Democracy for New Mexico

Sunday Bird Blogging: Bears Superbowl Edition

Bears fan Bosco the Peach-Faced Lovebird will be ringing his little bells every time Brian Urlacher makes a tackle

UPDATE: If you're watching ads during today's game, be sure to watch for this one.

Today's the day. The time is right for dancing in the end zone with Bears and lassoing Colts behind the line of scrimmage. All that and Prince singing Purple Rain at halftime in a game that may well be played in plain old driving rain. Wish they were playing at Soldier Field in Chicago, where it was predicted to be in the range of -2 to +2 degrees this afternoon. Bears weather!

Chicago's Jennifer Jennings Band sent us a link to their special Bears Superbowl anthem, Rock on Chicago Bears, to get us in the mood. Mary Ellen and I are wearing our NFC Championship Bear shirts, and I dug out some Bears paraphernalia I bought back in the dark ages, when the Bears last played in the Superbowl in 1986.

Sunny the Sun Conure intends to follow the game online, so he can enter comments in all the football blogs and generally trash talk about the Colts. He predicts Colts QB Peyton Manning will choke. Again. This morning Sunny found a picture of the famous Picasso sculpture that presides over Daley Plaza in downtown Chicago and is insisting it's a bird:

And Sunny was positively put out by a CAT wearing a Bears helmet in front of Chicago's Art Institute:

Sunny sez the Monsters of the Midway seem to be everywhere these days.

The seven parakeets -- Whitey, Queenie, Ginger, Hambone, Peanut, Jumbo and Georgie -- were too edgy about the game to even have their pictures taken this morning. They'll be twittering nervously and pecking on chips and dip until the last whistle is blown in Miami today. They won't be alone ... My prediction? Bears 21, Colts 17. So there.

Note: Neither of the above photos was photoshopped. This kind of thing really IS going on in the frigid reaches of Bear-mad Chicagoland. Hey, when your team gets to the Superbowl every 21 years or so, you go all out!

See our previous post to check out a video of the Super Bowl Shuffle and other recollections of Bear games past.

An Aside: Bear Down, Chicago Bears ...

Ex-Lobo Urlacher with George Halas trophy

Make every play clear the way to victory....You could hear the fans singing this song many times during the Bears victory over the New Orleans Saints yesterday for the NFC Championship and the (Papa Bear) trophy (named for the cantankerously historic Bears owner and coach). I have sung the old-fashioned song many times myself over the decades of masochistic pains and pleasures that constitute the loyal Bear fan's experience. So bear with me on this long, nonpolitical post.

This time, for the first time in 21 years, we could sing the song again during the playoffs with some hopeful joy. With the snow whipsawing into Soldier Field off the lakefront, the players' breath puffing out in steamy clouds, the turf torn, lumpy and slick, the uniforms dirty, the Windy City's skyline muffled by fog and eddies of snow. With victory pivoting on a Monsters of the Midway defense, a strong running game, a circus somersaulting catch into the end zone, a best of the best middle linebacker (Brian Urlacher this time, of Lovington, NM and UNM Lobo fame), romping with the ghosts of linebackers past like Bill George, Dick Butkus and Mike Singletary. With another fourth rate quarterback completing only 11 out of 26 passes for 144 yards. What other NFL team do you know of that could win its conference with a quarterback like Rex Grossman? It was classic Bears football at its quirky best. They stole the ball 4 times, totaled 196 yards running, experienced zero sacks, commited zero fumbles, threw zero interceptions and were penalized only once.

And what a truly righteous thing to have someone named Lovie Smith as head coach for the win, the very first African-American to accomplish that. How 'bout Dem Bears? And all those visions of our only Superbowl past, in 1986, when Jim McMahon, Coach Ditka, Mike Singletary, Wilbur Marshall, Walter Payton, The Refrigerator William Perry, Richard Dent, Dan Hampton, Willie Gault, Steve McMichael and Otis Wilson taking the honors and the Superbowl Shuffle playing in the background, big, dark Blues Brothers sunglasses all around:

Super Bowl Shuffle - video powered by Metacafe

I have to admit I'm not much of a football fan anymore. It's been almost 27 years since I lived in Chicago, where I grew up and lived until 1980, a decade past my college days. But when the Bears are in the playoffs, I can't help but watch. And sing that silly song. I spent a fair amount of time in my younger days in Wrigley Field and later Soldier Field, freezing in wet or arctic air and watching the Bears lose most of the time. My dad often got tickets through people he met via his job, mostly in the end zone and at the 50-yard line, about 25 rows up. Thrilling spots for a kid to watch the game. The end zone seats were an especially exciting location, in the days before nets to catch the extra points and field goals. People used to stand on the metal box seat dividers and dive to catch the balls zooming into the stands. The closest I ever got was a field goal that almost took my finger tips off, snapping and stinging in the cold.

We had to endure many losses, but were also treated to some of the most elegant, speedy and talented runners in the history of the game, including Willie Galimore, Gayle Sayers and Sweetness himself, Walter Payton. I got to see each of them run live, many times, with crowd noises exploding all around me. And we got to see some of the best defenses and linebackers ever, all big shouldered and blue collar tough, like Chicago was and sometimes still is if you look hard enough past the gentrification.

When I experience the rarity of a Bears playoff victory like yesterday's, I can't help but think of my long deceased father and how he must be rolling around happily in his grave singing Bear Down, Chicago Bears once more. After all, this was a man who grew up in the poor but proud, factory packed, immigrant neighborhoods near downtown Chicago. He had been at Wrigley Field on that incredibly frigid day (9 degrees) in 1963, long before Super Bowls existed, when the Bears beat the New York Giants for the NFL Championship, 14-10. This was not long after Kennedy was assassinated, when Mike Ditka still played tight end and when there were only 14 teams in the entire league. Bear fans were the same then as they are now. Long suffering, with a handful of joyous miracles to savor among the disappointments and defeats. But most of all, ever loyal.

The Chicago Tribune has voluminous coverage on the Bears and yesterday's game, including a set of videos documenting Football in Chicago. Even Barak Obama has Bear fever this year. Maybe it will be his year too. You never know what can happen when someone bears down ...

Video: 19 Miles from Baghdad

From Bring 'Da Noise:
I was listening to Democracy Now recently and heard one of the most inspiring songs I've ever heard. Amy Goodman said that it was sent in by other viewers and that it was by Lizzie West & The White Buffalo, so I visited their website at www.lizziewestlife.com, and contacted the band via e-mail. I expressed to them that I wanted to create a video for it, and they were nice enough to send me the whole song! Check out the video at www.bringdanoise.com.

Baba Buffalo, from the band, informed me that they wrote the song when they were with Warner Bros. and the record label refused it because, according to them, "It didn't belong in American culture." You be the judge. Its a great song and I know everyone who watches the video will instantly become a Lizzie West & The White Buffalo fan. Have a Great New Year! --Thomas

Dance of Life: 2007

This Mummers' Dance by Loreena McKennitt seemed perfect for part of a soundtrack for welcoming what so many of us hope will be a new year full of positive changes for the common good, for community and connection, for peace and reason, for justice and transcendence, for uniting in creative ways to view our problems and dreams with a fresh eye, with a stronger vision. There's a long tradition of mummer plays and dances, many involving the New Year. Maybe we need more of what's shown in this video -- playful yet somehow profound practices, ingrained deeply in the human persona over thousands of years, that knit people together. More role playing and joyfulness and rituals and rhythms and colors and art in our interactions, in our gatherings, in our imaginings. More flowing and floating, more drumming for momentum, more augmentation of the practical using the dramatic and the visceral.

We need something to jolt us out of our convention boxes, that seems clear. I hope we'll put some passion into shaping the events of 2007, as well as our responses to what emerges. I hope we'll try any and all tactics to break out of the traps of frustration and cynicism set by the forces of fear and destruction to convince us we're powerless, paralyzed, theirs. Let's dance together in life, of life, and nurture the energies of connection, of synergy, of tipping points, of transformation, wherever we may be in actual physical space. Then again, so much of who we are has to do with monkies dancing. Maybe all we need to do is move it up an octave....transcendent monkies! Happy New Year, 2007!

Feliz Navidad!

We couldn't let the holiday pass without Jose Feliciano singing Feliz Navidad. Here he is in a 1973 concert in Denmark. And as an added treat, here's the superbly talented Feliciano in 1988 doing a knock-out version of Malaguena on acoustic guitar:

Also check out his recent free download called Killing's Not the Answer, which reflects on our reactions to the tragedy of 9-11 and beyond. His latest album, Jose Feliciano y Amigos, was released this month.

We Wish You a Rebellious Xmas

I uploaded Jackson Browne's Rebel Jesus last year and I'm doing it again this year. (Be patient as it may take a while to load.) This version was performed with the Irish - Celtic band The Chieftains on their "The Bells of Dublin" holiday album. Lyrics below the fold. Enjoy. Merry Xmas from another peaceful pagan....

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The Rebel Jesus, Jackson Browne

The streets are filled with laughter and light
And the music of the season
And the merchants' windows are all bright
With the faces of the children
And the families hurrying to their homes
As the sky darkens and freezes
Will be gathering around the hearths and tales
Giving thanks for all God's graces
And the birth of the rebel Jesus

They call him by the "Prince of Peace"
And they call him by "The Saviour"
And they pray to him upon the sea
And in every bold endeavor
As they fill his churches with their pride and gold
And their faith in him increases
But they've turned the nature that I worshipped in
From a temple to a robber's den
In the words of the rebel Jesus

We guard our world with locks and guns
And we guard our fine possessions
And once a year when Christmas comes
We give to our relations
And perhaps we give a little to the poor
If the generosity should seize us
But if any one of us should interfere
In the business of why they are poor
They get the same as the rebel Jesus

But pardon me if I have seemed
To take the tone of judgement
For I've no wish to come between
This day and your enjoyment
In this life of hardship and of earthly toil
We have need for anything that frees us
So I bid you pleasure and I bid you cheer
From a heathen and a pagan
On the side of the rebel Jesus.

Yuletide 2006: War is Over (If You Want It)

You'd think this song, originally written and performed by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, would go out of style, at least lyrically. Unfortunately war seems almost eternally with us, largely because certain power blocs have much to gain from it -- politically, financially and in terms of making some dysfunctional individuals feel mighty manly. So here we go again: Merry Xmas, War Is Over If We Want It. Let's think about that as we listen to Sarah McLachlan's new version of the song off her recently released album, Wintersong, while seeing so many innocent children's faces in this video. And as more long, dirty, unnecessary wars rage on in the Middle East and many other places around the Planet Earth. Only we can stop them. Ava at Peace Takes Courage agrees.

(Click on image for larger version.)

White Christmas (Feline Edition)

I know our birds won't like this one, but I hope you will. And when you're done watching the kitties, go ELF YOURSELF as Jim Baca and many others have. (Wait till end of elf dance and then make your own version.)

Joan Baez: A Pause to Refresh

Joan Baez at a recent performance

Joan Baez is the reason why my commentary has so far been non-existent on the televised Madrid-Wilson debate last night. I didn't like missing the live debate, but I had bought my Baez tickets months ago and I wasn't about to skip out on a chance to hear Joan up close and personal at the KiMo in Albuquerque. I made the right decision. It was a magical night.

Her voice still soars and bobs and weaves. Her song choice was pointedly topical and right on time. She even did a brief imitation of Dylan's nasal twanging, bringing chuckles. She looks like a seasoned, elegant, silver-haired siren. She comes across as wryly wise, seriously witty, with just the right mix of cynicism and silly humor amidst the hope and the world weariness. She's the genuine article, with a studied brand of politics honed by her long years on the justice trail. And she and her two-piece band knocked the socks off the audience musically.

Could there be a better time than two weeks before a pivotal election to hear songs like the organizing classic, "Joe Hill," or Dylan's "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall" and "With God on Our Side," or Steve Earle's "Jerusalem" and "Christmas in Washington," or Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne," or Joan's own "Diamonds and Rust"? Or to revel in "Gracias A La Vida," urging a celebration of life despite the turmoil and quagmires? It came to me that we can never be finished fighting the good fight against purposeful injustice, ruinous war, selfish greed, crushing poverty and those whose goals are to subjugate, steal and run roughshod over those less fortunate. The battle is eternal, the victories sometimes small and often fleeting. The work goes on, always, as it must.

Baez has been there at the musical and political barricades of truth and peace and justice for almost 50 years, through times of triumph over our darker sides and times when all seems lost. She keeps on, she stays rooted in compassion, in love, in humor, in hope. She inspires many (including me) to keep at it, to continue the tedious work of change, while remembering to savor the pleasures of life and love, of adventure and human kindness, of music and creation, of community. I know it probably sounds corny, but it felt like a roomful of community last night at the KiMo, full of shared experience, shared hopes, shared dreams and, most of all, a shared appreciation of Joan's exquisite music of the heart and mind and spirit.

Here's the sober and serious Baez doing "With God On Our Side" in 1966:

And here she is last year, singing "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall" at the Operation Ceasefire Concert in Washington DC:

Finally, go listen to her sing with Jackson Browne on his song, "Before the Deluge," which includes the timely line, "let the music keep our spirits high." Onward.

Have You Had Enough? and Open Thread

Ricky Lee Jones (mp3). Discuss amongst yourselves. Or discuss anything that's on your minds. Click "Comment" below.