Teaching her early

Izzy Figurehead, who is 3 years old, has always loved “silly songs” while we’re riding in the car or just bumming around the house. Her silly songs are normally Jimmy Buffett or Jack Johnson tunes. Lately though she’s been asking for what she calls “sweet songs”.

 In the last couple of weeks I’ve discovered that Izzy can sing every word of Bob Marley’s “One Love” and Ben Harpers “Better Way”. I’m a proud papa. She’ll know the cultural importance of what those songs mean before you know it. Hearing her singing “One Love” actually brought tears to my eyes.

Bob Marley - One Love

One Love!
One Heart!
Let’s get together and feel all right.
Hear the children cryin’
(One Love!);
Hear the children cryin’
(One Heart!),
Sayin’: give thanks and praise
to the Lord and I will feel all right;
Sayin’: let’s get together
and feel all right.
Wo wo-wo wo-wo!

Let them all pass all their dirty
remarks (One Love!);
There is one question
I’d really love to ask (One Heart!):
Is there a place for the hopeless sinner,
Who has hurt all mankind just
to save his own beliefs?

One Love! What about the one heart?
One Heart!
What about?
Let’s get together and feel all right
As it was in the beginning
(One Love!);
So shall it be in the end
(One Heart!),
All right!
Give thanks and praise to the Lord
and I will feel all right;
Let’s get together
and feel all right.
One more thing!

Let’s get together to fight
this Holy Armagiddyon (One Love!),
So when the Man comes there will be no,
no doom (One Song!).
Have pity on those whose
chances grows t’inner;
There ain’t no hiding place
from the Father of Creation.

Sayin’: One Love!
What about the One Heart?
(One Heart!)
What about the?
Let’s get together and feel all right.
I’m pleadin’ to mankind!
(One Love!);
Oh, Lord!
(One Heart)
Wo-ooh!

Give thanks and praise to the Lord
and I will feel all right;
Let’s get together and feel all right.
Give thanks and praise to the Lord
and I will feel all right;
Let’s get together and feel all right.

The Children of Northern Uganda: We Know Their Names

www.namecampaign.com
See also: Invisible Children

These children are terrorized by Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Northern Uganda, South Sudan, and DR Congo. Everynight, thousands of children walk long distances to large cities or villages to sleep in the relative safety of one anothers presence. They pack into small structures or onto the streets and sleep basically on top of one another.

Think back to your own childhood - the innocence and ease of being a boy or girl growing up in suburban America. The children of Uganda, like the children of Sierra Leone before them, know only fear - or worse, what it’s like to kill another child as a soldier in a war you don’t understand or be raped.

You can pretend you never read this…or you can do something.

Arcade Fire + Once Upon a Time in the West

 Check out this fan video that blends Arcade Fire’s “My Body is a Cage” with key scenes from the old western Once Upon a Time in the West. Sweet revenge!

Old guys rock: Dinosaur Jr.

Wow, do they ever look old? J. Mascis, Lou Barlow, and Murph still rock harder than most of these young pups today though. Here’s a vid from the new album Beyond.

I first saw Dinosaur Jr. back in 1991 (or ‘92) touring in support of their Green Mind album. After a long hot day in the Lollapalooza Sun I thought my ears were bleeding as J. shredded that guitar into the night. Great memories! Great band.

Save Darfur

www.savedarfur.org