Green Options » song

Billionaires for Wealthcare Reinvent Guerilla Musical Theatre

Rhonda Winter — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:47:10 +0000

CNN highlights the Billionaires for Wealthcare enthusiastically singing the praises of a public option, as they entertained unsuspecting attendees at a health insurance conference in Washington DC last week. Wolf Blitzer and Jeanne Moos discuss the increasingly popular use of guerilla musical theatre across the nation. Cleverly orchestrated performances and mini-musicals seem to have become much more popular with folks now than rabid screaming teabaggers.

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Billionaires for Wealthcare Sing the Praises of a Public Option

Rhonda Winter — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 08:59:38 +0000

The brave Billionaires for Wealthcare are back in fine voice. This group of talented guerrilla performance artists graciously entertained attendees at a conference of health insurance industry workers with a seemingly spontaneous performance of a clever operatic anthem about our desperate need for a public option.

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At the annual conference of America’s Health Insurance Plans, (the corporate lobbying group that recently released a threatening report about how any inclusion of a public option in health care legislation would cause private insurers to grossly inflate their rates even more), attendees were entertained by the Billionaires for Wealthcare with their clever rendition of the ever hopeful song “Tomorrow“.

This Bus Bike Rack Rap Rocks

Rhonda Winter — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 19:11:36 +0000

My happy transportation moment of the week came when I stumbled across this most excellent song on the Muni Diaries. The rap was created for the Transit Authority of River City in Louisville, Kentucky to explain how to use the bike racks on their buses. The infectious chorus has been stuck in my head all week: “Bring it down, pull the bar, put it on, put it on, take it off, put it up when you’re done, then you’re done…”

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Riding on the Bus

Rhonda Winter — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 03:31:48 +0000

Streetfilms recently created a poignant and inspiring profile of Seattle PI blogger Carla Saulter, also known as “Bus Chick“. Carla writes about her transit experiences riding everywhere on the bus with her daughter Rosa (named after Rosa Parks) and her husband, Adam; Carla actually met her husband while they were both riding on the same bus together. This short film by Clarence Eckerson Jr. shows just how easy and enjoyable it can be to live without a car, and the many added benefits of riding on mass transit.

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An Ode to the 38 Geary Bus

My other favorite transportation item this week is “Sometimes on the 38″, a great song by San Francisco musician, Shane Papatolicas; the lyrics chronicle his varied experiences riding on the 38 Geary bus in San Francisco. Here is a link to the catchy music on another local transit blog that is also worth reading, the Muni Diaries.

Torture Memos Set to Music

Rhonda Winter — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 21:47:40 +0000

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Jonathan Mann, the brilliant creator of Rock Cookie Bottom, composes a song every single day. Today’s gem simply relates some of the horrific twisted language in the Bush administration’s morally reprehensible and illegal torture memos. It is an incredibly powerful song, but makes me a little queasy every time I hear it. One of the most empowering local actions any of us can undertake is to speak out loudly against injustice wherever we see it.

Perhaps we can look forward to “Torture Memos”, the musical?

A Plea to Paul Krugman for Help

Rhonda Winter — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 06:36:27 +0000

Why isn’t Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman the Secretary of the Treasury? More and more people are starting to ask that question. Jonathan Mann, the creator of Rock Cookie Bottom, writes a song every single day; last week he wrote this catchy and moving plea to NY Times columnist Krugman to come to the aid of our nation’s scorched and pillaged economy .

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Save the Planet from Destru-uh-uc-tion…

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:15:16 +0000

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Everybody sing along, now: “Save the planet… Save the Planet…”

Thanks to co-creator Michael Droste for passing this along…

Tip o’ the Day: Learn the Words to Big Yellow Taxi

Rebecca Carter — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 14:40:45 +0000

Farmer, farmer, put away your DDT. I don't care about spots on my apples, just leave me the birds and the bees, please. Sometimes we listen to the songs, and we can even sing along with them, but we don't actually hear the words. "Big Yellow Taxi" just might be one of those songs. It's worth your time to learn the words (and if you have children, teach them).

Though many of us in the younger generations may think that this is a Counting Crows song, it was actually originally written and performed by Joni Mitchell in 1970. The song covers such topics as development & urban sprawl:

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot. With a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swinging hot spot.

It talks about deforestation and botanical gardens:

They took all the trees and put 'em in a tree museum. And they charged the people a dollar and a half to see them.

And of course, as shown in the first line of this tip, Mitchell wrote about pesticides & chemicals: still an issue today, though not with DDT specifically.

Finally, the chorus brings it all home:

Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got til it's gone.

Rebecca says: Ever since I learned the words to this song, I appreciate it so much more. I first wrote about it almost a year ago on my blog, greenerMIAMI. Watch the video to see and hear the Counting Crows version.