Not a LAHFing Matter
Breaking the law!Central Oregon seems to love Larry and His Flask, but the same can’t be said for the Southern Oregon University campus security team, which sent the wheels of chaos in motion, resulting in three members of the punk-turned-rampaging-Americana act to jail for the Martin Luther King Jr. weekend.
As the band’s multi-instrumentalist Dallin Bulkley tells it, the trouble started when bassist Jeshua Marshall was approached by a pair of SOU campus security guards who told him he was banned from the campus. This was news to Marshall and the rest of LAHF, who were in town on Saturday, Jan. 17 on tour opening a show for Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band and had never been told that they were not welcome on the campus where they’ve played previously.
After Jeshua refused to give the campus security guards his I.D., things got weird, Bulkley says, with five additional guards showing up and shouting that Marshall, Bulkley and drummer Jamin Marshall were “under arrest.” Ashland police were called to the scene and Jamin, Jeshua and Bulkley were taken to jail, accused of trespassing, disorderly content and harassment, where they remained for three days due to the holiday weekend.
Now free and back on tour in California, the band is still confused as to how they were “trespassing” at a venue where they had a show booked.
“No one talked to us specifically. We heard through some other people that they didn’t want us there, but we basically heard that through the grapevine,” Bulkley says.
Our Best, Our Brightest, Our Biggest Fearmongerers
How silly of Americans to think they can simply elect Barack Obama and close Gitmo! Just ask the Pentagon: Hours before Obama was inaugurated as President and Commander in Chief, several “Defense” and “Intelligence” officials took it upon themselves to leak a classified report that 62 detainees released from Guantanamo Bay have “returned to terrorist activities.” Taking advantage of a very lame duck George W. Bush, or taking his lead in leaking classified materials over the past eight years, the report – which, gracefully, won’t be made fully available even after calls from Congress to explain such a timely and devastating leak – says that former-detainee No. 372 (now known to be Said Ali Al-Shihri) has reemerged since being released to Saudi Arabia in 2007 as a deputy commander of Al Qaeda in Yemen. Hmmm, it makes one wonder: If we know where and what he’s up to, why is Al Shihri still breathing? Sounds like high time for retirements en masse of brass. Oh, and another leak, that Barack Obama is now Commander in Chief. Until then, spend our hundreds of billions wisely, General Chaos!
Other Political Fodder
Wink! In case you haven’t heard enough profundity from Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, SarahPac has been started to “support local and national candidates who share Gov. Palin’s ideas and goals for our country…” and intended to be “a strong voice for energy independence and reform.” SarahPac is already overwhelmed by copies of “all of” the newspapers and magazines the deep-thinking Palin reads, as well as bribes, err, political donations from energy companies eager to sully Alaska. On the subject of deep-thinking Governors, Rod Blagojevich ignored his own impeachment trial in Illinois in favor of doing the media circuit in New York. Of course he’ll be impeached – Illinois isn’t that corrupt, or is it? The sound-bite extraordinaire – [Obama’s Senate Seat is a] “valuable thing, you just don’t give it away for nothing” – tried to plead his case to the ladies of The View, adding with deep introspection that he’d considered Oprah Winfrey to replace Obama. Awww! Give the guy a break, who doesn’t love the big O?
The Trials of Ted
Ted Haggard, remember Ted? The evangelical leader of tens of thousands in Colorado, who was outed by his male escort for smoking more than Meth – He’s back! The very man who succeeded Ted, Pastor Brady Boyd, said there is an “overwhelming pool (ick!) of evidence” that Ted was also spreading the love with a young male church volunteer. Interestingly, this information surfaced (double ick!) as Haggard was preparing to be interviewed on HBO about his time in exile. Equally interesting is Haggard’s statement that he “was certain the man was of legal age when it began.”
Die Rabbit Die
On a mournful note, we lost author John Updike this week to lung cancer at the age of 76. One of our most prolific and honest writers, Updike gave us the Rabbit series, as well as The Witches of Eastwick – which he followed up with The Widows of Eastwick late last year. Still publishing from the grave, My Father’s Tears and Other Stories will be released this year, but sadly, most will remember John Updike as the ghostwriter of Krusty the Klown’s autobiography on an episode of The Simpsons. Faking It
WTF?
What is it with the recent trend of lip-synching at monumental events? Upfront noted this problem last summer at the Summer Games when Chinese officials trotted out a ringer to sing the “Ode to the Motherland.” News of the trickery was met with disdain in the States. But that didn’t stop Barack Obama’s inauguration team for staging its own bait-and-switch at last Tuesday’s inauguration when a quartet featuring famed cellist Yo Yo Ma and violinist Itzhak Perlman faked their performance in the Lincoln Mall because it was “too cold.”
Now, Upfront wasn’t among the millions who made the pilgrimage to D.C. for the swearing in ceremony, but if we had we couldn’t help but feel a little duped. The perfomers, of course, have defended their decision to lip-synch, drawing a line between themselves and the likes of Milli Vanilli and Ashlee Simpson – after all they really can play. But, seriously, have we as a society become so scripted and sanitized that we can’t tolerate one mistake, or bear one sour note? WTF. Robert Frost is rolling in his grave.
This article appears in Jan 29 – Feb 4, 2009.
MAKE LOCAL JOURNALISM HAPPEN
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This letter is addressed to all lovers of music, musicians and any human beings that believes in freedom in anyway. Larry And His Flask are a independently managed International touring band. The band has been playing and touring since October 2003. Larry and His Flask have played in 14 states and 7 provinces in North America. They have been played on radio stations in the US, Canada, Mexico, Europe, and South Africa. Larry And His Flask played on the 2007 Warped tour at the gorge in Washington state and has even played at both the State Penitentiary and Coyote Ridge Correctional facility in Oregon and Washington.
In all of their 5 year career as musicians they have never been treated with such unprofessional behavior and preexisting malice as they did on January 17th in Ashland at Southern Oregon University.
Larry And His Flask had a planned performance opening for Side One Dummy recording artist Reverend Peyton and his Big Damn Band (www. bigdamnband. com). At around 6:30 pm; Jeshua Marshall (the band’s bass player and singer) went outside to their van and found himself surrounded by campus security. Campus security told him the entire band was trespassing on to the university and they would not be allowed to preform. Jeshua, believing that Campus Security did not have the authority to act based on the illigitimacy of the trespassing charge, reacted by refusing to give them his name and proceeded to leave in a very peaceful manner. As Jeshua was walking away, Campus Security attacked him and tried to put hand cuffs on him.
In the end, Dallin Bulkley (Banjo player), Jamin Marshall (singer and drummer) and Jeshua Marshall were all arrested and taken to Jail. They now we are facing some pretty severe charges for the incident including Tresspasing II, Disordily conduct II, and 2 Harrasment charges, which if inforced could result in extensive jail time.
This incident was at the begining of a month long tour of California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colardo and Nevada. They were jailed for for 3 days,January 17th, 18th, 19th & 20th in Jackson county which prevented Larry and his Flask from 3 scheduled prefomances in California. They were released on the evening of January 20th.
Our goal in this letter is to get the word out to our friends and fans who know us personally so the Court of Jackson County can understand that Larry And His Flask are not violent people and do not cause problems like this. The security was completly out of line and should be punished for their actions. Larry and His Flask did not knowingly trespass onto SOU. It is unjust and unlawful for Campus Security and the Ashland PD to take the severe actions they did without before contacting the Flask and officially notifying them they were not allowed at SOU, which they have neglected to do even up to now.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
We want to get as much publicity as possible and we don’t have alot of time.. The court date is on feburary 23rd at 1:30pm in Medford Oregon. If you could do a favor for Larry And His Flask and show your support by contacting SOU by email/phone call/or sending a letter to southern Oregon university and let them know that they are not violent people and the campus police acted unreasonably to a group of peaceful mucisians. Here is the info: Laura O’bryon is the Dean of Students and can be could contacted at Southern Oregon University 541 552 6221, obryon@sou.edu, SOU stevenson Union 322 1250 Siskiyou Boulevard Ashland, OR 97520 or you can contact the President of SOU, Mary Cullinan at 541-552-6111.
In addition to writing the University, people can also write letters to the Editor to the newspapers around Ashland. Here are some of the papers we know about: Daily Tidings Ashland Newspaper, Medford Mail Tribune, Range River Press, Ashland Free press, and the Lewis and Clark College Paper. If you have any other ideas of how we can raise awareness about this incident and get energy behind keeping these boys out of jail.
Our only chance is to get it public and get as many people on our side and do it completely legally so no more problems occur. You can help us by letting your voice be heard and getting other people to do the same.
Thank you so much for your time and help, we appreciate your prayers and concern!
to contact us for more info phone 541 815 7995
larryandhisflask@hotmail.com or www. myspace. com/larryandhisflask
“Robert Frost is rolling in his grave.”
Maybe not. Robert Frost flubbed his lines at JFK’s inauguration, referring to him as “President John Finley.” I remember it well, although of course Upfront was not even a gleam in his father’s eye yet.