It's not the rappers and their blangbling!

Teachers have to put up with a lot of crap, especially the High School teachers. They watch their students stumble in with piercings, or pants hanging down around the knees and they enforce the rules, and who gets the tutting? The parents. Always. These teachers know that the kids will go home and tell their parent, "Oh, I got a D on that assignment, but it was my teacher's fault." And unlike years past, when parents used to tell us, "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps, get an A, and don't lie to me," these parents are now bringing legal action against their teachers!

This is why I say, more than anyone else, the teachers know that rappers and their bling and drugged out junkies play their own part in society, but when it comes to a kid being a f'up, only one finger need-be pointed.

So why are the teachers petitioning to get YouTube shut down?

They're saying that YouTube is responsible for them being humiliated and embarrassed publically on the internet. That ratemyteacher.com is responsible for promoting a child's bullying.

I'm sorry, but in this day and age, if you can get a computer for your kid, you can moniter what they do with it. I'm just sayin'. These parents aren't laying down the groundwork for any sort of "good person" morality and the kids are latching onto whatever is there. And yeah, there's some messed up stuff to latch onto, but the parents can make or break that bond pretty early on.

Now....you've got messed-up societal values....and messed up parenting techniques. Which messed up the kid? Which holds more responsibility? Hmm.

War Is Over! if you sing it

The Vietnam War saw The Doors, The Beatles, Yoko, Joni and countless others stand up in the music industry to take a political stance....or at least stand as a symbol for a political view.

In the movie, Jarhead, there's this scene where a helicopter flies overhead during Desert Storm blaring The Doors, "Break on Through" and the guy comments on how they need their own war music instead of borrowing Vietnam's. I found it to be true that the anti-war music from The Gulf war and from today is much, much more underground.

How come the popular songs about war are the country songs promoting it? What happened? Are we not a nation of musical expression anymore? Is there a ton of anti-war music just not being released?

If you know some anti-war songs, give 'em here. Prove me wrong! Please! I know The Decemberists leadman, Colin Meloy, at the end of their song, Sons and Daughters, announced that he hoped the end line would become a chant, almost.

"Hear all the bombs fade away
Here all the bombs fade away."

In any case, I've added some anti-war music that I think rocks. Do you have any others I should add? While you're at it, check out this page I found. It's called Bush in 30 Seconds. It's a contest to make a video summing up all of Bush's awful deeds in thirty seconds. Its judging panel consisted of celebrities such as Jack Black, Margaret Cho, Moby, Michael Moore, Gus van Sant, Eddie Vedder, and others.
www.bushin30seconds.org

Rhythm Tangent

Charles Simic has been named the 15th Poet Laureate of the United States yesterday. He had won the MaCarthur Fellowship and the Pulitzer prize in 1990 for poetry. In light of this, I will play poetry readings for today of some of the past Poet Laureates.
=)
"he balks at questions about the role of poetry in culture. 'That reminds me so much of the way the young Communists in the days of Stalin at big party congresses would ask, "What is the role of the writer?" ' he said.

Mr. Simic said he preferred to think of the point of poetry in the way a student at a school in El Paso put it when he visited in 1972: 'to remind people of their own humanity.' "

Make Music, Not Class-Divisions

Get this; in Washington state, they're going to play classical music in bus shelters and bus stops to create a non-violent environment/aura and deter criminals from hanging around the bus shelters.

What the f' is this? When Mozart composed, I'm pretty sure he didn't intend to hold the ghetto at bay in some shitty part of a Washington city. The entire thing promotes the gap between the classes and feeds the stigma of classical music being "elitest" or exclusive instead of stopping crime.

It won't create an aura in which crime will just disappear. Crime will go elsewhere, or still happen, but c'mon.....Don't use Brahms that way.

A psychologist from the Criminal Institute says the purpose of the program is to "mix different types of activities in locations that are crime-ridden to change the composition of the environment". And *then*, the bus driver said, "the reason we don't have music on the buses is that you can't please everyone. It would just cause drama."

I gotta agree with the bus driver. This has to be abuse on some level. How about taking the money the city spent on the speakers and electric equipment for every single bus stop and using it to hire quality music teachers for the underfunded schools instead of draining their funding when they don't pass tests as if the mere lack of a music class will motivate children to learn more.
C'MON people!

Cover Me

You've heard about it, the Metallica v. Napster debate or popular musicians such as Van Halen or Led Zeppelin suing nightclubs for paying cover-bands to perform without paying royalties to the artists, or Eminem suing Apple over unauthorized downloads on iPods. I've been thinking about this for a while. I can understand an artist suing over the download thing because it's stealing. However, Metallica would've killed for that kind of recognition when they were first starting out, and I think I can safely say the same for any music-artist bringing a lawsuit against those who are infringing on copyright laws. It's almost a signal for the artist on their way out. "okay, guys, I'm leaving. Don't steal my stuff," and a lawsuit follows shortly thereafter.

Why don't current music-stars sue over copyright infringement? Because they love the recognition. Because, even though teens sit at home and download a song from the internet, they will still go out and buy the album. The possession-of-goods stigma lives on. You're okay if you've got the album downloaded and burnt, but you rock if you bought it. Considering the amount of money lost in the downloading/stealing shenanigans, it actually serves to profit the band.

Never before in musical history has there been that kind of publicity. Never has a band gone from zero to Guitar Hero in less time than it takes for your computer to tell you your download is complete. The artists who are popular in the moment will embrace the internet for launching them into super-stardom and will create their own webzines, fansites, become Myspace whores, etc.

Yeah, it's wrong for their intellectual property to be stolen, but with the monetary gain and fame gain it gives them by letting others do it while they're still in the spotlight, it's no wonder they hold out for wrinkly old-age to bring 14 year old Joe's parents to court to sue him for downloading their first hit from three decades ago.

All I'm sayin' is, I see what's going on here, and in the live music venue, if there's a cover-band, then royalties need to go where royalties should legally go. No one has a right to profit off of someone else's song without paying that someone else first. I agree. I think there needs to be some serious reform with regard to how musicians are treating the copyright laws in light of the internet making new stars' careers and breaking the banks of the ones who don't perform anymore, rather rely on the royalties for their paycheck.

I'm just sayin'...Van Halen begging for change on the sidewalks of San Francisco is not a good image for me. I'm just sayin'.

Of Monkeys and Men

Korn has done some trailer to-do about De-evolution, the idea that man is evolving backwards and that the species has taken a U-turn. However, they didn't give Devo a nod for the De-evolution theme Devo has been plugging since 1972. Casale, from Devo, has said this about devolution, "When you have an administration like we have, everybody learns that ‘fuck you’ is the rule of the day. Every time the president speaks it’s a painful example that de-evolution is real.”

Reminds me of the movie Idiocracy. There was this big dumb-humor element to it, but the truth in it stuck with me. The direction the masses are headed in pains me and movies like Idiocracy and Jesus Camp keep me up at night, clutching my pillow.

So will Korn nod in Devo's direction? Apparently, their fan base has lashed out at Devo for bringing it up. Perhaps Korn would do well to remember who they opened for in 1996's Lollapalooza (Devo). While it's true that Devo has influenced many of today's bands (Casale claims credit for influencing such bands as LCD Soundsystem, TV on the Radio, and Interpol) perhaps both need to take a step back and look at which theory they're only proving.

On a lighter note, Devo may be coming out with a new album. Their first new one since 1990. It depends on Mothersbaugh, musical genius that he is, must be swamped with Sims music. ;-)

Rose Bowl 2005

January 4th, 2005, Ashley Simpson was severely boo'd at the end of her halftime performance during the Rose Bowl. This created a lot of controversy between Simpson's fans and those who completely dislike Simpson. There were arguments about whether or not it was linked to the SNL incident from the October prior, and that perhaps all of the 72,000 Rose Bowl fans had seen her milli vanilli and disapproved.

The more likely story is that the IQ of the screaming crowd dropped as soon as the first "boo" was picked up. I've heard this stated in various ways, but the main theme is that, when a crowd begins to work together for a common purpose (be it beating the shit out of someone, or boo'ing an untalented star), the IQ of the crowd is determined by taking the individual in the crowd with the lowest IQ and subtracting ten points from it.

I *do* feel bad for the girl. But, I mean, the media is making her out to be a martyr now, as if she's "fighting the good fight" and "such a strong woman". Y'know what would take more strength? Admitting that she doesn't have the talent required to make it in a business that requires talent, and stepping down.

In any case, it wasn't about Ashley Simpson. She can go on as many talkshows and cry about it to try and regain composure in time for the release of her third album, but it's about recognition. My faith in the culture was renewed when they began to shout things at her because, as much as they buy into the pop-flawed sexamusicality, they will still stand up and degrade that which tries to pay for something intangible like "talent" or "ability".

Heh. Or "tact". I'm just saying.



I'd also like to mention that nowhere in this post did I say Jessica's name. Damnit.