Leadbelly - where did you sleep last nite.......interactive page with chord pop-ups
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/tabs/l/leadbelly/where_did_you_sleep_last_night_crd.htm
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Jack London and the Black Panther Party
I don't have access to a computer besides at the biblioteca, and I can't really do my thing at a library so much. I require coffee, and room to walk around. Read Jack London's John Barleycorn, which is a book I've been wanting to read for years but I think I picked it up at exactly the right moment. I can identify with what he calls his "long sickness" and although I associate it less with alcohol and more with philosophical introspection on life events, I believe his description of what alcohol does to a intellectually-oriented drinker is illuminating. I think of London as being in a category of vagabond American myth makers which would include Kerouac and Thompson. Some of the prose in John Barleycorn is strongly reminiscent of HST and London's The Road can be seen as a predecessor to On the Road and The Dharma Bums.
Besides this I've gotten back into the Panthers, first by finding a large paperback collection of the BPP's newspaper, originally called the Black Panther then changed to the Intercommunal News Service. Its worth checking out solely for the graphics and poster art. Then I picked up a recent book published about COINTELPRO called Theres Something Happening in Here that details the FBIs political repression of mainly left-wing students and groups like the Panthers categorized as Black Hate Groups, as well a small fraction of operations against the KKK in the form of the UKA. Book is valuable because it relates this period of dramatic enlargement of state surveillance and disruption of what are seen as political threats and our current phase of expanded policing power, restriction of Civil liberties. It also relates the periods of intensified repressive action with the public sentiment at the time, when people feel threatened, they will allow the government to carry out activities it would otherwise deem unacceptable.
So I'm still here, still reading, still thinking, no matter how many times people want to tell me I think too much. I'm just trying to make up for everyone else.
Besides this I've gotten back into the Panthers, first by finding a large paperback collection of the BPP's newspaper, originally called the Black Panther then changed to the Intercommunal News Service. Its worth checking out solely for the graphics and poster art. Then I picked up a recent book published about COINTELPRO called Theres Something Happening in Here that details the FBIs political repression of mainly left-wing students and groups like the Panthers categorized as Black Hate Groups, as well a small fraction of operations against the KKK in the form of the UKA. Book is valuable because it relates this period of dramatic enlargement of state surveillance and disruption of what are seen as political threats and our current phase of expanded policing power, restriction of Civil liberties. It also relates the periods of intensified repressive action with the public sentiment at the time, when people feel threatened, they will allow the government to carry out activities it would otherwise deem unacceptable.
So I'm still here, still reading, still thinking, no matter how many times people want to tell me I think too much. I'm just trying to make up for everyone else.
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