Many moving tributes to Nelson Mandela this morning, and many of them describing how he was their spark: to oppose racism, to oppose oppression, to oppose totalitarianism.

I was involved in anti-racism stuff  before I had ever heard Mandela’s name – in the Calgary punk scene, with movements like Rock Against Racism.  I detested nationalism and separatism, and I helped to organize many gigs to express that.

It was later, during my time in law school in Calgary, that a single song persuaded us to learn more about the ANC leader and South Africa’s apartheid.  It was the Special AKA’s ‘Free Nelson Mandela,’ and it was all about what the song’s title suggests.  Jerry Dammers’ little song was so catchy, and so powerful, that I daily walked around in 1983 and 1984 wearing a FREE NELSON MANDELA t-shirt. (It’s long lost, and I would give plenty to replace it.)

Can music change the world? Not really, no – but sometimes, yes.  ‘Free Nelson Mandela’ woke up a lot of white, suburban punk kids in faraway Calgary, Alberta to something important.  Music has the power to do remarkable things like that. So, this morning, I offer it to you here.

Dance in your office.  Make everyone else do likewise!

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Well, it always is until it isn’t.

Not much else Jason can say, really.

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…well, okay, their ‘Gallery of Songs Inspired by Rob Ford’ chart, that is. But we’re SFH, and we’ll take whatever we can get.

Click on the image to see what else they’ve got on their chart! And buy our Ugly Pop 45 when it’s out!

(And yes, single girls, that’s Steve Deceive off to the left.  Sorry to break your hearts, but he’s taken.  Davey Snot, however, wants me to tell you that he isn’t)

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Also located in last night’s rummaging through a closet.  From a gig we played at Calgary’s Union Hall, opening for DOA.  Here it is.  Download, fold, spindle or mutilate, as you desire.

Oh, and the swearing is by, er, Ras Pierre. Shame on him.

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Above: the teenaged lead singer of the Hot Nasties, circa 1977-78.
Photo located last night under a pile of old records. Note the rasta handle.

SFH’s fate seems inextricably linked, in myriad ways, to Toronto “mayor” Rob Ford.  We can’t shake him, as hard as we try.  He’s like herpes – once you get him, he goes away for a while, but he never fully disappears.

So, two big SFH and Rob Ford related developments:

• Our new guitarists, Steve Deceive and Royal Niblit, will be debuting at the 2013 Strummerfest in K-W next week.  We’re opening for Die Mannequin, and will be attacking the Ford Nation with reckless abandon.
• Ugly Pop Records is issuing ‘Mayor On Crack’ in 45 rpm form – with ‘Rob – The Rob Ford Song’ is on the flipside!

If you’re in K-W, c’mon by and say hi.  If you’re not, get ready for the release of Mayor On Crack.  It’s gonna be huge.

Like Rob.

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Dear Chief Blair:

Other folks want to canonize you as a saint. I’ve never felt that way, for various reasons.

Another reason: your guys had the goods on Rob Ford six ways to Sunday. Schedule One narcotic use and possession (as he’s admitted); extortion (threatening the power of his office to get back the cell phone with drug connections on it); participation in a criminal organization (the new offence created, ironically enough, by his pal Stephen Harper).

As others have said, correctly, if a poor non-white kid had been implicated in just one of the above-noted crimes, they’d still be in jail.

But Rob Ford? Again: you had him, and you let him go.  Why is that?

When Toronto gets a new mayor – and if you’re still around, which I increasingly tend to doubt – get ready for some tough questions, Chief.  There’ll be plenty of them.

Sincerely,

Warren Kinsella, LL.B

P.S. The questions will be directed at the Crown Attorney’s Office, too.  They’ve been as negligent as you, perhaps more so.  Kathleen Wynne’s maladroit Attorney-General will need to answer for that, I think.

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ROB FORD DOES HEROIN.

That would’ve been my headline. Call me crazy, and many do, but it seems to me that that is news.

Wow.

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My Aunt Irene passed away on the weekend, another family member felled by cancer.

Her funeral is today in Knowlton, in the Eastern Townships, and I couldn’t get there on time. My Mom is there, however.

What can I tell you about her? To me – as a kid, as now – she was what Montreal was when it was at its hippest: Expo ’67, Trudeau (the elder), Habitat, all of that. She was cosmopolitan and multilingual and lived on two continents, and I thought she was from another world, back then. She was cool.

Anyway, say a little prayer for her, if you will. She was a good one. Thanks.

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Hey! Somewhere in the past few days, I acquired more than 14,000 Twitter enthusiasts. At the moment, 14,234, to be precise.

I have some small distance to go before catching up to a Future Prime Minister and Our New Twitter Overlord, but not much.

So, do I get an award or something?

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