So I was driving to and fro pricing dressers, (so I don't have to live with my clothes strewn across the floor any longer) and I was listening to one of my tapes, this particular one is newly pressed and named "More, More, More, How do you Like it?" Let's not get into the whole "your still using audio tape to make mixes" discussion and suffice to say that for my part and the means that I have available, its the still the best option. Anyway, "More" cranks away, I've been making good tapes lately, which is always a good sign for me personally, and "More" is no different. As I pull into a strip mall parking lot, (no free advertising here), the song "A Certain Romance" comes on from my favorite band of the moment the "Arctic Monkeys." Now when I first picked up the album on the strength of a Bart Blasengame review I listened to it straight through. It immediately became a mofo favorite, in fact I listened to the album straight through later that evening after listening to other purchases. Along with other highlights on the record was the aforementioned "Romance," which upon the initial listen was instantly a favorite. And since that point I had listened to it profusely. But it wasn't until yesterday that it occurred to me that the song is about America and Americans. The "Monkeys" are British, and in this day and age regardless of how you feel you cannot deny that the rest of world thinks we're a bunch of dickheads. Obviously this just one man's humble interpretation a song, but listening to the lyrics, and sitting in the parking lot of a strip mall that contained,(and again no free advertising for these faggots), a large chain store that makes cash hand over fist but pays its employees an alarmingly low wage, it struck me that this country has digressed to such a great degree in the post 9/11 era. We've become a country of paranoid or frightened (take your pick) zombies who don't really do anything. Ands when I say we don't do anything I mean just that. There has been this rush over the past four years to puff our chests out in patriotic thunder and I just don't get it.
What our we proud of, the fact that China's economy is booming while ours languishes or the fact that the Iranian government is actually taking their cocks out and pissing all over us. Maybe it's our indifference to the gentrification in the Sudan. I don't know, but I can only imagine how foolish we looked to the rest of the world the day Moussaoui was sentenced to all those life sentences, I mean, he didn't do anything--really, he didn't. But we paraded him out there for the whole world to see, and the sad thing is the dude was right when he uttered his last words in the public arena, they are still going to come at us until we figure out why they hate us, and believe it's not because we have McDonald's and porn and whatever the fuck, it's because the only thing this country still does well is stick it's fucking nose where it doesn't belong. Having him all over the news was like what Pearl Harbor did for WWII, a bunch of young misguided muslims asking where can they sign up.
As a people we've become lazy again, like the eighties, we've let big business take ovber and call the shots. It's the problem with Capitalism, gone unchecked the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, but pay no attention just support the troops, buy the newest in new, just don't you fucking dare look behind the curtain. We're a country of consumers that has been electro-shocked into submission. Instead of thinking and creating we're reacting and destroying. This is not a cheap poke at our government, I mean we all know how I feel about that, this is a call to all.
You see, after that all ran through my head, I too began to feel a little worthless. I went home rearranged my living space, set an agenda for my sunday, and developed some film for the first time in while. I think people get into grooves and slumps, and you have to accentuate the groove and fight off the slump. Jump out of the box when you feel useless. Now, I'm writing this, I hadn't written on the blog since...(whatever the archives say) and it's good. It's good to be writing something , anything, again. Maybe I'll get over the hump on the current idea I have rolling around my skull or I'll get some lyrics down for those musical phrases that keep dancing back and forth. I used to do a lot of writing. I have sketch books filled with ramblings that when put all together may just mean something. It's what I've always done better than anything else i've tried. It's the way I know i can help change the way people think for the better of mankind. I'm going to keep ranting about our government, discussing our plight on this planet, railing against pop culture, and to be your street philosopher, you can chose to listen or pay me no mind. But, I'm going to write something, what are you going to do? 'Cause I think the "Arctic Monkeys" are onto something even if it isn't what they meant, it's a shame that there is no romance around here.
mofo
i was on the way home the other night after dropping the boy off at the nice lady's and heading back to the hole that i sleep in when it started raining in sheets. on the way down the parkway as i'm passing under one of the various overpasses i see a guy who has his bike under the bridge. kickstanded and he's on the phone. this was one of those cab forward bikes that can do well over 100 mph and, the owner will, because he can and this guy had the common sense to stay under the bridge and wait it out. good move crotch rocket.
