Friday, December 23, 2011

More Musings

Well...
Starting tomorrow life as we know it ceases to be for a period of 36 hours.
That's right, everything closes except for the bars and clubs.
It's what's known as mandated holiday worship ritual.
Mandated by the eternal "International Inquisition"---for centuries now.
And we have no choice but to abide.
So...
Three "Christmas" songs on my list for you...
...each one of these selections were single hits during late-winter and early-spring
---yet are still quite fitting for "the season":
SONG OF JOY     Miguel Rios   (May 1970)
JOY                        Apollo 100     (Feb 1972)
NUTROCKER      B. Bumble & the Stingers  (Mar/Apr 1962)
                               ...and also by Emerson Lake & Palmer  (Feb 1972)




I'm getting tired of computers.
Especially hard-drives which can't make up their mind whether-or-not to "let me on the internet".
When I use a gadget I expect it to work and operate according to expectations based on the protocols of predetermined designated functions.
What is there about all these "high-tech" contraptions that efficiency and promptness seem to be little more than an empty promise?
Going on the internet is, more often than not, like being in the waiting room of a doctor's office.  Nothing to do but just sit there and look around you, bored shitless while you're just waiting---and waiting---and waiting!
Everything has to be "processed", you know.  One byte at a time. (Remember, when you were a kid, any time you were at the dinner table and were eating too fast your parents would always caution you: Eat your food one bite at a time.)
Answer me one question:  Did we ever have such problems with any of the past technologies?
Transister radios...record players...hi-fi's...stereo systems...tape decks...
...back then, all one had to do was "press a button" or "flick a switch" and voila:
Instant Music (or at least instant sound).
It's like the only "digital technology" I actually like is CDs, DVDs, CD and DVD players.
They're the only "digital" gadgets which seem to actually "work promptly" when called upon to serve their user.
If one stops to think about it, it's really a betrayal of trust. You're being promised a unit which will deliver a certain type of performance and will perform certain functions ...but then craps out on you at the most inopportune time, or falls short in critical areas, not living up to all of it's grandiose promises. 
Computers only come through for you when they FEEL like doing so.
...and they're always so unpredictable at that, too.
Moody gadgets...it's almost as bad as having roommates or staying with relatives...



I think I've mentioned this before, but I'm not as concerned about whether-or-not anything I do or say offends others.
Frankly, I think the idea that one has to stop-doing-whatever-they're-doing (or were-planning-on-doing) simply because one person or one small group "has a problem with it" is ridiculous.
Why are they always putting so much power-and-control in the hands of select "overpriviledged" individuals?
Why do such types get to have so much command over the social environment?
Why are a select few endowed with the right to determine what kind of social climate the rest of us have to live in?
Why are all the rules set by tunnel-vision xenophobes with no aptitude for understanding or accepting other people's differences?



We can't afford to invest any money in:  improving infrastructure, high-speed interstate passenger rail, maintaining and repairing existing freeway/highway systems, maintaining social security, maintaining social services, maintaining critical government agencies, improving public transit, maintaining schools and libraries, continued existence and enforcement of health and safety regulations...
...yet we always have enough money to spend on:  drugs, alcoholic beverages, sports arenas and live performance venues, fancy nightclubs and expensive restaurants, exotic private motor vehicles, jails and prisons.


The United States is a lot like rock n'roll...
...it's still carrying on...
...but without the passion, enthusiasm, and creativity of it's once glorious past.


SUMMER (THE FIRST TIME) by Bobby Goldsboro...from 1973...
Have you ever listened to the lyrics of that song?
Ahh-hh-hhh...let us return to the days when---apparently---it was the "norm" for middle-age ladies to take it upon themselves to "teach the 'facts-of-life'" to teen-age boys...
...WITHOUT the fear of the type of legal repercussions of such behavior which has become so much the "norm" of modern-day society the last two decades or so...
...yes, it IS such a pleasant and compassionate song...the character in the song is actually paying homage to the "saintly" neighborhood "cougar" savior for the way she also enhanced his self-esteem as well in the process.
...or was it actually "corruption of a minor"?
...of course the song's character's age WAS "17"---maybe the "age of consent" was lower than 18 in the state they lived in...
...either way this type of scenario would never fly today...

No comments:

Post a Comment