Sanity Hearing

Endorse This

Don't get me wrong.  If there was a way I could make 10 Million Dollars tommorrow, I would definitely take it.  And don't think for a second that I am saying that anyone else who has that opportunity should not take it. 

But that being said, I simply don't understand the whole endorsement deals situation.  The young golfer Michelle Wie went pro yesterday and immediately she received a massive endorsement deal from a bunch of different companies.  I am just going to put aside the whole issue of how incredibly young she is, which frankly is another post.  For the time being, let me just register this thought-- I can think of very few times I have bought sports equipment due to an endorsement deal, thus it makes almost no sense to me that nike and all these other companies are willing to pay such an premium to athletes like Wie. 

Speaking from my own experience I rarely buy sports equipment because of who endorses it.  I wear New Balance and Asics sneakers, and frankly I was unaware of any athletes endorsed by either of these brands, but perhaps running is not the best example.

Thus I move to Skiing.  A sport which I love, a sport which I have spent an fairly unusual premium persuing, and a sport full of endorsements.  I could probably tell you at least a few pro skiers endorsement deals- for example Bodie Miller is a Fischer man and Herman Miaer is (or at least was) endorsed by Atomic.  Other than that I don't really know.  Alright so this is not a comprehensive list, but what I am aiming to say is that every brand seems to have someone using their stuff, and even if they didn't I would still ski on whatever gets the best reviews from people I actually know- not from a single pro athlete who probably has special pro-specification stuff anyways. 

Alright, so this wasn't the best post, but I still think they are paying Michelle Wie too much money.  At 15 I would have been happy for a free set of clubs, my own T.V.,  and a car when I turned 16.

Book Review: Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs

Wendy recently loaned me this book Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman, a book which I devoured in a pretty rapid reading.  Although in some respects there are a lot of essay writing authors on the scene right now- David Sedaris and Augusten Burroughs come to mind right off the bat, I found this book uniquely funny.  Klosterman examines post-modern culture in a funny and frank manner that is itself ironically post-modern.  The book is essentially a series of essays in which Klosterman rants and raves in a generation X style of Dave Barry, describing his addiction to the virtual life game The Sims, his hatred of people who hate country music, his visit to the Association of Rock Critics convention, and other somewhat mundane events that he casts in a zany and comical light.  If nothing else, Klosterman gives insight into the deeper meanings of pop culture and its relationship to Generation X that one would not find else where or in such an entertaining form.

Biography

I remember when I was in eigth grade for my social studies class I had to do this project that was essentially a amatuer biography of three people, one of which had to be me.  I remember I did my brother Bill and my Dad.  The whole experience was actually really interesting and it was something that shockingly enough resulted in me learning, knowing, and remembering an incredible amount about my Dad and his life that I never would have known otherwise.  I learned things I imagine only some kids know about there parents, like the fact my Dad sold his car to pay for a plane ticket for his wife and my older sister to get to Pittsburg when the firm he worked for in Denver fired him when they lost their biggest client, Marathon Oil.  Also I remember that he said when he arrived at the firm in Pittsburg he had to ask for an advance on his first paycheck just to get a place to stay, which he described as, "One of the most humiliating moments of my life."  I also remember a lot of funnier stories, but also some strange reflections on things like how he felt when my sister, his first child was born ("Sobering.  Because I realized I was actually responsible for someone else.")

I won't attempt to recreate the whole biography thing here, but for some reason I have been thinking about jobs and graduating from law school lately.  It leads me to reiterate a belief I have held for some time-- there are not enough biographies of "normal people".  Personally, I love to read and I especially love biographies.  To name a few I really liked- one on T.E. Lawrence, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, and Titan- the biography of John D. Rockefellar were all quite good.  I think in part some of our fascination with these books is that we look for insight into how these people lived such remarkable lives and sometimes, how they obtained success.  I believe though, that there is a popular misconception that "normal" people live boring lives.  Truthfully, I think normal people biographies would be even MORE fascinating and helpful.  As much as I find the stories about Teddy Roosevelt inspring, I would just as much like to know the story of the life of a Boston Trial attorney, or a Providence publisher, or a Rutland organic farmer.  Proof of this should be in books like A Civil Action, which to a large extent is just such a book, only with a depressing ending.  In the mean time I suppose we just need to listen to what our parents have to say...but I just feel likes books might be more convienient-- plus books can't have too much to drink.

Pissed About Pennies

It was tuesday afternoon.  I stepped outside of my office into the heat and sunshine and began walking in a loop around the front of the building.  I had received my new free cell phone yesteday and obviously I was excited to make a few lunchtime phone calls.   After just two or three minutes of walking I realized what a terrible head I have for numbers and came to the conclusion that I only knew about 3 or 4 numbers by memory.  After a number of failed attempts to call three or four people, I called Derek, whose voicemail I actually reached- a good sign that I remembered his number.  I left Derek a short number and then called my mom to see how she was doing.

Later when I returned to my desk after chatting with the mom for a while, I received a voicemail on my confusing new phone from Derek.  Apparently he had been unable to answer his phone previously because he was cruising along the Mass Turnpike when it occurred to him he would need to pay a toll, and alas, he did not have any cash with him.  Thus, he apparently pulled over at a rest stop and began counting out pennies from the ashtray in his outrageously yellow car.  He then had to exchange the pennies at the rest stop store because the Pike will not take pennies as payment.  Derek's message ended by expressing his feeling that this failure to accept pennies was, "unconstitutional".  Of course I was at first concerned that after three years of law school Derek considered this "unconstitutional", but then I turned to considering the more important question of pennies- that's right pennies.

Have pennies simply been relegated to the vast cultural trash heap of the past?  Something we pick up for good luck or throw in fountains?  Most people I know, including myself, have vast jars of pennies in their room, have pennies, filling the ash trays of their car and the bottom of book bags and change purses.  More and more pennies don't seem to even be accepted as legal tender in places where other change is still taken.  The maddening reality of this situation is that the federal government is breaking their deal, so far as I am concerned-- if pennies are actually legal tender for all debts public and private, then by god I should be able to fill a parking meter with the little buggers-- even if it takes me two hours.

One major concern I have witht he penny problem is the income people are receiving, but not investing or spending- this can't possibly be good for the economy.  On top of that most people would gladly even accept a small dip in value if they could somehow use their pennies for some actual purpose other than jar filling.  My suggestion is one of the following: 

1.  Campaign finance:  People always seem to always want to change the situation with campaign finance, such as providing more funding for third party or underfunded candidates.  What better way to kill two birds with one stone-- all campaigns must be funded with pennies.  The way I see it, this will keep politicians and their campaigns focused on rolling up the pennies rather than attacking each other or saying ridiculous things.  In addition, we will more than likely not have to be concerned with corruption because most extremely wealthy people or enron executives keep their funds in electronic form as opposed to penny form, thus I feel their influence would become limited.

2.  Repaying national debt:  Ever try to pay someone back with pennies?  One time my brother Michael lost a bet to me on and tried to pay me entirely in pennies (well, mostly pennies).  Since I am a real bastard, I took the pennies just to prove a point (he lost the bet), but a lot of people would be like, "Forget it- I don't care."  Try it some time- walk into a gas station and attempt to pay for a tank of gas with unrolled pennies-- they will not be pleased.  I suggest we start doing this with our foreign bond holders such as China and Japan.  When we start trying to pay them back entirely in unrolled pennies, I picture these creditors reacting by just telling us to pay later.

3.  Keep Bono busy:  Listen, I am a big a U2 fan as anyone if we are talking about the old stuff- like z00ropa or Joshua Tree, but Bono has gone insane- face it.  Not only has he started his own hedge fund, he never seems to shut up about third world debt relief.  Not that I have anything against this cause- in fact I support it.  I just remember a couple months ago I was in the gym watching CNBC with the sound off when I saw some sort of economic conference and in walks some U.S. diplomat, Bill Gates, and...Bono with a feather boa and some ridiculous looking glasses that make him look like a WWF character.  My feeling is that by just donating all our pennies to Bono, we would keep him busy rolling them up in his castle somewhere in Ireland instead of appearing in public.  Everyone wins.

4.  Parking meters:  I am telling you- constitutional amendment: all parking meters MUST accept pennies.  Paying for parking is absolutely ridiculous, but more and more I see these "Quarters Only" meters, which is just absolutely cruel.  On top of that a recent front page Boston Herald article reported that the boston parking authority has failed to collect revenue in the tens fo MILLIONS.  The solution: ACCEPT PENNIES.  I am telling you, there will be no problem collecting parking fees if you accept pennies.  In fact people will gladly park in metered spots and pay just so they can get rid of the little copper discs.  Problem SOLVED.

Who are You on the Phone with Anyways??

Derek recently sent me an email to give me a heads up on this.  Apparently Connecticut has now joined the fascist regimes that require you not talk on your cellphone while in the car unless you use one of those god awful headsets.  Now granted, I am aware of the supposed dangers that cell phone use while driving has, but I would venture a guess that statistically cell phone driving use danger is no greater than say- CD changing danger or reaching under the seat to find a napkin cause you spilled some coffee danger.  As Derek remarked, "The legislature is over legislating."  Damn straight Derek.

More importantly those cell phone headsets completely freak me out.  They encourage people to remain on the cell phone at totally inappropriate times.  More than once I have been standing at a urinal, minding my own business, when some strange man starts shouting something at the wall startling me if for no other reason than it's not one of those situations where you want to be around strange men shouting at walls, only to realize that the man has remained on the cell phone by utilizing his handy hands free headset.  At least once the man turned and smiled at me and said, "They can even get a hold of me in here!"

If anything I feel that the use of cellphone in the car is really a minor problem.  Going through the motion of flipping open my phone is a lot simpler and less distracting than rigging up some headset earpiece and then going through some "can you hear me- can I hear you" exchange for about 10 minutes.  Frankly, as long as we are making laws about where to ban cell phone use, I would really appreciate starting with the men's room-- because frankly it's a lot more frightening to me.

Summer Job Idea

First of all, two apologies- first for the fact that I have not posted much lately, nor have I been posting very regularly.  I'd like to say that I am resolve to make an immediate improvement with this, but given exams coming up-- I just can't make that guarantee.

Second, for the topic of this post.  The idea was originally very funny to me because it was ripped from today's headlines, but now it isn't quite as funny.  I attribute this two three factors: 1.  There seems to be about a two to three day lag in my getting anything done lately.  Again I blame exams (whether or not this is accurate is debatable).  2.  Since when does the Catholic Church act swiftly?  I honestly have never heard the two words in the same sentence except perhaps, "Ted Kennedy was swiftly ex communicated by the Catholic Church."  3.  There was some part of me that felt a little guilty about writing this.  After consulting with my attorney though, I feel it's probably not that big a risk:

Excerpt of email:

JP	to Derek

I am thinking about writing about running for pope-- think I'll go to
hell for that??

J.P.

Derek

to me

)

not at all, i think it would be hilarious.

plus im pretty sure your trip to the netherregions of the universe was
allready solidified. I'll see you there.

Derek

So without further ado, my back up plan for a summer job.

J.P. For Pope   
So, as of this moment I am without summer employment, which is frightening for a variety of reasons, but we won't get into that right now.

Conveniently, the Catholic Church has an opening for the position of Pope.  Now, I know what you are thinking- J.P., what makes you think you would be qualified to be Pope-- of all people!?

There are a variety of reasons why I would make an excellent Pope.

Age and Term of Tenure
First of all, the Catholic Church has just seen the end of a 25 year papacy and is seeking to avoid another very long one.  Their present answer to this is to chose someone quite old, with the hope that they will meet their demise within a relatively short period of time.  The downside I see to this is both that an elder pope likely is somewhat out of touch with the hopes, dreams and desires of many of his followers, but more importantly- he lacks the physical vitality needed for his hectic work and touring schedule.  This problem would be solved by choosing me.  First of all, I would only want to be the Pope for the summer, possibly even part time at first and then full time after summer school, thereby solving the problem of a long papacy.  This would give the Cardinals a few months to deliberate on someone more long term and it would also look great on my resume.  In addition, I can attest to the fact  I have had a fair amount of travel in my life, including to Germany, some other European type places, Australia, Venezuela, etc.  and so far I have never gotten seriously lost or needed overnight hospital stays.

Ground Floor Experience
Chosing me to be Pope would be a one of those tremendously inspiring stories like the CEO of Costco who was a former cashier who worked his way up to the top of the company.
I was an altar boy for many years myself and a result have a pretty good knowledge of the mechanics of what needs to be done at mass.  An added bonus of my former altar boy status is that I was never molested either, although I never got paid for any of the weddings or funerals I did, which in and of itself was not such a big deal except that Derek always seemed to be getting $50 and free season tickets to the Red Sox every time he served at a mass where someone's kid got baptized or something.  Regardless, there are probably many more "academically" or "traditionally" qualified candidates who are actually "priests" but you may not be aware but the pope does not need to be a pre-ordained priest prior to becoming the pope.  The inspiring public relations blitz of otherwise unqualified small town boy turned pope is the type of Harry S. Truman-esque success story the Church could use right now.

Familiarity with Sin
Now, don't get me wrong, I am not a bad guy.  In fact, I would like to think I am actually a pretty good guy.  However, I always get the feeling the short coming of some clergy, be they Catholic or otherwise is that they have a difficult time convincing people other than those that would not have otherwise have gone astray to be good.  The best comparison is to my Madden-C Student quote a few months ago that, "Sometimes former C students make the best teachers because they know how to teach to C students."  The point is, it's difficult to tell someone why they shouldn't (this part you'll have to use your imagination for  since my mom knows this webpage exists) if you haven't done it yourself.  Personally if you could ask me whether I would rather take advice from say...
Ned Flanders, Homer Simpson's fictional do-gooder neighbor on the Simpsons, who you know is an ecclesiastically perfect person or say...

Jack Nicholson who you know has probably done some questionable stuff at some point, but seems like a pretty cool guy. 

The answer is probably that you would rather take advice from Jack.  Me too.  It's like that terrible Billy Joel song that you would rather "Laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints," but this generally applies because you are receiving an admonition from someone who themself is of such unpleasant moral fiber that you have difficulty believing that there is a genuinely good reason not to do something and instead that the person giving you the admonition is just incredibly uptight.  I can assure you this will not be the case with me.  I am the perfect balance of having done some stuff which is probably against Catholic doctrine which I can advise people not to do on good authority, while not being so incredibly sinful that you are incable of considering me a good person, like say Charle Sheen.

What Would I do As Pope?
So now you are probably asking yourself, ok- you've convinced me you're qualified-- but what would you do differently as Pope that makes you a good choice?

Bring Back Concubines
A lot of people seem to be pushing for the church to allow priests and nuns to marry as a result of various pressures including record low numbers of priests as well as in the U.S. and Ireland increased reports of sexual abuse of young boys.  Meanwhile, hardliners object to the idea of marriage of priests because it goes against tradition.  I have a simple solution- bring back the traditional role of concubines.  For hundreds of years Popes and other Church officials had concubines and I think it's time to bring back the tradtion-- in that sense you could even consider me a traditionalist.

Market Church to Young People
Alright, we all know that reality T.V. has had tremendous results in terms of reaching audiences in such examples as M.T.V.'s The Real World, Newly Weds, The Osbournes, etc.  While the Church probably is against the idea of a long term media involvement, my brief tenure as Pope would be perfect for an M.T.V. summer series about life as the Pope.

So, I hope I have convinced you I would make a good Pope.  I feel that a J.P.-Papacy could be fun for all of us and would definitely look much better on my resume than anything else I am likely to get this summer.

Happy St. Paddy's

Happy St. Patrick's day to everyone.  As I sit here writing I am wearing an absurd color green polo shirt to show that a.) I am of Irish descent b.) I support St. Patrick's Day and c.) that I have questionable fashion sense.

St. Patrick's Day is always sort of a day of mixed feelings for me.  Mostly it is the concept that I am "Irish" that somehow makes me feel disengenuous.  The truth is my father was 100% Irish in descent and my mother's family is at least signficantly Irish in backgroud, but also Pennsylvania Dutch (German) in background.  I have a lot of friends who I grew up with who are similar in ethnic make up.  They are very proud to be "Irish" at least two of them even have tatoos declaring in a roundabout fashion that they are proud that they are "Sons of Erin," which part of me feels is pretty cool.  The truth is these same two guys (and the handful of others I grew up with) all pretty much had the same experiences I did growing up and almost none of them are "purely Irish"-- that is most of them have some Polish, Italian, English, etc. blood somewhere in their recent background.  Though many of them have been back to "the motherland," we all grew up in a middle class rural suburb or Hartford, Connecticut.

It's also interesting to me because I foil this against some of the "actual" Irish people I have known in my life- specifically a girl I knew in college we'll call Erin (this is not her real name).  Erin dated a close friend of mine and went to college with us in Pennsylvania, but she had grown up in Dublin where her mother owned a bar that she worked in.  Her father had moved to the U.S. and started a business here after her parents divorced and had been quite successful at it apparently, because he offered to pay for her college and buy her a car if she moved to the U.S.  Apparently she agreed and attended school here.  Without boring you with the details of our friendship or acquaintanceship (or whatever), I will tell you that Erin and I had really very little in common.  Erin had grown up in an entirely different country and had totally different experiences from me.  I think there was some common ground about certain things, but for the most part our backgrounds were very different and I never felt like, "because we were both Irish" we had some common background. 

So what is interesting to me is that I DO feel a common background to a lot of friends who are Irish-American.  When I do a quick inventory of my close friends I find that there are a suprising number who are all Irish American.  In fact, when I do a more extensive inventory I find a lot of guys (or girls) who grew up Italian or Polish-American.  I think this is because we share a lot of the same backgrounds of growing up-- being altar boys at Catholic church, being forced to go to church every sunday.  I think we often have similar stories of hard-boiled, but good humored grandparents who had prospered as shrewd and thrifty working class people, but managed to get our parents to be the first generation of our families through college.  To summarize- to me St. Patrick's Day is not really about being Irish-- and really it cannot be, because after all I am an American when it comes down to it, not Irish.  On the other hand, St. Patrick's Day IS about being an Irish-American to me.   It's about people who grew up together and share a cultural experience as an immigrant people in the United States-- an experience that still continues-- that this day is about-- and since after all almost all of us come from families of immigrants in the United States I think that is why it is so often said in the United States-- St. Patrick's Day is a day when everyone is Irish. 

Happy St. Paddy's.  Cheers!

Conformity?

A word of advice to everyone- stop trying to "fit in," it generally ends up being a big waste of time.

Spring break was at a close on an uncharacteristically warm and sunny Sunday afternoon.  Although I had spent much of the vacation skiing in Vermont, the final day of the vacation I drove over to the mountain with my compatriate James to find the whole mountain so clogged with novices and slack jawed New Jerseyites that I felt we should just abandon the whole sordid afrair, head back to the house and have a quality lunch and then get a jump on the drive back, which as it turned out is exactly what we did.

Several hours later I was heading south down route 91, my younger brother's green '93 Audi S4 looming menacingly in the rearview mirror of my car as we approached Holyoke, Mass.  I quickly made a calculation that I had approximately 70 cents in assorted change and was two exits away from the exit for the Massachusetts Turnpike.  I figured I could stop at the exit immediately prior to the Pike, where the Holyoke Mall was located, withdraw some money from an ATM there and do some light shopping.  As I pulled into the exit lane the green S4 roared by me and several cars around me, obviously startlying and frightening the general populace. 

I pulled into the mall and inexplicably found it crowded with people, but luckily found a parking space fairly quickly, since I do not mind walking from the far end of a parking lot.   As I navigated the mall I could not be overcome with the various breeds of weekend shoppers-- people I do not encounter on a daily basis, but could sense were obviously each their own deeply tribal groups, each with obvious protocols and traditions.  There werre young girls of around, what I estimate to have been 17-18 years old.  They seemed to move in groups of 2-3 and be wearing a startling amount of eye makeup and jeans which fit in such a manner that can only be described as "vacuum packed."  There also were different male groups roming the mall.  Although at first glance they appeared to be neanderthal, they clearly had a highly developed social structure that prevented them from moving out of the way when I was trying to get up the escalator and also dictated their dress code:  earings and heavy chrome colored jewelry, leather or sythetic animal hyde coats worn pushed back on their shoulders in an almost cape-like way, formal looking pants that looked like they might have been swiped from a slightly paunchy man's second hand zoot suit cinched tightly around the hips- probably one or two inches from where their respective but cracks began, and shiny colored button down shirts.  The also all seemed to have fairly similar close cropped hair cuts that they slicked forward with amount of pommade or similar product to achieve and effect that I can only describe as a potential hazard near any open flame.  The third group were what I would describe as "mall thugs"  I do not feel the need to colorfully describe these gentlemen except to say they are obviously taking their styling ques from an Usher video, or at least what I imagine the styling ques of an Usher video to be- as I have not had cable television for some time now.

The whole experience put into play a rapid succession of thoughts and emotions that washed over me as I hoped back in the Volvo and joined the rushing mass of automobiles heading west on the Pike.  I make the admonition that trying to fit in is a waste of time, because I myself have, at certain points in my life invested a great amount of time in this endeavor.   None of us are imprevious to this behavior.  It has been rare in my life that I encoutered someone who totally abandons all concept of social norms or acceptance-- to an extent- we are all attempting to fit in in come respect.

What concerns me is the obvious mass culture that seems to be occuring.  Abercrombie teens and thugged out white boys, they all seem a sad parody of people living in a world where their obsession with the affectation overrides any sense of ever realizing their true self.

On the other hand, I considered, perhaps anyone foolish enough to latch on to these trends so concretely and exhibit such disturbing behavior would be a truly frightening creature for all of society were he to actually ever realize his true feelings and identity.  Perhaps it is better to let sleeping dogs lie- or to waste their time, as the case may be.   I paid the man at the toll booth, and thought it best to leave these people behind to sort out their own situations.

Response to Criticism on Music Post

Matt's Friend Ryan recently made a response on Matt's new weblog to one of the posts that I made here regarding music.  The post addresses two points for which he criticizes my post, which I would now like to address.  I urge you to read his full article on Matt's page, although for the sake of remaining succinct and making my reasoning as clear as possible I will not be quoting the entirety of his thoughts here.

The first point he makes addresses the point:

"A recent Rolling Stone article indicates Bob Dylan as one of the top 50 highest grossing artists in the world in 2004, the majority of which came from the first volume of his newly penned autobiography.  Needless to say, Dylan has no need to "put some cash away", as he made more money in a single fiscal quarter of last year than JP will make in his lifetime. "

For which I thank Ryan for (most likely accidentally on his part) pointing out a central mistake in the reasoning of my original article.  In my original article I made a poor use of the recent use of Mr. Zimmerman's appearance in a Victoria's Secret Advertisement in I believe a previous year's Superbowl.  I must admit my ignorance as to the strict details of the ad itself, as in the original article I said he appeared in a, "moistorizing soap," ad-- but I think you'll see that these details are not overwhelmingly relevant to the central issues here.  What is interesting to me is that Ryan points out that Mr. Zimmerman (stage name Bob Dylan) is one of the 50 highest grossing artists of all time as reported by Rolling Stone magazine, thus when I originally referred to Mr. Zimmerman as a "sell out," I in fact made a mistake by presuming that Mr. Zimmerman was in fact an artist who had not in one point been motivated primarily by profit and personal fame, when in fact the opposite is true.

Robert A. Zimmerman was in fact the son of a middle class appliance merchant in Hibbing, Minnesota.  In the 1960's he hit the folk revival on college campuses and coffee shops, a romantic movement against the commercialism that rock and roll at that point embodied.  The ambitious Mr. Zimmerman though was the catalyst that took the scene mainstream.  Zimmerman was romanitc and ambitious in a scene that was not, first appearing in the Minneapolis neighborhood of Dinkytown and then moving to the folk clubs of Greenwich Village.  Zimmerman's real genius was the fact that he remade himself saying he was a hobo, a motherless child, a drifter, etc. anything to embody the folk image.  His real genuis was as the catalyst that took folk mainstream.  Zimmerman stole albums from folk collector Jon Pankake in Minneapolis and borrowed arrangements from elders in Greenwich Village.  At one Zimmerman's lawyers paid folk singer Jean Ritchie $5,000.00 when she sought credit for the melody to "Masters of War," rather than risk the damage to his reputation.  As recently as 2001 Music critics have found passages in Dylan's Love and Theft album that mirrored lines from a Japanse gangster book, Confessions of a Yakuza.

So in a two pronged response to Ryan's first point, as an entrepenuer I have respect for Mr. Zimmerman's high grossing sales in the same regard that I acknowledge the success of Sam Walton, Bill Gates, Donald Trump, or any other profit making icon of our capitalist economy.  In the second regard, I do respect Mr. Zimmerman's effect on the face of the American music scene, but much in the detached sense that I have respect for any of the other commercially successful musicians of his era including the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.  Although I find Ryan's niave respect for Mr. Zimmerman endearing in much the same regard that I find the 17 year old girl who believes Ashlee Simpson is not lip-syncing amusing, I must admit I do not have the same uncritical fan-crazy devotion that does not allow me to evaluate things from a more critical standpoint. 

Addressing the second point Ryan makes:

Perhaps he is unfamiliar with bands such as Fugazi, Bright Eyes, or the Elephant 6 Collective who have formed their own record labels in order to continue creating meaningful, innovative music that follows their unique artistic vision, completely free of a major-label's creativity-stifling restrictions. 

Actually, I am familiar with these bands; however to place them on the same level in terms of cultural influence as Bob Dylan or even more recently the Rap/hip-hop icons of the 90's is simply foolish.  I am willing to admit I am better connected to people interested in new and artistic music than most and have more of a personal interest than many people I know.  On the other hand, were I you to ask your average CVS clerk or university European history professor if they knew who Bob Dylan or Snoop Dog is, I have faith you would get a response that they were familiar with both even if they had never listened to their music.  As for the bands that Ryan cites, while they do in fact produce quality music, to suggest they have the cultural significance of Bob Dylan in the 60's, the Heavy Metal bands of the 80's, or the Hip-hop artists of the 90's is something I think is totally unwarranted.

My original point revolved around the fact that the commercial success of artists like Dylan, Snoop Dog, Motley Crue, etc. has been contingent upon their taking a particular outsider genre of music and making it appear profitable to the music industry.  Once they have hade a small modicum of success that proves to the industry that they will sell records they then enter into the mutually beneficial relationship of manufacturer and distributor.

At least in part I bemoan the recent attempt of the music industry to not seek the new Miles Davis or Charlie Parker, but instead seeks to slap together a facade of rebellion with the marketing pre-integrated into the design.

My hope, which was what I tried to express in the original article was that the internet creates a system by which the capital costs of creating a world wide distribution network for music is reduced to a negligible cost, thereby simultaneously making distribution accessible to nearly anyone and also dimishing the economic advantage possessed by the labels, radio stations, media conglomerates to almost nothing and thus their presence nearly irrelevant.  My hope is that the next great culture movement will be one in which artists are made popular purely on people's appreciation for their music and their stage presense, rather than their ability to market themselves to their record labels.

I know this concept may be complex, but I think you should be able to understand.  Read left to right forming words into sentences.  Take Tylenol for headaches, Midol for cramps.

Response to Hyde's Recent Post

Hyde recently made a post on his blog about "complaining," although to be honest I believe there may be more to it than that.  His post sparked some ideas that have been rattling around in my otherwise empty head.

Growing up my mother always said, "Whining is an unattractive quality in a man," politely (or not so politely as the case may have been) that generally people do not want to hear you complain about your problems.  To a certain extent I have to agree with mom- there are many 'a time that I hear people bantering on about every little non-problem they have with out the slightest sense of humor and it drives me insane-- "My boyfriend wants me to go to a movie with him, but I told him I don't like sitting in those seats that other people sit in.  I told him if he buys me one of those itty bitty book lights I would go with him."  [actual conversation I overheard].  Yeah, I want to wring her neck too.

So- getting to the point, I have one important clarification/response I need to make to Hyde's post.  While I agree that complaining is...annoying, among other negative things, I believe that there is a great importance to criticism.  Just as a starting point, the legal system of our country is based on the adverserial process- a process of exchange and criticism of ideas, pointing out of contradictions,  and so on,  in an attempt to flesh out the truth of a situation.  Also, were one to look at American society on some sort of Hegelian basis,  each cultural revolution as some sort of criticism of the past status quo  that is eventually synthesized into the new (and arguably better or more progressive) status quo.  To give an example of how I see what I am saying in play-- there was a time in this country where the status quo was racial segregation.  Through a period of extended criticism of the inherent injustice of this system a culture of greater racial equality has resulted.  Were the African Americans who would not accept seperate but equal "complainers"?  Are socialists and labor organizers who want better conditions for working people "complainers"?  Are environmentalists who decry the actions of certain companies and the behavior of some individuals complainers?  I say- NO.  These people do not fall into the catergory of people Hyde was referring to.  Criticism is a hallmark of progress, as far as I am concerned.  If a system is flawed, the point it out.  The line to complaining is crossed when you see the flaws, yet chose to do nothing to change them.