Live Verse by Ellen Griffith

GOVERNMENT-ENFORCED MOTHERHOOD

2012-02-23T10:21:00.001-08:00

The GOP says they will ban contraception,

Is that a small-government goal?
With all the Viagra that's out there?
But that's how Republicans roll.

It's totalitarian motherhood,
With peeping-tom government probes,
To peek into every live uterus,
By beaurocratic sex-o-phobes.

But hell hath no fury like women betrayed,
By bully-boy GOP hacks,
'Cause now we can see just where government goes,
When they get it off of our backs.

©2012

EUBIE BLAKE'S 100 YEARS OF BLACK HISTORY

2012-02-09T12:55:00.000-08:00

All-but-forgotten today, Eubie Blake was a Black music pioneer who participated in 100 years of African American history. Yes, he lived to be 100, and I met him in 1978 to do an article that would appear on his 95^th birthday. The son of former slaves, he was playing piano in a Baltimore brothel at age 15, and at 95 he was giving Johnny Carson fits on the Tonight Show. And in between, he changed the course of American music as a ragtime pioneer, composer for the musical stage, and by his strong influence on stride piano, the style that bridged the gap between ragtime and a wealth of later jazz piano – a contribution for which he seldom gets credit.

Eubie (no one ever called him anything else) was a spry 94-year-old who liked my car, an aging high-rider because of its easy access, and I became his designated ride whenever he was in L.A. I drove, he talked. A lot! And he had plenty to brag about, whether it was beating Jelly Roll Morton at pool, opening the first all-black musical on Broadway, or testifying before Congress on behalf of copyright holders. He told me his father always said “Never mess in White folks business,” yet in 1922, with pressure from his music publisher, he was admitted to ASCAP – one of its first Black members. “See, I was somebody then,” he smiled. He was already known for many original rags when he teamed up with lyricist Noble Sissle to write five Broadway shows from which came many all-time standards including “I’m Just Wild About Harry” and “Memories of You.”

He told me more than once about his proudest moment. When Sissle and Blake’s “Shuffle Along” opened on Broadway in 1921, not only was it the first Black-written Broadway show, it was also the first produced, directed and performed entirely by Blacks. But there was a problem, and it involved a song called “Love Will Find a Way.” In 1921, unburlesqued, romantic love between Black people had yet to be tried on a White audience. There were dire predictions of everything from boos to bloodshed. The way Eubie told it, on opening night, his partner Sissle was standing at the backstage exit with one foot inside the theatre, and the other pointing north toward Harlem, “And me,” Eubie said, “I was stuck out there in front, leading the orchestra where my bald head would catch all the tomatoes and rotten eggs.” Fortunately, the song was well received, and another racial barrier came down. “Shuffle Along” ran 504 performances and helped to launch the Harlem Renaissance of the 20’s.

Eubie Blake went on to receive honorary doctorates from five universities, the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Ronald Reagan, a Grammy nomination for his 1969 album, The 86 Years of Eubie Blake, a U.S. postage stamp with his picture on it, and lots more. He never let me forget that all these milestones should be rightfully measured from his starting point – a Baltimore ghetto and a fifth grade education.

And even at 94 Eubie had it all together. What a charmer he was! A little man with a big personality and a joyous legacy to share. Of course, his natural habitat was the piano keyboard, and much of what Eubie played delighted him, so he cheered himself on. Loudly, sometimes! Audiences loved him, whether it was millions watching on TV, or fifty in a small club. On nights that he didn’t have a gig, he wanted to go where the piano action was, and he was welcomed everywhere as piano royalty and shown right to the keyboard. One night an over-served matron, who hadn’t caught Eubie’s introduction came by afterward to shake his hand and say he was “really good.” She asked if he’d ever played professionally. Our hero smiled charmingly and said, “A little, Darlin’.” Nobody that cool should be forgotten during Black History Month.

©2012

Here's a Eubie Blake video from a live performance of his own Charleston Rag

THE BULLY PULPIT

2012-01-26T21:40:00.000-08:00

The president has the bully pulpit,

At least that’s what they say,

Liberals think he should bully up,

And blow his tormentors away.

The president’s big disadvantage,

Is being a reasonable dude,

His fall-back position is logic,

What he needs is…Attitude!

White folks are frightened of angry Black men,
So, no we don't want to see that,
But somewhere short of scary-ass mad,
Could he turn up the thermostat?

He’s been the target of flagrant fouls,

By GOP hacks and punks,

It’s time to show ‘em that he’s got game,

So…In your face with the slam dunks!

NEWT

2012-01-07T14:57:00.000-08:00

Newt, Newt. That wily galoot,

Calls rivals despicable things,

Conservatives cherish his ill-repute,

Forget all those wedding rings.

Newt, Newt. So astute,

Caught in the media bubble,

Insisting he never did do what he did,

And that way he stays out of trouble.

Newt, Newt. In the well-pressed suit,

Flashing that chubby-ass grin,

Hey, look! It’s the Pillsbury Doughboy!

Oh no! It’s his evil twin!

PEPPER SPRAYED!

2011-11-23T14:38:00.000-08:00

Dare to believe in the American Dream?

You may be pepper sprayed.

Dare to protest the injustice machine?

You may be pepper sprayed.

Dare to take part in democracy?

You may be pepper sprayed.

Dare to expose the hypocrisy?

You may be pepper sprayed.

Dare to want shared prosperity?

Dare to display solidarity?

Dare to salute the red, white and blue,

And claim that it’s our America too?

Dare to stand up for the 99%,

And ask where the hell our democracy went?

We have that right, and it won’t go away,

In spite of some bad-ass pepper spray!

BANK SAVINGS

2011-11-09T14:27:00.000-08:00

In the last week, greedy big banks lost hundreds of thousands of customers who grabbed their money
and ran. Trying to reverse that old bailout?

Congratulation, taxpayers. Look what you've done,

Made Wall Street into Attila the Hun.

You bailed out the banks and saved a disaster,

Could they have been less grateful any faster?

Taxpayers, remember, at one time you owned,

A thousand broke banks and a savings and loan.

Next time they tell you they’re too big to fail,

You'll know it's the usual 1% wail.

You 99%... you poor huddled masses,

Saved their crooked aristocratic asses.

Pretty damn heroic, to save the big banks!

Any day now, I’m sure they’ll say thanks.

OCCUPY THE NEW YORK TIMES

2011-10-25T14:16:00.000-07:00

For 30 years the rich got richer, the poor got poorer, and the Corporate Media didn't even notice. But when the have-not 99% occupied our cities, even the New York Times got it. But don't be fooled...the newsfolk are THEM not US!

Back in the day, our news was reported,

By ragged-ass folks like me.

They drove those old cars, drank in our bars,

They knew just how tough life could be.

Journalists now are Ivy League grads,

Wolf Blitzer makes four million five,

They hang with the rest of the 1%,

No clue how us wage-slaves survive.

The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times,

Are too big to hear our cries,

If they guard the gates when we storm the castle,

Then they can forget any Pulitzer Prize!

OCCUPY CONGRESS (The 99% Solution)

2011-10-15T16:03:00.000-07:00

Congress has been operating as a novelty
act for quite some time now. Last week, it
was officially declared a cartoon.

Most of Congress are millionaires,

Part of the 1 percent,

The evil enablers of Wall Street greed,

The root of our discontent.

Didn’t we hire them to work for us?

‘Cause that’s not the way they roll,

A pack of soulless political animals,

On self-serving cruise control.

Health care they have, wealth care they have,

Befitting political stars,

They’re happy to let us pay for all that,

But don’t want to see us get ours.

It’s easy to see that our deficit problem,

Is moral not just economic,

We also can see, like the fiscal one,

The deficit is astronomic.

Will a 99 percent occupation,

Bring us a moral correction?

Not till we sweep out the one percent,

In the next congressional ejection.

OCCUPY WALL STREET: GREED RUNETH OVER

2011-10-08T11:51:00.000-07:00

He looks down on us in the USA,

And He’s more than a little dismayed,

Sternly He speaks: We have to talk,

Humanity’s fabric is frayed.

I taketh offense at you fortunate few,

Who’ve grabbed so much of the gold,

While needy masses of dispossessed,

Sleep outside in the cold.

I wonder what part of the golden rule,

You corporate crooks don’t get,

Your sinful, greedy ill-gotten gains,

Exceedeth the national debt!

Remember the camel…the eye of the needle?

Salvation’s not meant to be free,

In My Book, greed is the deadliest sin,

So don’t come praying to Me.

I mourn humanity’s loss of compassion,

And greed is its primal tool,

Whomever would meet thy Maker (that’s Me!),

Live thee by My Golden Rule.

FUN WITH A GUN

2011-10-02T14:12:00.000-07:00

Wayne LaPierre, the National Rifle Association's head guy, is real upset with Obama because he HASN’T cracked down on gun owners. No new gun control laws…not even a return to the assault weapons ban. Last Friday at the Conservative CPAC convention, LaPierre called it “a massive Obama conspiracy to deceive voters and destroy the second amendment.” (While nobody's looking, I guess.) He also said gun owners are not fooled and, “the lying, conniving Obama crowd can kiss our Constitution!” I’m guessing that line got a massive ovation from perpetually-paranoid gun owners.