What I’m going to do is post the video for the original song even though you would have had to have been living under a rock for the past year not to have heard it.  Then I’m going to post the 5 best covers that I’ve come across on YouTube.  I’ll even make it a little interactive by including a poll at the end to let you vote on your favorite cover.  If there’s someone you think I missed, feel free to include a link to their video in the comment section.  You can also make suggestions in the comments for other songs you want to see covers for.

So, first up, the original.  (BTW – I can’t thank this song enough for introducing me to Kimbra, the female vocalist.  Seriously, check her out.)

Cover #1 - Walk Off The Earth – This is almost as popular as the original.  The 5 people/1 guitar thing kicks ass also.

Cover #2 – Pentatonix – Randomly clicked on this video today.  It’s the one that gave me the whole idea for this post.  Found out that they competed on “Sing Off” which I did not even know existed.  I especially like the way the camera bounces with them for the breakdown.

Cover #3 – ARMY of 3 – This is a side project of singer/songwriter Ingrid Michaelson.  I don’t know who the other two people are since she’s the only one in the video and it looks like she plays all the instruments.

Cover #4 – Rita Ora – Don’t really know who she is.  It looks like she’s popular in the UK.  I really like her voice and she does good covers.  Sorry there’s no actual video footage but I think her version deserves to be here anyway.  I like the soulful spin she puts on it.

Cover #5 – Peter Hollens feat. Evynne – Another strictly YouTube find.  Great use of looper.  Great editing of video.  Real professional video for someone I’ve never heard of before.

So so now’s the time you all tell me which one you liked best.  Here’s the poll:

Lower house results after 2010 elections (Red=Republican, Blue=Democratic). From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_party_strength_in_U.S._states

Upper house results after 2010 elections (Red=Republican, Blue=Democratic). From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_party_strength_in_U.S._states

One of the most infamous legislative trends to come out of this has come to be known as the Voter ID laws.  These are proposed (and in some cases passed) laws that are carefully crafted to disenfranchise the traditional Democratic Party base (minorities, poor people, new immigrants, young adults) by requiring forms of ID that were going to be difficult to acquire before this year’s election.  A great history of this process can be found in this Alternet article.

Tuesday, through the haze of my daily nap, I heard a Rachel Maddow (clip here) piece on the financial problems of many state Republican parties and how independent conservatives groups like Karl Rove’s Crossroads and the RNCC are going to have to bail many of them out.

It’s then that it clicked.  We progressives had been giving the right-wing too much credit.  It’s not ideological with Republicans.  As always seems to be the case, it’s financial.  Donations are down.  State party organization, as pathetically evidenced in Nevada is becoming non-existent.  The ability to push their party platform in the traditional marketplace of ideals is shrinking.  So what do they do?

They do two things.  The first is accept money from better organized and better funded independent groups that force them to move their agenda farther and farther to the right and farther away from the vast majority of the American people.  The second is to create laws that give them an unfair advantage in the election process.  When Voter ID bills are grouped with other tactics like dubious electronic voting, purging of voter rolls, district gerrymandering, and felony disenfranchisement laws, well the Republicans may not have to actually campaign for generations.

Am I too off base here?

Riding around with my sister yesterday, I happened to turn to NPR and “This American Life” was on. It was on it’s last story of a cop in the NYPD who refused to manipulate charges to boost and/or lower numbers for the crime statistics. Being the type of person he is, he starts recording everything. Very damaging. When the top brass figures out what he’s doing, they have him committed to a psychiatric ward against his will.

This is something that I think everyone should listen to. My aversion to uniformed “law enforcement” officers tends to bend toward the rant end of the spectrum so when something so coherent and apparent comes up (i.e. police brutality videos) comes up, I like to make it available to as wide an audience as possible. I try to post it here, I post it to facebook and email it to friends.

Why? Because the role of the police in our community needs to be trained. Their disdain for our basic human rights has become so ingrained into police culture that nothing short of radical reorganization is needed.

Do you agree?  Disagree?  Use the comments to state your position.

Who represents you? You do! Occupy Wall Street September 17, 2011 12pm

A number of organizations have gotten together and decided that it was time to send a really powerful message a la Arab Spring.  They want corporate money out of government and they want to stop preferential treatment of corporations and the rich at the expense of every other American.  So they are hoping to get 20,000 people to camp out on Wall Street for at least 2 months.  Rapper Lupe Fiasco has even donated 50 tents toward the cause.  Please visit www.occupywallst.org to get the full story and find out ways you can help even if you can’t participate.  Since I’m not working, I really want to participate in this but sleeping on the streets of New York really gets in the way of dialysis 3x/week.  So I’m using this post to get the word out.

Now that I think about it, I don’t want to stop with just this action.  Mainstream media routinely ignored direct actions and protests that have happened all over the country this past year including the Keystone Protests in DC where 1200 people were arrested (including the head of NASA and actress Darryl Hannah).  If you are planning direct actions and protests anywhere in the country and would like to get the word out, please email me at swan_diver@hotmail.com and I will post it on my blog.  My hope is that those posts would serve as a resource for both activists looking for ways to make a difference and journalists who are looking for protests to cover.  I feel really excited about this.

EDIT September 18, 2011 – Just saw on TruthOut that the protests are being Livestreamed.  Will try to embed it below.  If it doesn’t work, you can watch it here.

Many people think that this is just a natural progression for a media giant who employs black people and gives us a presence that has been dwindling over the past decade.  Others feel that the images he puts out for mainstream consumption are doing black people a disservice and maybe he shouldn’t have a larger format to continue this.

So let’s speak plainly.  Tyler Perry makes shit.  But that’s okay.  Why?  Because the fact that we can have a Tyler Perry means that we have reached a place in American society where we no longer feel that any media representation we produce must be our best face.  The vast majority of American media is vapid bullshit.  The visual and audio equivelant to a Krispy Kreme double bacon cheeseburger and it seems to be getting worse every year.  And while it is a twisted sort of progress, the fact that we are participating in the production of that vapid bullshit is progress.  No other group in this country requires it’s media makers to always think of the “good of the community” when producing.  If that was the case, the makers of Jackass would have been thrown out a long time ago.  In modern American media there is only one judge and that is money.  Tyler Perry makes a lot of it.

Yes, we still have a problem with stereotypes.  Yes, we still have a problem with our lack of visibility in mainstream media.  However, we are in luck because technology has flattened the media landscape.  No longer do we need to head to LA or NY to make media.  No longer do we have to beg large studio executives to greenlight our projects.  No longer do we need massive funding to tell our stories.  For $10,000, the price of a good used car, we can set up a media presence that is global.

So maybe, instead of gnashing our teeth over one guy just doing his thing, we open the doors and make it possible for everyone to get their voice out there and let the best rise to the top.

But I’m broke.  That is the excuse I used for years when the pledge drives came on my favorite NPR stations.  When my favorite podcasts ask for money, in my mind I always make a note to give when I have the extra funds.  I ease my guilty feelings of being an information leech by stressing my good intentions.  Independent media has to ask for money a lot.

Then GritTV, a great progressive news source, announced that it would have to abandon it’s daily format and rework itself into a monthly, hour-long program that they are urging us to lobby our public TV stations to pick up.  Other outlets can’t grow and expand because of lack of funds.  Given the horrible choices out there that calls itself news, I have decided to find a way to help out these independent sources given my meager resources.  I have decided to carve out $10/month to give to a variety of news sources.  This post is to encourage you to do the same.  While my list may not be the same as yours, I would hope that enough people care about actually getting facts with their news that it actually makes a difference.  Below is my list for the year starting January 2012.

1. Local Public Radio Station – I’m lucky in that I have at least three to choose from.  WFCR/WNNZ is the one I listen to the most.  Though it’s hard because WNNZ which has all of the talk is an AM station that I can’t get on most of my radios so I have to listen online.  WFCR must get a lot of money from classical music lovers that that’s what plays all day.  WAMC out of Albany, NY must be the best public radio station I’ve ever come across when it comes to local, informative programming.
2. Local Public Television Station – Sometimes they may have a minimum contribution that is more than $10.  Check and see.  Also, they are constantly looking for less expensive programming than what is offered by the CPB.  Feel free to lobby them to include shows like Democracy Now and GritTV to their lineup.
3. Democracy Now – Speaking of “Democracy Now”.  It is probally the best show to watch/listen to if you want your news unfiltered through corporate media and government propaganda.  It deserves a much more prominent place on the American media landscape.
4. Citizen Radio - If you want a hilarious, informative, accessible way to begin learning about progressive politics, this is the podcast for you.  Their tagline:  “Like CNN but with swearing” is dead-on.  If you can make it through their 20 minute douchebag buffer, then this is the thing for you.  Great for teens.
5. Black Agenda Report - Sadly, the state of 90% of black media has devolved into little more than consumerist puke and profiles of personality cults.  Black Agenda Report does it’s best to analyze and inform us about real issues affecting the lives of the vast majority of African-Americans.
6. AlterNet – Another great resource to get facts and information on a variety of issues affecting the country and the world.  Like “Democracy Now”, it’s one of the best resources for a well-rounded education.

This is just a partial list of the best stuff.  If there is something I’ve missed, please leave a link in a comment.  Remember, we are looking for news oulets, not (just) propaganda.

Just please leave a quick comment, rate the post or share it on your facebook.  If you like what I say, great.  If you think I’m full of shit, say it.

Ms. Chin did not disappoint.  Readings of both book excerpts and poems were engrossing and powerful (look at video below of the scathing piece she did for the Gay Games she read that night).  Their rawness and honesty left an impression on the audience that was tangible and indelible.  For me though, it was her between-piece banter that made the night.  With the first proclamation of her gray pubic hairs, I felt us collectively ease into a safe space after a spate of nervous laughter.  Throughout the night, in tune with her own sense of openness,  the audience would raise their hand to admit they were in therapy or let out a knowing laugh at a Hitachi Magic Wand reference.

At the end, even though I had bought her book, “The Other Side of Paradise” the week it came out, I couldn’t find it packed away in boxes after the move so used my gas money for the week to buy another copy for her to sign.  When it was my turn at the table, instead of the pithy comment I had rehearsing the whole time making reference to her insomnia that I had read about on facebook, I blathered something about bumping into her at NYC Pride a few years ago and how she inspires me.  Complete fangirl bullshit.

And then I went home and thought and wrote and thought and wrote to work through some shit going down in my life right now.

One thing kept popping up though.  Some things she said, especially in reference to sex, seem like they were pulled right from my head.  I felt the same way.  I wonder if it was my 390lb frame proclaiming my horniness and flirting with baby dykes would it be seen as such a tantalizing, transgressive, sexiness?

And Staceyann Chin is amazingly sexy.  She exudes a sensuality that can only come from a woman fundamentally in sync with herself.  While watching her on stage, it was hard not to imagine what she tasted like or what she would smell like if I buried my nose into the curve of her neck.  If I thought she was even halfway serious about her offers that night or if I thought she would have even looked at me twice, I would have jumped at the chance.

As powerful as she is (and the following is no slight to her in the least), I have come to learn that it’s very easy to talk about the power of the pussy when there’s a line of people wanting to fuck it.  I have spent most of my adult life reading and writing, processing and keeping up with the world.  If only given a chance, I feel that I could have made amazing contributions.  But I have been deemed unfuckable so I have to watch time and time again as opportunites get passed to the less talented, the less dedicated, the less qualified.

This should come as no surprise.  Even the marketplace of ideas is still a marketplace and packaging matters.  Does this make me feel better?  No.  I’m just getting tired now and the fight is leaving me and I feel like I’m just going through the motions.