Yes Men

One of our (or humanity's) most productive impulses is the desire to be liked. Artists toil for approval -- if not from the mainstream, if not from patrons and critics then from contemporaries and friends. The need to be admired drives not only a performer's ability to make a living, but holds such power as to zig or zag his creative interests toward untapped reservoirs of support and artistic inspiration.

Viewed this way, one can begin to understand the soul-crushing failure of a couple of DJs to follow through this week at Public Bar and Artomatic.

A friend and roommate of Earth Song Blog held his birthday party at the former on Thursday night. Public's musicmaster, when approached by a friendly bearer of Earth Song, gave a thumbs up. He followed with a confident nod. "We've got it," he motioned, under the drone of one of Sean Paul's five-year-old hits.

Earth Song Blog proceeded to sit for an hour with friend Neesha, nursing drinks, listening to Lil' Jon and Usher, commenting on the early 2000s time warp that the DJ had created for his customers, and admiring the customers' ecstatic response to a safe zone for tired "ironic" dance moves busted in bland white-guy uniforms.

No Earth Song.

Artomatic seemed more promising, following the Braves-Nats game on Friday night. A mix of daring art fans and bemused, confused baseball fans, the scene at Artomatic seemed just unsettled enough to allow some leeway on the playlist. It was late, though, and the DJ (pictured above) was really into his flow. A dear friend of Earth Song approached, clutching a CD in a pouch. Earth Song. The DJ promised to play it when he was finishing up.

In two hours.

Even our bellyache for Earth Song (or maybe that was just the chicken fingers at Nattys Park) wasn't strong enough to keep us in that hollowed-out apartment building for that long. So we went home, retiring from another day of dogged pursuit.

Of vindication? Or just approval...?

TALLY
Requests: 4
Times Played: 0

Capitol City Brewing Company

Our humble dream began at approximately 7pm when, after 1 drink, a cuban sandwich and a basket of warm pretzels at the Capitol City Brewing Company (@11th and H), we requested Earth Song. Our waitress seemed to love the idea but came back to report that, sadly, it was not on the DJ's iPod. Fortuitously, an iPod with the song was procured from our purse and given to the waitress, queued up to the song. Sadly, waitress then returned to say that general manager didn't want the song played. We, of course, requested to speak with said general manager. Lobbyist at our table pled our case to the general manager. Manager can be seen in forthcoming photo sampling the song on our iPod. Enjoyed it, but felt it was more appropriate for lunch hour. ABSURD. We did learn, also, that they could not play songs from our iPod but could play songs on CD. Tomorrow's To Do: Burn numerous copies of Earth Song onto blank CDs. Distribute around city at will.


TALLY
Requests: 1
Times played: 0

Verdict: Disappointingly short-sighted, and perhaps adversarial to the environmental movement? Patronize Capitol City Brewing Company only at lunch time, if that.

The Music Video

via youtube

Associated Moves

One of the beauties of Earth Song is that it lends itself well to the slow one-armed fist pump. If you haven't combined this move with Earth Song yet, try it.

What about us?

In our quest to bring Earth Song back to the center of the environmental movement, or rather, to bring the environmental movement back to the center of Earth Song, we plan to request it at each bar or club that we patronize from now until August 15. This blog will be a record of our efforts, successes, and ultimately, the pursuit of social justice.