Darius Rucker

Darius Rucker played at Jazzfest today and it was a wonderful performance. Rucker is very distinct among his other country singer counterparts. Many of you may only know him as the lead singer of Hootie and the Blowfish. In early 2008, Rucker signed to Capitol Records Nashville as the beginning of a career in country music. His first solo single, "Don't Think I Don't Think About It" debuted at #51 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts for the week of May 3, 2008. It is the first single from his second album, Learn to Live, which was produced by Frank Rogers. Rucker also made his Grand Ole Opry debut in July 2008. "Don't Think I Don't Think About It" reached Top 20 on the country charts in July 2008, making him the first African-American singer to reach Top 20 on the country charts since Charley Pride in 1988. The single reached number one in September, making Rucker the first solo, African-American artist to chart a number one country hit since Pride's "Night Games" in 1983. Rucker's entry into the country world was met with some intrigue, largely because of his history as a rock musician and because he is an African American. Billboard magazine said that "there's a sense of purpose that makes Rucker feel like a member of the country family, rather than calculating interloper." Rucker made visits to various country stations around the country, explaining that he was aware that he was the "new kid on the block." Mike Culotta, the program director of the Tampa, Florida radio station WQYK-FM expected that Rucker would be "somebody who would have entitlement," but instead said that "Darius engaged everybody." When Rucker found that "Don't Think I Don't Think About It" went to number one, he cried. On November 11, 2009, Rucker won the Country Music Association New Artist of the Year award, making him the first African American to do so. Only one other African American has won at the CMA; Charley Pride, who won entertainer of the year in 1971 and male vocalist in 1971-72. I've always thought that he is the symbol that says country music isn't only for white rednecks from the south. This comes to my mind because often times when I tell people I mostly listen to country they respond by saying country is for "hicks and rednecks" or how every song sounds the same.

Dr. Kevorkian

Last Friday the Al Pacino movie You Don't Know Jack opened. It also stars John Goodman and Susan Sarandon. You Don't Know Jack is a biography about Dr. Jack Kevorkian. In case you don't know who Jack Kevorkian is, he is very well known for publicly championing a terminal patient's right to die via physician-assisted suicide. He claims to have assisted at least 130 patients to that end. He famously said that "dying is not a crime." On the November 22, 1998, broadcast of 60 Minutes, Kevorkian allowed the airing of a videotape he had made on September 17, 1998, which depicted the voluntary euthanasia of Thomas Youk, 52, who was in the final stages of ALS. After Youk provided his fully informed consent on September 17, 1998, Kevorkian himself administered a lethal injection. This was highly significant, as all of his earlier clients had reportedly completed the process themselves. During the videotape, Kevorkian dared the authorities to try to convict him or stop him from carrying out assisted suicides. This incited the prosecuting attorney to bring murder charges against Kevorkian, claiming he had single-handedly caused the death. On March 26, 1999, Kevorkian was charged with first-degree homicide and the delivery of a controlled substance. Kevorkian's license to practice medicine had been revoked eight years previously; he was not legally allowed to possess the controlled substance. As homicide law is relatively fixed and routine, this trial was markedly different from earlier ones that involved an area of law in flux. Kevorkian discharged his attorneys and proceeded through the trial representing himself. The judge ordered a criminal defense attorney to remain available at trial for information and advice. Inexperienced in law and persisting in his efforts to represent himself, Kevorkian encountered great difficulty in presenting his evidence and arguments. The Michigan jury found Kevorkian guilty of second-degree homicide. It was proven that he had directly killed a person because Youk was not physically able to kill himself. Youk, unable to assist in his suicide, agreed to let Kevorkian kill him using controlled substances. The judge sentenced Kevorkian to serve 10–25 years in prison and told him: "You were on bond to another judge when you committed this offense, you were not licensed to practice medicine when you committed this offense and you hadn't been licensed for eight years. And you had the audacity to go on national television, show the world what you did and dare the legal system to stop you. Well, sir, consider yourself stopped." Kevorkian was sent to prison in Coldwater, Michigan. Terminally ill with Hepatitis C, which he contracted while doing research on blood transfusions in Vietnam, Kevorkian was expected to die within a year in May 2006. After applying for a pardon, parole, or commutation by the parole board and Governor Jennifer Granholm, he was paroled on June 1, 2007, due to good behavior. He had only spent 8 years and 2½ months behind bars rather than the predicted 10–25 years. "Kevorkian will be on parole for two years, and one of the conditions he must meet is that he cannot help anyone else die. He is also prohibited from providing care for anyone who is older than 62 or is disabled. He could go back to prison if he violates his parole." Kevorkian said he would abstain from assisting any more terminal patients with death, and his role in the matter would strictly be to persuade states to change their laws on assisted suicide. He is also forbidden by the rules of his parole from commenting about assisted suicide.

Kyrgyzstan

I don't know how many people have been paying attention to this but recently it looks like a revolution is brewing in Kyrgyzstan. The mass revolt that toppled the autocratic president of Kyrgyzstan had its roots in the impoverishment of the mass of the population and growing discontent over repression and human rights violations. Predictably, many commentators in the U.S. press focused on the implications for the U.S. airbase in the town of Manas, a critical part of the supply chain for the U.S. war in Afghanistan. Some pundits have pointed the finger at Russia, which was upset over the pro-U.S. tilt of the ousted Kyrgyzstan President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. But Russian President Dimitri Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin couldn't have been pleased by the sight of demonstrators who defied the police, seized their weapons, and stormed the parliament and the presidential palace. Anxieties will be greater still in the presidential palaces of the neighboring Central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, where despots fear a similar mass rebellion. Thus, a popular revolt in a country of just 5 million people has sent shock waves through the region. As Russian author and activist Boris Kagarlitsky said in an interview from Moscow: "This was more of a social uprising then a revolution. There is a lot of unrest. But while people are rebelling against the current regime, they have no trust in the opposition, either. It is a social uprising with very little political perspective. Sooner or later, one or another group of elites will take over, because there is no other political force capable of doing so." Here is a video of what has been taking place over the last few days: