So I was at the Winnipeg Folk Festival,

[Lautremont]

watching a great workshop show with lefty rock 'n' rollers The Weakerthans, The Handsome Family (a great American husband-and-wife act who kept apologizing for being American) and others. It was all very folksy and progressive: like a real-world version of DU, but with better music.

But I realized that right beside me was approximately the last person I'd have expected to see there: Stephen Fletcher. It was very odd. It's the kind of thing that could come back and haunt him if he rises any further in the Conservative Party.

[nine23]

1. Sort of off-topic, but...

I find it really fucking sad some people have to apologise for being American, esp. given that we ALL KNOW a mere half-dozen sick, dangerous men in DC are solely resposible for this social phenom. Sure, this "plays well" to Canadian and Euro audiences, and always gets a big round of aplause, but really...the fact that these audiences ARE "FOLKSY AND PROGRESSIVE" completely negates the need to have to do this. WE KNOW WHO'S FUCKING RESPONIBLE!!!

I'm going to the Vancouver Folk Festival this weekend, and among the artists from around the world I can hardly wait to see is Iris Dement. I LOVE THIS WOMAM, I love her music, and I love "where it came from". She DOES NOT for one moment have to apologise for being a Yank, and if she does I'll be both saddened and angered. BECAUSE WE KNOW IT IS WHO'S GIVING THE US A BAD NAME. She just doesn't have to.

Thanx. My Canuck rant for the day...

[Lautremont]

2. I agree entirely

that the audiences know very well who they should blame for the state of things, and that it certainly isn't musicians. It's more than a half-dozen Washington sickos, though - at last count there were 59,054,087 enablers.