Benn Jordan

Firstly, I do not claim to be an expert on Ugandan politics. I would think that even the most connected Central-Africans would have trouble being up to date on the rapidly changing politics of the region. About 10 years ago, I began gaining interest in African politics after reading Robert Young Pelton’s “The World’s Most Dangerous Places”. I was initially horrified by the widespread atrocities, but ultimately horrified by the rest of the world’s general ignorance to it. And that’s not your fault either. We all hear about the earthquakes in Chili, the financial crisis in Iceland, and all sorts of international news, but the most prominent and attention-worthy news almost always comes out of Central Africa. It is our generation’s holocaust, and just like Hitler’s holocaust, it didn’t exist because of our complacency. It existed because of our ignorance. Even some of Hitler’s closest generals and allies did not know the detail or extent of the atrocities happening in prison camps.

So, briefly, let’s take a look at this Invisible Children campaign. It is (in my opinion, smugly) raising awareness of crimes committed by Joseph Kony, one of the 6 leaders of the Lord’s Resistance Army, and urging you to create a massive demand for military intervention through both US intervention and/or helping the Ugandan government have the power to arrest him.

Right off the top of my head after watching this:

1. There is absolutely no reference to the situation in Uganda and why the LRA exists. While Joseph Kony is a complete cunt, he isn’t just a sociopath who entertains himself by sending children into war.  In fact, his practices are nothing unique at all. They can be seen in Sudan and the surrounding region, and are even overshadowed by the crisis we saw all the way over in Liberia a decade ago.

Joseph Kony formed the LRA to stop the equal (if not higher) level of rape and slaying from President Museveni.  Museveni is another complete cunt who has strong-held office just short of 30 years, and has committed mass atrocities on the Acholi people. What we ultimately have is a war started to protect the Acholi people from the Southern Ugandan government that resulted in the civilians being used as tools for that war, in horrible ways.

WHY is the name Museveni not mentioned once in this video?

2. The video claims that the United States wants no involvement with the crisis. This is bullshit. As recently as October of 2011 we sent our military there to “advise”. “Advising”, in this context, means help build, recruit, train, and supply guerrilla military groups. I didn’t agree with it then, and I don’t agree with it now, because…

3. In the last 5 years, Uganda, along with Sudan (yes, this is all connected) have actually experienced a fortunate wave of ceasefire. While it isn’t quite calm enough to even think of the word “peace”, the situation has improved drastically. Our military, arming or instigating one side of the conflict will almost certainly lead to an increase in violence.

4. With a little more research, you can browse through the groups images. I came across an image of Invisible Children’s founders holding guns and posing with Sudan People’s Liberation Army (link). Can you guess what the SPLA does? Bingo. They rape, loot, and most ironically, recruit children to fight for them.

Central Africa’s conflicts go back to pre-colonial times. If capturing Joseph Kony, like this, did anything, it would be sparking another decade of mass violence in the region. The conflict does not begin or end with him, and he is merely a pawn in a very complicated chess game who will likely see his demise sooner than later as most in his shoes do.

To simplify all of this, imagine that Adolf Hitler was at war with Osama Bin Laden, and Invisible Children is asking that we urge the US Government to use violent military intervention to capture Adolf Hitler to stop terrorism once and for all. At the very best, I suspect that they’ve skipped the task of learning about the region and actually understanding what they’re talking about. At the worst, I suspect that they understand their contradictions but are complacent with ignoring them to further their own careers, which puts them right in the same moral hole as Kony himself by risking people’s lives to further a different, self-important agenda.
I believe the latter. Because it would be impossible to be in Uganda, interviewing refugees, and be unaware of the other 90% of the story.

I am surely not the only one criticizing this campaign, many wiser than myself are. But I know enough to be able to confidently say: If you want to save Acholi children, don’t give Invisible Children a dime.

The income tax for the wealthiest VS. the GDP/economy gets mighty interesting around 1931. I imagine that at first glance it would appear that the economy died when income tax went up, but it is quite the opposite when you consider the time it takes for an economy to die and recover. Of course this is convoluted by the factors of the continent’s worst drought taking place in the 1930′s and the nations most invested war effort soon following. I’m not exactly occupying Wall Street here, but data like this is crucial for rational opinion. 

http://www.taxfoundation.org/files/fed_individual_rate_history_nominal&adjusted-20110909.pdf

If you were to drive in the late-night, empty streets of downtown Chicago this week, you would notice two groups of people occupying the sidewalk. The first would be a line consisting of white college students sitting up against the Federal Reserve building behind propped up protesting signs. In an almost artistic way, their faces light up in the dark from the mild illumination of their smartphones and iPads. Then a mere block away, you see a very similar scene. More bodies sitting up against a building. Except these faces are mostly old, worn, and dark skinned. They’re not protesting, they’re sleeping and eating trash out of dumpsters. That’s their life. And it isn’t the “recently lost job and house foreclosed” homeless, as those people commonly couch surf, move in with family members, or apply for public aid. It is the staggering and increasing community of mentally disabled and substance addicted homeless. I’ve seen them everywhere in the city as far back as I can remember.
Drive a couple more miles throughout the city and there are massive sex markets that exploit children as young as they develop sex organs. It is slavery in epic proportions. It is estimated that as many as 300,000 children are victims of sex trafficking every year in America.

Taking a drive downtown got me thinking…
The homeless and trafficked are not recent victims of Wall Street’s tyranny, they are victims of America’s ignorance. Blatant and applied ignorance that streaks down from the richest 1% all the way down to the middle and lower class. And it made me think, these college students occupying the Federal Reserve, do they actually realize the audacity of their anger over their debt while voicing it a block away from people who are legitimately starving to death?  That selling the smartphone would provide enough money to get some of these homeless people in a program that would change their lives forever?
How could you not realize this? And that being said, what is the difference between the protesters and the Wall St. bankers and corporate executives? Nothing, morally. The bankers aren’t in debt, and many American people are. That’s the only difference.

But I’m not a moral police officer, especially since I’m sitting in a studio typing this out surrounded by a fortune of music gear and appliances. So bastardizing the Occupy Wall St. movement is not something I can do without contradicting myself. In fact, I’m a huge fan of an American revolution. I disagree with so much of our country’s policies and behavior that I would give up everything I own to start over. But let’s face it, a real revolution has balls. A giant portion of the population have to risk their jobs, their criminal record, and their lives in order to have enough weight to demand and receive adequate change on that scale. Until that happens, it is just politics and spin. Our politicians aren’t listening, and I’m absolutely positive that the nation’s corporate executives aren’t. They need to be scared to listen, and we have to be capable of absolute resistance and even violence in high population numbers to make them scared. There’s no incentive to negotiate with a thousand people in a park. There’s a lot of incentive to negotiate with 10 million people ready to destroy government and media buildings. I would be a part of that army, that revolution for change.

But before you forward this page to the FBI, understand that I, unfortunately, don’t think we’re capable of that. Our country is too big, too diverse, and our citizens are too comfortable. I don’t think most Americans would risk the income that feeds their children for a shot at providing them with a better government and society when they grow old. I can’t criticize, because maybe I wouldn’t take that shot if I had a family to feed.

My point in all of this, is that I expect nothing from the #Occupy movement because it doesn’t hold any playing cards. This “revolution” may not be televised, but it will be custom glamorized by individuals on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and every other personalized internet media outlet. As long as those homeless people sleep a couple blocks away, I can’t help but think that a majority of the die hard protesters are just trying to be a part of something that provides them with a purpose. The interesting thing is that the purpose doesn’t necessarily need to be a purpose at all, it just needs to look that way to everyone that they know.
From my experiences, it has been impossible to have even a polite conversation with friends of mine who have joined this crowd. All month I have read inciting posts that are either manipulative or simply wrong. Politely correcting them with a link to a reputable source of information has resulted in the entire thread being deleted, and even my profile being blocked. It’s irrational.

But the whole thing is irrational. As I mentioned above, a dozen people sitting against a Federal Reserve building isn’t intimidating those who they feel have taken advantage of them. And a select group of young upper-middle class people defining and claiming to be the spokesperson for the nation’s single parents, immigrants, ghettos, and homeless isn’t really rational at all. In fact, it is quite disrespectful. And until I see people the city’s housing projects appearing at these protests, I will continue to think that.

But finally, comes my point of all of this rambling:
The one amazing and beautiful thing about unregulated capitalism, is that it, in itself, is a democracy. And every man, woman, and child has the right to vote in that democracy every single day of their lives. It is voting with your hard earned dollar, and it is voting with your valuable time. If you are outraged that Bank Of America paid 0% in income tax when you paid your fair share, then go to your local branch and vote by closing your account with them and transferring your loan to a bank or credit union that pays their fair share of taxes. If you’re enrolled in a school that is going to keep you in debt for the next 20 years, then stop going to that school. And most importantly, if you’re upset about where your tax dollars are going, then get out a calculator, figure how much you’re going to owe in 2012, claim maximum dependency, and donate it all to a charity that you agree with.

I guess that’s my fantasy. My pipe dream. For everyone to sit down in this crisis and say “What can I do that will actually fight these things that I am angry about?”. And when it comes to rejecting unreasonable loans and living beneath your means, I’m pretty sure that’s the one recipe that made the hated 1% so successful to begin with.

So please, be smart, rational, and empathetic. If you’re an activist, actively change your lifestyle to support those you admire, and ignore those you despise.

I guess it has been a while since I went on a blog rant. I don’t really know if that’s a good or bad thing. I hate sounding like a cranky old man, but I also hate having a blog that isn’t updated. Unfortunately important opinions are most frequently shared in the state of contradiction, fueling this cranky old man’s fingers. Anyways:

You may have come across a recently viral article by JD Samson (Le Tigre): http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jd-samson/i-love-my-job-but-it-made_b_987680.html?ir=Celebrity

So let’s sum this up:

A 33 year old lesbian female admittedly incapable of using Excel or making coffee lives in the hippest and among the most expensive areas in America, paid for by a career in doing whatever she wants, when she wants…and she’s whining about not having a pension.
She’s got a lot more publicity than I do. She tours more than I do. Her albums probably sell better than mine do. Yet I, at the same age, have a savings account and at least the beginning of a fiscal plan for my future.

Do you think that the difference is because she’s a lesbian in America? Or because she’s just inept at managing her finances?

Lady, move to a place in the suburbs, get out of your Windish Agency contract and negotiate your gigs yourself,  print up some CDs to sell yourself via the internet and at your shows, and stop attempting to add yourself to the weight of the world’s pity. There are millions of people in our country right now working 2-3 horribly degrading jobs at once, with families, that don’t have pensions or health insurance.

Art isn’t a charity. It’s a competitive business just like everything else.  You don’t just decide that you’re a musician and then expect the rest of society to make sure your rent is paid for your luxurious Brooklyn loft. You have to roll your sleeves up and earn your money. Any successful artist will tell you this.

There’s a reason I drive a Hyundai and live in a south Chicago coach house. It is because I am capable of seeing income and understanding that I may not get any next month.

So please JD Samson, invest in a calculator, figure out how much your yearly income is, subtract the amount you wish you put into savings, and then adjust your lifestyle to reflect the amount remaining. I don’t feel sorry for you and it is insulting that you expect us to.

On another note, this week has given me the best weather imaginable.  It’s like paradise outside.

When most people think of complex music, they think of Mozart. A few musicians or music-enthusiasts (hold on, owning every album Pitchfork reviews does not make you an enthusiast of ‘music’. I’m talking about someone who actually studies theory) might, of course, mention Bach’s fugues or Coltrane’s quartal and quintal harmonizing. Those examples are special ones. They fit into our lives, yet so few of us understand them. If you have a decent ear, try taking Coltrane’s “Giant Steps” or “My Favorite Things” and playing it slowly on the piano. Or even easier, try to figure out the chords. Not so easy, right? Yet the song is incredibly familiar.

The list of complex melodies is an infinite one. As jazz’s popularity nosedived in the late 80′s, it split off into two routes. One of those routes was led by the embarrassing Kenny G, who dubbed himself as “smooth jazz”. Any jazz musician will retort: Kenny G isn’t smooth jazz, or any type of jazz. Vince Guaraldi and Stan Getz are smooth jazz.

The other route? Well. It got ugly and masturbatory. It got so ugly sounding that now, when you go to a free jazz show, you’ll discover that half of the time the musicians don’t actually know how to play their instruments. It got so complex that a beginner could make some noises and pretend to be more advanced than the utmost skilled performer. It might not convince many, but the very act of trying is a red flag.

What is rare, and only exists in a handful of pieces, is complexity and familiarity. Was John Coltrane such an important figure in defining America’s sound that we accepted his compositions and revisions as something we were willing to let grow on our unskilled ears? Or was he just so incredibly talented that he possessed the power to find a back door, and creep such unfamiliar changes into our narrow minded musical taste?

I don’t know.

What’s more impressive, to me, is that one of the most widely accepted songs in the world is one of the most insanely complex. I sang it as a child, and you’ll be hard pressed to find an American who doesn’t know the melody.
“Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood”
Hum it in your head. Not so bad right?
Now listen closely: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaYR5lwzomE
An incredible, goose bump raising interview with the writer, Johnny Costa: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUI2GpXX3gI

How in the world did that left-field jazz puzzle end up being one of the most accepted songs in contemporary history? And for a children’s show!

That’s what obsesses me.  The ability to take something from the advanced jazz era and, rather than running off with it like a pretentious nob, hammering it down until it can be integrated with your average listener.

If I was better at it, you’d be able to listen to Love As A Dark Hallway, and immediately listen to Coltrane’s “Meditations” and feel at home.
Unfortunately, I’m just a baby, and I’m nowhere near that level of mastership compositionally. But, at the risk of torches and pitchforks from those who’ve grown happy to STAVL’s simple-immediate-approval melodies, I do my best, partially in attempt to build a bridge between my releases and my influences (any fan of Metheny’s or Jaco’s will find themselves at home, solo-wise).

But mostly, I did it because I wanted to concentrate on writing much stronger melodies and rounding them out for listeners other than myself.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a 10th the man Johnny Costa is.  But I would never release something that I don’t feel is appropriately accomplished (my opinion being the keyword). My point is, Love As A Dark Hallway isn’t supposed to be catchy, epic, or an emotional journey. It turned out, conceptually, exactly the way I wanted it to, which is why I released it. Of course a part of me wants everyone to like it, but a bigger part of me knows that if everyone immediately liked it in the first week they heard it, I would no longer be an artist. I’d be merely providing a service.

Regardless, as always, thanks for listening to it. Words cannot describe how much I appreciate the honor of having so many ears lent to my day’s work. and…

Enjoy melodies, for they mean nothing more than a tribute to the people and events that inspires one to write them.

This blog update is so big that you’ll probably need an ebook reader to read it. http://www.bennjordan.com/benn_jordan_-_victor’s_border.pdf

Again, I’m frustrated with the 13,000 media outlets being unable to explain a situation to a viewer, but bombard them with updates and photos of protesters. I realize many of you know what is happening in Wisconsin, but if you don’t, read on:

Like almost all of our states, Wisconsin is suffering from a budget deficit.  Nothing like Illinois’ deficit of $15 billion, but a mildly substantial number hovering around $2 billion dollars depending on who you ask.

During the GOP landslide of 2010, rookie Scott Walker was elected Governor of Wisconsin.  He was probably elected because when the election was taking place, he was ignoring the deficit and proposing 1.5 billion in tax cuts to voters.

Another reason Scott Walker was so successful in this election was because his political career was bankrolled by Charles and David Koch, two extremely rich, extremely conservative , and extremely anti-union tycoons. The Super Koch Bros 64 used the all-too-familiar tactics to exploit finance limits and spent millions on TV adverts that defamed his opponent, who lost by only 5 points.

Scott Walker’s proposal to help reduce the deficit is to (surprise) reduce the state labor union’s (from teachers to pipefitters, etc) ability to bargain for their workers. In addition, he wants to sever the union’s ability to collect dues, which are spent on organization and lobbying legislature.

One union is exempt from Walker’s proposal: The public safety officer’s union, which coincidentally happens to not only contain the highest paid union members, but is also the only union in Wisconsin that tends to support the Republican party.

Smells like total bullshit, right?

Well, more agree than not, so that’s why union supporters (and confused Super Bowl celebrators) have moved into the capital building, filling it with democracy, anger, and body odor.

Since Republicans are more likely to blindly vote for the rigid interest of their own party than to vote  in the best interest of the community they represent, Democratic state senators have fled the state to deny them the quorum they need to vote on this proposal, effectively stalling the proposal from being put into the law books.

In more recent days, Scott Walker has offered to negotiate, but then a recorded phone conversation busted him only offering the negotiations to trick the Democratic senators to come back to Wisconsin and be forced to vote or be “willingly absent”.

There is a chance that Wisconsin state troopers, who are the higher paid and exempt union members themselves, will, in a contradictorily crisis of self-identity,  attempt to drag the Democratic senators back to Wisconsin.

So there you have it. That’s what is happening in Wisconsin. If you’re in your teens or 20′s and keep saying to yourself: “God…I can’t wait until I get older and people stop acting like fucking children.”, you can just let that beacon of faith die off with your libido and ability to recover from a hangover.

Years ago, people stopped reading actual news content. Then more recently, news sites stopped delivering actual news content. Instead of giving details about the story they are repeating, they give opinion. I can’t help but think that this is the first real consequence of “free media”.

A great example is the story about the South Dakota legislation that would make it legal to kill an abortion doctor. I read this story in full on about 5 news sites, in absolute shock. Not shock that a state is legalizing murder, but in shock that anyone would be stupid enough to not only believe, but rebroadcast such an idea.

After a bit of digging, I found that the legislation in question is actually just a simple add-on to existing laws involving self-defense. If someone were to kill a pregnant woman, he/she would receive 2 murder charges rather than 1. Along with that, the woman has the right to defend her child’s life as if it were her own. I personally don’t have an opinion since I’m not a pregnant woman in South Dakota…BUT..

Nobody insinuated making it LEGAL to kill abortion doctors, until the media manifested that concept through careful word hunting. Since then, the senator changed the legislation to:

Homicide is justifiable if committed by any person while resisting any attempt to murder such person, or to harm the unborn child of such person in a manner and to a degree that is unlawful and likely to result in the death of the unborn child, or to commit any felony upon him or her, or upon or in any dwelling house in which such person is.

This is all to common recently. I wish grade/highschools would have some sort of “data analysis” or “opinion building” classes that would encourage finding reputable resources and disputing bias. Or even just making sure you listen to Glenn Beck speak on a given issue for 2 hours after seeing the latest Michael Moore film “documenting it”.

And that word: Documentary
It is used so incredibly loosely. Planet Earth is a documentary. Even the Vice Guide To Travel is a documentary. Food INC or Fahrenheit 911 are NOT. They are only documenting what is required to sell their opinions, which is fine, as long as you’re not watching it thinking it is a documentary…which you will find it cataloged as. They may have true and useful information in them, but it isn’t balanced and therefore is much less useful since you have to do a pretty hefty amount of “opposite” research before you’ll be anywhere near educated on the topic.

Republican, democrat, libertarian, or communist. All of these groups and ideals have very valid arguments and points that deserve your attention. More importantly, you deserve to be educated and have an opinion that closely fits your ethics and interests.

My point is, when you hear something that interests you…don’t stop there. Sniff around. Learn something. Spread the information that you learned. You’ll begin to realize that the things people are outraged about in this world are all too often caused by walls of ignorance, rather than a legislative or ethical difference.

ASTROLOGY IS NOT REAL.

To some, especially any promoter I’ve worked with, it would be a surprise for them if I claimed that I’m “aerophobic”. I put quotes around the word because aerophobic is fear of flying, which I don’t really have beyond that of your average slightly neurotic person. Being shoveled into a tube and shot into the sky feels unnatural and troubling to me, but it isn’t a deal breaker and hasn’t been for the 500+ flights I’ve probably taken in my life.

What is a deal breaker, and possibly a phobia of its own, is the way I’ve been treated at airports. Mostly by the TSA, but also by the airlines and even other passengers.
At some point in 2008 after having all of my shampoo and conditioner thrown away, even though I woke up early to put it in an assortment of TSA friendly clear bottles, I realized that it wasn’t the airplane that was making me flip out; it was the disrespect and utter disregard for my freedom. A JetBlue employee stealing my camera and lenses on that same day didn’t help this feeling.

So you know what? Fuck you. I’m not letting you scream at me to put my laptop on the conveyor belt while I’m fumbling trying to take off my shoes while holding an 80lb bag on my back with my plane ticket and passport in my hands so you can decide that my bottle of Aquafina that I just purchased 30ft away is less safe than the one I’ll have to repurchase for $2 more 30ft in the other direction. That is unacceptable.

That decision has cost me, in all reality, hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years. I went from constant touring to one month a year. In just a few years, I’ve put well over 200,000 miles on the cars I’ve owned. I can tell you everything from the best Subway in Utah to the best truckstop bathroom in West Virginia.

So what is the problem then? Why is every news feed and social networking site filled with outcries over the TSA’s new invasive pat down policy?
Just don’t fly. Period.
Drive home for Thanksgiving. It’ll take longer, but you’ll save money and feel a lot more free.

And for the pile of videos appearing of children begging and screaming while the TSA rubs their crotch for 10 seconds…uh…seriously? This isn’t the TSA’s fault, it is the parent’s fault for standing there and watching it happen. How much fun will that ski trip be knowing that your child was suspected of terrorism and molested so you could shave a couple hours off of your travel itinerary?

So rather than flying and posting your whiny opinion about how much it sucks, just don’t fly. If people just refused to be treated this way, the industry would lobby the TSA to ease up on its invasive policies. And it isn’t unfair because you have the option to choose another method of transportation. If people like myself can change the shape of their entire life to avoid being treated like that, then surely your weekend trip to Vegas can be a week long road trip to Vegas. And I promise you that you’ll have way more fun!