In Case You Missed It....

Here is a list of links to some "best of" guests and moments on my radio show, Rabble Rouse Radio, which still airs live every Monday Night at www.blogtalkradio.com/RABBLE .

David Graeber - anarchist anthropologist, author, professor, agitator.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/RABBLE/2008/04/01/Rabble-Rouse

Jim Green - anarchist professor, author of the book "Death In The Haymarket" a definitive portrait of the Haymarket Martyrs. Also joined by...Mark Damron, Secretary Treasurer of The IWW.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/RABBLE/2008/04/21/rabbkle-rouse-interview

Mark Rudd - co founder of the Weather Underground, 60's Radical, 70's Fugitive, modern day liberal....what happened? find out here.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/RABBLE/2008/05/27/Rabble-Rouse-Radio

Shane Claiborne - as far as christians go, this on is one of the good ones.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/RABBLE/2008/06/17/Rabble-Rouse-Radio

Amy Goodman - Host of Democracy Now! True badass.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/RABBLE/2008/07/04/amy-goodman-of-democracy-now

Camp Coldwater Resistance - A report from the Dakota People's resistance at Camp Coldwater.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/RABBLE/2008/09/05/SPECIAL-RESISTANCE-REPORT-Dakota-Peoples-Reclamation

Wobbly Barristas, the Starbucks IWW - calls from fellow workers from the Starbucks Unionized workers.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/RABBLE/2008/09/09/Rabble-Rouse-Radio

Seth Martin - great folk singer, activist, songwriter, and great guy. This is a really good show!
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/RABBLE/2008/09/23/Rabble-Rouse-Radio

Listen to the oldies and join me every Monday Night at 9:00 PM Central for a lively discourse.

to get our feet dirty...

fair ophelia

photo by heather ray

Louis Ledford and the Return of Adam Lee....with Chili!

Louis Ledford

Hey All,
We are having a chili cook on Sunday with music provided by New Orleans' own Louis Ledford and the return of Adam Lee and the deadhorse sound company!
www.myspace.com/louisledford www.louisledford.com

the chili cook is an ingredient potluck, so bring over a vegetarian ingredient and we will all pitch in to make a big ass pot of chili!

Chili cook starts at 5:00 with food and music and a campfire after dark.

Please bring a couple bucks for the musician, he is on tour and gas is fucking pricy.

Sunday Oct. 19th
5:00 PM - 12:ish
320 Tompkins
St. Charles, MO
63301
636-493-1239

All Sorts of New Trouble to Get Into!

So, we have been a little busy here picking banjos and figuring out the mystical world of Accordion playing, and have neglected the updates. Here is a really brief update.

COMING UP:

Friday Oct. 3rd - 5:00 PM meet-up at the franklin house with your bike to gear up for the first ever St. Charles Critical Mass at 6:00 pm at Picasso's on Main Street. Critical Mass is an international bike ride, taking place in cities all over the world, traditionally on the first Friday of each month. Come take back the streets with us for an hour or two. Bring noisemakers and dress in a festive manner. Then at 8:00 head back to Picasso's for Virginia Harold's art opening!

Sunday Oct. 5th - Eddy Burke will be gracing our Sunday Potluck with his folk music sensibilities. http://www.myspace.com/thelegendofeddyburke Come on out for the regular veggie potluck and enjoy the musical guest.

Saturday Oct. 11th - This is a big ass fucking day. Get the Folk Up 1-9 pm Sat, Oct 11On the Quad(In case of rain, 3-9 pm, Grant Gym)A student-run, social-activist festival. Bands, booths, & more.A Year of International Human Rights event. Featuring David Rovics, the Riot Folk collective and some incarnation of holy!holy!holy! All of this at Webster University. We are hoping it runs until 8:00 instead of so everyone can make it on over here for the after party also featuring David Rovics. If you have never seen

David before, then there is a good chance you

have not been to many franklin house events, as he is our honorary house musician, even

though he hails from Portland OR, and spends a

great deal of his time flying around the world to play at all the best riots.

I believe the Riot Folk crew will be joining us for this evening as well, and we will be hearing more songs and doing a jam session until around 10:00 or so when we will be holding a very special premiere for Michael Moore's new film, Slacker Uprising. Right here in the back yard of the franklin house, we will be rolling out the red carpet to have a true blue film premiere, and for free to top it off. We will be asking for donations to help us recover from the vast amount of expenses we racked up this summer running this collective, no to mention all the hookers, booze and gambling we do!

This film tackles the 2004 tour that Moore pulled together as a last ditch effort to defeat GW in the last elections. It failed, and that is the basis for the film and for our discussion. Will mass youth voting movements work to creat change, or do we need to find new venues for democratic action? Be here for the music, the film and the discussion.

Monday October 13th - Klatt, Midas & Barnett. Join us on this Monday for an evening of your cool uncle's favorite music. Folk was once the voice of the people, as frog like as that voice may have sounded, and it sprang up from the Beat generations seedy cafe's in plenty. Jack Klatt, Bryce Midas, and Gabe Barnett have harnassed that raw energy and jumbled it up with some punk influenza to give us the raucus folk of today that we hip kids dig so much. Get your ass on out here and support this Minneapolis 3, and foloowing their performance, we may be showing a film. Or just picking banjos till the neighbors start shootin'.

So there is the next few weeks of your life, planned out for you courtesy of the Franklin House.

Oh, and by the way, check out the artical in Sunday's paper about a couple of us here: http://stcharlesjournal.stltoday.com/articles/2008/09/21/news/sj2tn20080920-0921stc-neigh0.ii1.txt not bad for small town journalism.

Come support the arts!

See you there!

This Tuesday Night, Here!

This Tuesday, as an addition to our Casino*Town Poet's night, we will be featuring Dirty Fist!, live for you all. Check them out at: www.myspace.com/dirtyfist or at the franklin house myspace, www.myspace.com/thefranklinhouse . this should be a rad show, so fucking be here, and if you can, bring some money for these travelling musicians, you cheap bastards!

The Case For Violence

Derrick Jensen is arguably the most contraversial author and speaker concerning the defense of the earth at all cost, and also possibly the most effective. In his two part epic manifesto, Jensen lays it out as clearly as possible, using plain english (or Finnish, Hebrew, Dutch, German or Danish if you prefer) that civilization, as we know it, can never sustain itself. This, Jensen points out, is not unlike the "great civilizations" that now line the oceans floor or the walls of a museum, and is also unique, in that the enemy we have now created is not an outside force waiting to invade and enslave the civilization, but is in fact ourselves, crumbling from the inside. He also points out the ominous truth that those who are profiting from this demise, will not stop on their own, and therefore, as reason follows, must be stopped.

Do not get me wrong, Derrick is not volleying for the salvation of this civilization, rather, a more expiditious decline. His belief is in the soil and waters of the Earth that we have inhabited since day one of our existence, and have destroyed over the past few thousand years. He lays out, clearly, the manmade deconstruction of the ecology of our living space, the vast abuse of resources by our cities, the greed driven raping of the rivers and wetlands, and the for profit depletion of entire populations of wild animals, and unlike liberal environmentalists, does not simply stop with the outline of our destruction. He procedes to make the most sane and logical case for violence that I have ever heard.

He is not talking about random, unjustified violence, like that used by the state in the form of police or military. Jensen speaks concisely of a bottom up defensive measure that is always shunned by a culture that is used to only one type of violence that is accepted, that being violence from the top down.

in an excerpt from Endgame: “We must keep in mind that the capitalist regime in Washington continues to harbor journalists, military leaders, politicians, and CEOs who have put in place and praised U.S. military and economic policies that kill millions of people annually.”

Anytime an act of defensive measure is reported on, of that defensive measure is carried out against "our" people, it is always, and without fail, reported as criminal and since 9/11, terroristic. Jensen inverts that upon the state, and points out it's bias and it's ludicrousy.

I do not want to paint him as a stern faced revolutionary though, well not always. Jensen is quite possibly the funniest and most enjoyable person to listen to in modern day journalism. Whether he is rewriting Star Wars, or mocking nearly every single group on "the left", or telling simple schoolyard jokes, he has the charm and wit of a Lenny Bruce. Derrick will be joining us on my radio show, Rabble Rouse Radio, on Monday September 29th, at 9:00 PM to listen to Derrick speak and have a chance to call in with a question.

www.blogtalkradio.com/RABBLE

Amy Goodman, friend of the Franklin House, goes down by Fascist Police Tyranny!

CJ Boyd and Bird Baker -- Sept. 2nd

"A man’s maturity consists in having found again the seriousness one had as a child at play."

--Nieztsche

...this is childsplay for the experienced listener.

Now is the time!

I have heard it said, as I am sure you have also, that "Now is the time to fight!" Well, my comrades, that is not the whole truth. You see, the fight has always been here. The fight has been in the homes of every person alive, at the check out lane, at the work place, at the school houses and churches, at the unenmployment lines and welfare offices across the country, the fight has been against us. The weapons used have been the destruction of workers unions, the scapegoating of public assistance, the copyright of god the churches and preachers have taken to control our spirit, the influx of drugs into our neighborhoods, the shark tacitcs of Slave-mart (wal-mart) and BigBucks (starbucks) McDeadly food for our children, television that does not inform but distract, the selling of sex and condemning of sexuality, the gentrification and stripping of culture of our neighborhoods, and the littany goes on and on.The fight was not over at the end of the Civil Rights movement, a time that many look back on as a great victory. To assume that this was a victory and not merely a launching point for a greater battle is to deny the ghettos and prisons of today, both being a breathing ATM for the wealthy in the form of drug trafficking and forced labor of corporate prisons. Our schools have been racially integrated, yes, but has there been a fair and equal distribution of funding? No. Black americans gained the right to vote, but has there not been voter fraud and a complete deletion of real black voices from the political sector of the world? Yes. The greatest movements of social change have not taken place in the voting booths, but by those who did not have the vote to rest upon. The minute that all americans could vote, the system adapted to make voting a ridiculous and crule joke, allowing for corporate america to buy off candidates and create wars for profit, despite the voice of the people in the streets screaming for justice and peace. This should tell us that there is not a concern by the those who control and profit as to what we believe. This should tell us that our vote and our anger are for nothing so long as we pay for the existence of these vultures. There has to be a new way to fight.If you are new to the idea of this fight, then I welcome you, and charge you to learn from those who are experienced in tactics of survival and promotion of a more just society. If you are not new then I charge you step up your game. Recently, a group called Move-On has celebrated 10 years of being in existence. This is no cause for celebration. This is cause for mourning and anger, that a group founded under the pre-suppositon that we must end war and corporate control has turned ten years old and we are in the midst of the most privatized corporate war for profit ever, and it is not over. We need to step up our game! The tools of our slavery have gotten heavy and we have allowed for it to happen in the name of our security, or in the belief that "I am comfortable, so everyone can be too". It is time we turn the tides and shake off the shackles together.Recently on blogtalkradio, there has been a harsh reminder that corporate interests do not coincide with the voice of the people. This is not a new notion to some of us, and a bitter awakening to others. Let us stop criticizing those who have been fighting, let us no longer say that "radical" is a bad word. Let us now learn the roots of our very rebellious nature and suck the sweet milk from them to nurture our branches of dissent into great flowers of revolt. Let us come together now to learn from one another, and have no shame for our ignorance, rather a yearning to mend it and irradicate it. Let us not rely upon the historical movements as proof we have existed, rather creat a new movement that is inspired by our past and nurtured by each others beauty and creativity.Stop asking and start taking. Take back our labor, our lives, our spirit, our streets and our voices from those who would rather see us numb and complacent. Turn off your television brothers and sisters, because the streets are alive and in full color, high definition, surround sound glory and they are ours. OURS! Stop working on the assumption that there are some people in power that are good, and start working on the notion that good people have the power to change the world right now, without political endorsements or fundraising campaigns. Leaders do not need votes, they need bodies in the movement all around them. Leaders do not need signs bearing their names, but signs declaring our demands. Leaders do not require acceptance from the status quo, and will rarely find it. Leaders teach, learn, cook, clean, change diapers, raise children, stay child-like and playful, join together with all people of struggle, and most importantly, leaders are not extraordinary people, just regular people with large dreams and larger ambitions. Let us all become the leaders we are crying for.We must understand that the fight has been against us for our whole lives, so now is the time to FIGHT BACK!We may not win today, but that must not stifle us. We may not win tomorrow, but that must not scare us, if we choose not to fight, we will never win, and that should move us into action more than anything else. We Must Fight Back!

Listen to independent voices on www.blogtalkradio.com/Rabble and www.blogtalkradio.com/fightincockflyer and read independent writing on www.fightincockflyer.blogspot.com and www.democracynow.org www.indymedia.org and start your own radio show, blog or protest, today!

what you missed...

barbara evoking the goddess and angela's amazing light sculpture.

--photo by virginia--

eat our words.

F.U.

The Franklin House is pleased to offer, as a service to the community, and to ourselves, Saint Charles’ first ever, FREE University!

The FREE University, or F.U., is a community sustained and operated school, for children of all ages, ranging from youth to our prized elders.

Classes will range from knowledge sharing to skill sharing, and pretty much anything that you can ever wish to know or share. For thinkers of the abstract to purists of the most high levels, this school is place for growth within our community. All of this is offered for FREE!

Participation is the only requirement to attend. Classes are limited for space, to allow for more direct conversation. The best person to learn from is not always one holding a degree, but often times the one willing to teach without benefit.
What exactly is a free school?
It is just as it sounds, and a little more than it implies. A FREE school is a school that requires no money to attend and offers no money to lead, yes, that is true. What it also offers is a freedom from arbitrary constraints placed upon other schools in the interest of the moral sanctity of the people. What I mean to say is, we do not tolerate any sort of censorship of information, whether it is what you want to hear or not. There is no agenda to be met and no lobbyist to please. We are FREE from accountability to any body of people or corporations that wish to delete segments of truth.

For instance, you will learn the truth about Columbus, how he ravaged and pillaged and murdered, and you will also hear the truth about Che Guevara, how he too murdered to reach his goal. Nothing is sacred outside of the truth. You will learn, also, that there have been amazing and beautiful people all along the road to this enlightened state. Ever heard of Eugene Debs? Emma Goldman? Arthur Rimbaud?

There are countless examples of the ways that our schooling, whether private or public, has served to disenfranchise us from our nature. We say enough. We are willing to recognize when we may be wrong, and will constructively hash through the years of subservient crap to find what we will come to understand as a better knowledge of self and others.

That, and we will learn how to make a kick ass dinner as well. Or how to sew your own handbag, or make paper from the trash which fills our rubbish bins weekly. We will learn the ins and outs of coffee, beer and wine. The possibilities truly are as endless as there are ideas.

The classes are led by the students, each taking turns at sharing skills or knowledge and having serious discussion about ideas, with the presupposition that most concrete ideas are weights on our creativity and must be ground into a fine powder before being reformed. We are not relativists, however, nor are we purists. We are contradictions and glowing examples of confused puzzles.

Each of us has something valuable to share, or at least a yearning to understand something a little deeper. Let this be the forum for that understanding.

Classes will be held based upon schedules of the leaders of the particular classes and the students schedules. This will be something you should make time for though, as classes will not resolve in one sitting and building ideas and communities will take time. Be willing to commit yourself to the class if you are interested.

Classes so far in the works are:
Art History - a study of lives of select artists throughout history that have shaped the way the world sighs. Class led by Angela Franklin, including field trips.

History of Rebellion – Making use of the works of Howard Zinn and the information of independent media, we examine the forgotten or deleted history of revolution.
Class led by Michael Franklin with a special messages from Howard Zinn through out.

The Romance of Dying – A class on how not to write poetry, rather how to read and embrace poetry. Ranging from Rimbaud to Whitman, Rumi to Kaufmann, Class leader Sean Arnold will take you on a poetic odyssey.

The Art of Making It All Up – After years of being pestered, Michael Franklin will welcome you into the kitchen for a crash course in throwing together delicious, healthy meals, with little or no money.

These are just a few examples of the classes offered, and the list will only grow with your participation. Please consider taking six to eight weeks of your life back and attending the classes. Child care will be available for certain classes.

This is happening in your own community, so you really have no reason to miss out on a opportunity to build ties to one another and to your self. Nothing reclaims the soul like heuristic living, and nothing can be free unless it is given away.

If you would like to get more information on F.U. or would like to enroll, email the franklin house at franklinhousecollective@gmail.com or just come on by the house on a Sunday evening for a vegetarian potluck dinner. Be Well – the Franklin House

Barbara Arriaga -- Tuesday Aug. 19th

the franklin house welcomes back BARBARA ARRIAGA for a solo cello performance. her style is both classical and teeters on the avant gard. barbara played for us last with the cj boyd sexxxtet. it was a life changing experience for many and we are excited to have such a talented and beautiful musician gracing us once again. tuesday nights are casino*town poetry open-mics, so we will have poetry dispersed throughout the evening. vegetarian potluck begins at 6pm and as always we ask for you to bring donations, if you can...no one will be turned away. Barbara is also playing in south city at mic boshan's house the night before she comes here, so make two nights of it!

holy!holy!holy! sunday aug. 3rd

the boys are coming home!!! holy!holy!holy! is making their way back to st. charles and will be closing their tour with a house show, here at the franklin house. it's james birthday and a franklin house-get out of tour debt benefit show. come enjoy road stories, food, music and the last performance with ian before we ship him off to europe.

sunday, aug. 3rd
6pm-???
bring vegetarian food, if you can and a chair if you want to sit... but the rest of us will be dancing!

no horror stories in front of users

he
has playing on his myspace profile ANGELFUCK, a Misfits cover by World Police,
a band of fat drunk bastards from St. Lou donning lucha libre masks.
the whole thing
still doesn't seem real
more like an eloborate social satire
we play along with.

we
watch rambo with old friends
he is on leave for a few days
he tells me lately he's been looking up murders and suicides on youtube
as the blood splatters so well on the big screen that it pretty much explodes off of the telivision and onto our laps.
this is the only war movie he's watched since he's been in the service.
ourfriend talks about snorting H
I tell them about my girl's best friend who died of a heroin overdose, tell him to be careful.
dude
he says
no horror stories in front of users
I guess that's how it goes.
I tell him I can find him a place to hide in the woods in Kentucky if he doesn't want to go back
he says he only has one more tour of duty.
We
talk about the Misfits
Bad Religion
war movies
fucking
and he casually mentions he killed 3 men
we
go back to catching tags and drinking 40s in the suburbs
in the daytime

backdropped by the useless luxuries
unknowing hit men
send him to murder and be murdered for.

-sean arnold

_(fuck work, write poetry)_

Relax

Fourth of the Lie

casino town open-mic poetry

every tuesday night is casino*town poetry night at the franklin house. we get started around 7pm. musical accompaniment ends at 10pm, but the words will keep coming until we pass out... all of our events are free, but we do love donations to help keep the house running.



life left a methodone clinic in your pocket

i sat across from you, sensing something was different.
you explain how life has abandoned you
left a methadone clinic in your pocket
and a hand to spare change for the beer you clasp.
moments go by in a silence filled with thoughts--
me thinking about the stories your scars would tell.
you thinking about the chance of a fuck,
but more of ending your three days of sobriety.
three months, you say, have gone by without poetry.
of taking an unwanted break
a break from being able to comprehend
a break from feeling everything...
of not enough.
The man with the jack nicholson voice
sat across from me
trying to remember why he was born angelic
and still clutching his forty of pabst.
only temporarily visiting life, before the 15 comes along.
because he has to keep his schedule.
i left him.
i left him digging through his pockets
desperately trying to find a pen or paper
or change for another forty.
but the only thing he found
was that damn methadone clinic.
giving him recollection, not redemption.

--angela franklin (portland 2002)

Travis Howe, here June 12th! Followed by open discussion.

Travis Howe, singer and guitarist of such midwest legends as Disasternaut and more recently, the progressive metal band
Ash & Ember, will be playing his hallucinatory mix of improv guitar and chanting, evoking desert journeys in July with a cheap car and expensive drugs.














The whole thing starts around 7:00 pm and we are asking for $5 donation, but if you do not have that, still come on out. Keep in mind the cost of gas for these fellows and the cost of keeping the franklin house alive.

James Munoz of the Bled was penciled in to play this night but had to cancel. Sorry. I know we here at the franklin house would have loved to have had some time to hang out with James, as whe is an old friend, but sometimes that kind of thing just doesn't work out.

re-lived lucidity

Absynthe, 1st commercialized in early 1800s emerged as a powerful icon of freedom during ______ peroid and it was during this time that the highly perfumed spirit reached unparelleled popularity and cult status among the worlds of art and literature. Once proclaimed to fuel the fires of creaticity and subsequently demonized, Absynthe has re-emerged as a high quality, fine alcoholic liberation recalling those earlier artistic times.

I see the empty bottle of absynthe with the slanted cat eyes printed across the surface of the bottle resting next to my computer and sem empty glasses and soaked cig buts on the table in the garage/studio amidst the bright monster paintings of demon faces, snarling woman with skeleton teeth, graffiti skulls, and holies. I think about 2 nights ago...so many naked bodies with hellish screams, droning instruments, purging of fear and shame, my incantations till my throat was dry and then more incantations and...sparklers forced up urethras...when it all came true...flowers of evil flourishing to something more holy...bliss was not just possible but certain...when we all tapped into the human perpetual motion machine.
There is this much ________ left floating in a cup w/ a bit of black stuff floating on top. I don't even mull it over. I take the last sip, remember, live again. The syrup soaks my throat for a little while. One must always be drunk, if just for a bit.

a message from Mic

This message came to us from Mic Boshan of the CJ Boyd Sexxxtet, after being with us last week:

"My experience at the Franklin house was blissful and life changing. It’s been on the tip of my tongue since it found me. I can scarcely help myself from bringing it up in every sincere conversation I've been graced with since then. I cannot adequately express how profound the experience was for me... But, I will say that it was freeing and inspiring. It reminded me of why I choose to go on living."

-Mic

Thanks for being part of this with us Mic!

CJ Boyd Sexxxtet