One of the open mic nigths I attend in Seoul is at a bar in Itaewon called Veterans of Foreign Wars. It is part of an American organisation that helps their veterans. The owner had previously complained to one of the guys who runs the open mic about him and his friend singing an anti-war song claiming that this was not the place for it. And last time I played there I was told by the guy who runs the open mic night, a very nice and understanding chap, that because of what he had previously been told by the owner, I should no longer play anti-war songs at the VFW open mic.
Firstly this would raise the question of whether it can really be called an 'open' mic event if there is a restriction on what can be played. And secondly, why would the VFW not allow anti-war songs to be played?
Surely one of the main reasons behind the wars int he Middle East was to bring freedom to the people there? I've heard many Americans, including their president, go on about how they are bringing freedom to those suffering in the Middle East. And one of the most important freedoms that Americans are always going on about is freedom of speech. There for if you are fighting for freedom to the people in the Middle East and also as they claim freedom for the people back home then surely you are fighting for my right to say that I disagree with you fighting for my freedom.
How can you invade other counties on the pretense of bringing them freedom if you are denying me freedom here? Their website even talks about them as being "Friends of Freedom". But sadly it seems that ever since these wars began, the people back home have become less free. Our freedoms have been slowly taken away on the pretense of protecting them. Joan Baez herself was stopped from singing to servicemen and women returning from Iraq. Where is the freedom of speech in that?
So if my remaining weeks left in Korea give me time to return to visit the open mic night at VFW, I will continue to sings songs about war, and freedom, and I will ask them if that is what they think they are fighting for.
I have just finished creating my new webiste:
www.freewebs.com/davegwyther
I was getting fed up with feeling controlled and restricted by my myspace page and also worried by the recent wave of random deletions. Myspace seems to have turned into a 'friends-grab' 'porn-bot'. Even though there are still many people on myspace who do are genuine and will listen to and comment on your music, I just thought that it was time to go for something a little different.
So I turned to freewebs. With freewebs you are not restricted to the one page website that myspace gives you. You can have multiple pages and as an artist this gives you more depth to express yourself and your music to the world. You are not restricted to the myspace layout either and thus your website won't look like all the other millions of users. And you don't get the dozens upon dozens of friends requests from bands and adverts. All in all, it's a more proffesional freer environment.
So if you are interested, please pop along to my new website and give it a look. Listen to some music, watch a video and discuss something in the forums.
