March 26, 2003

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On a warm Indian Summer Wednesday night we are up on Hollywood Boulevard to go see Jello Biafra with his Spoken Word presentation. There was a line 3 block long in each direction waiting for the doors to open at 8:30pm. The crowd that was on hand to see the 80's Dead Kennedys frontman was made up of kids that were 15 to 17 years old that just wanted to come see Jello all the way to the older set with some true radicals mixed in.
It was now 9:00pm and we took a seat right up in the front, which we did not know if this would be good or bad since we really had no idea what to expect. Sitting right next to us we could swear was Jerry Rubin's long lost brother (if you do not know who Jerry Rubin is go pick up his book, Do It). This dude was about 50 and he was a trip to talk to with plenty of cutting attacks on the system.

The presentation started out with the curtains closed and Jello speaking, setting the tone for the material that he would be covering this evening. The curtain now goes up and the audience welcomes Jello with a round of applause. He let the crowd of 500 know what some of the subjects that he would be hitting on tonight.
Since we are currently at war with Iraq, it was no surprise that this would be a central point to the oration we heard as well as how that tied into TWAT - The War on Terrorism. Starting off with an overall explanation of the war on terrorism and what this would mean for individual freedom.

Jello perfectly shows that our current administration can not show the American people how this current war will make our country safer against terrorism - kinda scary to think about.
Jello brings plenty of material to back up what he is talking about from major publications as well as the direct sources people can find the information he was talking about. Allot of people talk a big game and can never back it up with facts, so it was cool that he brought proof and could articulate his positions. Jello just had a hay day with the Desert Storm trading cards that he brought with him.

Within the middle of his talk he did discuss a subject that was on everyone's mind was the past legal problems with the former Dead Kennedys band mates. He cites that most of the legal issues and the animosity with him and the others all stems from a commercial use of the song "Holliday in Cambodia" in a Levis commercial.
Getting back to the war, Jello exposes the world players involved in the war and how they stand to profit personally from this world fiasco. Jello says to not believe the hype in the media that says that if you are not in favor of the war that you are not a patriot, stating that patriotism is not about blind loyalty.

What really pisses him off is when the president comes of saying "you're either with us or you're with the terrorist". Jello interprets that as saying that if you are not in favor of a multi billion dollar war that you are then with the terrorist, he replies "how ridiculous of a statement is that".

The George Bush imitations were an excellent satire to emphasize points on what Jello sees as a man controlled by international finance. All the imitations along with the facial expressions that he does of all the people on today's political scene is funnier than hell and adds some levity to some serious information.
We are now into hour 3 of the presentation and it was time to take a break. Jello takes off his boot and let the audience know that anything that they can put in it will be used for the legal defense fund that he has put together to be able to continue on with the litigation involving his former band members.

At this point it was getting pretty late and we thought that the intermission would be a perfect time to duck out. We then started to think, heck we aren't bored with what we were hearing and we just had to see how it would end. The presentation would last another 2 hours. We found the whole evening a total reality check of national policy and a lesson in international relations, censorship of music in the US and how the media is guilty of deliberate omissions of information in the news. Jello ended the night by saying that kids at an early age need to cultivate their BS detectors and not to believe everything they hear or read from the media. This was truly an experience we will not forget and would recommend those with an open mind to take in one of Jello's speaking engagements when he comes to your area. We want to thank Maiko at Alternative Records for making all the arrangements for us to attend this presentation.

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