Category Archives: journalism

Guantanamo By Any Other Name

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Maybe it’s because I grew up down the road from the Riverdale synagogues that were targeted in the just-thwarted terrorist plot. Maybe it’s because I now live down the road from Newburgh, where the terrorist thugs live and where they also intended to take out Air Force aircraft. Or maybe it’s because my friend Richie and I commanded the 40th Street Pier, which was used as a temporary supply depot during the Sept. 11 rescue operation.

Maybe it’s because my city — where I played hardball, drove taxis, wrote news stories — was once again the target of jihadists.

Maybe that’s why I don’t want to see the inhabitants of Guantanamo dispersed in prison yards across the county. The Newburgh knuckleheads — the gang that couldn’t bomb straight — formed in state prison yards, homegrown thugs with a freedom-chip on their shoulders.

Honestly, I don’t think Congress, overall, will let it happen. I think my countrymen simply feel too uncomfortable with the dispersion plan. I respect President Obama for trying to “mop up” behind the Guantanamo mess. But his terming opposition to prisoner dispersion fear-mongering is unfair. Shouldn’t we fear the enemy within. Shouldn’t we be vigilant.

Richie and I stood deep in the days old debris of The World Trade Center, twisted girders, dust of sheetrock and bone, tower-sheathing reaching like a macabre-cathedral into the dark sky. You don’t forget. You never forget. This enemy doesn’t. This enemy won’t. Remember, they hit the towers seven years early, only to return, after we all went to sleep. There’s no sleeping anymore. Not eight years after Sept. 11. Not twenty-eight.

But I have a plan for Guantanamo. It’s simple. Change the name as we change the plan and the strategy, as we remain vigilant on our shores.
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Press release for “We’re America”

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(see “Time to pitch” post from today for background)
Rocker Releases Song to Rally Nation

On the heels of President Barack Obama’s recent warning of “more pain” ahead, rocker Allen Shadow has released the single “We’re America” to help buoy the nation’s spirit during the economic recovery.

“As the president recently reminded us, the challenges ahead are still great,” said Shadow. “Now, more than ever, we need to keep our heads and our spirits up.”

The indie artist’s song was originally inspired by Obama’s speech to Congress in late February. In his address, the president reminded the nation of its long history of innovation and accomplishment, promising the country would “emerge stronger than before.”

In fact, Shadow echoes the presidential pledge in the song’s chorus: “We’re America home of the brave/And we’ll be back again stronger than today.”

“I also channeled Woody Guthrie,” said Shadow. “He helped us remember the best of our land during the hard times of the Great Depression.

While “We’re America” is uplifting, it also bares teeth. The tune claims “the banks are bandits now” and chronicles the irony of congressmen who cried fowl yet gave away trillions with little oversight.

A video of “We’re America” is a slice of Americana itself, peppered with images of vintage cars and classic movies. The video can be seen on Shadow’s YouTube channel: allenville33.

“I think the American people understand what we’re facing and how long things are likely to take,” said Shadow. “Nevertheless, the road ahead could test our resolve as there will likely be further pressures on us as well as continued knocks from other nations.”

Shadow, whose indie debut CD “King Kong Serenade” (Blue City Records) drew critical acclaim in the early 2000s, is offering downloads of the new single free of charge. The artist’s raw, literate style is often compared to early Bruce Springsteen and Tom Waits.

“We’re America” will be included on Shadow’s forthcoming album, “American Alleys,” a street-savvy take on cities from coast to coast, due this winter from Blue City Records.

“We’re America” can be heard or downloaded from several Web sites, including both http://myspace.com/allenshadow2 and http://allenshadow.com.

In addition, Shadow blogs at both https://allenshadow.wordpress.com and http://twitter.com/AllenShadow.

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Time to pitch

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With the “We’re America” song video breaching 2,000 views now on YouTube and various social media play in progress, the next phase of my release strategy is the issuance of a press release. I’m using two services to distribute the release: Beat Wire and PRWeb.

Beatwire is a musician-centric service that distributes multimedia releases to some 10,000 music journalists and reviewers, including both mainstream press and the blogosphere. PRWeb, which is owned by PR-industry leader Vocus, also distributes a multimedia release to the main news desks of mainstream press and social media sites. PRWeb gets thumbs up from the likes of PR guru Annie Jennings, among others.

Both these services are reasonably priced, with advanced packages in the three- to four-hundred dollar range. PR Newswire is another good mainstream media service, but their packages start at $680.

In both cases, the release includes an embedded video and an audio stream of the song as well as artist photos and album cover. I’ve used both services before and had fair to good results.

In addition, I will personally send pitches of the story to key journalists, including newspaper, TV and the blogosphere. You can’t depend solely on press-release services. Pitching journalists is an art in itself, but I’ll go into that another time.

I’ll report results in a future post.

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U.S. to EU: we don’t do ‘hell’

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Okay, so this is how it works in the dysfunctional world we lead. The spoiled son embarrasses dad on the eve of the patriarch’s visit, knowing that pops’ll spring for the Wii he so wants just to shut him up.

So it is with Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, head of the European Union, who just blasted the U.S. stimulus measures as the “way to hell.”

President Obama, as it happens, is scheduled to arrive in Prague in less than two weeks. And this Topolanek, who, by the way just received a vote of no confidence from his government, will be looking for more than a Wii, perhaps enough to fund a whole high-tech industry. You think?

Thank you EU leaders. Once again, just as we’re all trying to get along so like the world doesn’t crumble around us, you shoot off your hypocritical mouths again. Recall the French arrogance (did I leave off an accent grave somewhere?) post 9/11. We can still take the freedom fries out of the freezer, you know.

Now, here’s the height of irony on two counts:

  1. On March 1, The New York Times reported that top EU governments trashed the idea of ponying up to bailout newer, Eastern members. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is facing elections this fall, rejected it soundly.
  2. In the midst of the AIG bonus scandal — on the Ides of March no less — AIG reported a much larger and equally-controversial giveaway: some $49.5 billion to 22 banks, 16 of which are foreign, many European, including UBS, Deutsche Bank and Société Générale. (Oddly, this story went virtually unnoticed in the fog of the bonus scandal, but for limited coverage in such reliables as The Gray Lady.)

So let’s sum up: a Czech leader, who also happens to head the EU, is gaming Obama and America because his own neighbors, like Germany, whose banks received mucho American cash via the AIG bailout, won’t ante up.

And what’s worse is this plays the hell card as the world’s house of cards teeters on the brink. Nice! (and like Elaine’s boyfriend Jake on Seinfeld, I eschew exclamation points).

P.S. Reactions to this news can also be found on the Fayetteville Observer blog.

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Power from the people

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My friend Richie manages the Philippe Starck Building across from the New York Stock Exchange. They have a $23-million condo that’s wanting for a buyer (poor billionaires). I asked him if anybody was jumping from the windows yet. Apparently not.

The Sunday morning news coverage of the public furor over the AIG bonuses was instructive, if predictable, including David Gregory and company on Meet the Press on NBC, which was followed by Chris Matthews, who polled his panel on whether the bonus fallout would hamper Obama in his push for further bank-bailouts. The results were rather measured considering Congress’ need to sate the public outcry.

Let’s not underestimate the true meaning of the public anger. Certainly, the $165 million in AIG bonus payouts (although the Connecticut A.G. today ups that estimate to $218 million) can be seen as the proverbial straw, it is no less significant that other turning-point straws that fill the history books: the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, Pearl Harbor, and “remember the Maine” or the “shot heard ‘round the world.”

That said, here’s what I think is happening and what will ultimately solve Wall Street’s excesses: the power of the people.

While that sounds quaint at first blush, people power is the latest disruptive technology, and it will rule Wall Street in the coming years the same way it has reshaped the music industry, the film and television industries, the advertising industry and the news industry. It is a force that is even larger than Wall Street.

Here’s what’s changed: I call it the trust factor. Since the industrial revolution (and certainly earlier), industry, the media and government controlled information. They may have taken the temperature of the public along the way and had to proffer lip service to obtain votes; but, collectively, they dictated the message. They had us having to trust them concerning how to conduct our affairs. I could put together a string of corporate slogans here, but I think you get the point.

Over the past decade, the trust factor has been turned on its head as the Internet has leveled the playing field, first flattening the music industry, then steadily rolling over several others.

Now, the curtain has been pulled back on Wall Street, and the complex and secretive way it has conducted business. When everyone was benefiting from the current model, big banks and insurance giants could get away with their Ponzi-style instruments.

But no more. The public trust has been broken, never to return. Now, the public will have trust flow from the public to the corporate world, in full. Its beginnings were sown in the corporate facebook pages we see today. I believe a new, disruptive model will be forged naturally from these events.

I suppose that’s a hopeful way to look at this mess we’re in. But isn’t that the same model that now elects our Presidents.

Oh, one more note on hope — some songs to help us through: Tom Paxton’s “I Am Changing My Name to Fannie Mae” and my own “We’re America.”

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Kansas City Star

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Papa walked the great hall
of Union Station
learned to box the language
at the Star
on his way into the world’s war

on the cusp of Bird’s entry
into the warble of the world
from the flesh and iron
of Kansas City

yard town, hog center
breadbasket, whistlestop
9ths and 13ths and Vine
where the Western Auto sign
now blinks and punctuates
the Thomas Hart Benton landscape

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