boston progress radio

Starting February 20, Boston Progress Radio is participating in the first Youth Media Blog-a-thon hosted by WireTap and Youth Outlook. Young bloggers from around the nation will come together to discuss the hot topic of the day: Election 2008.

To catch the other entries on BPRLive that are a part of the Blog-a-thon, go here.

Over at The Cheddar Box, there’s a recent entry about some concrete and completely do-able steps that our federal government could take to actually get more people involved in the election process. They are listed here:

• Allow for same day voter registration.
• Abolish all of the restrictions against ex-prisoners having the right to vote.
• Make voting mandatory.

Yeah, you could make a case for that all of these ideas - if implemented - would go a long way in helping increase voter turnout and get a more representative sample of the country’s population. I’m definitely behind the first two; less enthusiastic about the third (check out the Oh Dang! take here), but it’s all academic because of course, none of these will ever actually happen, because increasing voter turnout is exactly the opposite of what people in power want.

Who tends to vote? Middle-class and wealthy white folks. So it’s no wonder that the people in power tend to be the same. President Bush is supposedly a “regular guy,” but, uhh, do regular guys have a father who once served as President, Vice President, and head of the CIA? A grandfather who was a U.S. Senator? Attend one of the top private high schools in the country, go to Yale and then Harvard Business School?

The mainstream media boiled down the 2000 presidential race to a choice between “Boring” and “Stupid” - and the people chose Boring, and the Supreme Court gave us Stupid. The 2004 election was presented to us as a choice between “Out of Touch” and “Tough Guy” - and the people chose…well, who knows who the people chose. The point is we ended up with the same guy as before, whether by honest vote or by trickery, we don’t know for sure…

Anyway, this leads me to present my one idea that would also increase voter participation, but has no chance in hell of happening: Do away with the Electoral College.

Read more

Tags: Elections, Youth Media Blog-A-Thon.

Starting February 20, Boston Progress Radio is participating in the first Youth Media Blog-a-thon hosted by WireTap and Youth Outlook. Young bloggers from around the nation will come together to discuss the hot topic of the day: Election 2008. This will be the first in what we hope will be a monthly event of youth sharing ideas and building stronger alliances. Please read the other blogs participating in this event and come back over the next few days to read our response(s) to the other blogs.

I am a naturalized American citizen. My naturalization ceremony took place on July 4, 2002 at the Seattle Center in a building just next to the Space Needle. I took my first pledge of allegiance and revoked all affiliations with all other countries just so I could call myself a citizen of the United States of America. I was pretty happy to be a citizen and it wasn’t because I could now call myself a card carrying member of the only modern day hegemony (or are we an empire?) on Earth. I was just happy that I could finally vote.

I have often wondered why the right to vote should be restricted to American citizens. Why shouldn’t immigrants (legal or illegal) be allowed to vote? As a permanent resident, I had the privilege of paying state, local, and federal taxes, I had the privilege of registering with the Selective Services System so that I could defend and fight for this country, and I had the privilege of subjecting myself to a physical examination just to prove my worthiness.

I suppose I’m making at least two points here: 1) The rules governing naturalization (I really despise that word) are pretty arbitrary here and anywhere else. Read more

Tags: Elections, Immigration, Youth Media Blog-A-Thon.

What do singing waiters, a cast member of Broadway’s “Legally Blonde”, a freelance writer and an audio engineer have in common?

They’re in the band Ryness, of course. Originally called the Ahh Sum Band, the band was renamed Ryness last fall. The rock quintet, straight out of Manhattan, New York, is comprised of Bryce Ryness (vocals, guitar), Ben Roseberry (vocals, piano), Jeff Washburn (vocals, guitar), Robin Lai (drums) and Jae Ko (bass). The guys also have a history of other talents, including acting, illustrating, producing, writing and DJing. Ryness has made a local name of themselves by playing gigs throughout the city, blending a hard-hitting message of redemption and hope throughout their rock numbers. So pump up the volume and be prepared to get deep. Ryness is going to take you on a ride of rushing energy.

Ben couldn’t make it, but I sat down and chatted with four of the guys via video-conference to get the scoop on their humble origins, getting signed and why “E! True Hollywood Story” won’t be tailgating them anytime soon.

Sarah Ip: Could you tell us where you’re all from and how you guys met?

Bryce Ryness: We formed as this core unit at the end of last summer’s band, Ahh Sum Band. I’m originally from the San Francisco Bay area, lived in Los Angeles for a few years, and I’ve been here [in New York] for one year.

Jae Ko: I’m the bass player, Jae. Robin hooked me up with this gig. I think we first played with Bryce last March. Robin and I were in another band, Koo Chung. I’m from Philly.

Jeff Washburn: I’m from Florida, been in New York for 2.5 years. I’ve worked with Ben for 2 years now at [Ellen's Stardust] Diner. When he came back from the [RENT National] tour, I went to see their acoustic show the end of January. That was the first time I saw them play. I’ve been in the band since August. I’ve been playing the guitar 17 years.

Robin Lai: I’m Robin, the drummer in the band. I met Jae because of his roommate, Dennis, and ended up subbing for him at the [drum] clinic. That’s how I met him. We ended up in Koo’s band. I met Bryce through a mutual friend from church. I went to check out the show, met them afterwards and got a call.

SI: Please describe yourselves in four words.

(Silence).

Jeff: Who’s got a word?
Bryce: I think one of the things that makes us an interesting band is that our live show is…kinetic.
Jae: Angry?

(More silence)

Jeff: Captivating.
Robin: Charismatic. Read more

Tags: Interview.

Watch for Shuffled! every Thursday. Also check out the Shuffled! archive.

Today’s Shuffler: Hanalei Ramos

Hanalei Ramos is a writer, performer, and community organizer from Jersey City, NJ. She is an Aquarius who is extremely fond of steeping tea, reading Zadie Smith, and meeting strangers in well lit places. Visit www.hanaleihanalei.com for more info.

Shuffle on, Shuffler… Read more

Tags: Shuffled!.

Eugene passed me the Slants album a couple weeks back. “They’re new wave,” he said. I thought of the Cure and when I saw them in 2004, Robert Smith came as strong and melancholy as ever, hair sprayed up in a liz-taylor-at-five-in-the-morning ‘doo.

Slanted Eyes, Slanted Hearts, the first album from the Portland based band, is less goth darkness and more techno pop. The album’s filled with hard beats and loud synth riffs that are easy to jump around to. I listened to it on my iPod, but it’s made to be blasted from large venue speakers. Read more

Tags: CD, Reviews.

So, maybe it’s been a little too cold and snowy out, but things are definitely hot as ever at East Meets Words. I was pleasantly surprised that all the planets (minus Pluto) seemed to line up and I was able to make this month’s open mic.

This month was a month of first-timers - from our illustrious host Andy to some of the performers like Mishaft, who shared his own organic story, followed by Andre, bringing us back to the state of America a few years back. Andy (a different Andy), accompanied by BPAC’s own Dave, helped steer us to the exit. Andy and Dave were followed by another Dave, who was followed by Eric. Phew!

Eric shared his trials and tribulations about culinary school, complete with props and food (real food to eat!) at the end of the show. Let me just say that I’m already a vegetarian - so when Eric started showing us where on the human body the different cuts of meat come from, I squirmed, but just enough to reconfirm why I don’t eat animals. There was a sad bit in there about cooking lobsters (which I may now stop eating), and some funny stuff about what it’s like to be a bitchen kitch. I mean, a kitchen bitch.

Read more

Tags: Open Mic, Recaps.

It’s the weekend. Thank goodness. For those Asian Americans who celebrated the Lunar New Year this past week, I hope you are enjoying it with family, friends, and BPR. Over the past few weeks, some of you may have noticed that the stream has been acting up. I made some adjustments to the machine serving the music and think it is working better. If you’ve been wanting to listen to the stream, but have avoided it because it hasn’t functioned very well, please give it another chance. As a bonus, I’m going to be putting up a bunch of music that we recently got over the next few days.

It’s seasonably frigid, so I hope you stay warm.

Tags: News, Online Radio.

So I guess in the future, even when everybody has laser guns and lives on asteroids, we’re still gonna be following this same worthless election structure. Great.

I had a lot to say about the election this year. I even typed it up, but I changed my mind about sharing. Instead, I’m gonna just link to this interview with legendary Asian American activist Grace Lee Boggs because she said it a lot better than I can. Plus, she’s 92 years-old and still on top of her socio-political analysis game. Respect.

Tags: Video, Voting.