JTMP

JAN 3, 2013 - Musical activist Cael 8 sent us a great music video called "Ohhhhh" he wrote for "the unfortunate children, the battered children..." and speaks out against childhood abuse and violence and says in the song, "Remember when you was a child...Watching others in the farmyard, Violence which didn't look so hard". He wrote the music and plays all the instruments, check the video out below, and don't forget to "Like It"!

Cornelius Cardew's Treatise Composition rejecting notes and structure.

DEC 3, 2012 - Cornelius Cardew, a left-leaning musical activist who was heavily involved with street fights against fascists that often landed him in jail, was a victim of an unsolved hit-and-run in 1981, and some content that he may have been targeted and assassinated for his heavy politics and activism. Cardew was an English "avant garde" experimental piano composer who also challenged the status quo of piano composing. He even challenged using notes and the rigid structure of sheet music. He created compositions on paper with symbols and geometric shapes instead of notes, with no explicit instruction for the instrumentalist; although he stressed artists should get together beforehand and decide how they would interpret the symbols and shapes. One of his most famous was "Treatise".

Cardew later then rejected his experimentation for what he called, "People's Liberation Music". He joined forces with many other British musical activists, and formed the "Peoples Liberation Music group", and wrote songs such as, "Smash the Social Contract" and got heavily involved with Marxism and communism; he fought against neo-Nazism revival in Europe which many people believe may have made him a target for murder. Read more about him on his Wikipedia page. Tom Service of the Guardian has a blog post up detailing his life and career, his politics and then his sudden death at the young age of 45. Check out a composition from Cardew from back in 1974, called "Revolution is the Main Trend".

DEC 20, 2012 - Paul Simon sang yesterday at the funeral yesterday of the heroic teacher who died trying to save her students in the Connecticut tragedy. Paul Simon knows the Soto family through his nurse sister-in-law, and during the middle of the service, Simon picked up his acoustic guitar and sang Victoria's favorite song, "The Sound of Silence". When he finished there was no applause, just sobs and hushed, reverent silence. Read more on the Daily Caller and also sign their petition to ban assault weapons here.

DEC 18, 2012 - Ted Nugent, one of the leading Teabagger mouthpieces, Tweeted after the news broke of the national tragedy in Connecticut that "we take our kids huntin so we dont hafta hunt our kids", and has (no pun intended) stuck to his guns and continues to voraciously and vocally support the rights of Bushmasters to be in our communities, rather than side with the families who want to protect their children. RawStory.com reports that Discovery Channel announced they have canceled the "Ted Nugent's Gun Country" TV show, along with another unrelated show "American Guns". One wonders about the "Sons of Guns" TV gun show and it's future. I say we rethink this whole thing about these death machines being "entertainment". Hitler ruined the toothbrush mustache, and Lanza ruined assault weapons as "entertainment". Take up another hobby, do a different TV show. JTMP fully supports bringing back the assault weapons ban, closing the "gun show loophole", and other measures to make our communities safer and reduce the chance, even if slightly, of a tragedy like this one.

DEC 18, 2012 - A Massey Energy executive will plead guilty to 2 criminal counts of violating safety laws and lying to government officials, read more on JTMP Green here.
(photo credit FacesoftheMine.com)