Saturday, July 22, 2006

Fellow Travelers' Advisory from Anne Feeney - AUGUST 2006, VOLUME TWO, # 5

Fellow Travelers' Advisory from Anne Feeney - AUGUST 2006, VOLUME TWO, # 5

IMMEDIATE DESTINATIONS:

WATSONVILLE, CA
FELTON, CA
LOS ANGELES, CA
PALO ALTO, CA
NEVADA CITY, CA
SACRAMENTO, CA
TUCSON, AZ
LAUREL, MD
STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN
LAWRENCE, MA
READING, PA
JIM THORPE, PA
IRELAND
TERRE HAUTE, IN

continuously updating details at my website

*****************************************

IN THIS ISSUE:

LEBANON - INCLUDING DAN AND MONIQUE UPDATE
NATIONAL GREEN PARTY CONVENTION IN TUCSON
SIDE TRIPS - MARIPOSA, THE MIDWEST SCHOOL & MORE
SKYDIVING BIRTHDAY PICS
NEW CD IS READY!
FUN LINK

*******************************************

You can subscribe, and have the Fellow Travelers'Advisory delivered to you monthly...

You can buy my CDs at CDBaby...
The newest cd "If I Can't Dance" will be available there very soon. I'm mailing out
the pre-orders and sponsor copies right now!

********************************************

UPDATE ON BEIRUT/LEBANON/DAN & MONIQUE


Many of you know that I was planning a trip to Beirut this summer to visit my son Daniel Berlin and his fiance, Monique Murad. They have been there for the past two months studying Arabic and enjoying the culture and many pleasures that Beirut has to offer.

It is with outrage and utter disbelief that we watch this country being destroyed -- hundreds dead and over 500,000 civilians forced to flee Lebanon with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

Dan's blog
is filled with first hand observations of Lebanon before and after the attack.

Thank goodness Dan and Monique were able to escape and will be safely back in the US on July 27th. Please call Congress and insist that no further weapons be sent by the US to the region and that we join the world in calling upon both sides for an immediate cease fire. Please check out these links for further action!

UFPJ

and this link that Dave recommends


*******************************************

NATIONAL GREEN PARTY CONVENTION

Touring with Dave Lippman has been so much fun. He's a genius - and so funny - and a great musician and composer. We are delighted that our tour ends with a surprise add-on! The National Green Party has invited us to Tucson to do a concert. It's open to the public, and also gives me a chance to visit my Tucson cousins again! See the details below.

********************************************

TOUR SIDE TRIPS: THE MARIPOSA FOLK FESTIVAL, THE MIDWEST SCHOOL FOR UNION WOMEN, and the CALIFORNIA AFL-CIO CONVENTION

I had to take a few breaks from the Triple Trouble Tour with Dave -- the first was to the Mariposa Folk Festival - a couple hours outside of Toronto on the shores of Lake Koochiching (sp?). I heard so much great music and connected particularly with a great young band called Stonefox, as well as poet Robert Priest and a fantastic bass player named Dan... uh... Dan... (they told me not to take that green stuff at woodstock, but I didn't listen... sorry I forgot his name)

I met Canadian folk legend Sid Dolgay too... he and Guy Carawan toured together for a while and Sid wrote a Canadian version of "This Land is Your Land" that became a hit in Canada and is still taught in schools.

I just returned to the Triple Trouble Tour after a week at the Midwest School for Union Women -- a dedicated and hardworking bunch of women who are sure to bring a power surge of new energy back to their locals. The instructors at this conference are phenomenal. Many thanks to Helena Worthen for including me as minister of culture this year. I wrote a set of lyrics to "Don't Fence Me In" for a rally at City Hall in Chicago to keep out "big box" employers like Wal-Mart, Home Depot and Target unless they agree to provide living wages to their workers...

I want to roam 'round a town where varieties abound

DON'T BOX ME IN!

Buy something chic and unique at a neighborhood boutique

DON'T BOX ME IN!

I like to have lots of options - merchants galore
I get Mallzheimer's in a big box store
Here in the Windy City we need more --

DON'T BOX ME IN

Don't want to cry when I buy those sweatshop goods from China

DON'T BOX ME IN

Don't want to shop where workers labor til they drop

DON'T BOX ME IN

I want a living wage, and did I mention
A union, health care and a decent pension
City Hall - give me your attention and

DON'T BOX ME IN!!!

Gloria Guzman from the Honduran Banana Workers' Union spoke eloquently at the conference about trade union struggles and women's victories in the labor movement in Honduras. Her visit was sponsored by STITCH that
does fabulous work.

The globalization panel was moderated by Judy Ancel of Kansas City who does so many good things I can't count them, but also introduced me to the work of the Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras.


Next Monday night I'm flying to LA to perform at the CA State AFL-CIO Convention - I'm looking forward to that too! Then the Triple Trouble Tour continues!!

******************************************

SKYDIVING!

Yes, Amy talked me into it. The pictures are posted directly below this...

It was literally a breathtaking experience. Amy and her dear friend Justin and I celebrated my 55th birthday by jumping out of an airplane at 13,500 feet (4115 meters for those of you playing along in Denmark, Canada, Sweden ... well, everywhere but the US ). [by the way, bookmark this link if you want a quick easy way to convert feet-meters etc]

We had our adventure just north of Salem, OR on July 2nd... It was hot and sunny and the view of Mt. Hood and the surrounding mountains was spectacular. Oregon Skydive requires tandem jumps on your first effort, so you'll see me attached to a terrific guide in the photos.

The 6 seconds of free fall at 120 miles an hour (193km/hour) came to an abrupt end when the parachute opened, and then the stillness and the beauty were overwhelming.
It took almost another nine minutes to get to the ground for a perfect stress-free landing. I'm glad I paid the extra to have the photos taken -- I've relived the adventure a hundred times since.

*******************************************

"IF I CAN'T DANCE" IS READY!

I'll be mailing out the pre-orders this week, as well as the sponsor copies. It should be up on CDBaby for sale any second now, too!

Thanks to everyone who helped to make the recording possible. I hope you'll buy copies for yourselves and all your friends as soon as it's up at CDBaby.

It will also be in the Labor Heritage Foundation's new catalog.


********************************************

FUN LINK

Many of you may already be familiar with the brilliant work of Bruce Yurgil - Check out his Political Velocity Cartoons.

That's it till September... Thanks for reading... and please, do everything you can to stop this attack on Lebanon!

SKYDIVING PICS





Friday, July 14, 2006

My son Dan and his fiance Monique Murad in Beirut

Many of you know that my son is in Beirut this summer with his fiance Monique Murad. I am planning to visit them. They are now caught in Israel's attack on Lebanon. Israel has bombed the airport in Beirut and put up a naval blockade, but I'm determined to get together with them somewhere soon.

Dan has a blog on myspace that has continually updating news from Beirut

check out Dan's myspace profile

if you're not a myspace member you can click here for today's posting


Thanks for all your expressions of concern

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Fellow Travelers' Advisory from Anne Feeney - JULY 2006, VOLUME TWO, # 4


Fellow Travelers' Advisory from Anne Feeney - JULY 2006, VOLUME TWO, # 4

Dave Lippman and I on the two story Jobs with Justice Float, singing "The Internationale" in the 4th of July parade in Ashland, OR



IMMEDIATE DESTINATIONS:

The fabulous left coast Triple Trouble Tour with Dave Lippman ....

Cave Junction, OR
Briceland, CA
Berkeley, CA
San Rafael, CA
Foster City, CA
Chicago, IL
Watsonville, CA
Palo Alto, CA
Felton, CA
Sacramento, CA
Los Angeles, CA
Tucson??? stay tuned!
San Francisco, CA
Laurel, MD

Then Lebanon, Sweden, Denmark, Labor Day in Lawrence, MA at the Bread and Roses Festival and then Ireland!! Details at the end of this message and continuously updating on my tour dates page.

*****************************************
You can have this delivered to your inbox monthly by visiting my webpage and signing up!

I try my best to keep the calendar current, but it's always a good idea to check directly with the venue before you hop on your bike, bus, hybrid vehicle, etc...

you can buy my CDs at CDBaby ... thanks for your interest in my music!!

********************************************

In this issue:

A. It's my birthday!
B. World Peace Forum - Vancouver, BC
C. The Triple Trouble Tour is a blast!
D. My new CD - "If I Can't Dance"
E. It's twins!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

A. IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!

Hi there folks:

July 1st was Canada Day and my 55th birthday. Dave and I were in Portland on my birthday and my daughter Amy convinced me to celebrate my birthday by going skydiving. Pictures coming soon....

June 29th found us on beautiful Vancouver Island. Dave Lippman and I did a house concert at Ken Orchard and Sharon Hazelwood's house in Victoria. What great folks. We took the ferry from Vancouver to Nanaimo and drove down the east coast of Vancouver Island on a gorgeous highway called the Malahat. It's some of the most spectacular scenery you'll see anywhere.

*********************************

B. WORLD PEACE FORUM

The organizers were hoping for 3000 people, but almost 5000 registered for and attended the first annual World Peace Forumin Vancouver, BC. Delegates from all over the world came to let each other know about crises and successes in their countries. It was troubling to hear about militarization in Japan - a country that has been a model for peace work for decades now. It was empowering to hear women from Africa speaking about community efforts to end violence and war. My friend, Kent Wong from UCLA and APALA - the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance spoke enthusiastically about the huge and growing immigrant rights movement in the US. It was impossible to take in even a fraction of the information shared over the 6 days of the conference....

Dave Lippman and I were thrilled to be invited to perform twice at the Forum, and to see so many other talented cultural workers there... including our pals, Emma's Revolution and Holly Near.

*****************************************

C. TRIPLE TROUBLE TOUR

Dave Lippman and I are having so much fun touring together. If you are unfamiliar with his work, check out his website. He's a real pro, and so talented and funny! We still have quite a few dates left on the tour, so please encourage your left coast friends to find us and have some fun! We've had great shows so far... at Vancouver's legendary Railway Club with the one and only Joey Only and his companera - the lovely and talented Tamara Nile.... The Seattle and Tacoma Jobs with Justice shows were terrific... Vance & Kimberlie Lelli have the most gorgeous house in Tacoma and hosted us in style... and Betsy Pernotto and Bob Marshall and Al and Dottie Dale arranged a wonderful concert in Bellingham. I finally got to meet and hang out with Dana Lyons ... one of the great luminaries of our mooovement ... as well as briefly catching up with Linda Allen, Joe & Flip Breskin and Rob LoPresti ... We had a painless border crossing for a change.

********************************************

D. NEW CD!!! - IF I CAN'T DANCE

My new CD is at the duplicator right now. My wonderful friend Randy McSorley of Kaukauna, WI dropped everything to do a terrific job on the new CD cover.. It has 16 great songs on it (not necessarily in this order...) and is very danceable!

1. Emma Goldman
2. Defenders of Marriage
3. My Feet are Tired
4. Dr. Jazz
5. Amelia Earhart
6. Shell Game
7. Let Their Heads Roll
8. Me Case con un Heroe
9. Who's the Criminal?
10. Sheik of Araby/The Blues My Naughty Sweetie...
11. Days of the Theocracy
12. Too Much Monkey Business
13. Your Mind is on Vacation
14. The Dutchman
15. Phil the Fluter's Jam
16. Lullaby

It sounds absolutely fabulous. Doug Wilkin did a fantastic job recording, mixing, mastering and even some singing and playing on this recording. Longtime fans will notice that some of the best tunes from my 1987 cassette "If I Can't Dance" are included too ... including those famous duets with DC Fitzgerald. This time I'm producing some CDs with a 16 page lyric book and traditional jewel case and some in a more environmentally friendly and slightly more affordable cardboard sleeve with downloadable (if ya want them) liner notes available on my website. Both options should be available soon at CDBaby

93 of you responded to last month's email appeal for help with this project. THANKS so much! I'm so touched by your generosity, and delighted to be listing you in the liner notes.

So far I've spent approximately:

Musicians' wages: $3500
Musicians' pension: $350
Engineering/Mastering/Mixing: $3000

and I still owe:

Duplicating: $3130
Royalties to composers: $2548

and I have substantial promotional and postage costs awaiting me too...

If you meant to be part of this.... it's not too late! because...

D. IT'S TWINS!!!

I realized as I was recording these tunes that I actually have two CDs here... In a couple months I'm going to release the other tunes I recorded (Brave New Christmas, Dump the Bosses Off Your Back, Preacher and the Slave, Cops of the World, Hallelujah, I'm a Bum, Ya Basta and more!) on a CD tentatively titled "Dump the Bosses Off Your Back." It's too late to get your name in the liner notes for "If I Can't Dance" - but $100 now to:

Anne Feeney
7206 Michigan Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15218

will get your name in the liner notes for the October release of "Dump the Bosses off Your Back." If some of you responded right away, I'd sure breathe easier. I spend an awful lot of my life acting on faith in you all... and you've never let me down. I am truly blessed.

I know there's a lot going on right now... I hear there are over 8000 AWOL soldiers at this moment... many of them seeking asylum in Canada... I'm trying to keep abreast of all the breaking news ... It's not easy when I'm doing such an intense tour... I hope you'll let me know what's up ... Stay in touch and keep up the great work!

Love and solidarity

Anne