Happy Birthday Baby on Dutch Memorial Day

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  Amsterdam, Netherlands
Friday, May 5, 2006

Today is Memorial Day in Holland, the day they remember all the people who fell in war and resistance (or even aggression, as with Dutch soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq now) and for me, the happy day when my darling daughter Marion Sunny Sinclair was born at Harper Hospital 39 years ago this day. So highest Birthday greetings to my baby girl all the way over in the former Motor City, where she should just now be getting home from my granddaughter Beyonce's school day in what remains of the Detroit Cultural Center.

Tomorrow, May 5th is known as Liberation Day in Holland-it commemorates the nation's liberation from the Nazis and the beginning of the modern era. Now the country is ruled by the fascists within, the government functionaries of the multinational corporate empire based in the United Snakes, and they're getting more nazi-istic all the time. Like the "center-right" regimes in place in England, France, Italy and throughout Europe (except for Spain, of course, the former fascist stronghold now moving swiftly toward socialism), I call these guys in the Netherlands the New Nixons. They'd like to be Reagans or Bushies but they don't have enough nerve, because the people of Europe would kick their little asses if they tried to go that far.

So they keep trying to institute what they call their "reforms" and restructure European society along the lines of the American template, cutting the heart out of the social order and streamlining the confiscatory processes of the idiotic consumer society, taking everything and never giving anything back as Burroughs put it: simplifying and degrading the consumer as well as the product.

A big ray of light flooded in this March when the local elections across Holland evicted about 900 "right-center" municipal officials and replaced them with candidates from the Socialist and Green parties. This was a tremendous turnover and bodes well for the national elections coming up.

Back on the local front, in the Amsterdam microworld populated by eccentric expatriates and colorful Dutch denizens which centers on the several splendid coffeeshops of our choice, it's been a pretty satisfying week since Queensday last Saturday and the turning of the merry month of May.

Queensday is a real Dutch holiday in every respect. Celebrated on the last Saturday of April each year, Queensday commemorates the April 30 birthday of the late Queen Julianna. Everything closes down, even the trams and Metro trains and buses, and the people take to the streets all over town-and the canals too, where a constant procession of party boats packed with revelers floats down the waterways making lots of joyful noise.

But the really Dutch part is that everybody is selling something on the sidewalks everywhere you go, and the Queen lets them keep all the take for themselves. No tax to pay on Queensday. It's like the hugest garage sale ever seen, with little displays of books, sweaters, kitchen appliances, used stereos, table linen, knick-knacks and little things and objects of all descriptions. I picked up a Carl Hiaason Omnibus with his first three novels for 1 euro and 2 terrific pairs of trousers for 3 euros each.

Sunday was recovery day, and Monday was MayDay. Larry Hayden finally got back to Amsterdam on Tuesday, and Wednesday was the first day of total springtime in The Netherlands, with tons of sunshine and no sweaters for the first time in months. And, like the swallows coming back to Capistrano every 19th of March, the flock of weirdos and renegades from America swarmed to the little chairs and tables on the sidewalk in front of the Sensi Museum Coffeeshop to reconvene for the first time since the Cannabis Cup last fall.

Yeah, Larry Hayden's back after a long winter's work pumping air into gasping climbers and skiers in Colorado. Zoe and Don E. are in town for a few days. Uncle Stoner is hanging around. The Nose and Andy Atkins and Andrew Jones are on hand, and there's my man Wild Bill from Amsterdam. Ravi Dronkers steps outside and says, well, looks like the family's back together. And so it is. The whole bunch of us went down to Desmets Wednesday night to catch Michael Franti's live broadcast for VPRO Radio and had a real good time.

I had the pleasure of doing a couple of interesting interviews this week as well. I spent Tuesday afternoon with Michael Martin, a free-lance reporter and former New Orleanian who's going to write up our Radio Free Amsterdam project for the English-language Amsterdam Weekly in a story that'll hit the streets next Wednesday. On Thursday I talked to Arjan of HighLife magazine about what I'm doing here in Amsterdam and why I love the city so much. That was an easy one for a change!

Coming up on Wednesday, May 17 at the Cannabis College: An Evening with John Sinclair including a talk on the Early Days of the Cannabis Liberation Movement (1960-72) before NORML and High Times, and a free screening of 20 to Life: The Life & Times of John Sinclair, a Film by Steve Gebhardt. You can view clips from the film at:

Musicus Media: 20 TO LIFE-The Life & Times of John Sinclair

Next Wednesday, May 10, we'll be making a radio program at the Winston International Hotel with a live performance by our friends the Electric Fans, something we've wanted to do from the very beginning of our show. I might even get a chance to sit in with the band. This makes me think of the all-'live' program we made last fall with Harmonica George, Boyd Small and Monty Ahmanson performing as the Radio Free Amsterdam All Stars at the little studio off the Kinkerstraat we called The Blues Bunker. Here it is now:

The John Sinclair Radio Show #60
The Blues Bunker, Amsterdam

Monday, November 7, 2005 @ 7:00 - 8:00 pm [20-0544]

I got back from Milano Monday evening just in time to join Henk and Larry at the home studio of Boyd Small, a blues drummer and guitarist who's been working in Europe since he became a member of the Screamin' Jay Hawkins road band some years ago. Our principal guest is the inestimable Harmonica George, and the date becomes an all-star Dutch blues session with the addition of guitarist/vocalist/bandleader Monty Ahmanson and George's guitarist, whose name I can never recall. This is our first show with 'live' music from beginning to end-not a note of pre-recorded sound at all-and we decide to call the band the Radio Free Amsterdam All Stars. There are originals by George, Monty and Boyd, all three do some singing, and I join in on a number or two with some blues verses.

John Sinclair Show #60 @ The Blues Bunker, Amsterdam, November 7, 2005 (.mp3)

Playlist #60

[01] Opening Music: RFA All Stars: Hurry Sundown feat. Boyd Small
with Intro & Opening Tokes
[02] Comments with Harmonica George
[03] RFA All Stars: Continental Breakfast feat. Monty Ahmanson
[04] Comments & Conversation with Boyd Small & Harmonica George
[05] RFA All Stars: Last Night at the Winston Hotel feat. Boyd Small
[06] Comments with Boyd Small & Harmonica George
[07] RFA All Stars: Europe Blues feat. Boyd Small & Harmonica George
[08] Comments with George, Boyd & Monty
[09] RFA All Stars: Less Than Me feat. Monty Ahmanson
[10] Comments with George, Boyd & Monty
[11] RFA All Stars: Cherry Red feat. Boyd Small
[12] Comments with Harmonica George
[13] RFA All Stars: I Broke My Baby's Heart feat. Harmonica George
[14] Comments & RFA All Stars: Ain't Nobody's Bizness feat. John Sinclair
[15] Comments & RFA All Stars: All I Wanna Do feat. Boyd Small >
RFA All Stars: When Will the Blues Leave feat. John Sinclair
[16] RFA All Stars: Hurry Sundown feat. Boyd Small
[17] Closing Comments & Closing Music by RFA All Stars

Hosted by John Sinclair for Radio Free Amsterdam
Produced & Engineered by Henk Botwinik
Executive Producer: Larry Hayden
Special thanks to Harmonica George, Monty Ahmanson & Boyd Small

©(P) 2005 John Sinclair. All Rights Reserved.

Posted @ November 14, 2005

* * * * *

Here's another treat: The David Kunian New Orleans Radio Documentaries. New Orleans-based producer, poet and broadcaster David Kunian has created a brilliant series of in-depth radio documentaries spotlighting several of the Crescent City's most colorful musical creators.

From James Booker and Earl King to Guitar Slim, James Black and Michael Ward, Kunian investigates the music, life and impact of each of his subjects by listening to their recordings and talking with their friends, family members and fellow performers to create intimate, deeply moving portraits of these legendary musical artists.

Kunian also contributes a fascinating study of the historic Dew Drop Inn, the Uptown nightspot that pulsated at the center of the city's music scene from the 1940s into the 1960s, and collaborates with Bill Taylor on an illuminating series of short features on the Mardi Gras songs that are perennial favorites at Carnival time. The documentaries originally aired on WWOZ-FM in New Orleans and on radio stations throughout the country; now they'll be available on the World Wide Web at www.RadioFreeAmsterdam.com

Meet All Your Fine Friends at the Dew Drop Inn (.mp3)

David Kunian's Meet All Your Fine Friends at the Dew Drop Inn, narrated by Chuck Siler, revisits the backstreet cultural center at Washington & LaSalle in uptown New Orleans where all the great musicians played and all the hippest people gathered night after night for 20 years. The voices of Ray Charles, Dr. John, Earl Palmer, Kidd Jordan, Allen Toussaint, Earl King, Deacon John, Tex Stevens, Charles Neville, Frank Mitchell, Irving Bannister, Patsy Valdez, Eluard Burt, Bill Sinegal, Placide Adams, Milton Batiste, Clarence "Frogman" Henry, Gerri Hall, Cosimo Matassa, Irma Thomas, Chuck Carbo and other habitués meld with the music of Dave Bartholomew ("Do You Wanna Jump Children"), Little Richard ("Dew Drop Inn"), Lee Allen (Walkin' with Mr. Lee), Ray Charles, Red Tyler, Irma Thomas, Earl King, Guitar Slim, Big Joe Turner, Charles Brown, Chubby Newsome ("Hip Shakin' Mama"), James Booker ("Gonzo"), Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown ("Okie Dokie Stomp"), Larry Darnell ("I'll Get Along Somehow"), Raymond Lewis ("I'm Gonna Put Some Hurt on You") and Lloyd Lambert ("King Cotton").

This is the first of David's radio documentaries to be posted at RadioFreeAmsterdam.com. It's being podcasted now as Episode #2 of Vintage Radio Vaults, so give it a listen-you'll be glad you did.

* * * * *

In the "How Wrong Can a Motherfucker Be?" department, this sad but predictable news flash just in from the International Herald-Tribune, May 5th edition:

MEXICO CITY-After intense pressure from the United States, President Vicente Fox has asked the Mexican Congress to reconsider a law it passed last week that would decriminalize the possession of small amounts of drugs as part of a larger effort to crack down on street-level drug dealing.

In a statement late Wednesday, Fox said the law should be changed "to make it absolutely clear that in our country the possession of drugs and their consumption are and continue to be crimes."

Officials of the U.S. State Dept. and the White House's drug control office met with the Mexican ambassador in Washington on Monday. [The law was passed Friday.] The U.S. officials expressed grave reservations about the law, saying that it would draw tourists to Mexico who want to take drugs and that it would lead to more consumption, said Tom Riley, a spokesman for the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

The Office of National Drug Control Policy?? What the fuck is that? Draw tourists to Mexico who want to take drugs?? Hey, dig this, they're already there! Where do these get these simple-minded motherfuckers? How long are they going to be allowed to bully people all over the world into keeping pharmaceutical drug users from switching to marijuana and other recreational drugs and cutting the obscene profit levels of America's most profitable industry?

* * * * *

My next post, #30, will preview my up-coming U.S. tour and ask for help, so forewarned is fore-armed, as they say. And if all goes well, entry #31 will be On The Road #17, the third episode of my monthly column reporting on New Orleans after the Flood. I've been trying to finish this column for 6 weeks, but it's been a very difficult piece for me to write and I have to get it done by Sunday to make the deadline for the May issue of the Little Rock Free Press operated by my pal Dotty Oliver. Wish me luck and enjoy the radio programs....

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