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	General Board You can talk about anything here. Honestly, anything! Who are we to judge? Relax. Open up. Take a chance.	18	35	May 13, 2008

Joe Bless You

It happens to every generation. The icons who were the heroes of that generation begin to die off, leaving an indescribable void in the collective spirit of that generation, and reminding us all of our impending death. There has been a spate of celebrity deaths recently. Each of them has been sad in its own right, however two of them hit me more to the wick than the others. With the recent losses of George Carlin, whose comedy taught me as much about life as any influence in my childhood, and Paul Newman, my long professed favorite actor and philanthropic idol, I too have felt a void; this sense that something isn’t right with the world. War, economic collapse, and global warming notwithstanding.

With his fabulously twisted, raunchy, and at times anarchical, blunt, and explicit style of comedy, his incredible intelligence, wit, and command of the English language, George Carlin urged me to question everything (especially government, religion, and authority) and took my mind on journeys from perspectives I’d previously judged, feared, or never knew existed and guided me to conclusions I‘d never considered, and he made me laugh at my own fears, biases, and superstitions. I saw every comedy special he ever did. I quote lines from them all in everyday conversations. He is one of my favorite philosophers, and he paved the way for many of my favorite modern philosophers such as Chris Rock, Jon Stewart, and Bill Maher who continue to urge us all to question authority, government, religion, and our most revered prejudices.

George Carlin’s death made me think fondly back on my childhood and growing up in small towns in Pennsylvania. Long before computers, video games, texting, instant messaging, Myspace, Facebook, A.D.D., Ritalin and crystal meth, kids like us in the sticks spent our free time with Dad’s Playboy magazines, a few of his uncounted Budweiser’s, his stereo, and his entire record collection. My brother and I would occupy ourselves for hours in our basement with our dad’s records and his “pride and joy”, his stereo. Dad always had a kick ass stereo with towering speakers no matter how badly we were doing financially. It was just one of those things a man like my dad would not compromise upon. Dad loved his cars fast and his music loud (many of our former neighbors and several township police departments will attest), and my growing up to become the lead singer of a rock and roll band and having once been clocked by State of Ohio police aircraft at 115 mph is testimony that these things are most certainly in our DNA.

George Carlin’s comedy figured prominently in my childhood. In between my dad’s Grand Funk Railroad, Sly and the Family Stone, Led Zeppelin, Herb Alpert, and Carpenters albums, my brother and I would listen to comedy records by George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Bill Cosby, Redd Foxx, Monty Python, and Cheech and Chong, and even though in retrospect much of that adult humor went over our heads, we would laugh until we cried. Those are by far some of the fondest memories of my childhood. I remember how we would rush home with a new comedy record or a new record by our favorite band and listen to it from start to finish. We’d admire the artwork and photos, read the liner notes, and memorize the lyrics. We actually listened to songs all the way through. We bought entire albums and listened to them on things called record players. That’s so “old school”! To me, George Carlin’s death feels like a huge, windowless, iron gate slamming closed on those days.

I also remember Paul Newman as one of those icons whose career has spanned my entire memory. Paul Newman is quite simply just one of those guys that did it right. I think I initially liked Paul Newman because he reminded me of my father as a young man- thin, blue-eyed, and handsome with a discernable rebel streak. My father played a lot of pool when I was a kid, and I would tag along with him to the VFW or local bar to watch him play and hopefully get to hit some shots myself. I remember watching the likes of Minnesota Fats and Willie Mosconi play pool on T.V. and wanting to be a great pool player myself. The first Paul Newman movie I can recall seeing was The Hustler, and it combined all of the things that I thought were cool at 7 years old: this character who kinda looked like my dad and played pool, and Jackie Gleason, the star of one of my all time favorite shows, “The Honeymooners”, playing “The Fat Man”- a character Minnesota Fats claimed was based upon him. I was a Paul Newman fan from then on. Oddly enough, the older my father became, the less he looked like Paul Newman and the more he looked like Jackie Gleason. Mom, not to be outdone in the celebrity look alike contest, grew to look more and more like Mick Jagger. All of this may sound like an aweful thing to say about my parents, but please reserve judgement until you meet them.

Apart from his stellar performances in several of my all time favorite films such as Cool Hand Luke, The Hustler and its sequel The Color of Money, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and Slapshot, I enjoyed his performance in every film I ever saw him in. He simply never did bad work. One can argue the merits of his films, but you would be hard pressed to convince me that he ever had a bad performance. His later performances in Message In A Bottle and Nobody’s Fool were incredibly moving, and proved to be the final stages in the evolution of one of Hollywood’s greatest actors. He left acting on his own terms before his craft could suffer from his infirmity. Off screen, he shunned the glamour, excess, and narcissism of Hollywood for the Connecticut suburbs, his 50 year marriage to Joanne Woodward (a great lady in her own right), racing cars, drinking beer, and giving over $200 million to charity from his Newman’s Own brand.

This world could use more guys like Paul Newman and George Carlin right about now. Unfortunately they seem to be in short supply and diminishing by the day. I have personally learned a great deal from both of them without knowing either of them personally, and I will miss their art. These were two immensely talented men who entertained millions of people, yet found the way to stay grounded, do the best that they could, and never take themselves too seriously. “Salt of the earth” as the saying goes.

I hope you will join me in saying a prayer to Joe Pesci (as George himself would have advocated) for George Carlin and Paul Newman. Joe bless them both.

Chris Barczynski

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Oct 10, 2008 | no comments | [Add a comment]

Greetings from the Black Hole!

NASA defines a black hole as follows- An object whose gravity is so strong that nothing -- neither particles nor light -- can escape from it. To escape would require a speed greater than that of light, which is not allowed.

I define a black hole as the space occupied by a band member (in this case, me), co-songwriter/guitar player who also happens to be producing the band's next CD in his studio where the tracking and mix engineer also happens to be the guy who runs the studio. As a result, there is no sense of relativity in my current space/time continuum. January morphs effortlessly into September.

There is only music all the time. Writing, tracking, comping, overdubbing, comping, mixing, listening, remixing (repeat)...and coffee. Lots of this. And it is good. It serves as a sort of catalyst that keeps the electrons in motion in this happy little void. There are also from time to time the surprise offerrings of a fine Brunelo, usually in sync with our vocal sessions. And this too is good.

No light passes through this black hole either, save for a string of Christmas lights that illuminate some crumbling stone walls built circa 1889, African tapestries, a poster of B.B King, and the occasional passing cockroach (not to be confused with passing a C.O.C.K. roach, which might be combustable, pungent and therefore a welcome creature).

But this black hole is not devoid of life either, as its space-eating counterpart is said to be. Rather it's more akin to life at the bottom of the ocean; no sunlight for sure, not much contact with those on the surface but full of life, nonetheless. And some very interesting new life forms are taking shape in the form of new songs with odd structures, other-worldly sounds, interesting habits for odd turns at strange times. Beauty lies in the unexpected. There have been also the visitations of other groovy lifeforms making guest appearences, lending their distinctive imprint on the evolution of Citizens' music. Deep down in the ooze of the primordial groove is brewing a very cool follow up CD.

One can never know for sure how it will be viewed by those on land until it comes up for air, breaks the surface and has its day in the sun. One cannot worry about such things. But it feels like something grand, something new, something we can proudly offer up to you and say, Check this out!

I know we haven't seen you out there much recently in the world of the live performing, nor have we diligently answered some of your inquiries sometimes in the Myspace galaxy or the Blogosphere. Trust that we're digging deep into our own space right now to come up with some very cool new music worthy of the wait.

And speaking of worthy, I hope this radio message makes it out of the black hole and into the universe to give a way big two thumbs up from the band to Brian Z, younger brother of the those fabulous Z Boys in our favorite band, Z02. He just whipped together a killer live video of our new song, Never Say Never, that will appear on this upcoming CD. We'll be springing that on y'all real soon. We're shooting for mid October to be done with this new CD. We can't wait to put it out there into the light of the universe.

Until then, can someone let me know who won the election back on Earth? You can just tell someone at your local Starbuck's or stick a post it on a decent bottle of Italian wine and give it to Breeze. It should find its way to me. Anything else will probably just get sucked into the void.

Peace,

Citizen Mark

Sep 6, 2008 | no comments | [Add a comment]

Republican Friends

Among quite a few comments that agreed with my last blog, I received this comment…

“I'm sorry to say this, Chris, but again, your rantings are incoherent and your conclusions are inane.
You continue to complain about the ills of living in this incredible country, but I don't see the actions that match your words. Unfortunately, your essays lack the depth of intellectual discourse and salient root-cause analysis for an intelligent person to appreciate. You simply throw out soundbites, statistics and concepts. I would appreciate your arguments much more if you didn't sound like everyone (else) out there with a microphone trying to see who can scream the loudest. I would like to see more thought given to the thoughts that you have on actually solving real and complicated problems.
You know I love you like my own brother, but this isn't your best, my friend.

Oh, BTW, I just received my own current copy of The Week magazine today.... “

Hmmm…quite scathing indeed. I’ve often heard people say, “Let’s not talk about politics or religion. Let’s just agree to disagree.” I’ve always seen this as a copout, and it has only contributed to the dismal state of political discourse in America. Many of us simply do not want to defend our positions in the face of criticism for fear of the possibility that once exposed to the light, everything we believe so adamantly may crumble around us. Others simply refuse to change their minds about what they were taught to believe by their parents, teachers, preachers, government, etc.; never questioning what they believe or why they believe it. This is what they were told to believe, and this is what they will teach their own children no matter what the evidence to the contrary. Faith trumps fact. Patriotism trumps policy.

When we are criticized, many of us simply dismiss that criticism and its source and fit them both with a label that marginalizes or outright dismisses them without any examination of the merit of the criticism. That is not as easy to do when the criticism comes from someone close to you, and sometimes it may even threaten to break apart your relationship with that person. However, we can all learn a great deal from the relationship of Supreme Court Justices Scalia and Ginsburg who have maintained a great and long lasting friendship in spite of fundamentally opposing views of Constitutional law and the role of the Supreme Court.

With my last blog, “love and patriotism”, I managed to stir the ire of one of my dearest and oldest friends, one of a handful of humans on this planet that I can truly call my friends; those people on whom I can rely to be there when I need them, and for whom I would gladly take a bullet. I have been blessed in my life to be able to surround myself with some of the most genuinely good hearted people you could ever want to meet. I would like to think that those people close to me feel that my heart and my intentions both come from a good place; a place that empathizes with the pain and suffering of others. I am far from perfect, as my friends well know, but I strive to be better. I fail to live up to my own expectations of myself, so when I criticize our government and it’s policies that don’t live up to the ideals we have established as a nation; a nation that should be an example to the world of liberty, freedom, and democracy, of hope, equal opportunity, and the promise of peace, I am expressing an anger, disappointment, and outrage I feel for myself as well, for not doing more in my own life to represent these things and lead by example. I do take my friend’s comments to heart when he says that he does not see action to match my words. In all fairness however, he is not very good at keeping in touch (which he readily admits), and he has little idea of the protests I attend, the countless petitions and calls to Congressional leaders I make, or the charities and organizations that I support. I’m not so sure he’d really want to know. His head might explode at how “liberal” his one-time fellow College Republican has become.

I can assure him, however, that it’s not all sex, drugs, bashing America, and rock and roll for me, and I am no more a liberal than I am a conservative. I am a true independent who thinks for himself, seeks the truth from many unrelated sources and opposing points of view (not just The Week magazine, Tony), and who does not have the answer to the question before it is asked.

My friend Tony and I have known each other for 21 years, and we have seen each other through some very trying times. We have also been there for each other in the happy times as I had the honor of being the best man in his wedding. He has supported me in my music career as much as anyone, and after seeing me sing on national T.V. as a semi-finalist on Star Search, told me how proud he was of me and assured me that I can never quit pursuing my dream. He has been at the other end of the phone when I was struggling to keep my head above water; struggling to pay the bills, living with no health care, and questioning my own talents, and he never once wavered from his position that I was doing the right thing. His assuredness and unwavering manner are the very things that make you admire him at one time and make you want to shake him at others. He is a staunch Republican, voted for Bush twice, and I can only assume that he is still in the small percentage of Americans who continue to think Bush and Cheney are doing a fine job. He is a former Army 1st Ranger, father of three beautiful children, husband to a beautiful, intelligent, successful woman, multi-millionaire CEO of a software firm, with a beautiful 7500 square foot home in the Connecticut suburbs, and an example of what is truly possible in America with hard work. I’m very proud of what Tony has created for himself with his incredible work ethic, intelligence, and vision, but I know him well enough to call him a stubborn son-of-a-bitch. He can be somewhat myopic in his views and tends to believe that the poor are motivated as much by laziness, envy, and contentiousness as by bad luck, injustice, or policy-an absence of hard work rather than an absence of opportunity.

I believe him to be a good man and a cause worth fighting for. It would have been easy to dismiss his criticisms, but I want to use our friendship as an example of what has happened to our political discourse in America and how it can be changed. I mean, one of my best friends all but called me a moron for arguing that the costs of this war would be better spent on universal health care, poverty, education, and our infrastructure! At first read, his words were like a baseball bat to the face. Taking a step back, I asked myself, “Is there any merit to what he said?” Because he didn’t mention specific points I made, I am left to assume that he agrees with nothing that I said.

I had been so repulsed by the media attention given to Jeremiah Wright, which I saw as a huge distraction to the myriad of more important issues facing this nation and the world, that I hoped to bring a few people’s attention spans back into the realm of reality: two wars, financed for the most part through foreign investment, which hasn’t occurred since the American Revolution, which is diverting the wealth of this nation away from addressing the issues of poverty, education, our infrastructure, and universal health care among others, oil at $120/barrel, the reality of global warming, and a world food crisis which has been contributed to by our government’s policies which subsidize corn for ethanol, pay farmers not to grow food, and manipulate world markets for commodities. These things can sound like talking points, sound bites, and statistics, or they may be the facts. It all depends on what you want to believe. I believe every issue we face is a moral one. It plainly and simply comes down to doing the right thing.

I don’t draw attention to these things because I hate America, or blame America first. I did not serve this country in the military, although my family is more than well represented, but I admire and respect those who have served. It is NOT a requirement for U.S. citizenship to serve in our military, and as a citizen I have the right and the duty to speak out against the policies of our nation when I see them doing harm. I believe that those who have served in the military have an even greater right than the rest of us to speak their minds, even when it might sound unpatriotic. You may not like what Rev. Wright had to say, but he served his country, and I feel he can say anything he wants to about it. To call him unpatriotic for it is incredibly small minded and lazy.

I love this country and our Constitution. I expect this country to live up to its ideals. I will not remain silent when I see those that we have placed in the awesome responsibility of representing us all contradict the will of the people by continuing to pursue an unjust war in Iraq that consumes the resources needed to address the aforementioned issues. The richest nation in the world should have the best health care in the world for all of its citizens, the finest education system in the world, be the leader in addressing global warming and leading the world out of the dark ages, the influence of which allow men to justify slavery, genocide, rape, torture, war, starvation, the existence of diseases cured long ago in the modern world, and every other atrocity man continues to rain down upon man. If we have some degree of responsibility for the suffering of others, I expect this nation to admit its wrongs and correct its mistakes and lead the world to a global society that is modeled from the words of our own founding documents, which establish the rights of all men; not just Americans.

Here is what I propose:
1) End this war. Begin a withdrawal of our forces. Use our diplomacy and influence to assemble a U.N. peacekeeping force which includes ourselves and our allies as well as the countries which neighbor Iraq to remain in Iraq until there is adequate stability for the new Iraqi government to govern. Stop building permanent military bases there.
2) Maintain our current level of spending for this war, but use that money for a massive public works project that puts Americans to work fixing our roads, bridges and tunnels, and other infrastructure, and installing solar panels on all public buildings (Reagan removed the panels installed on the White House by Jimmy Carter), as well as a new “Manhattan Project” with the clear directive to find solutions to global warming and energy independence with new and improved technologies that will move us away from oil dependence. This will require higher taxes since this has been the only war in our history as a nation that was not funded by increasing taxes.
3) Increase our aid to impoverished nations (currently we give the lowest percentage of our GDP of any developed nation) and provide incentives for private companies to do the work of drilling wells for millions of people to have potable water, distributing life saving medicines and health care, improving agriculture so that these nations can feed their own people rather than importing food or relying on international aid, and building schools and roads and other vital services. This goodwill will do far more to stem anti-American sentiment and terrorism than our military presence ever could.
4) Assemble a panel of health care experts to examine the health care systems of other developed nations who provide universal care for their citizens with the clear directive to develop a system that will provide health care for all U.S. citizens while simultaneously reducing the costs of those services. It has been done in several other countries already, so the example has been set.
5) Promote the beneficial aspects of Capitalism and free markets to improve the lives of the billions of impoverished people in our world by removing the detrimental policies that manipulate those markets (ie. corn subsidies to produce ethanol). When the playing field is truly level, the benefits of hard work and innovation can extend to far more people. Profit and ethics are not mutually exclusive, and a return to Capitalism’s early ideals which manufactured things that addressed the needs of people rather than its current state of manufacturing “need” is vital to our country and the survival of Capitalism itself.
6) Promote an international Workers’ Bill of Rights to end exploitation of workers around the world, end trade agreements with nations who continue such exploitation, and remove tax breaks for companies who export American jobs to those countries.

I welcome criticism of these specific ideas rather than a complete dismissal of my “bleeding-heart liberal” ideology.

Finally, Tony, my friend, I also love you as if you were my blood, and if what I’ve proposed hasn’t already made your head explode, I look forward to solving the world’s problems with you rather than in spite of you. Peace.

Chris Barczynski

May 8, 2008 | 2 comments | [Add a comment]

Joe Bless You

Greetings from the Black Hole!

Republican Friends

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