BUSINESS AND MEDIA:  “What you might not know from all of the breathless ACORN damnation coverage is what ACORN actually does,” Maddow said. “They do things like advocating for a higher minimum wage. They do things like helping low- income families file their taxes. They do things like helping low-income families find jobs. They do things like registering people to vote.” So with all those good deeds why was ACORN getting such bad press? According to Maddow it is because when corporations feel threatened they hire lobbyists and create “corporate-funded purportedly grassroots organizations” to hold the poor down. “That sort of work, as you might expect, has the tendency to rile up the kinds of industries that really don’t want minimum wage to go up and really aren’t that psyched about lots of poor people being registered to vote,” Maddow continued. “And as we discovered most recently in the health care debate, when industries sense a threat to their profits, they go into kill mode. They create corporate-funded purportedly grassroots organizations to derail and destroy whomever they believe to be the source of that threat.” Then Maddow produced her own bogeyman for MSNBC viewers, Richard Berman, who was a popular target of the left long before the latest ACORN scandal began. Maddow assigned some of the blame to Berman for giving ACORN a bad name (ignoring the prostitution scandal). “Well, in the case of ACORN, I’d like you to meet Richard Berman,” Maddow said. “He’s a Washington, D.C.-based lobbyist who is essentially a hired gun for corporations Say you’re a company that doesn’t really want the minimum wage to be raised. But you also don’t want to be seen fighting ACORN yourself. What you do is you hire Richard Berman. And what you get is RottenACORN.com, a grassroots-ish looking Web site dedicated to destroying ACORN and its, quote, ‘political thugs for hire.’” MORE

BERMAN EXPOSED: Richard Berman is a Washington, D.C.-based hired gun who uses front groups to defend his corporate clients against the public interest. Using his lobbying and consulting firm, Berman and Company, as a revenue vehicle for his activities, Berman runs at least 15 industry-funded projects, such as the Center for Union Facts, and holds 16 “positions” within these various entities. MORE

WIKIPEDIA: Astroturfing is a word in English describing formal political, advertising, or public relations campaigns seeking to create the impression of being spontaneous “grassroots” behavior, hence the reference to the artificial grass, AstroTurf. A basic explanation would be, if a grassroots movement is the collective efforts, on a local level, of dedicated people donating their time and efforts to further the cause of a political party or to help a candidate get elected, because they deem it to be good for the many, then Astroturfing (Astroturf being an artificial grass) is an artificial grassroots movement, one that is made to appear as though it is a real grassroots movement, but it is usually done to satify the desires of people or parties with interests, such as lobbyists or PACs, or other such group(s), and most often not at a local level. The goal of such a campaign is to disguise the efforts of a political or commercial entity as an independent public reaction to some political entity—a politician, political group, product, service or event. Astroturfers attempt to orchestrate the actions of apparently diverse and geographically distributed individuals, by both overt (“outreach”, “awareness”, etc.) and covert (disinformation) means. Astroturfing may be undertaken by an individual pushing a personal agenda or highly organized professional groups with financial backing from large corporations, unions, non-profits, or activist organizations. Very often the efforts are conducted by political consultants who also specialize in opposition research. MORE

EDITOR’S NOTE: David Berman, acclaimed poet, writer and singer-songwriter for the recently-disbanded Silver Jews, is the son of Richard Berman, groundskeeper of the astroturf for a myriad of toxic GOP causes. The following is a prose-poem/open letter David Berman posted to the Drag City web site back in January, outing himself as the scion of evil, and explaining the pain and anger of his estrangement from his father.

My Father, My Attack Dog

Now that the Joos are over I can tell you my gravest secret. Worse than suicide, worse than crack addiction: My father. You might be surprised to know he is famous, for terrible reasons. My father is a despicable man. My father is a sort of human molestor. An exploiter. A scoundrel. A world historical motherfucking son of a bitch. (sorry grandma) You can read about him here. www.bermanexposed.org My life is so wierd. It’s allegorical to the nth. My father went to college at Transylvania University. You see what I’m saying. A couple of years ago I demanded he stop his work. Close down his company or I would sever our relationship. He refused. He has just gotten worse. More evil. More powerful. We’ve been “estranged” for over three years. Even as a child I disliked him. We were opposites. I wanted to read. He wanted to play games. He is a union buster. When I got out of college I joined the Teamsters (the guards were union organized at the Whitney). I went off to hide in art and academia. I fled through this art portal for twenty years. In the mean time my Dad started a very very bad company called Berman and Company. He props up fast food/soda/factory farming/childhood obesity and diabetes/drunk driving/secondhand smoke. He attacks animal lovers, ecologists, civil action attorneys, scientists, dieticians, doctors, teachers. His clients include everyone from the makers of Agent Orange to the Tanning Salon Owners of America. He helped ensure the minimum wage did not move a penny from 1997-2007! The worst part for me as a writer is what he does with the english language. Though vicious he is a doltish thinker and his spurious editorials rely on doublethink and always with the Lashon Hara. As I studied Judaism over the years, the shame and the shanda, grew almost too much. my heart was constantly on fire for justice. I could find no relief. This winter I decided that the SJs were too small of a force to ever come close to undoing a millionth of all the harm he has caused. To you and everyone you know. Literally, if you eat food or have a job, he is reaching you. I’ve always hid this terrible shame from you, the fan. The SJs have always stood autonomous and clear. Hopefully it won’t contaminate your feelings about the work. My life has been riddled with Ibsenism. In a way I am the son of a demon come to make good the damage. Previously I thought, through songs and poems and drawings I could find and build a refuge away from his world. But there is the matter of Justice. And i’ll tell you it’s not just a metaphor. The desire for it actually burns. It hurts. There needs to be something more. I’ll see what that might be. DCB if you want to know what evil Herr Attackdog is currently up to look here: http://www.alternet.org/workplace/120426/ad_wars:_‘dr._evil’_vs._unions_over_employee_free_choice_act/

***

Q&A: David Berman of The Silver Jews

BY ED KING Since founding Silver Jews with with college friends Stephen Malkmus and Bob Nastanovich, songwriter/poet/cartoonist David Berman has rolled stoned, gathered a little moss along with a rotating cast of indie-rock contributors, hit rock bottom, toured the Promised Land, saw the light, and built an accomplished body of earthy, intelligent work. Over the years, as the band’s recordings moved from lo-fi to a matte finish country rock, Berman’s deep, wry, downbeat delivery remained a constant. In 2006, after years of not touring and surviving the lowest point in his personal life, Berman took Silver Jews, including his wife Cassie on bass, on the road for the first time. The tour would take the band as far as Israel. June saw the release of Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea (Drag City), the title of which refers in part to Berman’s restored eyesight following a cornea transplant. In the liner notes Berman supplies tablature so we can play along with the album and, if we’re not already hip to it, realize that the music is ours, not some complex mystery.

PHAWKER: What are five songs that might ease the suffering of your local jukebox?

DAVID BERMAN:
“Long Hot Summer” – The Style Council
“A Few Things Different” – Kenny Chesney (trust me on this one)
“Borrowed Angel” – Mel Street
“Rainy Day Woman” – Waylon Jennings
“Moments in Love” – Art of Noise
 
PHAWKER: You’ve worked with a shifting cast of musicians. Do you have your next set of recording musicians in mind while writing? How much do you expect the musicians to execute your visions for a song vs how much you expect them to shape the song?

DAVID BERMAN: Some songs find me specifically coaching, but in those 5 to 10 days of practicing the songs in a circle,  the band even criticizes itself or I’ll ask them what they think if x does y. There is some negotiation among the players and then there is the amount of figurative talk I’m feeding them about the song. I’ll try to explain the setting and mood with comparisons or correlations in the leadup to the first practices or as we go along. Until the basic tracks are down nothing is finalized, and so I never have to be stuck with a player’s part I don’t like. Not to mention they are all very smart and fluid, and one way or another “get me”, so a lot of this just happens silently and invisibly.

PHAWKER: You include the chord progressions for the songs on your new album, Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea. What secrets will be unlocked when I start playing along with the album?

DAVID BERMAN: Well for someone who has never taken a minute to look at how tablature works, it might unlock the secret to playing a guitar, or even writing on a guitar. To those who already know how to play I hope it will show them the option to not get lost in the pursuit of technique when simplicity will do.

PHAWKER: You’re also a published poet – and not, I assume, owing to your fantastic level of celebrity, like Jewel. Is there ever a time when you need to decide whether the words you’re writing should appear as a poem or a song lyric, or is that determined from the start? Do the ideas from a given point in your work flow over to both media?

DAVID BERMAN: The flowcharts of these things always start with me sitting down with the intention to write a poem or a song. There is no poetic idea, no matter how strong, that could cause me to sit down and write a poem in a season in my life where im ostensibly writing songs. I haven’t had a season for poetry in a long time.

PHAWKER: You did some time in academia when you were younger. If you were to go back to that world and develop a curriculum for examining the poetry of rock lyrics, what would be the first examples included and what would you ensure was excluded?

 

DAVID BERMAN: Chuck Berry immediately comes to mind. He was by far the tallest of the forefathers of rock and roll. I would imagine his skills threatened songwriters in Nashville, like Elvis’s was threatening its singers.
 
PHAWKER: It’s only been the last few years that you’ve toured. Have you noticed any changes in your songwriting as a result?

DAVID BERMAN: It’s probably more oracular or rhetorical.

PHAWKER: Your entry into the world of more regular touring followed struggles with some serious health and addiction problems, right? For some musicians, touring can be a challenge to recovery. Did you find it more difficult to stay healthy on the road, or did getting away from your everyday world actually help?

DAVID BERMAN: It helped. With Cassie I have a bubble inside the bubble that is a band on tour, so I don’t try to interact with vice at all. Also talking with wasted people after the shows, you see how you used to be, and it shames you. That’s a good thing.

PHAWKER: How does Judaism and Jewish-American identity play into your music today? The identity part was there from the beginning. Did your tour of Isreal add anything to your sense of self as a musician?
 
DAVID BERMAN: These are questions I’m also seeking an answer for, so asking me won’t do you any good.

PHAWKER: After years of being misidentified as a “Pavement offshoot” and, despite the probably annoyance I can imagine that sometimes caused, having fans led to your music thanks to the tie-in, do you ever hear of people being directed to Malkmus’ solo albums through your own records? The further he moves away from Pavement the more I hear him occupying your turf.

DAVID BERMAN: He has that elder statesman status that can both “a blessing and a hearse.” I better Google that to see if it’s original. It could be a good metal song… [Berman Googles this possible heavy metal song title.] Damn.  It’s pure for Google Books but a web search pulls up the early bird who got there first:

 

Results 1 – 1 of 1 for ” blessing and a hearse”. (0.25 seconds)

IRON HEARSE – “Iron Hearse”, 2007 reissue (Psychedoomelic); A blessing and a hearse. The first song on IRON HEARSE’s “Rocktopus” is about. . . a Rocktopus, …
www.peacedogman.com/reviews/030108ih.htm – 13k – Cached – Similar pages – Note this

PHAWKER: What’s your take on Charlie Rich’s “Silver Fox” hits of the ’70s? Do they in any way influence your own take on country music?

DAVID BERMAN: How much do I love that stuff? Like other bands love the Beach Boys, I love Charlie Rich in the ’70s.

PHAWKER: Charlton Heston or James Franciscus?

DAVID BERMAN: It’s so hard to tell the players in ’70s movies apart, what with all that lens flare and facial hair growing on… [Presumably, Berman Googles a phrase in hopes of clarifying the question.]

 

No results found for “lens flair and facial hair.”

 Ah, now I feel better. Thanks a lot. I enjoyed it.

*This interview originally ran on September 9th, 2008