack Obama’s week-old victory has since revealed much else about the country. An astounding 46% voted for John McCain, proving once again the extent to which conservatism continues to rule this nation. Post-ideology appointment of Obama staff seems to have thrown both the decrying Left and the decrying Right into arrant confusion. More importantly, though, the country remains afflicted with tight-ass’d people who won’t let the soon-to-be President make Nancy Reagan seance jokes; while I’m at it, John Stewart’s Bill Ayers joke was funny—come on, what are we going to do with you freaking downers? In short, don’t be mistaken, annoying times lie ahead! But for now, we look back to that joyous night: we asked a few folks from the music world and the literary world, “What were you doing when the election result was announced?”
This post is a little late in the day, I was distracted by a lengthy IM debate on gay marriages. Anyhow, since I was too anxious to be sociable on election night, I skipped election parties in favor of a quiet evening at home, the early part of which I spent performing electoral vote calculations, naturally, switching between MSNBC and Comedy Central, watching Stephen Colbert and John Stewart cry. Kashish, on the other hand, headed for Chicago on Sunday. He brings back these pictures of anticipation and celebration from Grant Park, Chicago. All pictures by Kashish.
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“..it is that American spirit – that American promise – that pushes us forward even when the path is uncertain; that binds us together in spite of our differences; that makes us fix our eye not on what is seen, but what is unseen, that better place around the bend.” Full speech.
Let’s pretend “American” means “humanist” and we’re all good. Go Obama.
Photo credit: “A grief stricken American infantryman whose buddy has been killed in action is comforted by another soldier. In the background a corpsman methodically fills out casualty tags, Haktong-ni area Korea.” By Sfc. Al Chang, August 28, 1950. National Archives and Records Administration, Records of the Office of the Chief Signal Officer
Buy music from these fabulous bands, artist names are linked to albums.
The longest, most demographically-difficult and highest-turnout campaign ever for the presidential nomination of an American political party was settled Tuesday night when Barack Obama — the son of an African immigrant and a daughter of rural Kansas — secured sufficient delegate support to assure that he will be selected as the Democratic nominee for president of the United States.
Strangely, Mrs Clinton said she would make no decision on Tuesday. It is anyway out of her hands. As the polls closed in the two western states, superdelegates announced their support for Mr Obama in droves, giving him well over a majority of all delegates.
hooves on the turf is a mostly-music blog based out of brooklyn. i can be reached at hoovesontheturf [at] gmail [dot] com - please send me your lovely music as an attached mp3 or an mp3 link. if i like what you send, i'll be sure to ask for more.
Evan Hammer: and now i’m excited too! thanks for the new band.
Jens: Where can I order t-shirts from the Tallest Man On Earth online? Is it possible at all?
nat lyon: three cheers for secret garden! it’s been too long.
jamie: Yo! You should definitely check out this awesome video MPLS.TV just shot of Dark Dark Dark this week for City...
sarahana: they were taken with the new iPhone 4 using the Hipstamatic app
