Alanna and I went to the peace rally today in SF and I think it helped me clear up my personal opinion about the the war in Iraq.

I think I am with a lot of the American people in wanting to support the American troops while they are overseas while at the same time being angry frustrated and scared with what exactly the current US administration is getting this nation along with the rest of the world into. I am unable to think of a single concerted effort by the current administration to outline exactly what they are doing and where exactly they are going with this war and possible other wars down the line.

Oh I have heard many words about the “Evil Doers” and the “Axis of Evil” (I personally think that this speech was one of the things that doomed later foreign policy efforts) but I have not seen anything other than vague assertions that there is a connection between Al Qeida and Iraq.

“Saddam Hussien has thumbed his nose at the UN, so we will thumb our nose at the UN and take him out.”

While I cannot agree with the American administration in it’s half assed attempts at foreign policy leading up to the war, including it’s inability to convince the US people as well the rest of the world that Iraq is a current threat and that it will be in the future, I also cannot even understand what would be a peace movement in San Francisco.

At the peace rally that I witnessed everybody seemed to be talking about everything but the war. Womens rights; Reparations for Slavery; How the US started the Aids epidemic; How we should not support Nike and McDonalds. Focus !!! Focus !!I also saw a lot of people who thought that the way to bring the troops home was to get violent against the city in which they themselves live in.

If the point of the movement is to increase your numbers and your voice, violence and splinter groups is not the way to do it. There is no main message that the peace movement in SF has other than “Fuck the Police, Fuck the government”.

They should get the city the police and the SF business community behind them and not against them. Holding massive demonstrations in Golden Gate park would be a good idea. You could get a larger crowd, you could help the city better manage the event and maybe even have more local politicians show up and help out. You bring more people into the city when they are not affraid that there will be violence. (You catch alot more bees with honey) Deal with violent demonstrations by coming out against them, this is a peace movement !!!

How about Non violent things like creating visible signs of protest without people. Like posters in windows in every home around the bay area billboards and sidewalk grafiti. Not some spray painted peace sign, but a specific noticable sign that will attach itself to the movement.

The most important thing is to talk about the war, focus on the war. As soon as you go off point and start talking about how Bush was not elected or how slavery was wrong or transgender lesbian cat lovers don’t have enought rights, even if your right, people will stop listening.

While I have a deep sense of unease about the war in Iraq on a day to day and hour by hour basis, the scariest thing on my mind is what will happen after this war. If the diplomacy leading up to this is any indication of what it will be like, I fear that my country will alienate the rest of the world and suffer sever forms of backlash in the muslim world and even in the countries of long time alies everywhere.

Well after a little mouth pain (Which I hate very much) I am better. It’s been a hum drum week, just getting some work done and working on a song that my friend Jon wrote.

War is lookin pretty weird on TV. Turmoil in the streets, bombs on TV, Shock and Awe. These are definately weird times.

Well after a nice time at the dentist I have a cold. Now I don’t think the two are related but damn why do they have to come one right after the other. Now my mouth hurts and I nose is all fucked up.

My family decided to have a flamathon late last week that even got my Dad involved. My family is I guess a little opinionated about politics. Spent the weekend building a shelf for music gear and making my music studio a little more habitable. Went to the beach on sunday to fly kites with Alanna, my sis, Oona. A little bit of movie watchin as well as some good cookin. I love weekends like that.

“Why, of course people don’t want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece?

Naturally the common people don’t want war: neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship.

Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”

Day starts with movies over at ATA. A lame movie about a struggling punk band called “Range Life”. (Dir. Robert Trondson) While the movie looked good on film, it was sorely lacking in script and plot. Who has ever heard of a punk band, touring and putting out their own records that is not DIY? Major wholes. Yawn…. The next couple of shorts from Norway were great.(Gunnar Knutsen) 1-2-3- Forever and City City Bang Bang are great little twisted bits of fun.

The Pixies ( Gouge ) movie was great. Although what I realized later was that the entire movie does not contain one interview with Kim Deal… This seemed strange since out of all of them she came out of that band and actually did great stuff post-pixies. Not to say that Frank Black wasn’t great but “Pod” goes in my CD player alot more than “Los Angeles”.

Back at Bimbos for another night of fun. Colexico, Nicolai Dunger, Firecracker, Fujimoto. I liked Fujimoto. I thought that the harmonies were great along with the guitar playing, what I could have done without was the war rant about the middle east. I’m against the war like just about everybody in this town, but let your songs speak for themselves. Preaching to the choir gets kinda annoying, at least for the choir. Firecracker was a full out country band right from the Nashville song book. Little hint for you folks. Just because your shirt is not tucked in doesn’t mean that you are “Alterna Country” (What ever that means). These guys could have come right off the stage of the Country Music Awards. CCC (Cookie Cutter Country). Out of all of the bands I thought that Colexico had the most going for them and I would like to hear a record of theirs. What I will not do is spend $16 on a record at a show… If you are putting out your own records (ie. taking all the profits of sales) they need to be priced well at the shows. So I will wait til I find them in the used bin to check them out.

Day 4 of the noise pop marathon was a boring night at Slims with Junior Panthers, Whysail Lane, Creeper Lagoon and Imperial Teen. No surpises. That was my mantra of the night. All bands were good, but that is it. They could all play well.. well maybe most could play well 😉 . It just seemed that the whole night was phoned in from the “I’m so alterna Phone booth”. Just because you learned some power cords, ripped off some Breeders records and wear a Girl Scout t-short with horn rimmed glasses doesn’t mean your good.

How about a little punk? Would it kill you?

So for our 3rd night at Noise Pop we went to the Bimbos show with Camper Van Beethoven, Stratford 4, Built Like Alaska, and Hockey Night. It could have been Jesus, Muhammend and Buddha as the other people on the bill and I still would have been there for Camper Van. Having turned 21 after they broke up, I never got to see them in a club so this was a great treat for me. I was amazed at the breadth of their talent over those records. It just seem that alot of bands these days don’t have that much more going on than 3 cords and a little hip shake.

“Negative begets negative. Positive begets positive. War begets war, peace begets peace, Britney begets Christina begets N’Sync begets People magazine begets “Joe Millionaire” begets 10 million Prozac prescriptions begets a billion dumbed-down mind-sets, embittered souls. In a nutshell.”

Momford at sfgate.com

Wednesdays show at Bottom of the Hill was much awaited so that Alanna could get a Librarians record and we could see them go crazy.

The big story for me was The Rattlesnakes. This pure destruction and loving every minute of it. I have no idea what “The Pattern” was about. Here is a tip for them “Lose the cutsie attitude and make with the power cords”. As for “Dead Moon”, I don’t care if they invented the electric guitar ( which I think Les Paul did ) The Rattlesnakes wiped the floor with them. A good time was had by all and we came away with some new CDs.