hope that i get old before i die…

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.

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

– 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!

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.

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!

it’s been super hot here lately, as i’m sure it has been for everyone else (except for my friends from down under at any rate). because of this, one of my cats has taken to sleeping in the bathroom sink to stay cool. it’s no big deal usually except for the extra cat hair stuck to the basin when i get home from work. but these last few days i have found something a little more… invasive than usual. i go to brush my teeth and find a GIANT tuft of cat hair stuck to my toothbrush! at least twice now i have *almost* put that in my mouth before noticing that those bristles look a little out of place, and …oddly colored too… it’s at this point that i realize what it is. if only i could put something on or near the toothbrush so my cat wouldn’t rub up against it, but anything out there is probably much worse to put into my body than some cat hair. and i’m not entirely convinced that would stop her anyway… oh well, that’s the dangers we all face when we bring animals into our homes

i went to see this film tonight and it is unbelievable the way that america treats its citizens, and how the american way seems to have turned into “every man for himself”. i won’t go into any spoilers in this post, so if you still plan on seeing this movie, feel free to continue reading

all in all, i think moore did a very good job at pointing out the shortcomings of the health system in america. on the other hand, i don’t think a lot of the footage that he staged would have gone the way it did if he hadn’t staged it. once you watch the movie you should get an idea of what i’m talking about here, suffice to say that i doubt a non-celebrity could get away with the things that he does. there were also some moments of “clever editing” but then, this *is* a michael moore film after all…

coming out of the movie it becomes incredibly apparent that having a shitty health care system seems to be part of the american experience. just talking to a couple people after the movie made me realize that we have *all* had our fair share of problems trying to get medical treatment of some sort. to paraphrase one of the canadians in the movie (and giving a sort of spoiler but not really), he was referring to the suggestion that maybe someone who didn’t pay into the system doesn’t deserve free service. and he replied “we take care of each other. it’s just the right thing to do”. it’s outrageous to realize that this simple sentiment does not make its way into the greater society of the US. not just evidenced by the health care industry but even in the reaction to the victims of katrina. as if the ones who are suffering have somehow brought this fate upon themselves.

so far in fiscal year 2007 we have spent $439 billion on our defense budget. if even 1% of that was taken away, we would STILL outspend the next 10 countries of the world, and we’d have an extra $4.4 billion to throw around on projects that might contribute to the wellness of our citizens. instead we get attack ads and spin from politicians who are solidly in the pockets of the health care lobby. as i said before, this democracy is up for sale to the highest bidder. and unfortunately, the highest bidder is also the one calling the shots…..