Good-bye Rick Wagoner We Hardly Knew Thee
Rick Wagoner resigned at the request of the American President, Il Duce. I sincerely hope he enjoys his next job. Out of respect I can only offer an inaugural poster someone sent me. Here’s to the new Government Corporate cooperation. Surely Utopia is at hand.
3rd Person Pretensions
It has become increasingly clear that the time has come for me to refer to myself in the 3rd person because this is what all crazy people do. I hope very soon the present American administration will follow me. Rex will be very pleased.
I’ve Fallen and I Can’t Speak Truth to Power
Now that the bailout package and the fiscal stimulus is in the bag, my deepest concern is whether enough politicians have helped their friends. Right now in America there are special interests without enough jet fuel for their private planes. There are activists seeking a bonanza of taxpayer bounty who may have been missed. How will they shove their agenda down the throats of a resisting free people without cash and an army of policitians to assist them. These are dark days indeed.
Your Friendly Guide to Maturity
In this our first installment we tackle that age old issue of aging women and hair length. First a general rule about hair length. As a woman ages she should cut her hair with one exception. If you are a female executive then by all means keep your hair the same length as when you were twenty two. As long as you work out you will still look twenty two under that business garb with your back turned, just keep the back turned and one other thing don’t forget to laugh at men with a comb-over, they deserve it.
Media Whores and the Cult of Personality
Have you ever wondered what percentage of musicians and actors began practicing their craft because they wanted to meet members of the opposite sex or they craved fame and adulation? One is probably safe in saying that it exceeds 60%. For as long as man has breathed artists strive to be larger than their art. Their art is merely an avenue to adulation and praise, a path to the cult of personality. So many musicians move into acting following a single hit that the public quickly forgets that they had nothing to say before they had nothing to say. Once they have achieved a modicum of fame they can slump or peacock about, style dependent, whoring endlessly on television and especially on that merchant to the lowest common denominator, MTV.
Fame is ultimately of little value, but it hasn’t stopped people from debasing themselves in a thousand novel ways to taste it. For many pseudo-artists their creativity peaks in finding new ways to debase themselves. A person’s art is attached to them like a Siamese twin, and when fame is the goal, the twin is sentenced to die. Kenny Rogers the ex-rock, ex-pop, full time country singer was quoted as saying, “At the peak of my success I had no life” or words to that effect. In other words your fans, your managers, your record label owns every minute of your day. Who hasn’t heard some idiot fan pontificating on why famous person Z owes them something simply because the simpleton admired the artist. Popular music is fashion as the cliché goes and Kenny Rogers in the nineties was the musical equivalent of designer jeans. This, of course, permitted him to make a “comeback”; of course, he never stopped writing and recording. Comebacks are nostalgia driven sales of a new record, which is sufficiently fashionable for the critics to love; never mind five years ago they couldn’t find enough hateful things to say.
Art should be separated from personality. Fans should connect with the art not the artist. The artist should care little whether one person reads listens or acknowledges their art. The work is the end, not financial achievement, not public recognition. If no one knows who you are, they judge your music on its own merits. There is no need for a comeback because if you have integrity you write the best you can without artificial company deadlines, demands that you promote and a big advance hanging over your head. If you want to join the ranks of media whores and start your own cult of personality remember the Siamese twin and when it dies it will probably poison you too.
A Dangerous Trend
It’s come to my attention that men of the baby boom generation longing for the summer of love are mixing a new dangerous cocktail. Didn’t these people do enough drugs in the sixties? Here is what is going on at just the right moment completely out their minds with lust and hyped on Viagra, they are dropping Nitrates for a sudden drop in blood pressure which supposedly creates, let us say heightened levels of pleasure. It’s just pathetic.
Waiting for the Personal Bailout Plan
Now that the Senate has approved a 25 billion bail out package for the auto industry, I have decided to apply for my own bailout plan. It needs to happen RIGHT NOW! Due to competition from overseas low cost labour, I have been forced to accumulate too much debt; besides, I was tricked into spending the money in the first place. If I go down, I just might take my whole neighborhood with me. It will be a cascade, “the butterfly effect” ; it could impact the kind people of New Zealand. Come on you venal politicians, you are never so generous as when you are spending money that isn’t your own.
The Apocalypse has Arrived !!!!!
Thank you dear Congress for supporting a bail out. Stampeded like a frightened herd of Wildebeest by Henry ‘Henny Penny’ Paulson. As you all know after more than 80 years regulation and additional regulation the answer to the problem is to say we don’t have enough regulation and to blame the problem on the small amount of regulation that was removed. The answer to any crisis is to create more laws with more government oversight. Why? Because money greedy Wall Streeters are evil but power greedy politicians are good.
If the credit markets are really so clogged would it not be easier to just reduce the capital requirements for banks. For the other problems: the rabies aren’t gone until the dog is dead.
Dueling Blogs: Round 1
In this absolutely pointless new feature we will take two or more blogs at random and mix statements from other news stories, taking them out of context, generally misleading the viewing public. Exactly right, just like the New York Times.
And on a policy note, why does McCain think leaving Hugh Hefner to sack Playboy bunnies, even if we have them in our sights, is such a political winner?
Dave Winer can’t take it and responds in a state of jealous anger:
Another reason Playboy bunnies probably hate me, though few have the guts to say it openly, is that I’m Jewish. Many of them don’t like immigrants. I was born in the US, but my parents weren’t. I’m as much an American as any of them are, but I’ll never agree with their paranoia about immigration.
Satellite and Cable
George Gilder was right about television back in 1994. Having satellite or cable is like adding a second dog. You get little more entertainment and twice as much crap.
