David Rovics Radical Concert: Ashland, Oregon
Brain Labor Report, 22.04.2007 20:37
CELEBRATING INDEPENDENT MEDIA WEEK IN ASHLAND, OREGON
Bellview Grange Sunday April 20, 2007
IndyMedia Week (April 15-21, 2007) had two concerts, the George Mann kickoff event on Sunday 
http://rogueimc.org/en/2007/04/8255.shtml and the David Rovics-Patrick Dodd event Friday Night http://rogueimc.org/en/2007/04/8306.shtml Here is David Rovics on Friday night, taken with a hand held video camera without an external mic..
So much fun to sit on a couch up front and just kick back and listen to the wonderful performance of David Rovics and Patrick Dodd. I only held up my video camera for 15 minutes of raw footage thinking it too dark for video and that my camera's built-in microphone was not capable of getting good sound (for the techies, i needed an external mic). But then I listened to it and decided it was much better than imagined and so here is a streaming vid from the friday nite concert
DAVID ROVICS "NEW ORLEANS" ASHLAND, OREGON APRIL 20, 2007
(photos and video song, plus text of song below)
David Rovics "New Orleans" click here for Quicktime video clip -
This following is from David Rovics website http://www.davidrovics.com/
New Orleans
David Rovics
Note: I wrote this while in a state of sleep deprivation in Beirut, Lebanon, in early September, 2005, and I recorded it at the studios of Amwaj Radio 91.5 in Ramallah, Occupied Palestine. You will find the song at the top of the "MP3 MUSIC" section of www.soundclick.com/davidrovics along with everything else I've recorded since 1998. As with all of my music, lyrics, etc., feel free to use it for any purpose and spread the word about the song if you're so inclined!
Everybody knew that it could happen
The likelihood was clear
The future was coming
And now it’s here
They had to fix the levees
Because otherwise they’d break
On one side was the city
Above it was the lake
It was in the daily papers
In bold letters was the writ
What would happen
When the Big One hit
But every year they cut the funding
Just a little more
So they could give it to the Army
To fight their oil war
In National Geographic
And the Times-Picayune
They forecast the apocalypse
Said it was coming soon
Preparations must be made, they said
Now is the time
It was years ago they shouted
Inaction was a crime
They said the dikes must be improved
And the wetlands must be saved
But Washington decided
Instead they should be paved
Because malls were more important
Than peoples’ lives
So put some gold dust in your eyes
And hope no storm arrives
New Orleans, New Orleans, New Orleans
Years and years of warning
No evacuation plan
It was just if the waters rose
Just get out if you can
There were no buses
No one chartered any trains
There was no plan to rescue
All of those who would remain
All the people with no money
All the people with no wheels
All of those who didn’t hotwire
One that they could steal
Thousands and thousands of people
Abandoned by the state
Abandoned by their country
Just left to meet their fate
New Orleans, New Orleans, New Orleans
And the people died
And then they died some more
They drowned inside their attics
An army of the poor
An army of the destitute
Who couldn’t get away
And the world will remember
These sad and awful days
When people shouted from their houses
Dying on their roofs
When people came to find them
They were turned back by the troops
They died there with no water
They died there in the heat
They were shot down by the soldiers
For trying to find some food to eat
New Orleans, New Orleans, New Orleans
And now the city is in ruins
A massive toxic sea
Scattered through the nation
Half a million refugees
Here we are
In the richest country on the earth
Where the color of your skin
Determines what your life is worth
Where oil is the king
Where global warming is ignored
Where the very end of life
Is the place we’re heading toward
Where it’s more than just a metaphor
The flooding of the dike
And if we don’t stop this madness
The whole planet will be like
New Orleans, New Orleans, New Orleans
Created September, 2005
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Ashland's 3rd annual Independent Media Week this April 15-22, 2007 has an exciting flavor and feel. There were so many more folks involved in the planning and bringing together the Sunday through Thursday's independent videos screenings held at Southern Oregon University's Mulkey Auditorium in Churchill Hall. Churchill is the fancy old building which can be seen from Siskiyou Blvd, built in 1926 it is the Administrative Hall for SOU.
There was sense of practicing our first amendment with the showing of radical films in the school's administrative hall this week of independent media celebration. Right there in SOU's halls of ivy powerhouse. Thy current corporate SOU regime has clearly set foot with it's mission to privatize our public school, but yet this week we screened our radical films.
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Speaking of New Orleans 23.04.2007 - 14:56 "Spring Break in NOLA - SOU Student Journal" http://rogueimc.org/en/2006/05/6584.shtml
Students from Southern Oregon University and Rogue Valley community members went to New Orleans during spring break with a big dose of solidarity. Sunny Lindley was one of them. She shares her journal with us.--rogueimcvolunteer "My last day at St. Mary's I overheard some folks who had attended the church service that day talking about the most recent body that was found, a five year-old girl. She had her backpack on, fully packed for an overnight stay. She was found several miles from her own neighborhood, seven months after the levees failed and washed her away."--sunnylindley Complete story with photos here http://rogueimc.org/en/2006/05/6584.shtml
Sunny Lindley's report from last year> What a great concert it was! 24.04.2007 - 08:29 I started writing something about it and then just got too swamped with kids to finish it, but thought I would add a few words too. So glad to see you reported it and hope anyone who missed it will be sure to go see David Rovics when he passes through again. We are so lucky to have someone as talented as Patrick Dodd living near us too. Here are a few of my thoughts on the concert... Sometimes you get a chance to meet someone who has been paying attention. On Friday night at the Bellview Grange, David Rovics wandered around the room talking to KSKQ supporters and looked just like one of us, while a crowd of attendees enjoyed a delicious Thai dinner and listened to Montana Soul. I didn't even realize it was him until I saw his guitar case propped up against a pillow on the floor. And then something really wonderful happened when he got up on stage with Patrick Dodd. They took turns playing songs and swapping stories and there was a little magic in the air. Maybe it was just because the audience was made up of like minded people, or maybe it had more to do with the incredible talent and passion that make both of them phenomenal folk singers—whatever it was, the evening passed way too quickly. With a repertoire of songs like "I’m a Better Anarchist Than You" and "New Orleans", Rovics has a way of turning current events over and uncovering the stories that hide behind the label of "politics". What an incredible evening. I can't wait to see him again. Vanessa Houk>  e-mail:: lithiasalt@cheerful.com
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