Hotel Chelsea (05.03.22)

Playing songs that no one knows for people who like newness. Photo by Kat.

I did a super neat show at Hotel Chelsea in Second Life last night, with a special themed set of all indie and alternative music. It was great, and I'd been looking forward to that show for a good long while, but we have some other stuff to talk about first.

The End of Roe v. Wade
As everyone saw coming for years and yet seemed completely shocked when it actually happened, on the evening of Monday May 2, Politico broke a story about a leaked draft opinion from the Supreme Court regarding the imminent overturning of the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling from 1973. That decision ruled that the 14th Amendment of the Constitution provided a right to privacy under the Due Process clause that allowed women the right to choose to have an abortion. The court voted confidently on this issue at the time, with 7-2 of the justices in favor.

Roe v. Wade has allowed American women to get safe and legal abortions since 1973. Photo via NBC News.

Of note: Roe has been the basis of a number of other landmark cases that invoke the 14th Amendment, such as Lawrence v. Texas (legalizing sodomy/homosexuality in 2003) and Obergefell v. Hodges (legalizing same sex marriage in 2015). It should also be noted that the 14th Amendment itself, beyond its initial intention of providing citizenship rights and equal protection under law to Black former slaves, has been the basis of other cases like Brown v. Board of Education (making racial segregation illegal in 1954), Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections (making poll taxes illegal in 1966), and many others.

The leak was quickly confirmed as accurate by Chief Justice John Roberts, qualified with a statement that, "it does not represent a decision by the Court or the final position of any member on the issues in the case." That being said, the current hyper-conservative Court currently has a 6-3 vote in favor of overturning Roe, which means it's all but done.

Politico's bombshell report of the leak on Monday May 2. Side note: if you're more worried about the leak itself than the information contained within, you're probably part of the problem.

They've Made Mistakes Before

The Supreme Court is made of humans, and humans are nothing if not imperfect. In 1857, the infamous Dred Scott v. Sanford case stated that Black people could not be US citizens. 1896's Plessy v. Ferguson case upheld state segregation laws. Those terrible decisions were reversed by subsequent rulings per above.

But an overturn of Roe (which also overturns Planned Parenthood v. Casey, I should add) might be the first time that an individual freedom that Americans have had for multiple generations is being purposefully removed via SCOTUS ruling. It's disconcerting in many ways beyond the egregious impact on the autonomous rights of women, and might very well set a precedent that leads to more freedoms being taken away.

Meet Dred Scott, a man that seven out of nine SCOTUS justices in 1857 said could not be a citizen of the USA due to his skin color. They don't always get it right, but eventually things seem to work out.

Lying Liars Who Lie

During their respective confirmation hearings, several current SCOTUS justices were pressed on whether overturning Roe was on their agenda in the Court. Here are their responses under oath:

Neil Gorsuch, 2017:

"I would tell you that Roe v. Wade, decided in 1973, is a precedent of the United States Supreme Court. It has been reaffirmed. A good judge will consider it as precedent of the U.S. Supreme Court worthy as treatment of precedent like any other."

Brett Kavanaugh, 2018:

"It is settled as a precedent of the Supreme Court, entitled the respect under principles of stare decisis. The Supreme Court has recognized the right to abortion since the 1973 Roe v. Wade case. It has reaffirmed it many times."

Those carefully-worded statements say the same thing: in essence, being a landmark SCOTUS case that set precedence and has been challenged and reaffirmed, that Roe would be held as sacred as any other precedent decision, like Brown v. Board of Education and others.

But really, if they can so callously overturn Roe after making those sworn statements in their confirmation hearings, there's nothing stopping them from removing other rights that have represented the progress toward greater freedom and equality for all Americans. There's no end to what could happen moving forward if Roe is indeed now over.

These guys finally get their wish of controlling the uterus of every American woman.

A Couple of Important Facts

• Overturning Roe does not mean abortion is illegal in the USA. It will still be on a state-by-state basis. However, 26 out of 50 states have laws that indicate intention to legally force women to give birth, and 13 of those states already have "trigger bans" in effect, ready to make abortion fully illegal the moment Roe is overturned: Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming.
• Abortion rights could be codified at a national level. It would take 60 members of the Senate to do so, something that's basically impossible in the current system. The filibuster would have to be ended in order to make it happen, and it's unlikely that will happen either.
• Abortion is also a religious issue, but in a different way than you might understand. Traditional Jewish law permits abortion and and even requires it in some circumstances, such as when the life or health of the pregnant person is at stake. Be prepared for a major fight in regard to religious freedom that might spill over into other areas that the conservative wing has not anticipated.
• Speaking of being prepared, I have some advice for you. In the situation where state laws might change rapidly under this activist Court, you might want to have some plans in place if you'd be affected by:
• Birth control becoming illegal.
• Same sex marriages being nullified.
• Homosexual acts being punishable by law.

There's much more, but you have other places to get knowledge. I'm obviously just some random guy. But I will say this: coming months will be filled with protests, and the midterm elections in November will be massively impacted by this issue. The one power you have to effect change, at least for the time being, is your vote. Ask your government representatives at every level from your local city to county to state to federal if they support the SCOTUS decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. If they do, vote them out at the earliest opportunity.

The forced-birth states are shown in maroon and red. The states that offer legal protection for women's health are in blue. Map via NBC.

So How About that Show?

Yeah. Trust me, I'd really have preferred spending the time it took to write all this shit and instead write about having done a really interesting and unique show. I can't control the timing of major world events, though, and I'd have been a giant asshole to not talk about what's going on with Roe at this moment.

For some time, I'd wanted to do a show where I exclusively focused on indie and alternative artists. Granted, this style of music finds its way into my sets at nearly every show I do, but it's mixed in with a lot of classic rock and pop, singer-songwriter music, and other random shit.

I knew that playing a bunch of relative obscure and mostly new music would be a challenge for typical SL audiences, but for the folks who hung out, I think it was a neat experience. Photo by Kat.

Here's the deal: I truly do love many kinds of music and that is reflected in what I choose to play. But my shows aren't only for me; they're for the people who take the time to come and see me. What that means is that I purposefully make my set lists to include songs that people already like and are familiar with. But I didn't do that at this show. I pre-announced that the show would include music that most of my audience would never have heard before. It's not the best way to get a crowd of casual listeners on a random Tuesday night. People like what they know. For some people, experiencing new music, as I mentioned during my show, can stressful in the same way that driving along an unfamiliar stretch of road is disconcerting. You don't know what's around the corner.

But for other people -- me, for instance -- new music is thrilling. It's not always good; out of the 80 or so new songs I try and check out each week, maybe 20 are reasonable interesting, and five are so cool that I want to own the music and get to know the artist better. But that comes down to subjective tastes. I knew that not everyone in my audience would like every song I did last night, but I knew that some people would like some songs... or even one song. That made it worthwhile to do.

At least for the time being, I've removed my mask in SL. I'm doing that now in solidarity with my many musician friends in real life who have been touring out of necessity and have no choice than to risk exposure to COVID via audience members who don't care about the artist's health. Iit's been taking its toll, with many tours and dates being cancelled even still. If numbers start ramping up again, I will be putting the mask back on in-world as I do in public in real life. Photo by Kat.

I've mentioned many times in the past that I don't perform in Second Life for massive financial rewards, nor for achieving some twisted digital version of micro-celebrity, nor to promote my own recorded music. I do it because I enjoy it, and I've been told by plenty of people that they get enjoyment from my shows as well. That's more than enough reason for me.

One other note: having mentioned on Twitter that I was really happy with two of the cover songs in particular, both of the artists mentioned liked my tweet. Try that with the typical mega pop star and see which of them give a shit about you covering their tunes.

Hotel Chelsea set list...

Swirl (Charlie Martin)

*Either Way (Wilco)

Jaywalker (Andy Shauf)

So. Central Rain (R.E.M.)

Swing Low Magellan (Dirty Projectors)

Bird of Paradise (Cory Hanson)

Blew The Dust Away (They Stole My Crayon)

Garter Snake (Macie Stewart)

Carry Me Ohio (Sun Kil Moon) 

Shame Chamber (Kurt Vile)

Dusty Rhodes (Lotus Plaza)

*Pretty Noose (Soundgarden)

*Fruiting Body (Goon)

*Indicates the first time I've performed this song in SL.

Massive thanks to the brave people who hung out for last night's special show, with super huge thanks to the following who helped support it!

Maximillion Kleene, noowun Wind, TindraLynn Resident, Trouble Streeter, Kat Claxton, Bonnie Bowenford, my terrific manager Maali Beck, and Hotel Chelsea manager Shyla the Super Gecko!