Not Spencer: Michael Penn Exclusive song – The Count of Pennsylvania

The Not Spencer political series is being extended by one for a special contribution by one of the best singer songwriters of our generation, Michael Penn. Michael has provided the following song: “The Count of Pennsylvania”, exclusively to A Rubber Door. I think you’ll find the song a worthy end.

Michael and I have talked all through this election – all the way back to the very early primary days and here we are a day before we finally get to have our voice. You have one more day to make a difference – call your friends – volunteer to make calls – write something on your blog. Any or all of the above will help put an end to 8 years of mediocrity and start to recover from the damage done to our economy, our world standing, and the fabric of this country: the citizens of this great country.

When you get into the booth tomorrow – pull the lever for Barack Obama and Joe Biden and as Michael states: “Get in on the landslide”

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the-count-of-pennsylvania (right click and "Save As" to save an MP3 to your computer)

The Count of Pennsylvania

by Michael Penn

The Count of Pennsylvania never left the commonwealth
he loiters in the alley like a shadow of his former self
cast against the brick and mortar
through smoke from pipes and stacks
one more for the listmakers
a statistician’s artifact
a victim of amphetamines,
of cogs and things that let off steam
a market for a cold machine that left him in-between
the customers and soldiers you divide
but it’s rising up, a high tide
stretching out so far and wide
the line is long but worth the ride
so get in on the landslide
get in on the landslide

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Michael Penn’s best of can be found here: Palms & Runes, Tarot And Tea: A Michael Penn Collection
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Links to the rest of the Not Spencer 2008 campaign series can be found here.

http://www.merujo.com merujo

Pretty freakin’ cool! Spencer, thank you for giving the opportunity for several of us to share your soapbox and voice our hopes, fears, worries and optimism, and thank you, Michael, for providing this wonderful pre-election gift.

I’ll be outside the door of my polling place at 7 a.m. tomorrow, and I’m betting there will already be a line. It’ll be *well* worth the wait!

Let’s hear it for hope and change!
radiocynic

Wow indeed. Inspiration like this might be the final push that we need! Thank you Michael, and thank you Spencer.

Pennsylvania should be interesting to say the least. I can afford to be a bit confident “the landslide” will match my vote here in my home state of NJ, but we’d better do everything we can to get this link distributed amongst all the Pennsylvanians that we know!

Thanks again. It is time. Now let’s go get this done and start this country back on the correct path.
http://www.kansascitydj.net Darin Henderson

Wow. Love it. Thanks for sharing with the Pennlist. Great little site you have here as well.
http://www.onbunkerhill.com Tom Loiacono

Sweet. Thanks to Michael and Spencer for this. Will be linking to this from my site.
http://cynicsgirl.blogspot.com Cyn

What a great surprise! Michael, you paint a vivid picture with your words, as usual. Love it. A perfect ribbon to wrap up the Not Spencer series.

I wish I could be optimistic enough to even think “landslide”…but I guess that’s the point – that it can be if we make it so. I’m afraid I’ll be holding my own enthusiasm in check until the results start coming in tomorrow night — though deep in my heart I’m not expecting to be disappointed (again.) Gosh, it scares me just to write that I’m not expecting to be disappointed (like the Curse of Billy Penn…anybody got a tiny Obama statue we can place on a skyscraper beam?)

As Merujo said, thanks Spencer for sharing your soapbox — it was both fun and frightening for me to write for a blog that actually has readers.

Okay, off to post the link!

See you at the polls.
Julie Coleman

Wow–loved the song, and I’ve really enjoyed reading all the “Not Spencer” posts. (I’ve even posted a couple to my Facebook page.) Great blog, Spencer! I look forward to hearing your take on things after the election. Gobama!!!!
grace

THIS is the song we needed when we were in that mile-long line at the Obama rally! I kept thinking, “We need a chorus… we need a chorus…” Here it is: “Get in on the landslide.”

This is wonderful!
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Mike from Chicago

A thoughtful song for what will likely prove to be an historic week in our country. Thank you Michael…ps…more please.
http://www.fortunechild.org monadity

Great short snippet of a song. A bit chilling, though, in that the Count of Florida never left his state in 2000. Wouldn’t be the first time MP wrote something that chilled me to the bone…
Here’s hoping Scalia, et al. have no change to second-guess the decisions made this Tuesday!
http://nonbreakingspace.com/ the other howard

Nice way to end the series. Thanks to Michael for hooking us up. I’m hoping it rings true.

And I’d like to the chime in with thanks to Spencer, for putting this together and allowing others to borrow his soapbox these past few weeks.
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