Wrapping up the White Poppies for Remembrance series with a narrative late-night wander through Westminster, London, DaveO meanders past military monuments, victory squares, cenotaphs, palaces, royal parks, war museum, war chambers, riot fences, war protesters, churches, parliament and finishing at St. James park for a sitdown under a weeping willow to consider monarchy, individual rights and responsibilities, and the role of class division in waging war as London’s sirens, trains, and Big Ben fill the night.
Jerry Garcia Band (with John Kahn), acoustic, Oregon State Penitentiary, Lonesome Prison Blues, Salem OR 050582 via archive.org New Riders of the Purple Sagew/ Robert Hunter, April 8, 2006, Venue: Mystic Theater, Petaluma, CA
Source: Schoeps MK4v > V3 > 744T @24/96 Lineage: 744T > Audobe Audition 16/44> CDwav > Flac16 Taped by: Pete Gilmore, Monkey Tunes Transferred by: Dawne Sacchetti
Pete Stone - Golden Frontier via KEXP Song of the Day
Bonus: (links coming soon perhaps)
The Yuigers - repressed Muslim Chinese in Guatanamo
Back home on the North Vancouver porch, Dave reads from Clay Mcleod’s essay Why I Don’t Wear a Poppy while sending peace and resistance towards the decent lieutenant Magnum in Iraq and the Philippines along with earnest comrades at arms and peaceful strangers in war torn lands. Plus he admonishes the Canadian Legion for blocking the sale of white poppies while banjo-ist Wm. Lenker sings from the woodshed and The Grateful Dead leave this Brokedown Palace … on my hands and my knees, I will roll roll roll …
Last year The Royal Canadian Legion through it legal representative demanded that Canadian groups stop distribution them and that the PPU stop making white poppies available in Canada, or else. That was the gist, though expressed in more formal language. According to the RCL’s legal representatives, the white poppy infringes the Legion’s poppy trademark. The PPU replied at length; our central point was that we disagreed with their argument. We have not heard from them since but the Canadian shop at the centre of this complaint regrettably had to acquiesce. You can read more about this at http://tinyurl.com/2mc7pq where you can also find out about the white poppy project and the PPU.
Following the legal threats both the promoters in Canada and Canadians who bought the poppy from us hoped that white poppies would again be available in Canada this year.
White poppies in any quantity are available from us for dispatch anywhere in the world including Canada.
August 16, 2007 at 6:25 am
· Filed under White Poppies
A story about Iraqi resistance fighters and their personal motivations by a young writer called Waiting in Baghdad is the crux of the next White Poppies for Remembrance episode - read from the homeporch with a Welsh mining lantern and firetrucks rolling past. Written by Chris K, a player on a dave-coached in-line hockey team in Olympia Washington in 2002.
Taking a Remembrance Day respite to enjoy a conscious discussion with ‘Trigger’ at Vancouver’s New Amsterdam Cafe, Dave O listens to the consequences and conditions of space, in tangible and gestalt senses, and reviews the paradigm shifts of Vancouver’s downtown Eastside ‘four corners’ - once one of the grandest intersections in the British Empire.
Later, he wanders and reads Walt Whitman [When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd] and Gord Downie [from Coke Machine Glow] to bring it ’round home for this part #7 of the White Poppies for Remembrance series.
Part 6 of the White Poppies for Remembrance series considers the opportunity cost of the lost human potential while at the Victory cenotaph in downtown Vancouver - along the way, troubadours sing about Providence, Joyful(ness) along with spontaneous percussion-scapes and city bus brakes.
DaveO examines the value of life with Gord Downie’s swift deconstructions of existence from Coke Machine Glow, Henry David Thoreau’s visionary stories of perseverance and the value of the mindfulness from Walden and a personal declaration of sovereignty and dignity from original Letters from Russia read in hospital to ole gramps.
Chris Jacobsen, “Providence” from “Houseboat” 1995 Spilt Milk Records (cassette)
Note: Chris is a quick-laughing, semi-salty, ukulele-playing, sea captain in knew in Guam in the 90’s - last heard from in Long Beach, WA or somewhere in Rhode Island - i should have a photo around here somewhere … Message to Chris: I hope to have a brew with you soon! Send a postcard.
Part 5 of the White Poppies for Remembrance series continues with Dave at Victory Park, this time reading the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (adopted by General Assembly Dec. 10th 1948) with riffs on tolerance, human relations, common understanding and mutual respect, including a healthy sampling of articles on brotherhood, privacy, special treatment for mothers plus a commentary about refugee status and the illegal nature of torture and humiliating treatment.
Then brings it ’round home with a snippet from H.D. Thoreau’s Walden about sovereign man being the origin of the political state while accompanied by lively jazz (via bootleg cassette) featuring Joe Williamson and cohorts in Banff from way back playing about Peace to the Children of our Universe and Common Market offering up replinishing Refresh (ment) live on KEXP.
Finding Victory Park cenotaph in post-ceremony calm, Dave settles onto a bench for lost sailors with some bagpipers to chat about John Macrae’s Flander’s Field poem and mull the tension between remembering noble effort and embracing jingoistic behavior. This conundrum is evident in snippets of an essay by Stephen Osborne - The Poem and the Poppy - which relates the amazing grace of drinking gin with Gramps who was there - ‘in the void.’
Part Three of the White Poppies for Remembrance series (recorded Nov. 2006) features reading from the Dhammapada by Siddhartha Gautama while waiting for the Seabus heading towards Victory Park. Along the way, Dave talks about conscientious objection and military service evaders in Canada, mercy and the state of the downtown eastside.
Page France sings Chariot, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club sings about Mercy, (both found on KEXP S.o.t.D. podcast) and Bill Janovitz from Here Comes a Regular score lays down some background groove - plus some Andean flute, soulful saxriffs and American Pie wisdom from Clayton the seabus busker along the way.
Part Two of the White Poppies for Remembrance series finds Dave O eating oatmeal in North Van before heading downtown Vancouver to check in on Remembrance Day remembering activities. While having a bite to eat, he explains the mission of the White Poppies for Peace (a Peace Pledge Union project) folks based in the UK - to abolish war and violence of all kinds and spread peaceful vibes while Rocky Votolato “White Daisy Passing” and Black Tories provide tunes.
‘War is a crime against humanity. I renounce war, and am therefore determined not to support any kind of war. I am also determined to work for the removal of all causes of war.’ PPU pledge White Poppies for Peace
Embarking on a White Poppies for Remembrance Day series, Dave reads the role of King Agamemnon from the Oresteia by Aeschylus written in the 6th century BC. The King returns to Argos by chariot with a captured royal concubine in tow and tales of plunder and pillage after defeating Troy and is met by his conniving wife.
Postcards from Gravelly Beach is a spoken word literature podcast featuring me (Dave O) reading literary stalwarts - from Russians to the beats - along with smatterings from original works - fiction, freeverse and expository.
Each episode is carefully homegrown - recorded spontaneously at some splendid locale and backed by an eclectic assortment of music.
Wise book enthusiasts are advised to visit Last Word Books in OlyWa. Check the tasty stash including the thick stack from the legendary counter-culture publisher Loompanics plus Evergreen College library books - cheap out the backdoor.
