A Review of the Highlight Moments of My Life in 2017 by Vic Sadot 2-15-18
The year of 2017 was a pretty good year for me. It was another year of sobriety with a lot of time spent hiking, and biking around Berkeley, a lot of focus on song writing and video making, and one plane trip home to Delaware for the first time in 7 years. It was my 70th birthday on July 21, and Rob’s 61st birthday on July 23, and Marie Sadot Perkins’ 57th birthday on July 29. Since Rob had organized a concert for me to sing Crazy Planet and Planete Folle band songs in Newark, DE with his current band the Chesapeake Bayou Brothers Band, this also enabled me to have a reunion with a lot of people I had not seen in years. So that visit to DE stands out as one of the best highlights of 2017.
Vic Sadot wearing a new T-shirt sent by Mike Arnold who works with Claudio Marty and others on the 9/11 Truth profile photo visibility Facebook group called
"I Am The Face of Truth".
The several Facebook live-stream video clips by Nick Brush from the concert have been gathered together in one of my blogs in case anyone wants to watch them.
SadotBrothers Birthday Bash Livestream Facebook Videos by Beat Nick at TheBlue Crab Grill on 7-23–17 in Newark, Delaware - VicSadot.com BlogReport posted August 22, 2017. There are some great slow rolling scan shots of the crowd! If you were there, you may see yourself in this video!
After months of recording, mixing, and mastering work on songs at Ancient Owl Studio in Berkeley, I released a new CD titled “Truth Troubadour” in December 2016. So much of January 2017 was devoted to mailing CD’s to folk radio DJ’s in the USA, Canada, and to several famous folk shows in the UK. Having been a DJ, I know that new CD’s come in by the dozens every week. Your CD can easily get lost in the volume and the shuffle. I tried to distinguish my CD by including a nice one page “DJ CD Info” paper folded inside each DJ. The one disappointment I had about my latest CD was that I was not able to get any written reviews of the new CD. Here’s the CD Baby link to the CD:
TruthTroubadour (2016) – 18 songs sung by Vic Sadot. Featuring Eric Golub and Rob Sadot. http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/vicsadot4
Here’s the CD Baby YouTube Artists Collections playlist for the TT CD:
“Truth Troubadour” CD by Vic Sadot was published to CD Baby YouTube Channel on Dec 11, 2016. This site allows full length play of the cover songs while CD Baby sales site only gives clips of our covers of Dylan, Ochs, and Lennon songs. 18 Songs in all! Love Songs & Broadsides for 2017! Listen to the playlist here!
JANUARY 2017
Since January has Martin Luther King’s birthday as a holiday, I do some activism around my song and video made to promote William Pepper’s 2nd of 3 books about MLK’s death. I spent a lot of time in January mailing out the new Truth Troubadour CD to folk DJ’s.
FEBRUARY 2017
In February 2017 I spent some hours writing a statement about the inauguration of President Trump with suggestions for what Trump supporters should demand of Trump since he was now in a position to lead and deliver to them the things he promised during the 2016 Presidential campaign. By demanding he prove his loyalty and commitment to the American people by rescinding all repressive UnConstitutional laws passed by Bush and Obama in National Defense Authorization Act military funding bills, and in Orwellian named repressive legislation with names like the “Patriot Act” and the “Freedom Act”, all of which exploited the seige mentality of the “War On Terror” launched by the traumatization of the American people by the 9/11-Anthrax-DC Beltway Sniper attacks of 2001. So this article was in effect also exposing that the Democratic Party had sold out the people’s Constitutionally recognized rights. With civil discourse lost in Trump tweets and the Democratic Party, Zionist Corporate bankster media, and “deep state” intelligence smokescreen of “Russiagate” collusion and election hacking based on some Christopher Steele dossier that later turned out to be funded by H. Clinton and the Democratic National Committee. So American dialogue is mostly derisive insults by two hostile camps instead of being adults in control of the national political conversation, standing together on common ground to demand the restoration of our rights and an end to wars for oil and Israel. We’re lost in a shit storm! That’s why I wrote this article and have reposted it many times on Facebook.
Howto UNITE FOR OUR RIGHTS! By Vic Sadot in Berkeley Calling Blog, Feb 16 2017
In February, I was involved in organizing two major events. On Feb 16, 2017 we had Alison Weir as a speaker for the BFUU Social Justice Committee and the local Zionists made strange accusations about her and threatened to have so many demonstrators crashing the event that we should shut it down. Some BFUU members that we now see are “peppers” or “Progressive Except on Palestine” are actually outright Zionists. I contacted hummux and we got him to video document the speech. Due to previous confrontations at Walnut Creek, CA, I alerted the Berkeley police and they sent a cop over to sit outside in his car and see if anything happened. Not one protester showed up! One of the two BFUU members opposing the speech showed up with a paper bag over her head during the entire event. What was that about? Who knows? The other opponent did not come to the lecture. But she showed up when it was over and called out Alison as “Anti-Semitic” outside after the event as she was loading her stuff into her car. Bizarre! By video taping such events and posting them on YouTube, these detractors are less able to make up things as if she said them. Alison Weir is not Jewish. She is the President of the Council for the National Interest (USA) and the Director is former CIA employee Philip Giraldi. They have an annual conference in DC to discuss how to take the country back from Israel and AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Council, a lobby that former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney says requires all elected representatives to sign a pledge to put the interests of Israel first always or face a huge wave of funding of an opponent in your next election. She documents her 6 terms in Congress in a book called “Ain’t Nothing Like Freedom” and she also publishe a book called “The Illegal War on Libya”.
Alison Weir Berkeley lecture: 100 Years of Pro-Israel Activism & Trump's "Muslim Ban" (58:00) Published on Feb 28, 2017 at IfAmericansKnew YouTube Channel.
The other event was set up by legendary poet peace activist Arnie Passman to commemorate the 59th anniversary of the creation of the Peace Symbol in the UK. It was a cold rainy day. Our 80 year old friend, Arnie, was not feeling well. He called his speakers and cancelled the event. But Cynthia Johnson and I went to Fellowship Hall, opened the doors, and went on with the show with a small group who showed up, including Hali Hammer, who captured the spirit of the day in her performance of the commemorative video published at the SJC YouTube Channel. We had Sound Engineer David Yandle make an excellent audio recording. The content contributed by the speakers inspired me to do more research and to make the audio into a video, much as I had learned to do by making the 1973 Phil Ochs audio interview into avideo in 2015. This style of putting visuals over what’s going on in an audio is very time consuming!
Phil Ochs 1973 Interview on Nixon, Watergate, & South America Interview by Vic Sadot and Rich Lang. Video Made from 1973 Audio Posted to Vic Sadot Broadside Balladeer Channel for Vimeo Videos. By the way, all of my videos that involve politics are all set for free dowload non-profit use with credits/no edits. If you’re in a conversation about what Vic is up to in California, please mention that I’ve made about 50 videos since arriving in California in 2008. Tell our friends that I am delighted when they share the links in social media or with friends in emails, and especially those who get the videos played on Public Access Cable TV, which is always looking for material from suggestions by their respective communities.
Berkeley Celebrates the 59th Birthday of the Peace Symbol (58:00) The Feb 20, 2017 Event Video by Vic Sadot was Published on Mar 2, 2017 at Social Justice in the Heart of Berkeley YouTube Channel
In March 2017 I attended the 6th Anniversary protest of Fukushima at the Japanese Consolate in San Francisco organized by the No Nukes Action Committee on March 11. About 25 of us protested in front of the Japanese consulate at the 6th anniversary of the ongoing Fukushima nuclear disaster and heavy radiation releases into the ocean and air. I led the group in singing my No Nuke Blues with new Fukushima verses, which was also released in Dec 2016 on the new Truth Troubadour CD. A new video with the sound track featuring Eric Golub on violin and ukulele was released in 2015 that included scenes from previous demonstrations at the Japanese consulate:
NoNuke Blues Fukushima Update by Vic Sadot
A lot of time in March, including all-night sessions, were devoted to creating a video for the audio of John LaForge speaking about the update of the book called “Nuclear Heartland”. John spoke at Fellowship Hall for the SJC. An interesting background to this event is that John predicted that the UN General Assembly was going to vote for making 2017 the year to focus on nuclear disarmament and re-activiating the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Under President Obama the US voted against having such conferences. Under President Trump the US boycotted the UN Nuclear Disarmament conferences in March and July. On July 7, 2018 the UN General Assembly voted to make nuclear arms “illegal” and to press forward to getting rid of them through negotiations. This historic event went largely unreported in the United States even though the Nobel Peace Prize for the year went to ICAN, the group that spearheaded the campaign. It was treated as another non -event in US news outlets!
I titled my video “Nuclear Heartland USA” and started uploading it to my two YouTube and one Vimeo channel on March 24 and 25. I think this was the single most important work I did all year in 2017. The video was posted at my friend’s hummux’s YouTube channel 911TVorg YouTube Channel and he posted it for free download non-profit local Public Access Cable TV creative commons copyright use with a link to PEGMedia in his description box.
NUCLEAR HEARTLAND USA - John LaForge in Berkeley
We were going to screen the controversial movie “Vaxxed” at Fellowship Hall on March 28. But the BFUU Board forced us to cancel that event on the grounds that it was not scientific and would hurt children to not be vaxxed. Two items on this as background: (1) There was a Big Pharma political campaign that was able to get the film got removed from the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival by having major advertisers threaten to withdraw support. Much to the chagrin of Robert DeNiro, founder of the festival, who believes, with his wife, that their child got autism from a vaccination, they bowed to the pressure and cancelled the film. (2) The state of CA legislature had already passed a law making an increased number, or “schedule”, of vaccinations “mandatory” for all children or they could not attend public school. This kind of BFUU Board intervention and the reckless charges of “anti-Semitism” for booking a list of “Jew hating speakers” was extremely shocking and alienating to me personally. What happened to “Free Speech” in Berkeley, and to letting people evaluate issues for themselves?
APRIL 2017
The weather was getting quite pleasant in the SF
Bay Area. I live next to the UC Berkeley Clark Kerr Campus and the
vast and steep hills of the Claremont Canyon Regional Park Preserve.
I have a light nylon guitar case with back straps just like a back
pack. So one of my favorite things to do in the warm season is to
hike up into the hills, find a nice place to take photos and play
guitar, and come home after a few hours of exercise and fresh air. I
don’t yet know any other elders in Redwood Gardens Senior Housing
who are fit enough to hike hills that really are quite steep. So I
usually hike alone unless a friend like hummux visits me.
I
was contacted by email by Cynthia McKinney about
using my song “An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther
King” on her radio show out of KPFK in Los Angeles. She is a 6 term
Black Congresswoman from Georgian and the 2008 Presidential candidate
of the Green Party USA. In Delaware back in 2007 Rob
Sadot heard about a gathering at someone’s house and we
attended and enjoyed meeting her in person with only about 10 people
there. She was on her way from Maine where a group had called on the
American people to call out the government if another 9/11 style
attack happens, and she was on the road with a Hatian man to drive
all the way to New Orleans to be on a panel investigating the
response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. I sent her the latest studio
recording of the song from the latest “Truth Troubadour” CD and
she played the song at the end of her interview of William Pepper,
the King family lawyer who has written 3 books about the murder of
MLK. Cynthia got her PhD and is now teaching at a university in
Bangladesh.
She creates The Midnight Oil Show from there! The April 6 show was also broadcasted and archived at No Lies Radio. Cynthia McKinney KPFK Midnight Oil Show commemorated the 50th anniversary of MLK’s April 4, 1967 Anti-War Speech at Riverside Church in NYC, and the 49th anniversary of his murder in Memphis on April 4, 1968.
On April 15 there were street fights staged in downtown Berkeley that seemed staged to be broadcast on national media to make people think such a divide between masked Antifa Black Bloc on one side and white supremacists on the other side. I watched it on livestream. One other major event was the April 23, 2017 Oakland, CA speaking engagement of Dr. Maryse Narcisse, the banned Lavalas Party candidate from Haiti. I used my cell phone to capture some clips, ran them through a video editor, and posted them at BFUU Social Justice in the Heart of Berkeley YouTube Channel.
On April 27 I added the Berkeley studio recording of “Locked On the Labels” to SoundCloud by BroadsideBalladeer as a free mp3 download.
MAY
2017
In
May I began studying some old French songs I like, The Madrague sung
by Brigitte Bardot, Parlez-moi d’Amour by Jean LeNoir, and La Mer by Charles
Trenet. At the BFUU we screened the comedy movie The Russians Are
Coming on May 11 and we had some speakers on “Putin, Russia, USA,
and The Danger of WW III” as Russiagate hysteria was going full
throttle as the Democrats avoided a review of how their war criminal
candidate Hillary Clinton had lost to a chump like Trump. On May 30 I
was invited to sing Ry Cooder’s “No Banker Left Behind” at a
rally outside of Berkeley City Hall. On May 11 about 25 of us protested in front of the Japanese consulate at the 6th anniversary of the ongoing Fukushima nuclear disaster and heavy radiation releases into the ocean and air. I led the group in singing my No Nuke Blues with new Fukushima verses, which was also released in Dec 2016 on the new Truth Troubadour CD. A new video with the sound track featuring Eric Golub on violin and ukulele was released in 2015 that included scenes from previous demonstrations at the Japanese consulate:
NoNuke Blues Fukushima Update by Vic Sadot
JUNE 2017June 8, 2017 marked the 50th Anniversary of the attack by Israel on the USS Liberty. A lot of people, including myself, made much of the anniversary in social media. In my case, I had organized for a survivor of the USS Liberty to speak in Berkeley. So I sent the video that I hired hummux to make the year before for the 49th Anniversary. Here it is available via the PEGMedia link in the description box for non-profit public educational use under Creative Commons Copyright requiring only full credits/no edits.
Don Pageler 2016 “USS Liberty Survivor” in Berkeley CA (57:59) 911 Truth YouTube Channel - Published on July 16, 2016: USS Liberty Veteran Don Pageler spoke in Historic Fellowship Hall in Berkeley, California on Saturday 25 June 2016 about the attack on the USS Liberty by Israel on June 8, 1967. Don Pageler gives his first-hand account of how the USS Liberty, a virtually unarmed American navy ship, was attacked by Israeli planes and torpedo boats on June 8, 1967. 34 American sailors were killed and 174 injured that day, a causality rate of 70%. This is among the highest casualty rates ever inflicted upon a U.S. naval vessel. During this short pre-planned war Israel invaded the Syrian Golan Heights province and still occupies that Syrian territory.
I finally did a “Truth Troubadour” CD Release Party on June 10 in the Redwood Gardens Community Room. I had not been able to book myself in any small club in Berkeley. I had a small group of about 25 people and I did 2 sets. I propped up my cell phone on the music stand and captured the concert. It was then published at VicSadot YouTube Channel. My also have TruthTroubadour YouTube Channel. The two overlap a lot, but they differ a lot in the playlists created for them. I tend to post the best and final edit versions at Vic Sadot Vimeo Videos, and there is a special open participation Poetry Videos group. To my surprise people from numerous countries have contributed their works that combine poetry with video interpretation. It’s fascinating!
“Truth& Love Poetry Videos” at Vimeo – Founded by Vic Sadot 3-4-12
In June 2017 Rob Sadot was suggesting that I needed to come home for a visit for my 70th birthday (July 21), his 61st (July 23), and Marie Sadot Perkins’ 57th birthday (July 29). When Rob told me that he booked the Blue Crab Grill for the Chesapeake Bay Bayou Brothers band and that I should play with them on July 23, I researched the cost of airline tickets. I found an inexpensive flight that was available! So I booked a ticket for Philadelphia. Rob invited me to stay at his apartment in New Castle while in Delaware.
Jeanne had become active in some environmental groups in Delaware. She made some posts that were alarming in that there was a push by heavy industry corporations to have the DE State legislature shoot the DECoastal Zone full of loopholes. On June 19 and 20 I spent about 8 hours making a 60 second PSA style video to be used to promote the legislation’s vital role in preserving the marshland and brackish waters which are the key breeding grounds of many living things. The video had the one verse in the song about the Coastal Zone and one chorus. It got some use on Facebook. Here it is!
Delaware Coastal Zone Act Preservation Promo (60 seconds) Vic Sadot YouTube Channel Published on June 19, 2017. Please share! Contact your "Representative"!
On July 4 I decided to hike way up into the hills with my guitar and wait for the sun to go down to see the Independence Day fireworks in the night sky in colorful display over the bay. I ended up using my video cam in my cell phone to capture some of the fireworks, and I spoke about coming home and promoted the upcoming July 23 music gig at the Blue Crab Grill. There were a lot of university students up in the hills sitting on blankets and partying. I also wrote a Broadside Balladeer Blog, my blog for folk music, to promote the video and the show. The other blogs I do are Berkeley Calling Blog, about free speech and local events in the SF Bay Area, and Truth Troubadour Blog, about 9/11 and the Deep State, especially covering films, songs, and events about such topics.
Video: July
4 2017 Fireworks Over San Francisco Bay (4:49)
Published July 7, 2017
at Vic Sadot YouTube Channel
The best “Good News” of the entire year came on July 7, 2017 when the UN General Assembly voted in defiance of the Security Council to make nuclear weapons illegal. It has more moral than legal force, but it resulted in ICAN, the group promoting it to win the Nobel Peace Prize for 2017. See the post from March 2017 that is related to the “Nuclear Heartland USA” film I made for John LaForge. It really detracted from the celebration of the news that it was being blacked out by most Corp-Gov media. In fact, it was depressing to witness that Trump tweets and the Russiagate smokescreen diversion got way more coverage and discussion than the truly historic and hopeful moment got! I found this local California coverage and have used it many times since then as a Facebook post.
Posted
by Marylia Kelley; Friday,
July 7, 2017 at Tri-Valley CARE’s (Communities
Against a Radioactive Environment)
On July 9, 2017 the BFUU Social Justice Committee sponsored a benefit organized by two homeless advocate groups to purchase spot-o-pots for the city to use in the downtown park area. It was called “Party for Potty”. Homeless people played a major role in the event. I used my cell phone to create two very short videos. One features the Berkeley Harmonica Club and one of the Shadow Puppet Theater. Both short videos were posted at SOCIAL JUSTICE IN THE HEART OF BERKELEY YouTube Channel.
Berkeley Harmonica Club at Berkeley Homeless Benefit
Shadow Puppet Theater at Berkeley Homeless Benefit
On July 13 we showed a film called “The River Ran Red” about the 1872 Homestead Steel Strike in which many people died and Andrew Carnegie was able to get rid of the union after an anarchist shot the Manager of the steel complex and public sympathy passed from the workers to the owners. This event was part of the month long SanFrancisco Labor Festival which happens at about 50 locations in the Bay Area every July.
On July 17 I finished packing took a bus and two trains and one more bus to get to the San Jose Airport. I was about 3 hours early. American Airlines re-rerouted me to fly to Los Angeles first and then to Philadelphia. It had been 7 years since I had been home or flown in an airplane. How exciting!
On Weds, July 19 Rob, Marie, and I attended a concert of the Blue Cat Blues Band in Battery Park in New Castle with the river as the backdrop to the stage. Rob did not tell me in advance, but my old drummer buddy from Planete Folle days, Chris Sherlock, was drumming. It was nice to chat with him in between sets!
Vic Sadot and Chris Sherlock have a chat between Chris playing his band sets.
We'd not seen each other in 9 years, since 2008.
We'd not seen each other in 9 years, since 2008.
Rob and I spent time everyday practicing the songs and creating the set lists and who would be the singer for which songs. We wanted to work in musicians who might show up from the Crazy Planet and Planete Folle Bands while showcasing the Chesapeake Bay Bayou Brothers Band players too.
On Thursday,
July 20 Rob
went to work and I visited
Dave Sumner’s Music Store in
Newark, and
we talked for some hours. He lent me a nice guitar for the
upcoming gig.
On
Friday, July 21, my
birthday, Rob and I practiced, and we took a walk along the river. On
Saturday July 22 we
practiced in the day, and in the evening we went to hear Gary
Cogdell play
his
Delta Blues at
Nora
Lee’s New Orleans style restaurant in
New Castle.
The
next day, Sunday,
July 23
was the big gig! And
it was Rob’s
birthday! The Blue Crab Grill was
packed! Thankfully, Rob was in charge of event
organization matters
and when
to have the
guest musicians on the
stage on
which songs.
He had printed set lists for everyone, which really helped to
keep the show moving along. Plus, Rob had the songs in an order such that it made each song stand out as very different from the one before or after. Rob's stewardship of the event
left
me time to mingle with old friends that I had not seen in years.
Jeanne, Marie, Bill, Joe, Lelah and their
friends had
a table near the front. So we had good eye contact with them for the
entire event.
Marie, Jeanne, Joe, Lelah at the Blue Crab Grill
One nice surprise was that Nick Brush did a Facebook livestream for the event and he broke it into several segments. This was so nice to watch when I got back to California. I have thanked him profusely ever since, and I wrote a blog at Vic Sadot Music site to put all his links into one spot. George and Paula Wolkind helped me sell CD's. George Wolkind played killer kazoo, and he promoted the Delaware Rock n Roll Hall of Fame.
Rob Sadot, Vic Sadot, & Duffy Llama at The Blue Crab Grill
See the link above in the 2nd paragraph titled “Sadot Brothers Birthday Bash Livestream Facebook Videos by Beat Nick at TheBlue Crab Grill on 7-23–17 in Newark, Delaware”.
On Monday, July 24 we rested during the day, and in the evening Jeanne, Rob, Marie and I went to hear the Sin City Band at Argilla’s Brew Restaurant on the Kirkwood Highway between Newark and Wilmington, DE. Scott Birney came and sat with us during one of his breaks. I gave him my new “Truth Troubadour” CD. He invited me to be interviewed on his WVUD Roots Block Radio program on the upcoming Friday morning.
Scott Birney and Vic Sadot 7-24-18 at Argilla's
He invited Rob and I to come up to play two songs with the Sin City Band. Scott is such a good soul that he lent me and Rob his acoustic and electric guitar to play with the rest of the band. I invited Cindy Hubshmitt to join us in singing the first song since she was there and we had co-written it back in 2003, “Are You A Citizen Or Are You A Slave”. The second song we did was Clifton Chenier’s “I’m Comin’ Home”, We were backed by Steve Hobson on guitar, Dave Berry on keys and bass, and Alan Berdoulay on pedal steel. (Note: When I got back to Berkeley, I heard on Facebook that Scott was in the hospital and would have heart surgery. I hear that he is doing well here in 2018 so far.)
Cindy Lou Hubschmidt, Rob Sadot, Vic Sadot, Alan Berdoulay 7-24-17 at Argilla's
On
Tuesday,
July 25
Rob went to work and I took the bus to a laundromat. We watched TV
that evening, and I made arrangements to meet up with Brenda
Hare
the next day, who was dealing with melanoma skin cancer. Wednesday,
July 26
was a nice sunny day, so Brenda and I took a walk along Persimmon Run
Creek in Rittenhouse Park. It was a bit noisy with camp kids there.
We took a great selfie of our re-union. Then we went to a Chinese
Restaurant. She was feeling week, so she went home to her parents
house close by and I took the bus back to New Castle. 
With Brenda Hare Ireland at Rittenhouse Park 7-26-17
On Thursday, July 27 I hung out at Rob’s while he worked. Then we went to hear the Larry Tucker Band along the Christina River in Tubman-Garrett Wilmington Riverfront Park. The most fun was the finale where Larry sang “Love Train” and dancers formed a dance train picking up passengers as we passed through the crowd and came back to the stage as Larry closed the set with “People Get Ready”. Rob was able to get a clip of that, which he emailed to me in California and I developed that into a tribute to Larry Tucker in early September.
Larry
Tucker Band – Love Train Souvenir Clip (2:25)
Published September 5, 2017 at Vic Sadot YouTube Channel
On
Friday,
July 28
I got up and made some coffee and called in to Scott Birney’s radio
show. He picked the songs I would have picked to play: The Frog Jog,
Good Time Delaware, Jolie Blonde, and Bourbon Street. In the evening
when Rob got back from work we got a pizza from nearby and watched a
Bob
Dylan
documentary.
Published September 5, 2017 at Vic Sadot YouTube Channel
Saturday, July 29 was Marie Sadot Perkins birthday. We had a family gathering and crab feast at her house in Newark with Kathleen and Shayla Perkins and Shayla’s boyfriend.
The next day, Sunday July 30 we took a long hike along the White Clay Creek and we captured a lot of nice photos along the way. Our father, Jean-Henri Sadot had written a poem in 1967 dedicated to the preservation of the watershed valley at a time when there were industrial and recreational use proposals that would have flooded the valley and dammed the creek. Some members of the Coalition for Natural Stream Valleys and the UAW Conservation Committee urged the poem be made into music, which Vic accomplished in the early 1980's. White Clay Creek live sound track at the 1984 Newark Community Day was preserved and recently posted as a free mp3 download at SoundCloud. The lyrics are posted in the SoundCloud description box.
White Clay Creek photo by Vic Sadot
Marie, Jeanne, Joe, Lelah, Rob, Vic - Photo by Bill Lucas
Friday, August 4 was set aside to visit Al and Katy Campbell, friends from the old days when we were growing up on Madison Drive in College Park, Newark, DE. They went all out on cooking for us. Later Rob and I took turns playing guitar and singing the old songs and some new ones we thought they would like. Rob was particularly good on harmonica and singing on a Donovan song called “Catch the Wind”.
The Billy Pierce Band at Nora Lee's New Orleans Restaurant
Saturday, August 5 was a day to run errands and hang out until the evening when we went with Jeanne to hear Billy Pierce and his two musician buddies play at Nora Lee’s.
The waitress was nice enough to take a photo of us as we watched the Billy Pierce Band: Rob, Jeanne, Vic at Nora Lee's in New Castle, DE.
Rob and I rose early on Sunday, Aug 6 to accompany Jeanne on a Sierra Club hike through some northern Delaware trails to arrive at Delaware’s only cave.
On Tuesday, August 8 we had got some pizzas with Jeanne and Marie and Billy Pierce. And the next day, Wednesday, Aug 9 we bid our farewells and I flew back to San Francisco.
Philadelphia Airport waiting for flight to Phoenix, AZ to San Francisco, CA
The rest of August seemed so uneventful after so many days packed with running here and there to meet family and friends. There was a psy-op event in Chalottesville, Virginia on August 12 and I researched it like I do all suspicious events that seem staged to divide and rule us. There were the White supremacists, Confederate flags and Nazis on one side and the Antifa Black block on the other side just as we had seen so often this past year in Berkeley, CA. I had some nice hikes in Claremont Preserve in those days. I saw a Facebook notice on Tuesday, August 15 announcing that Brenda Hare Ireland had passed from this life and the rest of the family heard about it from me.
I got a call from Mark “Mac” MacDonald saying that N CA 9/11 Truth Alliance would like to use my 5 minute “An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King” video in the intro to keynote speaker William Pepper at the upcoming annual 9/11 Truth Film Festival in the elegant Grand Lake Theater in Oakland, CA on Sept 11, 2017. That was a nice good will gesture since I had been expelled from that group for blowing the whistle on a member who censored the entire Pentagon chapter of Italian Film Director Massimo Mazzucco’s epic “September 11: The New Pearl Harbor”.
I corresponded with William Pepper around that time too and told him I was looking forward to meeting him in person. He had won a civil court case for the King Family in Memphis in 1999 which convicted a former Memphis cop and “un-named government co-conspirators” for the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr. As keynote speaker he was going to present his third book, “The Plot to Kill King”, to the Oakland audience. 9/11Truth Film Festival-Part 6-William Pepper (52:27) No Lies Radio at Vimeo
My song and video were made to promote his second book, “An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King”. This 2013 version has the studio track featuring Eric Golub on violin and ukulele.
SEPTEMBER 2017
So much of what activists for truth do in September is related to the events of 9/11/01. On September 4, 2017 I wrote a Truth Troubadour Blog about my song called “Cheney’s in the Bunker” and I amended it with suggestions that came in by email from David RayGriffin. I was thrilled to hear from him!
“Cheney'sin the Bunker - Songwriter Cites Footnotes to Scholarly Research onthe Crimes of 9/11/01” by Vic Sadot: Published on 9/03/17 at Truth Troubadour Blog. This blog features a discussion of how the song came to be written after reading the scholarly research of David Ray Griffin; some of the questions that remain; and links to important 9/11 Truth videos that answer those questions or debunk the official conspiracy story.
Official Video Playlist for “9/11Truth and Justice Songs” CD (9/11/11) by Vic Sadot at “Truth Troubadour” YouTube Channel
Everything went well at the 9/11 Truth Film Festival at the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland, CA on Monday, Sept 11, 2017 except that the older 2009 home-studio track video was on the big screen instead of the one from 2013 video with the new studio sound track featuring Eric Golub on violin and ukulele. Oddly, the correct one was used in the livestream being sent out on the internet by Allan Rees on No Lies Radio. The words seemed to come through fine. Later the group sent me a hardbound copy of Pepper’s third book on the murder of MLK. Very cool! Click on the photo to link to the William Pepper keynote address at the Grand Lake Theater on No Lies Radio at Vimeo!
Meeting William Pepper in the lobby of the Grand Lake Theater on 9/11/17
at the annual 9/11 Truth Film Festival. Photo by Mike Kerr
On Saturday, Sept 16 my buddy hummux was back from the east coast to visit his son in Oakland. He called me. We took a long hike way up higher than I usually go in Claremont Regional Park Preserve on the Stoneman Panoramic Trail. Later we went to dinner at Potola Restaurant in Albany, CA, which serves organic vegan dishes. hummux somehow overcomes the gap between realism and idealism when he acts on his principles. And he loves the great outdoors. Click on the photo below!
hummux looks out over the San Francisco Bay
hummux has the most remarkable video collection and 911TVorg Blog to tell you about it. He has posted some of my videos at his 911TVorg YouTube Channel. We have worked together on several video event documentation projects, namely DonPageler 2016 “USS Liberty Survivor” in Berkeley CA (57:59) 911 Truth YouTube Channel, Ken O'Keefe in Berkeley, and Alison Weir speaking on "100 Years of Pro-Israel Activism" in Berkeley.
Alfred Dela Cruz, Christopher Bollyn, and Vic Sadot in San Francisco
On Sept 21, 2017 I took a bus and a train over to San Francisco where I met up with Alfred Dela Cruz to attend a lecture at the Richmond Branch Library by Christopher Bollyn. He was on a book tour for “The Waron Terror” and Solving 9/11: The Deception That Changed the World". Alfred recorded the lecture on his cell phone and he later posted it to YouTube as ChristopherBollyn, War on Terror Tour, 2017, San Francisco.
We went out to dinner at a restaurant with about a dozen people, and Alfred drove me home to Berkeley. Bollyn spoke again at San Jose State University on Sept 23 and that was booked and livestreamed by Kevin Brant. On Friday, Sept 29 I helped with a program by the Buffalo Field Campaign in Fellowship Hall. They campaign for the buffalo to not be treated as cattle, but as wild animals at Yellowstone Park. I made several videos last year for their event, but lacked the energy to do that this year.
OCTOBER 2017
On October 1, 2017 strange news came in from Los Vegas about a mass shooting, but the coverage was suspicious right away due to cameras not working or being suppressed and no death certificates or crime reports being issued right away. Then the LVPD was changing the story and a key guard witness went to Mexico and came back to appear on the Ellen Degenes Show with what appeared to be a handler.
On Tuesday, Oct 3, 2017 I went to the North Berkeley Public Library to hear author/sax player Gilad Atzmon speak on “ThePost Political Condition: Brexit, Trump and the Resto of Us".
Several of us went out for Chinese food in Albany after that. Bonnie Faulkner recorded the speech and aired it on her Guns & Butter Radio Show on KPFA some time later. Sax player extraordinaire Gilad Atzmon gave me his new book “On Being In Time” and his latest CD titled “Trane” named after his sax playing hero Coltrane. I gave him 2 of my CD’s. Alison Weir and Paul Larudie were there too.
Bonnie Faulkner of Guns & Butter Radio, Janet Kobren, and Paul Larudie
listen to Gilad Atzmon explaining the failure of Identity Politics
replacing the unifying concept of Working Class Politics
in the Democratic Party, which played a major role in the election losses of 2016
President Donald Trump had made a tweet attempting to shame the NFL football player protesting by taking a knee during the playing of the US national anthem by saying they were not “patriotic” like Tillman. Patrick Tillman had believed the lies of 9/11 in the official story and he joined the military to “serve his country” and exact vengeance on those who had attacked us. Widow Marie Tillman released a statement against Trump. I uploaded my song to SoundCloud as a free download, and wrote a blog about it on Oct 29 and 30.
NOVEMBER 2017
President Trump made a tweet last month that got me thinking of doing my own new video for “The Ballad of Pat Tillman”. Dean Banks had made one in 2006 without my involvement. The visuals selected were various photos of Tillman in his football gear and others in his Army uniform. These days I wanted something that showed the relationship between 9/11, the subsequent wars, and that Pat Tillman died because he at first believed the lies of 9/11 and sought righteous vengeance on the alleged Muslim perpetrators.
I got the idea of doing a new 2017 video for Pat Tillman's latest birthday, Nov 6, as a response to President Trump's tweet attempting to use Pat Tillman’s death to shame NFL football players for protesting by kneeling during the national anthem. Marie Tillman responded with a sharp rebuke of Trump. Freeze frame the video to read them both. Marie Tillman defended the First Amendment, and she asked the President to "not politicize my husband's death". She said that her husband's death should "never be used to divide our nation". Pat Tillman was killed in Afghanistan after having served a tour first in Iraq. He had been telling his fellow soldiers that the "war on terror" wars were "illegal". He told his mother he was going to join the anti-war movement if he ever made it home.
The Ballad of Pat Tillman by Vic Sadot (5:42) Published on Nov 7, 2017 Truth Troubadour YouTube Channel. Pat Tillman would have been 41 this year. (RIP 11-06-1976 to 4-22-2004). It's free at SoundCloud! For sale at CD Baby! The song was released on 9/11/11 on a CD titled "9/11 Truth & Justice Songs" by Vic Sadot at CD Baby.
December 2017My December 2017 days were mostly spent studying “Russiagate” other false flag events, watching YouTube videos, and celebrating Phil Ochs birthday on December 19. I’m going to have another song featured on a second CD by a Facebook group called “Celebrating Phil Ochs” that’s organized by Shannon Hammock. Last time I contributed “United Fruit” and this time they have accepted “Broadside Balladeer”.
On December 18 I took a bus and a train to Oakland to play a song at the Octopus Lounge at the Rocktopus Open Mic where I sang a slow bluesy version of “Please Come Home for Christmas”. My buddy Billy Trice held my cell phone and got some video for me. I ran that through a video editor to make a video that used some recent cool Christmastime photos as overlays in some places.Merry Christmas 2017! Vic Sadot @Rocktopus Open Mic! (5:08) Vic Sadot YouTube Channel. “Please Come Home For Christmas” (Charles Brown & Gene Redd, 1960).
Frank Bowles waving to me as I took a photo before entering
the Community Room Christmas Eve Dinner 12-24-17
On Christmas Eve I went to a dinner at in the Redwood Gardens Community Room with my fellow seniors. I took a photo of my buddy Frank Bowles from outside the window before entering and he was waving back at me. He died not long ago and we had a memorial gathering for him at which I sang “When I’m Gone” by Phil Ochs. I put up some colorful Christmas lights in my window, but I didn’t socialize much over the holidays.
Here's a good photo of Frank Bowles from my July 21, 2016 birthday dinner at Bateau Ivre Restaurant on Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley. Cynthia Jean Johnson is a life-long activist on many anti-war and social justice causes that I agree with, and she is the current co-chair of the BFUU Social Justice Committee. Many of the events we've done are preserved at SOCIAL JUSTICE IN THE HEART OF BERKELEY YouTube Channel.
the Community Room Christmas Eve Dinner 12-24-17
On Christmas Eve I went to a dinner at in the Redwood Gardens Community Room with my fellow seniors. I took a photo of my buddy Frank Bowles from outside the window before entering and he was waving back at me. He died not long ago and we had a memorial gathering for him at which I sang “When I’m Gone” by Phil Ochs. I put up some colorful Christmas lights in my window, but I didn’t socialize much over the holidays.
Here's a good photo of Frank Bowles from my July 21, 2016 birthday dinner at Bateau Ivre Restaurant on Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley. Cynthia Jean Johnson is a life-long activist on many anti-war and social justice causes that I agree with, and she is the current co-chair of the BFUU Social Justice Committee. Many of the events we've done are preserved at SOCIAL JUSTICE IN THE HEART OF BERKELEY YouTube Channel.
Frank,
Vic, Cynthia at Bateau Ivre French Restaurant 7-21-16
I was invited to a New Year’s Eve Party, but I did not feel up to the hour or more travel required each way. So I stayed home and played guitar and watched YouTube videos. Here's a photo of my outside window with a poster some UC Berkeley art students made.
Vic Sadot Live SF Bay Area Sing Outs!Playlist at Truth Troubour YouTube Channel
So these are the highlights I've selected to share with you from my life for the year 2017.
It was a very good year since I was healthy, sober, active, focused, and very creatively productive. I hope that some of my works stand the test of time and that they serve to educate and inspire others to have good will and to carry it on!
All the best to all of you!
Main email: BroadsideBalladeer@gmail.com
