OUTERNATIONAL & TOM MORELLO RELEASE WOODY GUTHRIE’S “DEPORTEES” IN RESPONSE TO ARIZONA LAW
For a free download or to stream:
http://outernational.net/Deportees.mp3
In response to the recently passed Arizona Immigration Law AZ SB1070, a newly charged version of Woody Guthrie’s “Deportees” has been recorded by Outernational featuring Tom Morello: The Nightwatchman. The song is available to the public at no cost and it is the band’s hope that everyone who hears it will spread it far and wide by posting and re-posting online, and that radio and other media will pick up on it as well.
“As sides are being drawn over the issue of immigration, I’m honored to join with Outernational on Woody Guthrie’s “Deportees”. Prejudice and ignorance are at the core of Arizona’s recent immigration legislation and Woody Guthrie’s “Deportees” was written to combat just that sort of prejudice,” voiced Tom Morello.
Woody Guthrie wrote “Deportees” in 1948 some days after a plane crash occurred in the Los Gatos Mountains, near the farms of the California central valley. The crash took the lives of several Americans and 28 migrant, Mexican workers. Guthrie was taken by how the reports of the crash only mentioned the names of the Americans and referred to the Mexican workers as just deportees.
An airplane caught fire over Los Gatos Canyon
Like a fireball of lightning it shook all our hills
Who are these friends all scattered like dry leaves?
The radio says, “They are just deportees”
Outernational will be on the ground, in Arizona on May 29th in lock step solidarity with the thousands of people protesting this law. They believe that taken together, SB 1070, along with House Bill 2281, the new legislation which targets and dismantles ‘ethnic studies,’ represents officially sanctioned white supremacy and American chauvinism.
Some of us are illegal and some are not wanted
When contract is out, we’ve got to move on
Its six hundred miles to the Mexican border
They chase us like outlaws, like rustlers, like thieves
Outernational has been touring non-stop for many months and began to revitalize “Deportees” on stage as they played shows on their way out west from their home in New York City. The band is known for its revolutionary message and electrified genre bending rock sound; it’s no wonder their version of the powerful folk song became an up-tempo and rousing celebration of Mexican culture complete with accordion and eventually a classical guitar solo courtesy of Morello.
“We recorded Deportees with Tom Morello and are going down to Arizona on May 29th to stand with all the people courageously fighting back against these unjust and immoral laws. Outernational is about a whole new world, a world without borders and nations. Todos somos illegales. We are all illegals,” expressed Miles Solay of Outernational.
The song is excellent. I hadn’t heard of Outernational before, but I just listened to some of their other music, and there are some good songs there. Not on the level of The Nightwatchman or Street Sweeper Social Club, but then, what is?
Verena took these incredible photos of a baby fox we saw at Fasanerie Wiesbaden (a kind of wildlife park) the other day.
We just stood there for several minutes, staring and making incoherent sounds. It was cuteness personified. It was beauty itself. It was babyfox.
Its mother was nearby, taking a nap:
You can see the rest of the photos Verena took on that day here.
I’m seeing/getting the first few complaints about Phenomenon 32 being socialist/atheist propaganda, and I already feel much better. I was wondering when that was going to happen. The atheist part is particularly silly, of course, given that the game very specifically uses quotes by Malcolm X (a devout Muslim) and Martin Luther King, Jr. (a devout Christian). Of course it also talks about the necessity for spiritual humility in the face of this vast universe we inhabit, and it does also prominently feature the thoughts of atheists like Carl Sagan and Isaac Asimov, but that’s the whole point: to represent a multiplicity of voices.
As for the socialist bit… well, you can see it that way. I didn’t set out to make a socialist game; I set out to make a game about humanity, and about the survival of humanity. Since I believe that our future is intimately connected to our ability to work together and put the common good above individual profit, you could say that the game represents a socialist point of view. How else can any kind of storytelling function? We tell the stories that are meaningful to us, that we believe in.
You don’t have to agree, after all. I don’t agree with everything I read or see. Nor do I expect to. One of my favourite books is and remains G. K. Chesterton’s Orthodoxy, a work of Christian philosophy/apologetics. I loved reading that book, just as I loved gathering all the quotes from various parts of humanity that are central to Phenomenon 32‘s storytelling. Why? Because the history of human thought is interesting. Because there can be great poetry in the thoughts of people who think differently than we do, and we should not ignore that.
That is not to say that we must agree with everyone, or hold that every position is equally valid. But we also don’t need to go all Christopher Hitchens and dismiss everyone who disagrees with us as an idiot. The beauty of human thought and philosophy is that there has always been a multiplicity of voices; personally, as long as those voices have something positive to say about humanity, I’m interested. I may think Ayn Rand was crazy and evil, but I’ll take ten Ayn Rands over one Harold Bloom.
The patch to version 1.5 of Phenomenon 32 is now available. It fixes some issues with the Reconstruction Workshop and adds a more accessible control scheme.
And I need sleep. More updates tomorrow.
Haven’t uploaded the patch yet, mostly because today was a confusing day and I haven’t had enough time yet. Also, we’re going to go see Prince of Persia in a few minutes, so I won’t be home for a few hours. But I did fix everything, and will upload the patch when we’re back.
For now, you could read about Verena’s delightful adventures in The Twilight Experiment: Day One and Day Two.
Tomorrow I’m going to release one more patch for Phenomenon 32. It will fix some remaining issues with the Reconstruction Workshop and alter the controls to something more modern and conventional.
I never realized that the space/shift controls would be an issue, mostly because I grew up in an era where game controls on the PC were much more varied. (I’m also an old ADOM player, and in ADOM just about every key has three different functions.) But, unlike the difficulty or the existence of a manual, this is not a creative decision, but a purely practical one, and I think I ought to listen to the players.
Today is Towel Day.
Wear your towel proudly.
And remember Douglas Adams.
There’s a review of Phenomenon 32 by Gregory Weir up at The Independent Gaming Source. I like it; it praises the parts of the game that are good, and makes several entirely fair criticisms. The game is, after all, rough around the edges. And it does crash frequently on some systems. I wish that wasn’t true, but it is. Frustrating as hell, but until Construct is updated, there isn’t much I can do.
(BTW, the game has upwards of 70 levels.)
I’m thinking of actually putting a copy of what I wrote in the GameJolt description on my site, too. I think it’s good for people to know what they’re getting into.
Phenomenon 32 is back up on GameJolt, now with a new description that will hopefully confuse people less as to the nature of the game.
A discussion with the owner/creator of GameJolt (who is very nice) has convinced me that to simply remove the game is to give in to the people who are currently making the site less than it could be. Not because the game is the most perfect creation ever, but because no matter what its flaws and its audience, it is a serious indie effort, and that’s what GameJolt is supposed to be about. If I remove my game, I’m also sending a signal to other indie developers that GameJolt is more trouble than it’s worth. And I don’t want to do that, because – as I said in an earlier post – I really do think the site has great potential.
So Phenomenon 32 is back up, and I’ll also upload a couple of my other games (I can only giggle at what the reaction to those might be). This time I’ll keep my cool.
If you enjoyed the game – and by now it’s starting to appear that several people really, really did – then I would be enormously grateful if you went over to GameJolt and left a comment and/or rating.
Yes, you’re right. I overreacted.
I behaved in a way that can only be described as silly, and fed the trolls some prime trollfood. Granted, the attacks were more personal than usual this time, but being hated by idiots comes with being any kind of artist. Especially a silly one like me. What can I say? Sometimes, especially when I’m tired and/or enthusiastic, I forget to turn on my inner cynic.
But why am I complaining? Many of the people whose opinions I respect are enthusiastic about Phenomenon 32. The right people are having fun. Sure, the haters make everything more difficult, but since when is that new? My games are wildly successful compared to some of the reactions William Blake got to his work, and his work is infinitely better than anything I’ve ever done.
Yep. Totally overreacted. Blame it on the state of mind of someone who’s spent entirely too much time sitting in front of Construct trying to make everything work.
There are other things to worry about, other stories to be told.
One good thing did come out of all this, though: all this thinking and worrying about trolls helped me come up with a wonderful opening line for my next game. Speaking of which: yes, it’s going to happen. Donations are still extremely welcome and helpful. And I have decided upon a timeframe of sorts: I’ll take a break from game design for a few months to work on other projects (like getting my book published), and with fresh energy and enthusiasm I will make the game in September-October. Maybe I’ll even make it in Construct, if it’s a bit more stable by then.
Anyway. Things are good. I got a new monitor for my birthday, and lots of books. There are stories to read, and stories to tell, and a cat to feed. What else can a person want?
