Eh Barney Fife, You Can Fuck Off, You Little Bitch

For most of my adult life, I took risks, I took every opportunity possible, I got good at something, I showed respect, unless given a reason not to, and in general, I went for it.  Most things didn’t work out, I ended up playing in cities and towns all over the U.S., a few places in England, and one place in Peru (of all places).  There were times when I felt I was at the end of a rope, ready to take a fall into the depths of where I couldn’t begin to imagine.  The funny part of all this is that in every dire situation, some idea or perceived opportunity would appear out of nowhere – giving me some ray of light, thinking that maybe if I take this opportunity, that magically this would be the time that I finally get my shot.  This has happened hundreds of times.  As I’m sure I’ve said here more than a few times, I’ve always felt like I was being watched, controlled, screwed with, manipulated, and exploited – for other people’s benefit, and for some unknown entity’s amusement.  Sometimes I believe I’m some kind of social experiment.  The Pop Psychology Crowd would likely say that I have some kind of “Delusions Of Grandeur” complex, and/or a “Persecution Complex”.  Well, in my case, bullshit – no one person can have this many crappy things happen without somebody or something causing them to happen.  It’s not like I spent my life drunk, stoned, lazy, inactive, risk free, or partaking in any illicit or stupid behavior.  I never smoked, never did any kind of drugs, never drank, never spend money frivolously, and I even made decent money playing music for the most part.  I’m not an overly dimwitted person, I’m not exactly street smart, but I’m not dumb, either.  My worst crime is that I’m too trusting.  All that being said, I often wonder how the hell I ended up in such a ridiculously horrid situation – or situations.  I’ve been putting up with self serving, manipulative, bullying asses for no less than the past five years.  These are people who pretended to want to help me, but actually only wanted something for themselves.  There was one guy who it appears actually did want to help me, but his psychotic wife was bound and determined to get me as far away from her husband’s house and life as humanly possible – AND, if I mentioned some of the horrible things she did to me, you probably wouldn’t believe it.  Five scorned women over the five years, even though I always told all of them right up front that I was not going to date anybody.  Then there’s the pathologically angry, resentful, delusional one who has the worst case of a Superiority Complex, and the worst case of denial I’ve ever seen, and who bases everything (and I mean EVERYTHING)  on the almighty dollar – as if she were hurting for money (which she is very much not).  I’m gonna do something that the Pop Psychology Crowd SO hates – I’m going to do, “I would never do this or that”.  That’s right, if it were me who had money, but no interests, no hobby, no goals, and was just sitting around waiting to die, I would be beyond happy to support my artist girlfriend’s interest – provided she was serious, and had some amount of ability for it.  My point is not to list all these people’s crappy things that they did, my point is that since my way of making a living has been taken away – by no doing of my own, I have been treated like a piece of trash that you toss in the dumpster, I’ve been bullied beyond belief, and there is not a damn thing I’ve been able to do about it.  Besides the horrid living situations, I’ve also been homeless.  At the places I play, some of the customers have no problem walking up to me and trying to knock me down a peg or two – using any and all kinds of bullshit ammunition they can muster up.  For the record, I’ve never doubted me or my abilities – I am fully aware of my virtues, my abilities, my strong suits, and my shortcomings, and I’m perfectly ok with all of it.

I digress.  At this moment, while things are more dire (for me) than they’ve ever been, another couple of ideas came flying in out of left field – causing me to instinctively think that maybe there some way of climbing out of this gaping hole that I’ve been in for way too long.  They came to me by way of media – media that it’s well known (by anyone who has been observing me for any length of time) that I witness most every day.  I think that by now I should know better – that this crap is nothing more than a distraction, a way of manipulating me into hanging on for just a little while longer – because whoever is orchestrating this B.S. is not done being amused by it all, or maybe the experiment is not finished.  Whatever the case, I’m pretty damn tired, and I might just say the hell with it before too long.  The music business is gone, the days when talent, ability, and hard work paid off at least some of the time, are gone.  I also think I may just be too old to be on a stage.  I don’t look quite like an old guy, but it’s also obvious I’m no kid, either.

So, while I do my damnedest to bite my tongue, and avoid any kind of confrontation that will very likely get me thrown out into the street, I also get more and more tired and disgusted with life, people, and my endlessly bizarre situations.  One thing for sure, should I get tossed out of here, I will not give the universe the pleasure of seeing me grovel and starve out there, and I will be happy to first tell the universe to fuck off, then sign out for the last time.

If You Are Afraid Of It, Then You Must Kill It...

We have been conditioned to be a nation, more likely a world, of wimps.  We’ve all seen what people do when they’re afraid of something.  Those who are afraid of gay people will mock, ridicule, bully, scoff at, ignore, and even murder them.  Same goes for different races, different religious or political beliefs – one group will always try to belittle and/or shut down anyone or anything they do not understand, and that they are afraid of.  Well, I’ve been seeing this one become worse with every day that goes by – those who are not afraid of the truth – they will get it from all sides, and they will be on the receiving end of every cheap, cowardly tactic known to the human race.

When I was in the fourth grade, for whatever reason, I started to see the world as it was, and not as I wanted it to be.  I saw the wrongdoings of teachers and other faculty members, of other students, and even of people in positions of power.  I would sometimes state my disdain for such people, and let me tell you, the bullying would ensue – teachers who would use their position to shut me up, they ridiculed me, they mocked me.  Lucky for me, being a little kid, I didn’t do this very often.  As I got older, into intermediate (these days known as “Middle School”) and high school, it got worse.  If I dared to point out an unfairness – especially if it was being committed by a person of power – whether it be a teacher, staff member, or other society official, holy hell, the wrath of Khan would rain down on me.  Has anyone ever noticed what happens when a kid, or even an adult for that matter, stands up to a bully?  The first thing that happens is that some person of authority, a teacher, a cop, a store manager, a lawyer, a judge, will wag his finger in anger and disgust – AT THE PERSON WHO JUST STOPPED A BULLY.  Their justification being, “It doesn’t matter who starts it!!!”, and/or, “YOU CANNOT TAKE THE LAW INTO YOUR OWN HANDS!!!”.  Well, sir and madam, it DOES matter who starts it, and the law has not a damn thing to do with what’s right or wrong.  Yes, some of the bystanders might cheer you on, mostly somewhat secretly, but when being watched, they will scoff at the reluctant warrior.

Today we have government officials who are as dirty as they come, cops, judges, large corporation ownership and upper management – all committing crimes beyond belief – and all doing so “within the law”.  We watch TV, we listen to the radio, we read publications, and it’s always the same, cheap attempts at muzzling any person who would dare to stand up against the wrongdoings of other humans – especially those in power.  We are fed cliches such as, “We must be positive”, “Do not focus on the bad”, “Be thankful for this or that”, “If you can’t say something nice, then don’t say anything at all”, and other such nonsense.  This stuff has been hammered into our brains so hard and for so long that we instinctively believe it, and we even support it with an iron fist.  Any of you who are on Facebook, try posting something true, glaring, but less than pleasant, and you will be mocked, ridiculed, scoffed at, ignored, and otherwise belittled.  This is because of the simple fact that most people are afraid of the truth.  You can sometimes get away with it if you put in between some kind of humorous delivery, but for the most part, people will not like it, and they will let you know in one way or another – in either an aggressive or passive/aggressive way.

Great people have said that we must not ignore truth – ever how unpleasant and inconvenient it may be.  One quote that I see occasionally, “The worst thing a man can do in the face of evil is nothing”.  Another is “Few are the people who see with their own eyes, and feel with their own hearts”.  Then, look at all the great people who were exceptionally good at getting out the message of truth – people such as Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, even John Lennon – same, they are mocked, ridiculed, scoffed at, banned from the country, ignored, and eventually murdered.  Now, I don’t claim to be great – as these folks, but I do relate to them in the way that they were treated by people who were afraid of them.  Bill Cosby fairly recently said, when asked why he felt the need to talk about such “Negative” things, replied, “Because, the good things are doing a fine job of taking care of themselves”.

I was this skinny kid with the goofy smile – naïve as could be, it was said by more than a few of my teachers that I lacked self confidence, yet I was bullied by these same teachers for saying and doing things that they didn’t want to hear or see – again, very occasionally, but still...

When I was about 17, I hung out at a rec. center at the trailer park I lived in.  It wasn’t my place, I was staying with a friend and his parents.  I hung out at the trailer park rec. center, where an older guy, Dave, took a liking to me for some reason.  One of the things he said to me was, “You’re too damn honest for your own good”.  He meant that in a helpful and kind way, he wasn’t being derogatory by any means.  At the time, I had no idea what he was trying to tell me, and it took me well into my 40s before I knew what he meant, and boy, let me tell, you I sure know NOW what he meant.

We are witnessing the deterioration of the human race, we are watching people be murdered, and starved to death.  We are watching the greedy and the ruthless destroy humanity, and destroy the planet – all in the name of material profit.  We are watching the family be dismantled right in front of our very eyes.  The evil people who are perpetrating this stuff are laughing as they watch us all toiling, struggling, and dying – at the hands of them - the Rich and the Powerful.  We are watching it, while being muzzled, and we are letting them do it.  We all hide behind their clever cliches, and the useful idiots – who parrot such crap.  We have the Pop Psychology Crowd bullying us into believing that everything that everything that happens to us is our own fault, talking such nonsense as, “Only YOU are responsible for what happens in your life, for your destiny” to the extreme, in order that we do not hold the actual responsible parties responsible for their abominable behavior.

So, if you people want everyone to like you, then keep doing what you’re doing, watch Monday Night Football, drink Budweiser, and scoff at any person who dares to point out wrongdoings or injustices, hide behind all the clever cliches, go around Polly Want A Crackering the same B.S. that you hear on your favorite TV programs, or that you read in your favorite self help books.  Listen to those TV shows that try desperately to perpetuate the blatant lies that are unleashed on us all day, every day.  Don’t fight for what’s right, because nobody will like you, nobody will want to go to your house and watch the Ultimate Fighting Championships on your 300 inch HD TV.  That’s right, be a chicken shit all your life, and everyone will like you, and you will be safe.  Keep praying to that invisible guy up there in the clouds – to make everything good, because that has worked so well all throughout history.  Leave the being mocked, ridiculed, and bullied to those who have the backbone to handle it, because for god’s sake, Monday Night Football and Bud, and being liked by all is so much more fun, right?

Compression vs. Compression, and Bullshit vs. Bullshit

I just got done watching a “film” that is making its way around the internet, and holy hell, I couldn’t bite my tongue on this one.

One of my peeves is gross dishonesty – along with that being phoniness, pretentiousness, posing, and other such ego driven positioning. In this “film”, many of the “Stars” who said their piece were slamming mp3, “compression”, and streaming. Funny, the person who I agreed mostly with was Snoop Dogg. Ok, first, it’s beyond obvious that most of them don’t know the difference between file compression and audio compression. One guy indignantly stating, “Compression removes up to 90% of the overall sound”. Holy HELL. NO IT DOESN’T! Converting a wav file to mp3 removes 90% of the DIGITAL INFORMATION, and does not in any way affect the sound. Now, if you take an mp3 and mp3 it again, then yes, the sound will suffer – but full wav to mp3 – no audible difference. On audio compression, yes, there are those producers and/or “Artists” who like to compress stuff into oblivion, and yes, the sound does suffer – overcompression will give you a soggy sound, and even distortion at some point – but again – audio compression being a whole different process from file compression. You see, here we have pretentiousness – driven once again, by the sad, pathetic human ego.

Also in this “Film”, there was a guy bashing “Streaming” music – in the way that the sound is also suffering. Well, NO, streaming by itself will not deteriorate the quality of the music. Some radio stations will use a compressor (the audio kind) to further compress the music – to the point where it sounds soggy, but that’s been going on since the beginning of time – nothing new in relation to the inception of digital reproduction. One of the great things about digital reproduction is that when you hear something on the radio, or on the internet, or on your portable digital music player, what is being transferred is digital information, not raw, analog sound. So, the player will read the digital information, change it back into sound, and send THAT to the speakers to be transformed back into sound waves, the result being that the music itself will be fully intact. Different story with analog sound – which deteriorates with every transfer – from the original multi track tape to the “half track”, then to the vinyl - and your transistor radio. By the time it got to the vinyl, you had tape hiss that you could actually hear, and you had deterioration of the whole recording, not to mention the hissing and popping. With digital players, they decipher digital information, change it into sound, and send it to the speakers (what speakers you play it back on is a whole ‘nother – save that for another time). I don’t hear any of these hotshots mentioning THAT – ya know why, because they are not listening with their ears, they’re listening with their ego; no research, no educating, no fact checking, just Polly Want A Crackering what they hear - or find on the internet.. If you do an A/B test between vinyl and CD, you might argue that you like the vinyl better – because the hissing and popping will be a nostalgic thing – taking you back to childhood and teenage years where your memories were sweet and full of new experiences, but the difference in quality is inarguable. When CDs first came out, I couldn’t believe what I could hear, that I never heard on the vinyl copies – the attack of a guitar, the snares actually hitting the bottom head of the drum, the ultra highs of a ride cymbal, the texture of a voice, etc. – none of which was even audible on vinyl – the physical structure of vinyl making it physically impossible to reproduce those highs. So, you got people who will bash digital reproduction – especially mp3, while gushing over vinyl – again, listening to what some guru said, and not with their own ears. Note: Huge difference between, “I like this better”, and, actual quality of a recording, or of music. This brings me to my next point.
Anyone who knows me knows that I generally hate most new music – most music that was recorded after about 1985. I don’t hate it solely because it’s new, I hate it because the quality of the music itself is mostly horrid – regardless of the recording medium. You got singers who, on a good day, might hit half the notes they’re trying to sing, and, you got an “Artist” on the stage with a guitar strapped around his or her neck – while not even being able to tune it, much less play it. Singers who are doing nothing more than talking in some sort of musical form, not to mention the ones who sound like they have a golf ball lodged in their throat. You got the players who learned one or two “riffs”, and play it over every chord change. And, worst of all, you got guys and girls standing on the stage (accurately known as “Posers”) with guitars that never get played, ukuleles, and six string banjos, thinking that it makes them cool and hip. You got the ukulele craze – where these people think that an ukulele is a small guitar with 4 strings on it (blasphemy). So, you have people in the music business who are trying to impress people with bullshit, most of whom cannot hit half the notes they try to sing, and who can barely play their instrument, if they can play it at all. Add to that, the studio “Producers” who have no ability to recognize or understand music, but who have managed to get into the position of even being IN a damn studio. These are people who throw around words and terms such as, “Target audience”, “Marketing skills”, “Dynamics” (which they have no idea what that even means), “eq that out” (also having no idea the meaning of), and other such hipster bullshit that they think will make people believe they know what the hell they’re doing.

Some of my favorite bands and artists are: Creedence, Eagles, The Who, Led Zeppelin, Pure Prairie League, Poco, Emmylou Harris, Earl Scruggs, Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, and most anything that Grady Martin, Pete Drake, Charlie McCoy, and/or Ray Flacke played on. Most or all of these people recorded on tape based systems, some on tube amplified equipment. Some of it was 8 track (not talking about the player you had in your car in the early 70s), some even 4 track. Most didn’t have the luxury of using all kinds of contraptions to “enhance” the music – they couldn’t loop, they didn’t think to eq out all the lows out of one track, and eq out the highs on another and meld them together, which does nothing but create some kind of illusion. They didn’t have ping ponging effects – that mostly make the instrument sound like a Martian played it. The studio engineers from those days seemed to know what all those faders and knobs did – they used them as tools – and not as toys – the way many modern “Studio engineers” do. Today you got the “Wall of Sound”, which distracts the listener from the story, the beat, the melody. You got mindless, structureless crap, along with mindless guitar scales, and steel guitars also playing mindless scales – but you got expensive hype that will make teenagers swoon. Never mind using the instruments to draw the listener in, never mind playing the instrument – as opposed to doing math – which is precisely what using mindless scales is. With all of this, you got people in the business bashing digital reproduction, while fawning all over their vinyl records. On the other hand, you get those who use digital technology to the other extreme – also not knowing the why or what – I’ll get into that another time. You got self proclaimed “Sound Technicians” who will never understand things such as signal flow, input signal, output signal, clipping; presence, and who, for crying out loud, I cannot figure out what the hell they’re listing to when they are behind a sound board. The stuff is usually way too loud, guitars either blaring or buried, vocals – also either blaring or buried. You got the guys who will mute channels, then when the guitar player starts his solo, the sound guy forgets to unmute that channel, until the guitar solo is almost finished. You got the soundguys who are endlessly tweaking knobs and faders all through the performance – doing so with no rhyme or reason, other than to give the appearance that he’s doing something. Most monitors are either inaudible, or blaring, with horrible tone, usually accompanied by squealing, wooing, and thundering. These are guys who have no idea how sound waves behave, what generates them, how they are generated, and how to control them – and most of all – WHEN they need to be controlled. These are the same guys who pretend to know what the hell they’re talking about when it comes to digital vs. analog, audio compression vs. file compression, and heart & soul driven music vs. ego driven music.

One of the reasons I go on these rants is because I hate bullshit with a vengeance. I hate hipster BS, I detest posers, and I hate anything that is driven by the pathetic human ego. The sad thing about life is that bullshit does open a lot of doors for the phony and the pretentious. More often than not, though, the innovators, the originals, the ones who do what they do because they think it’s the right thing to do, they are the ones who will be revered in the long run. There are, of course, exceptions to every rule, but for the most part, while bullshit may open doors, once you get through the door, you better have something of substance. This doesn’t mean that just because a person does something for 20 or 30 years, that he is “successful”, it just means he got lucky enough to get by on his BS for all those years.

One of my favorite quotes: “Few are those who see with their own eyes, and feel with their own hearts”. - Albert Einstein -

I had to mp3 this piece, but the general idea is there.

Boy Meets Girl...

Boy meets girl, boy charms girl, boy gets girl to move in with him.  Boy does a damn find job of hiding his angry disposition and resentful ways for the first year – while he is charming her.  She is an artist, she paints, sells her art when she can.  She actually did pretty well up until the Great Depression of 2010 reared its ugly eyebrows.  He supports her financially while she sells a painting occasionally.  She has no family or friends who she can turn to, she’s alone in the world – boy knows this and uses it to his full advantage.  Once she is within his control, he bosses her, snipes at her, controls her, controls the money, and has no problem using guilt and other cheap tactics to manipulate and bully her.  He is financially fairly well off, mostly by luck of the draw.  He is a couch dweller, and makes damn sure that his girl, who had been active all her life, is also confined to the living room in front of the television.  When boy wants to “Go out”, it is assumed that she goes with him, at which later time he will toss that in her face - as in "I take you places...".  He won’t stand up to anybody out in the world who gives him a hard time – never has, but has no problem bullying his prized possession – who, in his mind, is not a person, but merely a possession that is there for his pleasure, his well being, his comfort, and for him to beat up on whenever he feels the need.  When she does occasionally stand up for herself, or she dares to disagree, or god forbid, say anything that her master does not approve of, he does not hesitate to throw the usual accusations and threats her way, as in, “You ungrateful bitch”, and, “If you don’t like it here, then you can just get the fuck out!!!”, among other things.  She did manage to get away a couple of different times, but he made promises and whatever else, in order to get her back under his control.  Boy cannot understand why she avoids any bedroom time like a bad disease – as he turns her stomach and makes her skin crawl.  He also can’t figure out why she avoids conversation – being that whenever she does try to talk to him he snipes at her at the drop of a hat, and generally treats her as if she’s stupid and beneath him.  While he is financially comfortable, he complains about the price of everything, and he regularly lets her know how much he resents putting out money for her food, her phone, and the occasional art supply.  She generally doesn’t ask him for anything, being that she knows how he loves to throw anything and everything in her face when he flies into one of his childish conniptions.  She continues to look for ways to get her own life back, so she can free herself of this prison warden who has no regard for her, her feelings, or her anything.  If this isn’t abuse, I don’t know what is, and there are more people living this way than I would like to think about.  At last sighting, she looked much sadder than she did three years ago, even though she was never the most bubbly person I ever met.  I’m sure that at some point, likely before too long, she will find her way out one way or another.  I also always wondered why the nice girls always seem to end up with jerks like this.  Again, this scenario is all too common – especially in today’s economic environment – which by the way, she had nothing to do with creating.  I feel for her, as I do any and all of us who are in such a miserable living condition.

Western Society Has Perverted… Well, Most Things

Yes, Western Society has very well perverted so many things. It starts way up there at the top, where the Chosen Few, the greedy, the ruthless, the people who aspire to positions of power, so they can use that to cause grief and loss for other people.

Let’s look at the word, “Coward”, for starters. We are to believe that cowardice is defined by what a person is afraid of. Everyone is afraid of something, some of our fears are realistic, others are phobias. Our self preservation mechanism is designed to protect our safety and our life. An abused woman is afraid of leaving her abuser, for fear of more harm, or worse – does this make her a coward – I don’t think so. I small kid is afraid of a bigger kid – does this make him a coward – no, it doesn’t. A student is afraid to speak his mind against a teacher or professor, for fear of retaliation, either through school means, or in the case of a younger student, fear of the parent – coward? No, don’t think so. You’re driving, you’re taunted by some sniveling little dimwit in a BMW, you figure he’s got his lawyer on speed dial, you walk away – who is the coward here? You’re in a situation where a gun is pointed at your face, you do what you’re told, are you a coward, no, in fact, the coward is the one holding the gun, in all these situations, the coward is the one hiding behind his weapon of choice, in order to cause grief and/or loss for another person. I understand the etymology – tail between the legs and all that, but from where I sit, that applies much less to the extremely fearful person, and much more to the one holding the gun. Everyone knows that where a bully is concerned, as soon as the playing field becomes level, the gun toting punk will slink away – with his tail between his legs. This has caused much of the mental instability in this country. We are all told that we must handle every situation like Chuck Norris, Clint Eastwood, and Superman would. The fact is, if you, in the real world, do anything the way any one of those guys do, you would be in prison so fast, you wouldn’t even know what hit you – in fact, if any one of THEM did what they do on TV, they would also be in prison – well, maybe not, being that they have unlimited financial resources, not to mention their celebrity status. But you get the point. So, all the little American boys who watch Chuck Norris movies, who are told they must "Kick ass", and other such nonsense, when they don't handle a situation they way Hollywood and the media says they should, they feel violated, emasculated, and frustrated; and at some point, this causes the boy to want to wreak revenge, he gets a gun, builds a bomb, straps on a knife, and goes on a rampage - the kind of rampage that is so common these days.

Western society has also perverted any and all economic systems. Let’s take Capitalism. Capitalism is theoretically a good system, but as always, the Chosen Few, the ruthless, the vindictive, they exploit the system, and they exploit as many people as they possibly can – usually the masses. If all people would take what they need, and leave the rest alone, Capitalism would work just fine, but as we all know, it never works that way – there are always those greedy, self serving parasites who are never happy no matter how much they have – AND, they seem to get some kind of sick pleasure from the pain and suffering that they inflict on other people. How’ bout Socialism, I’d bet that that system could also work. It has never worked because again again, the greedy and the ruthless will throw a few crumbs to the masses, and gain total control over them. If every person was allowed to have, for the taking, what they need to live comfortably, Socialism would work just fine. From all I’ve read, our Native American Indian folk lived this way; add to that, they had a whole lot more respect for nature than the people who occupy this space today do. I understand that there are some tribal people in obscure countries who live by this, we don’t hear about them, for obvious reasons, but I understand they don’t have the murder rates that we have, and they don’t have the mental illness rates that are in epidemic proportions in this country.

These are but only two of the major things that Western Society, namely the ruthless parasites who are at the top of the food chain, have perverted and exploited for their own personal gain, and their own personal cheap satisfaction at the pain and suffering they cause for millions of people – people who are doing nothing but trying to live their little lives.

What makes such things even worse is the tendency for people in general to ignore what goes on around them. In their mind, it’s easier to simply accept the status quo, hide behind such idiotic cliches as, “Let’s all be positive and move forward”. These things fester, we continue to ignore it all, and our lives continue to get worse and worse. I challenge any person who lives in the real world to look me in the eye and tell me things are better, or even as good, as they were 30 years ago. You would think that with all our technology and so called “Progress”, that life would be exponentially better, well, it’s not, it’s much worse, people are angrier than they’ve been in my lifetime, people have much less money, they are glued to their electronic devices and controlled by them, and even spied on by them. We are being poisoned by the food industry and Big Pharmaceutical, and we are being sprayed with aluminum oxide by planes that do this right up there in plain sight. Our money is being literally stolen by Big Insurance, Big Oil, Big Retail, Big Fast Food, and we are all playing right into their hands. We are given cheap entertainment – which gets cheaper and more vulgar with every day that goes by. P.T. Barnum said it perfectly, “There’s one born every minute”.

There are many other societal and life issues that have been perverted and exploited by the Powers That Be – guns, morality, the mind, food, music, art, family values, business practices, social interaction, and many more, and as long as we sit by, ignoring and denying, hiding behind such horrid nonsense that is and continues to be perpetuated by our Pop Psychology Crowd – the “Professionals” who feed us B.S. in the form of “Cognitive Behavioral Therapy”, and “Mindfulness”, we will continue to spiral downward, until our once great country is completely destroyed. As we can all see, but many deny, jobs, the ability to start and maintain a true small business, families, and lives are being destroyed as we speak. In case some don’t know this, or we forgot, every empire in the history of the world has been destroyed by greed, lust for power, and sadistic tendencies that are so rampant among the Rich and the Powerful, and I don’t see this one being any different, or with any different result. How does that saying go, “If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got”.

I have no answers, but I do have suggestions. The only way to fight the Rich and the Powerful is to hit them in their pocketbook. So, while it may be difficult, support true small businesses, support those roving farmers' markets, barter whenever possible, grow your own food whenever possible, ride a bicycle whenever possible, and come up with your own ideas. Of course, we all live in the real world, and it is not possible to completely revert to old school ways, but if we all make a concerted effort, we can start with baby steps – and maybe begin to head in the direction of good, fair, kind, compassionate, and where the masses will benefit, instead of handing over everything we work for, including our freedom, to the Powers That Be.

Hypocricy And Self Servitude At Its Finest

Thank you, Lord, for sending those people to kill those four Americans in Libya. While I'm thinking about it, thank you for sending us those murderers who killed 3000 innocent people 11 years ago, and thank you so much for orchestrating the millions of deaths that all those people had to endure in all those senseless wars in the history of the world. Also, thank you for allowing the thousands of people, including men, women, and children, just yesterday across the planet, to die horrible deaths from disease, starvation, car accidents, and violence. Thank you, almighty God, for all the freaks of the world who are molesting little boys and girls as I write this, ruining the lives of these innocent little people. And last but not least, let's all thank God for half the football fans this past Monday, who lost their football games, whose teams did not pray hard enough to get what they wanted.

Most will see this as mocking and ridiculing, and probably blasphemous. For me, what's blashpemous is the constant denial of reality, the defending and excusing of evil and evil people. I detest all those clever cliches that are designed to keep us quiet, to keep us thinking that we should be thankful for all the abuses that the evil people of the world are forcing onto us, and/or to keep us looking at all the "good" things, while ignoring the bad. This continues to work very well for such people - the parasites of the world.

So, for those of you who see Monday Night Football and your Budweiser as being the most important part of your life, go back to what you were doing, and just let this crap continue. And, for those of you who mindlessly enjoy your daily bible thumping sessions, get right back on that, because it's worked so well all throughout history in solving the problems of the world.

On The Wrong End Of "isms"...

After two years of being mostly out of work, I’m beginning to wonder if I may have reached the point in time where I’m just too old to be doing this music thing.  I watch some of the modern acts on TV, and I hear them whenever I’m within earshot of a jukebox or radio.  My observation is that everything is geared towards the youngsters – most department stores, most coffee shops, most clothing stores, most bars and restaurants, and, my main point – music.  I just heard back from an agent who books cruise ships.  I communicated with him a couple of times, told him what I did, and what I didn’t do – basically that I don’t do anything that was recorded after about 1985.  I also told him why – one, that in all my years of being in the business, I never got any requests for any of it, and two, every bone in my body says it’s not for me.  He informed me that anybody they hire for those cruise ships will need to know lots of the modern pop music.  One of the things I thought, was that most who go on those cruises are 40 and over.  In fact, in my experience, the only ones who ever tried to dictate what bands and solos play are the management, entertainment directors, and booking agents – these are people who claim to know what people want, but in reality, they are the least informed, and the most egotistical.  Ever how twisted and stupid it is, this is the way of the world, and me, being one little nobody, I really have no control over it, I don’t make the rules, I just have to live by them.  Oh yeah, and I will never sell out, I will never be a contrived, phony, money mongering whore.  Don’t get me wrong, I still make music, because it’s who I am, but I guess at this point, I don’t have a lot of faith that anything will ever happen for me in this horribly corrupt business that is so full of “isms”, and so full of corruption.

I continue to watch the world, the human race, swirl down the proverbial (and metaphorical) toilet – in just about every way – morally, economically, care and/or compassion for other people; everything is about me, as in, “What do I get out of this, how does anything and everything I do benefit me?”.  My dad said shortly before he died, “I’m glad my life is almost over”, and I guess I feel the same.