Flanfire

Just how long ago was it that Pamela Anderson was making headlines proclaiming herself as a Sunday school teacher? So what is she doing at the MTV Awards talking about how far down her throat Kanye West had put his tongue? Which of course was all in jest -- but maybe I am wondering a bit about whether our own music culture sometimes gets just a little too narcissistic. Which of course is also why some of those who with their mouths decry pruiency are being caught with their pants down in the loo.

There's a new movie coming out soon, with Kevin Kline -- it's called "Trade," and, yes, it focuses on human trafficking -- that's selling people for sex, for work, or just for kicks. Many are lured into slavery, others are made into slaves at the pointing of a gun. I will save my writing about labor slavery for another venue, but let's talk a little about child porn and child sex slavery. Not pretty words -- not that much fun. [Okay -- I will note that American companies have been known to buy raw materials, even finished products, that were forged by slave labor -- and we can demand that these companies not only stop doing so but also help stop the slavery itself!]

How about this? India has maybe 400,000 child prostitutes, while in eastern Asia a third of all sex workers are children. One of four sex workers in Brazil is a child. But did you know that slavery is rampant within the United States? Only a few days ago, here in Austin police busted a sex slavery ring -- and it is certainly not the only one here. Many other young slaves are routed through Texas on their way to brothels somewhere else. One young woman testified before Congress that she was tricked into sex slavery by a man who had promised her family she would be a maid at a luxury hotel. Instead, she was brought through Texas to Orlando and repeatedly raped by her handlers and then held at gunpoint by men who profited from her body. When she got pregnant, they forced her to have an abortion, then put her right back to work. Somehow, today she is free. Yet, she says, "I cannot forget what has happened. I can't put it behind me. I find it nearly impossible to trust people. I still feel shame. I was a decent girl in Mexico. I used to go to church with my family. I only wish none of this had ever happened."

So why do I bring this sad tale up in a music blog? Only to tell you about http://www.notforsalecampaign.org,/" a worldwide campaign to end slavery in our lifetime headed up by America's Ethics Guru, David Batstone -- who was at Mosaic in Austin Sunday afternoon. Texas' own T-Bone Burnett is the Executive Producer of Not For Sale's music platform -- one that you can join up with if you choose. And get this: as Batstone is a prof at the University of San Francisco, much of the early work of NFS has been done in that city, also a major jumping-off point for foreign-born slaves in America.

One group of USF students, under Batstone's tutelage, actually videotaped people entering and leaving a massage parlor there to help prove that the "hot Asian girls" who worked there were never allowed to leave the building -- one of the sure signs of sex slavery. Batsone was in town to help jumpstart Austin's fledgling antislavery effort -- check the website or http://www.mosaicaustin.org/ to learn more.

Yes, I do have a personal stake in this campaign -- you see, someone I know very well, a blonde American woman, was very nearly sold into sex slavery (she would have been purchased for shipment overseas) by a motorcycle gang in Phoenix that had learned selling crystal meth was lucrative, but even more lucrative was selling women addicted to crystal meth. But other women are just fed roofies and kidnapped for sale.

And, yes, music is a major liberator of people worldwide -- singer-songwriter Justin Dillon, who is traveling with Batstone, told of his visit to southern Russia a while back and meeting a young woman thrilled that she was soon to be headed to Cleveland, Ohio, to work at a McDonald's. Upon further investigation, he uncovered the fact that she, and many of her friends, were being lured into sex slavery by people who were actually demanding that they pay $2,500 US for the privilege of being sold.

One major effort -- http://www.concerttoendslavery.com/ tells you more. Featured performers include Moby, Switchfoot, members of Nickel Creek, Benmont Tench, Imogen Heap, and former Sudanese child soldier Emmanuel Jal, who recently won an American Gospel Music award as best international artist and whose music reaches to the very heart of the slavery movement. But who knows? Maybe Austin's own "not for sale campaign" effort can get a lot of help from an Austin-based concert for human freedom.

OKAY -- Enough soapbox. Here are a few photos of Sunday night's Shotgun Party show at Beerland, where the trio shared the stage with Philadelphia's Delaware-refugee band Pony Pants and Austin's own Year of the Rat. Pony Pants is punk-inspired garage music (yes, they use drum and bass and keyboard tracks so that the Brothers Ellis can jam out while lead singer Emily writhes, howls, and leads the crowd in a celebration of life and liberty. Their new CD is called "Fives," and the band is on a five-week (oddly enough!) tour that will take them out to New Mexico and Arizona, then all the way up the West Coast and back across America. Even though they were at college together, Emily and Jenny Parrott of Shotgun Party only became "gooder" friends during Pony Pants' SXSW visit this spring. For her very first band effort, this film school wanna-be is having a very good time on the other side of the cameras.

On Saturday night, after sets by pals Slowtrain and Goldcure, I caught a set from another Austin band, Mice and Rifles -- well, a stripped down acoustic trio version of this six-piece band headed by vocalist-guitarist Kevin Brinkkoeter and featuring this night on acoustic lead Mr. Kyle Cox playing some very lovely notes. These boys (all of them) will be on the bill at the Big State Music festival at the Texas World Speedway in Bryan on October 13-14 (with Aggie Lyle Lovett as the headliner along with Willie Nelson and Tim McGraw -- but not, one presumes, the now-defunct Weary Boys who were to play the gig). Their set held me at Stubbs long enough to miss most of the Wild West Medicine Show at Scoot Inn (which was a huge hoot with hundreds of happy hokum-hunting humans). But I did get over to Antone's earlier in the day for the Jennifer Leonhardt CD release party -- with Dylan Rieck on cello and Terre Davilla on bass.

Flanfire -- Bringing LIFE to Austin music.