It’s been but a moment, and I’ve left the Journal for a week plus. That’s no good. It’s just so easy to leave little paragraph-sized droppings on Facebook and forget the bigger picture… not to mention when I THINK about the bigger picture right now I begin to get depressed.
The last couple of months have seen everyone and their mother occupying this and occupying that. A lot of people are doing a lot of things that they believe in. Actually DOING something for a change, not merely updating Facebook statuses and retweeting cleverly doctored photographs and fallacious infographics. It should be a point of optimism for me. And it does… maybe. It MIGHT bring about some sort of effect if they’ve got the stamina, funding and attention span to continue to the next election. But already it’s being co-opted left and right for everything from music to geekery to LOL cats to commercial sales. I wonder if any of the Hippie memes of the 60s were used in furniture sales. I’m sure cute blondes in fringe bikinis with flowers in their hair were used to sell Volkswagons…
Speaking of Volkswagon, Germany’s always had their collective head screwed on efficiently and effectively, if not necessarily straight – and so there is talk of fearing the growing power of Germany. They’re not in the same terrifying position as much of the rest of Europe is and they’re expected to help their neighbours, but when they help their neighbours their neighbours grow concerned about what comes with that assistance. But certainly the dismal potential of economic depression is worse? Isn’t it? We see stories of riots, pictures of firebombs and fear – London’s riots were terrifying because of the context. Greece is resorting to violence. The Occupy movements seem harmless so far, as far as we’ve seen they’ve been fostering very positive messages, but is there violence brewing there as well? The world is turning into Robocop’s vision of down-and-out, corporate-owned Detroit.
It’s a shame the Occupiers aren’t better organized – but if they were better organized they’d probably be perceived as a threat.
And so I’m learning songs about Tom Cruise and half-heartedly thinking about Halloween. It just seems so unimportant. I don’t care about Halloween – I just want to play a show, and to play it well. And to look people in the eye and say “this, all of this, is between you and me”. I am not a Photoshopped image. What you hear is not pitch-corrected. I believe what I’m saying and I’m saying what I believe. My revolution will NOT be televised. Though it may be webcast.
There’s just so much anger. The hot-blooded murder of Gadhaffi last week disgusted me. People say they want justice. What they mean is that they want vengeance. If people want to claim the veneer of civilized behaviour, the way they treat the losers are at least as important as how the winners treat themselves. Sometimes we’re just going through the motions, sometimes we’re just doing it to go down a checklist – but that checklist is part of being… something other than animals. There’s a rape metaphor here that my mental filter keeps me from typing.
Sort of on the opposite end of the spectrum from Capital City Cheesecake – the BSA open mic I was running at Te Amo is now defunct (or at least my participation in it). Not only was there a previously unmentioned drink mimimum in place when I got there the first time, not only was there a shortened set from a three hour night to a two hour night the second time – but when I got to see the “new piano” I was HORRIFIED! A 76 key Kurzweil synthesizer in the hollowed-out remains of a baby grand! Fortunately, my piano-playing featured artist, Sandy Asirvatham, made the best of it and even included a little 80s synth drum solo in the middle of a tune. I admire her all the more now! Though the last rob-run Te Amo open mic was in many ways a disaster, it was what every bad open mic should be – a way for artists to come together through adversity, overcoming the crap and still making wonderful music together! Above is a new find, and I’ll tell you their name as soon as I find it again! Monday night Kristen and I hit up Acacia Sears’ open mic at Teavolve in Baltimore, MD to advertise for our upcoming Halloween show. Above, 2/3 of the Great Outdoor Fight (Dan Zimmerman and Rowan Corbett) performing some tunes. Dan is still just one of the best writers out there… and it’s fun (and flattering) to see him playing MY guitar!)
The world’s depressing the Hell out of me right now – it’s got a hopelessness to it that I don’t know how to express, don’t know how to attack. We Live with such wonders – whether they be sunsets, a fancy phone, my new nephew or an artist at my open mic and the fact that I can broadcast them to everyone around the world. I had a scifi vision of the future, and somehow I believed that people were going to be brought together by new eras of communication – but for every one person who’s exposed to the beauty of befriending someone who is DIFFERENT from them, for every person who’s welcoming the blending of culture – there are ten who find like-minded, small-minded, hateful people who magnify and remagnify their views. For every person who comes up with a great idea, ten people steal it. For every politician trying to do something they believe in, there are 10 whose vote goes to the highest bidder. For every person who votes their morality with their wallet, there must be a hundred who want everything to be free.
Ha – just read that the hactivism group Anonymous hacked into a kiddie-porn site and published the private information of some 1500 users. But apparently for every one group that actively fights child pornography, there’s some 1500 people who are consuming it.
Sigh.
Wanda Perkins came out to the Takoma Park Open Mic and performed with a couple of string players. Lovely set. I was positively enamoured with the new lineup. Okay, all of these pictures are ALL ABOUT THE OPEN MICS for right now! That’s just what I’ve been documenting! Hey – since Pennsylvania it’s that or cats, man. Above, sahffi and mOsno (formerly Sahffi and Ashraf Dawod) (formerly Carrie and Ash) and NOW known as goatfish, performing at my open mic at Capital City Cheesecake in Takoma Park, MD. Ash has really become an amazing percussionist and sahffi has UNREAL range, to the point of dualing with me on ebow!
