I want to take the time out to speak to those dudes that love to debate. I know dudes that have very different taste from mine when it comes to rap. Different is always good. I do different.

For a long time I couldn’t understand how anyone could like (MF) Doom. Recently, I’ve grown to appreciate his music. It’s purely about artistry. It’s not about trends and charts. There is, essentially, nothing like it. That’s when “different” is good.

Lupe Fiasco can be considered another one of those “types”. It’s more than rap. I’d be lying if i said i liked everything he puts out, but it’s a good vibe. It’s a art I feel safe in supporting.

What I can’t get with is rappers (and more so their fans), that base their careers on “different” without the artistry. If you have to preach about how unlike the mainstream your are, well…you haven’t said shit to me.

Some fans of this kind of music and mentallity carry the same trait. It’s the, “I was up on them when no one f@cked with them.” mentality. Phonte said it best when he spoke about the lack of mainstream success for the group Little Brother. “Some just want to take us home and keep us in they little box.”

I keep my mind open to anything, but if I’m not feeling it…I’m just not feeling it. iT’s not hate or regional bias. You don’t know how many times I’ve been told to check out this ” ” artist. My thirst for hip-hop is never quenched, so I do so eagerly.

The end result is some “Dj Cat Show Shirt Wearing Ass nigg..”. His objective is usually one of the following:

- Angry Thug/Political Activist mad at people for dancing…

- Microphone Scientist who tosses big words around (with little to no point); and anyone who isn’t feeling it…just doesn’t understand.

- Mainstream reject who aims for radio play with every song but just sounds like a parody of it all.

Am I asking for too much? I too search for “different”, but I am a little more cautious in my investing. I discovered the music of Jay Electronica and Joell Ortiz a while back. They are nice! And that will not go unignored in any case. Those are good refferals for hip-hop fans.

That wack shit some dudes hop on is just a reflection of their own shame as an social outcast. (Boooom!!!)

We all have “different” taste. I respect that, but when it’s up for debate…YOU WILL LOSE EVERYTIME.

Sincerely Yours,

VEGAS

Secrets of the Tudor Court: Between Two Queens

Kate Emerson

Pocket, Jan 5 2009, $16.00

ISBN: 9781416583271

In 1637 sixteen year old Anne “Nan” Bassett crosses the Narrow Sea from Calais, France to Dover, England along with her older sister Catherine.  Nan wants to join the court as a maid of honor to Queen Jane Seymour.  Surprisingly King Henry selects her to become a member of his wife’s entourage.

When Jane dies in childbirth, Nan leaves the court to move in with her cousin, the Countess of Sussex.  Henry not forgetting the élan of Nan orders her back to the court when he marries again and again.  With intrigue everywhere inside Henry’s court, Nan falls in love, but to survive she must give away her child as her family is no haven since they are caught up in Cromwell seditious activities.

The latest secret at King Henry’s court (see Secrets of the Tudor Court: The Pleasure Palace) is an engaging historical starting a maid of honor who keeps her head by keeping her head in crisis.  Based on a real maid of honor, Nan is a terrific heroine, but in many ways the aging monarch steals the show as the King seems to obsessively need to prove his manhood as he goes through a few more wives following the death of Jane.  Fans will relish Kate Emerson’s strong historical tale of life and death at King Henry’s court.

Harriet Klausner

The fact that death metal is as mainstream as ever is validated everyday by various events. It is quite difficult to interpret why death metal became mainstream. Why a style of music that in the past people who listened to it were ridiculed and considered to be freaks is now respected by, god forbid, serious musicians. Nowadays death metal drummers are respected and even studied at music schools. And the most annoying thing, is that what now is out of the sudden viewed as musically notable, is exactly the same thing that existed in the late 80s-early 90s! Don’t kid ourselves. What Mike Smith (Suffocation) played back then he plays now… What Pete Sandoval (Terrorizer/Morbid Angel) played back then is copied by thousands today. Did anyone notice Doc’s (Vader) amazing performance back in 1995? Of course not! Don’t let me start about the music! There has not been one single innovation in death metal since the mid-90s. Whoever says that Nile is novel then they really have not heard of Immolation or Incantation. Whoever says that Necrophagist constitute innovation, they probably have not heard not only classic death metal (e.g. Death of the Individual thought patterns or symbolic era) but also some classic Thrash bands like Annihilator! Go listen to Never neverland and you may discover some riffs (listen to “sixes and sevens”) that Necrophagist have stolen and more that they will never be able to replicate! So why today this success?

For one thing, I personally am ashamed that death metal is being accepted as a “serious” music. That thing takes away all the energy and rebeliousness from it. The effects from this phenomenon are already visible. Kids are studying to play death metal! What is that about? People in the 80s did not study how “blast beats” should sound. Most importantly, they did not study how MUSIC was supposed to sound. It just came naturally! That is why there was so much variety! Now everything sounds the same! A young brutal band from Australia can sound exactly the same as one from New York, the UK, Sweden or Greece. Before I try to approach the question, why today this success, I will turn to some of the current events which indicate that death metal is more mainstream than ever.

First of all, lets all agree that grind exists since the mid-80s! Septic Death, Repulsion, Cryptic Slaughter, Napalm Death, etc. And then you have Dave Lombardo waking up and saying that he wants to follow the developments, so he added a few blastbeats to Slayer songs. Of course, to be perfectly honest, he did that before with Testament on their Gathering album (which by the way is monumental). In any case, the blast beat is officially recognised as a novelty now that it sells! Secondly, while death metal back in the day acounted for a small percentage of the metal scene, now it accounts for a huge part of it. I have not done a proper research to say that, but if you take a look at any 20 sequential cd reviews in Blabbermouth you would notice that more than 85% are extreme metal and around 50% death/death-hybrid metal. Thirdly, and most importantly, Nuclear Blast is interested in death metal again!!! That is the most crucial indication of death metal’s mainstream success. For those who don’t know Nuclear Blast was the german record company that helped in the emergence of death metal and had some of the most amazing bands ever, master, benediction, dismember, incantation, hypocrisy, pungent stench, revenant, sinister and others. However, it either shed them or just stoped being supportive of them by the mid-late 90s, when death metal was in a stalemate both creatively and commercially.  That was the time when melodic black metal was on the rise and power metal like Hammerfall. Grim times… It has been widely accepted since, that Nuclear Blast did what all companies who respect themselves should do, i.e. do it all for the money! And today we have Nuclear Blast (a major label) becoming interested in death metal once more… Newest additions include Suffocation, Immolation and Nile and I’m pretty sure more that I’m not aware of. What pisses me off is that this fucking company (I hate nuclear blast) has the highest vinyl prices in the market. I stll have not bought the latest Suffocation and Hypocrisy vinyls because they are ridiculously expensive. When I first started buying vinyl records I did it because back in the day they were cheaper than cds! Now they are twice the price of the cd or more!

So we have thousands of death metal bands aspiring to make a lot of money and fame by playing brutal death metal. But why? What made death metal widely respectable and a wise career move? Someone could argue that it just happened that some people finally realised what an inspired music and how talented musicians death metalers are. With all the new communication technologies available opinions move around easily, some people in high places (music magazines) get influenced eventually who in turn influence the kids around the globe. However, if you notice  today’s death scene and the early death scene you’ll notice differences that are much more than just a high degree of contemporary uniformity in relation to the past. You will also notice that everything today is polished. The kids playing death today are well dressed with nice haircuts and an attitude that even Manowar would envy. Still instead of getting to the bottom of it, things become more complicated. Causality is uncertain and every claim points to endogeneity.

Is it that maintream looking kids became interested in death metal, or is it that companies manufacture death metallers like that in order to be more mainstream? I think that there is a strong case for the former, with some elements of the latter. At this point I want to stress one crucial event that happened circa 2001. That is the huge success of System of a Down, a mainstream band, with a mainstream sound, with a definetely mainstream look. And guess what!? In a couple of the songs there is some grind, or what others call a blast-beat! This is what I think one of the definitive moments in the development of modern death metal and the widespread use of blastbeats. It was that, since a cool band does something, then it has to be cool. Many of the kids that listened to that beat thought that it was cool, because it was in the context of an ear-friendly music and not in the context of world downfall or from enslavement to obliteration! That also could have an effect of making people interested in the origins of this sound. That would eventually lead to the exhumation of death metal. Now where I think the record companies have meddled in is the image. I think that companies learned that what death metal was missing was support from the young female population (that can be easily explained by the fact that it is a musical movement started by empowered young men and reflects all the things that men are taught to like, violence and murder). Therefore they used methods of marketing ubiguitous in the rest of the music industry. That is to make extreme metal musicians look fuckable, instead of the dirtbags that they were in the past. So they combined that which starts to become cool (extremity in music), with a cool appearance. That is not against the interests of the musicians themselves of course.

In my eyes, today’s popular death metal is the death metal of laws, where everything is counted and balanced and make sense. It is not the death metal that goes out of hand, that is unreasonable and that it does not take a thousand notes per minute to be appreciated. The death metal where two chords, a brutal and sincerely pissed-off voice, and passion in performance can make the skin crawl. Many people, among which some expert musicians, be able to listen to the hyperbrutal New Wave Of Brutal Death Metal and even like it, but will never be able to understand the beauty of songs like Shadows in the Deep (unleashed), Life shatters (desultory), across the fields of forever (Edge of sanity) and It awaits (Asphyx). Why? Because it wouldn’t make sense? Why listen to them? They are not goodlooking (so I am either not attracted to them or I cannot use them as role models or I will feel ashamed if my friends find out I listen to these “funny looking” people), they are not technical (so I cannot prove smt to my parents, my friends or my music teacher) and they are noisy! Good stuff!

p.s. all those people who claim that cannibal corpse are creatively in their best period are wankers! Cannibal corpse have stoped being innovative and threatening to any musical conventions since 1996. Today cannibal corpse are the epitome of boredom and routine.

p.s.2. Nile’s last good album was Black seeds of vengeance. After that there has been a constant recycling.

p.s.3. Whoever says that the latest Asphyx album is good, has no idea about death metal or about what Asphyx used to stand for. The Asphyx wannabes try to capitulate on the rise of death metal and they probably achieve that. But the album is so uninspired that Theo Loomans shivers in his grave.

p.s.4 I’ve been reading lately (again) the most outrageous things about slayer’s new album. People saying that Americon is an uninspired song (Blabbermouth), people saying that playing with dolls explores new paths of melody (some wank on Amazon) etc. First of all, it is clear that people still cannot grasp the genious that Kerry King is. I’m pretty sure that if skeletons of society, or temptation were released today instead of 20 years ago people would still say the same stupid things… Sucks to be them. Secondly, slayer have been writing songs like playing with dolls since seasons (dead skin mask, in divine intervention 213, and others). So before you share your unimformed bullshit with other people go listen to the old albums.

Snapped

Pamela Klaffke

Mira, Han 1 2010, $13.95

ISBN: 9780778327462

Fifteen years ago Sara B and Ted founded Snap with no money to truly launch the magazine.  However, with its Dos and Don’ts, the magazine has become one of Canada’s most popular weekly.  In fact if imitation is the ultimate flattery, than Snap is the top gun.

However, as Sara B closes in on her fortieth birthday, she has lost some of her edge; even she knows she is on cruise control professional and personally.  Her affair with younger Jack is okay but not any euphoric incredible.  Even her renowned page Dos and Don’ts has lost its luster at least in her mind.  Sara B especially feels her age since she hired energetic youthful Eva, who represents what Sara B was before she realized the new forty is still forty.

This is a superb sarcastic saga of a woman not coming to grips with middle age hammering at her when she compares herself today with Eva and with herself at Eva’s age.  Time has moved on and she fears passed her by when she was not looking beyond the next Don’ts.  Fans who relish a dark jocular acerbic tale will appreciate this strong tale as Sara B realizes she has gone from a Do to a Don’t.

Harriet Klausner

Sometimes it’s just time to work.  I remember that mindset.  The entrepreneurial lifestyle roller coaster I’ve decided to get on makes you take on life one dip, spin, drop at a time.  Its that time for me again – but I’m trying to remember what was bad during that mindset and try to get some balance this time.  Another reason for the blog.  When you’re sooo focused on the task at hand, its hard to think about anything else.  Not only does that affect you and your ability to grow, but those around you may have a hard time dealing with it.

In an earlier entry I touched on the importance of surrounding yourself around those who support you.  This is where that really matters.  Its important to be fair to those around you when you’re taking on challenges – remember they will support you no matter what, but cut them some slack when they don’t understand, or try to help, or give unsolicited advice.  Understand them to the point that you can appreciate everything they’re doing, and why they’re doing it… for you.

I’ll be the first to admit I’ll get my back up when someone challenges me – in work situations I recognize it right away and have learned to stop and think about my response.  With those close to me… not so much.  There shouldn’t be a divide – just because they’re in your “circle” doesn’t mean that they deserve to see you at your worst.  Sure it happens, but its a tough spot to put people in.  I struggle with this, because it is important to have people you can vent and just let out some steam with.  The lesson I believe, has been to recognize when you’ve run out of steam, when people have heard enough, and when it is time to do something about it.  Once you’re up again, be that ear for someone else.

500 Dias com Ela

Não existe algo como um cinema de pobreza, com um perfil muito próprio, e outro de riqueza, também com um estilo distinto. Hollywood pratica o cinema da riqueza e, nos Estados Unidos, mesmo no que se acostumou chamar de ‘independente’, é preciso ostentar essa pujança na produção em forma de maciez na linguagem, sofisticação estilística (…)

O jornalista norte-americano Peter Biskind, autor do recem-lançado Como a Geração Sexo-Drogas-e-Rock”n”roll Salvou Hollywood: Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, no Estadão de uns dias atrás.

As a boy, growing up with three brothers in Essex, Ontario, Don Orton wanted to be a zoologist. He probably envisioned himself working with animals that don’t live in water; but you get the sense from talking to the newly promoted Assistant Manager that even if childhood dreams don’t work out precisely, life can still be sweet.

Don started with Marine Harvest in June 2006, after starting with Heritage Aquaculture, now Mainstream, where he was a farm technician for three years. Deciding it was time for a change, he learned of a vacancy with Marine Harvest through the ‘Net, “probably at aquaculturejobs.com,” Don related.

He spent time at Koskimo, Mahatta East and Monday Rocks before settling at Althorp. Now that the former lead hand has been promoted, a site move is in the works. Don will be Assistant Manager at Shaw Point and Althorp.

“I always try to put myself into positions of leadership and responsibility.” he said, adding that he’s seen a great number of improvements to the industry in six years and “I like being part of them [positive changes].”

A graduate of Sir Sanford Fleming’s aquaculture program, Don had originally set his sights set on a construction career until a friend told him about a fish and wildlife program that included a brief introduction to aquaculture, something he particularly connected with. He made the switch from houses to net pens and doesn’t regret it at all.

A fan of the outdoors, Don enjoys riding his bike and camping and fishing. Of camping, he comments, that“it’s freeing to be out there away from technology.”

By Gina Forsyth

Hero’s Tribute

Graham Garrison

Kregel, Oct 2009m $13.99

ISBN: 9780825426858

Michael Gavin is a hero in his hometown of Talking Creek, Georgia.  He was quarterback of the high school football team and played at the University of Georgia.  He was given the Medal of Honor for his distinguished service in Iraq.  Parents in Talking Creek always use Michael as the epitome of a person being all they can be; in other words a hero.

However everyone is shocked when Michael learns he has cancer; the townsfolk are there for him and his family whole sadly wondering why bad things happen to good people.  As he nears death, Michael asks sports reporter Wes Watkins to deliver the eulogy at his funeral.  Wes is stunned as he and Michael are strangers, but agrees.  He begins digging into the life of the local hero with an ulterior motive of using the story as a ticket out of town to the bigger gigs.  However, Wes begins to uncover some shocking secrets in the life of the paragon revered by his town.  He ponders who Michael truly was and if he tells the entire truth with what he learned what that says of him as he would push the statue of Mr. perfect off the pedestal.

Michael dies in the very beginning of the book, but readers see who he is through the filtered lens of different people especially his family, the townsfolk and the reporter as each provides their perspective.  Character driven, fans will appreciate this terrific insightful look at a Hero’s Tribute as to be human means to have flaws, but it takes Amazing Grace to move past them to greatness.  With a final twist at the eulogy that will leave readers stunned and wanting to join in on the four song tribute, Graham Garrison provides a strong Christian tale.

Harriet Klausner

A young man with Down syndrome succeeds in school in West Virginia.  His mom credits his amazing teachers.  One more example of what our kids can do.

ASHTON — Mr. Wildcat at Hannan High School is not only considered royalty at the school, but he is a truly, spectacular senior.

Brandon Benson, 18, is an individual with Down syndrome who has been mainstreamed in public schools throughout his years of education. He is your average teenager who enjoys sports, especially the Thundering Herd, four-wheeler riding and being with friends.

From Ashton Elementary to HHS, Benson has progressed step-for-step, right alongside his classmates.

His mother, Linda, gives much credit to her son’s educators.

“The teachers need recognition because they were there in the classroom, helping other kids understand Brandon’s situation,” Linda Benson said.

For the full story click here.

installation 'no division' mit musikermüll auf dem gelände des raw-tempels in berlin-friedrichshain. 'hang the dj' sang auch schon morrissey für die schmidts (ich lispele das th für alle lautleser auch beim schreiben mit).

… gab es mal in der ddr, mit sw-abzügen von diensteifrigen genossen, oft verbunden mit prämien für die sieger im sozialistischen wettbewerb. heute bestimmen andere gesetze den marktwert von menschen, oder besser: sie lassen sich ihn auch ganz gerne einstechen wie eine ganzkörpertätowierung. ob es hitparaden sind, verkaufscharts, listen mit bestsellern und zuschauerzahlen oder kisten mit schubladen, alles will der risikoarme mensch einsortieren, ablegen, einheften, durchnummerieren nach scheinbarer wohlgefälligkeit, die doch nur am lautesten klingeln der kassen bemessen wird. itunes legt ungebeten listen mit den top(f) 25 an. ein grauen für alle, die das chaos und random als prinzipien leben. aber für orientierungslose, meinungslose und zauderer sind solche ranglisten die nieten der losbude vom rummelplatz der eitelkeiten, über die sich noch freuen, weil sie ja nicht mal ahnen, welchen vollkommen beschränkten grenzen sie sich da unterordnen. sie glauben, mit der exzellentesten, trendigsten, heißesten ware aufzutrumpfen und besitzen doch nur, was die meisten anderen auch haben. damit öden sie sich dann gegenseitig an und hören doch nur abfällig: ätsch, hab ich aber auch schon.  gelegentlich findet sich inmitten der massengeschmacklosigkeit eine perle, die von den allesverschlingern achtlos verspeist und würdelos unverdaut wieder herausgespieen wird. tatsächlich aber ist die quantität in den seltensten fällen ein maßstab für die qualität, sondern meistens ein ausdruck geglückter, ausgeklügelter verkaufsstrategie, die günstlinge günstig und künstlich gutheißt. man kann schließlich mit der zeit gehen und dennoch aussteigen, wann auch immer und wo auch immer es einem beliebt. ein erlebnis für sich ist der blick in zwei völlig konsternierte verkäuferaugen, wenn eine bestellung eingeht, die sie nicht im lagerbestand haben. manche versuchen, sonderwünsche von vornherein abzuwimmeln. erinnert man sie dann an ihre eigentliche berufung, tippen sie panisch titel oder namen in den computer ein,  fragen nach der schreibweise und siehe da – ein treffer mit langer lieferzeit. da warte ich doch gern auf die bückware.

listen dienen als lausige inspirationsquelle für jene, die nur von eins bis zehn zählen können, für effekthascher, denen trial and error zu müßig ist. sie fühlen sich so toll mit ihren tollprodukten, daß ihnen der sinn für überraschendes abgestorben ist. denn alleine der besitz des über den klee gelobten diktiert ihr ganzes lebensglück. die zeit-geld-gleichung ist aufgegangen. und fast alle freuen sich über so viel müll und so wenig experimentierfreude.

Ok, so I posted yesterday that I was going to post some songs to incorporate into your workout play-lists  and here it is. I tried to incorporate a great deal of songs you will know and songs you won’t know, as well as stuff to make you sweat off that college 15 you’ve still failed to get off. Most of the songs listed are ones that I use in my cycling workout play-list. Just pick and choose which ones best suit your taste!

1. “Monster” – Lady Gaga
2. “Guilty Pleasure” – Cobra Starship
3. “Tik Tok” – Ke$ha
4. “Right Hand Hi” – Kid Sister
5. “My Delerium” – Ladyhawke
6. “Dog Days” – Florence and the Machine
7. “Gold Gun Girls” – Metric
8. “We Are Golden” – MIKA
9. “The Girl And The Robot” – Roksopp ft Roby
10. “Might Like You Better” – Amanda Blank
11. “3″ – Brittney Spears
12. “Halo And Walking On Sunshine” – Glee (Cast Version)
13. “Brick By Boring Brick” – Paramore
14. “Did It Again (Benny Banassi Remix) – Shakira
15. “Racing Lights” – Stars of Track and Field

Below I’ve posted some of the songs to save you you the trouble of looking for them to listen to.

Shakira ft. Kid Cudi – “Did It Again (Benny Banassi Remix)”

Ladyhawke – “My Delirium”

Royksopp ft. Robyn – “The Girl And The Robot”

Florence and the Machine – “Dog Days Are Over”

Glee – “Halo and Walking On Sunshine Mash Up”

Brilliant. A trippy 5.5 minutes of the cube nailing it. Brilliant, again.

This party is old and uninviting
Participants all in black and white
You enter in fullblown technicolor
Nothing is the same after tonight

If the world would fall apart
In a fiction worthy wind
I wouldn’t change a thing
Now that you’re here

Yeah, love is a verb here in my room
Here in my room, here in my room

You enter and close the door behind you
Now show me the world as seen from the stars
If only the lights would dim a little
I’m weary of eyes upon my scars

Pink tractor beam into your incision
Head spinning as free as dervishs’ whirl
I came here expecting next to nothing
So thank you for being that kind of girl
That kind of girl

Inicialmente, cabe a consideração sobre o quão mais fácil é resenhar uma pessoa que esteja fisicamente e temporalmente distante de você do que uma próxima.

Não ando lendo muita coisa fora da ficção especulativa ultimamente. Para ser muito sincera, não estou por dentro da literatura “mainstream” (o termo aqui entre aspas, no seu significado literal de “corrente principal”, de literatura contemporânea sem gênero), de quem são os nomes fortes hoje e o que eles estão escrevendo. Gosto muito de ler clássicos e alguns autores consagrados do século XX, mas hesito um pouco antes de arriscar coisas novas sem saber se serão do meu gosto ou não. Talvez já tenha mencionado isso anteriormente, para quem acompanha o blog.

Recentemente, o amigo Eric Novello (honorável administrador do Fantastik e participante do Aguarrás) me enviou seu livro Histórias da Noite Carioca, literatura mainstream atualíssima, leve e de fácil leitura.

Trata-se da história de Lucas Moginie, um jovem escritor de relativo sucesso que recebe um ultimato de sua editora: ele precisa entregar o original de seu novo romance o mais rápido possível. Mas há um pequenino problema: Lucas está sofrendo de um leve e ligeiro bloqueio criativo… E, talvez por esse bloqueio ou por uma dessas grandes coincidências da vida, uma pessoa importante de seu passado bate à porta, e há alguns assuntos que ficaram com sua solução pendente.

Então o leitor acompanha através da narrativa em primeira pessoa a rotina de Lucas em sua busca pelo precioso tema e sua vida cotidiana, com personagens como os vizinhos sexualmente excêntricos, os amigos amalucados e a paisagem carioca, com suas ruas, praias, praças, parques e barzinhos.

E o ponto principal do livro, na minha opinião: tudo narrado com o mais fino humor irônico. Ironia é algo que muitos tentam, mas poucos conseguem fazer de maneira satisfatória, ainda mais quando o objetivo é auto-ironizar-se e também às pequenas coisas da vida, como relações de vizinhança ou o café da manhã.

É um relato sobre o desespero de cumprir um prazo (e qualquer um que, como eu, trabalhe com prazos fatais, sabe que beleza é isso), mas também de revisitar um passado mal-resolvido, com todas as consequências que isso pode trazer.

E tudo chega a uma conclusão: o livro, o passado, a vida. De uma forma atropelada e talvez até mesmo inusitada, mas de vez em quando todos nós somos pegos em armadilhas que não conseguimos antever.

Enfim, é um belo passeio pelas noites cariocas de Lucas Moginie, em um livro bem gostoso de ser lido.

***

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I’m going to be compiling a list of mainstream and indie songs for a workout play-list that’ll get you sweating and motivated. Keep an eye out for it sometime this week or next.

by Roger Pynn

Seth Duncan’s interesting commentary at Context Analytics on the relevance of Mainstream vs. Social Media raises the interesting question of where conversations really begin.

He posits that most of the highly influential conversations going on via social networks actually get their start in the traditional world of news releases and … OMG, yes: newspapers. Face it. People still read them. They are still the leading influencer for much of the rest of the coverage. After all, other than stories they grab from their police scanners, how much hard, in-depth news originates at local television stations?

They are followers, not leaders.

Duncan’s description of the “long tail” of the conversation is intriguing. In some ways, we’re throwing a pebble in a virtual pond and seeing the ripples continue to infinity because the lake has no shoreline. Open your mouth and the echo could be endless.

And if you’re adept at working social networks, you could keep your message going around and around like a game of roller derby … whipping it past roadblocks and through static, picking up momentum on the straight-away and passing your competition in curves.

I’ve been into exploring the concept of “the ego”.  I started opening up to the concept of your ego being the main controller of your thoughts after being exposed to ideas such as those contained in “The Secret” or writing by Eckhart Tolle, Mike Dooley, and even Joe Vitale to name a few.   I am fascinated with the idea that you really are in control of your destiny.  For years we were led to believe “its a dog eat dog” world, and “life’s not fair”.  Well if that’s what you believe, then that is what is true.

What if throughout growing up we were taught to visualize what we wanted?  I remember being asked to visualize my future once, and I couldn’t.  There was just so much out there how could I decide!  So I decided to experience it all!  When you do this you don’t always land on your feet, and you question yourself.  When you question yourself, I normally now recognize that’s my ego creeping in.

I sometimes wonder what we would come up with in this world if we didn’t have to take certain courses, or have to choose a discipline at school at a certain age, but were supported in our “journey,” despite its goal… as long as there was one.  I loved my school experience, I did what I wanted to get involved in whether I was sure I could do it or not.  I was born with guts a lot weren’t, and a support system many would kill for.  I think there needs to be a community where people who just want to experience are accepted and supported.  They are our visionaries, our leaders – connect them with the experienced and the doers, and our trades people – and there would be a place for all.

I’m sure there are many many people out there who have gone through the path of school, after school, after school to BAM the real world and responsibility.  If you didn’t get it right the first time, how are you supposed to start over?  How do you not get caught up in the “depression that you’re not doing what you went to school for”.  Focus on what you have learned, what you won’t do again, and realize you’re one step closer to finding what it is you’re meant for.  What you have done to this point has given you a set of skills – start with that and recognize what your capabilities are.  Leggo of that Ego.  Let go of that doubt.  Let go of any pity, worry or fear and be like a child again.  Get excited seeing something for the first time.  Imagine how you would have felt seeing that as a child, before you became desensitized to wonder and excitement.  Be amazed at the world and where you are. The sooner you can appreciate those “small things” again, and the joy in what we have to work with here,  you’ll be able to dream like you were 7.  Only now you have the knowledge, experience, and vision to make it happen.

You needed your ego until now to keep you disciplined.  Its time to throw it out the window.

Adam Lambert’s racy performance*  at the 2009 American Music awards, where he “simulated fellatio with a male dancer and kissed male keyboardist Tommy Ratliff,” has been edited for West Coast viewers.  Edited, as in removed.  According to this article in MSNBC, Adam Lambert believes this is discrimination.  

The Associated Press reports that ABC says more than 1,500 people called to complain about Lambert’s performance.  While I agree that the act was shocking, why were the two homosexual acts the only two that were edited out? 

I was a little disappointed in Lambert’s defense, where he said, ”Shock is fun, shock rock is like something that existed, for example, like in the ’70s, Alice Cooper … David Bowie, you had artists that liked to push the envelope and that’s what made them so fresh.”  I get what he’s saying here, but it seemed like he missed the point of his own cause.

He got closer to the heart of the matter when he said, “There’s a big double standard, female pop artists have been doing things provocative like that for years, and the fact that I’m a male, and I’ll be edited and discriminated against could be a problem.”  

In a sense he’s right, it is because he’s male.  But the person he kissed was also male, and that’s where the difference lies.  It is true that female artists aren’t discriminated against as much, (for example  the kiss between Madonna and Britney at the 2003 VMA’s wasn’t edited out for West Coast viewers), but the bigger double standard is that they didn’t edit him simulating fellatio with a woman (at 1:13 in the video).  

Lambert’s performance was incredibly risqué for national television, but why?  Apparently the two men being led around by chains, or him vigorously rubbing a dancer’s vagina weren’t in poor taste, but two men kissing pushed them too far.

EDIT:  The link to the video has been deleted out of my blog three times now, deemed inappropriate by Dick Clark.  This is scary stuff, people.  Here I am searching for a video that does not exist, knowing it existed mere hours ago.  Leave it to America to rewrite history, or erase it.  Yes, it was a stupid video of some pop artist we may never hear from again (Good Morning America already cancelled his slot on their show), but if they can censor this, they can censor anything, at their whim.  Does this remind anyone of 1984? 

It’s all going into a memory hole.

*It should be noted that the only remaining link I could find was in someone’s blog whose opinions vastly differ from my own.

Lute Player

Norah Lofts

Touchstone, Dec 8 2009, $16.00

ISBN: 9781439146071

Blondel the lute player loves Berengaria the wife of his sire, King Richard the Lionhearted although he does not act on his regard for several reasons and not just because he would be executed.  He knows the woman he cherishes above all else loves her husband and beside he is the king’s companion and would never be disloyal.  Berengaria’s hunchbacked sister Anna Apieta is attracted to Blondel while Richard loves Crusading and men.

When Richard heads off for Jerusalem, Blondel accompanies him mostly because of his love for Berengaria.  After they failed, he returns home with his monarch until the king is captured in France.  He continues home not sure how to break the news to the woman he loves.

The Lute Player is a terrific medieval fiction in which the audience obtains a less romantic but totally human view of King Richard the Lionhearted and the Crusades through the eyes of four people impacted by the monarch and the war.  Besides the title player, the audience learns how the queen and her sister feel as well as the ruler’s mother Eleanor of Aquitaine.  With a strong antiwar message as the horrors come home to roost to those on the home front, Norah Lofts provides a super historical showcasing the effect of the Third Crusade on Richard’s mother and wife.

Harriet Klausner