(no subject)

[taratemima]

So, my brother and sister were supposed to come home from DC. Still not yet, but my mom and my sister insist on checking every so often, filling up the mailbox. When I try to contact them at Mom's SO's house, busy signal. Damn his Napster addiction! Where is his e-mail?

I finished homework half-assed and went late to a party in JP. Fairly quiet, even though I had a weird pain located in my left eye. I suspect it is because my glasses' prescription is too strong, but I wonder.

Saw Chocolat with Aiden Joseph. It is a nice film, and there is a lot of chocolate, even if you can pick out what you have seen in other movies. I do however want to try melted chocolate with chili pepper--just because.

I have no deep thoughts. Waiting for a loan application, so I can get money to purchase tickets, tutition, and board. They insist on seeing the invoices before reimbursing me, but it is hard to get invoices with no money to buy stuff. I am waiting for exams. I am waiting for my refund. I am putting off writing the rest of my novel and finishing the web research for Brain Trust. I have no idea for poems, except a satiric rap opera about the Appointed President of the US. However, being whiter than Al Gore, that the sound of me saying 'Are you feeling this?' would send the populace into spasms of laughter.

There are no protest songs lately, or least ones I've heard. God knows there is a lot to protest, I'd think Luke Skywalker would have something to say about the Broward County debacle (considering how Florida politics got him partway in trouble once). My first answer would be protesting groups, but let's face it, not all groups are created equal. Songs about police brutality and retailation against it were pulled in the wake of the "Cop Killer" controversy, but has GLAAD's protests shut down anti-gay rhymes? Doubt it.

Major and even some minor record labels are in it for the money. More powerful people whining about it, the more it hurts sales. Now with the merger of more and more labels, the focus is even more on the sure cash cows, abandoning even the very pretense that they want to nuture new talent or shake things up.

That's why no one's protest is getting heard where it matters. Oh, sure, there's Rage Against the Machine, but they broke up.

Tipper Gore, in the worst sort of irony, has paved the way to make sure no one can write songs about anger about her husband's electoral 'loss'. Then again, it wouldn't be much fun would it? "Talking Good Old Boy Tinkering and Lobbying Blues"? A remake of Paris' "Bush Killa"? A Spanish-language song called "Fuck the Republican Castro-Haters"? "Katherine Harris Is a Big Skinny Bitch"? "Pasty White Nazis (Miami-Dade Riot)"?

A person who gave me a ride home last night said something interesting about book publishers: they are sure they will be obsolate in twenty years. If they thought they had a future, they seek new authors and nuture them for the long term. Could record companies be just as aware of forecoming extinction?