Dec *th

 I was born on Paul McCartney's birthday 40 years ago...and the Doors, a band I had never heard of then, became my favorite band two years after Lennon's death...and today is also Jim Morrison's birthday.

Funny how things work.

....my sister came charging into my room. I was fast asleep. She screamed, "they SHOT JOHN LENNON!". 

Though I had read the phrase many times before in books, at that moment, I realized the meaning: I sat bolt upright in bed-immediately shocked beyond words.

 My sister and I were only about a year and a half into our introduction to the Beatles. She had the two-LP, red-jacketed, "Greatest Hits, 1960-1966", I had the two- LP, blue-jacketed "Greatest Hits, 1967-70".

We were at constant war over which was best.

"Day-Tripper" or "Hey Jude".

Not a question-a Sibling War.

I remember my parents religiously listened to a Classical music show out of Boston called "Morning Pro-Musica" hosted by the most solemn and serious classical music host you possibly imagine-Robert J. Lurtsema.

This was a guy who used to take vacations to Europe yearly to study German and French so he could properly pronounce the names of composers and their works, so he could go into archives and read original manuscripts so he could be a better presenter of the music he spun 5hrs a day. 

All classical.

He was amazing to listen to as a kid who loved music-but he had NEVER before expressed any interest of affinity for anything other than classical.

As a 10 yr. old I imagined him and his deep, rock of Gibraltar voice screaming-down anything other than Bach or Beethoven.

His voice, and the music he played was the soundtrack to my every morning from the age of 3 until I moved out at 18.

On Dec. 8th 1980..somewhere about 7:30 am, I heard the granite in his voice tremble and crack as he confirmed the death of John Lennon.

It was horrifying and beautiful.

He was clearly crushed.

In. the. few. measured. words. he. spoke. on the subject, you could hear his pain, his admiration.

I would never have guessed it then, but it has informed much of the rest of my life:Camaraderie is camaraderie, "I am an an artist, you are an artist, I am a woodcutter, you are a woodcutter," etc.,etc.

...a whole lot of things hit me at that moment-and on that whole day.

Good things that came from something awful and senseless.

In a year or so Anwar Sadat was killed, Pres. Reagan was shot.....it started to look bleak...like this was a new way of the World....like the 60s all over again...

...I think if Lennon hadn't been the first, because he lived for peace and died for nothing, if he had been the last, maybe the mood would have been worse, but as a little kid, when he was killed, the grown-ups rushed to point out that this in no way changed his greatness, or that he was a man who loved peace...

-if he had been shot last, it might have been a negative, cynical exclamation-point on humanity.

That may seem overly dramatic, but I was 10, and it was like someone had just shot Superman with a Kryptonite bullet.

Same as with Sadat.

Same as with Reagan..

...towering figures laid down by all the insanity and evil the World could muster.

Lennon's death-and the fact a whole new album was released not long after-was shocking to a young fan, but also proved a certain measure of immortality and unwillingness to give-in to despair.

It ended a budding chapter in my life, and taught me to just love music for what it was and is.

Coffee House Rules

Coffee House Rules

Coffee House Rules
1. Not getting the job as a bartender at the cool bar you really like does NOT automatically qualify you as a "barista"
2. The fact that you insist on listening to really crappy music does NOT make you unique or cool, it merely means you listen to really crappy music. You aren't the first person to hear it and magically recognize the unrecognized uniqueness and beauty of it, everybody else heard it first and thought it was really crappy-you just didn't get the memo.
3."Room for cream" means just that-especially when YOU ask ME if I want "room for cream".
It does not mean "fill the cup so full that I can only add 1/1billionth of a freakin' mm of "organic" non-fat dirty-smelly hippie soy garbage before scalding hot water spills out and melts flesh from my bones..."
It means leave room for F@#%$*&^ cream in my cup!
4. Consuming vast quantities of dirty-smelly hippie soy garbage at your new job to compensate for the feelings of inadequacy you have because you didn't get the cool bar tending job is probably the reason why you have gained so much weight and developed acne.
5. Maybe you didn't get the other job because you were an idiot with crappy taste in music OR maybe it was just because the economy sucks and a whole bunch of people with massive amounts of experience applied first.
6. You can always listen to better music.
7. You can always read more and get smarter.
8. You can always see a shrink (PLEASE!)
If you are reading this it doesn't apply to you and I am usually nicer when I can caffeine-ate myself without getting 12th degree burns on my guitar hand.

Vigilantism or Natural Reaction?

Read this story to understand this post.....


 Legally you can't go around beating people-even if they deserve it, but this is why his abuse should be a mitigating factor, and why more people need to think about these sorts of things and look at them in a more in depth manner:
The worst component of abuse-at least the most lasting component of it is the psychological aspect. Not just the psychological scars from the rape, or the broken trust, but the mental control, and intentional breaking down of the self by the perpetrator. The direct psychological abuse keeps happening whenever the victim is around the predator-whether or not the rape continues, and almost nobody other than the victim and the predator ever recognize the abuse-especially if the abuser is smart.
I was severely abused psychologically and emotionally abused growing up-even as an adult-by my parents, but they rarely ever did anything that, as a kid, I could point to specifically, and never in front of others. I was only about 3 years ago that I finally pulled the plug on that relationship, the head game had worked so well, that I couldn't be convinced to do it before, I was still laboring under the whole "family is the most important thing in the World" myth. It has only been recently that I had to acknowledge just how sick and evil my parents really were-I still don't want to think about just how bad they might have been. I was very fortunate to have creative outlets in my life, and a grandmother who was wonderful or I surely would have wound up dead or in prison.
The cognitive dissonance caused by the control by the abuser over the natural innocence and confidence of a young, exuberant kid creates enormous frustration and anger or rage, and especially in this day and age where it is politically incorrect to get angry, it must be held inside, where it festers and amplifies any obstacles or troubles the victim may face in life. This is a circular escalation that can infect and effect every part of of the victim's life. I doesn't go away with facing down the issue. Sometimes facing down the issue-or the abuser.
I often thought that if I had given my father the savage, yet non-fatal beating he so truly deserved when he was young enough to have it not look like elder-abuse on my part. The outcome would have probably gotten everybody therapy, and maybe me out of that house.
I just turned 40 this year. I have never been married-never even close, even thought the only thing I have ever really wanted-ever since I was old enough to remember thinking about it, is a wife, and a house, and a dog. The average duration of my romantic relationships is about 3 weeks. As soon as they get a glimpse of what they are dealing with they usually vanish into thin air. The girls that are patient enough, and caring enough to accept what I have been through can't cope with my personality. The games the psychological abuse plays with confidence and self-esteem are unbelievable. The ability to think that you have found trustworthy people who almost always turn out to be more abusers is mind-blowing. The only people who can relate to you are supremely screwed up-and often borderline dangerous if not outright psychopathic...I sleep with a gun because of the people I have met in my life, not because I am paranoid or suicidal, but because a Federal Agent recommended I do so. People keep company with people who understand and accept them-in my case, that group was the wrong one...thank God I figured that out by myself.
 I have trouble keeping the same job for very long because it involves getting to know, and dealing with people who can't ever fathom what I have had to deal with.
I have never, and plan on never harming a hair on anyone' head, and it has been nearly 15 years since I figured out that it wasn't ME that was the problem and started taking steps to deal with my abuse...but even then I didn't know exactly WHAT was making me feel the way I did.
I am not saying I agree with what this man did, I am saying that I understand, and can't really blame him.

A Lesson to the Feeble-Minded

To all of the beneficiaries of the work of service workers: You are lucky, not smart
To all of you who are fortunate enough to have 'real' jobs and are the beneficiaries of service-industry workers without properly appreciating it:
Fuck you.
We don't like you. You are morons. You are condescending, rude, you drive cars that are a waste of money and prescious natural resources, your kids are a bunch of fuckin' whiney little pussies, and most of all, you aren't any smarter than any of us, you are just more fortunate. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein-those are smart people. You may have been just smart enough to say the exact right thing at the interview-i.e.- known exactly what lie to tell and when, but you aren't smart.
..and did LOOK in the mirror before you left the house today?
Know what you want when you got up to the speakerbox at the drive through or to the cashier, if you are at a place for the first time and there is a line, don't ask the person behind the counter for a detailed description of the ENTIRE menu. Just. Don't. Your eating disorder or sensitive tummy is not more important that the people in line behind you-or their time. Making more than $40k a year DOES NOT makes you special, it makes you fortunate, and as such you should relish in your good fortunne by enjoying the added security of a healthy income and be more relaxed and gracious to those around you. If you are making more than $40k a year and you are broke? FUCK YOU twice as hard. You are pathetic. You insult all of us that live and work poor so you can have whatever you want when you want it and we usually don't ever get to save up enough money to go on a proper vaction. You wonder why there is so much cheap booze at the convenience store, and all those flavored blunt-wraps? That is how we cope with you lame-ass you fuckin' punks.
Don't fuckin' explain the menu to me at my work. Don't tell me how to do my fucking job because you 'waited tables in college' or because 'you've been their too bro!' go fuck yourself, I am not your 'bro,' bro.
When you get in a cab, know where you are fuckin' going and tell the driver-if he doesn't know how to get there HE WILL SAY SO fuckwad, don't be a prick and ask 'do you know how to get there?'... and don't give directions-unless he obviously is going the wrong way. Pay your cab driver with cash you retarded little shit. A credit and debit debit card is for Amazon, eBay, of buying your 300 inch LCD flat panel from Best Buy. Anytime you present plastic to a small business person you are saying " I am fucking you out of  as much as%10 of your gross because I am too fucking lazy to reach into my pocket and count out 45 dollars because I am a douchetard".
Don't ask for split checks. Only douchebags do that. Seriously. Your server may not look busy, but they aren't getting paid to do math you should have done in your head when you ordered if you weren't planning on picking up the tab. One thing telling your server you want separate checks tells him or is that you are all too cheap and too lazy, which means you aren't going to tip for shit and will waste the server's time over any 23 cent discrepancy. Another thing you need to understand about a restaurant, is that as soon as you ask for split checks, so will everyone else, and if things get busy suddenly as they often do, you could hold up everyone just because you are a lazy shit-for-brains asshole who is too lazy to do basic addition. Pack a baloney sandwich from home of go through the drive thru asshole.
   You got lucky because you learned computers at an early age, or were born good at math, or were weak-minded enough that you can actually sit in a cubicle all day, chewing your cud, nibbling rice cakes, and trying to find naked pictures of Kenny G the internet that you can masterbate to in your off time-or maybe you' get really crazy and original and do it in the bathroom on your break.
You are a freakin' rebel.
Just getting up and going to work and downloading shit on iTunes doesn't make you anything. In order to be something special, you have to be special. You have to actually do something with your life that doesn't involve acting superior or taking down to other people because they are waiting on you.
You are probably average-or worse.

Dear Pandora...

...thanks for ONCE AGAIN, reaching as far as you possibly can across the great musical soundboard of the Universe and turning the 'SUCK!' knob up to 11. Times 1 million. To the Googalith power.
You USED to be cool, but now? Meh? You are the Chupacabra of cultural decay. You are the Detroit of Pop-Culture with George W Bush as Mayor without the benefit of his beloved cocaine and bourbon.
I love all kinds of music, but requesting an Americana band doesn't mean one song by said band and an hour of BAD examples of Einstrzunde Neubaten's worst. They are geniuses yes, but if I want Americana that is what I want -not your idiotic "I FUCKING SWEAR TO GOD BECAUSE YOU INVESTED IN MY WORTHLESS COMPANY THAT I CAN ALWAYS BE ALL THINGS TO ALL PEOPLE EVERY SECOND OF EVERY DAY AND MAYBE SOMEDAY WE WILL BE PROFITABLE EVEN THOUGH I JUST WANT TO BE A COOL INDIE-ROCK COLLEGE STATION BUT INSTEAD WE ARE GOING TO TRY AND SUCK THE LIFE OUT OF ALL OF THE FEW REMAINING COOL STATIONS IN AMERICA AND PRETEND WE"RE STILL COOL WHILE WE NOT ONLY HELP KILL THE REST OF THE RECORD INDUSTRY BUT DESTROY ANY FUTURE FOR INTERNET RADIO JUST SO WE CAN JUSTIFY OUR SALARIES AND NOT LOSE THE HOMES WE BOUGHT AND TOTALLY UNDERWATER IN"
You are worthless, destructive, greedy, totally uncool pieces of shit. If you ever had any vision you lost it when your 'quick-money startup cash cow' only did well enough to make you mediocre in the eyes of Wall Street when the real street realized you should go home and shoot yourself for ruining shit you were never cool enough to grasp to begin with. Which is really why you started this isn't it? Because you knew you weren't cool, you were too lazy to learn music and you hated all the cool kids who were computer nerds and you thought -"I'll show them what's cool! I can write CODE! THAT IS GOING TO BE THE NEEEWWWW COOOOL!_I don't have to know anything about music, just what morons want to listen to in their car on their way home from the MAAALLLL!"
You are still losers-but look on the bright side, you are ruining it for millions of others, they be just as pathetic and square as you.

Yep. And I'm a 'Conservative'

It is notoriously lame to SPLOG, but the author of this blog got it more right than I ever could. I am not trying to capitalize on someone else's work, I just think this guy deserves a couple more reads.
Thanks, VM

http://towardfreedom.com/home/content/view/1416/1/

New Policies for the New Decade

Attention: As of midnight, Dec. 31st 2009, the fauxhawk becomes the new mullet. Anybody not acquiring a fauxhawk by said time risks being nicknamed "2003" or "Hot Topic".
Also, Emo Kids need a new haircut as well, it being the end of the first decade of the new millenium, the Hitler Haircut is no longer a valid expression of anything individualistic.
It is a Hitler Haircut.
You are too old to be running around pretending to be the romantic lead in an Anime comic.
Even all the grunge guys cut their hair in '96, so, your turn now.
And stop wearing your sisters pants, she looks really hot in skinny jeans-you don't, you look like a really ugly version of that hot chick from Juno.
With a Hitler Haircut.
And alot of bad tattoos.
Who took a giant dump in her pants.
No, really, pull your fucking pants up.
It isn't offensive, you just look like you shat yourself after a long night $4 cans of PBR and cheap 'Mexican' food.
Cake wrote a song about you idiots 15 years ago, get over it already, you aren't a rock star unless you're a rock star.
On a related note:
1. Hot Topic is not punk rock.
2. There will now be a mandatory 100 question test before being allowed to purchase a studded belt.
2.a-exceptions shall be:
That amazingly
gorgeous Irish/Braziilian chick that works at the
Whataburger. A girl that hot gets to wear whatever she
likes. It looks cool on her.

2.b- failure of the test for the third time will
result in Jello Biafra and Lee Ving showing
up at your house with flame throwers.

Also discontinued will be the Giant Indie-Rock Beard.
You are not Jim Morrison, Iron and Wine, or Band of Horses.
And, please also note, that once these changes go into effect, anything being the 'new' anything else will also be removed from the lexicon of anybody with half a brain.