Vic Chesnutt and the Real Costs of Poor Health Care

The holidays are supposed to be times of joy, but this past Christmas brought sorrow to the world of music. On Christmas day, Vic Chesnutt, the singer-songwriter from Athens, GA, died from purposeful overdose of muscle relaxers.

Vic had been confined to a wheelchair since he was 18, when he broke his neck in an auto accident. It was from this vantage point that Vic songs emanated. Often funny in a dark Faulknarian way, Vic was probably one of the finest songwriters living, at least until Christmas day. In concert Vic seemed frail and shy, yet he was able to hold an audience as though they were moths and he was the light.

This fall he released the album, At the Cut, which the LA Times called “death-obsessed.” When interviewed by that paper, Vic discussed his mounting health care bills, which exceeded $70,000! A statement he made then was prophetic: "I was making payments, but I can't anymore and I really have no idea what I'm going to do. It seems absurd they can charge this much. When I think about all this, it gets me so furious. I could die tomorrow because of other operations I need that I can't afford. I could die any day now, but I don't want to pay them another nickel."

However, what’s frightening was how truly conflicted, as many of us are, Vic was. IN an Huffington Post Interview, he stated, “I can sing a love song to death because, it's no secret, I've suicided several times. I suck at it, it didn't work. But it's a song about a man who discovers he wants to live. It's like a breakup song with death.”

Yet, Vic watched the health care debate with great scrutiny. “I've had intimate relations with the health industry for many, many years. I've been in hospitals around the world too, so I've seen the way it works in other countries. Some of the healthcare debate that's going on now is some of the most ludicrous discussions I've ever seen. It's hilarious! Obama's incompetent and the right are morons.”

In the end we lost a sensitive songwriter fighting the antiquated behemoth health care system. The behemoth won.

p.s. Vic. Will you sign my iiiiiipod pllllleeeeeaaaasse?

Nothing Must Be Something

A couple of nothings that seem to be something:

Grammys:

For the second year, CBS aired The Grammy Nominations Concert Live. I was quickly dulled into submission and stared disinterestedly at the television for 25 minutes before, by the sheer power of body over mind, I was able to change the channel to watch something imminently more interesting—a repeat of a televised football game I had already watched! If this was a preview of what is to come at the end of January, I won’t need to make any excuses as to why I didn’t see the Grammys. Beyonce, Taylor Swift, and Lady Gaga—when this is the happening, interesting bunch, you know you’re in for a winner of an evening. P.S. Note to Kanye: Beyonce’s video and song are pedantic yawners. P.P.S. Nomination for Hall & Oates "Sara Smile"? WTF Nomination for David Byrne and Brian Eno Everything That Happens Will Happen Today! OMFG

Adam Lambert and the American Music Awards:

Adam Lambert is trying to sell an album. Hmmmm—what’s the best way to sell something? SEX! Why is sex the best way to sell something? Because repressed American’s want more SEX! And the overblown “controversy” about his “sexually charged” performance is in reality a call for we want more SEX! Every denial is the return of the frustrated desire—even the denial for homosexual sex! P.S. His debut album entered the charts at #3. I guess American couldn’t handle it.

The other day, the USA TODAY ran an article about how some musicians and the Hard Rock International (cafes, hotels, casinos, t-shirts, cute pins, etc) have created the “Imagine There’s No Hunger” campaign, which seeks “to help children and the fight against hunger and poverty.” Part of the campaign to raise money is an album, SERVE4, with songs by the likes of John Lennon, O.A.R., and Elvis Costello among others. It’s hard to be cynical about something that is obvisouly working towards the public good. After all, what nut or free market kool-aid drinker is in favor of hunger and starvation? However, when we look closely there is a problem.

World-wide hunger and starvation is a serious problem. According to the Food and Agriculture Association of the United Nations, 1.02 billion people go hungry every day. That’s more people than the US, Canada and the EU combined! However, the problem is not simply one of not enough food.

On Anup Shah’s website Global Issues, he relates some of the causes of hunger as: land ownership; export-oriented agriculture; war; lack of democracy, etc. Thus, the problem is a structural one. In the end, we need to change the system that causes hunger and poverty. Any system that accepts poverty as a structural imperative is fundamentally flawed and must be changed. Giving money to alleviate a symptom, such as hunger, simply perpetuates the injustices the system creates.

Now, that doesn’t mean that I don’t support such causes—I do. But I want us all to realize that until we change the system that creates these issues, we will continue to pay for them.

The AC/DC Fetish

With about 10,000 other lunatics, I celebrated the ideological and adolescent fantasies of the rock-n-roll monster that is AC/DC. Arriving early, fearing the worse with the new paperless ticketing system designed to thwart scalpers, we had no problem getting through the gate and past the $35 t-shirts, to find our 10th row seats. After removing the opening act’s gear, the stage was set for one of the most popular and enduring bands in rock.

The lights dropped and a large video screen behind the stage displayed a cartoon of the rock-n-roll train engineered by a devilish imp likeness of Angus Young. Of course on this train trouble arrived in the form of scantily clad ladies who distracted the band in various lascivious ways. The antagonists of the intro video, disproportionately built young women, who would make every parent cringe and every young boy anxious, set the tone for the evening. As Angus reached for the guitar that would save the train, the stage exploded with pyro and the screen split in two, as a full-sized steam train rolled onto the stage along with the band launching into the lead single, “Rock N’ Roll Train,” from the new album. “Black Ice” (available exclusively at Wal-mart) was well represented throughout the night with 4 of the set’s 18 songs.

With lyrics work-horse lyrics about the holy trinity—sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll—AC/DC are not encouraging mass dissent or protest. In fact, their brand of escapism keeps us more firmly entrenched in the hegemonic, patriarchal ideology of global capitalism. The video accompanying the concert version of “War Machine,” depicts woman and guitars being dropped out of a bomber outfitted with devil horns and piloted by you know who. They played their hits from “Highway to Hell” to “Back in Black” with brutal volume, guitar mastery, and staging to keep all the ADHD kids enthralled. Which brings us to the idea of “fetishistic disavowal”; the idea of saying, “I know very well, but… .” “I know I should not shop at Wal-mart because it furthers the exploitation of the working class, but… .”
As it relates to AC/DC: “ I know I shouldn’t be enjoying the objectification of women, the reveling in drug use, and the deafening loudness of the music, but…it’s awesome!!!”

Is it political? It's the Flaming Lips!

OK, although the new song from the Flaming Lips isn't the most political, it sure is one of the best musical performances I've seen on TV this year.

With "Watching the Planets," the Flaming Lips have returned to their mischievous mind expansion attack.

Conan gives a shout out for the Lips' upcoming VooDoo Fest

appearance.

If you haven't seen the Lips live, you haven't seen the other side of the rainbow.

Are the Backstreet Boys what is wrong with music?

Over the hill boy band, Backstreet Boys, have released a new single. … ... After a moment or two of silence in order to process such news, most people reply, “So what?” Well, the good folks at USA Today must feel that this is important news. For on Oct. 5, the lead music review was of the new song, “This is Us.” Maybe it was a slow week in music.

Nonetheless, the real problem with the review comes when Elysa Gardner writes: “Certainly, no one expects, or wants, to listen to the Backstreet Boys dissect the conflict in Afghanistan.” And here may be the actual problem with most music: it is afraid to confront the audience and make them think. With market-driven music riding the airwaves into the vacuum between the ears of most “consumers,” it is no wonder most people haven’t a clue when it comes to the realities of our society. Granted, those realities are complex and cannot be adequately addressed in a three minute pop song; however, that doesn’t mean that music has to become empty of all social significance. Maybe if the Backstreet Boys would “dissect the conflict [war] in Afghanistan,” their fans would become more politically active. If more musicians were openly political, then politics wouldn’t be a dirty word. And hell, if the Backstreet Boys released a song about the numerous wars we have recently instigated, I might just buy their CD. Might!

Mr. Magic--Original Rap DJ Dies

This weekend DJ Mr. Magic passed away from a heart attack. Although he was the first DJ on commercial radio to have a rap show and help start the careers of many rap and hip-hop performers, since he was in New York I never heard a show of his. Until his death, I had no idea how influential he was to the burgeoning rap scene.

Many of you probably never heard him either but then again, maybe you have...

Check out this Public Enemy performance from Coachella 2009. The tune is from their seminal album It takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (if you don’t own it—you should).

You can listen to the NPR story about his death here.

Anyone who helped launch Boogie Down Productions and Public Enemy (even accidentally) deserves to be remembered.