I haven't really bought but a few Cds in the entire time Cds have come into existence . My friend ,Lenny ,copied some sides for me till I had a computer and I could start copying my choices . I put a Cd player in my car and this became the way to go for me , listening to what I chose to listen to and not ever turning on the radio . A few cars back I had an Olds that only had an AM radio and I was bombarded by Rush Limbaugh and never found a Democrat in the bunch . The "Pop" programing was terrible and I gravitated to what was called the "oldies" stations though they played many years past the fifties , my idea of "Oldies". I rarely listened to FM radio except for the listener sponsored or classical stations and they really were too conservative for me ,playing the same old stuff. They seemed to be avoiding twentieth century or modern composers . Yesterday I had trouble with my Cd set up in the car and , as I was traveling a bit , I turned on the FM in desperation . What a wasteland I found there .
I remember the wasteland , the middle of the country in the early sixties when I went on the road playing ,working the entire country , North, West , South ,the Bible Belt , that Honky radio sound when "Country Music " was referred to as "Hillbilly" and things seemed simpler. One of the happiest afternoons I remember was traveling on the road in Texas and getting the surprise of hearing Oscar Peterson playing a stride version of "Honeysuckle Rose" . One tune out of hundreds of nothings and pop flavored pap . Here , in the neighborhoods of Washington DC I once again have found the "Wasteland" , the "Bible Belt" religious fire and brimstone nonsense , the Am radio "Pap" , and the "Hillbilly" security of whining guitars and alchoholic complaints and it is all on FM radio . It's terrible ! There is no jazz in Washington DC . This town is lacking ! Gee, Las Angeles had jazz on Am in 1963 . New York had jazz radio when at least when I was there. DC used to have jazz radio . What happened ? What is called jazz is spoon fed "Smooth" bullshit which goes along with the political climate that prevails here , a life of "lies" and promises that are never fulfilled . People are nearly bouncing in the volume of their cars ,supporting "Rap" with "sub-sonics that Hitler might have admired as he was aware of the affect of sub-sonics to create tension for his rallys. It isn't that "Rap" has a lock on volume or sub-sonics because the Hispanic community has their share of idiots blasting one and five proudly Mexicali and the "Country music" folks certainly aren't left out in the mixed cacophony , an ongoing war at traffic lights .I could not find a classical station at all .
Sometimes it goes like that at times , I mean you surf television only to find that every station happens to have a commercial , sometimes the same commercial at the same time . Chance does play a part in selection yet if there is no choice , namely no classical music or jazz music left on the dial,then it isn't a chance of escaping the current push to take your money with overt sexual overtones , super sub-sonic undertones , and the brainwashing machine that is the music business , that is commercialism , that is capitalism and what has become of our culture . What culture one might ask or perhaps is there anything to art or culture if everything is considered art . When contest that are run by commercial establishment,namely the sponsors of popular television shows, what difference is this than having the newspapers and broadcast news colored by political point of view ? What is good is what sells in capitalism . What sells is what the company wants . The more it sells the better it is . The more expensive the better it is . The "SUV" craze is the perfect example . Here is a car that was generally un-needed , too much power, too expensive to run and repair, too big , and four wheel drive , at least here in DC is needed a few days a year ,if that , still the company pushed and exploited the character of this vehicle , associating it with the current American character and continued to sell it and push it successfully.Evidently they have pushed it beyond their own expectations in that GM and Chrysler are both on their way to bankruptsy . The CEOs took their money and ran , that is the capitalist way . What is good is what sells and money is the Machiavellian answer to any question posed . This is what we have in "Star Search" and in the car behind me five feet bouncing off the ground in volume while the guy is talking on the phone .
I was able to tape a connection together and listen to whatever was left in the CD player , though it wasn't my choice at the time , it was better than anything I could stomach on the radio . I could imagine driving full speed,crashing my car into the nearest radio station with my car if I listened to anything on the radio for more than a minute or till the next commercial. What a wasteland! I ,your humble servant promise never to talk again , never to eat again , never to think again until the next commercial break .This sentence is what the "Company" wants . The thing is that the "Company" have become "Mom and Pop" stores as well . Everyone wants to sell, after all , everyone wants to be successful . It's the American way . How can you mock the "sacred fucking cow" of capitalism you might ask . I will tell you how and why . There is no jazz in DC ! There are no choices . The politics are smug from both sides of the aisle and the music is repetitive and sophomoric . People are waving their musical flags in ignorance much as they started waving the American flag after the attacks of 9/11 . The morning of 9/11 I went outside and saw a neighbor and mentioned something about how terrible it was only to get a response from him of " What's on TV has nothing to do with me ." Two days later he had an American flag in the back window of his redneck truck . That is what we have become as a nation . We are responding instead of thinking and leading the way . We responded to the attacks with a vengeance that resulted in more tragedy ,more repression , and more "Flag waving" to cover the recognition of what we,as a country were doing . We have been responding since the Iranian hostage situation ,not noticing that our government was responsible for propping up the Shah , another good dictator like Mubarac in Egypt or the King of Saudi Arabia . What did we expect the Iranians to do bend over and ask for more ?
What makes money is not always what is good ! The time for recognition is now , this moment and not tomorrow or the next day . The emperor has no clothes and everyone is afraid to see the fact because nobody wants to be different than anyone else . "Big Brother" is here , George Orwell told us and we decided not to recognise him . Big Brother came with a whimper not a bang like the end of the world that the poet prophesised yet we refuse to recognise . "How does the world end ? How does the world end?" I doubt that it will be from a North Korean bomb or an Iranian bomb . Te time of being the class bully is past , neuclear proliferation is unstopable . We don't run the world . Korea and Iran are right in recognising that America doesn't threaten countries with atomic bombs . How does the world end? Boomaley , boomaley , Boom ...
The sacred cow quietly eats us all .
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