Life, Hersh & Shark

Thursday night I saw Seymour Hersh speak. The talk was great, and I had grand seats. Arrived about fourty-five minutes early, got a lot of reading done that I wouldn’t have otherwise. The place started filling in at seven, and by the time he began at 7:30 the place was packed. He covered a wide variety of issues, mostly centered around the Bush Administration and the war in Iraq. Truthfully I could of had a bit less about Bush. But Hersh also discussed other topics like Vietnam. The personal anecdotes alone were worth going to see.

A few hecklers in the crowd. Well, only one, but bound to be others. The crowd itself was pretty old, I was sort of disappointed in that respect. From what I could see most of the people were elderly locals. Which is great, but it would have been nice to see more students.

Of course, maybe I was just sitting in the blue-hair section. I saw the people I knew I was going to see there.

Ultimately after an hour and a half, walking away I was filled with an immense feeling of.. disenchantment. It’s hard not to talk politics or current events these days without feeling depressed, but the sort of issues that Hersh raised for me were all pretty dark.

How a bunch of rural poor reservists couldn’t have possibly thought up the sort of torture schemes at Abu Ghraib confirmed that it wasn’t just a few “bad apples.” The inevitable psychological trauma that our troops will endure, something I had somewhat blocked out. Recounting one trip Hersh made to see a Vietnam veteran involved in the My Lai massacre, and the conversation between Hersh and the veteran’s mother, was particularly chilling. Undoubtably we’ll see the same sort of thing here.

For some reason they moved the Q & A session with Hersh from 2:30pm on Thurs to 9am on Friday. I didn’t go, way too early. But Hersh was a charismatic, highly effective speaker. The very fact that he was able to make the crowd laugh somewhat when discussing such troubling matters is indicative.

Friday night I went to the Buzzsaw benefit concert. Three local bands (or two local and one from.. Jersey or something, wasn’t counting) and then the main event. We Versus the Shark. And they were great. I really recommend their album Ruin Everything, which you should be able to pick up off their website soon. They put on a great, high-energy performance. Was a really great show. I can tell because my hearing still has a comfortable humming to it.

After-party then, for a good four or so hours of typical college nonsense. My only regret is that I didn’t actually buy the album (have a burned copy..) and that I didn’t personally congratulate We vs Shark for the great performance. But ah well. Will be hearing more from them.