In The City That Care Forgot

I have no trust in religion of any kind to heal or to make progress, unless it is that of the orishas, a paganism. My faith is in art. Art of music, dance, performance, physical dimensionality is part and parcel of pagan religions.

Listen to Dr. John's newest release: The City That Care Forgot. He's furious, and he (and his collaborators, like Willie Nelson) tell the truth, unvarnished, all of it radiating out from Dr. John's Yat enunciation. I challenge anyone to listen to "Dream Warrior" and not understand that he is where were are, and Obama and all the politicans and all the religious 'leaders' are so far away from it, it's sick-making. He tells you this too.

Oh yes, the power of art to bring people together, to create public commons space. Religion doesn't do that, and neither does politics, particularly now when you cannot even protest within sight of of the object(s) of your objection, but must be incarcerated in a "Free to Protest Cage" (which they are busy building in Denver in preparation for the Democratic bigCON).

See this from today's UK Guardain:[ In January 1942, during the darkest days of the Blitz when the National Gallery's pictures were secretly buried in countryside drops, a letter appeared in the Times. 'Because London's face is scarred and bruised these days, we need more than ever to see beautiful things,' the correspondent wrote. 'I would welcome the opportunity of seeing a few of the hundreds of the nation's masterpieces now stored in a safe place. I know the risk, but I believe it would be worth it.'

And so an Old Master a month came to the National, and so too did the British public. Trafalgar Square became a place of refuge and mutual belonging as the bombs dropped. Similarly, in the aftermath of 9/11, tens of thousands of New Yorkers made their way to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to seek a reflective place and shared space.... ]

As Dr. John tells us in "Promises, Promises":

[ Promises, promises, empty words
The road to the White House is paved with lies. ]

Goddessas! What a GREAT album this is. I've been listening to it for almost two months, and it just reveals more every week.

The City That Care Forgot is just about the only comfort right now, in the face of this blatant two-faced turnaround that O did to us. He doesn't even possess the bare respect for us as voters to even pretend there is any validity to objections to this mingling of church and state, to his mangling of the Constitution when it comes to privacy and corporate and government spying, on arming every goddamned tomdick&harry who needs to wave a gun since nobody pays attention to his dick, or that he won't pander to the corporatist overlords everytime they say jump.