Chad’s extended family is full of kind and loving people, which, by the accounts of all of them and many others, Chad is, too.

Chad’s generous nature was exactly what led him to want to stick up for his friend, who was being threatened and bullied by his friend’s neighbor. In the ensuing confrontation, the neighbor pulled out a knife and stabbed Chad three times.

Chad then managed to get a hold of the knife and stab his assailant, who, very unfortunately, was killed that night in September 2024.

Press reports have tended to paint a picture that, naturally enough, positions the deceased, Tristan Thomas, as the victim, and Chad as the murderer. A simple scenario involving a perpetrator and his victim. But if you look a little closer at the details of the whole encounter, it all becomes much more complex.

It’s obviously incredibly tragic that anyone was killed that night. There are a lot of things that everyone involved could have done differently, that might have avoided anyone getting hurt in the first place. But that’s not how things played out, and ultimately, Chad was not the one who pulled out a weapon, and he clearly does not deserve to be charged with murder.

If there is to be justice in this case, Chad should be with his family, rather than in jail in Clackamas, facing a possible murder charge, and a potential sentence of decades in prison.

“Song for Chad Westover” will drop on all the music streaming platforms on February 1st, as part of the latest album of the Ai Tsuno Project, War with the World.

“Disarm Israel” will be one of several catchy tracks about the ongoing US-Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people that will be part of Ai Tsuno’s January 15th album release, Save the Humans.

This will be one of the tracks on my next album with Ai Tsuno, The Red and the Blue, which, if all goes as planned, will drop on all the music streaming platforms on January 9th.

This will be one of the tracks on my next album with Ai Tsuno, The Red and the Blue, which, if all goes as planned, will drop on all the music streaming platforms on January 9th.

This will be one of the tracks on my next album with Ai Tsuno, which, if all goes as planned, will drop on all the music streaming platforms on January 9th.

The music industry has, for a century or so, been obsessively oriented with creating mysterious and exciting identities for artists they want to turn into stars. The industry emphasizes the artist, rather than the art. The art itself, along with the producers, lyricists, session musicians, engineers, and promoters, are all those kinds of things happening "behind the curtain" that, like the Wizard in Oz, are meant to be ignored.

But if you extract all the PR and music business hoopla, what makes a song a good song? Is it actually about the artist recording or performing it, or is it about the music itself? If it's the artist that makes the song, then what about the artist? Does the artist need to have lived a virtuous life in order to make likeable art? Does the artist need to be from a certain part of the world, and not another? Does the artist need to be human?

My take on these questions is in the end, other factors may play into how a song is perceived in a big way, but what really matters is the song itself. If it's delivered well by a competent performer live or recorded, and the listener is in a good place for really listening, then a sad song will make the listener cry. A song about memories of your youth will evoke such memories. A satirical song about current events the listener is following in the news will likely make the listener laugh. These reactions of the listener are the measure of the song's impact.

That's what this song is about. I invite you to close your eyes and give a song your full attention. You might try doing that every day, and call it meditation.

The hunger strike continues In the British prisons As the courts refuse To reach a decision Will they judge this time As they have before That the crime is sending  Weapons to the war

Because the terrorists here Are the Zionists Who’d try to hide A genocide

It's a holocaust  And it's happening now A hundred thousand lives lost And no one knows how How many more Will ever be found  Under the rubble  Beneath the ground 

Chorus

The Palestinian people Beneath plastic sheets There's no ceasefire, just a famine  As history repeats History from the Nazis Brought down on the holy land Beside the bloody sea With an F-thirty-five at hand 

Chorus

As the Israelis go on With their endless killing spree  While Egypt plays the pawn With their new refinery And throughout the west  They ban phrases and words As our leaders do their best At being completely absurd

Chorus

More info:  keepzahidhome.carrd.co

Photo by Guy Smallman, from a protest in London at which many were arrested for holding those signs. Many more were arrested in the following days.

I think these 12 songs, heard in this order, provide a fairly raw and I daresay gripping account of the past two months in certain vital corners of planet Earth. I thought I'd present them to you like I heard them, back-to-back, in case you want to try that, too.

My Life as a Protest Singer is my third or fourth effort at writing a memoir.  This may seem ridiculous, but those who have engaged in the practice of memoir-writing know it’s not.  There is so much to write about, and so much that will inevitably be left unwritten.  There are so many angles, so many approaches.  The vast majority of whatever it is will never make it in.

The full production of My Life as a Protest Singer consists of 11 episodes of about an hour each, or about 11 hours of me wagging my jaw.  In its full 11 episodes it’s available exclusively for members of my Community-Supported Art program.  Whether you’re a paid member via my website or via Patreon, Substack, or Bandcamp, you’ve been given a link to my Everything folder.  It’s in there, within the “Extras” folder.  If you’re a CSA member and don’t have the link to the Everything folder handy, just email me for it.

What I have made available for free to the general public is the very abridged version, Selections from My Life as a Protest Singer, which is a 3-episode series.

Starting with Selections from My Life as a Protest Singer EPISODE 1.