Last night I caught the last hour of Jello Biafra's four-and-a-half-hour speaking engagement in Grass Valley. (Jello is the former lead singer of The Dead Kennedy's, 80's punk heroes). Jello rails against things like globalization, privatization, mindless wars, government corruption, and encourages awareness and involvement, beginning at a personal and community level. Basically start small and think big.
I was able to shake Mr. Biafra's hand afterward and thank him for "making the eighties more bearable" through his music. He is an affable man, with the same distinct voice (it took me right back to listening to Dead Kenndy's tapes in my Toyota Celica's tape player), but a little pudgier. I almost worked up the nerve to ask for a photo with him, but my camera battery died right as I turned it on -- oh my! So, I downloaded this photo of him wearing a shirt that claims Levi's as Evil. I am glad I wore a skirt instead of my jeans last night. I have owned the same two pairs of Levi's for several years. Each pair cost me around $30 and I love them to death (I was recently at a friend's party where the girls were talking about their $150 pairs of True Religion jeans, they just couldn't get enough. Two pairs of years-old Levi's do me just fine). Jello's issue with the large corporate Levi's is probably the way they underpay their employees and harm the global economy. . . it's a conundrum for sure.
Despite conundrums, the evening was a lot of fun. . . the reason I was late for Jello was because Kate and I went and saw our friend Tom's play, "A Few Good Men." Rich exposure of military misconduct and cover-up to the last drop. I noticed a theme for the evening. . . it did turn out, however, to be one of those few good evenings away from home.
2 comments:
I guess you'd have to find clothing that calls attention to corporate evil. That's the only way to wear clothing that doesn't participate in said evil. You could wear Jello's signature "Everything you do is part of the problem" clothing line. But you can't buy it anywhere. Tribal Weaver might be your only option. But I happen to know that the founder of the store profits from cell phone towers on her property. The system just doesn't work.
Even so, A Few Good Men isn't about a military cover up. It's about an individual cover up that gets exposed and justly dealt with by the military's own justice system. So, wait, the system works?
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Editor
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