I’m have returned to California to attend Sun’s top technology conference, and I shall be travelling on to Menlo Park and visit Sun’s campus for the Sun Labs Open House. Once again, I have failed to improve my mind on the plane and instead of watching Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth”, I watched “Shut up & Sing”, a documentary about the Dixie Chicks. They are not a band I’d listened to before, but I did read about the furore created when they stated on stage that they didn’t approve of all the policies being pursued by a certain American politician.

Sadly for them, the politician was George Bush and he was preparing to go to war in Iraq (in 2003); doubly sadly for them, they were a country band and the radio stations decided to drop them under right wing and fan pressure. One thing that came from my watching the documentary is that Natalie Maines who stated she was ashamed the President came from Texas is either brave or stubborn; despite being quoted as saying she’s sorry, she isn’t. The film is about what happened to the band and their management as a result of the boycott. However, in 2007, much of the world has caught up with her,  even in America.

DixieChicksMSG062003

I experienced a slight post modern moment, where they are discussing how to replace the radio as a form of popularising their new work, since the film made me want to listen to more of their music. I have no  doubt that their sound is based on all three of them and they’re the second band I have come across recently with less common instruments. The violin is seeming to become an increasingly popular instrument in non classical music.

ooOOOoo

Originally posted on my sun/oracle blog and published on https://blogdavelevy.info in June 2016

Improving my mind
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