always loved Little Golden Books... 😆

Statement from the #MusiciansUnion of the United States 🇺🇸 and #Canada 🇨🇦 to the fat bastard #BruceSpringsteen #TaylorSwift

SPRINGSTEEN, on tour in the UK:

“.. "In my home, the America I love, the America I’ve written about, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous administration."

@variety.com
variety.com/2025/music/n...

NEA Tracking Update:
-1013 grants impacted
-937 organizations impacted
-$41,212,441 in impacted grants
-ArtsHERE grants (all of which were nixed) kicked this up considerably
-Not many state/regional councils have been impacted yet, but that may change

This will always be my guy

NEA Impacted Orgs/Grants 2025

NEA Cuts data points so far (datasheet listed below):

# of impacted orgs: 425
Amount of grant funding: $12.1M

% of total cuts from Theatre, Music, and Dance: 38.7%
Amount of grants from T/M/D: $4.7M

72% of cuts come from 10 states (in order): NY, CA, TX, MA, PA, WA, MN, IL, MO.

bit.ly/4kc2Qi1

What do you call humans being kidnapped and sent to another country to be imprisoned in shackles and forced to perform intense physical labor while living in horrid conditions under the threat of daily physical violence and rape?

Open a history book. You can do it. I believe in you.

It often takes a few years for a new concert work to gain traction, and when it finally does, its composer is very happy! I’m delighted that one of my favorite recent pieces, my second symphony SUSPENDED, is making the rounds. I’ll get to hear its first, intense “concert-opener" movement, AIRBORNE, at Carnegie Hall this Tuesday the 11th!

It often takes a few years for a new concert work to gain traction, and when it finally does, its composer is very happy! My 2nd symphony SUSPENDED is currently making the rounds. I’ll get to hear its first, VERY intense “concert-opener" movement, AIRBORNE, at Carnegie Hall this Tues. the 11th!

Town Hall Participation Form If you are a constituent of a lawmaker of an upcoming People's Town Hall, submit your information here! If you have questions or difficulties with the form, email info@peoplestownhall.org

For folks asking if I'm going to attend Trump's joint address to Congress next week: no. Instead, I'm choosing to hear directly from Oregonians and will be hosting an open-to-all town hall on Facebook live. Oregonians can submit questions in advance here:

It can’t come too soon.

For those of you desperately in need of distraction from today's headlines, here's a photo of a bunny & a chick who are friends.

Patience and perseverance.

Never!

Hey NYTimes — *now* you’re lighting the beacons? NOW?!? After months of “Sauron: Avatar Of Evil… Or Extreme Uniter?” thumbsucker reporting you’re screaming what we’ve known since 2015? Fuck all the way off.

No one is coming to save us but ourselves. There is no super hero. There will be no miracle. It's not a bad dream that we will just wake up from in the morning.
The only way this ends is if we kill the fantasy, roll up our sleeves, and take to the streets.
The only thing that is haunted is us.

Talking Heads - Once in a Lifetime (Official Video) YouTube video by Talking Heads

Music break…

Hundreds of blue and tan turkey tail mushrooms grow along the top of a moss speckled log. The forest floor beneath is divided between snow and bare ground with the decorated log bisecting it All photos by me

Here are some nice mushrooms

“After 25 years…”

There’s been a kind of…fashion of late to view anti-Trump libs as lame and cringe and just annoying, aesthetically. I remember this exact same aesthetic judgment in the run-up to the Iraq war. The earnest libs were right then and they’re right now.

I had the sweetest dream last night. I was driving on the LIE and there was Donald Trump in a red jumpsuit, picking up trash beside the highway.

Though the Justice Dept has deleted information about its Jan 6 prosecutions from its website, a federal judge has issued an order listing and chronicling all of the cases and prison terms

Here:

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

We will be continuing our bipartisan legal fight to support these 34 convictions of FFOTUS (First Felon Of The US) and oppose the appeal

I don’t know what eggs cost but I’ve already saved about $35 on a new press secretary costume. 🙌🏻

Fantastic, Rob!

PBS News Weekend full episode, Jan. 25, 2025 YouTube video by PBS NewsHour

A while back I asked folks why they’re joining Bluesky and the most common response I saw was, “I just want a good place to get my news” and, yall, no. Bad.

GET YOUR NEWS FROM THE NEWS

PBS Newshour is FREE FOR EVERYONE.

youtu.be/PMOYN8JWdUk?...

DEEP, by Alex Shapiro; Braydon Ross, French horn YouTube video by Alex Shapiro

One musician.
One French horn.
One very cinematic audio track.
A collective need to exhale and release our anxieties for just a few minutes.
Please enjoy Braydon Ross’s recent, beautiful performance of my piece, DEEP.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgmJ...

Ladies and gentlemen: we did it

The enormous number of Southern California music-makers I know whose lives have suddenly been turned upside down is staggering. If you or someone you know is an ASCAP member and needs assistance, please tap into the resources ASCAP has set up and click this link! www.ascap.com/lafirerelief

I’ll be posting this today