A Trio of Antioch Mixes

I thought this was an excellent way to start any mix, seeing as it gives the illusion that something really deep and wise is about to follow. What with Laurence Fishburn (Morpheus) saying This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes. Remember — all I am offering is the truth, nothing more. I liked this so much I accidentally started Antioch Mix #3 with this too.. oh well.

Uncle Bonsai is a wonderful group, now er.. mostly disbanded. They keep doing reunion tours (though I’ve yet to ever see them live). When not touring as part of Uncle Bonsai the principal songwriter of most of their songs, Andrew Ratshin, performs solo as the ‘Electric Bonsai Band’. The song is pretty self-explanatory, and well.. no comment. 🙂

Emily and I have all sorts of acapella CDs, this one is from called ‘Wasting Our Parent’s Money‘ and has all sorts of humorous acapella songs. This one portrays that oft spoken of moment in the caf on a Sunday morning as people you saw wandering off with a skanky stranger and later witnessed embarassingly trek across campus in the early dawn.

More along the lines of Caf talk on Sunday AM. "Oh my god, what did I tell them last night?" Carla, along with other folks on this CD, is one of the ‘Girls Gone Funny’ tour and she does a bunch of wonderfully sarcastic and humorous songs. She reappears later in this mix too.

More from the acapella CD ‘Wasting Our Parent’s Money‘. This touches a bit on the PC atmosphere that is prevalent at Antioch.. and thus overlaps with the Caf talk. Be sure to phrase everything properly or eat your words with your chunks. 🙂

Uncle Bonsai again, because, well they are just so awesome when it comes to singing about stuff that no one else does. Song is self explanatory, it’s their shopping list for men. The Flirtations do a wonderful gay cover of this too 🙂

Before the ‘Girls Gone Funny’ tour I mentioned above there were the Bitchin Babes. This song features Christine Lavin‘s song about why she prefers bald men. A good match with the previous song I think.

More from Christine with her classic song, and very apropos for some of those Antioch myn in Norment and Mills 🙂 (Can you tell i’m a Birch Hall vet?)

Steve Goodman, best known for his song ‘City of New Orleans’, had a great sense of humor. I just couldn’t resist tossing this on this mix.

David attended Antioch for a year in 1976 before dropping out because (and I quote) ‘I realized I was paying tuition to learn guitar and have sex, and I could do that elsewhere for free’. This song is NOT about Mangos. Just listen (or read the lyrics linked above)

Deirdre is another of the ‘Girls Gone Funny’ I mentioned earlier. All her songs are wonderful, alternating between hilarious and touching. She reminds me of Christine Lavin, though perhaps a bit more sarcastic 🙂

This song just goes too well with the above. Remember, it’s just hypothetical.

This is just too funny. Note there are 4 versions of this song, each with a different ending. This is just the one off the CD I have, you’ll have to catch her live to hear the others. I still haven’t heard them all.

David’s song about those ‘Trust Fund Kids’ that many of us at Antioch encountered over the years, either at Antioch, or on coop.

A rare hard to find Dar Williams cover of Fred Eaglesmith‘s ‘Wilder Than Her’. It just rocks. Search the web and you’ll see people referring to this as the lesbian version of the song. Go figure. Hats off to the ‘Wild’ women of Antioch.

The final member of the ‘Girls Gone Funny’, and my favorite, Jamie has performed at Antioch on several occasions (and I host her website). This song chronicles the problem of judging books by their covers. At Antioch… Never Assume.

This clip will make no sense if you haven’t seen Kevin Smith’s ‘Chasing Amy’. Go rent it. This quote doesn’t really fit with the mix with it’s content, since I do know some (and believe they exist) male friendly lesbians. But it’s still funny 🙂

"The girl I like is a Diesel Dyke, the chick I dig digs chicks. The girl I like is a Diesel Dyke, she don’t want me or my swanging dick". Been there, done that. Sucks to have a crush on someone you’ve got no chance at getting (see above reference to Chasing Amy). I’ve never seen Adam perform live but I LOVE his sick and warped and totally non PC sense of humor. Bring this man to Antioch. He’ll probably piss off some UIG group but not before most of the campus gets hernia’s from laughing.

IWIWAL="I wish I Was A Lesbian". ‘Nuff said.

Jamie’s response to Loudon’s song above.

First Christine Lavin song I ever heard… and on the radio even! Go WYSO (back before it sucked).

A nod to div dance as this CD comes close to the end. Tom Lehrer, an amazing liberal musician that most people haven’t heard of. Buy everything of his that you can, it’s all great.

Shel Silverstein was one of those rare "multi-threat" artists — composer, singer, cartoonist, illustrator, author — with popular successes in all of those areas. The quintessential song about Div Dance. Read the lyrics, you’ll agree.

David has a wonderful way of doing spoken word rhyme stories. While the title of this gives away the ‘punch line’ per se, it’s still worth a listen. The song that follows is more wishy washy folk than the in your face politics contained elsewhere on this mix, but I still like it, and after 9/11 it was very topical "‘Cause there’ll always be some crazy with an Army or a Knife, To wake you from your day dream, put the fear back in your life…"

This is really just a quick spoken word piece adapted by Utah Phillips from Mario Savio’s famous speech. Not that Ani doesn’t rock, in fact I had more Ani on this mix originally but I took her off because I figured the Antioch womyn I was making this mix for probably know more Ani than I do. (if they don’t…well then theres another mix to make). " Utah is a pro-union wobbly train hopping tramp radical activist, folk singer & poet who looks like Santa Claus. He has a wonderful repetoire of songs and stories about the history of the US you don’t hear anywhere else, and he has some great short quotes like this and the ones that follow that are just perfect for a mix like this. "There comes a time when the operation of the machine is so odious that you cannot even tacitly participate. You’ve got to place your bodies on the gears, the wheels, all the mechanism, and you’ve got to indicate to those who own it, and those who run it, that unless you are free, the machine will be prevented from working at all."

I have no idea where I got the mp3 for this, it was just poof there in my collection on 12,000 mp3s on my machine. I like Billy, but not as much as some die hard fans I know (Hi Hope!). It just fit well with this mix.

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the multinational corporations and to the profit for which they stand; one interlocking directorate under no government: indivisible, with monopoly and cheap labor for all!"

http://www.codepink4peace.org/

Activist & Folk Singer Amy Martin’s song summing up our lovely war in Iraq. "Hello – it’s about oil". She made the mp3 of this available for free on her website and I have been playing it on my radio show regularly since.

David Rovics is a political fireball. He’s a modern day Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger & Phil Ochs, speaking his mind and saying what needs to be said. I love his stuff, and it turns out..small world.. I know his sister too! This song is just a sample of some of the amazing stuff he does, if you’re politically active, pissed off at the way things are, buy his CDs and go see him live. Or go to a big protest, he’ll most likely be there.

Written in the early 90’s but sadly still appropriate today. I first heard this on WYSO in 1996 (while listening to Vick Mickunas) and got the album immediately.

Michael Callen was a wonderful singer and a powerful activist. He lived a very long time with AIDS and used his time on this earth to educate and entertain. This is his ballad about the AIDS crisis, but it’s applicable to other world issues. The Flirtations were a gay mens acapella group and performed at Antioch in 1994.

Luka is a wonderful singer songwriter from Ireland. I found this MP3 free on his website and just loved it. Spoke right to what I was feeling, as have many of these songs.

John has a huge array of songs, and many of his more recent ones have been politically charged. Title is pretty self-explanatory.

Attila does a wonderful array of spoken word punk poetry. This is just one example of his delivery. I bet he’s fun to see perform live! "Change the names and fudge the dates – for United Nations read United States…’ "

"In this legal devolution, A perfect chance for retribution, Let’s just can the Constitution, I wanna be a spy!"

"Hey Mr. President you can have my civil rights, just leave me one or two to use when I go out Friday night…"

What will you do when it’s all over?

"For if god only knew, What’s being done in her name ,She’d realize the humans, Have all gone insane. She must not have noticed, We’re not doing well, But when she sees this nonsense, She’ll be pissed as hell" Another free download from the web. Wonderful voice, great song.

Yes, THE Holly Near. She’s still out there going strong. I love the refrain in this song, "I’m afraid of what you do in the name of your god"

This is a much better example of Utah’s performances, it’s a rather long story about workers in the Northwest US and how they used direct action to make a difference.

John’s cover of Si Khan’s wonderful song "it’s not what you’re given, it’s what you do with what you’ve got"

Tim, a wonderful singer from Canada, does a wonderful job with this cover of Phil Och’s ballad. "So I guess I’ll have to do it while I’m here"

Same as I said above on mix #1. "See how deep the rabbit hole goes" Great analogy for Antioch.

They say in the beginning it’s not advice parents give their kids when they go to college but rather when they are kids. But hey, it has lots of meanings depending how you listen to it. "Don’t put it in your mouth, you don’t know where it’s been"

This is Bob Gibson singing a Shel Silverstein song. A great retort to give to all those preachy vegans in their food coops. "You can quite smokin’, but you’re still gonna die. Cut out cokin’, but you’re still gonna die. Eliminate everything fatty or fried, And you get real healthy, but you’re still gonna die. "

A great story song about the fastest roller and the fastest smoker battling it out. I think the tryouts for this took place in the Willet common room. 🙂

As featured in the ending credits of ‘Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back’. "I was gonna go to class, but then I got high…". Hey, I think they got these lyrics from my first roommate (Hi Jason!) (he’s a truck driver in DC last I heard.)

Long story short, I never drank or did drugs at Antioch (or anywhere else for that matter) but lived on Willet & Hardy halls every term at Antioch (They were ‘substance tolerant’ halls, supposedly meaning alcohol and tobacco but go figure). So as the ‘sober’ representative I often acted as the reality check & memory for people who’s realities and memories were askew. This song reminded me of talking to them the next day.

Moving on from the drug theme to a tribute to the last legal drug, Caffeine. Hey, I should make a C-Shop mix 🙂

A great quote to throw in just about anywhere 🙂

"Then listen close to me… Anything can happen, child, ANYTHING can be." My opinion about Antioch. Anything is possible. It’s what you make of it.

Is there anything that some Antioch student HASN’T pierced and shown off in the caf or common room? <gag>

A great response to those preachy vegans. As Joel says in the intro, there are many good reasons to become a vegetarian, but moral superiority is not one of them.

Ahh the coop diet. "I want cold pizza for breakfast, warm coke to wash it down… in a pinch cold spaghetti will do, there’s nothing in the world that I like better than eating cold pizza with you"

I had to include some Billy Jonas on this mix, he’s one of my more recent discoveries musically and I think he’s just amazing. This song is a good example of his sense of humor, unique rhythm and song structure, and fun lyrics. Another song of his ‘One’ follows a few tracks later.

The Guy Who Changes The Light Bulbs

Think of it as a coop job pep talk. Even the shittiest jobs make a difference 🙂 Note – On the version of this mix I mailed to Antioch I accidentally didn’t edit out the end of the track which contains the spoken intro to her next song, so it might be a bit confusing why she says it’s going to be a song about wedgies and then all of sudden people are singing about why they are mammals. Sorry about that.

Well.. we all are. And what with all the hormones and pheromones sprayed around Antioch it’s kinda hard to ignore 😉 A little science sprinkled in here, you know, liberal arts, a little of everything, master of none. 🙂

Following the mammal theme we now bring you genetics 101 with a bit of paranoia for good measure.

Just a quote from the movie that I liked.

A fun biography of a cat. No direct Antioch connection to this, just something I couldn’t resist throwing on the mix. Perhaps a nob to the good ol’ and oft ignored pet ban. My favorite line "..and I even ate the feet, crunch, crunch, crunch"

A long story inside a short song. Great story about a young woman’s enlightenment, for lack of a better phrasing. Makes me think of Antioch for several reasons. A) I think that David got this story, or the idea for it while on coop from Antioch in 1976-77. His coop papers, which I have (registrar was going to toss them so a friend smuggled them out for me, I’ll get them to him some day), make reference to a friend going to Africa if I recall correctly. Or maybe I’m making it up in my head. I dunno. But even if that’s not true, it also makes me think how it is to return to your old life at home after you’ve had a life changing experience, whether that was Antioch or a coop job. Also this song always comes to mind when I see some jerk parked in two parking spaces… it’s Johnny!

Another example of Billy Jonas’s wonderful songs. Great to sing along to, even if you’ve never heard it!

This probably should have gone on the religion and politics mix, but it didn’t for reasons I no longer remember. Still a fun song.

You thought the mix was over? HAH! (though maybe you are wishing it was.) And you thought it was weird so far.. bwahahaha!

Ken Nordine does very strange spoken word pieces he calls ‘Word Jazz’. This one is just weird, I love the end though, “How are things in your town?” Next time i’m in Kelly Hall I think I’ll get up on stage and say Fliberty Jib a few times to see what happens, maybe it’s what the campus needs 🙂

A almost went off the road laughing the first time I heard this. "For he was an armadillo, but she was a concertina".

I threw this on at the last minute as a special nod to one of the Antioch students I made these mixes for Brittany, who references some of Shel’s poems on her website. In fact, now that I think about it, I don’t know how the "Come In" poem isn’t on the start of this mix. Anyways, nice quotes Brittany, hats off to you for excellent taste, oh an my apologies for putting a bunch of Shel’s weird adult stuff on these CDs, I hope I haven’t ruined him for you.