k / o: put me down for a t-shirt

Thursday, August 25, 2005

put me down for a t-shirt

I laugh at people who don't realize they've jumped the shark.

20 Comments:

...In the cheese pavilion and the only noise I hear
Is the sound of someone stacking chairs
And mopping up spilt beer
And someone asking questions and basking in the light
Of the fifteen fame filled minutes of the fanzine writer

Mixing pop and politics he asks me what the use is
I offer him embarrassment and my usual excuses
While looking down the corridor
Out to where the van is waiting
I’m looking for the great leap forwards

Jumble sales are organised and pamphlets have been posted
Even after closing time there’s still parties to be hosted
You can be active with the activists
Or sleep in with the sleepers
While you’re waiting for the great leap forwards

One leap forward, two leaps back
Will politics get me the sack?

Here comes the future and you can’t run from it
If you’ve got a blacklist I want to be on it

It’s a mighty long way down rock ’n roll
From top of the pops to drawing the dole

If no one seems to understand
Start your own revolution and cut out the middleman

In a perfect world we’d all sing in tune
But this is reality so give me some room

So join the struggle while you may
The revolution is just a t-shirt away
Waiting for the great leap forwards

--Billy Bragg, "Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards" (1988)

By wg, at 12:27 PM
ko - love your writing. both style and substance. have you seen the soapblox sites? its a freeware (or it will be once pacified finishes getting the stable version up) version of scoop. its already doing well at MyLeftWing. if you're interested in creating a community-driven site i'd guess that you could get hooked up...

By Anonymous, at 5:03 PM
hhhmmmm.

just read your diary on kos.

"There's something happening here.
What it is ain't exactly clear..."

The ground is twitchin' and I don't know what it is...but, I'm liking the vibe.

I got your back...

By NYBri, at 5:24 PM
jumped the shark? wtf u talkin about...

By Anonymous, at 6:03 PM
k/o nice to see you standing up and speaking your mind.

quite a little shitstorm you raised at dKos.

I'm with you though. You can't win elections without the most votes. And you can't get the most votes without coalition.

By Ratprick, at 6:59 PM
well then.

i'd followed the ensuing discussion on dkos with rapt attention, and at least a little sadness. and--having a user id only in th 30K range--i opted to stay right out of it.

dkos is better with you, and will go on without you, although, as you clearly put forth, in a manner and form different from the one you'd prefer to see.

but i will not presume to begrudge you your take on things over there.

wherever i have to click to have access to your writing, i'll go (t)here as well.

best to you.

By steakboy, at 7:04 PM
Thanks for the comments, everyone. appreciated.

For now, anon 1, I'm here on blogger simply because I've got so much work in the 'real world'. Which is a good thing.

And besides, this is a small solo blog, with no pretensions of being a community blog.

WG, thank you so much for your comment here and your comment/disagreement on dkos. I respect both.

nybri, no need to get my back. I just had something to say. that's all.

As to anon2....I meant what I said, simple enough. You are free to disagree.

By kid oakland, at 7:05 PM
Hey, rp and steakboy, thanks as well.

Appreciated. Sometimes you just have to speak your mind. Most people can agree with that.

By kid oakland, at 7:07 PM
You said things on dkos that many have said/thought/emailed to others, believe me! (I prefer not to mention names.) Will be stopping by here more often.

IMO, the personal attacks on you were completely out of line.

By tbis, at 7:18 PM
k/o,

I was pretty vocal in your diary on dailykos today including (unintentionally) parroting your "jumped the shark" line (though in the negative) without knowing I was doing so.

I suppose I disagree with your premise, but I'm going to add your blog to my aggregator (an oversight on my part). Dkos is just one place. It may be the biggest, and I certainly support it, but it's a big Internet. A lot of people say you're a smart blogger, and I want to find that out for myself. Even if we don't agree about dkos, I hope you don't mind if I try to find out if we agree on other things.

By socratic, at 8:06 PM
Hey K/O:

I think this is my first post here, though I am confident I have posted comments on your diaries at dKos in the past. I have stopped by here occassionally for the past month or two -- I have always enjoyed your writings, even if I did not agree with a particular topic (though nothing in particular comes to mind.)

Pishaw, I had to do a little research to jog my memory. In fact, I do now remember where I followed and posted to a diary you started, at a site that I participate in far more often. It regarded our interactions with different races as we grew up.

I suppose I always took interest in your writings because I live in Sacramento, and feel a Northern California bond -- somehow I don't feel that bond with other Northern California blog hosters, but we live with a rather large population of people, both online and off -- enough so we can find just about any group of people we would want to associate, or just learn about.

In any case, I just wanted to thank you for your post on dKos. I do not care to participate in the kappa omega sigma fraternity very often, but there are unique aspects that have me check back every so often. There have been reasons reinforced often enough to not question my drifting to other places -- but I appreciate the courage you provided in posting what you did. For I'm not sure everyone would agree that it took more courage to write what you did than to just let it go.

But, I'm just a user id on a somewhat anonymous medium. Keep on writing, Kid Oakland -- maybe I'll be one of those that finds out what it is like to work in the trenches in Oakland, and away from the handcuffs with the QWERTY initials.

By Intellectually Curious, at 8:26 PM
K/O I really don't know what is going on had read your post over at dkos. Just letting you know your post were the first I subscribed..And have followed you over here..just keep up the good conversation.

aka americanforliberty

By inthedumpster, at 9:09 PM
thanks for much for the comments tbis, ic and itd..and the disagreement w/ words of support socratic.

I'm glad to have it...and some of the best posts on that thread were in disagreement or challenging me.

k/o is not going to become "about" dkos, so rest easy, please.

with that in mind, I'm grateful for your readership and comments.

By kid oakland, at 9:48 PM
you would be nothing without kos. i don't understand your vitriol. i think maybe you are the one who has jumped the shark, you are drowning in your own self-righteousness.

By Anonymous, at 12:31 AM
Fair enough point, anon 3. I am self-righteous. I know that.

I guess we'll have to see whether I've jumped the shark or not here...on this blog.

And this blog isn't about dkos. It's about something else...you're welcome to read and comment if you like.

By kid oakland, at 12:59 AM
Yes, I'd like to order 3 large K/O t-shirts, the K/O mug, the K/O pencil sharpener, and the K/O Rebel Waltz CD's....

Is this where I place my order?

btw-I resemble some of the remarks by Kos that set off the shitstorm....

By Anonymous, at 5:37 AM
that was well-said, KO, and a discussion we cannot avoid much longer. this is bigger than any one site just as it is bigger than one party or any one nation, as it involves whether we will ever live up to the slogan e pluribus unum.

no one group of ours can stand completely alone and make a difference, nader and the DLC both proved that in their own respective political failures. a true solidarity borne of mutual respect, mutual trust, and a clearly understood sense of a common mission is the way back to true power, but more importantly is the way back to a left that means something, and a nation that remembers how to dream.

the blogsphere, like the broader political left, must openly hash out our common ground and learn to respect those with whom we ally before we are to start to take this party/nation/world back for the people and the common good. i think we can do it, but we cannot do it alone.

we are all in this together.

By wu ming, at 11:58 AM
Kid, I just spent about 2 hours reading through your D-Kos thread and the replies.

I found that time fascinating beyond belief. Man, it really got me thinking about the enormously complex relationship between democratic principles and actual power.

Zowie.

For the record, I found your criticisms of Kos pretty unconvincing. And I think I lean toward Kos' side in the discussion.

But I loved the fact that you raised them and the discussion was scary-good.

Thing is, we are approaching issue in which, we hope, our political ideals intersect with genuine power structures. That's complicated.

You're a good blogger and I would like to blog with you. But the larger political war, that's something else again.

I think I want Kos playing a heavy role in that political war.

But I'll be listening to both of you and many others.

Eventually, this "progressive" energy better coalesce into a genuine power structure or what we think of each other won't matter.

Not very articulate, I know. My mind is reeling, but I am not sure what logos to reach for.

-- Thresholder.

(One of these days, I'll figure out how to register properly.)

By Anonymous, at 1:37 PM
Shark jump? Totally.

That post hit me like that sudden realization that I just ordered another drink and it’s really late and I have no business being out and I really had best be getting on home.

I’ll keep going to DailyKos (and linking to it from time to time) for the interesting commentary and the power of the community. I mean, I “read” Playboy for the pictures of girls, not because I love Hugh Heffner. But with all due respect, this recent spate of site self-awareness is incredibly awkward.

By DirtyD, at 3:12 PM
whoa, whoa, whoa!

A bit snide this diary, don't you think? Not that you're not entitled, of course. But baby, don't fall victim to the same self-righteousness you've accused others of. You're a superb writer m'dear, and i'll follow your ass to any blog you spin out of (even though i'm not a big poster, and the aesthetics of this one are absolutely killin' me!).

Howevah --and my eyes are bleary from reading some of the rampantly petty discourse on the Woody Guthrie thread (dude, don't ever make me say "jump the shark," just don't. and when i think about it, don't ever make me say dude again either) -- in the words of the great Curtis Mayfield (as covered by the also great Paul Weller) "Just Move on Up. Toward Your Destination." Hawking t-shirts...whatever. Who gives a fuck? Estupido, hermano.

Because, just as you asked for more from The Man Who Is Not a Leader, No He Is Not, I also want more from you, K-to-the-O. And this is a serious grudge holder talking. Seriously.

Does it matter that I'm in agreement with your points in the Kos diary? Probably not. Does it matter that i'm giving you the Official Departmental High Five Plaque for calling out the Frat Boy mentality ("Yeehaw motherfuckers! Let's attack all who disagree!") on Kos. No. What matters at this moment, after having waded through all that shit, is that as a writer I loves ya. As a community builder, you are one of the more important and stirring voices operating today. And I acknowlege that you're just a wee little human -- absolutely of the earth Human -- but dammit I want you to remain mildly above reproach too.

It's not so much, eh?

By oregon_scout, at 5:14 PM