OPEN THREAD: September 24, 2021
During our "unplanned/forced sabbatical" here at Thrasher's Wheat, we're posting an occasional Open Thread (similar to those NYA#1 "smoke ring days") to keep discussion flowin' in the Neil Young Fan/RUST communities.
Thanks again to all for your support and love as we recover and look forward while keeping the candle burning here @ TW!
peace & love
thrashers
Labels: neil young
37 Comments:
Tens of thousands of Gretas, Earth Browns and Sun Greens are taking to the streets in Germany two days before the German federal elections. Their outcome is a very shaky with several parties and their coalition schemes after the election running rather close in the polls and more than a third of the voters allegedly still undecided.
Meanwhile Sugar Mountain, the new party, concert and culture location in Munich named after Neil Young's song by the same name is having a bumpy start with the pandemic and our acccess rules, for concerts you have to prove that you are either tested, vaxxed or recovered.
And I am still waiting for my Rust Bucket DVD replacement (and for the Archives II certificate).
That's it in Neil-Related news from your self-appointed TW correspondent in Munich, Bavaria. Not much I am afraid, but someone has to make a start.
For the rusties who have never seen it ( I didn’t) the video of Neil playing with LED Zeppelin in ‘95 is amazing.
Dionys, always great to hear your news. I hope you are well. Teaching going well? Can you tell us more about "Sugar Mountain" in Munich? Very intriguing. In the US we don't have so many Sun Greens. We are becoming dumber and dumber. Has anyone else seen that incredible video of Rocking in the Free World in Europe? I can't remember exactly where, not off the top of my head. It is a whole village singing the song with some stellar instrumentals. Europeans appreciate Neil more that US citizens, we have too high a moron factor. I am totally done with being nice with the right wing conspiracy theorists and violent degenerates. They are dangerous and threatening.
Ya know, I don’t think it works very well. Plant also can’t hit the high notes, which explains his unwillingness to play Zeppelin material with Page.
Agreed, and enough with US Oligarchy as well! And our Endless War based economy! And destroying the planet by burning fossil fuels! The planet is dying. Humans are endangered. Alan in Seattle
I have been trying to post stuff but a lot of it never shows up.
# teaching
My class with the 10th graders started off with reading the Declaration of Independence as a sample of thought in the age of reason (with all it's implications: focussing on: "We" (Who's that?), "selfevident" (How come?), "truths" (What's that?), "men" (No women?), "equal" (Are there human beings who are not equal?), all of that seen both in the historic context and the present time.
I do not agree with you Abner and Al: I do have many American and Canadian friends who are not moronic, but too many allowed the morons to claim American virtues and values and corrupt them, so that they currently are almost un-recognizable.
I just returned from voting in the Federal elections (in a system set up with the help of Americans in 1949), trying to feel sovereign, being part of the aforesaid "we". Unfortunately the German Sun & Greta generation are very few compared to the boomer generation. But the day before yesterday across Germany they were 650.000 strong. The vast majority of these kids in my country stand behind their Swedish poster girl. However, it is very difficult to initiate real change when more than 40% of the population belong to a generation sitting on their money bags, pampering their BMW's and Mercedes Benz cars being basically content with the status quo.
This terms projects: Mapping & Trapping: Where does our food come from? (Partly inspired by the education efforts around things like Farm Aid) The other one being Adaptive Climate Crisis Strategies for our school campus. We have a very modern campus designed by the architects who built the 1972 Olympic Park in Munich, the location of most Neil Young concerts in Munich by the way. But in the summer the campus with it's huge glass windows is heating up very fast. AC is an absolute no-go, so we need to plant trees, create water surfaces, get involved with vertical gardening. Our campus already is CO2-neutral, but that won't be enough.
I keep telling my students to be patient: "First we take Manhattan (Munich), then we take Berlin.
Dionys, I have many, many friends and colleagues in US and Canada that are not morons. My point and argument needs more nuance, I am not relying on anecdotal evidence. The state of Iowa, for example (one of several) has an historical pattern of progressive ideas and politics, but this pattern has been entirely reversed. Our state government has not just proposed but passed bills that ban discussion of "critical race theory" in schools. Large corporate farming has taken over the state with very little organized pushback. Our local high school is in the midst of a hostile debate of whether or not to "change the mascot" (currently "Indians"). Our son, who once worked in state politics is now in Chicago and came to the conclusion that Iowa has "gone red" and is not turning back. This is not the republican party of my parents, where reasonable and competent politicians such as George Bush (senior) and Mitt Romney had control. This is an antagonistic, vicious, and overtly racist party that endeavors to maintain white supremacy. The evidence for this claim is overwhelming in social science. South Dakota, Missouri, and Wisconsin are also either turned or in the process of turning. The "moron factor," as I glibly called it, is not counter-exampled by many good and progressive friends. Political and social sciences support the conclusions that the US is moving backwards in time. Just look at the legislation on voter regulations in multiple states, etc.., it goes on and on. Finally, the shit show at our southern border is a case study in vile and vicious racism. We no longer welcome desperate and helpless people, we send them back to total misery. Last but not least, our local high school would mock your sustainable school and would never give up on air conditioning. Sorry I have to write this, but I am in the midst of it and have published papers on the subject.
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#Abner
I am closer to your position (and background) than my last post made it appear to be. But influenced by Kant's essay What is Enlightenment?(Grade 10 material)I stick with his thesis: "On the other hand, the private use of reason may frequently be narrowly restricted without especially hindering the progress of enlightenment. By "public use of one's reason" I mean that use which a man, as scholar, makes of it before the reading public." Which I did not when using anecdotal evidence and you somehow did in general terms in your reply. And I fully understand why sometimes morons have to called what they are: morons. The problem was and is that the morons were given a very powerful digital amplifying structure and therefore became able to "hinder the process".
As of now (21.00 CEST), the projections show that the Germans voted to keep up the status quo by the way. The social democrats nominally won but will have to form a coalition government with the Greens and the Liberals as junior partners. On the surface that looks like a major change, because abdictating chancellor Merkels's conservatives are gone, but it isn't really, with the Greens being harnessed by the labor union wing of the social democrats in cooperation with the neoliberals. Tough slugging...
I think it is great that you can use Kant in tenth grade, your high schools are probably at the same level as many of our undergraduate institutions. I am currently teaching the Groundwork in Ethics and many students are clueless. The condition of higher education in the US continues to decline. High schools are increasingly burdened by gross inequity. Very enjoyable conversation, thank you.
No time to be patient! It’s all tipping.
This is what happens when education is underfunded and undervalued. Uneducated by design. Easier to manipulate then. Alan in Seattle
Alan, two good points, "undervalued" and "underfunded."
From The Contrarian:
Harvest Time - a film from the Harvest era is in production. Almost 2 hours long including 4 outtakes, sessions and interviews with the musicians making Harvest.
Neil says that while watching the material, he was transported back to those days. I’m sure those of us old enough to have been Neil fans back then will have the same experience when we see the film. Great times. Great memories. Can’t wait. Coming in 2022.
Kim
Denmark
# sugar mountain Munich
Sugar Mountain in Munich is a cultural event location that makes use of a former industrial compound. To get an impression just check out their online slide show
at www.sugarmountain-munich.com/
In the last decades industrial real estate in many German cities was turned into cultural areas, some temporarily, some are here to stay. Sugar Mountain is one of the latter ones. I am sure that the good folks there would appreciate a visit by Neil Young ... if he ever makes it to Munich again, that is. The junkyard episode in JTTP, or an album like "Weld" suggests he'd get a kick out of the atmosphere there.
More barn .. :)
Thrashers Wheat sucks.
# ww (9/27/2021 04:18:00 PM)
I agree, tell me about your barn, I'm interested.
You should find happiness somewhere else. The guy who runs the blog had a natural disaster interrupt his life. Judge not.
Fantastic! I look forward to that! Alan in Seattle
Not so much undefunded as misuse of funds. As a Personal Property Tax Payer which consumes a pretty good percentage of my yearly retirement income. I disagree with the money used to build these costly sports stadiums for High School students. In my day we played on dirt & grass which was completely acceptable. Now we have artificial turf & stadium seating. The old days gave an incentive to kids to work hard with what you got & look forward to moving on to College Sports to reap the benefits of their hard work to reach that level. If your lucky enough to find a College with acceptable morals to send your kid to. Most schools today want to teach Everything that is wrong is right & everything that is right is wrong. Enough with Political Rant. Stadiums is just the tip of the iceberg for misused funds.
Dear GmbArb,
Although I am in eternal feud with my sports colleagues regarding exactly the issues that you mentioned I do see that Students need athletics culture and kicks (Neil content of 1975). Especially after the pandemic in Germany we have to deal with a lot of overweight and motoric disorders because of the lockdowns. So we need these barns ... (More barn!)
But again: As everywhere money is invested in real estate, buildings and the like but not in people, because on the individual level one cannot be sure what you get in income tax later. Solid hardware however generates personal property tax.
GmbArb, misused? I guess, but try visiting some of the marginalized high schools in US. Schools are falling apart.
I thought this was a site dedicated to all things Neil Young. Of course there are other wider issues but please keep your pontifications to yourselves.
What we want is The Barn release date etc
I think that you will see that we generally do come back to Neil Young.
My guess is, that The Barn release will be around November 12th, at least the CD, but then Pontifex Neil Young said on NYA somewhere (LTTE?) that they want to release all different formats at the same time. There's a new old Bridge School available.
... and they are working on never released old barn footage that will see the light of day under the title "Harvest Time" in 2022. That's as barn as it gets.
This will be the only time I say no to more archival releases but for me the archives box sets vol 1 & 2 are perfect
They obviously offer something new in unreleased material (the gold we all dream to hear) but they also recontextualise the previously released material by putting it in chronological order
Add videos, live releases etc and you get an awesome presentation on a particular era from his career
For me The Old Homestead, Look Out for My Love and Everybody’s Alone CDs now sit amongst my favourite Neil Young albums
This all runs counter to the what most acts do: put out a box set around an anniversary of a particular album - dump as many demos, alternative mixes, etc from said album onto as many discs as possible and laugh all the way to the bank (Metallica’s recent Black Album set is 27 CDs!!!!)
Is Reprise really pushing Neil to do this with Harvest Time? The After the Gold Rush 50th anniversary set certainly felt pushed - my theory was Neil pushed back by only offering one unreleased outtake for it!!!
Carnegie sounds great (no surprise) but wish the crowd wasn't mixed so loudly. I know it's a "bootleg" but I think they got a little carried away with the concept!
This period is already well-covered (with more official bootlegs still to come), but I’m getting the impression at only seven tracks in, that Carnegie Hall will be my go-to concert record of the era. So many songs! The singing is perfect, the guitar is interesting even on such well worn tunes as The Loner, and the acoustics are astounding. Neil keeps the rambles to a minimum, allowing for a more continuous musical experience for the home listener. It’s brilliant enough through the iPhone 8 speaker! Can only imagine the vinyl! I’ll have to line it through a good system tonight and “spin” that hi-res for sure.
Carnegie hall used to record all of the concerts in 69 to about 71. They had a lone single microphone hoisted about 20ft above the performers. I remember seeing it when Led Zeppelin played there in 1969. I always thought the source of the NY show was from that Microphone. Sounded pretty good on that Colosseum import cd from mid 90's, sounds even better now. Bumper stickers should be issued.
Another concert of moment up on the app. Neil and horse. 7/3/01. Sweden - Globen.
HG
Carnegie Hall was my first bootleg record of Neil Young, bought in the late 1970s, and it was long a favourite. Strange to hear the slightly differing versions of the same songs he sung at the other concert of the evening and which appeared on the original bootleg. Although I moved along with time onto other, more recent forays, and even though this period tends to become a bit overserved, I am still excruciatingly happy with this record. The voice is amazingly pristine and the guitar playing meticulous. The record exudes a sort of immaculacy, thanks to the probably slightly formal concert setting and the complete control of the man. Nice acoustics too. Less meandering intros too, which is appreciated.I wasn't bothered by the audience -- which seems to be amazingly attentive -- or the sound quality. For fans, an absolute winner, this one.
Warm greetings from over the pond.
Strangely today 7/3/01 is gone from the app but 5/8/97 is up! We are lucky to have all this stuff pouring out!
HG
Hi All
just wondering why Carnegie Hall flac HD costs 28.98$ (special for subscribers) on greedy hands and it is in the range of 20 Euros in most digital stores.
I have already the double cd and totally discarded the option of buying the bundle cd + digital at Greedy Hands because of crazy shipping fees to Europe.
Prostudio masters has a good price at 20$ for the 96/24 format, they do not serve Europe.
Is there a good way out to buy the HD digital files?
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