Aresetyr
21.09.2009, 21:49
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Watching the Dave Matthews Band moments before they take the stage is like watching a football team bursting out of the locker room before a big game.
They slap hands. Bump fists. Jump up and down, exclaiming "Feel the love, feel the love!" The energy in the air is electric.
And when they walk out on stage, the energy explodes into thousands of shining faces. People dance in the aisles. Others sing every word to every song. A few share funny cigarettes.
For more than three hours, the jubilant atmosphere creates a sense of community between an amphitheater filled with strangers and the ethnically diverse musicians leading the charge on stage.
But then DMB is all about community -- creating its own and giving back. BAMA Works Fund -- the group's charitable foundation -- has handed out $5 million in grants to worthy causes, including schools and victims of Hurricane Katrina. http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/img/2.0/mosaic/tabs/video.gif Watch Matthews sound off on the album -- and racism » (http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/09/21/qa.dave.matthews/index.html#cnnSTCVideo)
And despite the unexpected passing of saxophonist LeRoi Moore due to complications from an ATV accident last summer, the band members seem to be recharged. In June, DMB notched its fifth consecutive No. 1 album on the Billboard chart with "Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King."
We caught up with Matthews just as news hit the Web that former President Jimmy Carter believed racism was the root of some of the negativity directed toward President Obama in recent weeks. The 42-year-old singer-songwriter offered a unique perspective, as a man who split his childhood between the United States and South Africa during apartheid. The following is an edited version of the interview.
CNN: President Carter said he thinks that a lot of the animosity directed toward President Obama is race related.
Dave Matthews: Of course it is! I found there's a fairly blatant racism in America that's already there, and I don't think I noticed it when I lived here as a kid. But when I went back to South Africa, and then it's sort of thrust in your face, and then came back here -- I just see it everywhere. There's a good population of people in this country that are terrified of the president only because he's black, even if they don't say it. And I think a lot of them, behind closed doors, do say it.
Maybe I'm paranoid about it, but I don't think someone who disagreed as strongly as they do with Obama -- if it was Clinton -- would have stood up and screamed at him during his speech. (Shakes his head) I don't think so.
Quelle und weiterlesen (http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/09/21/qa.dave.matthews/index.html)
Thema Gesundheitsreform:
Ich finde ja, dass Obama Recht hat, kann die Amerikaner aber auch verstehen... in ihrem System ist es einfach nicht so wie bei uns und eine derartige Umstellung würde wohl auch nicht jedem bei uns zusagen.
Trotz allem stößt es sauer auf, dass (berechtigte) Kritik an einem farbigen Staatsoberhaupt sofort als Rassismus ausgelegt wird.
Natürlich, das mag in vielen Fällen sogar zutreffen, kann aber nicht pauschal als "Gegenangriffsmöglichkeit" dienen.
Ein diffiziles Thema, garantiert.
They slap hands. Bump fists. Jump up and down, exclaiming "Feel the love, feel the love!" The energy in the air is electric.
And when they walk out on stage, the energy explodes into thousands of shining faces. People dance in the aisles. Others sing every word to every song. A few share funny cigarettes.
For more than three hours, the jubilant atmosphere creates a sense of community between an amphitheater filled with strangers and the ethnically diverse musicians leading the charge on stage.
But then DMB is all about community -- creating its own and giving back. BAMA Works Fund -- the group's charitable foundation -- has handed out $5 million in grants to worthy causes, including schools and victims of Hurricane Katrina. http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/img/2.0/mosaic/tabs/video.gif Watch Matthews sound off on the album -- and racism » (http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/09/21/qa.dave.matthews/index.html#cnnSTCVideo)
And despite the unexpected passing of saxophonist LeRoi Moore due to complications from an ATV accident last summer, the band members seem to be recharged. In June, DMB notched its fifth consecutive No. 1 album on the Billboard chart with "Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King."
We caught up with Matthews just as news hit the Web that former President Jimmy Carter believed racism was the root of some of the negativity directed toward President Obama in recent weeks. The 42-year-old singer-songwriter offered a unique perspective, as a man who split his childhood between the United States and South Africa during apartheid. The following is an edited version of the interview.
CNN: President Carter said he thinks that a lot of the animosity directed toward President Obama is race related.
Dave Matthews: Of course it is! I found there's a fairly blatant racism in America that's already there, and I don't think I noticed it when I lived here as a kid. But when I went back to South Africa, and then it's sort of thrust in your face, and then came back here -- I just see it everywhere. There's a good population of people in this country that are terrified of the president only because he's black, even if they don't say it. And I think a lot of them, behind closed doors, do say it.
Maybe I'm paranoid about it, but I don't think someone who disagreed as strongly as they do with Obama -- if it was Clinton -- would have stood up and screamed at him during his speech. (Shakes his head) I don't think so.
Quelle und weiterlesen (http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/09/21/qa.dave.matthews/index.html)
Thema Gesundheitsreform:
Ich finde ja, dass Obama Recht hat, kann die Amerikaner aber auch verstehen... in ihrem System ist es einfach nicht so wie bei uns und eine derartige Umstellung würde wohl auch nicht jedem bei uns zusagen.
Trotz allem stößt es sauer auf, dass (berechtigte) Kritik an einem farbigen Staatsoberhaupt sofort als Rassismus ausgelegt wird.
Natürlich, das mag in vielen Fällen sogar zutreffen, kann aber nicht pauschal als "Gegenangriffsmöglichkeit" dienen.
Ein diffiziles Thema, garantiert.