A tune for our times, presented by Holly Brewer, the anarcho-punk Julie Andrews, and her merry band of misfits in HUMANWINE:

Maybe you were right --- those steps behind
start and stop as you do.
Hiding out of light, irises
reset as you move.

Maybe in the bank they're watching
At your job they're watching
Televisions watching
what your clone is watching.
It's a blunt set up
under Caesar's lens
and the beast is watching
everything.

Maybe you weren't off when you said
we're just slaving for the man.
Bred in martial law, veiled in plastic thought
of a secret, means to ends.

So what if Big Brother is watching?
Big brother is watching?
Big brother is watching.
Big brother's watching.
Let him watch!

What, are you gonna sit around and worry,
chewing your life to its tomb?
What, have you given up on freedom
before they've taken it from you?
You're unhappy and losing your mind.
You're naked and weeping in the mall.
Shiveringly asking, "why is everyone looking at me?"


Arriving just in time,
heres the men in white,
blurry through your tears.
Then you roll off to rubber rooms,
With doctors watching
and cameras watching
The watched all watching...

Even if the eye on pyramids
is keeping track of your every move,
You can't contain your thoughts,
they're all youve got,
so go and do what you do.

So what if Big Brother is watching?
Big brother is watching?
Big brother is watching.
Big brother's watching.
Let him watch!

(By the way, they play Brooklyn March 26th).

Speaking of local music, I went to a Halogens show the other day. It would have been a great set from a young, promising band, if they weren't already overtired, split up and defunct. The set went late, it was not widely advertised, and by the time they got to "Rockets and Wrecking Balls", the sont that in a different, more just universe knocked Coldplay off the charts in 2004, there were just a few dozen people in the place. But the ones in the front row were waving cigarette lighters.

There was something unique about the sadness in Jason's voice when he ended the set by telling the enthusiastic, but small crowd, "We were the Halogens".