[Originally Published: April 19, 2008]

“Teachers teach that knowledge waits”

April 19, 1995 – 7:55am Edmond, OK – Every morning before my 9th grade Biology class I would listen to music on my Discman while waiting for the professor to arrive. On this particular day, my musical selection had been Bob Dylan and the Band’s Before the Flood. The last track I listened to that morning was a favorite of mine It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) – little did I know the impact that song would have on me that day…not to mention the rest of my life.

“My eyes collide head-on with stuffed graveyards”

9:04am – We had originally thought that the construction project taking place at our high school was responsible for the shaking that had occurred a couple of minutes earlier. Moments later, another professor brought in a TV and turned it on to News Channel 9. Through clouds of smoke and people running this is what we witnessed:

READ ON for more about Jennifer’s Oklahoma City experience…

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to the Umphrey’s McGee Variety Show(s)! Buckle up, take a seat and enjoy the show!

It would have been nice to have a ring master introduce the guys at the Variety Playhouse in Atlanta last Thursday and Friday, but alas it was not to be. Even without a ring master, Umphrey’s McGee didn’t hesitate to give their all at each night’s performance.

It’s taken me a while to finally realize that I should never go to a show with any sort of preconceived notions or expectations, because when you do that you’re ultimately setting up both yourself and your favorite band for failure. One of the major factors as to why I enjoy myself at an Umphrey’s McGee concert is because the band enjoys themselves on stage. And when they are there to have a good time – you’re almost guaranteed the same privilege. Their interplay and enjoyment on stage is what keeps me going back as often as humanly possible.

READ ON for more from Jen on Umphrey’s Variety Playhouse shows…

Every morning on my way to work I pass one of the largest American flags I’ve ever had the distinction to see first hand. And every morning since the inauguration – and release of Umphrey’s McGee’s Mantis – as I wait patiently sitting at that stop light while staring at that flag I tend to bounce my thoughts back and forth between the president’s speech and the opening line to the title track of Mantis…

We believe there’s something here worth dying for…

Oh, how those lyrics ring true for our country’s past, present and future. People have fought and died to defend the ideals that our government originally set forth.

Obama touched on this issue, too, and spoke of an era of responsibility with these great words from his inauguration speech:

What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility – a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship.

READ ON for more of this week’s Land of Confusion column…

A press release issued today by Show Clix, a ticketing company based out of Pittsburgh, stated that they will be establishing what they call a ‘Fair Ticketing Fund’ which is a:

Multi-million dollar [fund] to help venues and event promoters become independent of the company being created through the Ticketmaster/Live Nation merger. Through the fund, ShowClix will provide venues and promoters who want to operate independent of Ticketmaster/Live Nation with tens of thousands of dollars in funding; a new ticketing system, at no cost; and a significant reduction in service fees for their ticket buyers.

We, the fans, have been waiting for a miracle. Perhaps this is it? One can only hope that promoters and venues who want to offer their customers an alternative to Ticketmaster will look to this as a viable option.

• HeadCount Blog: Phish Fans Caught In Perfect Ticketing Storm

I’ve lived in Nashville, Tennessee for going on nine years at this point and since my residency here I’ve only traveled to Memphis one other time for a show. You see, the stretch of I-40 between Nashville and Memphis is called Music Highway — but to me it’s just flat out BOOOOORING.

[We're All In This Thing Together]

This past Sunday was my second trip to Memphis to witness Old Crow Medicine Show and The Felice Brothers. After an (actual) enjoyable three-hour road trip and a pork-pulled sandwich from Tops the mood was set for what was witnessed at the completely new-state-of-the-art venue venue in Memphis — Minglewood Hall.

I’ve had the opportunity to see the Felice Brothers a couple of times this past year, and to be perfectly honest – their 45 minute set was the sole reason I traveled to Memphis. But the music lover I am, I decided to stick it out just to see what Old Crow had to offer. READ ON for more…

It’s taken me a day or two to come up with a way to review the show I saw last Friday night in downtown Nashville. Lucero, a Memphis band I’ve been a fan of for a few years now, performed a two-night stand this past weekend.

I was a little late due to work obligations and then a car accident on the interstate. When I finally arrived, I found the place completely sold out and jam-packed. Don’t get me wrong – the large crowd was expected, that’s become the trend when Lucero travels to Nashville and their success is definitely a great thing for the band. I was able to catch the last three songs of what I believe to be a great up-and-coming band, The Dexateens.

The Dexateens are southern-garage rock from Alabama and I think (and hope for their sake) they become a band to reckon with in the near future. I was really happy I arrived in time to check out a few of their songs, so happy, I actually purchased one of their albums at the show. I can’t tell you the last time that happened.

READ ON for more of Jennifer’s thoughts on Lucero in Nashville…

Instant gratification. That’s the name of the game these days with music fans. With a few clicks of the mouse and a quick trip to Google one can go and find almost any album by any artist. And while today’s mainstream artists are hardly starving, it’s safe to say not many are making money off of albums and that’s the trend we’ve been seeing since Napster started.

I mean hell, look at Britney Spears’ most recent release Circus. She had to host an infomercial on MTV just to sell her CD (aptly titled For the Record). She played the “feel sorry for me” card quite well and guess what? It actually worked — she’s selling albums. So are infomercials the way to go? Artists as huge as Britney have to stoop to this level of salesmanship. Artists are struggling to find new and inventive ways to market their music. The industry is in knots trying to figure out how to market and distribute albums, but also do so at a minimal cost.

READ ON to find out just what sets UM’s Mantis apart from the pack…

May 3, 1999 might not be an important date to many of you, but it is to me. On this day, Oklahoma saw some of the worst tornadoes known to man. Along with my family and friends, I survived. But not everyone was so lucky…

The following day I traveled from Oklahoma City to Tulsa to catch a show of the String Cheese Incident and Gov’t Mule co-headline tour. Along I-44, I saw more destruction than I had ever witnessed — with the exception of the Federal Building. An entire outlet mall was demolished along with gas stations, homes, and everything else that was in the way of the F5 that struck that day.

Wind has an awesome power. I think we can all agree on that. My grandfather once told me a joke that goes something like this:

Question: Why is it so windy in Oklahoma?

Answer: Because Texas blows and Kansas sucks.

If you don’t get it, then you either know nothing about geograpy, or Big 12 sports. (Side note: I’m a OSU Cowboys fan, big props to the Pokes for almost handing it to the Sooners yet again — better luck next year!)

READ ON for more of Land of Confusion – Black Clouds > Restless Wind…

Over the past six months, we’ve been honored to run Jennifer Kirk’s engaging series about all sides of the presidential election: Land of Confusion. Today, she shares her final thoughts about today’s election…

[Image from RalphSteadman.com]

“This may be the year when we finally come face to face with ourselves; finally just lay back and say it — that we are really just a nation of 220 million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns, and no qualms at all about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable.”

This quote comes from the late, great Hunter S. Thompson. It was made in 1972 and sadly, it still rings true to this day. Today is a day, that no matter what happens, will remain in our memory for years to come. It is a day that we have to make a collective decision on how the direction of our country will go for the next four years, and perhaps longer. It is a day that we make a statement to the rest of the world as to who we are and who we aim to be. A day that no matter the outcome — we must still stand, united. I sincerely hope that our divisions can one day be mended come January 20 when one of the candidates takes office. Our country and our model of government are still very young in the eyes of the world. So late today, or most likely, tomorrow — we will find out what our statement will be to the world, but more importantly what that statement says of ourselves.

Over the past few months we have looked at several issues that are quite prevalent today, including: race and freedom of speech, military service, terrorist attacks and gun control, our countries crumbling infrastructure, poverty and the economics of touring, the economic and housing downturn, protests, faith in the youth of America, and finally, one of my personal favorites — who Johnny Cash would vote for in today’s election.

READ ON for more of the election day edition of LoC, and be sure to head over to Rebirth of Slack for HT Founder Ace Cowboy’s prediction…

Here we are, finally, less than two weeks away from the ‘big day.’ Judging by the numbers across the country for early voting, I think it’s fair to say that this election will be one for the history books. While I’m excited that so many people are participating, I’m also starting to get sick of it. I’m sick of the hate that we have on each opposing side. I’m sick of the ignorance on either side. I’m sick of receiving stupid, untrue forwards from family members and friends telling me why Obama is either the Messiah or The Beast.

Earlier this week, I drove through the local town square. It’s your typical southern town square complete with court house, law offices, local coffee shop, and did I mention that it’s actually located on Main Street? On this particular morning something struck me as out of the ordinary. You see, the GOP county office is located on the square and I noticed something particularly odd very early in the morning. Some jerks took it upon themselves to throw a brick through the window of their office. The funny thing was, I happened upon it before the police had even responded.

On a morning where I witnessed one of the most beautiful sunrises I’ve seen in a while — I also witnessed hatred and disrespect in its most idiotic form. Why is this? Why does something need to be vandalized to make a point? Why do people have to disrespect each other to try and anger the ‘other side’? I don’t get it. What happened to civilized discussion and debate? Hell, even the candidates crossed that line a long time ago. It seems that they are both banking on fear. Obama’s fear tactic is that we’ll have four more years of the same, McCain’s fear tactic is that we’ll move closer to socialism through Obama’s health care plan, among other things. Is this really what our fore fathers envisioned? Fear breeding hate breeding fear breeding hate.

READ ON for more of this week’s Land of Confusion…

As I write this piece, I’m on a bus returning back home from what has been a completely eye-opening experience. I had the opportunity to chaperone a trip for ten students over my university’s fall break. No, we didn’t go to the binge-drinking capital of the South — Panama City, but instead travelled to a little community called Cranks, Kentucky. Cranks, along with the rural communities of eastern Kentucky and western Virginia make up one of the poorest, most underdeveloped areas in our country. At the beautiful foothills of Appalachia we were on a mission to help along the construction of a home for someone who we had never met.

The group of students traveling on this trip represents, to my best guess, the patchwork quilt of America. They all come from very different walks of life. Pakistani, African American, small-town white kids, a young mother, and Christian. I could go on and try to pigeon hole these kids but there is simply no need as they all came together to do something constructive (quite literally) with their long weekend away from the hustle and bustle of their studies. This past weekend has single-handedly restored my faith in the youth of America, and I’m VERY proud to have been a small part of something this special. READ ON for more…

While I was away on my trip last weekend, I received a text message from a friend and fellow HeadCount volunteer letting me know that Andy Bernstein and Marc Brownstein were featured in a story about HeadCount on ABC’s 20/20. Instead of doing normal publicity for a non-profit, John Stossel decided to do a piece questioning the validity of HeadCount’s work over the past four years and also questioned if the youth of our country should have the ability to vote because they seem uninformed or uneducated.

Well, John Stossel — welcome to America! There are TONS of uneducated people that will be going to the polls on November 4th. They are uneducated not because of their age, but perhaps because of the education they received, the places they get their news, their ability to keep up with issues, or maybe even their ability to actually care about what is going on in our country and our world.

READ ON for the rest of Jen’s Editorial Rant…

I hardly even know where to begin this week. The financial crisis is just plain crazy — but expected. Phish has come back which is just plain crazy — but expected. Last week, I went on a mini-rant on artists coming out to show their support for a particular presidential candidate and I’d like to stick with that theme this week. It all started from a quote I found on my daily tear away calendar aptly titled “Stupid Things People Say”:

“I’m not very politically involved. And I don’t like to talk about it. I mean, if you say you’re a Democrat, that’ll turn off Republicans and that’s half your fan base.”

The quote comes from Lindsey Lohan, which I still have hanging on my office wall next to my George W. Bush quote of “The great thing about America is everybody should vote.” You know what though? She’s actually correct in my opinion. Granted, she has since decided to turn into a lesbian so I can only assume that’s turned off half of her fan base anyway.

READ ON for more of this special bonus edition of LoC…

No, we’re not gonna take it, we’re not going to take it ANYMOREEEEEE!

Finally, I get to use the Twisted Sister song! I really wanted to find a clip from the movie PCU when the “We’re not going to protest” protest occurred, but I couldn’t find any clips from that speech. Relax though, Jeremy Piven is still a genius.

On a serious note related to protests I’d like to introduce you to War Child.

War Child’s mission is the following:

War Child International is a network of independent organisations, working across the world to help children affected by war.

War Child was founded upon a fundamental goal: to advance the cause of peace through investing hope in the lives of children caught up in the horrors of war.

War Child works in many different conflict areas around the world, helping hundreds of thousands of children every year.

Under the Radar Magazine has teamed up with several musicians to make their own protest signs, have the artist autograph them and then auction off said signs for funds to go directly to the War Child organization.

READ ON to check out some of Jennifer’s favorite protest signs…

A few weeks ago John Rich, country music singer and host of the absolutely-horrible-but-I-still-watch-it-TV-show entitled Gone Country, stated the following at a McCain/Palin political rally:

“Somebody’s got to walk the line in the country. They’ve got to walk it unapologetically. And I’m sure Johnny Cash would have been a John McCain supporter if he was still around.”

He then went on to perform his rendition of I Walk the Line.

Unfortunately, Johnny Cash is not around — he passed away just over five years ago. Outraged by these comments, Rosanne Cash responded:

“It is appalling to me that people still want to invoke my father’s name, five years after his death, to ascribe beliefs, ideals, values and loyalties to him that cannot possibly be determined, and to try to further their own agendas by doing so…I knew my father pretty well, at least better than some of those who entitle themselves to his legacy and his supposed ideals…and even I would not presume to say publicly what I ‘know’ he thought or felt. This is especially dangerous in the case of political affiliation. It is unfair and presumptuous to use him to bolster any platform.”

So all of this drama got me thinking — who would Johnny Cash support in upcoming election? READ ON for more of this week’s LoC…