�
 |
|
 |
|
|
| Celebrity Supporters - Goto page Previous 1, 2 |
| View previous topic
:: View next topic |
Obscuregawdess
 Posted:
Thu May 29, 2008 9:13 pm |
|
|
|
| gwen wrote: | | OG, Precious little girls in your av! |
Awww, thnx Gwen! The one with the big smile is my oldest daughter, and the cutie to the left is their cousin Tabby. They're best buds! 
|
|
"Bratty Mama Leci"
Joined: 02 Aug 2006
Posts: 11754
Location: Kentucky
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
| gwen
Posted:
Thu May 29, 2008 9:19 pm |
|
|
|
| Obscuregawdess wrote: |
Awww, thnx Gwen! The one with the big smile is my oldest daughter, and the cutie to the left is their cousin Tabby. They're best buds! |
Your daughter is just beautiful. Love that smile! Tabby is cute as a button!
|
|
AKA Gagal_05
Joined: 24 Feb 2007
Posts: 14357
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Obscuregawdess
Posted:
Thu May 29, 2008 9:23 pm |
|
|
|
| gwen wrote: |
Your daughter is just beautiful. Love that smile! Tabby is cute as a button! |
 
|
|
"Bratty Mama Leci"
Joined: 02 Aug 2006
Posts: 11754
Location: Kentucky
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| diedre
Posted:
Thu May 29, 2008 11:04 pm |
|
|
|
your daughter is very beautiful. that smile and dimples-wow. she is pretty like her momma!!
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2007
Posts: 231
Location: buying high heels. I never wear rubber shoes-lol
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Obscuregawdess
Posted:
Thu May 29, 2008 11:11 pm |
|
|
|
| diedre wrote: | | your daughter is very beautiful. that smile and dimples-wow. she is pretty like her momma!! |
 You're way too kind, deidre... thank you!!!!!!!!! BTW, I've missed ya! 
|
|
"Bratty Mama Leci"
Joined: 02 Aug 2006
Posts: 11754
Location: Kentucky
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Obscuregawdess
Posted:
Sat May 31, 2008 2:36 pm |
|
|
|
Michale Graves & Damien Echols: Illusions
(See more at: http://backin77.blogspot.com/2008/05/michale-graves-damien-echols-illusions.html )
Illusions with Damien Echols
Track listings
The Blackness and the Forest
(music: Graves)
Almost Home
(words & music: Graves)
Teenage Monster
(words & music: Graves)
Frostbite
(words: Echols / music: Graves)
Wormwood
(words: Echols / music: Graves)
Nothing
(words: Echols / music: Graves)
1000 Cracks of Daylight
(words: Echols / music: Graves)
Gorch
(words & music: Graves)
Lucifer I Am
(words & music: Graves)
Where the Sky Ends
(words & music: Hogan, Donahue, Vittelo, Rhodes, Emmanuel)
Shelter
(words: Graves/Smash! / music: Graves/Wilson)
Dig Up Her Bones
(words & music: Graves)
Crying on Saturday Night (Live at CBGB's NYC March 2006)
(words & music: Graves)
When We Were Angels
(words & music: Graves)
Silent Partner
(words: Echols / music: Graves)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusions_with_Damien_Echols"
|
|
"Bratty Mama Leci"
Joined: 02 Aug 2006
Posts: 11754
Location: Kentucky
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Obscuregawdess
Posted:
Sat May 31, 2008 4:05 pm |
|
|
|
New Michale Graves "Illusions" CD press release
For Immediate Release
Songs Written By Wrongfully-Convicted
Death Row Inmate to Be Released
“The ghosts inside my head keep singing
Those same old worn out songs
Reminding me of places where the haunting never stops.”
-Damien Echols
October 29, 2007: San Francisco, Calif.— The ghosts that Arkansas death row inmate Damien Echols writes about in these lyrics are most likely the ones a man will be haunted by after spending over a decade in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Echols, along with Jessie Misskelley, Jr. and Jason Baldwin, was convicted in 1994 for the brutal murders of three elementary school children. Since HBO aired a documentary (Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills) chronicling the aftermath of these crimes, a groundswell of support has formed around the three inmates—known as the West Memphis Three—a wide array of artists such as Henry Rollins, Margaret Cho, Metallica, and Eddie Vedder speaking out on their behalf.
Another artist who supports the West Memphis Three is Michale Graves, formerly of the Misfits, who has collaborated with Echols on an album to be released by SOS Records on October 31, 2007. The album, called “Illusions,” combines Echols’s lyrics with Graves’s music and vocals to create a haunting, introspective work partially inspired by the West Memphis Three’s experiences with the justice system.
And it is Graves’s experiences—and challenges—that inspired him to support the West Memphis Three and work with Echols. After struggling through a number of setbacks in his own life, Graves watched “Paradise Lost” and read Echols’s book of reflections, Almost Home, and felt compelled to help raise money towards the West Memphis Three’s defense fund.
“I felt life come back into my soul and realized that I could really help Damien with his dreams of becoming a writer, musician, and artist,” said Graves. “I realized I also had the opportunity to create an environment to have a discussion about things like freedom, tolerance, love, and magic.”
For more information about the West Memphis Three, log on to www.wm3.org.
Songs on the album written by Echols: Frostbite, Wormwood, Nothing, 1,000 Cracks of Daylight, and Silent Partner.
http://sosrecords.us/label/taxonomy/term/1
|
|
"Bratty Mama Leci"
Joined: 02 Aug 2006
Posts: 11754
Location: Kentucky
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Obscuregawdess
Posted:
Mon Jun 02, 2008 12:10 am |
|
|
|
The Evil Powers of Rock and Roll:
The Supersuckers' Eddie Spaghetti Works to
Free the West Memphis Three
(I have Eddie's dialogue italicized)
On May 5, 1993, three 8-year-old boys were brutally murdered in West Memphis, Arkansas. The small town was terrified, and the small town police department had no idea how to deal with a murder of this magnitude. The combination of hysteria and incompetence resulted in the conviction of three other boys: Jessie Misskelley, Jason Baldwin, and Damien Echols. Misskelley, Baldwin, and Echols became known as the West Memphis Three.
The West Memphis Police Department, by their own admission, were able to obtain no physical evidence to convict the West Memphis Three. The prosecution's argument rested on a confession by Misskelley, a confession marked by Misskelley's lack of knowledge of any of the particulars of the case, including the place and time of the murders.
Since the confession was so questionable, since there was no physical evidence, and since the prosecution was faced with a hysterical community, they fell back on the age-old method of constructing a witch-hunt. They tried the West Memphis Three not for murder, but for being "satanic." As evidence, the prosecution brought forth Echols' books on Wicca, Baldwin's Metallica T-shirts, and the coerced statements of mentally disabled Misskelley. This flimsy argument was enough to award Misskelley and Baldwin prison terms of life plus forty years. Echols was sentenced to death by lethal injection.
In 1996, Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky made the film Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills. After several showings on HBO, the film sparked a new flame of interest in the case. Among those inspired by the film was Eddie Spaghetti, lead singer of the Supersuckers. Spaghetti asked himself what he could do to help the West Memphis Three, and decided to help release a compilation CD dedicated to the cause. The compilation features stars like Joe Strummer, Eddie Vedder, John Doe, Tom Waits, and the Murder City Devils. Recently, I got the opportunity to speak with Spaghetti about the West Memphis Three case and about the comp.
Looking at the band names and song titles on the comp, with bands like Killing Joke and Murder City Devils, and songs like "Fucking Hostile" and "Wrathchild," it seems like the Free the West Memphis Three CD itself mirrors perfectly the evidence used to prove that Jason Baldwin was Satanic.
It's kind of weird. The thing is, they were convicted for such ludicrous reasons, and all the evidence was brought up as character evidence, as some sort of proof that they were evil people. A lot of people don't care if that hurt them. But the fact is that that sort of thinking is wrong and we shouldn't kowtow to it. We shouldn't change what we do. Just because their thinking is character-proof, we shouldn't cater to it.
So was this an intentional thing?
The song selection definitely was. I mean, if you'll notice, they basically go from songs about people's feelings about the case and about the film to covers of songs from bands that the guys like. So yeah, we did do that directly.
What songs were by bands that Jason Baldwin is a fan of?
He's a fan of Pantera and Kelley Deal did the cover of the Pantera song, and for the same reason, Nashville Pussy did "Highway To Hell." AC/DC is one of the bands connected to the case.
How does purchasing the CD help the actual kids in jail?
The money from the CD goes to the justice watch, which is a non-profit organization which helps out wrongly convicted people. And the money from the CD will also go directly to Jason, Damien, and Jessie, not so much for defense funds, because their defense fund is fine. It's more geared towards money for them for when they get out of jail. We designed it that way specifically because we want to send out a message that we really believe that they're going to get out.
The Supersuckers are among the bands working to Free the West Memphis Three. L-R: The Heathman, Dancing Eagle, Eddie Spaghetti, Dan "Thunder" Bolton
How did you come to get involved with the West Memphis Three?
Everybody who sees the film, the first thing they think about is, "what can I do?" For a lot of people that could be donating money to the support fund or telling their friends about what's going on or just talking about it. Then again, in my case, I have resources with which to put together a record like this.
Have you met any of the kids personally?
Yeah. I went down to Arkansas and visited Damien. I didn't get to Jason. He was farther away.
What were your impressions?
Awesome. The guys were amazing. Incredibly positive. They're coming from a place where I don't understand and hope to never be able to understand. I hope never to be in a situation that bleak. Jason, in particular, is amazing. He tutors at the prison school and he works with computers in the prison office and he's not just sitting there, bitter. He's trying to do something positive.
It reminds me of something I found doing research on this, a quote by Damien saying that he takes comfort in knowing that he's going to be out of prison one way or another, either alive or dead, at least he'll leave. It's something that I'd never want to be faced with.
Their attitude is something that I totally admire and I hope to never understand on a personal level.
I know you have some particularly damning T-shirts, like "How To Maximize Your Kill Count" and "Smoke Of Hell." What else could be used to condemn you the way Jason Baldwin's concert shirts and Damien Echols' Stephen King and Anne Rice books condemned him?
In my possession?
Yeah.
That kind of the thing. You realize that a lot of the music that they have was pretty, you know, relatively mainstream. Then I look around my place and think, "you know, if the cops busted in here, and this shit could really be used as evidence against me in court, I'd be sitting on death row." Because I have a lot of books, I mean, I'm very into witchcraft. And the cops could find books about serial killers. But it's interesting. A lot of people have that stuff. It's not evidence.
And, like you said before, you can't really kowtow to people who disagree with your beliefs just because they're the ones in power.
Right. They're wrong. That's the thing. Sometimes you forget about that in order to put on a nice appearance. You gotta realize that they're the ones that are wrong. My being into witchcraft doesn't even make me a witch, much less a murderer.
You said some interesting things in an interview with Hit List a few months ago about Satan. You took him almost out of a religious context.
Well, not being a religious person, Satan is not. Satan is a cartoon character. Satan is the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus or anything like that. He's just a guy who represents the underground aspects of life. To me, you know. Satan drives a cool hot rod. Satan has all the drugs and all the chicks and all the stuff in life that is rock n' roll.
He's kind of like Loki in Norse mythology.
Exactly. I don't think there's anything inherently evil about all that stuff. There's a lot of evil in the world; there's no doubt about that. But real evil lies in other places. It lies in racism and in people treating other people poorly. I don't see how these things connect.
Do you have any personal stories that tie in with the West Memphis Three?
Being involved with rock n' roll. You know what it's like from being in Florida. It's not as bad as West Memphis. Well, some places are. So you know what it's like. And we grew up in Tucson. I just know what it's like to be looked upon with suspicion because of the way I look and to have to deal with questions about Satan and satanic imagery on record covers and all that other stuff. We deal with that all the time, you know, on a regular basis. It's particularly funny when you're out of the country, in Europe, with the language barriers and where they don't necessarily have the same sense of humor as I do. They really want me to explain my relationship with Satan. As if I've taken the Dark Lord as my personal savior. It's just rock n' roll. That's all it is. It's energy. That's all there is to it.
http://www.ink19.com/issues/december2000/inkSpots/freeWestMemphisThree.html
|
|
"Bratty Mama Leci"
Joined: 02 Aug 2006
Posts: 11754
Location: Kentucky
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Obscuregawdess
Posted:
Wed Jun 11, 2008 3:26 pm |
|
|
|
Will Ferrell Shows Some Support!
Jun 10, 2008 at 3:33 PM
If you're reading this Will: Thanks for the support! It means a lot to Jason, Damien and Jessie.
Will Ferrell in WM3 Shirt
DVD screenshot[1]
DVD screenshot[2]
Will Ferrell in WM3 Shirt
Screencaps from Semi-Pro (behind the scenes).
http://wm3.vox.com/library/post/will-ferrell-shows-some-support.html?_c=feed-atom
|
|
"Bratty Mama Leci"
Joined: 02 Aug 2006
Posts: 11754
Location: Kentucky
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Obscuregawdess
Posted:
Mon Jun 16, 2008 8:24 pm |
|
|
|
Jun 9, 2008
Hot Topic: CMJ Checks In With Some Of The Music World's Most High Profile Causes
Jun 9, 2008
By Michael Tedder
A few years ago, a benefit concert was organized to raise money for former Saves The Day bassist, Sean McGrath, and his accruing medical bills. Years after the event's financial success, friend and benefit organizer, Bruce McDonald, went on to create McGrath's memorial fund and began e-mailing his music industry friends and contacts. One of his contacts, McDonald says, "replied to my e-mail saying, 'Oh my God, I remember that benefit, I always wondered what happened to Sean.'" Though unfortunate, it is not uncommon for a worthy cause to make a big splash only to gradually diminish in profile, if not in magnitude, over time. McGrath's battle with cancer was just one of many causes that has captured the attention of the music community at some point in the recent past. Inspired by the creation of the The Sean McGrath Fund, here is an update on several music-related causes to serve as a reminder of what music can accomplish.
The Sean McGrath Fund
Sean McGrath always wanted to give back. McGrath was a founding member of Saves The Day, and after leaving the pioneering emo heroes he went on to play with groups such as The Alps, Hands Tied and Mouthpiece. After he discovered he had intestinal cancer in 2002, McDonald helped organize the "Hold On To Your Friends" benefit show to help with medical bills. The fact that so many people—including bands like Thursday, Midtown and groups whose members he didn't even know personally, like Taking Back Sunday&mdahs;cared enough to reach out raised McGrath's spirits, and he was determined to pay back this kindness by helping other people just as soon as he was better.
Because he had a rare form of cancer that grew on the inside of his digestive track, McGrath was initially misdiagnosed with jaundice. When he went to get what he was told would be a simple liver operation, "the moment they cut him open they stitched him back up," McDonald says, "because the cancer was so extensive, that they weren't prepared to take care of it. So the next day I got a call from a friend, 'Sean actually has cancer,' and I was absolutely floored, because he was so healthy, so vibrant and he still played music."
After the "Hold On To Your Friends" benefit, McDonald continued to hold one-off benefits to help with his friend's medical bills. McDonald, a former supervising producer at Fuse, had met McGrath when they both worked at MTV. They quickly bonded over a shared love of punk and charity work, and before long were inseparable, even taking sketch comedy classes together. When McGrath moved back in with his parents, McDonald moved in as well to help care for his friend. Sadly, McGrath passed away two years to the day of that first benefit. By the end of his wake, McDonald and Jessica Shapiro, McGrath's fiancé, decided that since he wasn't going to be able to give back, it was up to them to do it for him.
"I'm not nearly as emotional about it anymore. It's still a terrible, sad loss, and I always wonder what his hair cut would have been this week or if we would have done more comedy classes together, maybe we would have written something together," McDonald says of his friend. "But I can't really be in the business of what ifs." Instead, McDonald prefers to think about what he can do for his friend's memory. McGrath was frugal with the money raised for him, and when he died there was $20,000 left in his fund, which his parents insisted be used for charitable purposes rather than final expenses. After a period of mourning, McDonald and Shapiro approached the Princeton Area Community Foundation to set up The Sean McGrath Fund.
The Fund's mission is to support not only youth cancer prevention organizations, but also causes that were close to McGrath's heart like music education and animal rights, with an eye towards picking smaller organizations that could greatly benefit from financial support. It officially launched this year on McGrath's birthday, January 27, with McDonald announcing that he was going to attempt to raise $32 a week to commemorate what would have been McGrath's age this year. "Even guys in band t-shirts scrounging together beer money can still probably afford 32 bucks," McDonald says. The community foundation told McDonald that a day after he e-mailed the announcement they had a record number of donations. To date, The Sean McGrath Fund has raised more than $1,500, and McDonald has gotten enough encouraging responses from managers that's he's hoping to turn "Hold On To Your Friends" into a regular series of benefit concerts. Additionally, Taking Back Sunday has volunteered to donate proceeds from an upcoming concert to the fund, and Thursday frontman Geoff Rickly said his band would love to get involved with the Fund.
"When we were offered the opportunity to help him we jumped at it," says Rickly. "I remember standing on the side of the stage watching Taking Back Sunday with Sean and Bruce, and just laughing because we were having such a good time. Sean was one of us, a young musician just making his way in the world. We see how vulnerable we all are. I hope my friends would be there for me."
Home Alive
Shortly after its members moved to Seattle in the early '90s, The Gits developed a reputation as a must-see live act, in large part due to their magnetic singer Mia Zapata. With their fierce energy and Zapata's charisma, coupled with the attention on Seattle at the time, the group's breakthrough seemed inevitable.
When Zapata's body was discovered in the Capitol Hill area of Seattle on July 7, 1993 it marked the beginning of the end of an era for the Seattle music scene, and the start of a mission. Zapata's death—she had been found raped, strangled and abandoned on the street—horrified and galvanized the Seattle scene. Worried that the death of their friend would go unsolved by the Seattle police, Zapata's band mates and other members of the scene banded together to hire a private investigator to solve the case.
Then rock legend Joan Jett, who at the time was producing songs for Bikini Kill, collaborated on a song about Zapata's death with Bikini Kill front woman Kathleen Hanna entitled "Go Home." When the remaining members of The Gits contacted Jett about playing a benefit show, it led to her helping raise money for the investigation by touring with the remaining Gits as the band Evil Stig, which then led to a benefit live album on Warner Brothers in 1995. Jett has also discussed the case on Unsolved Mysteries and America's Most Wanted.
"I know from inside that feeling of having people that you care about, and music that you care about, and a mission where you feel like you're going to change the world and do something," Jett says, "and I cannot fathom what that must have felt like to have that just stopped, and lose such a great, creative beautiful soul. When this happened," Jett adds, "you've got to remember that they didn't know if it was someone from outside the community, they didn't know if it was the person sitting next to them at the bar. So that element, I think, slowly tore the whole community apart."
Jett's longtime manager and collaborator Kenny Laguna, who produced the Evil Stig album, says that while he and Jett consider themselves "supporters of the police," they thought it was important to get involved in the investigation. "You'd be amazed what doesn't get paid attention to," Laguna says. "Unfortunately, rapes and rape-murders don't always have the same priority as some of the other crimes."
After years of no leads in the case, advances in DNA testing technology enabled Seattle's cold case unit to match DNA evidence taken from Zapata's body to Florida fisherman Jesus Mezquia, who lived in Seattle at the time and had a history of violence against women. On March 25, 2004, he was sentenced to 37 years in prison for Zapata's murder.
Laguna says that Zapata's loved ones "never gave it up. Their mission in life was to get the guy," he says, noting that when Mezquia was convicted "We got a text message from (drummer Steve Moriarty) that just said, 'We got him.' The private eye who was working on it at one point called me and said, 'If you guys hadn't done all that work, that might not had happened." I give the most credit to the community and to the band. The Gits had a magic... and they loved each other. They were kids, and their whole lives got stopped right there. They're just not the same because of what happened."
Though Zapata may be gone, her legacy continues to live on, and not just through her music or the upcoming documentary, The Gits (to be screened this summer). The non-profit organization Home Alive, started in response to Zapata's death, offers sliding scale self-defense classes to the Seattle community. And all of the instructors are not only trained in how to teach martial arts, but they are taught how to tell Mia's story before every class. "Mia's death was kind of the straw that broke the camel's back," says Becka Tilsen, program director for Home Alive. "That brought people together to really look at the state of violence in their own communities, in their own lives, in their childhood and to create something that could address violence on a continuum."
Home Alive, which started with a focus on teaching self-defense to women before growing to include men and transgender people, holds seminars at women's shelters, schools, community centers, union halls and more. One of the main impetuses for the group, Tilsen says, is not just to teach self-defense, but to break down common myths found in many self-defense courses. "People still hear it all the time that wearing x, y or z clothing will get x, y or z violence happening to you," Tilsen says. "So the implication is that we have to change our appearance and fit gender stereotypes in order to be safe... and a lot of the messages are not backed up by actual, reported incidences of violence."
Home Alive has weathered a reduction in large donations from musicians and a large-scale staff lay-off several years ago. It since has recovered to have three full-time staff members again and has fundraisers with local bands and music venues. Despite the financial hardships, Tilsen says the group is as popular as ever, with more requests for classes than they can meet. It also saw a renewed interest from the community following a series of recent gay bashing and attacks on young women in the Seattle area. "Though we have not been able to fully meet the demand," explains Tilsen, "we've been able to triple our class load in the last few months. That's a huge increase for our little operation and I am proud of that."
Sweet Relief
The internet has been a mixed blessing to the Sweet Relief Musicians Fund. Even though the group was kicked off Facebook—apparently organizations are not allowed to have a profile on the site—JoAnne Klabin, Managing Director of the Sweet Relief Musicians Fund, says the web makes it easier for musicians in need of financial assistance to discover and contact them. Unfortunately, the same telecommunications highway that's made it easier for Sweet Relief to find those in need has also played a part in the financial downturn of the industry that makes the support possible. "What is the music industry now? It's not what it was in 1994," Klabin says. "The good 'ol days when you could get a really generous donation from a major label are gone. You just have to keep being imaginative."
After songwriter Victoria Williams was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1992, artists such as Pearl Jam and Lou Reed contributed to a tribute album and benefit concerts to help her with medical bills. Two years later, the Sweet Relief group was formed with Williams' wish to give back by providing financial assistance to other musicians who were unable to pay for medical treatment. Though Williams is no longer involved in the organization (she declined to be interviewed for this piece, and Klabin declined to comment on the singer's current health condition), Sweet Relief continues to hew to her vision. The organization, run by a grant committee of volunteers from the music industry, followed up the Williams tribute album with a covers album benefiting songwriter Vic Chesnutt in 1996. Since then, Klabin says "the industry changed a lot. And it was considered by the board not sufficiently lucrative to do another record."
Now the group mainly relies on the generosity of music fans and artists, and the willingness of artists' managers to pass along donation requests to their clients, which is "kind of hit and miss" according to Klabin. "We'll ask bands for great seats to a show or meet-and-greet tickets, then we'll auction those to fans," Klabin explains. "That's our main fundraising effort at the moment." Klabin says that L.A. punk legends X donated tickets and meet-and-greets for all of the dates on their upcoming 31st anniversary tour, and Tegan And Sara donated two dollars from each ticket sold from a recent concert date.
Sweet Relief, Klabin says, gets most of its applicants from charities such as Music Cares and the Jazz Foundation. It is also launching a health education initiative to encourage musicians to get regular preventative vision and hearing exams, and offer stipends for musicians that cannot afford the exams. "People don't realize," says Klabin, "that a lot of the people we help aren't capable of working at the moment, or their careers were 30, 40 years ago."
The Callum Robbins Fund
When Kim Coletta heard that her good friend and former Jawbox bandmate James "J." Robbins' eight-month old son Callum was diagnosed with the debilitating motor neuron disease Type 1 Spinal Muscular Atrophy, she knew she had to help. The Desoto Records head set up a page on her label's site and asked for donations through PayPal to offset Robbins' mounting medical costs. "The only thing I did to publicize it was send an email out to the DeSoto Records listserve," Coletta says. "It went live one night and in the morning I checked up on it. My jaw almost hit the ground when I saw the donations pouring in."
SMA affects about one in 6,000 infants, according to the Families of Spinal Muscular Atrophy organization; it typically weakens the muscles needed for activities such as swallowing, walking, breathing and neck control. Children with the disease have a typical life expectancy of two years, those that survive face a financially-demanding life of physical therapy and machine-assisted living.
Callum's story spread across the internet and the independent music community. Fans and friends of Robbins—who plays in the group Channels and has produced records for Against Me!, Pilots To Gunner, Murder By Death and many more&mdahs;were determined to help. Members of Shellac, The Evens and Shudder To Think, among others, donated rare albums and memorabilia to be auctioned for Callum's benefit. And The Dismemberment Plan, who were signed to Desoto and produced by Robbins, reunited for a pair of benefit shows.
"I just have to say we feel incredibly lucky that people have been so supportive. It just kind of blows us away when people that we don't know have reached out to us, we're pretty much speechless about it," Robbins says. "Neither Janet (his wife and Callum's mother) nor I are religious in any way, but there's definitely a... I hesitate to use words like this, but there's almost a spiritual side to it. There's an energy at work that's really amazing to us." Robbins said the money raised has been used to pay for Callum to receive Chronologically Controlled Developmental Therapy from the Futures Unlimited center in Mississippi. The therapy has allowed Callum to develop muscle tone and stay healthy. "When we came back from Futures Unlimited the first time, we were in the motel, and (Callum) was on the bed and he rolled himself onto his back from the sideline position," Robbins says. "And that was something that we didn't think he was capable of doing. And we can see every time that we go down there that he's just kind of like revitalized."
Robbins says that his now two year-old son is a voracious reader with "an amazing personality and an incredible intellect." It is too overwhelming to think about the future and the mounting costs that will come from wheelchairs, specialty transportation and further treatments, he says. He can already see his son becoming frustrated with his physical limitations, and even catching a simple cold from his cousin recently resulted in a nine-day hospital stay. Instead, he prefers to be grateful for the compassion shown to him both by music fans and the community of parents of children with SMA: "The support that we've had has made things much more possible than it ever would have been without it."
The West Memphis Three
There was a time, she calls it the early days of the internet, when so little information was available about the West Memphis Three that Lisa Francer— who runs the L.A.-based Frontier Records—said she actually thought they had already been let out of jail. But this assumption was one of many things that changed for Fancer when she saw the 1996 documentary Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills.
Paradise recounts the arrest and trial of the Three—Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley—for the 1993 murder of three 8-year-old boys in Jonesboro, Memphis. The Emmy-winning film depicts what many have called a miscarriage of justice. Among the most notable scenes are the three young men being accused of participating in Satanic rituals because they enjoyed the works of Metallica and Stephen King, and "expert" testimony from an occult specialist with a mail-order degree from a discredited college.
"I didn't really think about it that much," says Francer, who now volunteers for the Free The West Memphis Three Support Group. "And then a year later a friend of mine told me she was watching Court TV and saw Damiem and he was suing the prison because he was being abused by the other inmates. At that point then I really felt sick to my stomach that I hadn't done anything about it."
Francer soon got heavily involved in the West Memphis Three case. And she wasn't alone. In years since the case and the documentary, celebrities such as Eddie Vedder, The Supersuckers, Winona Ryder, Natalie Maines, Margaret Cho, Trey Parker and Alkaline Trio have publicly voiced support for the Three, and many have written songs, played benefit concerts or donated to the cause. But according to Francher, no one has been a "soldier" for the three young men like Henry Rollins.
Like Francer, Rollins said he was inspired to get involved after watching Paradise. He called the West Memphis Three support group to volunteer to help, and performed at a benefit show with Tom Waits and Bad Religion. But Rollins said that he was so deeply affected by the case that he felt the need to make "a statement" with a tour and album.
"It really just got me going," says Rollins, "because I saw myself in those three guys. 'Oh well, this guy sat in his room and moped around a lot. He must be evil!' Well, that's me! I sat in my room and moped around, and I don't think that I'm all that evil. And the more I read about the case, it just really bugged me. You know, these three guys are sitting in jail. The horror, the sheer horror, of the idea of sitting in jail for life for something you didn't do. I could not, in good conscience, walk away from that."
Rollins released a benefit album, Rise Above: 24 Black Flag Songs to Benefit the West Memphis Three, that featured Mike Patton, Iggy Pop, Tom Araya (Slayer) and many more covering songs from Rollins' first group, Black Flag. Rollins then went on a benefit tour performing Black Flag songs for the first time since that band disbanded.
All of the money raised from the tour and album went to pay for new testing of DNA retrieved from the murder scene. Though Francer declined to give a specific number, she put the cost of the new testing in the neighborhood of "hundreds of thousands of dollars. Pretty much everything Henry has done has gone to DNA testing. It's made a huge, huge impact... that's the stuff that's going to get the guys out."
After years of legal maneuverings, this September the Three will get a new hearing that will allow their lawyers to submit new tests of the DNA found at the Jonesboro, Memphis murder scene. Francer and the rest of their supporters believe that this evidence will exonerate the trio, as they say that none of the Three's DNA matches the DNA retrieved from the scene.
"It doesn't match. Anything that they have discovered thus far does not match the West Memphis Three," says Francher. Though she admits that she doesn't believe that Judge David Burnett will "change his mind and suddenly go 'Oh yeah, they're innocent,' because it just hasn't been like that ever," she does feel the new evidence will be enough to help the Three's supporters push for a new trial. Which, in her opinion, "couldn't come soon enough."
Francer says that Echols health is rapidly deteriorating in prison, while Misskelley keeps to himself and Baldwin works at the library, has become a favorite of the guards and is an unofficial counselor to new prisoners. Rollins said he communicates with the boys and the progress being made keeps their spirits raised. But not everybody was happy about the work Rollins was doing. When the benefit tour reached Nashville, the owner of the venue wanted to cancel the show because of local protests. Later, Rollins conversed with one of the mothers of the murdered boys for a local news taping.
"And the news crews are there waiting for the fight to start and they were very disappointed when she hugged me and thanked me for what I was doing," Rollins says. "I told her, 'Well, you might not believe me, but I can't describe to you how badly I feel about what happened to you and your son.' I can't bring those kids back to life, but ...there're these three people sitting in jail who did not get, in my opinion, due process. And you've got to police that. America has kind of sunk unless we all are always minding that store," he says. "You gotta care."
If you would like to donate or get involved with any of the causes mentioned in this article, feel free to contact them at the following addresses:
The Callum Robbins Fund
www.desotorecords.com/cal/index.shtml
callumrobbins.blogspot.com
112 Sherwood Ave.
Pikesville, MD 21208
Fight SMA
www.fightsma.org
1807 Libbie Avenue, Suite 104
Richmond, VA 23226
SMA Foundation
www.smafoundation.org
888 Seventh Avenue, Suite 400
New York, NY 10019
Home Alive
www.homealive.org
1122 E. Pike Street, #1127
Seattle, WA 98122
The Sean McGrath Fund
www.justgive.org/giving/donate.jsp?charityId=12095
www.pacf.org
Princeton Area Community Foundation
15 Princess Road
Lawrenceville, NJ 08648
Free The West Memphis Three
www.wm3.org
P.O. Box 1216
Little Rock, AR 72203
Sweet Relief
www.sweetrelief.org
65 South Grand Avenue, #209
Pasadena, CA 91105
http://prod1.cmj.com/articles/display_article.php?id=68047500
|
|
"Bratty Mama Leci"
Joined: 02 Aug 2006
Posts: 11754
Location: Kentucky
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Obscuregawdess
Posted:
Tue Jun 17, 2008 11:02 am |
|
|
|
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Lyndall Stout May Help Reopen "West Memphis 3" Murder Trial
Lyndall Stout is making news in Northwest Arkansas. Her name appears on fairly new affidavit that may help reopen the murder trial that convicted three men of killing three West Memphis boys in 1993 (The men convicted are known as the "West Memphis 3"). At the time, Stout worked at Little Rock's KARK-TV.
The affidavit supports the defense attorney's claim that there was jury misconduct during the trial. There's been a big push to obtain new trials for the convicted. Appeals hearings are scheduled for this fall.
The latest affidavit says the jury foreman admitted to Lyndall in the spring of 2005, a year and a half into her time at WBRE, that he and his fellow jurors discussed a confession that had been deemed inadmissible.
The story also says national talk show hosts have been pushing to get the jury foreman to speak out, but that he usually doesn't agree to interviews.
Posted by MAX at 9:01 AM
Labels: LYNDALL STOUT, WBRE
http://nepamediamax.blogspot.com/2008/06/lyndall-stout-may-help-reopen-west.html
|
|
"Bratty Mama Leci"
Joined: 02 Aug 2006
Posts: 11754
Location: Kentucky
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| pax
Posted:
Tue Jun 17, 2008 3:44 pm |
|
|
|
The above refers to Jessie's confession, correct?
It was ruled inadmissable in the trial of Jason and Damien. But jurors have since said they knew about it. If I'm not mistaken, it was mentioned once at the trial, and the judge asked the jurors to ignore it. I think for the accusation of misconduct to stick, there has to be demonstrable proof that jurors improperly used it in deliberations and it affected the trial's outcome.
|
|
Joined: 23 Mar 2006
Posts: 16032
Location: Wish You Were Here
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Obscuregawdess
Posted:
Wed Jun 18, 2008 7:10 pm |
|
|
|
| pax wrote: | The above refers to Jessie's confession, correct?
It was ruled inadmissable in the trial of Jason and Damien. But jurors have since said they knew about it. If I'm not mistaken, it was mentioned once at the trial, and the judge asked the jurors to ignore it. I think for the accusation of misconduct to stick, there has to be demonstrable proof that jurors improperly used it in deliberations and it affected the trial's outcome. |
Yep, talking about the confession and its being inadmissable in Echols/Baldwin trial. At least two jurors have, on the record, admitted it held much weight in the verdict and the penalty phase in their decision.
|
|
"Bratty Mama Leci"
Joined: 02 Aug 2006
Posts: 11754
Location: Kentucky
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| pax
Posted:
Wed Jun 18, 2008 11:40 pm |
|
|
|
Here's a song that's on the WM3 cd. Poor Girl, done Eddie Vedder and John Doe.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqBHlBC7xyE
|
|
Joined: 23 Mar 2006
Posts: 16032
Location: Wish You Were Here
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Obscuregawdess
Posted:
Thu Jun 19, 2008 3:10 pm |
|
|
|
Great tune! I love the tribute CDs. Gives me adrenaline.  Thanks Pax!
|
|
"Bratty Mama Leci"
Joined: 02 Aug 2006
Posts: 11754
Location: Kentucky
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| pax
Posted:
Thu Jun 19, 2008 4:27 pm |
|
|
|
I saw on amazon there's a version of that song. The original by X (John Doe was in X) is great. How's the version by Vedder that's on the cd?
|
|
Joined: 23 Mar 2006
Posts: 16032
Location: Wish You Were Here
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Obscuregawdess
Posted:
Tue Jun 24, 2008 3:11 pm |
|
|
|
| pax wrote: | | I saw on amazon there's a version of that song. The original by X (John Doe was in X) is great. How's the version by Vedder that's on the cd? |
I'll need to listen to it again to give a good review. But I love Eddie's voice, so of course I love the song! 
|
|
"Bratty Mama Leci"
Joined: 02 Aug 2006
Posts: 11754
Location: Kentucky
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| pax
Posted:
Tue Jun 24, 2008 3:42 pm |
|
|
|
Last night I found it on itunes. It's a phenomenal version. I downloaded that one and the version by X and put them both on my favorites. Here's the lyrics:
Poor Girl, by Excene Cervenca and John Doe:
You sat at home, the windows tinted black
It hits you hard and you cried so long
Life turned & wandered, never to come back again
Take what she gives you; don't feel sorry for her
When you fell out, out of the Starlight Inn
You were too hurt to walk, too bad to begin
I looked at the sign but I couldn't feel sad for you
Take what she gives you; don't cry when you kiss her
Poor little girl, ran away from home
I try to explain why she wont say a thing
Sad sad thing, I'm so far away now
How can I say why she won't talk at all?
She holds the deck of cards, she wants to be alone
"I'll be very ill and I tried waking up, now I want to be alone"
When you ran out, out of Pete's Hotel
You didn't look so good and you didn't feel so well
You said "HOLD ME TIGHT" but I couldn't get it right
Takes what she gives you; poor little girl
She holds a deck of cards, she wants to be alone
She still drinks in the dark, the radio is left on late
She saw a madman fight and break it all 'cause he hated himself
And she felt better off, 'cause she was only drunk
|
|
Joined: 23 Mar 2006
Posts: 16032
Location: Wish You Were Here
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Obscuregawdess
Posted:
Wed Jun 25, 2008 5:18 am |
|
|
|
Beautiful!!!!!!!!!
|
|
"Bratty Mama Leci"
Joined: 02 Aug 2006
Posts: 11754
Location: Kentucky
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Obscuregawdess
Posted:
Wed Jul 23, 2008 8:07 pm |
|
|
|
Event: Michale Graves Misshapen Monster Tour
Michale Graves Misshapen Monsters. Longtime supporter, Michale Graves, is embarking on a 61 date tour and spreading the word about the WM3. Be there! Send to a friend.
WM3 - http://wm3.vox.com/library/posts/page/1/
|
|
"Bratty Mama Leci"
Joined: 02 Aug 2006
Posts: 11754
Location: Kentucky
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Obscuregawdess
Posted:
Wed Jul 23, 2008 8:18 pm |
|
|
|
West Memphis Three: Time for Truth on Vimeo
Posted on July 13, 2008 by J.Webcrafter
Thanks to Gris Grimly to turning my attention to this injustice. You can support the cause by buying one of Gris Grimly “Broken Justice” shirts or go to www.wm3.org
http://acmeltdown.wordpress.com/2008/07/13/west-memphis-three-time-for-truth-on-vimeo/
|
|
"Bratty Mama Leci"
Joined: 02 Aug 2006
Posts: 11754
Location: Kentucky
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Obscuregawdess
Posted:
Wed Jul 23, 2008 8:21 pm |
|
|
|
"BROKEN JUSTICE" Fundraiser for the Defense of the
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Hello Folks,
I wanted to share with you the latest and greatest Tshirt that was created to raise money for the WM3 Defense Fund. The Tshirt design "Broken Justice" is by Gris Grimly. Please take a look.
Gris Grimly of Mad Creator Productions - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gris_Grimly
http://www.merchco-online.com/grisgrimly/
http://www.merchco-online.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=3113 (Brown)
http://www.merchco-online.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=3112 (Grey)
Gris Grimly - "Broken Justice" - T Shirt - Brown
Fund Raiser for the West Memphis Three
This adult T-shirt is available
in charcoal grey and chocolate brown. It features a design by Gris Grimly of Justice,
worn and broken down. The shirt
was created to raise money for the defense
of the West Memphis Three, but symbolizes
all injustice that occurs due to race, class and sex.
As Martin Luther King Jr. stated,
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
For more information about the
West Memphis Three visit
www.wm3.org
|
|
"Bratty Mama Leci"
Joined: 02 Aug 2006
Posts: 11754
Location: Kentucky
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Obscuregawdess
Posted:
Wed Jul 23, 2008 9:03 pm |
|
|
|
Eddie Vedder Cuts Loose
West Memphis Three supporters know that Pearl Jam front man Eddie Vedder is on their side, and has been for nearly ten years. Vedder, with a string of best selling albums with Pearl Jam, has also launched several solo efforts, most recently composing the original score to the movie, Into the Wild. The soundtrack has earned nominations for two Golden Globes and a Grammy for the song Guaranteed. Vedder is doing a two week, seven city tour in April with some of the proceeds going to raise money for the Free the West Memphis Three defense fund. Without the help of big name acts like Vedder, the current flurry of legal activity, giving the three their best shot yet at a new trial, would surely not be happening.
Vedder flashes his FTWM3 T-shirt whenever he gets a chance, as he did at a Pearl Jam concert in San Bernardino, CA during the 2000 tour. He even incorporated the cause into the lyrics of the Vedder/Gossard song, Do the Evolution:
This land is mine, and this land is free
I'll do what I want, to Free the West Memphis Three!
It's evolution, baby, yeah!
Pearl Jam is touring the East Coast in June of this year, doing eleven cities in two weeks. Tickets go on sale in March, and are sure to sell out quickly.
Damien Echols said of Vedder on Larry King Live in December 2007, "Eddie has went [sic] above and beyond the call of duty to me and my wife both. You know, he has been probably the greatest friend a person could have through all of this."
Great friend indeed; his West Coast tour sold out within minutes. Tenclub - the Pearl Jam private fan club ($20 for membership) has - or had - a $65 starting price for tickets, but e-bay shows prices already up over $400 a pair. Vedder auctioned off five pairs of tickets per show - seventy tickets in all - to benefit the WM3. Each pair of tickets is sold with a one night stay in a "premium" hotel, and "backstage chat" with Eddie.
Pearl Jam, like many rock artists today, have a variety of other causes near to their hearts, including relief for flood victims in Washington State, support of "reproductive freedom", getting out the youth vote, and a variety of environmental causes.
http://blog.johnmarkbyers.com/2008/03/26/eddie-vedder-cuts-loose.aspx
|
|
"Bratty Mama Leci"
Joined: 02 Aug 2006
Posts: 11754
Location: Kentucky
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Obscuregawdess
Posted:
Thu Sep 25, 2008 10:20 am |
|
|
|
Henry Rollins talks about the WM3
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Henry Rollins talks about the WM3
I watched the HBO documentary like everyone else. (1996's "Paradise Lost") I watched it, went into my office and said find these people, get them on the phone and let's see what we can do. I met with family members in 2000 and did a benefit record for them and have done everything I could. It's a worthwhile cause. I don't think they are guilty. I hung out with Pamela Hobbs (the mother of one of the victims, Steven Hobbs) and she doesn't think they are guilty. I had a weird experience last year, where they found the bodies is now a truck stop. We were driving through and we got the bus washed over the location where they found them. I talked to some locals there and said, "Hey! West Memphis Three. What do you guys think?" Every response was like "(Expletive deleted) man, everyone knows they're innocent." When I did a benefit in West Memphis, everyone knows they didn't do it. It's like the town's dirty little secret. I think it's a definite possibility these guys will get to go home. But too, these guys aren't the only ones in the world wrongly imprisoned.
To read entire article: http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/Entertainment/Headlines/entSTAGE01092508.htm
|
|
"Bratty Mama Leci"
Joined: 02 Aug 2006
Posts: 11754
Location: Kentucky
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
�
Jasidogdotcom template v.1.0.4 © jasidog.com
Powered by phpBB
© 2001, 2004 phpBB Group
|
