A concert made for you and me

I was trying to post a small tribute to Woody Guthrie tonight, after hearing Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen sing This Land Is Your Land at the We Are One concert held Sunday afternoon on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Unfortunately, the post got all garbled with formatting problems and I had to delete it after publishing it -- due to the weirdness of the way it turned out, with sentences chopped and lost.

So here it is again, in shortened version. It was a thrill to see Pete Seeger with his banjo exhorting the crowd to sing all the verses. And there are some great verses in that song, including my very favorites. This one:

In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office - I see my people
And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin'
If this land's still made for you and me.

And this one:

As I was walkin'  -  I saw a sign there
And that sign said - no tress passin'
But on the other side  .... it didn't say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!

You don't get to hear that verse very often. How fitting that it came about on national television, with rousing backing by a youth choir as well as Pete's grandson and Bruce Springsteen singing along. Pete, was on everybody's blacklist for way too long, radical rabble-rouser that he has been for 89 years now! He looked and sounded great, even had the energy to jog off the stage when it was over.

It brought tears to my eyes and it made me want to hear Woody Guthrie, the fellow who made up that song in the depths of the depression. He didn't really mean for it to be a patriotic number, but rather a tribute to those who struggle to survive. Here's a snippet with footage of Woody in action:

Things to do during The Blizzard of '08

First thing of course, is document the event via digital photography. The next thing is to go back to your computer with full cup of coffee and read blogs for hours. Then when you feel you've finally got a good buzz on, get into snow gear and put in some shoveling time. My front steps had about a foot of snow on them. By the time I'd finished shoveling, the snow kicked up again and is going stronger on through the afternoon.

I've got some books to keep me company and good music in the background. Not feeling up to writing much myself, so here are some links worth visiting from the Village Reader:

Aphra Behn posts on "The god of the gaps" --

The gap which is usefully plugged by philosophy is narrowing as neuroscientists and cognitive scientists do their job. For example, we will soon know whether or not a moral sense is innate and why it might be that some people appear not to have one.

Renters have much to fear from the foreclosure crisis and you can read about it in Callahan's Cleveland Diary.

Beth at Fake Plastic Fish has another extremely useful link, this time to The Electronics Take Back Coalition. They are looking for stories of dead gadgets:

We would love to receive stories just like the one you documented on your blog, showing clearly how products simply can’t be fixed or upgraded, because of clear choices made by the product designers. Please send your stories to Stories@deadgadgets.com.

PZ Meyers at Pharyngula comes up with an atheist's creed. The only problem I have with that is the tendency when confronted by a creed, no matter how individualistic the claim for its use, is for it to be taken up and pushed on to others. So read PZ's, get inspired, and write your own creed if you absolutely must have one.

Obtained via Phayrngula (a scientific cornucopia of useful links): read one man's live-blogging of a vasectomy operation here.

Lots of performing arts groups are canceling performances this weekend. NEOPAL has the scoop here. That's the NEOhio Performing Arts List, an invaluable tool for finding out about shows, auditions, workshops and anything remotely related to the performing arts. Find out how to join the list here.

A wonderful post on Pete Seeger at The Brain Police, including a video of Pete's performance of Big Muddy on the old Smothers Brothers show.

Blogger has been going nuts today -- perhaps because everybody's blogging since we are all snowed in.

Most searched for item on the Village Green blog? All hail the power of Converse sneakers' new advertising campaign. Or could it be the power of the actual original tune and lyrics? Regardless, everybody wants to know more about Everybody's a Star.

Oberon, the amazing Huskador Retriver, just went out into the path I cleared this morning. Note how much more snow has fallen in the past two and a half hours. Yikes!