http://songriot.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb Insurrection Is The Melody creative commons license, all riots deserved admin@songriot.com (SongRiot.com) admin@songriot.com (SongRiot.com) underground folk XOOPS 2.2.4 / RSSFit 1.5 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss en Thu, 9 Sep 2010 17:34:24 -0700
i'm trying to picture penis-shaped welts on the face that discourage someone from leaving the house...

"i don't know what you think you're doing with that thing! i just saw you bludgeon a guy with it!"]]> Wed, 31 May 2006 21:24:13 -0700 http://songriot.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=9&forum=5&post_id=16#forumpost16 Topix for Songs: Ideas and boundaries http://songriot.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=9&forum=5&post_id=16#forumpost16
Until last night.

On the way home from work, I stopped at Cookie's Tavern on 10th & Oregon. I drank my beer and was watching the news. A few barstools down from me, a fat Italian guy in his early fifties started emptying his pockets onto the bar. He was on his cell phone arguing with someone, pulling a bunch of prescription pill bottles and lining them up on the bar. Finally, he gets very angry and hangs up. Then he turns to me and says "People are always wanting to tell me their problems an I don't wanna hear it!" Then he starts telling me some long story about his wife, his life, and his problems. I tried to ignore him, and he eventually went to the bathroom.

The bartender came over to me and said "Don't mind him. He's nuts. Beat the crap out of a guy with a big rubber dick once."

I said "I heard about that! Over at the Fireside?"

"Yeah, he's kind of a local legend." said the bartender.

When the guy came out of the bathroom, the bartender said to him "See, even this guy heard about how crazy you are, beating a guy with a big rubber dick."

I had to ask: "What the hell was that all about?"

His name was Tony, and he told me his story. "I was in the Fireside and I met this girl. We were talking and kissing a little bit. Then she says ‘I can take a 15 inch cock.’ Well I don’t have a 15 inch cock, y’know? So we get in my car and I drive around to four different sex toy shops! Even one in Jersey! We buy the biggest rubber dick we can find, like a foot-and-a-half long, y’know? Then we go back to the bar to have some more drinks. Hey I gotta get pretty loaded if I’m gonna ram a dildo this big into a woman! So we’re getting ready to leave, gonna go over to my place. Now there’s this guy been getting mouthy all night, just talking shit to people. - I know the guy, he’s a prick. Known him all my life. – he says something to me and I’m like ‘What did you say, you piece a shit?’ He gets up like he’s gonna start something, so I reach in the bag and grab this big rubber dick and start wailin on him with it. I hit him a bunch of times til he was knocked out. The bartender starts yelling at me, so I drag the guy outside. While I’m dragging him, he starts to wake up, y’know? So I start hitting him again out in the street. Cars are driving by honkin their horns, even a cop car drove by, people were laughing their asses off.”

“Later on that night”, he continued “his sister calls me to yell at me for beatin up her brother with a big rubber dick. She said he was all fucked up with big red welts in the shape of a penis all over his face. He couldn’t leave the house for days.”

I thought about shaking the hand of the man who had beaten someone with a giant dildo, but then I thought maybe just buy him a drink instead. You don't want to risk pissing off a guy who beats people with big rubber dicks.]]> Wed, 24 May 2006 10:37:30 -0700 http://songriot.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=9&forum=5&post_id=15#forumpost15 Topix for Songs: Ideas and boundaries http://songriot.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=9&forum=5&post_id=15#forumpost15
and now her whole house smells like smoked ham and reminds her of the south.]]> Sun, 23 Apr 2006 12:10:28 -0700 http://songriot.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=7&forum=5&post_id=12#forumpost12 Topix for Songs: Ideas and boundaries http://songriot.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=7&forum=5&post_id=12#forumpost12 Two times
Two times
Two damn times in front of a machine gun is too many times too much. But that's just what you'd expect from hanging out in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. All the papers agree: Rio is where it's at when it comes to drugs and violence. And because the papers here all agree, the papers all around the world agree.

And film makers cash in on the violence.

City of God is a great movie. It exposes a side of life in the illegal communities that house about 20-25% of Rio's population. And yeah, City of God (Cidade de Deus) is a really violent community where the president of the residents' association moved to another squat about a kilometer away because he couldn't sleep with all the gun play at night and then he was too tired to help his constituents during the days.

But City of God is a BIG favela. It has more than 50,000 people that live there. And how many of them do you think are involved directly or indirectly in the drug gangs? They've got young kids as the lookouts for strangers, police, rival gangs, and potential customers--they're the olheiros. Some of these kids have cell phones, others have walkie talkies, and others fly kites and yank them from the sky to cry "WOLF"! The most common signal system is fireworks.

They've got runners (avião or airplane), also kids, who take the drugs into the favela to the hideout (boca de fuma), to the dealers on the street corners, and make home deliveries to regular customers.

They've got their muscle, their guns, their accountants, their packagers, and the rest of the company. It's a professional business this, and it's possible to rise through the ranks and become the Michael Jordan of drug dealing and move out of the favela and into the South Zone (Zona Sul where Copacabana and Ipanema are two of the poorer bairros).

Sitting in a valley and looking up at a favela when the police are raiding it is pop pop pop pop in a squiggly line that mimics the roads and alleys. Where there is a pop (fire cracker/rocket) is where you DON'T WANT TO BE. Shoot first and shoot the questions later is the motto of many of the police here--but it's a civil war here and so they feel justified even when their stray bullets (balas perdidas) puncture the jugular of a little girl and then take out a priest behind her.

And the traficantes (drug dealers) feel justified too. Hey, gotta make a buck, right? And they give back to the communities. They throw parties, they pay for some infrastructure improvements, they punish community theives and child abusers. Where there's a strong drug lord, there is no rape. And this buys the traficantes some rights, like the right to hide under your bed if the police are looking for ya. And maybe the right to send you packing so they can use your house as an Alamo and make a last stand taking pot shots out the windows.

Shit, there I go again. It's all about the violence, isn't it?

No, it's not. Back to my earlier question: how many of the 50,000+ inhabitants of the City of God are involved in this drug business? Well, they've divided the community into three territories, all controlled by the same gang (Comando Vermelho or Red Comand).

All in all, there are about 500-600 people either directly or indirectly on CV payroll in City of God. That's around 1%. So what do the other 99% do every day? Do they shutter their windows and bolt their doors or scurry through the alleys to do their must do's?

City of God is a great movie in that it shows one of the options for the poor here in Rio. It's horrible in that it makes us forget the other 99% of hard working, christian, family-oriented, clean, dirty, lazy, atheists who are just like the rest of us all around the world. That is, except for the occasional inconvenience of sudden death.

In a survey of over 250,000 residents of favelas, the problem of traficantes was expected to be #1. It didn't even make the top 10. What they do care about is food, water, jobs, transportation, and social / economic exclusion due to predjuice about their address. Everybody knows that only hookers and drug dealers live in the favelas--nobody reliable enough to hold down a job.

I got my invitation to the City of God from a woman I met when I was buying a cellphone in a shopping mall. She lives there. It's a hell of a commute for her, but she likes it there and has her family, friends, and history there.

I didn't see machine gun one there, nor pistol, nor slingshot... Yes, I've been in front of machine guns twice more than I had ever in the US, but I think I'm getting used to it.]]> Mon, 17 Apr 2006 08:05:23 -0700 http://songriot.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=4&forum=5&post_id=11#forumpost11 Topix for Songs: Ideas and boundaries http://songriot.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=4&forum=5&post_id=11#forumpost11
Which in a round about way leads to my suggestion for a song: a non whiney (Yes, I'm being way too mean) song about working the job for pay and doing the art at night. Or shoving one's hands in the innards of a website that perhaps a few might look at. Or writing pieces. Or taking naked photos of one's friends, etc and so forth. So the song should be sassy, funny, lyrically beautiful, have tons of word play and on top of all that not be in anyway shape or form whiney about the joys and pains of being an artist in this day and age.]]> Sat, 8 Apr 2006 22:36:56 -0700 http://songriot.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=4&forum=5&post_id=9#forumpost9 Topix for Songs: Ideas and boundaries http://songriot.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=4&forum=5&post_id=9#forumpost9