Labor Day Weekend Doin's, plus: "Inauthentic Presences" Are Not the Ones You Think they Are -- Sep 1 2018

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Welcome to edition number 1,747.
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First up, we bring you our # 1 feature...

FLEET WEEK,

this weekend in San Pedro
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Then the center of things for many of our readers,

...our # 2 feature...

THE LIVE MUSIC & ARTS EVENTS...

... our recommendations for the best things to do for

* LABOR DAY WEEKEND!

Day-by-day, Saturday through the Monday holiday
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...the # 3 feature is

A LOOK AHEAD -- FALL MUSIC FESTIVALS
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And finally...
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...in our # 4 feature,

We bring you our "inside the news" analysis feature story,

* "INAUTHENTIC PRESENCES" MAY NOT BE THE ONES YOU THINK

...CNN, Facebook, MSNBC, Fox News, RT America, KCET, the Truth Police, and the greatest message-management / interactive propaganda campaign in human history

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Let's get started!


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...# 1 feature, FLEET WEEK



"FLEET WEEK" -- A NEW SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA END-OF-SUMMER TRADITION



This weekend in San Pedro, there's an addition to the year-round historic "living museum" ships and the L.A. Maritime Museum with its permanent indoor exhibits and pair of floating wood-hulled sailing vessels.

We've reported many times on the WW II battleship Iowa museum and the Lane Victory, the last WW II Merchant Marine Victory ship -- and that you can take your out-of-town-visitors and go aboard each one, all year.

But Labor Day Weekend brings the recent addition of active US Navy vessels congregating to take visitors aboard for tours, as well as on-shore concerts by Navy bands, individual ship bands, special displays, interactive and interpretive exhibits, festivities, and more.

The concept of a "fleet week" is as old as the world's navies. Teddy Roosevelt sent the gleaming "Great White Fleet" around the globe to announce America's arrival as an international power. Cities with "navy yards" touted the annual returns of warships they built or maintained and showed them off during fleet week visits.

Today, many of those once-major employment centers, including the Long Beach Naval Shipyard, are gone, along with the jobs that built their communities. With the end of the first Cold War, those base closures were supposed to be part of a "peace dividend" that would free-up money for other needs. But the jobs are gone and military spending increases every year, anyway.

Sure, Fleet Week is part exercise in nostalgia for old salts, and opportunities for reunions of unemployed and retired shipbuilders.

It's also part recruiting propaganda for young people who can't afford college or car good enough to drive for Uber, and don't want to deliver pizza all their lives. Likewise, it's part public relations to make taxpayers feel good about the obscene amount consumed by the nation's military budget in endless interventions to "keep us safe."

But it IS a way to see, up-close and personal, all the gee-whiz of techno-lethality. And if it's "here" entertaining you, it's not "there" in some other part of the world -- where these ships are otherwise part of something else. Like the US-enabled Saudi blockade that's preventing food and medical supplies from reaching Yemen's bombed ports.

Active military ships began arriving for Fleet Week 2018 in the combined Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach during the week of August 27th.

Ship types, names, and availability for tours are scheduled to be announced at the start of Labor Day Weekend.

Full info, including registering for first-come, first-get free tickets for ship tours, is all at:

https://www.lafleetweek.com/



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...# 2 feature, live music and events...



Labor Day Weekend Doin's, Thursday-Monday



Our Recommendations for the Best Places to Celebrate the Traditional End of Summer

Chronologically, by day and start time.

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Thursday, August 30...
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Thu-Mon, Aug 30-Sep 3, FESTIVAL, in Nor Cal:
Annual "STRAWBERRY MUSIC FESTIVAL - FALL EDITION" at the site of the old Westside Lumber Camp and railroad facility, up in the tall pines at 17807 Tuolumne Rd, Tuolumne, CA 95379.
*  Lineup:
Del McCoury Band
Rodney Crowell
The Travelin’ Mccourys
The Sherman Holmes Project
Rob Ickes & Trey Hensley
Samantha Fish
Laurie Lewis & The Right Hands
The Motet
Nicki Bluhm
Caitlin Canty
The Ingramettes
Phil Salazar And The Kin Folk
Che Apalache
Joe Craven & The Sometimers
Western Centuries
* tix and full info: https://strawberrymusic.com/
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Thu, Aug 30:
5 pm - KEN O'MALLEY brings his acoustic multi-instrumental authentic and original Irish music to his every Thursday residency at Auld Dubliner, 71 S Pine Av, Long Beach, CA 90802; 562-437-8300.
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Thu, Aug 30:
6 pm - THE SALTY SUITES play their occasional residency at The Cliff, 577 S Coast Hwy, Laguna Beach, CA 92651.
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Thu, Aug 30:
6:30 pm-9 pm - Weekly ENCINITAS BLUEGRASS JAM is participatory or come 'n listen, at Today's Pizza and Salad, 481 Santa Fe Dr, Encinitas (N San Diego Co), CA.
*  info: banjojay@hotmail.com or Jason Weiss at 619-238-8331.
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Thu, Aug 30:
7:30 pm - PLOUGHBOYS play their long-running Celtic music residency the 2nd, 3rd, 4th & 5th Thursdays each month at the Tam O' Shanter Ale & Sandwich Bar Lounge, 2980 Los Feliz Bl, Los Feliz, CA 90039; 323-664-0228.
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Thu, Aug 30:
8 pm - GILI YALO plays the free summer world music series at the Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N Sepulveda Bl, Los Angeles, CA 90049; 310-440-4578.
*  this one is hardcore "world music."
*  concert is free, parking costs $10, or ride the Metro bus to the top of the hill in Sepulveda Pass, just off the 405.
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Friday, August 31...
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Annual "STRAWBERRY MUSIC FESTIVAL - FALL EDITION" continues through Sep 3 in Nor Cal. See Thu for write-up.
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Fri, Aug 31:
6 pm-9 pm - WILD ROSE IRISH BAND plays their 1st, 3rd & 5th Friday residency at Brendan’s Irish Pub & Restaurant Agoura Hills, 30315 Canwood St, Agoura Hills, CA 93010; 888-874-9400.
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Fri, Aug 31:
6 pm-10 pm - DROPKICK MICKEYS play their 1st, 3rd & 5th Friday residency at Brendan’s Irish Pub and Restaurant Newbury Park, 495 N Ventu Park Rd, Newbury Park, CA.
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Fri, Aug 31:
6 pm - Weekly "Old Downtown Monrovia Street Fair" includes the KATTYWOMPUS CONCERT / ACOUSTIC JAM WITH ALL COMERS, every Friday 8-10 pm; home venue for this part is just outside Dollmakers Kattywompus, 412 S Myrtle Av, Monrovia, CA 91016; 626-357-1091
*  event features family-friendly activities, carnival rides, food vendors, and other live music indoors and out.
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Fri, Aug 31:
7:30 pm - JASON ISBELL plus AIMEE MANN play the Greek Theatre, 2700 N Vermont Av, in Griffith Park (L.A. side), Los Angeles, CA 90027; 213-480-3232.
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Fri, Aug 31:
8 pm - DANIEL CHAMPAGNE plays Boulevard Music, 4316 Sepulveda Bl, Culver City, CA 90230; 310-398-2583.
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Fri, Aug 31:
8 pm - THE SALTY SUITES play Grapes & Hops, 454 E Main St, Ventura, CA 93001.
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Saturday, September 1...
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Annual "STRAWBERRY MUSIC FESTIVAL - FALL EDITION" continues through Sep 3 in Nor Cal. See Thu for write-up.
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Sat, Sep 1:
Noon-2 pm - MURPHY'S FLAW, John Bryan's bluegrass troupe in its latest incarnation of talent, plays their 1st & 3rd Saturday residency at Viva Rancho Cantina, 900 Riverside Dr, Burbank, CA 91506; 818-845-2425.
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Sat, Sep 1:
7:30 pm - THE SALTY SUITES play the Ojai Underground!, 1016 W Ojai Av, Ojai, CA 93023.
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Sat, Sep 1:
7:30 pm-10:30 pm - GRATEFUL DUDES play their decades-long bluegrass residency at Vincenzo's Newhall, 24504 Lyons Av, Newhall, CA.
*  these guys are so respected that you never know who will show up and sit in. Countless major stars of the genre have been there, done that.
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Sat, Sep 1:
8 pm - DAVID GRIER plays Boulevard Music, 4316 Sepulveda Bl, Culver City, CA 90230; 310-398-2583.
*  this music store magically transforms into a compact lil' performance venue with heavyweight performers and an up-close seat for everyone. But call and get a ticket or you'll find it sold-out.
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Sat, Sep 1:
8 pm - JANET KLEIN & HER PARLOR BOYS play Alvas Showroom, 1417 West 8th St, San Pedro, CA 90732; 310-519-1314.
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Sat, Sep 1:
8 pm-11 pm - KEN O'MALLEY brings his acoustic multi-instrumental authentic and original Irish music to his "first Saturdays" residency at Tam O' Shanter Ale & Sandwich Bar Lounge, 2980 Los Feliz Bl, Los Feliz, CA 90039; 323-664-0228.
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Sat, Sep 1:
9 pm - G BURNS JUG BAND plays their first Saturdays residency at the Black Cat Bar, 4246 University Av, San Diego, CA; 619-280-5834.
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Sunday, September 2...
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Annual "STRAWBERRY MUSIC FESTIVAL - FALL EDITION" continues through Sep 3 in Nor Cal. See Thu for write-up.
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Sun, Sep 2:
9 am-noon - CLIFF LATIMER & LAURA OSBORN play acoustic roots string music the first Sunday of every month at the Atwater Village Farmers Market, 3250 Glendale Bl, Los Angeles, CA.
*  two talented music-makers, fun to watch as well as hear.
*  Free, except for what you eat.
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Sun, Sep 2:
9:30 am-2:30 pm - Weekly BLUEGRASS BRUNCH with different musicians every Sunday at Urban Solace, 3823 30th St, San Diego, CA 92104; 619-295-6464.
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Sun, Sep 2:
10:30 am-noon - TRADITIONAL IRISH MUSIC SESSION is a structured jam, every Sunday at the House of Ireland, 665 Pan American Plaza, San Diego, CA.
*  this is one of the international houses still operating from the San Diego World's Fair of a hundred years ago. They're in a big circle around the green in Balboa Park. Great fun, dancing in regalia, live traditional music on a central stage, and they often have free food samples in each cottage from many of the world's culinary cultures.
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Sun, Sep 2:
11 am-2 pm - Monthly VIVA CANTINA OLD-TIME MUSIC JAM happens the first Sunday of every month at Viva Rancho Cantina, 900 Riverside Dr, Burbank, CA 91506; 818-845-2425.
*  this has a long history at several venues before finding its latest home here. It attracts talented players.
*  info: steve@urbanoldtime.com
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Sun, Sep 2:
Noon-2 pm - MURPHY'S FLAW, John Bryan's bluegrass troupe in its latest incarnation of talent, plays their 1st & 3rd Sunday residency at Viva Rancho Cantina, 900 Riverside Dr, Burbank, CA 91506; 818-845-2425.
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Sun, Sep 2:
Noon-3 pm - Monthly BLUEGRASS JAM every first Sunday at Guitar Merchant, 22807 Saticoy St, West Hills, CA; 818-884-5905.
*  info: normanigar@gmail.com
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Sun, Sep 2:
1 pm-3 pm - Monthly BLUEGRASS JAM every first Sunday at El Camino College, 16007 Crenshaw Bl, Torrance, CA 90506.
*  info:SteveBarilovits@gmail.com
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Sun, Sep 2:
1:15 pm-4 pm - TOM BALL & KENNY SULTAN, trad acostic string artists who get good money to play festivals, do this free-admission, every-Sunday, residency in the middle of nowhere at Cold Spring Tavern, 5995 Stagecoach Rd, above Santa Barbara, CA; 805-967-0066.
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Sun, Sep 2:
4 pm-7 pm - Weekly TRADITIONAL IRISH MUSIC SESSION is a structured jam every Sunday at Auld Dubliner, 71 S Pine Av, Long Beach, CA 90802; 562-437-8300.
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Sun, Sep 2:
4:30 pm-7:30 pm - Weekly SANTA BARBARA TRADITIONAL IRISH MUSIC SESSION is a structured jam every Sunday at La Arcada Bistro, 1112 State St, Santa Barbara, CA.
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Sun, Sep 2:
7:30 pm-11 pm - Weekly IRISH MUSIC SESSION is a structured jam every Sunday at O'Brien's Irish Pub & Restaurant, 2226 Wilshire Bl, Santa Monica, CA 90403; 310-829-5303 or obrienswilshire@aol.com
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Sun, Sep 2:
8 pm - LOS TIGRES DEL NORTE play the "Viejas Concerts in the Park" series at 5000 Willows Rd, Alpine, CA 91901.
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Monday, September 3...
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Annual "STRAWBERRY MUSIC FESTIVAL - FALL EDITION" concludes today in Nor Cal. See Thu for write-up.
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Mon, Sep 3:
7:30 pm-10:30 pm - THE BROMBIES play their every-Monday bluegrass residency at Viva Rancho Cantina, 900 Riverside Dr., Burbank, CA 91506; 818-845-2425.
*  not at all your typical "weekly residency" band, this outfit has some major award winners and does music for motion pictures.
*  info: brombies@aol.com
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Mon, Sep 3:
7:30 pm-9:30 pm - Weekly OC CELTIC JAM happens every Monday at Peace Lutheran Church, 18542 Vanderlip Av, Santa Ana, CA.
*  info: heidihalbur@gmail.com
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Mon, Sep 3:
8:30 pm-11 pm - CELTIC ARTS CENTER IRISH MUSIC SESSION, TRADITIONAL DANCE, & CELTIC LANGUAGE CLASSES have been happening every Monday for decades. Sponsored by the Celtic Arts Center at The Mayflower Club, 11110 Victory Bl, North Hollywood, CA; venue phone 818-760-8322.
*  Also, 9 pm-10:30 pm is the SLOW PLAY IRISH MUSIC SESSION for learners and beginners.
*  info: celt@celticartscenter.com
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...# 3 feature



A LOOK AHEAD -- FALL MUSIC FESTIVALS



Presented chronologically, with a little extra spacing between each one to help your scrolling.
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Sat & Sun, Sep 15 & 16, FESTIVAL:

9 am-8 pm - Annual "HARVEST FESTIVAL OF DULCIMERS" presented by Southern Californa Dulicimer Heritage, brings master musicians on trad acoustic instruments for workshops, jamming, concerts, and more.
*   this happens at different places each day.
*  on Saturday, it's all the main events, all at Presbyterian Church of the Convent, 2850 Fairview Rd, Costa Mesa, CA 92626.
*  on Sunday, there are just two events, as follows: (1) 10 am-2 pm, HAMMERED DULCIMER WORKSHOP: CONTINENTAL / BOOMBAL TUNES - FRENCH & FLEMISH DANCE TUNES WITH KAREN ASHBROOK, includes mixed instruments (acoustic), held at a private home in Fullerton; (2) 11 am-3 pm MOUNTAIN DULCIMER WORKSHOP: RIGHT & LEFT HAND MASTERY WITH SARAH MORGAN, held at a private home in Downey.
*  tix for festival, Saturday evening concert, and Sunday workshops, all available at: http://scdh.org/SCDH/Welcome.html

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Fri-Sun, Sep 21-23, FESTIVAL:

Annual "MILLPOND MUSIC FESTIVAL" at Millpond County Park / Recreation Area, 6 mi. north of Bishop, CA.
*  Lineup, Main Stage:
- Friday Night...
Luke Kinney
Laurie Lewis & the Right Hands
David Myles
- Saturday...
Carbé/Durand Duo
Rita Hosking Trio
Ben Hunter & Joe Seamons
Sam Reider & the Human Hands
Kyle Huval and the Dixie Club Ramblers
Jungle Fire
- Sunday...
UNLV Rebel Steel Band
The Sycopaths
Suitcase Junket
FulaMuse
Joe Craven and the Sometimers Present: The Garcia Songbook and Millpond All-Star Super-Jam
*  Lineup, Workshop Tent:
- Saturday...
Open Mic
David Myles
Ben and Joe
Jungle Fire
Sam Reider
Kyle Huval
(Kids Area) – Izzi Tooinsky
- Sunday...                                              
Rita Hosking
Syncopaths
Izzi Tooinsky
FulaMuse
UNLV Rebel Steel
Open Mic
*  Millpond is a laid back and family-friendly festival in the Eastern Shadow of the Sierra Nevada, with a world-class music lineup like you find at the big, crowded festivals.
*  camping, including RV sites, is in the adjacent concessionaire's campground, who also have the rights to charge for tent camping on the lawns around the mill pond.
*  it's complimented by kids’ activities, arts and crafts booths, and food vendors , all in a beautiful outdoor setting. Shade trees cover the perimeter of the main concert area, which has a perfect natural slope for an amphitheater-style experience.
*  tix & info: https://inyo.org/millpond-festival/

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Sat, Sep 22, FESTIVAL:

10 am-6 pm - Annual "GLOBAL VILLAGE FESTIVAL" in Orange County Great Park, 6000 Great Park Bl, Irvine, CA 92618
*  this one always includes SOME roots-Americana, but it's usually heavily laden with "world music" of one kind or another.

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Fri-Sun, Sep 28-30, FESTIVAL, in Nor Cal:

"KVMR CELTIC FESTIVAL & MARKETPLACE" presented by roots-music-friendly public radio station KVMR at the Nevada County Fairgrounds, 11228 McCourtney Rd., Grass Valley, CA 95949.
*  expect a good lineup.

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Fri-Sun, Oct 5, 6, 7, FESTIVAL:

"HUCK FINN JUBILEE" returns from the dead for its 41st run, at Cucamonga-Guasti Regional Park, 800 Archibald Av, Ontario, CA.
* a spring festival since 1977, it assumed new ownership in recent years after the death of its founder, moving from Victorville to Ontario. It continued undiminished as one of the best bluegrass festivals in the far west. Then, the new management, the Ontario Convention and Visitors Bureau, threw in the towel. Now, back from the dead, it returns as a fall event with a stunning lineup.
*  Lineup:
INFAMOUS STRING DUSTERS
YONDER MOUNTAIN STRING BAND
KELLER WILLIAMS' GRATEFUL GRASS
THE LONE BELLOW
BALSAM RANGE
FRUITION
LOVE CANON
FRONT COUNTRY
THE CLEVERLYS
PO RAMBLIN BOYS
OUT OF THE DESERT
JOE MULLINS & THE RADIO RAMBLERS
DEVILS BOX STRING BAND
THE SELDOM SCENE
BLUE HIGHWAY
OLD SALT UNION
* adv. tix and full info at: https://www.huckfinn.com

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Fri-Sun, Oct 12-14, MUSIC CONFERENCE:

15th Annual "FOLK ALLIANCE REGION WEST / FAR-WEST CONFERENCE" comes back to a Southern California venue this time, at the Warner Center Marriott, 21850 Oxnard St, Woodland Hills, CA 91367.
*   it's inclusive of so much that you can view it and do it as a festival.
*  there are headliner concerts, "official" and "guerilla" showcases, and music-making 'purt near all the time -- along with many, many workshops spanning everything from instrumental technique to DIY indie music biz and booking and tour management.
*  Folk Alliance, both as the international parent organization and in its numerous national and regional-international parts (like FAR-West) offer and present opportunities by and for indie artists as an effective counterpart to the big awards shows that are owned and controlled by the corporate Big Labels.
*  well worth your attention and support.
*  full info, registration, tix to the event's major concerts, all at:
http://www.far-west.org/far-west-2018.html

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Sat & Sun, Oct 13 & 14, FESTIVAL:

Annual "SEASIDE HIGHLAND GAMES" returns to Seaside Park in the Ventura County Fairgrounds, 10 W Harbor Bl, Ventura, CA 93001.
*  multiple stages of Celtic music, from trad to Irish rock.
*  individual and massed bagpipes in pipe and drum exhibitions and competition.
*  Scottish Country Dancing, Highland Dancing, and more.
*  sheepdogs in herding demos.
*  Celtic harps.
*  sanctioned Irish fiddle competition.
*  gathering of the clans and wearing of the tartans from throughout the Celtic world.
*  British car show.
*  Children's Glen.
*  authentic food from balmier climes, including haggis, pasties and bangers.
*  and, of course, large humans throwing very massive things in an officially-sanctioned Highland Games competition.
*  full info and adv. tix at:
www.seaside-games.com

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Sat & Sun, Oct 13 & 14, FESTIVAL:

Annual "SANTA BARBARA OLD-TIME FIDDLER’S FESTIVAL" in the delightful settings of Rancho La Patera & Stow House, 304 N Los Carneros Rd, Goleta, CA 93117.
*  this one has been a mainstay of trad and old-time string music for decades.
*  there are scheduled sets by headlining bands on two stages, in addition to prestigious competitions.
*  we'll have more, later.

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Sat, Oct 13, FREE FESTIVAL:

10 am-6 pm - Annual  "KALEIDOSCOPE MUSIC & ART FESTIVAL" is well worth the drive over the mountain to the Palmdale Amphitheater, 2723 Rancho Vista Bl, Palmdale, CA 93551.
*  full concert sets from each headliner. With:
Lisa Haley & The Zydecats (Grammy noms)
Stone Soul
High-D Boys
Paddy's Pig (trad Irish)
Incendio (acoustic string mastery)
Megan Tibbits
Black Eye Affair
*  there's also a "chalk art festival" component that brings stunningly talented entrants.
*  we'll bring you more about this one. But you might want to mark your calendar now.
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...# 4 feature, "inside the news" analysis...



"Inauthentic Presences" Are Not the Ones They'd Have You Believe


...CNN, Facebook, MSNBC, Fox News, RT America, KCET, and the Truth Police



by Lawrence Wines

First, anything you didn't like was "fake news." Then anything Trump didn't like was fake news. Now, anything the corporatocracy doesn't like is "inauthentic."

It's not just getting goofier out there.

In fact, getting you dismiss it as childish, goofy, idiotic lunatics playing games for self-aggrandizement is part of why it works. We're seeing the use of media to determine beliefs, with active censorship of those who won't profitably play along. It all derives from a purposeful hall-of-mirrors, echo-chamber world of carefully crafted message management.

It employs sophisticated tools of psychology enabled by massive collection and analysis of data. Data on every person's susceptibility.

How each of us forms and reinforces our attitudes, opinions, and beliefs that are based on emotion rather than reason.

And what it takes to get you or me to buy something, and how to personalize a mass market to make us enthusiastically want to do it.

That bodes badly for all of us.

Because it brings implications -- perhaps outright assurances -- that we're going down a road where we're apt to know less, and to question less. Even as we become evermore certain -- and more tribal -- about all we are convinced we know.

Let's look at several topics and how those inform whether or not we are experiencing the largest message-management / greatest interactive propaganda campaign in human history.
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McCainia

For a full week, corporate Big Media has been exploiting the death of US Senator John McCain (R, AZ).

On MSNBC and CNN, it's all about "contrasting" "who this man was" with the "crassness, rudeness, and cruelty of public officials and public life" wherein all roads lead to Rome... or at least to enabling the figurative allusion of Brutus ending the rein of Caesar, in, as a modern phrase illustrates, "by any means necessary."

On Fox News, the death of McCain is exploited to inflate a heroic feel-good for Republicans to feel good about being Republicans before a pivotal midterm election.

None of them are guilty of presenting news, and we'll tell you why:

John McCain, as a lawmaker and collector of campaign donations, never met a war profiteer or an excuse for a US military incursion that he didn't like. Make that, wholeheartedly like, and enthusiastically support.

So, one would expect such pesky facts to be included, somewhere amidst all the wailing and sanctifying and talk of renaming major taxpayer-built facilities after St. John the Pugilist.

Crickets.
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The Death of Diversity Happened Thursday

Actually, there was one network that consistently presented an inclusive analysis of McCain's career. That's "was," not "does," for most of us. It's because corporate mainstream media's harangue of propaganda (out of fear that somebody might call-out their own failures to be inclusive) finally succeeded Thursday night in banishing their competition from the public square.

Spectrum cable, the overmerged corporate megagiant that's been doing Borg assimilations of other overmerged corporate megagiant cable providers, has again eliminated your choice as a viewer and consumer of what passes for "news."

Thursday night, Spectrum suddenly blocked your ability to watch RT America. Just as they did last fall when they suddenly dropped France24.

Thankfully, you can still watch RT America at www.RT.com. So, to borrow a phrase and use it where it's actually valid, you can still get a "fair and balanced" view of what the rest of the world sees and regards as news. What a concept -- world news that's about things happening all over the world.

You can also still see the daily half-hours of news in English from DW in Germany, France24, and NHK in Japan, as carried (thankfully) and presented by KCET. Available even with a digital TV antenna, and on most satellite and cable systems. (At least until megagiant corporate hegemony's intolerance of competition discovers it's there and buys it off America's airwaves.)
_

The Eroding Trustworthiness of the BBC

Ordinarily, we'd include BBC World Channel as an oasis of sustenance from the inauthenticity of the US corporate mainstream's managed-message narrative-of-singularity.

But watching the Beeb this week (the original one, not the annoying pop singer with the airport monkey) it was clear that the BBC was taking its cue from American corporate broadcast media -- easily visible in presenting uncritical fawning over the corpse of John McCain.

But then, the BBC is uncritical of war promotion in general, since British arms merchants are right behind America's merchants of death when it comes to enabling people to kill each other in masses.

And the UK's MI-6 is often right in there with CIA operatives convincing some isolated ethnic group that some other group is "The Enemy." We'll discuss the whole thing about "The Enemy" in a moment.

Obviously, there are many debates we should be having, as a society, that do not occur because our corporate-protectionist, advertising-addicted, narrative-obsessed media is, in a word -- wait for it -- inauthentic.

We don't wallow in Trump Derangement Syndrome. But we do cover the media. So we will both acknowledge and limit what is an unavoidable collision at the intersection of the two.

No reasonable effort to make sense of things can avoid that basic recognition.

Because corporate mainstream media "news" these days is a singularity -- almost exclusively a Trumpian sheepdip.

So any critical analysis of the media, and... well, there you are.
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The CNN Sheepdip

In the latest lunacy, CNN says they're "standing by their story" -- based on what they continue to say is an operative statement from Trump lawyer Michael Cohen -- and "verified," as is everything these days, by an "unnamed source." And this one is their bombshell "breaking news" that Trump knew all about Russians spying on Hillary's emails.

This one belongs in the tabloids with the big-eyed aliens.

Seems Cohen really has no knowledge of anything like what CNN maintains, and he said so.

And the "unnamed source" CNN used for verification turns out to be Cohen's lawyer, legal celebrity Lanny Davis, who rejects the basis for the whole thing, and said so.

Yet CNN refuses to retract it. Seems like it makes a good story that fits well with "the narrative," even if there is no veracity. Even if it's, uhh, in the sudden new vernacular, "inauthentic."

Even though standing by that story opens the door to a legitimate accusation that CNN is purveying "fake news."

Which throws logs on the Trumpian bonfire of the vanities.
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The Corporate Co-opting of Social Media

Of course, vanity isn't patented by the celebrity apprentice in the Oval Office, or by CNN.

And that brings us to the latest dimension in the fortunes of Big Media chasing fortunes from sensationalism -- social media.

Because along with the fixation by all of corporate mainstream broadcast and cable news media, the decisionmaking artificial intelligences of social media are pursuing an indistinguishable product. Depending on your politics, that is, because they are, after all, keeping you addicted by giving you a hall of mirrors and an echo chamber to verify and validate whatever prejudices and half-baked beliefs you already have.

Which enables them to profitably go down the neck of the funnel of the Trumpian Singularity.

Of late, Facebook -- a megabillion-dollar Google property -- is leading the pack of money-grubbing hounds of the cyberville, and has adopted a profitably "proactive protective" posture.

All that alarms the hell out of us, because it's already affecting and effecting everything you think is "news."
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Israeli, Palestine, and What's Allowed

The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) has been deploying its snipers to kill and maim unarmed Palestinians in Gaza. But if anyone posts news of that on social media, their presence is banished for being anti-Semitic, as a purveyor of "hate," or as "inauthentic" for "spreading fake news."

With corporate mainstream media, the paradigm prevails that being opposed to murders committed as official acts of the Israeli military is contrary to being against terrorism. The closest anyone will come to honest reporting is to suggest that being anti-Zionist is not the same as being anti-Jewish. Even that is rarely allowed. So US corporate mainstream media, in lockstep, covered the celebrations of the move of the US Embassy. It went from Tel Aviv -- where every other nation has its embassy in Israel -- to Jerusalem, where US vice president Pence and his evangelical religionistas wanted it, in part because they think that will precipitate the apocalypse.

But say that on social media and the Truth police will banish you from the empire. And nobody can say it on corporate cable, period.

Doesn't matter that official policy of the Bebe Netanyahu government is to shoot people. You can't talk about because no one is supposed to know about it. Might interfere with supplying more arms to Israel.
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Those Damn Russians -- Some Quick Background and Context

We've all had more than a year of Russia-Russia-Russia allegations, with enough smoke to hide all the big corporate media headquarters and their machinations.

Smoke on the water, allegations in the cyber sky. But with no actual evidence. Just endless assertions by overpaid corporate media talking heads who follow no rules of journalistic integrity as they babble authoritatively of how "the 26 intelligence agencies" have found "digital fingerprints" that are supposedly "all over this."

We'll get to why that isn't exactly "authentic." We needed to get it into the dialog here.
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Results that Are about Something Else

Instead of real evidence of any Russian collusion in American elections, we've gotten criminal indictments, guilty pleas, and convictions for international monetary crimes by Trump associates -- based on their individual tax-dodging, money laundering, and other fraudulent financial activities -- before the 2016 campaign.

Is any of that a prelude to Trump, Inc., real estate development deals wherein he incurred debt from global financiers? Like maybe oligarchs who happened to be Russian?

Except for whatever investigators know, because they were tasked by Robert Mueller, the rest of us do not know. Period. And the Mueller investigation does not leak.

Despite 17-20 hours each day of corporate cable news' overpaid talking heads fixated on speculating, ad infinitum and ad nauseum, no one knows. So the entire basis for the Trumpian Singularity of "collusion" could just as well be Tarot cards and a Ouija board.

Meanwhile, the actual activities of the Trump administration are grossly underreported. Like Secretary of Education Betsy DeVoss privatizing taxpayer-owned assets to subsidize for-profit private schools for her cronies, and dozens of other giveaways to corporations.
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Robert Mueller -- the 500-Pound Gorilla on one Side of a Much Bigger Mountain

There is one key question that was deliberately bypassed before the brass band started making things a circus.

Despite fixated CNN, pathetic Fox News, and irredeemable MSNBC, no one in Big Media has asked the most fundamental question about all this.

That is: how was it that the Mueller investigation of election fraud and collusion wasn't tasked, at its inception, with investigating:

1)  the totality of actual fraud and voter disenfranchisement

2)  the intentional sabotage of voting machines that were capable of creating a paper record that could have been audited, but was shut-off

3)  the use of proprietary software in voting machines -- a cryptic unknown, proven to manipulation, that the public is never allowed to examine -- rather than open source programming that can easily be verified

4)  the tangled and documented cobweb of collusion that clearly DID produce fraudulent results in the the 2016 elections through these and other facts in evidence, and that has produced active court cases.

Those being:

a)  the large-scale GOP multistate removal of specifically targeted voters from the registration rolls; and

b)  the insidious, multipronged seizure of the primary process by Hillary Clinton campaign operatives and establishment Democrats, to overthrow what would have been the nomination of Bernie Sanders by the votes of the people.
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Politics and the Brady Bunch

Of course, at any time, the absent fabric of the Russia-Russia-Russia thing has been at risk of somebody noticing that it just doesn't add-up. (Somebody noticing, excluding corporate media, of course.)

But it doesn't take an Academy voter to see things as yet another lousy remake of the Brady Bunch.

Specifically the one with pubescent Jan Brady in angst that everywhere she turns, all she hears is Marsha-Marsha-Marsha, overloading her sensibilities and ability to function.

So it seems time for another '70s standby -- Monty Python -- to pop-up to say, "and now for something completely different." Voila. Wednesday we got the latest wrinkle in the endless speculative blame-game politics and media coverage of we-wuz-robbed, "they did it to us" by messing with our elections.

Reuters has distributed an involved story about how the Iranians are behind everything.

Iranians. Not Russians.

The Reuters piece is half, you-better-watch-out, without a you-better-not-cry, and total hands-off of you-better-not-pout, before it cuts to the chase of them telling you why -- or rather, who.

And after all this, it's not the Russians this time.
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"Inauthenticity" Works Because the Term Can Foment Fear

Of course it still plays just right for the Pentagon lobbiests, congressional war hawks, and military-industrial-cybersecurity-complex weapons selling merchants of death. Chaos and fear assures readiness for evermore conflict.

Thus repetition of "the narrative" reinforces the message, even if the bogeyman changes. We're in danger from the "inauthentic" word of others, and anything that isn't corporate mainstream media's narrative is "the other," "inauthentic," not to be trusted, and you need the tribal assurances and their endlessly echoed narrative to protect you. To keep us safe.

And along comes Reuters. Not to question why it suddenly isn't Russia, but Iran that's out to steal our elections. Or did steal them (again) if the wrong candidate wins (again) 

We cannot know if that was intentional or not on the part of Reuters with this story. But it has that effect.

And, it cites -- here it comes -- "inauthentic" efforts purveyed on social media as the way the nefarious actors are messing with our election. Iranians this time. Until somebody else is needed to replace them, and to exonerate us from our own unwillingness to deal with the American culprits who are taking possession of the levers of our registration and ballot processes.
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"The Enemy" and Why This is So Dangerous

Efforts that would unacceptably influence American public opinion in favor of peace in Syria and against the Saudi genocide in Yemen are now "inauthentic." Those are two things that the warconomy and corporatocracy just can't allow to take hold.

And while neither of those notions can be allowed to influence Americans who might (gasp) start asking questions -- there is a further, and especially unforgivable, sin that is easiest of all to blame on "inauthentic" nefarious actors, which actually need to be "the Iranians" for this part. It is, of course, that any basis must be cut-off or discredited if it lets Americans something that cannot be touched. We are not permitted to question, much less know about, the daily deaths of unarmed Palestinians at the hands of snipers of the Israeli Defense Force in walled-off apartheid semi-slave states of Palestine and Gaza.

Debate? Discussion? Challenge, with facts, of official versions of any of these things?

No need to risk THAT, if you control the narrative.

Just banish any such news to the realm of propangandistic rumor and fantasy. Label them as "fake news" until that wears thin. Then condemn them as "inauthentic." Suggest to the masses through their individualized echo chambers that you only saw such things in the first place because some nefarious operative created them specifically to personally deceive you. Those damned Russians. No, wait. Those godless fundamentalist Iranians. Or in Trump's latest hypothesis-without-evidence, those trade-cheat, election stealing little Maoists in China (pronounced Z'hai'yy-nahh).

Choose your inauthentic nefarious actor. It all adds up to the same thing :

"The enemy."

Hey, it works when the fundamentalist preachers use it -- somehow turning a philosophy based on love and the brotherhood of all mankind into a fear-based refuge from "The Enemy."

And it works the same way when Big Media and now, social media's profit-protecting propagandists, tell you they must censor what you see and hear if they are to "protect" you. From "The Enemy."

Even when the "protectors" keeping you from seeing "inauthentic" information are CNN standing by a story based on unnamed sources who inconveniently surfaced to say, uhh, no.

And even when the "protectors" deem anything "inauthentic" if it fails to fit their paradigm for maximumizing profits based on a fully-connected spiderweb of marketable, personally attributable metadata for sale for profiling everything about you.
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"Inauthenticity" and Iran

Reuters says they got started down the road of nefarious "inauthenticity" because Facebook sent-off 167 sites, dozens of them "Iranian," to what users call "Facebook jail."

That's a good place to note the one week in Twitter jail that Alex Jones got when too many finally became offended by his "InfoWars" diatribes, including his emphatic certainty that the Sandy Hook school masacre was "a hoax." But then, he makes money in traffic for Twitter.

And given that Americans who commit terrorist acts against Americans on American soil are never branded as terrorists by American corporate mainstream media or US-based social media -- unlike any Muslim who throws a rock at an Israeli sniper -- we can't say we're surprised by Twitter's rather curious approach to protecting Alex Jones' free speech.
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Follow the Money

Of course Reuters doesn't bother to mention that those publicly unaccountable social media powers-that-be have an overarching model to assure maximum profitability.

Nor does Reuters question whether it's really because Facebook -- and all data-robbing social media -- "must" protect you, and maximize marketability of pirated data by deluding you.

And if their new weapon of information warfare is designed to be used on their users -- invoking the newest buzz word of unforgiveable sin: sites operating with an "inauthentic presence" must be banished.
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About those Russian "Digital Fingerprints"

Surely we'll get the same line about Iranian fingerprints. Or Syrian government fingerprints if another Trumpertantrum is cultivated by the militarists for another two-hundred-million-dollar missile attack.

But there's something to keep in mind about finding culprits from their "digital fingerprints."

Wikileaks published the CIA's own documents detailing how US operatives can create any cyber activity and brand it with a false flag. As in, if I know how, and have the right software in my laptop, I can post a message, or anything else, and make it appear that you did it.

John McAfee, creator of the world's first antivirus for home and office PC's, has said many times that it's child's play to make it appear that somebody else was the culprit for almost anything you want to see them blamed for.

In fact, the information released to verify that "nefarious Russians" infested America's 2016 campaigns and elections contains both bad Russian idioms that no literate Russian would have used, and incorrect code protocols that no rookie would have left behind -- unless it was a deliberate, elephant-foot-sized -- or donkey-hoofed -- fingerprint.

Of course, those pesky facts do not fit the corporate mainstream media narrative. So the chances of anyone getting caught playing the same game twice are diminished.

Now that "we" need provocation for a war footing with Iran -- or whatever it is "we" need provocation for -- we should all dust-off Weird Al Yankovic's "Ayatollah." That's his parody of "My Sharona." It might help us get ready to find the botched cyber fingerprints when the new batch of "inauthentic" bad actors needs to be correctly identified. Because God, Allah, Yahweh, Buddha, and Krishna knows the Trumpcentric coporate mainstream media, in the safe zone of their singularity of narrative, ain't about to ask the questions necessary to tell anybody about anything else.
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That's all for now.

We'll be back again soon with music news and more "News of the Non-Trumpcentric Universe." (c)

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LEGALESE, CONTACTING US, 'N SUCH...

Boilerplate? Where's the main pressure gauge? And the firebox?

What "boilerplate"? Who came up with that goofy term for the basic essential informational stuff...
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♪ The ACOUSTIC AMERICANA MUSIC GUIDE endeavors to bring you NEWS – and views of interest to artists everywhere – more specifically to musicians and the creative community and music makers and fans of acoustic and Folk-Americana music. That includes both traditional and innovative forms. From the deepest roots to today’s acoustic renaissance, that’s our beat. We provide a wealth of resources, including a HUGE catalog of acoustic-friendly venues (now undergoing a major update), and inside info on FESTIVALS and select performances in Southern California in venues from the monumentally large to the intimately small and cozy. We cover workshops, conferences, and other events for artists and folks in the music industry, and all kinds o’ things in the world of acoustic and Americana and accessible classical music. From washtub bass to musical spoons to oboe to viola to banjo to squeezebox, from Djangostyle to new-fangled-old-time string band music, from sweet Cajun fiddle to bluegrass and pre-bluegrass Appalachian mountain music to all the swamp water roots of the blues and the bright lights of where the music is headed now.
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