georgefish's blog

In the past, my blues writings for Against the Current and the Webzine have tended to be obituaries. Here's a discussion of a great soul/blues singer, though, who's very much alive--Cyril Neville. This essay below is an expanded version of a CD review that appeared in the June 3, 2010 issue of the online Blues Blast magazine, which can be accessed at www.TheBluesBlast.com--GF

Cyril Neville
The Essential Cyril Neville
1994-2007
MC Records
11 tracks
Total time: 57:13

www.myspace.com/cyrilneville

Today, May 5, is also, of course, Cinco de Mayo, the holiday celebrated by Americans that recognizes the victory over the French colonialist army by a rag-tag army of Mexican peasants in 1862, in the Mexican state of Puebla--truly a people's victory.

But May 5 is Karl Marx's birthday as well; Marx was born on this date in 1818 in Trier, Germany. Marx's family had a long lineage of rabbis, but Karl's father converted to Lutheranism the year before his birth--a comon "assimilationist" strategy among Jews to avoid persecution and discrimination because they were Jewish. For now they were Christians!

Karl Marx began his active political life after he received his Ph.D. in 1842, becoming the editor of the Rheinisische Zeitung, a liberal newspaper shut down soon thereafter by the authorities. It was also in 1842 that he met Frederick Engels, and their lifelong friendship and political collaboration began in earnest in 1844.

George W. Bush was the keynote speaker at the anti-abortion Celebration of Life Event at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana on April 15, 2010. While 4,000 "pro-lifers" paid $30-$70 apiece to hear him speak, George W.'s visit was also greeted by a sprited group of around 20 protestors opposing his anti-women's rights stance, along with noting his nefarious activities in launching the war against Iraq and his general lying to the U.S. and world publics about what he was up to.

The demonstration was organized with little publicity and on short notice by Amy Shackelford, a soon-to-graduate senior in social work at Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis (IUPUI). She also contacted and spoke before local media, and a story and pictures on the demonstration were posted the next day in the Indianapolis Star. Local TV news also interviewed her.

The demonstrators were overwhelmingly young, although there were seven older persons who also protested, long-standing Indianapolis political activists; the demonstrators were also overwhelmingly female, and the demonstrators were united in opposing both Bush's anti-choice stance as well as his criminal acts in launching the war in Iraq. Opposition to both was vocally expressed by the demonstrators, and the demonstrators' signs echoed both oppositions. Among the protestors was Allison Luthe, Community Organizer for Central Indiana JwJ. Many of the protestors were Amy Shackelford's fellow IUPUI students.

Willie Mitchell, multi-faceted veteran of Memphis soul, who served as musician, long-time producer and executive at Hi Records, and talent deveoper, died recently.

I live in Indianapolis, where I am currently active in the Indiana Socialist Fellowship.