The Washington beltway turned a deaf ear to artists’ rights until one guy, one activist, wrote the words “I Respect Music” on an index card and showed it to the world. Now, thousands upon thousands of music makers and music lovers are standing together and making history by adding their names to a petition that […]
In honor of International Friendship Month, children’s performer Dave Jay is donating all CDBaby download sales of his album Balloon To The Moon during the month of February to Music That Heals, an organization dedicated to “bringing the healing power of music to seriously ill children and adults.”
Balloon To The Moon features 12 original songs including “Playground”, “Big Kid” and “That Craaaaazy Freckle”. Listen here.
Purchase Balloon To The Moon on CDBaby here.
From: Free Marissa Now Mobilization Campaign
FreeMarissaNow@gmail.com
www.freemarissanow.org
Contact: Helen Gilbert – 206-473-0630
The Free Marissa Now Mobilization Campaign is calling for a week of action from February 8-16 to draw attention to Marissa Alexander’s case and other criminalized survivors of domestic violence. Marissa Alexander is the African American mother from Jacksonville, Florida who received a 20-year sentence for firing a warning shot to stop an attack by her abusive, estranged husband. No one was harmed in the incident. The case has become a rallying point for opponents of domestic violence and mass incarceration.
February 10th, the third anniversary of the day Alexander entered prison, is being marked by the launching of the Free Marissa DJ project (www.freemarissanow.org/free-
Free Marissa Now hopes to raise $30,000 for Alexander’s legal fund by early March. The cost for Alexander’s new trial, scheduled for July 28, is expected to be over $250,000.
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Date: Monday, February 10, 2014
Time: 8:30 & 10:30pm
Venue: Bar Next Door (129 MacDougal St., New York, NY 10012, Tel: (212) 529-5945)
Ticket: $12
Genre: Jazz/improv
Text by Ancelmo James
On the night of January 12th, 2014 I walked down the stairs to the L train stop in Union Square with a friend having just finished work. As I came to the bottom of the steps I heard the warbly and somewhat eerie sound of someone playing the harmonica. I soon saw a young man wearing a army green jumpsuit and a pink ski mask, who was in fact the one playing the harp, along with an arsenal of strange paraphernalia including an old dirty doll, a various assortment of what I believed to be goat and/or sheep hoof/nails tied to strings – of a percussive nature/function, a small chalk board asking – “what is object oriented ontology”, some other small trinkets, and an old McDonald’s french fry box.
At first glance upon arriving with only 1 minute to wait for the next Brooklyn bound L – according to the digital clock above, I thought to myself, “this dude is nuts?!” and completely disregarded him. I continued my conversation with my friend. A minute later the train did, in fact, not arrive, and the following train would be a 25 minute wait. over the next several minutes my interest in the young man and his act grew, along with the rest of the people in the vicinity of his set up and ear shot of his harp. The man was on kneeling on the ground breathing through his harmonica, slowly making long, slow gestures with his arms, in an almost ceremonial, spell like fashion. At one point he grabbed the doll and waved it around for a moment. As he breathed harder into the harp, a crescendo of tension and sound rolled through the air and he ripped the doll’s head off. He then proceeded to take numerous mammal nails and teeth and shook them in his hands before tossing them out across the floor like some kind of pagan craps dealer.
