Talking Environmental Justice with Justin J. Pearson + King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard Light Up the Solstice at the Hollywood Bowl
Greetings & Salutations,
I’m an award-winning investigative reporter who specializes in covering environmental justice issues. I also like to write about the rock ‘n’ roll counterculture mostly just for fun, but also because this movement has been an important one for generating a more enlightened society. The music also provides “spiritual fuel” for the investigative journalism, as the late great Hunter S. Thompson observed. A handful of friends and family have been asking me to create some kind of email subscription service so they can get notified if they miss my posts on social media, and so here we are at Substack.
My posts here will mainly be notifications about my latest published news articles at other sites, along with some extra insight on how the story came to be, challenges and/or rewards involved in the process, etc. This might only be once or twice a month, or perhaps more often, who knows? Journalism can be a real feast or famine business in the 21st century journapocalypse that has decimated the industry. I’m sure there will also be some spontaneous blog posts here and there, commenting on current events in this crazy, mixed up world.
The title of this site — Dispatches from a World Gone Mad — comes from a Youtube show that attorney friend (and fellow Kent State alumni) Kevin Heade and I launched in early 2021 when we were bored from the pandemic and waiting for live music to return. We will soon be reviving this gonzo news analysis show, so stay tuned for that! Kevin and I met while working together on the May 4th Task Force at Kent State with the late great anti-war activist Alan Canfora in 2006, and we’ve been scheming for social justice ever since.
The “world gone mad” phrase comes from one of my favorite Phish songs, in which the band sings, “There must be something more than this world gone mad…” Did I mention that I have a soft spot for socially conscious rock ‘n’ roll bands? Check out this great fan-made video for “More” to grok what the song is all about.
Talking Environmental Justice with Rep. Justin J. Pearson
And now on to my latest story, which is a Q&A interview feature with Tennessee state Rep. Justin J. Pearson. I was trying to reach Pearson for an interview earlier this year, before the “Tennessee Three” controversy that made him a national progressive hero. I was working on a piece about pipeline problems and wanted to talk to him about his work as co-founder of Memphis Against the Pipeline, where he helped lead a community uprising to stop Big Oil from running a pipeline through South Memphis. I figured he’d have some keen insights about taking on the big dogs and indeed he did. Click the link below to check out the full story that was published at Counterpunch in the last week of June:
BY GREG M. SCHWARTZ - June 27, 2023
Talking to the 28-year-old Pearson on the phone for about 30 minutes, I clearly sensed that I was speaking with someone who is wise beyond his years. This recalls the great Judas Priest song, “You Don’t Have to Be Old to Be Wise” (I was a teenage metal head once upon a time.) Pearson’s tone had a gravitas that reminded me of unjustly imprisoned activist Mumia Abu-Jamal, particularly due to his insightful takes on this world gone mad.
There’s that phrase again — a world gone mad — because in a sane world, we wouldn’t have all these mass shootings in the first place. And we certainly wouldn’t have crotchety old conservative white men in bed with the NRA trying to evict young progressives from the Tennessee House simply for standing with protesters calling for common sense gun control laws (nor would we have a pompous art history professor trying to edit Pearson as if he were one of his students rather than the accomplished environmental justice activist and rising political rock star that he is, but that’s a tale for another time.)
I’m also reminded of John Lennon’s great 1968 interview on the insanity of our war mongering world leaders, which still speaks volumes:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="
title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard at the Hollywood Bowl - June 21
My other most recent article was my story for PopMatters on the sensational performance I attended by the amazingly talented Australian rockers known as King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. I took a road trip from the Bay Area down to Los Angeles to catch the band’s Summer Solstice show at the Hollywood Bowl, billed as their only California show of the year. The three-hour show was straight up incredible and sort of ties in with the Pearson story since these musical eco-rebels have a number of environmentally conscious songs, including 2022’s incendiary instant classic “The Dripping Tap”. The song is about society’s addiction to oil that’s endangering the entire planet by exacerbating the climate change crisis. It was even featured in the show’s limited edition poster, with a drunk dragon sipping on a can of oil like it’s a cocktail (a clear metaphor for the greed of Big Oil & their financiers.)
Check out the full story here:
KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD LIGHT UP SUMMER SOLSTICE AT THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL
The world needs more bands who will tell their fans the truth and speak truth to power, like King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard.
By Greg M. Schwartz / 13 July 2023
That’s it for today, which also happens to be the Day Out of Time. I’m aiming to generate some positive change in both my own life and for society with my investigative reporting on crimes against humanity by the greedy powers that be, so this feels like an auspicious day to launch this blog.
I don’t know what kind of goodies I’m going to cook up for paid subscribers yet, as right now I’m just looking to build out a mailing list of free subscribers. But if you like what you see here and want to buy me a beer, please go right ahead because journalism is thirsty work! And until next time, don’t let the greedheads get you down, because there’s still a more harmonious world to win…