You’ve Got Your Orders Vol. 2 CD Release Party

Jason Ziemniak has done it again. The second volume of You’ve Got Your Orders is hot off the presses on Ziemniak’s Chrome Peeler imprint. The gimmick: He gives artists titles to write songs to, and the result appears on these compilations.

To celebrate the release of Vol. 2, some of its contributors are touring—and they’re hitting Valentine’s, since Ziemniak hails from Latham. Appearing will be Nikki Sudden (pictured) from the Swell Maps, with special guests J Mascis and Suzanne Thorpe (Mercury Rev). Also joining the fun will be Jesse “the Devil” Hughes (the Eagles of Death Metal), French Doors (members of Black Lipstick), and Thee Heinous Brothers. Other contributors of note on the record (though not at Valentine’s) include members of Silver Apples, Dramarama, Fu Manchu, Quasi, The Stooges, and Shudder to Think. Zang.

The You’ve Got Your Orders Vol. 2 tour will appear tomorrow (Friday, May 14) at Valentine’s (17 New Scotland Ave., Albany). Doors for the 18-and-over show open at 8 PM. Tickets are $10. For more information, call 432-6572.

Amy and David Goodman

We can think of no higher praise for Amy Goodman—independent journalist and host of the Pacifica Radio Network’s Democracy Now!—than to point out how easily she can piss off the powerful: Back when he was riding roughshod over Congress, Newt Gingrich said that it was due to journalists like Goodman that he commanded his mother not to talk to the press, and President Bill Clinton typified her as “hostile, combative, and even disrespectful.” But, lest you think that Goodman is just another talk-radio hothead working the ad hominem attack for her 15 minutes, we’ll call attention to some of her more substantial achievements: Like her documentary Massacre: The Story of East Timor, in which Goodman and a collaborator chronicled the genocidal tactics employed during the U.S.-backed Indonesian occupation of East Timor (they personally witnessed the gunning down of 270 East Timorese, and got themselves beaten and threatened with death in the process).

That was just one of the many instances where Goodman has made good on her promise to “go where the silence is.” In her debut book, The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media That Love Them, which was cowritten with her brother David Goodman, she tackles a topic squarely in our backyard: the compliance of the American media in advancing the cause of the current administration and its corporate backers. The book is already a best-seller, and the Goodmans’ work has earned the praise of both independent pundits and—believe it or not—more than a few reviewers at corporate-owned media outlets as well.

On Monday, Amy and David Goodman will appear at the Phillip Livingston Magnet School (315 Northern Blvd., Albany) as part of their 70-city Exception to the Rulers tour. The appearance is being staged as a benefit for WRPI-FM (91.5, Troy), the only local station to air Democracy Now! A $10 donation is suggested for admission to the 7 PM appearance, which will include a screening of the documentary Independent Media in a Time of War. For more information, call 442-4488. A book signing and buffet will precede the talk at 5:30 PM. Tickets are $50. For more information about the book signing, call 286-3411.

He Who Gets Slapped

Everybody loves the circus, right? There are animals, acrobats and, of course, clowns. What’s more fun than a couple of rings full of garishly made-up, balloon-pants- and floppy-shoes-wearing clowns? Except that the clowns, with their disjointed, flailing movements and violent slapstick, can seem a little bit creepy. And in the way they menace each other—and, occasionally, the audience—clowns can be downright scary.

He Who Gets Slapped, a musical based on a turn of the last century play by Leonid Andreyev, definitely works the creepy-clown angle. The hero is a clown called He Who Gets Slapped; the name is self-explanatory. The other clowns line up and slap him, and the audience convulses in laughter. Let’s just say that the story, which does make room for romance, has a jaundiced view of humanity. It also fits in well with the adventurous theatrical programming we’ve come to expect from Hubbard Hall.

This version has a book by Ray Sipherd, music by Arthur B. Rubinstein and lyrics by Sipherd and Rubinstein. It’s set in 1931, and preserves the atmospheric Eurosetting of both the original play and the 1924 film version (which starred Lon Chaney as He).

He Who Gets Slapped opens tonight (Thursday, May 13) at 8 PM at Hubbard Hall (25 E. Main St., Cambridge), and continues tomorrow (Friday, May 14) at 8 PM, Saturday (May 15) at 2 and 8 PM, and Sunday (May 16) at 2 PM. The show also runs through the following two weekends, May 20-23 and May 27-30. Call for showtimes. Tickets are $22, $18 for Hubbard Hall members and $12 for students. For reservations and information, call 677-2495.