Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

Donald Jessica Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

If marriage is the equivalent of selling yourself into slavery, women with self respect should reject the offer.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Their freedom requires your slavery.

I’m just a talker, trying to find a channel!

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

The current Supreme Court is a rogue court. Very dangerous.

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Consistently wrong since 2002

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

Days Since JD Vance Insulted Women Across America: Zero

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

Republicans in disarray!

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

You are here: Home / Music / Postcard Writing and Music Thread

Postcard Writing and Music Thread

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It’s postcards and music time!

There are two postcard-writing opportunities for Ohio, and one for Virginia.  The VA postcard site is writing for dozens of individual candidates, and I don’t see how that can have much impact.  If no one is writing for them, I think I will take them off the list  Chime in if you know about other good postcard campaigns.  There are two letter-writing campaigns for VA, as well.

All the details on options for writing for Ohio Issue 1 and for Virginia – and images of postcards – are always available in the sidebar.  To make it extra easy to find, I have copied it just below the postcard image.

Send me a photo of your postcards and I’ll post it in the thread and add it to the link in the sidebar.This awesome postcard is from blue guitarist.

Political Action

Postcard Writing Information

Music!

I don’t think brendancalling has a playlist for us tonight, so we’re counting on your links in the comments.   brendancalling does have a gig going up this weekend that Philly folks might want to go to!

brendancalling

I’m playing this Sunday at the Philadelphia Brewing Co with my honkytonk/Western swing band, the Country Gold Classics. A great woman-led band, Yonder Hearts, is also playing. Show starts at 1:00 with a two step lesson provided by Yonder Hearts’ singer and me—dance with a jackal! Music starts at 1:45, goes til 4.

It’s all part of the annual Harvest from the Hood release, the first since 2022 after the city accidentally cut down the brewery’s hop garden, thinking they were weeds.

More info here:
https://philadelphiabrewing.com

Oh, my god, the city accidentally cut down the brewery’s hop garden?!!!!

Decades ago, my roommate wouldn’t talk to me for a week after I mowed down his asparagus plants (obviously before the asparagus shot up).

Here’s an early request from mrmoshpotato.

Okay, it’s party time.  Let’s have some music.  And if you’re here for postcards, chime in!

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

101Comments

  2. 2.

    Mousebumples

    Great postcard, @BlueGuitarist!

    I’m eating a late dinner now that the kids are asleep, but I’ll be starting up more postcards soon!

    Anyone else here?

  3. 3.

    delphinium

    Beautiful post card Blue Guitarist!

    WG, sent you an email earlier about getting more addresses for Ohio-not sure if you saw it. Send them whenever you get a moment-thanks!

    Also, Funkytown always reminds me of this skating scene from Malcolm in the Middle.

  8. 8.

    H.E.Wolf

    I’m writing postcards for OH, via PostcardsToVoters.org.

    Their 3 pre-chosen sentences for this campaign are short and to the point; and best of all, have very few words with “dangling tail” letters – g, j, p, q, y – so I don’t have to dodge the previous line when I’m writing. (This is a me problem. Non-weirdos probably don’t need to know this.)

  9. 9.

    WaterGirl

    @H.E.Wolf: That just shows that you write postcards!

    I loved the optional line that someone used in one of the cards:

    There’s a wave of change building because of Democrats like you.

    *only one dangling letter!

  12. 12.

    H.E.Wolf

    One of my favorite things about postcard campaigns for a statewide vote is the amazing variety of city and town names.

    Thus far in the OH campaign I’ve written to Alliance, Ashland, Avon Lake, Beachwood, Blacklick, Centerville, Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton, Euclid (and South Euclid), Fairview Park, Gahanna, Lyndhurst, Massillon, Oak Hill, Oberlin, Ravenna, Reynoldsburg, Springboro, University Heights, Westerville, and Xenia.

    I look up the places on Wikipedia, for my own education. Xenia is the Bicycle Capital of the Midwest! Never would have learned that, if I hadn’t started helping to get out the vote.

  13. 13.

    WaterGirl

    BJ peeps on this thread get a bit of inside information.  We have two Balloon Juice Angels who contacted me in the past two days, wanting to match for the Virginia fundraising.

    Each one offered a $500 match!

    So be on the lookout for ANGEL fundraising posts tomorrow and Monday.

    We’ll be matching up to $25 per person.  And of course that resets when a new match starts.

  15. 15.

    Alison Rose

    @H.E.Wolf: I’ve worked a few customer service jobs where I got to see a lot of addresses, especially my most recent job. I loved seeing all the interesting city and town names around the country. A few times, I’d even see ones in my own state I’d never heard of, though they were usually what are called “Census-designated Places”, meaning they were too tiny to even be called towns. It was just neat to me that after living in California my whole life (and having previously been someone who could, you know, leave the house and like, go places, and who used to drive aaaaaaaall over the whole state), there were still places I’d never known about. Sometimes I’d look them up on Google Maps and it’s like “Ah okay yeah no wonder” because it would be off in some far-flung right-wing corner of the state.

  16. 16.

    Mousebumples

    Okay, off to grab my postcards and get going!

    We’re watching Stand By Me on Netflix since I think it’s leaving Netflix tomorrow.

    Thanks for the all music recs, everyone! I look forward to listening to them as I’m addressing my postcards!

  18. 18.

    Narya

    When I wrote for Judge Janet, one address was a block away from my friend’s mom’s house. It’s a short street so we walked down the block—I didn’t remember the address and wouldn’t have looked it up anyway—but still kinda cool. I got 10 addresses for OH but can’t start yet.

  20. 20.

    H.E.Wolf

    OK – music. This one’s slow, but I like the lyrics: “Step By Step” by Pete Seeger.
    “Step by step, the longest march
    Can be won, can be won
    Many stones can form an arch
    Singly none, singly none
    And by union what we will
    Can be accomplished still
    Drops of water turn a mill
    Singly none, singly none”

    Sweet Honey in the Rock’s version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZpLPupckOg

  24. 24.

    WaterGirl

    Postcards from Mousebumples!

    Smart to add the stickers!  Where did you get them?

    Someone – maybe CaseyL – was lamenting that MazeDancer wasn’t able to design postcards this time around.  Because then even if no one could read her writing, they still got the message.  I think stickers could help with that, too.

  27. 27.

    Mousebumples

    @WaterGirl: Smart to add the stickers! Where did you get them?

    Amazon! I bought them for Judge Janet’s race. I think it’s important to handwrite most of us, but high level stuff (or websites) are important to make sure are especially readable.

    They have a handful of neon colors, but I thought yellow would be most effective.

  30. 30.

    H.E.Wolf

    Civil rights activist Miriam Makeba, singing “Pata Pata” [with Xhosa clicks]
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBH_u-vEK30
    “There are three things I was born with in this world, and there are three things I will have until the day I die – hope, determination, and song.”

    Soprano Pretty Yende, speaking Zulu onstage at the Met in her role as The Daughter of the Regiment (link is inside the article)
    https://prettyyende.com/press/a-top-soprano-brings-some-zulu-to-the-met-opera-and-it-clicks/
    “I think that music, as we’re dealing with harmony, is teaching the world that truly there shouldn’t be barriers. We can live in harmony and express our humanness together, through the arts.”

  39. 39.

    sab

    @H.E.Wolf: I went to college near Xenia in 1972. Very pretty hick Ohio town. They had a nice restaurant that we went to in the Xenia Hotel. Delicious if you like midwestern. Then that Fall the whole downtown got wiped out by a huge tornado. Xenia Hotel was gone.

    One of the Cleveland TV anchors was a Xenia native.

    Also too, Helen Santmyers’s amazing first novel (written in her eighties in a nursing home) ” Ladies of the Club” was set in 19th century Xenia.

  40. 40.

    Sure Lurkalot

    I’ve got the blahs tonight. But at least I got 25 Ohioans to urge to Vote Yes on Issue 1.

    I’m hoping to put them in the mail Monday or Tuesday.

    There’s a fall art fair this weekend close by which should be fine entertainment. Today was hot and windy (close to 90 in Denver) so I guess cleaning house wasn’t a bad idea.

  45. 45.

    Mousebumples

    @delphinium:

    Avery Printable Address Labels with Sure Feed, 1″ x 2-5/8″, Neon Yellow, 750 Blank Mailing Labels (5972) https://a.co/d/ebN28IR

    I think you can buy less, but I figured I’ll be writing postcards for awhile, so I’ll use them… Eventually. Check out the price points but that one is only a few dollars more than the 400 count, for me.

  46. 46.

    kalakal

    @sab: Mrs kalakal was  just riding into Xenia with her boyfriend on his moterbike on the day the tornados hit. They heard the sirens and took cover in a ditch. She remembers seeing a cast iron bath fly overhead about 20 ft up. When it was over the town was a wreck.

  49. 49.

    H.E.Wolf

    I’m about to log out for the evening; been a long day. I’ll just mention that EVERYTHING we do is valuable.

    Every postcard to an unknown recipient. Every music link that lifts someone else’s spirits. Every donation. Every flower photo. Every story.

    It may seem small – that’s the point. Taking a small, concrete action is meant to be a low enough bar to clear that it can actually be done. And our actions add up. We’re making a difference for the better, and everyone who joins in is a welcome participant!

  55. 55.

    sab

    Our mayor candidate basically won the election in the primary because the Republicans couldn’t field one. They had a candidate but he couldn’t get enough signatures. Hah!

    I was afraid that would keep voters home in my little city. But we have the Disabilities bond issue which everyone supports, and also the school board elections. Last election we got some toxic troublemakers. Not the usual anti-lgbtqi types, just some ambitious assholes who want to burnish their credentials by publicly locking horns with whoever is the school district administrator. Bad situation, and people are pissed.

    So we should have good turnout by people who care about kids and education., and hopefully abortion and prefnancy health.

  59. 59.

    BlueGuitarist

    Speaking of NYC songs, check out these songs by my new favorite band, The Midnight Callers.

    Little Steven chose both of these for his weekly coolest song in the world feature on his Underground Garage show (the first one a few weeks ago, the second one, last year)

    “New York Tramp” (from the album Rattled Humming Heart)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_h6WaiEtXi0

    “41 Miles to Roscoe”  (from the album Red Letter Glow)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YxrozszF2E

    Guitars! And i hope that brendancalling in particular enjoys the bass!

    Enjoy!

  62. 62.

    Mousebumples

    @H.E.Wolf: Taking a small, concrete action is meant to be a low enough bar to clear that it can actually be done. And our actions add up. We’re making a difference for the better, and everyone who joins in is a welcome participant!

    Yes! I feel like postcards are great since they may impact a letter carrier or roommate. People can put it on their fridge or post photos on social media or share with a friend.

    In a crazy world, I feel the need to do something. This is my something (+ donations – Yay, angel matches!), and I’m glad to have companions for my efforts.

  64. 64.

    bbleh

    @Scout211: @Jackie: they did it.  it was lopsided — just a few cranky Rs (Cruz, Vance, that type) voting against.  technically it’s not done until the voting period closes cuz they can change their votes, but na ga ha pa.

  68. 68.

    bbleh

    @Mousebumples: fwiw, Research (pause for solemnity) shows that postcards DO have that effect: they are a personal outreach, written by an actual hyoo-man, and that is qualitatively more effective than emails or mailers, not to mention lawn signs or billboards.

  71. 71.

    sab

    @Alison Rose: My first weekend there I woke up and there were two buzzards perched on the balcony looking in at me sleeping.

    Later, on a weekend I was gazing at the cows grazing on hills  across the valley, and suddenly a hill spontaneously combusted, and burst into flame, The cows ran away and the fire department helicopters moved in and dumped water and fire retardent. Half an hour later fire was out and the cows were back.

    Not like life in Ohio at all. My cat vet in Ohio is from Novato. He seems happy here, although his house is overrun by cats.

  74. 74.

    Jackie

    @Scout211: Just saw this on Political Wire:

    The Senate has overwhelmingly passed the House’s 45-day stopgap funding bill, 88 to 9.

    The bill will now head to the White House for President Biden’s signature.

    This will avert a government shutdown.

    Funny nothing from NYT or WaPo.

  76. 76.

    delphinium

    @WaterGirl:  Heh, I saw the Ramones many decades ago. The night started out with the guy waiting in line ahead of us peeing into the bushes, then my friend injured her foot in the mosh pit, and ended with another guy stumbling into me; almost knocking me over.

  79. 79.

    Mousebumples

    @bbleh: all very true! And why while I’m willing to put some printing on cards, I try to handwrite as much as I can. Though short and to the point messages mean I can get more postcards done.

  82. 82.

    sab

    @H.E.Wolf: I try to do my own thinking and reading on political issues. Ads irritate me. Postcards have made up my mind for me several times. I don’t think they can change a mind, but they can get a voter to think about something they were too busy to notice.

  89. 89.

    delphinium

    @WaterGirl: Oh definitely! When I asked my friend who hurt her foot if she wanted to leave, she said no-it wasn’t that bad and kept dancing-pretty much par for the course when you’re young : ).

  93. 93.

    Lyrebird

    @BlueGuitarist: Thanks for clarifying.  Even a baritone sax looks like a challenge to jump around with like that, while playing no less!

    And I will send a Midnight Callers link to a friend who unlike me can play guitar rather well.

  100. 100.

    teakay

    Probably a dead thread by now. But I couldn’t resist sharing a recent experience.  This summer as I was sitting in the chair for a contact lens fitting I noticed a framed LIPPS INC album cover next to a framed gold album. This was my first visit with the very chatty optometrist who went on to tell me about his passion for piano playing and that as a young man, he and his cousin played in a band. One night, his cousin woke him to share this great hook for a song he came up with. Half awake, he drawled, “that will never make it.” My optometrist began humming the hook, and I found myself singing along….something I would ordinarily never do. That sing-along impulse, I thought, is the sign of a good hook. It was Funky Town. When I returned home, I had to look it up. I mean, even my optometrist’s name “Sandy Atlas” sounded made up. Sure enough, there’s a Wikipedia entry. Most fun doctor’s appointment ever.

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