A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

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Entry from December 05, 2006
“Just so you know, we’re ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas” (Dixie Chicks)

The Dixie Chicks hail from Dallas, Texas. At a London concert on March 12, 2003 (when the United States was at the brink of war with Iraq), Dixie Chick singer Natalie Maines said to the audience: “Just so you know, we’re ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas.”
 
Many thought it was the wrong comment at the wrong time. Others think it was the right comment, but at the wrong time. Many have also added that the comment was made in the wrong place (outside the U.S., and seemingly away from wartime criticism).
 
 
Wikipedia: Dixie Chicks
The Dixie Chicks are an American all-female country music trio, comprising Emily Robison, Martie Maguire, and Natalie Maines.
 
The Dixie Chicks formed in 1989 in Dallas, Texas. After years of struggle and changes in personnel, the group achieved large-scale country and pop commercial success starting in the late 1990s, with hit songs such as “Wide Open Spaces”, “Cowboy Take Me Away”, and “Long Time Gone”. They became known for their lively group personas, instrumental virtuosity, fashion sense, and political comments. In particular, Natalie Maines’ public criticism in a foreign country of President George W. Bush on the eve of the 2003 invasion of Iraq led to considerable controversy for the group, causing them to lose approximately half of their concert audience attendance in the United States.
(...)
A couple of weeks later, on March 10, 2003, during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq (which would take place on March 20), Natalie Maines (a native of Lubbock, Texas) said between songs during a concert at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire theatre in London:
 
“Just so you know, we’re ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas.”
 
The Guardian: Reviews
The Dixie Chicks
[3 stars out of 5] Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London
Betty Clarke
Wednesday March 12, 2003
The Guardian
The Dixie Chicks are the good-time girls the country establishment loves to hate. Too direct, too old-fashioned, too modern ... you name it, it’s been slung at the Texan trio. The old vanguard liked their women fiesty but second-class, preferably wearing cowgirl outfits and a smile. But the Dixie Chicks were renegade ladies of country who sung gleefully about killing abusive spouses and dressed like an older Britney Spears. Add the success they have had selling a progressive bluegrass sound to fans ignorant of banjos and whistles and you have an emasculating threat.
 
And they don’t know when to stop. “Just so you know,” says singer Natalie Maines, “we’re ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas.” It gets the audience cheering - at a time when country stars are rushing to release pro-war anthems, this is practically punk rock.

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Texas (Lone Star State Dictionary) • Tuesday, December 05, 2006 • Permalink


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