Wow.

Did anyone else watch Barack Obama's acceptance speech tonight? I must admit, I'm a little in awe. Best speech I've heard him give. I'll actually say it, I teared up just a bit when he alluded to Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech. I know we all hear about that in 7th grade history, but if you haven't heard Dr. King give that speech, check it out right here. It's absolutely masterful. Back to Obama. What I really appreciated was its balance. Balance between abstract and concrete, the real issues that we are facing and the potential ahead of us. The sharp distinctions with John McCain and the Republican Party, who want to give us four more years of Bush policy. This cannot stand, Barack made that resoundingly clear tonight to everyone. It's time to be proud of this country again, and not have to feel foolish anymore. It's time to take hold of history and do something that we can look back on and know that we did the right thing. We cannot sit by and let the problems of our age swallow us up: global warming, heath care, education, inequality. All of us need to do our part to help others, be it serving without pay at a shelter for families in need, helping educate our youth, learning to be a doctor. Hell, even learning to be a lawyer. Shared responsibility, I loved that line in the speech. We all have a responsibility to each other. We can't simply turn a blind eye to the social ills of our society, we can't just dismiss people or think someone else will fix it. So let's all work together, elect Obama, and get on with fixing all the shit that's gone wrong.

Anyways, now that I got that out of my system. I'm going to go hear a trombone led, jazz/funk/r&b group at the MN State Fair tomorrow. I'm pumped, it's going to be fun.

And in other music news, I'm going to go shopping for a black t-shirt and some angry pills this weekend. Why, you ask? Because on Wednesday, I (yes I), am going to fight the power at the Rage Against the Machine concert in Minneapolis. I got a ridiculously cheap ticket on eBay and I am ready to rock. I'm going by myself, but that's fine. I don't think many of my friends up here would appreciate their music, and that's perfectly alright. It's not for everyone. I figure, everyone will be so pissed off anyways, all of us strangers will become friends by default. Kind of a shitty seat, but I have a long and storied history of getting the worst seats possible at music events, so it ain't no thing. Needless to say, I'm excited. Rage doesn't play together very often, least of all in Minnesota. Plus, I this will be my first real "rock" concert. Needless to say, with the presence of our Republican friends next door in St. Paul, I'm fully expecting some leftist rants, polemical chants, face melting funk riffs, and hopefully (fingers crossed) some sort of riot.



What do I have to look forward to? Here are some quotes from Rage guitarist Tom Morello from the Star Tribune.

"While there's a lot of clinking of champagne glasses and toasting one another and passing big checks back and forth inside the convention, there's a reality on the streets outside that will be represented by the Nightwatchman and Rage Against the Machine and Anti-Flag and all the other bands playing to protest in Minneapolis-St. Paul," said Rage guitarist Tom Morello. "We'll be outside the barbed-wire fences throwing musical Molotov cocktails toward the fences."

"[T]he Rage show there (in Minneapolis) is part of the umbrella of protest against the past, present and future crimes of Republicans."