Martin Luther King Celebration
LUSK ANNUAL MUSIC PARTY
On Saturday, January 27, 2007 the Lusk family will have our Annual Mid-Winter Folk Music Party at 61 Wurts Street, Kingston, New York. It starts at 6:00 p.m. and runs until people leave, which is usually pretty late.
All kinds of music and musicians are welcome, but no amplifiers please. Usually there is a healthy mix between folk singing, fiddle music, blues and bluegrass, with several different jamming spaces available, so people can find their niche, or float from one to the other. It's not a big food party, (it's a music party!) but we have the basics - you won't go hungry - and you can bring a dish to share if you wish. Also, this is an open party, so feel free to spread the word.
No illegal drugs please, although moderate alcohol use is fine. All smoking must take place outside, (preferably down the block, over the river and through the woods.)
Directions are at the end of this e-mail. Any questions please call (845) 338-8587, but no rsvp is necessary. If you call the night of the party we may have trouble hearing the phone!
Thanks,
Bob, Penny and Roberto Lusk
61 Wurts Street
Kingston, NY 12401
(914)338-8587
boblusk@hvc.rr.com
Party Directions
From the South: Take 9W north past the Poughkeepsie bridge. Keep on going. You will go through Highland, a turnoff for 299, Esopus, then Port Ewan. At the end of Port Ewan there is Laundromat on your left at the rear of a large parking lot. There will be a turnoff after this to the left that goes into Kingston. You will go over a small bridge. Go straight and you will be on Wurts Street. Go to the top of the hill and park opposite the park near the corner of Spring St. The house will be lit up. If you miss the turnoff in Port Ewan, you wind up going over a larger bridge on a more major highway. Make your first left turn and go straight 2 blocks up the hill. This will put you at the corner of Wurts and Spring St. (Be careful driving across Wurts Street if you come this way). Look for parking. The house will be lit up with lights and spirit.
From the NYS Thruway: Get off at the Kingston exit. Go around the traffic Circle to the 3rd exit (it is the 2nd exit that says "Kingston"). This is Chandler Drive. Follow it to the end (about 1/4 mile) At the light cross over and bear left. You will be on Broadway. Take Broadway all the way through Kingston. You will pass the High School, Kingston Hospital. Shortly after you pass Burger King and the road bears around and down to the right. At the bottom there is a light. Broadway makes a sharp 90 degree left turn. Don't make that turn. Go straight one more block and make a left. You will be on Wurts Street. Go about 2 blocks to the corner of Spring street and look for parking. The house will be all lit up.
Steve Suffet: Shameless Self-Promotion!
I don't promote very many people's CD's especially if I haven't heard them myself, but Steve and I go way back and he is, in fact, as he says, an "old fashioned folk singer". Worth checking out, I'm sure. - Bob
Greetings,
As the subject line warns, this message is an act completely shameless self-promotion. If you find that to be a problem, read no further. Just hit the delete button.
If you are still with me, then here's what it's all about. My new CD, "I've Been Up On the Mountain," is now available for purchase on-line through CD Baby. Here's a link:
http://cdbaby.com/cd/stevesuffet2
Of the eighteen songs, four are ones that I wrote by myself in traditional style, one I wrote in collaboration with Joel Landy, and another I wrote with some help from Anne Price. One is a little known Woody Guthrie song , and another is by Utah Phillips. The remaining ten songs are all my arrangements of traditional folk songs. You will find among them quite a variety of genres, styles, themes, and moods.
I was blessed to have some truly fine musicians work with me on this CD. They are Jody Kolodzey, Ray Korona, Joel Landy, Chris Lang, Heather Lev, Eric Levine, Bruce Markow, Anne Price, Gina Tlamsa. I hesitate to call these folks "back-up musicians," for "I've Been Up On the Mountain" is truly a collaborative product. You are welcome to listen to sound clips from any or all of the songs. But if that is not enough to convince you, you can download five complete songs from the CD for free from my music site, or you can listen to them on-line as streaming audio. They are the first five songs at the top of this page:
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/1/stevesuffet_music.htm
I know some folks will tell me that giving away so many freebies means I have lousy business sense, but you can prove me wrong by buying the CD.
Oh, one more thing. Just in case you missed it, CD Baby also carries my first CD, "Now the Wheel Has Turned." Here's a link:
http://cdbaby.com/cd/stevesuffet
If you would rather buy either or both of my CDs directly from me, you will have to do so in person. Otherwise, I'm very happy to let CD Baby deal with the order taking, billing, shipping, and tracking while I concentrate on making music. I will, nevertheless, make these two exceptions:
1. If you are a member of People's Music Network, the Peoples' Voice Cafe, or AFM Local 1000, you can order either CD from me for just $13 each or both for $25, postpaid to anywhere in the USA. You don't even have to pay me in advance. Just submit your order to my by e-mail, include your postal mailing address, and send me a check when the package arrives.
2. If you would like to buy 5 or more CDs at one time, please contact me and we will work out a discount based upon how many you want. My phone number is 718-786-1533.
Kindest regards for a healthy holiday season and a happy New Year.
--- Steve Suffet
Old Fashioned Folksinger
Website: http://suffet.home.att.net
Music website: http://www.soundclick.com/bands/1/stevesuffet_music.htm
E-mail link: mailto:suffet@att.net
Phil Ochs lyric: 'No Christmas in Kentucky', etc
Here is a note from John Pietaro of "Flames of Discontent"
Friends,
Though we are taught differently, the holiday season usually finds us doing very little reflecting on loved ones or spiritual concerns. We may think of the poor, but we usually move on quckly enough to thoughts of our hurting check-books. Few of us remember to sign up to work in a soup kitchen or to help with gift-wrapping at local charitable organizations. God knows, I always mean to. I envy those among you who insist on ONLY celebrating the Winter Solstice,for the holidays really have become deeply commercial. Yeah.
I guess being a full-time activist also implies working overtime around this time of year, but its just so hard to get it all in. So, we run around and buy the gifts we need--those we meant to get weeks before. The presents for the folks we'll be seeing at Christmas or Chanukah or Kwanzaa or New Year's Day. Then don't forget to buy the bottle of wine or the holiday cake. But--wait--you almost forgot to hang the twinkly lights around the doorway! I squeeked by and actually did so only a week ago). There's so much to do. So what was this holiday time really all about?
One of the things that keeps it all in perspective for me is a song by Phil Ochs. Each year when we perform for a Phil Ochs birthday tribute (as we did this Dec 16 in Woodstock), the following song is a must. It is a little-known piece that never actually appeared on any of his regularly released albums. He wrote it long ago, while traveling throughout Harlan County, Kentucky during one of the harshest labor struggles of the past
fifty years. Though the miners in "Bloody Harlan" had actually become organized years prior, there were always renewed fights as well as terrible oppression. The early 1960s saw a resurgence among the miners who were fighting for safe working conditions, decent pay, and benefits. Strikes and other labor actions saw many of the workers being locked out and as the months wore on, Kentucky became a battleground.
The life-long Labor activist and member of the IWW, Phil Ochs, traveled to Harlan County during the holiday season of 1962. He met with the miners, sang with them on picket lines, sat with them in cold makeshift union halls, joined them in pot-luck dinners and stood with them as they braved corrupt deputy sheriffs with dogs and loaded rifles. Ochs proved his worth as not only a topical singer, but a die-hard radical. He became one with the miners and they offered him the chance to write some of his great early works including "Harlan, Kentucky" and the lyric which follows - "No Christmas in Kentucky". The latter offers us a lesson not only of history, but of all time. Please read this over as you contemplate the next holiday party or gift purchase. It is not intended to sadden you during the holidays, as far as i can see. But it will make you think and consider the issues in your life that actually DO matter.
Please enjoy and pass this on to others.
In Solidarity...and Peace,
John Pietaro
www.flamesofdiscontent.org
________________________
"No Christmas in Kentucky"
By Phil Ochs
G C
Christmas shoppers shopping on a neon city street
D C G
Another Christmas dollar for another Christmas treat
G C
There's satin on the pretty dolls that make the children glow
D C G
While a boy walking ragged in the cold Kentucky snow
G C G
No, they don't have Christmas in Kentucky
C D
There's no holly on a West Virginia door
G C G
For the trees don't twinkle when you're hungry
C D G
And the Jingle Bells don't jingle when you're poor
There's lots of toys for children when then Christmas time is near
But the present for the miners is a stocking full of beer
In the dark hills of Kentucky there's one gift that may be found
The coal dust of forgotten days that's lying on the ground
No, they don't have Christmas in Kentucky
There's no holly on a West Virginia door
For the trees don't twinkle when you're hungry
And the Jingle Bells don't jingle when you're poor
Let's drink a toast to Congress and a toast to Santa Claus
and a toast to all the speeches that bring the loud applause
There's not enough to give, no, there's not enough to share
So let's drown the sounds of sorrow with a hearty Christmas cheer
No, they don't have Christmas in Kentucky
There's no holly on a West Virginia door
For the trees don't twinkle when you're hungry
And the Jingle Bells don't jingle when you're poor
Have a merry, merry Christmas and a happy new year's day
For now's a time of plenty, and plenty's here to stay
But if you knew what Christmas was, I think that you would find
That Christ is spending Christmas in the cold Kentucky mine
No, they don't have Christmas in Kentucky
There's no holly on a West Virginia door
For the trees don't twinkle when you're hungry
And the Jingle Bells don't jingle when you're poor
Notes:
From the Remembering Phil Ochs website
Chords supplied by James Barnett
Happy Blessed Holidays - THE TRADITIONAL MUSICIAN'S PRAYER
(with apologies to St Francis)
Lord, keep always before me
The appreciation of music as one of Your greatest gifts.
Never let me stray far from the tune;
Help me to remain faithful to the spirits
Of those musicians who have gone before
Leaving this lovely legacy in my care.
Lord, let me always remember
What Your Golden Rule instructs
So that I treat other musicians
As I would wish to be treated myself.
Lord, let me always remember
That You give Irish musicians a special gift:
The opportunity to praise and glorify You
While sitting around playing jigs and reels
In dark pubs, on cruise ships,
In kitchens, on concert stages.
Lord, give me patience always
And help me to remember
That the word "tradition"
Implies sharing.
Lord, give me tolerance always
And help me to appreciate
The Great Mystery:
Not everybody likes what I like.
Never let me slip too far into self-importance
And help me use as necessary
Whatever sense of humor
You may have imparted to me.
Lord, let me never forget
That I don't have all the answers
And that there's nobody
That I can't learn from
(Even bodhrán and banjo players)
And finally, Lord - if it's not too much to ask -
Make me competent first
Then respected
And eventually brilliant.
(But Your will always be done.)
Amen.
- Bill Black
Anti-House Concert Blog
Caroling in the Neighborhood
First was Herman & Andy's, who had fancy drinks and tequila meatballs. Then upstairs to Amanda & Amy's Church Penthouse for "White Christmases". Peter came in playing the accordian, so we wound our way around the corner to His and Julies wonderful space where we had more to drink and Peter sat down at his grand piano and led us through some more carols.
Then it was home sweet home at 61 Wurts street where Penny made Irish Coffees in the kitchen and I played with Peter in the diningn room while drinking egg nog that Penny had made from my mother's old recipe. Then it was roll down the block to Paul and Ingrid's church where, Peter played the organ, I played fiddle and several great singers sang with us.
On our way out we each got to pull the rope and ring out the church bells across the valley. Penny and I abandoned the group as they continued down to The Bridgewater Bar on Abeel Street.
All in all a wonderful evening of Christmas song and cheer!
Peace Symbol
DENVER, Nov. 28 — Peace is fighting back in Pagosa Springs.
Last week, a couple were threatened with fines of $25 a day by their homeowners’ association unless they removed a four-foot wreath shaped like a peace symbol from the front of their house.
The fines have been dropped, and the three-member board of the association has resigned, according to an e-mail message sent to residents on Monday.
Two board members have disconnected their telephones, apparently to escape the waves of callers asking what the board could have been thinking, residents said. The third board member, with a working phone, did not return a call for comment.
In its original letter to the couple, Lisa Jensen and Bill Trimarco, the association said some neighbors had found the peace symbol politically “divisive.”
A board member later told a newspaper that he thought the familiar circle with angled lines was also, perhaps, a sign of the devil.
The peace symbol came to prominence in the late 1950s as the logo for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, a British antiwar group, according to the group’s Web site. It incorporates the semaphore flag images for the letters in the group’s name, a “D” atop an “N.”
Other people have said the upright line with arms angled down, commonplace in the United States in the Vietnam War, especially, has roots in the early Christian era, representing a twisted or broken cross.
Mr. Trimarco said he put up the wreath as a general symbol of peace on earth, not as a commentary on the Iraq war or another political statement.
In any case, there are now more peace symbols in Pagosa Springs, a town of 1,700 people 200 miles southwest of Denver, than probably ever in its history.
On Tuesday morning, 20 people marched through the center carrying peace signs and then stomped a giant peace sign in the snow perhaps 300 feet across on a soccer field, where it could be easily seen.
“There’s quite a few now in our subdivision in a show of support,” Mr. Trimarco said.
A former president of the Loma Linda community, where Mr. Trimarco lives, said Tuesday that he had stepped in to help form an interim homeowners’ association.
The former president, Farrell C. Trask, described himself in a telephone interview as a military veteran who would fight for anyone’s right to free speech, peace symbols included.
Town Manager Mark Garcia said Pagosa Springs was building its own peace wreath, too. Mr. Garcia said it would be finished by late Tuesday and installed on a bell tower in the center of town.
Amy Fradon this Saturday
http://www.airstudiogallery.com/
2nd Saturdays @ AIR: Live Music, 8-11PM
Gallery hours: Stop by anytime you're in town or, call ahead, we live here! Just one block off Broadway on the corner of O'Neil St & Tremper Ave, in Midtown Kingston. Across from Boices Milk House, one block North from where Rt32 & Henry St meets Broadway. Member of the Ulster County Arts Council ( http://www.ulstercountyartscouncil.org/ ) & the Arts Society of Kingston ( http://www.askforarts.org/ ). Help make the world a more beautiful place, support the arts!
Taps
From: George Armstrong
If any of you have ever been to a military funeral in which taps were played; this brings out a new meaning of it. Here is something Every American should know.. Until I read this, I didn't know, but I checked it out and it's true:
We in the United States have all heard the haunting song, "Taps". It's the song that gives us that lump in our throats and usually tears in our eyes. But, do you know the story behind the song? If not, I think you will be interested to find out about its humble beginnings.
Reportedly, it all began in 1862 during the Civil War, when Union Army Captain Robert Ellicombe was with his men near Harrison's Landing in Virginia. The Confederate Army was on the other side of the narrow strip of land.
During the night, Captain Ellicombe heard the moans of a soldier who lay severely wounded on the field. Not knowing if it was a Union or Confederate soldier, the Captain decided to risk his life and bring the stricken man back for medical attention. Crawling on his stomach through the gunfire, the Captain reached the stricken soldier and began pulling him toward his encampment. When the Captain finally reached his own lines, he discovered it was actually a Confederate soldier, but the soldier was dead.
The Captain lit a lantern and suddenly caught his breath and went numb with shock. In the dim light, he saw the face of the soldier. It was his own son. The boy had been studying music in the South when the war broke out. Without telling his father, the boy enlisted in the Confederate Army.
The following morning, heartbroken, the father asked permission of his superiors to give his son a full military burial, despite his enemy status. His request was only partially granted.
The Captain had asked if he could have a group of Army band members play a funeral dirge for his son at the funeral. The request was turned down since the soldier was a Confederate. But, out of respect for the father, they did say they could give him only one musician. The Captain chose a bugler. He asked the bugler to play a series of musical notes he had found on a piece of paper in the pocket of the dead youth's uniform. This wish was granted. The haunting melody, we now know as "Taps" used at military funerals was born.
The words are
Day is done ... Gone the sun
From the lakes ...From the hills ....
From the sky .. All is well .
Safely rest .. God is nigh.
Fading light .. Dims the sight ..
And a star ... Gems the sky
Gleaming bright From afar ....
Drawing nigh . Falls the night.
Thanks and praise ... For our days .
Neath the sun ... Neath the stars...
Neath the sky . As we go .
This we know .. God is nigh.
I, too, have felt the chills while listening to "Taps" but I have never seen all the words to the song until now. I didn't even know there was more than one verse. I also never knew the story behind the song and I didn't know if you had either so I thought I'd pass it along.
I now have an even deeper respect for the song than I did before.
Remember Those Lost and Harmed While Serving Their Country.
And also those presently serving in the Armed Forces.
Ahhh!, It's the Tax Man!
***************************************
What Happened???
At first I thought this was funny...then I realized the awful truth of it. Be sure to read all the way to the end!
Tax his land,
Tax his bed,
Tax the table
At which he's fed.
Tax his tractor,
Tax his mule,
Teach him taxes
Are the rule.
Tax his cow,
Tax his goat,
Tax his pants,
Tax his coat.
Tax his ties,
Tax his shirt,
Tax his work,
Tax his dirt.
Tax his tobacco,
Tax his drink,
Tax him if he
Tries to think.
Tax his cigars,
Tax his beers,
If he cries, then
Tax his tears.
Tax his car,
Tax his gas,
Find other ways
To tax his ass
Tax all he has
Then let him know
That you won't be done
Till he has no dough.
When he screams and hollers,
Then tax him some more,
Tax him till
He's good and sore.
Then tax his coffin,
Tax his grave,
Tax the sod in
Which he's laid.
Put these words
upon his tomb,
"Taxes drove me
to my doom..."
When he's gone,
Do not relax,
Its time to apply
The inheritance tax.
Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit Tax
CDL license Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Dog License Tax
Federal Income Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax,
Fuel permit tax
Gasoline Tax (42 cents per gallon)
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax
Interest expense
Inventory tax
IRS Interest Charges IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Luxury Taxes
Marriage License Tax
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Service charge taxes
Social Security Tax
Road usage taxes
Sales Tax
Recreational Vehicle Tax
School Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Telephone federal excise tax
Telephone federal universal service fee tax
Telephone federal, state and local surcharge taxes
Telephone minimum usage surcharge tax
Telephone recurring and non-recurring charges tax
Telephone state and local tax
Telephone usage charge tax
Utility Taxes
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax
COMMENTS: Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago,
and our nation was the most prosperous in the world.
We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.
What happened?
Updating
