Friday, April 25, 2008

Anne Feeney's Fellow Travelers' Advisory - MAY 2008, VOLUME FOUR, #2

Thanks for reading the Fellow Travelers' Advisory ... I know you're all busy folks - your support of my music and my work means more than I can say ... I REALLY couldn't do it without you!

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New CD & CD Release Parties!!

As soon as you see this, I hope you'll all go right to http://cdbaby.com/cd/annefeeney7 and order "Dump the Bosses Off Your Back" (if you haven't already). This is my best CD ever!

For several days "Dump the Bosses Off Your Back" was one of the top ten best-sellers at CDBaby! Whoo-hoo! thank you! The feedback I've been getting on this CD is wonderful. It's getting a lot of airplay, too.

If your favorite folk show isn't listed here:
http://fellow-travelers-advisory.blogspot.com/2008/04/ta-da-its-ready.html
let me know, and I'll send a CD on to the station with your compliments!

There are several upcoming CD release parties:

Pittsburgh - April 26th - Club Cafe
Botto House National Labor Museum, NJ - MAYDAY
St Catharine's/Niagara, ON - May 3rd - Arts Centre
Toronto - May 4th - Free Times Cafe
Susquehanna Music and Arts Festival - Mothers' Day weekend - May 9-11 - Darlington, MD
Chicago - May 18th -
Kerrville (TX) Folk Festival - May 24th - June 3rd
Pensacola, FL - June 5th

Details for all of these shows are continuously updating at http://annefeeney.com/calendar.html After that, I'll be in Europe until August 27th.


I'm still not booked for Labor Day, 2008!!

(PLEASE -- don't wait until I come to your town to get my new CD - I could really use your help getting the considerable expense of this CD retired ... and if you're already enjoying your copy, how about buying it for a couple friends? - THANKS!!)

If you like "Dump the Bosses Off Your Back," please consider posting an announcement for the cd to your friends. It would mean a lot to me. I've tried to make it real easy for you. You can cut and paste this blurb http://fellow-travelers-advisory.blogspot.com/2008/04/forward-this-release-to-your-friends.html into an email. Thanks!!

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The Easter Bunny brings me a Breast Egg

I was horrified to discover a LARGE lump on my left breast on Easter morning. It measured 3+ cm (more than an inch) in diameter when I went for the mammogram and biopsy three days later.

The biopsy turned up some atypical cells, and surgical removal is probably indicated. Miraculously, the lump has gotten MUCH smaller since then... less than 1 cm. I see a breast surgeon at 3PM on the 24th and I'm holding my breath until then... but it seems unlikely that this is anything serious, since it is getting smaller...

This adventure has left me with almost $2000 in medical bills that my insurance doesn't cover (I switched to one of those high-deductible plans a few months ago, but this came up before I set aside a medical savings account with the deductible in it...)

I've been in touch with so many of my wonderful women friends who have come out healthy and happy on the other side of this journey ... No matter what the news is on Thursday I am optimistic...

But before the June Fellow Travelers' Advisory comes out, I want all you women out there who have been procrastinating on a mammogram to go DO IT!

I'll post something on my blog as soon as I know what's up...


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MAYDAY

I am so looking forward to the annual Mayday celebration at the American Labor Museum at Botto House in Haledon, NJ. This will be Julius Margolin's return to show-biz after his hospitalization.. What a joy it will be to see him and work with him again.

The amazing Chris Chandler will be there too - and he and I have been collaborating on a new piece of his over the telephone that we'll be debuting at Botto House.

I hope that your community is figuring out a way to honor International Workers' Day. The ILWU plans to shut down the ports of the West Coast to protest the war on May 1, 2008. Madison always has a great Mayday celebration, and it looks like Minneapolis/St Paul is planning a gala celebration this year... Still it looks as though most of the Mayday festivals are again being held outside the US this year. It's ironic, since Mayday honors the sacrifice of Chicago's Haymarket Martyrs in the battle for an eight hour day.

Wherever you are on May 1st, I hope you'll raise a glass with a friend and sing (to the tune of Daisy, Daisy):

Mayday, Mayday
That's the real workers' day
Labor's history says
Don't give your day away
It's time that the working class sez
"Stick Labor Day up your (orifice of choice)"
Now ain't it great
To celebrate on the glorious First of May!

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Coalition of Immokalee Workers' Fair Food Campaign

Visit CIW at http://ciw-online.org for the latest news in the exciting Fair Food Campaign being waged with Burger King.

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School of the Americas....

If you take a visit to http://soaw.org you'll be appalled to see our tax dollars being used to fund a terrorist training camp right here in the US.

If you want to quit training military and paramilitary types from central and south america in torture and counter-insurgency techniques, School of the Americas Watch has made it very simple for you.

Just click here and SOA Watch will figure out who your member of congress is, tell you how s/he voted on funding for the SOA, and send a letter from you to that member of congress.

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Labor Notes Fracas

This year's Labor Notes conference was livened up by the presence of a boisterous bunch of misguided SEIU members who attempted to crash and disrupt the annual Labor Notes banquet. They had been told this was a "union busters' banquet." A couple hundred members of Andy Stern's purple ocean washed into the lobby of the Hyatt Dearborn, and tried to push their way into the ballroom, where 900 union activists were gathered for Labor Notes' annual fundraising dinner.


The controversy centered over Labor Notes decision to invite Rose Ann De Moro to speak to the conference attendees. (As it happened, Rose Ann wasn't even there.) Rose Ann is one of the most articulate advocates for national health care in the nation, and her union, the California Nurses' Association, has achieved extraordinary victories - like mandated staff-to-patient ratios in California.

More recently, Rose Ann's union, the National Nurses' Organizing Committee, interfered in a scheduled union election in Ohio, between SEIU and Catholic Healthcare Partners. Good arguments can be made for both SEIU and NNOC's positions - but SEIU didn't come to debate. They would have been welcome to participate in the many lively workshops at the conference that weekend. Instead they opted to appear in the middle of the dinner, pushing, shoving, shouting and disrupting. One longtime Detroit activist and former Labor Notes staffer, Dianne Feeley, (a UAW retiree) sustained a head wound that required several stitches.

My pal Ron Kaminkow went out to engage the rowdy SEIU members in dialog. While most of the SEIU members shouted him down and refused to engage in conversation, a couple did speak to Ron. He said they seemed genuinely surprised to learn that the banquet was being served by union members to union activists - locomotive engineers, electricians, plumbers, pipefitters, teachers, writers, teamsters, auto workers - even other members of SEIU - all there to honor a 911 rescue worker suffering severe respiratory ailments, several African-American women on strike since February against 50 per cent pay cuts at a nearby UAW-represented American Axle Plant; some Black and Latino day laborers from Baltimore who led a "living wage" campaign to aid their fellow stadium cleaners at Camden Yards; and three New York City cabbies from the Taxi Workers Alliance that led last Fall's strike by 10,000 yellow cab drivers.

The Hyatt called the Dearborn police as the banquet staff retreated to the kitchen until the food could be served safely. When the police arrived, the SEIU contingent departed, shouting "We'll be back." I hope they register for the conference next time.

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Come to Ireland with me!

2008 is going to be a great year ... I can't believe that I'll get to spend over a month in Ireland touring around with dear friends.

The August tour to Ireland is full. I still have two spots for the June 10-19 tour of Kerry, Clare and Galway, and 11 for September's tour of Cork, Kerry and Clare. If you're interested, check out http://www.annefeeney.com/Pages/enchantedwaytours.html and email me with any questions you have.


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MAY BIRTHDAYS -

My sister, Kathleen Feeney - May 3, Pete Seeger - May 3, 1919, my cousin, Antonito Blanco - May 3, 2007, my cousin Paul Eric Grefenstette - May 10, my high school sweetheart, Bill Deegan - May 10, my cousin Tony Mumphrey - May 15, my cousin Kevin McCahill - May 15, Utah Phillips - May 15, 1935, my cousin Terry Donovan - May 23.


Birthday greetings can be sent to:

Pete Seeger
Box 431
Beacon, NY 12508

and

Utah Phillips
PO BOX 1235
Nevada City, CA 95959


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UPCOMING DATES

Saturday, April 26th, 2008 7 - 9PM
CD Release for Dump the Bosses Off Your Back with Anne Feeney AND many Ornery Duffers!
Club Cafe
56-58 South 12th Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15203
http://clubcafelive.com
Price: $10
doors open at 6PM, the show will start by 7PM - Celebrate the release of my best CD ever!!

Thursday, May 1st, 2008 7:00 PM
Mayday Celebration
Botto House American Labor Museum
83 Norwood St
Haledon, NJ

Saturday, May 3rd, 2008 8:00 PM
St Catherine's & District Labour Council Mayday Celebration
Niagara Arts Centre
Niagara/St Catherine's, ON
Canada
ballen (@)cogeco.ca>


Sunday, May 4th, 2008 8:00 PM
Anne Feeney and Peter Kastner
Free Times Cafe
320 College St.
Toronto, ON
(416) 280-6456


Friday, May 9th - Sunday May 11th, 2008
Susquehanna Music and Arts Festival
Ramblewood Resort
2564 Silver Road
Darlington, MD 21035
http://www.susquehannamusicandartsfestival.com/


Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 8:00 PM
Benefit Concert for U Utah Phillips
Barrymore Theater
2090 Atwood Ave
Madison, WI 53704
Larry Penn, Lou and Peter Berryman, David HB Drake, Anne Feeney and more!!

Thursday, May 15th, 2008 8:00 PM
Regina Polk Women's Labor Leadership Conference
Pheasant Run Resort
St Charles, IL
this event runs through May 18, 2007.

Sunday, May 18th, 2008 4:00 PM
Chicago CD Release for Dump the Bosses Off Your Back! - 4PM till 7PM
Heartland Cafe
7000 North Glenwood
Chicago, IL 60626
773-465-8005
http://www.heartlandcafe.com/hc_index.htm
Price: $15
The Chicago IWW, the Greens and several other progressive groups are sponsoring this concert! Your ticket benefits the group of your choice!

Tuesday, May 20th, 2008 7:00 PM
Out of This Furnace Benefit Concert
with Smokestack Lightning!
Braddock Elks Lodge #883
Library St
Braddock, PA
Price: $ lots-it's a fundraiser!!!
lauracsmiley(@)yahoo.com is the contact

Saturday, May 24th - Wednesday, June 4th
Kerrville Folk Festival
Kerrville, TX
I'll be doing my annual pilgrimage to one of my favorite festivals to relax and visit with all my pals
http://www.kerrvillefolkfestival.com/

Thursday, June 5th, 2008 7:00 PM
Live on WUWF RadioLive!
Museum of Commerce
Pensacola, FL
http://wuwf.org
Price: free

Friday, June 20th, 2008 8:00 PM
Touring Sweden and Denmark
Sweden
http://www.goatbridge.com/bokning.asp
fredrik(@)goatbridge.com is handling all my bookings in Europe from June 20 through August 13th...
email him if you have any suggestions!

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CDs available at http://cdbaby.com/all/unionmaid

THANKS!

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