The above songs flow down from an album — A Shug’s Delight — produced by the editor of this blog and a good buddy a long time ago (psst: around 1990). Recorded to a Tascam four-track recorder, what has survived has survived dampness (the tapes were stored in a below-ground basement closet) and time and numerous updates in media materials and formats. Of the material we produced, these five were perhaps the most “socially conscious” and lyrically and politically interesting and cogent to this day’s unfolding — perhaps unraveling — American domestic politics.
the ‘qadri,’ the guard who recently killed Salmaan Taseer, the governor of Punjab, for being outspoken against Pakistan’s blasphemy laws.
The video, released in October 2011, includes handwritten signs that offer further controversial references, as well as predicting the kind of physical or political retribution the band may expect to suffer as a result of the video’s dissemination.
In graduate school, social science empiricism, which to my mind involved “proving the obvious by the most laborious processes possible,” seemed to me unspeakably boring, but I’ve come to appreciate “run the numbers anyway — they might come up a little differently than expected”.
And, in general, taking second looks.
I often repeat from the NASA Observation Group of the 1990s (thank you, Office of Naval Research, for the short gig), “If you look at a picture and think you have seen it, look again.”
Pakistan is suffering.
Web search “Pakistan Assassination” and find this near the top today:
“ISLAMABAD, April 16 (APP): Prime Minister Justice ® Mir Hazar Khan Khoso on Tuesday expressed shock and grief on the death of brother, nephew and son of PML-N President of Balochistan chapter Sanaullah Zehri whose convoy was attacked en-route to Khuzdar.”
Or web search “Pakistan bombing” and find this at the top of the reference:
“At least 17 people have been killed and many injured in Pakistan after a suicide bomb attack in Peshawar.
The Awami National Party (ANP), which governed the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, had called the political rally ahead of next month’s elections.
The Pakistani Taliban, which has repeatedly targeted the ANP, said it had carried out the attack.”
Pakistanis know who is destroying their freedom — or keeping it from them.
They know who is killing them.
Trust musicians to do better than Abraham before God and actually question the Great Authority, the programmed wisdom, the defeating and soul deadening lesson.
Hint: watch for the signs.
And remember: 865,310 YouTube impressions.
Multiply that figure by the relationships influenced.
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