i everyone,
Welcome back to my once or twice a month newsletter via Substack. The first thing to say is that the Drifting To The Right sale has been extended to the end of January. If you want a CD album, go to www.mgutierrezmay.com and leave your email and mailing address in the Contact/EPK section of the website. Then go to Venmo and send $1.00 to mikegtz22@aol.com and I will send you the album from DTTR headquarters (my office room). Also if you want a digital download, go to mgutierrezmay66.bandcamp.com/album/drifting-to-the-right and pay $1.00 there.
On the new album, there is the song Head Full of Garbage which is about the January 6th debacle and the woman who died, Ashli Babbitt in particular. I follow politics fairly closely and I am feeling some of the despair recently expressed by Rachel Maddow when she says “tell me how this is going to come out all right.” To my mind, the January 6th event was a sneak attack on the Congress and Democracy which on the surface looked like a protest not unlike ones I have been part of against the Vietnam War, against Nuclear Energy, and for human rights over the years. The difference was the paramilitary units woven into the crowd that led the charge up the hill and into the Capitol, itself nothing less than astonishing. Also the insiders which may have been members of Congress and some members of the Capitol police. And yet, with all that. it was a clown show that started to disperse the minute Ashli got shot trying to break into the House chambers. What was truly astonishing for me was what came next: all of the perpetrators walking down the Capitol steps and walking away. Where were the super-size paddy wagons hauling each and every one of them off to jail?
We have to be careful not to let this happen again. Donald Trump should go to jail (do not pass go, do not collect any bribes on his way there.) Those in Congress tied to the rioters should be expelled from Congress. Those tied in any way to the operational planning should face legal consequences. I will leave it at that. And hope enough of us are invested in a fair and just and prosperous democratic nation and world to move forward .
Back to music and artsy endeavors. I will be appearing at some open mikes through January, tonight’s VOM (1/8) at Catbird Cafe from 6pm on, Monday (1/10) at the Roslindale Virtual Open Mike starting at 7pm and finally the Club Passim (yay!) virtual open mike on Monday 1/31 from 7pm on (I have the 3rd slot.) I will continue getting the word out on Drifting To The Right. Weather and health permitting, I may show up in person at Open Mikes in places like Mediator Stage in Providence.
Best wishes for us all for the times ahead.
Michael Gutierrez-May