BY ASHLEY GEELAN
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA — With what is happening in America now, with an alleged pedophile and child trafficker for President, there is something, an instrument of power that no words written by a journalist can change. Art.
It is well known that Trump is an attention-seeking whore. He’s always seeking attention and the limelight. Music and art can change that better than any journalist’s words ever can or will.
Art, such as music, photography and paintings, has the power to change things and flip the script. I think of the ‘Tank Man’ image from Tiananmen Square, the naked little girl on fire in Vietnam, which was one photograph, just one photograph, that marked the beginning of the end of the Vietnam War.
Long ago, there was a poor American black man (for want of a better term) that no one would sell a guitar to, so he got his hands on one, strung it upside down and back to front and went on to become one, if not the most revered guitarist in history.
His name? Jimi Hendrix.
Today, the very company that told Hendrix to ‘shove it’ sells special models (that cost a lot of money) in his very name.
Given New York City has nearly as many people in it as all of Australia, I think it’s time America held another Woodstock. Not the pretend ones of the late 1990s. Like the real, original 1969 one about peace and love.
Hyde Park? Times Square? Central Park?
Maybe American musicians in various US cities and towns could also do an online or satellite synchronised hook-up in between set changes and interludes at the main event? I know there are American techs ready to help achieve such via ham radio conversations.
Play the songs that will get on Trump’s nerves the most. “Killing in the Name” comes to mind, given what ICE is doing to American citizens. Let Trump know “Fuck you I won’t do what ya tell me.”
Get all the anti-Trump American musicians, such as Bruce ‘The Boss’ Springsteen, Willie Nelson, Audioslave/Rage Against The Machine, all the musicians whose work Trump stole for his ads and campaign and any other anti-MAGA US musicians onto the bill.
“Kirk Hammett went off on a tweet-storm shortly after Trump was inaugurated, comparing Trump’s “America First” speech to 1940s Germany.”
“I don’t think the world needs any walls. I think we need to bring people together,” Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich told music press.
Make it a televised worldwide free concert, or if a ticket fee is charged, then the fees (after covering costs) go to charity, such as food banks for struggling Americans.
If elected, would the possible future Mayor of NYC, Zohran Mamdani, support this? I think he would.
Hold an art exhibition of US artists and cartoonists at the concert(s) as well.
Stream it worldwide and via satellite hook-ups, just like Live Aid, around the world, which is easily achieved at a much lower cost today than back then.
It’s time for America to go ‘full Woodstock’ on Trump and tell him what Americans and the world think of him through music.
Then watch Trump explode as he proves the musician’s very points. Trump will lose his mind, throw a hissy fit, post a lot of utter crap on ‘Truth’ (bullshit) Social and carry on like a pork chop.
The whole world would tune in to the concert and could watch Trump have another hissy fit in real time. Live.
During set changes and interludes, one could run the Reagan tariff ads, for example, as the whole world watches on.
Maybe this is not the answer, but given where America is headed, well, as a journalist in a faraway, actual democratic nation not run by a tyrant and alleged pedophile like US President Trump, any idea to save America’s democracy is at least worth exploring and considering for our American friends across the antipodes.
Trump’s already paved paradise to put up a parking lot.
Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got ’till it’s gone.
Pave paradise, put up a MAGA ballroom.
