so last night i was riding home from work, going a slightly different way because i had to go to walgreens and get some things. when i’m roughly 6 blocks from walgreens this lady pulls out right in front of me to turn left and hits me on my motorcycle. she was mostly stopped when i hit but i hit her doing around 20mph give or take. so yeah, the bike is fucked up but not undrivable. she pulled over, came to find out if i was alright, and when i said yeah she got back in her car and drove off. and of course before i could get a look at her license plate or anything important like that. so now i have a couple of sore muscles, my wrist is very bruised but i won’t actually see the bruise for a couple days i think, and the bike is damaged after 2.5 months of ownership. thankfully i have coverage for uninsured drivers but it should not have to come to that if people would just do the right thing in the first place and actually LOOK WHERE THEY’RE GOING!
i’m not really a fan of the band boston, but the song is somehow appropriate considering how much time has elapsed since the last posting. let’s see, since that time i’ve considered writing about some great music i’ve been to, the fact that john mccain totally went away from himself during the campaign, how good it is that obama won (even though i didn’t vote for him), and my new wheels, a 2008 honda shadow spirit. i guess i’ll start with the last and work my way to the first, and if you don’t want to hear about any of it, well, you never read my blog anymore anyway so i’m not worried.
it’s been over a year and a half since the last motorcycle i’ve owned and the transition is, as they say, just like riding a bike. i am no longer stuck in traffic, i get to ride in the carpool lane without a passenger, and i rarely pay for parking anymore. what’s not to like right? 
i have a lesbian friend who tells me i can pick up a lot of girls with this bike, but so far it’s only worked once. although the girl in question *did* wear a pretty short skirt, and i have never seen so many double takes in my life as i did when she was riding behind me. my bike gets a lot of looks because it’s a very nice silver and has just the right amount of chrome on it to not be audacious and gaudy. but having a bike that gets a lot of looks with a girl on the back showing an inhuman amount of leg seems to really draw people’s attention for some reason 
speaking of drawing attention, it’s phenomenal that america has matured enough to elect a non-white man to the presidency. i think a lot of his early success was because of the novelty of voting for a black man (sad to say) but as the campaign wore on, it was obvious that obama is every bit the kind of person that *should* be president in this country and the kind of leader we need after the last 8 disastrous years. i’m not saying obama is the be all, end all of US politics, but he’s already changing the attitudes of this country, and the marginal fringe of society is being pushed back to the margins where they belong…. except for those votes to ban same-sex marriage anyway. so in other words, we’re mature enough to finally see a black man as president but not mature enough to allow gay people the same rights as straight people enjoy. maybe some day we’ll get there….
i’m really not sure what happened to john mccain after the primary season ended. well, i know *of* the reasons why he ran the campaign he did, but it doesn’t make sense when you consider that he spent the vast majority of his career making a point of being different than the rest of the republican party. mistake number one for mccain was getting away from his “maverick” status in order to shore up the republican far-right extremist base, compounded by the fact that he picked one of the worst candidates since dan quayle in sarah palin. the stated reasons for picking palin — to pick up the “hillary vote”, to “be a maverick” — just didn’t ring true once she opened her mouth and proved that she’s basically dumb as dirt when it comes to national (and international) politics.
mistake number two for mccain came with the constant attacks that he put on obama, as if the electorate is going to be completely convinced by all the constant negativity. it’s proven year after year that people HATE negative political ads, so to base your entire campaign on political attacks when you’ve spent your whole career reaching across the aisle to your political opponents just doesn’t make sense.
mistake number three, and this was the biggest one for him, was to continue to surround his campaign with advisors that had so little to criticize obama that they also resorted to constant attacks. when we see palin, rudy giuliani, phil gramm, and the other people close to mccain’s campaign making fun of obama’s history as a community organizer among other things, it really does show how little faith mccain had in his own chances of winning the election. and it’s sad that a man who has built his reputation as someone who always takes the high road on principle now has this shitty campaign as basically the end of his legacy in politics. we finally saw the real mccain in his concession speech, but by then of course it was way too late to do anything about it.
and since i’m too tired to write a review of everybody i’ve gone to see in the last few months, i’m just gonna make links to their respective web pages and you can hear for yourself how awesome and incredible they all are as musicians 
these are listed in no particular order or preference:
sara haze: http://www.myspace.com/sarahaze oh. my. god. what an amazing voice this girl has. you can tell she puts a lot into her music when you see her play, and she’s opened for some very amazing musicians as well. she will be immensely famous very soon and very well-deserved when it happens.
shane alexander: http://www.myspace.com/shanealexander great songs, great voice and great guitar talent.
amber rubarth: http://www.myspace.com/amberrubarth i LOVE this girl’s music. i’m not sure what to say about her exactly except that she has a way of putting together a song that i haven’t heard from anyone else, and a soothing voice to match it.
what made milwaukee famous: http://www.myspace.com/whatmademilwaukeefamous pure indie rock at its finest. these guys know how to put on a great show and have very well-written songs and lyrics. and now that they have two guitars in the band, they truly rock out at every show.
tiff randol: http://www.myspace.com/tiffanyrandol she has a very soulful approach to her music and a voice to match it. her shows have so much energy it’s hard not to enjoy her music.
amy kuney: http://www.myspace.com/amykuney a very smooth and soothing voice. i know i’ve mentioned her here before, but she definitely deserves another mention. she has a very big heart and is one of the nicest people i have ever met
chris pierce: http://www.myspace.com/chrispierce this man is another one who puts so much soul and energy into his music. seeing him live is like watching a master put on a clinic on how to play music and pull the crowd along with what he’s trying to do.
the elevaters: http://www.myspace.com/elevaters a funk/soul/r&b/hip-hop band that will get you out of your seat and dancing whether you can dance or not. and if you’re not dancing at one of their shows, then you must not have rhythm, because these guys know how to bring the goods to the stage.
ok, that’s enough for me for now. time to go into hibernation again for another 4 months….
i find it strangely satisfying for some reason when i look over at the car next to me and see a very cute girl driving a sports car, acting like she’s got so much attitude. then seeing her reach up to pick her nose. AND THEN EAT THE BOOGER! it’s too bad that it’s considered creepy to take pictures of people in their cars when they don’t know you’re watching them.
you never know what you’ll find when you open up your letterbox tomorrow….
an open letter to the person who stole the stamp off my cable bill this afternoon:
are you *that* poor that you can’t afford to drop 42 cents on your own stamp? hell, even if you bought a stamp at the store down the street you would only be charged 50 cents for it! i’m sure you could’ve stood on the corner outside of that shop and *begged* for that much money within about 5 minutes! it’s not that hard to come up with the money to send a letter these days you know.
yes i realize the post office just raised the rates, which means that stamps will cost you ONE WHOLE PENNY more than they did last week. i’m sure if you walked the five blocks to the nearest post office you’d probably find at least one penny lying on the ground between here and there. the post office is real good about trading in currency for postage, even pennies that you pick up off the street.
you do realize that it’s technically a felony to tamper with someone’s mail? so you could be facing prison time over 42 cents worth of postage. lucky for me that it wasn’t a very important bill, it was just the payment for my cable. if you’re gonna commit a felony though, you should have gone all out and just taken the whole thing. you would have had my checking account information — everything but my social security number, which you probably don’t need to make any online purchases on most websites these days.
anyway, i want to personally thank you for destroying the last vestige of my faith in humanity. or at least my faith that nobody will mess with the mail once it goes into the outgoing mailbox. if you looked at the return address then you know where i live, so come on by sometime so i can properly show my appreciation for your thievery. give me some advance warning and i’ll make sure to put on the steel toed boots before you get here cause i just want to go that extra mile for you to show you what i think of what you did.
sincerely,
moondog
yes, that is a check for a whopping NINE CENTS that i just received from an old 401k account i had from a job i haven’t worked in almost three years. the best part? they took two cents out of it for federal withholding tax! 
i can’t wait til next year when i get a statement from them for that enormous sum so that i can properly file my taxes 
what’s that blue thing doing here?
– they say noam chomsky is the most quoted intellectual of our time. for anyone who has never seen him speak, the reason he is the most quoted is because nobody can sit through a whole lecture without falling asleep at his monotone delivery. much better to have someone else quote you the good stuff later, trust me on this one.
— speaking of chomsky, i would LOVE to be in line to a speech by him, or someone of his ilk and stature, and have people hoping for classics, similar to the banter overheard at a big name music concert. “oh man, i hope he does the iran/contra speech again tonight” “yeah, i bet he encores with panama and the spread of US hegemony in latin america”
— arizona is reporting tainted melons. does that mean that they have melons with big balls?
— easter is supposed to be celebrating the day that jesus rose from the dead after being crucified. in other words, the church is celebrating the zombification of jesus? i guess that’s why there’s no record of any sermons after the resurrection. can you imagine a zombie jesus roaming the countryside, people come from miles around just to hear him say “braaaiiinnnss…..” of course, with the zealotry of today’s chrisitians, we’d have a veritable zombie army by now….
— i realize they call it faith because you’re supposed to just accept that it actually happened, but i still think that someone arranged to have jesus’ body removed from his tomb, hid the body, then told everyone he rose from the dead and made this whole “son of god” mystique around it. “no seriously, he rose from the dead! well of course there’s no body, he ascended to heaven because he’s the son of god!” “ooooh, that explains it alright”
Jesus was way cool
Everybody liked Jesus
Everybody wanted to hang out with him
Anything he wanted to do, he did
He turned water into wine
And if he wanted to
He could have turned wheat into marijuana
Or sugar into cocaine
Or vitamin pills into amphetamines
He walked on the water
And swam on the land
He would tell these stories
And people would listen
He was really cool
If you were blind or lame
You just went to Jesus
And he would put his hands on you
And you would be healed
That’s so cool
He could’ve played guitar better than Hendrix
He could’ve told the future
He could’ve baked the most delicious cake in the world
He could’ve scored more goals than Wayne Gretzky
He could’ve danced better than Barishnikov
Jesus could have been funnier than any comedian you can think of
Jesus was way cool
He told people to eat his body and drink his blood
That’s so cool
Jesus was so cool
But then some people got jealous of how cool he was
So they killed him
But then he rose from the dead
He rose from the dead, danced around
Then went up to heaven
I mean, that’s so cool
Jesus was way cool
No wonder there are so many Christians
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7215226.stm
for years i have heard from too many u2 apologists who make excuses for the sub-par music that their favorite band has produced in the last 15 years. when “achtung baby” came out and the band switched from a political rock band to one more concerned with radio play and airtime, i heard a lot of people say that u2 was just focusing on their music instead of their politics, that the music should be more important. i took this one in stride, because i definitely respect a band which would take time to release music that they want to sound the best it can be. but half the tracks on this album sound like they were afterthoughts, and the album as a whole was most definitely beneath the quality of “the joshua tree”. but then, nothing u2 has done has ever equalled the excellence of that album, so it’s not a fair comparison in hindsight.
but my main interest in u2 was always the fact that they were so strong in their political convictions, and especially on topics that i was also interested in: the ongoing conflict between britain and ireland, illegal whaling, apartheid south africa, and a few others. this was a band that i admired in all aspects of their personal *and* public lives. not only did they release some of the best music i had heard in my life, but they took some bold (in my mind at least) stances on issues that were difficult to solve. but then i heard bono sing the high praises of then world bank president james wolfensohn, and what a great job the world bank does worldwide. this despite the fact that the world bank gets countries out of poverty by putting the country’s resources in the hands of foreign investors who only want to profit at the expense of a country with an excessive amount of poor people who are ripe for exploitation.
so when i hear larry mullen and the edge say, after the release of “achtung baby” that they didn’t feel attached to the music, they were just putting this album out to make money off of it, my image of the band as a group of guys standing up for their ideals began to crumble. the apologists would say, again, that the band was focusing on the music, and why shouldn’t they be allowed to make money with their music? the problem with this argument, as i have always felt, is that if the music is only there to make money then how are they any different from the “hit machines” of top 40 radio? you know, the ones who have a few hits, make their money and then cash out before people realize they have no more musical talent than your average vending machine?
after “achtung baby” u2 released one mediocre album after another and my respect for their music has dwindled to little more than reliving the glorious years leading up to the joshua tree. i think the icing on the cake for this phenomenon was when they released a video for the song “vertigo” as an ipod ad before it even hit the stores in order to sell as many copies of “the u2 ipod” as possible. this band has been coasting for years and have been more concerned with commercial success than in creating the kind of music that inspired millions of people throughout their first decade as recording artists.
so yesterday, when u2’s manager paul mcguiness came out in favor of forcing ISP’s to prevent people from downloading music not approved by the recording industry, i was forced to finally admit that u2 is nothing more than a bunch of money hungry millionaires who care not one whit for fans of music. the music industry succeeded for so many years because people were forced to pay inflated prices on media costs. that cd your favorite record store puts on the shelf and prices at $15? it costs the publishing company less than a dollar to pump one out. that other $14 you pay goes to lining the pockets of the recording industry, and if the artist has negotiated a good contract they may see $1 from each cd sale, if that. so for industry folks to try to pretend that the artists are suffering is really not happening at all. what’s going on is that industry executives see their six martini lunches threatened by a changing market and they want to prevent that market from innovating them out of existence.
the basis of an economy is the law of supply and demand. when the consumers demand something, the economy reacts by trying to increase supply. but when consumers demand a downloadable, digitally encoded file instead of a clunky, plastic ring to listen to their favorite music, the suppliers are fighting tooth and nail to keep that from happening. they want to force the world to keep paying $15 too much for that plastic ring because then their profits are continually assured year after year as long as they keep an absolute dictatorship over the supply source. if this were truly about artists not making any money on the music they create then the industry should renegotiate those contracts and give the artists a bigger slice of the music sales pie.
radiohead just proved that an established band doesn’t need a big name label to get people to buy their music. this is what the true issue is where internet-based music is concerned. the artists make the vast majority of the money off of concerts and merchandise, not in cd sales. i have friends who are literally “starving artist” musicians who don’t care if they give away their cd’s as long as people support them by coming to hear them play and telling their friends what great musicians they are (links to come for anyone who is still reading who wants to support some great musicians! ) the point is, that music can still be given away for free and the artists will not have to starve for it. the ones who are afraid of starving are the people who cling to an antiquated, dying industry in the hopes that they can continue to line their pockets on the backs of the musicians and artists who get pennies on the dollar for each album purchased in a store somewhere.
on that note, here are some GREAT musicians that you should support in any way you can because they are making some of the best music you’ve never heard before:
Ryan Hanifl — his latest CD “Sourpuss” is an amazing journey of sound and emotion.
Arrica Rose and the …’s — a local folk rock band featuring some of the most dedicated musicians i have ever met in my life. plus arrica and her guitarist abby kincaid are part of a group of female musicians calling themselves The Bombshell Alliance which is set up as a charity for some very good causes. these ladies are worth supporting just on that alone, but they still produce some incredible music too!
Curtis Peoples — Curtis likes to put an 80’s retro sound on some pop hooks and turn it into something that sounds familiar but yet still brings you in with its energy and passion.
Ernie Halter — Ernie has an amazing voice and a great flair for arrangement in his songs. plus you get to play the “Ernie Halter drinking game” that i invented. every time Ernie says “Love” in a song, take a shot. (ok ernie, it’s a joke, please don’t hurt me! )
Joey Ryan — Joey puts an amazing sound together between himself and his guitar that i have yet to hear from another artist. and it’s his birthday in a little over a week, so get some of his music just for that reason!
The Elevaters — I took a friend to see these guys play last week and she thought they were one of the best bands she’s seen in a long time. they play a funk/soul/hip hop fusion which turns into some of the most energetic music you will see onstage. these guys also have big hearts off the stage and will be playing some charity benefit concerts in the LA area this week. definitely another band to support just for their dedication to these issues alone.
Laura Jansen — I used to call Laura Jansen “the little girl with the big voice” when i would describe her to anyone who had never heard her before. she is definitely one artist that you should not miss if you have a chance to see her play because it’s hard to believe that she has such a powerful voice if you don’t experience it for yourself in person.
and last but not least Sara Hickman. I can’t say enough about this lady and what she does, both musically and life in general. Sara is one of those musicians whose heart is bigger than her fan base. she works with half price books and other charities to provide poor and sick children the opportunity to have access to books. i have written about sara before in these pages, so i won’t say too much more about her, except that she is one of my favorite people on this planet and i feel privileged to have met her on more than one occasion.
these artists, and others like them, are the ones who everyone should be supporting in any way they can. the best way would be to pay for a ticket to see their shows. but if you can’t do that, as long as you make other people aware of the kind of talent they possess and help them reach out to more and more interested fans then we can prevent people like paul mcguiness and the u2’s and metallica’s of the world telling us how we are allowed to spend our money on music. don’t forget that the music market is built on supply and demand. if you don’t demand it, they won’t supply it. and if they stop allowing music to be freely shared among fans, then music made by artists like the above may never be heard.
i have heard for many years now about all the people out here in la-la land that get so much plastic surgery that they aren’t recognizable as human anymore. but until tonight, i had never come face to face (literally) with this phenomenon before. i was at the grocery store on my way home and a couple was there buying groceries. she had a decent figure from the back but when i saw her from the front i was completely grossed out. i’m not sure how her husband/boyfriend/significant other can stand to be so close to her. i hope he actually thinks she’s pretty.
the expression “the face only a mother could love” would definitely apply to this lady. her lips were so full that she could barely open them to talk. i heard her mumbling to him a few times when we passed in the various aisles. i’m not sure what possesses someone to alter themselves so much that they literally look like a clown *before* they even put any makeup on! and the worst part of all, she was wearing stripper perfume!
please, think of the children…
i know this is slightly old news, but as i’m feeling a bit sick and can’t sleep tonight anyway, i just want to express my absolute disgust at the hypocrisy that our supposed “leaders” in government have shown once again. it all centers around the SCHIP program which was just vetoed by bush a few weeks ago, and which veto was upheld last week. every election year we hear the politicians screaming about doing “what’s best for our children”. this excuse is used for anything from imposing curfews on teenagers to attempted censorship of music, film and tv, all the way to new laws designed to keep certain criminals in prison forever, whether they can be reformed or not.
but in all this “discussion” about what is best to protect the children of this country, the one program which would actually help the most is vetoed over nothing more than brain dead politicians trying to impose their draconian political will on the least fortunate of society. under the guise of “socialized medicine” — something that is apparently even scarier than dying in a nuclear holocaust to these people — the bill which would have provided medical coverage for an extra four million kids has been vetoed and has no chance of recovery. there is no doubt that there are plenty of supporters judging from the overwhelming majority of senators and representatives who voted for the bill. but to prevent parents from having help with medical expenses, no matter how much they make collectively, is beyond description.
nevermind for the moment that the “socialized medicine” bogeyman is always trotted out whenever government starts trying to allow its citizens some chance of receiving medical attention for reduced cost, or even free in some cases. the america i was taught to believe in always takes care of its own because that is the right thing to do. the fact that we came incredibly close to losing this program completely because of the political grandstanding of a few morons in government is undeniably unamerican. we are slowly but surely becoming a society in which it’s “every man for him/herself” instead of “love thy neighbor”. does it really matter in the long run if expanding SCHIP is one step closer to universal health care for everyone? is it *THAT* important to keep kids everywhere from getting the medical care they deserve? are we going to insist that kids begin working for their benefits next? we have labor laws that prevent that from happening, but the direction this country is moving in, i wouldn’t doubt that those laws would be repealed if someone in washington decided it was expedient enough to put kids back to work in the factories again so that the almighty private industry can provide their health care for them instead.
but then what do we truly expect from politicians? these are the same people who are known to be liars and cheats after all. we are all aware of the empty campaign promises that come about pretty much every november, and a few other months during the year too. why would we believe that politicians have our kids’ best interests at heart when they have insurance lobbyists and HMO’s telling them how much money they stand to lose if this bill passes. profits which will not end up in those same politicians’ campaign funds if the bill passes. we hear it all the time that this country is going to hell in a handbasket, but not for the reasons that they would have us believe. no, the true test of our society’s worth is how well we treat those less fortunate than ourselves. and killing this bill shows that our “leaders” are only interested in their own power and that they have no compassion for the future of our country.
we can all use a little honesty in our lives….
well, let me start by saying that i sometimes get easily distracted by women i find attractive. this tends to make me turn a blind eye to some qualities about them if i really “want it to work” between us. case in point: a girl i met through folks i know here in the music scene that reminded me so much of someone i used to work with that i just automatically assumed she was a lot like the other girl i knew. which meant i gave her way more leeway than she deserved now that i find what she’s really like underneath.
before moving to la-la land i was always told what horrible people live out here. we’ve all heard the stories of crazy hollywood types who will chew you up and spit you out, lie to your face and talk behind your back, shallow, conniving assholes who only care about themselves. until recently i had never met anyone here who fit any of those categories and i counted myself blessed somehow. well, now i realize i have met my first stereotype and the experience has been enlightening to say the least. but maybe i’m overreacting, it’s hard to say at this point. all i know is that she was exhibiting snob-like behavior for some time but i figured it was due to bad experiences from the past that i have no control over.
i am one of those people who take my music very very personally. i feel that the music that we all listen to and collect is a reflection of our inner selves. so when i tell you that i really like a band/artist, let me tell you it comes straight from the heart and soul. if i ask you to come along to hear some music with me, it’s because i want to share the experience with you in the hopes that your mind and body will also be blown away so that we can share in the experience.
so i asked this person to come along to a hip hop show and she told me it wasn’t really her kind of music, so i decided that she wasn’t going to be converted. but i sent her a note saying that she should check out one of the singers who was performing, a lady by the name of jemetta rose. she responded by saying that hip hop couldn’t possibly have singers in it, so how could this lady be performing hip hop? when i made the tongue in cheek response that she should have been there to find out for herself, she informs me that hip hop is “shit music” and that she doesn’t like it because she “has *good* taste in music” 
now, i really don’t give a shit if you don’t consider hip hop to be worth listening to. not every style of music is for everyone, although i would argue that there is something in each genre of music that we can all agree on being a very high quality of music in all forms. i’ve got several artists that i can play on cue for anyone reading who is going to tell me that they don’t like the style to at least try and see if there isn’t *something* there that you can get into. because i will bet you anything that you can find something to appreciate even if you don’t like the style of music as a whole.
but to tell me that not only is the music i love “shit music” but that your “taste” is better than mine? fuck that! your opinion is no better than anyone else’s on this earth and just because i let myself be addle-brained for no good reason doesn’t make you the authority on what constitutes “good” music. we just went from semi-friends to don’t ever talk to me again if you know what’s good for you. i’m sure i can find any number of bands you listen to and tell you how badly they suck and the shitty music they produce. but you know what? i’m better than that. but maybe it’s the fact that not only have you shown that you are *not* truly a fan of music in general, but that you are ignorant and insulting taboot! the last thing i want in my life is someone who is *that* negative and ignorant to make such a statement. but again, i take my music very personally, probably moreso than almost everyone i know so i could be overreacting. but i honestly feel like she is directly insulting me by saying that i have bad taste and listen to shitty music.
but that’s all over and done. we all have things that move us in one way or another, and not everyone is moved by music to the same degree. i don’t care if you don’t agree with what i like. but when you take it personal like that you are crossing too many lines.
and to end on a positive note, anyone who is in the southern california area, or who will be visiting here the last weekend in october, should check out the 3 hour tour which is being set up by a friend of mine and is almost sold out. there are some musicians playing which i have mentioned here, and the rest is just pure awesomeness. get your tickets today and you will not be disappointed!