Conches

In an effort to not write about Network Neutrality

Over the last year or so, I have radically change how I interact with music.  I use, almost exclusively, Internet "radio" (Rhapsody, Slacker, Pandora, Last.fm).  And if I buy music I tend to do it at Itunes or Amazon.  However, that is not really what this post is about. 

Because I use the Internet to find music, and I tend to like "world" music, I have had some great luck finding new music.  The latest band's that I have become addicted to are Calle 13 and M.I.A. 

Calle 13 plays an art school version of reggaeton.  Very intellegent.  Very inventive.  Far more interesting than most of what is coming out of the US.

M.I.A. has become an underground dance music sensation.  The amazing part is that she is from Sri Lanka and was forced to leave with her family because of her father's work with the independence movement.  I don't want to pretend to know anything about her our her experience, but I would like more people to listen and, in particular, to watch.  Her videos (3 embedded below) are remarkable.  I would love to here what you think.

My Family Owned Slaves

My family owned slaves.

Clearly there are many Americans for whom this is a reality.  What I know is that, in his will, Thomas Gillespie

   BORN:  ca. 1719
   MARR:  ca. 1745               Augusta Co Virginia
   DIED:  15 Dec 1796            Rowan Co North Carolina

owned and bequeathed five slaves to his children.  To his wife, he gave the women, Liza and Fan.  To his son, Alexander Gillespie, he gave a boy, Peter and a woman, Violet.  To his son, Robert Gillespie, he gave the man, Dick and the woman, Phoebe.

You can see the will here:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~dmorgan/thomasg.txt

My father's mother's mother was Lula Gillespie (1883-1969) and the lines goes:
Lula -> Francis Marion Gillespie (1843-1900) -> John Morgan Gillespie (1811-1881) -> George Gillespie (1811-1881)->George Gillespie (1751-1818)->Thomas Gillespie (1719-1797).

I just found this document on the web today.

The Gillespie family can also claim the Gillespie Rifle which was said to be the rifle that "won the west" which may be accurately  translated as the rifle that committed genocide of native Americans.  Additionally, a more distant relative, Major Archibald H. Gillespie, was an officer in the Mexican American war sent by President Polk, also a relative (twice removed), to California in 1845 to explore the potential of annexing California.

So, all of this is me...

I'm not sure how to deal with it...