Howdy folks! This here's a quote from the insightful CORNEL WEST, and we believe it fits the profile of IJF quite nicely:
Q: So you’re optimistic about the future? A: The categories of optimism and pessimism don’t exist for me. I’m a blues man. A blues man is a prisoner of hope, and hope is a qualitatively different category than optimism. Optimism is a secular construct, a calculation of probability. Black folk in America have never been optimistic about the future – what have we had to be optimistic about? But we are people of hope. Hope wrestles with despair, but it doesn’t generate optimism. It just generates this energy to be courageous, to bear witness, to see what the end is going to be. No guarantee, unfinished, open-ended. I am a prisoner of hope. I’m going to die full of hope. There’s no doubt about that, because that is a choice I make. But at the same time, the end doesn’t look too good right now.
"Engaged Buddhism is a term originally coined by Vietnamese Zen Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh. During the Vietnam War, he and his sangha (spiritual community) made efforts to respond to the suffering they saw around them. They saw this work as part of their meditation and mindfulness practice, not apart from it. Since then, the term continues to apply to Buddhists who are seeking ways to apply the insights from meditation practice and dharma teachings to situations of social, political, and economic suffering and injustice."
HE WHO PASSIVELY ACCEPTS EVIL IS AS MUCH INVOLVED IN IT AS HE WHO HELPS TO PERPETRATE IT. HE WHO ACCEPTS EVIL WITHOUT PROTESTING AGAINST IT IS REALLY COOPERATING WITH IT.
-- MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR
OTHAR TURNER from a beautiful, self-spoken article about his life, posted at folkstreams.net:
"I come up the hard way, but I never been in no trouble. Never have. I never had a law to come and say, 'Well, I got you for killing a man, I got you for stealing this, I got you for such and such.' Never been arrested and carried and locked up in jail in my life. You can search from Free Springs, Holly Springs, Thyatira, Looxahoma, Senatobia, Coldwater, Sledge, Crenshaw, Batesvllle, Grenada, Canton, Jackson, around on back to Como. Nothing about Othar. 'Othar,' they'll say, 'Oh, I never knowed Othar to do nothing to nobody, he's a good man. If he's done anything, he's just getting a little fun. I don't believe nothing like that about Othar. He don't do nothing but to treat you right.' That's what I mean by that's my motto. My mother taught me from a baby, until I got big enough to know, to get out on my own: treat everybody right. Treat people like you wish to be treated. I want friends and good behind me when I'm dead and gone. I want people to speak well of me. I work for that. I love to meet anybody. With a smiling face. That's the way I live. And that's the way I hope I'll go."
"You find yourself existing in a dimension of constant threat and danger. You are beset on all sides by endless problems which, in your delusion, you attempt to resolve with the very instrument that creates them. You seek to Know and Understand, but you cannot because you are eternally separated, in a subject-object relationship, from that which you would Know. Through a universal conspiracy--in which you unknowingly participate--you accept these situations as 'the natual course of events,' as 'life.' Hypnotized by the self-appropriated authority of ordinary mind immersed and believing in not only one but many 'selves' which ordinary mind manufactures and maintains, you subscribe unquestionably to its illusory propositions. Among these fantasies, the doctrine of DESIRE-ACTION-FULFILLMENT convinces you that it is natural and necessary to strive for happiness, success, pleasure, and security, that such elusive objectives can be achieved through the right kind of action, and that somehow your achievements can be made permanent. So, dutifully complying with the party line of the conspiracy, you experience incessant desires that compel you to undertake the incessant actions dictated for their gratification. But because your desires are interminable, because your actions can never truly satisfy these desires, and because you seek what is ultimate and permanent in a state where only constant impermanence and fluctuation obtain, you suffer. You suffer throughout not only this lifetime, but throughout an infinite number of lifetimes.
"How does one awaken from this illusion, this dream of self, to that Reality which is his/her true and eternal nature? By total abandonment of all that is of the not-Self."
Craig Eley over at MISSIONFREAK.COM has checked and certified the new IJF recordings and this is what he has to say:
Everyone's favorite "dirty apocalypse blues band" Illinois John Fever has some new songs up on their myspace page, and they're filled with the grit and twang you've come to expect from the fever with a nice coat of studio polish. Accoring to Sean from the band, they have 10 new tracks laid down of the 19+ (!!!) that they are working on for the new record. 8 of those tracks are now online, split between two myspace pages: 1 and 2. Be sure to check out "All the Help You Need" from the first link. It's killer.
It doesn't appear that the dynamic duo has any tour dates scheduled right now, but you'll be the first to know if they do.
Yup, we competed in the 2007 Iowa Blues Challenge and were blessed with being given the opportunity to lose not once, but twice. Not that ILLINOIS JOHN FEVER's exactly built for impressing contest judges, 'cuz we ain't. But we stole that badass line-up poster. In turn, we got our souls stolen by a camera-lady -- and saaaay, they're pretty nice photos.
CHECK OUT ANEWBREATH.ORG TO LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR GOOD FRIEND TONY HARDEN AND HIS ROAD AHEAD. AND WHILE YOU'RE AT IT, CHECK OUT HIS BADASS MYSPACE PAGE.
JOSHUA CASTEEL, FORMER MILITARY INTERROGATOR & CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR
Have you seen the album sleeve for Dbf double cd,really cool design by Christoph Mueller....what's going on in the Lute Tucker world ??
I just wish I could get to see IJF play they're full set oneday..we've got left Lane Cruiser in London this Saturday,I'll be buzzin' we had Bob Log playing London with my pal Hollowbelly last week..speak soon Dave
Hey there IJF, FGC is proud to announce the release of our latest studio album, Models and Metrics, and we’re excited for our first round of CD release shows this week!
Do you want a variety of great hip hop artists to come through the Iowa City area regularly for a cheap admission? I do! Thats why Im pushing to start a biweekly show every other Wednesday night in Iowa City as part of a Midwest Corridor of back to back weeklies Ive been working on with 10-12 other nearby cities. To really make this happen we need to support by coming to the shows. I have a roster of artists Im excited to see make appearances in our area including Vast Aire of Cannibal Ox and Akil of Jurassic 5 in October, Copywrite and Prince Po of Organized Konfusion in November, and many other artists lined up and excited to make their way through, from Def Juxx to Rhymesayers, from old school to new school, East coast to West. The admission will always be a mere 5 to 7 bucks, we will always have djs, live music, local acts, regional acts, and national acts. If you are interested in participating in any way, whether it be to help promote with the street team, get music to play on the radio, or any ideas you may have feel free to message me here. I really am interested in taking advantage of free speech while we still have it, and building community through these events. To start, please show your support by coming to the next show on Tuesday, September 16 with Raashan Ahmad of the Crown City Rockers, Bru Lei, and myself. I guarantee it will be cheap, and Raashan never disappoints live. After that it will be Wednesdays. It is very important if you really want these acts to continue to come to Iowa City that you come show your support on September 16th at the Picador.
It's love! It's impossible to scratch your teeth when it feels like they itch, but somehow your music manages just that kind of satisfaction. Thanks for the CD!
Sean..Finally caught your live set & everybit as good as I expected..you may have been on early but you both livened up the festival !!
Hope your back next year & be great to share a Beam & beers again Loving your disc which came our road movie soundtrack when travelling down to Holly Springs !!
That's that damn Saunders in the background don't take no notice of him..ha!
Everyone's favorite "dirty apocalypse blues band" Illinois John Fever has some new songs up on their myspace page, and they're filled with the grit and twang you've come to expect from the fever with a nice coat of studio polish. Accoring to Sean from the band, they have 10 new tracks laid down of the 19+ (!!!) that they are working on for the new record. 8 of those tracks are now online, split between two myspace pages: 
