Spreading the Word:

Irrepressible.Info

Around the world, journalists, activists, and ordinary 'net users like you and me are being silenced. Some have their site content censored, some have their site shut down, and still others end up in prison. Amnesty International has launched a campaign against Internet repression and the big tech companies that allow political persecution, censorship, and ignorance to perpetuate in favor of making money. Visit Irrepressible.info to find out how you can participate in this movement if you belief the Internet should be a place of freedom.

Help the Art & Artists Affected by Hurricane Katrina

Many irreparable losses were suffered in the Southern U.S. in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. If you are interested in helping artists, musicians, and museums, here are sites giving contribution details:

American Association of Museums Katrina Contributions Page

Contemporary Arts Museum Houston - Katrina Artists Trust

American Federation of Musicians Gulf Coast Relief Fund

ArtsJournal Blog with many other great links

Help An Artist In Need

Rebekah Del Rio - who stole the show with her rendition of Roy Orbison's "Crying" in the
film Mulholland Drive - needs your help to raise support for her son, recently diagnosed
with a rare soft tissue sarcoma. Visit the Phillip DeMars Cancer Fund site and contribute what you can. A benefit event is taking place August 8 on the Universal Studios lot; tickets are available via the website.

Live Music Online at NPR

National Public Radio is streaming live concerts from Washington, D.C.'s 9:30 Club at NPR.org. Upcoming gigs including David Gray (Saturday, August 6) Lucinda Williams (Sunday, August 7) and Kings of Leon and Secret Machines (Thursday, August 11). Since January, NPR.org has broadcast shows by Bloc Party, The Decemberists, Interpol, Bright Eyes and Wilco. Visit NPR's website for archives and schedule updates.

Guerilla News Network: Filling the Gap

Looking for news that matters, coupled with in-the-trenches filmmaking that with artistic integrity? Visit Guerilla News Network. If you're familiar with Eminem's "Mosh" video - seen frequently in the days leading up to the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election - then you know the work of GNN. Find out about the stories taking place around the world that most mass media won't report. Watch "The Ground Truth", Patricia Foulkrod's devastating portrait of soldiers fighting the war in Iraq, and remember the human cost of this ongoing war.

More film with a purpose:

Amnesty International Film Festival (May 24-29)

Human Rights Watch Film Festival (June 9-23)

Amnesty International and Jaguares Announce
Justice for the Women of Juarez Benefit Concert

See TIMBT's related coverage of V-Day 2004 events in Juarez and the 2002 MUJER Festival

Tickets are now on sale for Amnesty International’s benefit concert featuring the multi-platinum Mexican rock band Jaguares to draw attention to the unsolved murders of nearly 400 young women in Juarez and Chihuahua and to call for community action

The concert will be held at 9 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 2, at the House of Blues L.A. (8430 Sunset Blvd.). Tickets are available through the House of Blues and Ticketmaster; general admission is $50, VIP/Women of Juarez reception with Jaguares and balcony tickets $100.

As part of a broad effort to end violence against women, Amnesty International’s Justice for the Women of Juarez concert includes support from members of Congress, women's groups, labor, business, religious and community leaders, social justice and human rights organizations, artists, celebrities, elected officials, and media representatives.

For more than a decade, Juarez and Chihuahua (near the Mexico-U.S. border) have been killing fields for young women. Many of the victims were raped and mutilated. Jaguares is performing for free and the House of Blues is donating the venue and covering expenses so that all proceeds from the concert will support Amnesty International's work to bring justice to the women of Juarez. Jaguares has been working to promote this issue for many years. Some 100,000 signatures were collected in California alone by fans of the band.

“Jaguares is participating in Amnesty International’s benefit concert to help return dignity to the women of Juarez and to resolve this problem that has become a catastrophe. To do nothing would be to take part in the murders as well," said Saul Hernandez, Jaguares singer-songwriter-guitarist. Hernandez added, “The government isn’t doing enough to resolve this problem. We have to be the ones who generate change. It’s important that people know their rights and use their right to denounce wrong doings. This may seem very idealistic, but I believe in a just world. Until I die, I will shout about these issues.”

Before and during the concert, family members of victims, Amnesty International activists, and members of Congress will outline efforts to seek justice for the murdered women.
Violence against women is one of Amnesty International’s main areas of concern and action. The human rights organization works to have governments ratify the international Treaty for the Rights of Women. It also supports legislation and initiatives to eradicate violence against women, and works to increase public awareness of the problem as a global human rights issue.

Amnesty encourages concert attendees to sign letters to Mexican officials calling for an end to the violence and to US lawmakers in support of pending legislation related to it. Specifically, supporting the bipartisan resolutions in the U.S. Congress calling attention to the brutal murders of more than 370 young women in Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua, Mexico since 1993. Many of the women were abducted, held captive for several days and subjected to humiliation, torture and horrific sexual violence before dying, mostly as a result of asphyxiation caused by strangulation or from being beaten.

Amnesty International and Mexican authorities have also reported that a large number of these women were victims of domestic violence. The victims were generally poor and mostly between the ages of 14 and 25. They were students, waitresses, prostitutes, or workers in the local assembly plants known as maquilas. Each body visibly illustrates the horrible violence to which women are subject, and are a reminder of the impunity that exists in these cases.

Amnesty International is concerned that many of these abductions and deaths have not been effectively investigated, and that some families have received conflicting and erroneous information about their deceased relatives. According to a recent review of fifty such cases by a Mexican Federal Prosecutor, as many as 81 local officials are alleged to have acted negligently in handling these cases.

While steps are being taken to prevent future deaths and abductions, these may not be enough as there have been new reports of bodies and missing women in both Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua. In addition, Amnesty International is concerned that local and federal authorities are not doing enough to clear up the more than 370 cases already before the authorities.

For further information see www.amnestyusa.org/juarez

Look, Listen, Learn and Let Your Voice Be Heard

Films To See Before You Vote aims to empower voters by encouraging film as tools for information, inspiration and education - visit and view the range of movies (both old and new) available that are relevant to the upcoming elections.

 Axis of Justice is working to bring together musicians, fans, and grassroots political organizations to fight for social justice - and they're doing a great job of it so far. Click here to find out how you can get involved.

Voto Latino is a new movement empowering communities to become more politically active; click here for their news and events.

Click here to register to vote online/by mail, find a polling place, and get all the information you need to let your voice be heard on November 2.

And did you know there are an estimated 7 million Americans living outside the country who are eligible to vote? Click on Tell An American To Vote if you know of (or are) an American living abroad.

FAHRENHEIT 9/11 SWAT TEAM ASSEMBLED TO RESPOND TO EXTREMIST ATTACKS 
 
Soldiers, 9/11 Families, Leaders, Authors and Others Join to Fight Attacks on FAHRENHEIT 9/11
 
New York City, NY --  FAHRENHEIT 9/11 today announced the formation of a SWAT Team to respond to the extremist attacks being launched against the film. The FAHRENHEIT 9/11 SWAT Team, which includes soldiers, September 11th families, national leaders, authors and others, will be available on a moment’s notice to respond to the extremist attacks.
 
Michael Moore, director of FAHRENHEIT 9/11, commented, “The First Amendment is our friend and the Constitution our ally in this matter. These extremist groups seem to be under the impression that only their viewpoints can be heard. Well, this is America, and in America our freedom of speech and expression is a right and it is un-American to try to block it. I am proud that such great American patriots as Governor Mario Cuomo, American soldiers who fought in Iraq and family members of September 11th victims are on the side of this movie, the side of the First Amendment and the side of the United States Constitution.”
 
FAHREHNEIT 9/11 has been the subject of attacks by extremist organizations in an effort to stop Americans from seeing the film. Groups like Move America Forward and Citizens United are organizing to block the film. Move America Forward has been trying to intimidate theater owners into not showing the film and Citizens United has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission. Despite the attempts of the right wing, the movie is a box office smash as theaters continue to sell out all across America. FAHRENHEIT 9/11 was the number one movie in America last weekend, it set the record for first weekend box office sales for a movie showing on less than 1000 screens, and it broke the previous records for total sales for a documentary in its first weekend.
  
 The Fahrenheit 9/11 SWAT Team includes: Dan Briody
(Author of The Iron Triangle: Inside the Secret World of the Carlyle Group), Hon. Mario Cuomo (Former Governor of New York), Karen Duffy (TV Nation and Author of A Slob in the Kitchen), Arianna Huffington (Author/Activist), Chris Lehane (Democratic Strategist/Consultant to the Movie), Lila Lipscomb (Mother of Michael Pedersen, who was killed in Iraq), Craig Unger (Author of House of Bush, House of Saud: The Secret Relationship Between the World's Two Most Powerful Dynasties).
 
In addition, military families and family members of September 11 victims challenged George Bush and his Cabinet to see the film and they are available to speak out publicly about the importance of the film. They include: Mike Hoffman – Morriseville, PA
24 years old, Marine, part of the initial invasion into Iraq; Ivan Medina – Middlewon, NY
Marine, part of 1st wave of the war, lost his twin brother Irving (also a Marine) on November 14th, 2003, in an ambush in Iraq; Cari Armstrong – her fiancé is on the Kitty Hawk, he’s been away since Feb of 2002; Nancy Lessin & Charley Richardson – Heads of Military Families Speak Out; April Gallop, Pentagon worker/survivor– had her 2 month old child in daycare at the Pentagon and was told to take care of his medical bills because he wasn’t earning any wages at the time of attack.

More about Fahrenheit 9/11 can be found at www.michaelmoore.com.

Tuesday, February 24 is Grey Day

And happy birthday to George Harrison, who certainly would not have stood by the corporate greed motivating the censorship of DJ Dangermouse's Grey Album (combining the work of Jay-Z and The Beatles...hear it to believe it - that is, until the EMI lawyers shut it down...)

V-Day is a global movement to stop violence against women and girls.
It is a catalyst that promotes creative events to increase awareness, raise money,
and revitalize the spirit of existing anti-violence organizations. Through benefit
performances of Eve Ensler's groundbreaking stage piece The Vagina Monologues,
along with unique documentary film projects and innovative gatherings designed to
change social attitudes toward violence, V-Day generates broader attention upon the
fight to stop worldwide violence against women and girls including rape, battery, incest, genital mutilation and sexual slavery. In its first six years, the V-Day movement has
raised over $20,000,000 for this cause.

In 2004, V-Day events are focused upon the hundreds of women who have
disappeared and been murdered in Juarez, Mexico. On Saturday, February 14,
V-Day and Amnesty International will march across the U.S.-Mexico border to honor
more than 300 missing and murdered women of Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua, their families, and all groups that have worked tirelessly on their behalf.

Details on how you can help - including a listing of V-Day events wherever you are in the world - are at www.vday.org. Also see TIMBT coverage of The MUJER Festival, another event focusing attention on the violence in Juarez. V-Day events taking place in El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Mexico, are listed here.

Jeremy Michael Ward, sound engineer and co-writer for The Mars Volta, passed away on May 25 in Los Angeles.

It is being reported his death was caused by a drug overdose. For anyone who knew of Mars Volta, De Facto, Sparta or At the Drive-In’s music and the individuals behind it all, this announcement is a tragic shock.

The members of these bands share a lot with me. They are my age. They grew up in my hometown of El Paso, Texas. Together we went to the same schools, burger joints, dive bars, and shopping malls. We crossed the U.S.-Mexico border as teenagers to get drunk cheaply and test adolescent boundaries in Juarez. Later on as adults we tried to soak in what it really meant to be a part of such a divided land, a split personality of people, place and time.

The struggle of economic poverty, along with a richness of time-tested culture, fueled the fire of these artists and others – others like my brother, my sister and I (who became a musician, photographer and writer, respectively), and the talented Julio Venegas, to whom Mars Volta dedicated their debut album, De-loused in the Comatorium, after their friend overdosed and subsequently died. We were inspired and impassioned to get out, get away and get a hold of what the rest of the world promised outside our dusty boundaries and all that it offered of what we perceived as exhausted, irrelevant tradition, closed-minded ignorance and tragic injustice.

Some of us “made” it and touched the big time; this was definitely the case for At the Drive-In as constant sacrifice and hard work paid off with recording deals, world touring, television appearances and radio play. Through it all, the band members kept working out all the stuff in their heads and hearts that came out of growing up where and how they did. For anyone who was alongside them all those years, it was obvious where all the rage, power, awe and inspiration in their music came from. And they struggled with bigger dilemmas, too – temptations of wealth and fame that tested them and the values we were instilled with as offspring of a small, tight-knit, and predominantly Mexican-American/Catholic community: respect yourself, respect others, don’t ever forget where you came from. It can’t have been easy to try and balance such opposing forces.

For so many reasons, At the Drive-In couldn’t contain itself but out of its ashes arose The Mars Volta and Sparta, two groups of friends taking themselves in two different directions, but all still determined to express themselves through the magic of music…. The music that was their only outlet while still stuck at home in El Paso, the music that had launched their faces on thousands of magazine covers, the music that gave them access to a world much bigger and badder than the one they’d left behind. With opportunity comes power, and with power comes responsibility, and of course anyone can have accidents but I suppose what I’m beating around the bush about is arguing that yes, what happened to Jeremy is a horrendous tragedy but one that could have been prevented if success in rock music was not frustratingly synonymous with self-destructive behavior.

This is not to say that he or any of us wouldn’t have fallen victim to scenarios just as bad (if not worse) if we’d just stayed home for the rest of our lives. Our hometown was by no means immune to crime and evil; drug trafficking, murder and everything in between were facts of life in a place like that. Yet despite all of that we were driven out by other factors, an attitude we perceived as much worse and destructive, because while it did not necessarily kill the body, it killed the soul.

We all grew up knowing family, friends, teachers, co-workers – practically everyone around us – who had spent almost every moment of their lives in El Paso, never venturing beyond the city limits save rare vacations or business trips. And we lamented them, we vowed never to become them, we believed that the stagnant mess our city had become was a direct result of such apathy, such curbed desire to experience the rest of the world and reality. Yet what have any of us achieved by offering such a precious sacrifice, one of our own, in such a stupid way?

Where did this formula come from? Life begets art begets fame begets self-destruction. Who says it has to be this way? Of course you can always argue that art comes from all of it – first from all that you feel you lack, then as the materialism and popularity pours in (or doesn’t) that effects more art, which causes more pain which causes crap like drug use, etc. etc. Then there’s the fact that self-destruction is oft times a life-long pattern, but that more fortunate positions in life (i.e. the lifestyle of a rock musician) afford greater access to things that can and will hurt you.

So would it have better for all of us to stay home and stay miserable yet stay safe? There is no way to know. There is no way of justifying what has happened, either. All I can sum it up with is this: To Jeremy’s family – which includes The Mars Volta, De Facto, Sparta and At the Drive-In – we offer our grief, our support and our love. And I pray that we all learn something from this, but most of all I hope with all my heart that something like it never happens again.

(LYG, 28 May 2003)

Official Statement from Mars Volta:

The members, family and friends of The Mars Volta were shocked and saddened to hear of the passing of Mars Volta band member Jeremy Ward. Ward, 27, was found dead in his Los Angeles home by his roommate on the evening of Sunday, May 25. The cause of death has yet to be determined pending autopsy.

Ward served as sound manipulator for The Mars Volta, working on every one of their recordings and live shows. The band commented on this loss as follows:

”We have collaborated with Jeremy for the past 10 years. He was the driving force of Defacto, and an integral part of The Mars Volta, who often went unnoticed because he chose to perform offstage. In addition to music, Jeremy was an incredibly talented writer and painter.

We are devastated by the loss, but know that Jeremy will continue to be with us in spirit at every show and during the making of every record.”

Given the disturbing political and humanitarian situation in the Middle East, read about a group of artists who have joined together to take a stand.
Musicians United to Win Without War

More literary and artistic outlets for peace can be found here:

Poets Against The War

United For Peace

Nth Position

The Guardian (UK) Guide To Anti-War Web Sites

Living in the United States, journalists are privileged with the opportunity to exploit the negative. In many other places around the world, writers are threatened, kidnapped, tortured or killed for doing just that. Amnesty International reports on the current situation in Haiti; its Freedom of Expression reports page (select from the drop-down menu here) offers many other scenarios to beware of and take action against.

On Sunday July 14, MUJER (Musicians United for Justice, Equality, and Respect) presents a historic benefit event. The MUJER Festival takes place in El Paso, Texas, just across the border from Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, to bring urgent attention to a desperate situation that has gone unjustly ignored for the past nine years.