I've had a number of discussions with people online lately that seem to put the blame of certain areas of society on some easily identifiable societal group. It always makes me step back, wonder and shake my head at bone-headed statements like "The biggest cost to this country is having 'illegal immigrants'..." and other things like that.
Here is not the place to debate such a point. But whenever things like this come up, I always think back to this anti-folk classic originally by Lee Goland, and since remade by many people, called "Teenage Immigrant Welfare Mothers on Drugs".
"Who's to blame for the potholes and flooding and drought?
Who's to blame for unemployment and all the things I'm pissed off about?"
Do some people just need a focal point to vent their frustration at?
In this song, the protagonist finds a convenient, if also fictitious minority group to take issue with. It's quite funny. Check it out.
Showing posts with label Protest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Protest. Show all posts
Friday, 10 January 2014
Friday, 8 November 2013
A Modern Protest
Our local hamburger shop, independently run and privately family owned, is under threat from a corporate giant.
Hungry Jacks (an Australian reseller of all things Burger King) is threatening a small Central Coast takeaway shop because of their sumptuous homemade hamburgers they call the "Wambie Whopper". They are claiming copyright infringement on the term "Whopper". As the term is a colloquialism I don't know how that will play out in the courts, but the locals don't like big business threatening the little guy.
Here is a protest song, written to the tune of "Zombie" by The Cranberries in support of Wambie Whoppers against the big corporate might of HJs.
Check it. And if you're ever on the central coast of NSW, go have a Wambie Whopper while you still can!
STOP PRESS!!! As of 08 November 2013, Hungry Jacks' CEO Jack Cowin has announced that any legal threat to Wambie Whoppers has been revoked and they have apologised for any ill will. The two businesses are now allowed to co-exist in peace. YAY!!!
Hungry Jacks (an Australian reseller of all things Burger King) is threatening a small Central Coast takeaway shop because of their sumptuous homemade hamburgers they call the "Wambie Whopper". They are claiming copyright infringement on the term "Whopper". As the term is a colloquialism I don't know how that will play out in the courts, but the locals don't like big business threatening the little guy.
Here is a protest song, written to the tune of "Zombie" by The Cranberries in support of Wambie Whoppers against the big corporate might of HJs.
Check it. And if you're ever on the central coast of NSW, go have a Wambie Whopper while you still can!
STOP PRESS!!! As of 08 November 2013, Hungry Jacks' CEO Jack Cowin has announced that any legal threat to Wambie Whoppers has been revoked and they have apologised for any ill will. The two businesses are now allowed to co-exist in peace. YAY!!!
Sunday, 5 May 2013
Sunday Sessions: Blow Up Hollywood
Following on from my previous post about Local Resident Failure, here's a socio-political statement of a different nature, with an all-too honest focus on the horrors of war.
New York based band Blow Up Hollywood released what many consider to be one of the best albums of the last 10 years, "The Diaries of Private Henry Hill" in 2006. Leader of the band, Steve Messina, met a man who had ventured into the homeless shelter he was managing. The man was in a state of shock after hearing the news that his son had died fighting in the Iraq conflict in 2004. The man lent Steve his late son's diaries, written from the front lines in the conflict.
The album the band created based on the diaries is both poignant and thought-provoking. It neither promotes, supports, nor condemns the war, but rather it weaves an aural story in the listener's mind that encourages them to form their own opinions. It is truly an astounding album, up there with the best concept records of Pink Floyd. Featured below is the first single from the album. The opening track, and scene setter for the album proper, "WMD".
Enjoy.
Take a listen to the album:
New York based band Blow Up Hollywood released what many consider to be one of the best albums of the last 10 years, "The Diaries of Private Henry Hill" in 2006. Leader of the band, Steve Messina, met a man who had ventured into the homeless shelter he was managing. The man was in a state of shock after hearing the news that his son had died fighting in the Iraq conflict in 2004. The man lent Steve his late son's diaries, written from the front lines in the conflict.
The album the band created based on the diaries is both poignant and thought-provoking. It neither promotes, supports, nor condemns the war, but rather it weaves an aural story in the listener's mind that encourages them to form their own opinions. It is truly an astounding album, up there with the best concept records of Pink Floyd. Featured below is the first single from the album. The opening track, and scene setter for the album proper, "WMD".
Enjoy.
Take a listen to the album:
Wednesday, 10 April 2013
Escape from Toytown
Yesterday I let Billy Bragg explain what life was like under the rule of one of Britian's most divisive politicians, Margaret Thatcher.
Today I bring you a tribute to an equally divisive politician, but this time from the Australian Sphere: one Pauline Hanson.
Pauline Hanson, for those who don't know, stood on a platform of hard-right conservatism with a minor party named One Nation. She raised the ire of the other right-wing party in this country, The Liberal-National party, as she encroached a little too vehemently on their ideological turf, but that's a story for Margo Kingston to tell...
She got her start in the public eye by running a small Fish and Chip shop in the rural Queensland town of Ipswitch. Some of her political office staffers were known to remark in her absence that the fiery redhead was "The Fish and Chip Bitch from Ipswitch", no doubt in reference to her temper. Once she became notorious for her outspoken radical beliefs, a young Brisbane band called Escape from Toytown took the nickname, crafted a state-of-the-nation-circa-1996 address around the theme, scored some airplay on legendary alternative station 4ZZZ-FM and they quietly went off into history books.
Enjoy!
Today I bring you a tribute to an equally divisive politician, but this time from the Australian Sphere: one Pauline Hanson.
Pauline Hanson, for those who don't know, stood on a platform of hard-right conservatism with a minor party named One Nation. She raised the ire of the other right-wing party in this country, The Liberal-National party, as she encroached a little too vehemently on their ideological turf, but that's a story for Margo Kingston to tell...
She got her start in the public eye by running a small Fish and Chip shop in the rural Queensland town of Ipswitch. Some of her political office staffers were known to remark in her absence that the fiery redhead was "The Fish and Chip Bitch from Ipswitch", no doubt in reference to her temper. Once she became notorious for her outspoken radical beliefs, a young Brisbane band called Escape from Toytown took the nickname, crafted a state-of-the-nation-circa-1996 address around the theme, scored some airplay on legendary alternative station 4ZZZ-FM and they quietly went off into history books.
Enjoy!
Tuesday, 9 April 2013
Thatcherism...
...from the point of view of the British working class.
God bless Billy Bragg. He really deserves a knighthood. I offer no judgement or view on the passing of former British prime minister, the late Baroness Margaret Thatcher. It is neither my place nor am I qualified by virtue of my age to comment. If nothing else however, she inspired some of contemporary music's best to write some poignant music, of which this is one example.
Enjoy!
God bless Billy Bragg. He really deserves a knighthood. I offer no judgement or view on the passing of former British prime minister, the late Baroness Margaret Thatcher. It is neither my place nor am I qualified by virtue of my age to comment. If nothing else however, she inspired some of contemporary music's best to write some poignant music, of which this is one example.
Enjoy!
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