A Local Perspective

  My father owned a business for over 50 years. That is one of the many reasons I believe in supporting local businesses. I believe in supporting them to the point I created a Facebook page called, Mahoning Valley Citizen Promoters. I hope you’ll check out that page and comment on places you love in our valley.

  I enjoyed going to the Lime Tree Sandwich Gallery in Warren, Ohio the other night for poetry! People were raving about the sandwiches and I loved the watermelon beer. From time to time I like to talk about locally owned mom and pop businesses on this blog. Therefore, I want to point out when these local businesses have dropped the ball. As I’m in the Lime Tree a manager or the owner (don’t know which) asked a server what else he needed for his supplies list. He then said, “OK I’m off to Sam’s Club.” I didn’t have time to make a comment before he was gone so I will here. Local businesses want our support but won’t support other local businesses? This is just plain WRONG. If the guy from Lime Tree needed restaurant equipment he could have walked a block down the road to locally owned, A&N Restaurant Supplies & Equipment: https://www.facebook.com/ANRestaurantEquipment?rf=167774273234147.

  He could have also checked out Zabel’s Restaurant Equipment & Supplies in Youngstown: https://www.facebook.com/ZabelsOnline?rf=146357048741815

  If local businesses like the Lime Tree needed large can products, frozen food, cold cuts and cheese they shouldn’t buy from corporate giants like SYSCO, GFS or Sam’s Club. They should check out locally owned Santisi’s Wholesale Foods: http://shoutyoungstown.blogspot.com/2010/08/santisis-foods-downtown-youngstowns.html

  A&N, Santisi’s and Zabel’s are also opened to the public so check them out. Local businesses we want to love and support you but PLEASE show some love and support for other local businesses. I want to thank my friend Jeanne for pointing out to me that we need local business to be environmentally friendly. That means things like using real silverware and glass plates not plastic ones that aren’t Mother Earth friendly. Let’s all support one another.

  I want to talk about two local businesses that don’t support the majority of our local citizens. Those two are The Warren Tribune Chronicle and The Youngstown Vindicator. I think their editors are anti-union and don’t represent the working-class people of our area. I was surprised at an editorial the Tribune’s editor, Frank Robinson wrote the other day. He stated that we should find alternative ideas instead of imprisonment for nonviolent criminals. I was shocked thinking that Robinson had found a soul. He instead was only interested in saving money by not incarcerating and having so many inmates. I guess you can sometimes get conservatives on your side by showing them a way to save money. They seem to have wallets where their moral compass should be. On another day this past week Editor Robinson wrote an editorial dismissing alternative energy. He favors coal and oil because he thinks they are cheaper. I guess its Mother Earth be damned and our kids can wear gas masks in the future.

  Renewable energy mostly in the form of wind power is working very well in Kansas. Politicians in both parties know this and won’t speak against it. The Koch brothers who are heavy into the petroleum industry having been working hard to overturn alternative energy in Kansas by proposing legislation to overturn it. Politicians in both parties know alternative energy has been a great success in Kansas. That is why they won’t speak against it like Editor Robinson does. Even though some of these Kansas politicians (like the GOP governor) have taken money from the Koch brothers they won’t propose legislation to destroy alternative energy.

Local band: “Chasin’ the Blues” 

“I have no doubt that we will be successful in harnessing the sun’s energy. If sunbeams were weapons of war, we would have had solar energy centuries ago.”
-George Porter
Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry, 1967

It is time for a sustainable energy policy which puts consumers, the environment, human health, and peace first.

DENNIS KUCINICH, speech, Sep. 27, 2005

Read more at http://www.notable-quotes.com/a/alternative_energy_quotes.html#k6IbXqG5bofbjLcK.99

It is time for a sustainable energy policy which puts consumers, the environment, human health, and peace first.

DENNIS KUCINICH, speech, Sep. 27, 2005

Read more at http://www.notable-quotes.com/a/alternative_energy_quotes.html#k6IbXqG5bofbjLcK.99

Puke Music Rebukes

I’m an opened minded progressive guy but what is passing for the top of the charts music today is just pure crap. I couldn’t believe the lyrics to a song I recently heard Gwen Stefani sing on The Voice TV Show. Gwen is a recent mother and I wondered if her new son will grow up and be proud of this song called, “Hollaback Girl” she sang right after he was born. I decided to have some fun this week and show you some of the lyrics to current hit songs and review these songs.

Let’s start with some of the lyrics to Gwen Stefani’s hit song, “Hollaback Girl.”

Uh huh, this is my shit
A few times I’ve been around that track
So it’s not just gonna happen like that
Because I ain’t no hollaback girl
I ain’t no hollaback girl
I ain’t no hollaback girl
Ooooh ooh, this my shit, this my shit [x4]
I heard that you were talking shit
Ooooh ooh, this my shit, this my shit [x4]
Because I ain’t no hollaback girl
I ain’t no hollaback girl [x2]
Let me hear you say this shit is bananas
B-A-N-A-N-A-S
(This shit is bananas)
(B-A-N-A-N-A-S).

Review: Yes Gwen this shit is B-A-N-A-N-A-S and anyone who bought this song and wasted their money is b-a-n-a-n-a-s. I can’t believe NBC let you sing this song on their show, The Voice. I can’t believe anyone who just had a child would want children to hear this kind of music.

Next we have Pitbull’s hit song, ‘”Timber.”

The bigger they are, the harder they fall
This big-iddy boys are dig-gidy dogs
I have ’em like Miley Cyrus, clothes off
Twerkin’ in their bras and thongs, timber
Face down, booty up, timber
That’s the way we like to, what? timber
I’m slicker than an oil spill
She say she won’t, but I bet she will, timber
It’s going down, I’m yelling timber
End of the night, it’s going down
It’s going down, I’m yelling timber
Let’s make a night, you won’t remember.

Review: Won’t remember? Ah Pitbull, are you talking about using a rape drug or are you proud to be a lover girls won’t remember?
Pitbull, I think you are full of bull and I can’t imagine there is a girl on the planet skanky enough to play timber with you. Who buys this kind of music?

Now for Katy Perry and Juicy J’s hit “Dark Horse.”

Yo, y’all know what it is
Katy Perry, Juicy J
Uh-Huh, let’s rate
Uh, she’s a beast, I call her Karma
She eat your heart out, like Jeffrey Dahmer
Be careful, try not to lead her on
Shawty’s heart was on steroids ’cause her love was so strong
You may fall in love when you meet her (Meet her)
If you get the chance you better keep her (Keep her)
She swears by it but if you break her heart
She turn cold as a freezer (Freezer)
She got me like a roller coaster turn the bedroom into a fair (A fair)
(Hey) Are you ready for, ready for? (Ready for?)
(Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey) There’s no going back.

Review: No Katy Perry I am not ready for you a former gospel singer to co-write a turd song with Juicy J the Juice Man. It’s bad enough one person wrote this song let alone two. After hearing this song I wished that before they executed Jeffrey Dahmer, Katy and Juicy J would have been his last meal.

Now for “Loyal” by Chris Brown.
I wasn’t born last night
I know these hoes ain’t right.
Why give a bitch your inch
When she rather have nine?
You know how the game goes
She be mine by half time, I’m the shit, oh
Birdman Junior in this bitch, no flamingos
And I done did everything but trust these hoes.
Got a white girl with some fake titties
Rolling up the bomb molly I’m a rockstar.
Black girl with a big booty
If she a bad bitch, let’s get to it (right away)
We up in this club
I know girl, that you came in this bitch with your man
That’s a no-no girl. I been knowing not to trust these hoes
I get bread, get head, and fuck these hoes
In that order
Don’t switch it around.These bitches pimpin’
Sex in the city
Yelling “Instagram likes” but you ain’t pretty Bitch!

Review: This by former church choir boy (are we seeing a pattern here) Chris Brown. Chris has done the impossible and out stupefied Pitbull. Chris has no class and shows he has never spent time in a classroom. Chris’s mom who ran a daycare and Clinton Chris’s dad a prison correction office must be very proud of their woman beating son. The amazing thing about Brown is that he has committed felony assault after felony assault and stayed out of prison. I find Brown’s lyrics a felony assault on my ears. And while Chris is not the shit his music is pure fecal. I note with some irony Chris is on Jive records.

Peaking recently at Number 2 in the Top 100 we have Beyoncee with “Drunk in Love.”

I’ve been drinking/ I’ve been drinking
I get filthy when that liquor get into me.
I’ve been thinking/ I’ve been thinking
Cigars on ice/ cigars on ice
Baby, I want you, na na
Can’t keep your eyes off my fatty
Daddy, I want you, na na
Drunk in love, I want you (aah)
Boy, I’m drinking, park it in my lot, 7-11
I’m rubbing on it, rub-rubbing if you scared, call that reverand
Boy, I’m drinking/ get my brain right
Armand de brignac, gangster wife
Then I fill the tub up halfway then ride it with my surfboard
Surfboard, surfboard/
Graining on that wood, graining, graining on that wood.
That D’USSÉ is the shit if I do say so myself
If I do say so myself, if I do say so myself.
That you had all in the car, talking ’bout you the baddest bitch thus far.
I wanna see all the shit that I heard
Know I sling Clint Eastwood, hope you can handle this curve, ah
Foreplay in the foyer fucked up my Warhol
Slid the panties right to the side
Ain’t got the time to take draws off, on site
Catch a charge I might, beat the box up like Mike
In ’97 I bite, I’m Ike, Turner, turn up
Baby no I don’t play, now eat the cake, Anna Mae
Said, “Eat the cake, Anna Mae!”
I’m nice, for y’all to reach these heights you gon’ need G3
4, 5, 6 flights, sleep tight. I’ve been sipping/
that’s the only thing that’s keeping me on fire/me on fire
didn’t mean to spill that liquor all on my attire.

Review: This song written by Jay Z and Beyoncee was performed at the Grammy Awards. I can’t believe this trash was on TV.  I disagree mostly with the line: “I’ve been thinking” as no one was thinking when they wrote this turd. I will admit that I am jealous that people who write this utter trash can afford a Warhol and a bathtub big enough to hold a surfboard though I suspect surfboard might mean something else here. Also, Beyonce you really need to quit drinking, if I do say so myself. If I do say so myself, if I do say so myself.

Now for Yellow Claw’s song, “Shotgun.”

I will never fall for your lies again oh woah
I will never fall for your lies again oh woah oh
You shot me right in the face with a shotgun
You shot me right in the face with a shotgun
You shot me right in the
You shot me right in the
You shot me right in the
Face with a shotgun
Kill the motherfucking club.
I’m wiping your dirt off my soul
You’re talking a lot but you’re pissing me off
What you try to say doesn’t matter no more.

Review: “This gem of a hit is by Dutch trio Yellow Claw whose members are Bizzie, Nizzle, Aasgier and featuring vocals from Dutch singer Rochelle. This song leaves my ears and soul dirty and just plain pisses me off that a nothing song like this makes big money.
If I had the money I would fly to the Netherlands get a shotgun and unload it right in the faces of this trio. I’d blast Rochelle twice since she was the one really asking over and over for that shotgun blast. Happy to oblige if you send me some travel money.

This last song is, “Feeling Myself” by will. i. am and Mylie Cyrus

Hunny on my wrist, couple karats on my neck
Givenchy, keep the chickens in check
All these car keys, drive them chickens to my crib
Jewel heel, got somebody slipping in my bed
She give me IQ, that mean she gimme a head
I love bad bitches that’s my fuckin’ problem
And I don’t give a fuck that’s my fuckin’ problem.
And I don’t give a fuck that’s my whole M.O.
I rock the whole globe with no problemo
Been rocking coats since my first demo
And now I’m banging hoes in the continental
And I done seen me slidin’ out my dope ride
I open up the doors, suicide.
I step in this motherfucker just to make it work
I get on the floor just to make that booty twerk
Shake, shake that ass like a, like an expert
Shake, shake that ass like a, like an expert.
Look up in the mirror
and the mirror look at me
The mirror be like baby you the sh*t
God dammit you the sh*t
You the sh*t, you the sh*t
God dammit you the sh*t
God dammit you the sh*t
You the sh*t, you the sh*t.

Review: First off country singer Billie Ray Cyrus needs to stick his cowboy boot up his daughter’s ass for singing this horrendous trash.
Next will.i.am cannot shake his ass like an expert because it is more full of shit than a circus elephant. Being so full of B.S. is a major health hazard on any club’s dance floor. will.i.am lacks an IQ and he needs to learn that can’t be transfused into him no matter how much head he gets. Just listening to this kind of music will toast your cerebellum loaf. As for suicide doors if I was forced to listen to this nonsense I would commit suicide by jumping to my death from a 50 story sliding glass balcony door. This song is the shittiest of shit. If that mirror could actually talk it would say, “will.i. am God dammit you are really a-fool. u. are.”

Listening to this music turned out to be no fun at all. It ended up giving me bouts of nausea thinking about what passes for music today. I’m told this is the music that is played at dance clubs. The only place fitting for this puke music is a vomitorium.  That’s today’s music reviews.

The Yellow jackets: “Imperial Strut”

“Red Sea”

“The only truth is music.” ― Jack Kerouac

Quit is a Dirty Four Letter Word

  Youngstown’s Community Bill of Rights has been defeated at the polls for the third time. The bill would have banned fracking in Youngstown. Each election has seen it get closer and closer to passing. The people who voted against it have been very vocal in comments in the Youngstown Vindicator’s online comment section and on local talk radio. They all bitch that the bill’s sponsors need to quit bringing this initiative up each election. These no voters feel there is money to be made fracking and by damn we should go after every penny. Profrackers have not been deterred by all of the earthquakes we have had and are willing to live with pollution for jobs. They want to know why the local activist for this bill can’t get over their sour grapes and be good losers. There is a very simple answer to that question. The answer is that no dollar amount can buy these activists. Their mission is to move aside all obstacles that will lessen the pains of the Earth on their children’s future. They are willing to put an endless amount of initiatives on the ballot to save this local piece of their child’s planet.

  You can’t beat this kind of activist down as they have bottomless pockets on their hearts when it comes to protecting children. Being defeated time and time again just gives them more experience to become specialists at their activism. They refuse to be spectators in life and are the opposite of the lazy couch potatoes that take pot shots at them. These couch potatoes are cowards who hide behind anonymity on talk radio and comments to online newspapers. The local anti-fracking activists are liberators against social injustice for their children. They don’t fear the naysayers, they fear surrendering their children’s future. In the end you can’t beat activist like that because they’ve put their heart and soul into their cause. To them quit is a dirty four letter word.

  Do people who vote against ideas that would make our kid’s futures better or safer even have a heart or soul? Most people would say it’s impossible to help all children worldwide. That does seem like a daunting task to get your head around. Truth is many people don’t even think about helping take care of the children right in their very community. Do you think people who vote against school levies spend one second thinking about helping the children in their school district? I know it means paying more money in taxes but other taxpayers paid for your education. Here in Vienna, Ohio we have the second oldest high school in Ohio. The building will celebrate its 100 years old birthday in 2015. The building was made originally to house 9th through 12th grade. It now has 7th through 12th grade because the school district closed their even older jr. high a few years ago. The high school building features classrooms with garbage cans to catch water from the leaky flat roof. The smell of rot from a building this age plus the odor of backed up sewers is a constant. There is also no way to regulate the heat on the third floor. This is not a safe environment and it is a waste of money to put any more funds into maintaining this building. A film was made to show the severity of the problem as well as several open houses for the community to see the issues first hand. A levy was put on the ballot just this week to build a new school. The levy was defeated by the school district’s voters. The voters decided if the kids are breathing any chemicals, lead paint or sewer fumes they should be taught to not take many deep breaths. I guess that lesson could be added to the curriculum

  There has been talk that sometime in the future the levy for a new school for our district will probably be back on the ballot. That of course has some local citizens grumbling that those for the levy have sour grapes and are sore losers. The real losers of course are the students in our district. I can’t help but think of the way the students must have felt when they learned the levy for a new school failed. I know some elderly people were saying they voted against it because they are on a fixed income. I make far less on the job I’ve had for over the last dozen years than the previous job I had. That leaves me wishing I had one of those fixed incomes. These same people on fixed incomes are expecting the students to get a job and pay into Social Security to make sure these elderly can keep getting their monthly check. It really is a world where helping the next generation also benefits you. The wealthy in our community send their kids to boarding schools so they vote against the local school levies. You would think they’d want a good local school to protect their property values. Other people whose kids have already graduated from our local school don’t want to pay for other people’s kid’s education.

  I’ve already been told by some in my community that I need to grin and bear the vote and not try to shame others who voted against a new school. When they voted against a new school they were sentencing our local school kids to an unsafe environment. As far as I’m concerned that is shameless behavior. Given that, can one really shame the shameless? Isn’t voting against safe schools and against protecting our area from turning into a fracking chemical wasteland really a form of child abuse?

  I have said over and over that the highest goal we can have in life is to make the best world possible for our own children. I’d extend that to mean the best world possible for our valley’s children and all the world’s children. We should not be deterred by those who want to endanger our children. I try my hardest to be a man of peace but I will NOT pussyfoot around or play nice with people who put the world’s children in danger.  I want to tell activist to hang on to their sour grapes. In the end with a lot of seeding and work those grapes will turn into a sweet nectar that will nourish our children’s future.

 St. Vincent: “Cruel”

“Who”

Local Musician: Teddy Pantelis

“We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
― Elie Wiesel

Small Town America or Corporate Wasteland?

  I had some errands to run the other day in Columbiana, Ohio. While out that way I decided to drive into East Palestine, Ohio. I was greeted by a sign that said, “Welcome to East Palestine, Ohio The Little City With a Big Future.” Just after the sign was the usual small town welcoming committee chairman in the form of a local police car with a radar gun aimed to catch entering visitors. Not exactly a friendly neighborly greeting. We have the same greeting here in my small burgh Vienna, Ohio. I guess that big future in East Palestine is going to be financed by unsuspecting visiting motorists. Luckily for me a truck driver gave me the “flashing headlights” to warn me of a local Barney Fife lying in wait to perch on some prey. I was going my usual 5 miles or so over the speed limit which might have got me a ticket if Barney was having a dry spell.

  I like visiting antique and thrift stores so I stopped in a couple in downtown East Palestine. The most interesting one was in a very old three-story brick building. As I was about to enter I noticed a sign in one of the windows that said, “Remember Benghazi.” I then decided to not shop at this store as the owner didn’t care if he chased away potential customers with his right-wing politics. My father had his own business and didn’t talk politics or sports because feeding his family was more important than arguing his viewpoints and losing customers. Times have changed I guess. I should not have been surprised by the sign as Columbiana County is much more conservative that the Mahoning Valley. I had debated entering the store and telling the owner why should I be concerned with Benghazi as only 4 American lives were lost there. Was the store owner concerned with all the deaths during the Reagan administration? Reagan supported, trained and armed dictator’s death squads throughout Latin America. Those U.S. Reagan backed squads killed nearly 200,000 people. Those deaths included, bishops, priests, nuns, union organizers and environmentalists. Reagan never served a minute in jail over those deaths yet now I should be angry and want to impeach President Obama over Benghazi? I guess the store owner would tell me those 200,000 dead were Latinos so it doesn’t count. In my book they count and I’m ashamed and outraged that we had a president who was a mass murderer.

  The deaths I am concerned about right now are closer to home. I’m talking about the death sentence we are being given by this fracking and storing of radioactive waste business in our valley. Columbiana County being conservative has really embraced this fracking business but at least activists in Youngstown are fighting back. As I was driving around on this Friday I was listening to WKBN radio’s local talk show hosted by Dan Rivers. Dan had on two union members from Pipe Fitters Local 396 who are opposed to the Community Bill of Rights charter amendment. It is set for the May 6th ballot and if passed will protect Youngstown from fracking. Debating them was Dr. Ray Beiersdorfer, an award-winning professor of Geology at Youngstown State University. Dr. Ray more than held his own against the pipefitters, Dan Rivers and right-wing callers. Ray had facts about the devastation caused by fracking all around our nation. Being the corporate tool that he is Rivers switched to different questions every time Ray’s facts destroyed his opponent’s talking points. Dr. Ray told the pipefitters they should be looking to the future and use their skills in newer emerging alternative energy jobs. He added that their fracking jobs were not more important than the safety of our children and grandchildren. The pipefitters, Dan Rivers and callers like Paul Lyden who owns an oil company valued the jobs over the possibility of a death sentence of cancer for the children of our community. I hope on election day the voters of Youngstown support the Community Bill of Rights charter amendment for the safe future of our valley’s next generation.

A message from a Youngstown “fractivist.”

 Brian Eno: “Daddy’s Car”

“Beebop Hurry”

 “We’re in a giant car heading towards a brick wall and everyones arguing over where they’re going to sit” ~ David Suzuki