Few things in life are more fun than a pickin’ circle – a group of musicians sitting around a campfire or on a porch somewhere with guitars, banjos, fiddles. It’s always an informal affair, this practice of getting together in an open jam. Not being a musician myself, I can only imagine that actually playing is more fun than sitting on the outside listening, but the listening part suits me just fine.
One of those few things in life more fun than a pickin’ circle is an old-fashioned camp-out bluegrass festival like the Cherokee Farms Fiddler’s Convention that was held in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains near Lafayette, GA July 10th -11th of this summer. And this makes perfect sense as an old-fashioned bluegrass festival is essentially the mother of all pickin’ circles. The lineup featured no small amount of serious bluegrass and roots-Americana talent. Friday night Columbus’ own Bibb City Ramblers played the big stage followed by The Virginia Dare Devils from Asheville, NC. Those acts were followed up by festie veterans and national touring act, The Snake Oil Medicine Show.
Walker Texas Ranger and Health Care Reform: A music journalist’s non-expert take on the whole HCR debate bruhaha.
Sep 1
Posted by Katy Clyde in Commentary, playgrounds | Comments
Like just about every other citizen of our fine nation, I’ve been paying attention to the health care reform debate and hearing arguments from both sides. Most recently, my mother has been sending me emails forwarded from Newt Gingrich and Chuck Norris. For some of us on the Left end of the political spectrum, merely the sources of these missives are enough to discount the contents. However for others, like my mother, a point-by-point refuting is more necessary. So for those individuals like my mother, I will deal bit by bit with some of the ‘facts’ at hand.
In one email, noted spin-master Newt Gingrich said that this government is completely incompetent when it comes to handling money using Cash for Clunkers as an example. I will give Newt this — it is documented fact that Cash for Clunkers was far more popular than anyone thought it would be and it ran out of money months ahead of schedule. You could take this to mean, as he asserts, that the CARS program was thus a colossal failure but before you do consider that all of the clunkers traded in equated to new vehicles bought and new car lots sitting empty of inventory creating a need to make more cars thus a call-back of THOUSANDS of previously laid-off auto workers. Tragic failure? I think not.
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