Sign of things to come?!

Well, it's no surprise that on the day we elect Barack Hussein Obama to office, the stock market absolutely tanks! Oh sure, all the liberal news outlets will claim that it's profit-taking from yesterday's rally. But do you really believe that? I think market makers, fund managers and CEO's are shitting their shorts thinking about the upcoming capital gains tax hikes, cuts to corporate tax breaks and impending increases on both income and property taxes.

We. Are. Fucked.

It's so obvious and sad

Ya know, I'm OK with the fact that Obama won. And I have no real problem with there being a black president. In fact, I'm very happy that I am able to experience this in my lifetime, as I never truly thought it would happen. Yes I voted for McCain, but I knew all along that he didn't stand a chance.

However, I am so sick and tired of black people saying that their decision to vote for Obama had nothing to do with race. Bullshit. It had everything to do with race. And their in-your-face celebrations today prove just that. On the whole, blacks voting for Obama had nothing to do with politics, the economy, whatever. They just wanted a black person in office. Period. And that's OK I suppose. If I were a minority in this country, it would be refreshing to see someone I could identify with culturally running the show. But don't insult my fucking intelligence and say race didn't play a part in your decision as you do a Chad Johnson touchdown dance in the streets of Chicago. If I faced the prospect of getting tax cuts without lifting a finger for the economy I'd be dancing too.

And it is so sad that the only way to get blacks to vote is to get one of their own on the ballot. I hate to sound so damn racist, but this election outcome reeks of reactionary self-interest. Good luck Obama - you got a tough four years ahead of you.

Nobody weird like me

Politically, I am not represented very well in this country by any party. I fall somewhere within the confines of libertarianism, paleoconservatism, conservative democrats or liberal republicans. I am a constitutionalist first and foremost. I am pro-choice, pro-guns, and pro-freedom of speech. I cannot stomach political correctness. I am for unabashed free trade, however I loathe large corporations like Wal-Mart, McDonalds and General Motors that have made us look like the ugly Americans that we are. I love mom & pop stores, small contractors, start-up tech firms and niche businesses. I am opposed to the war in Iraq, but feel that we've passed the point of no return and must remain there until our job is done - if for nothing else, than to preserve the memory of those who gave their lives for this miserable and misguided cause. I am against giving any money to any country - especially Israel - until we get our own problems fixed. I like small government and small tax bills. I am anti-union to the nth degree (want to know why your taxes are so high in New York and New Jersey? Drive by any state-funded construction project and take a look at who's doing the work there - or lack of work - and you'll see your high taxes being spent). I am for social spending to some degree, but feel welfare reform is way overdue. I don't believe we should privatize Social Security or socialize medicine. I am for controlled immigration, so long as they become citizens and take a basic English skills test in one-year's time. I hate lawyers, especially those who back special-interest groups. I am for alternative energy and 100% for ANY measure that will protect the environment. I am for the death penalty - you sort of have to be if you're pro-choice right? I am against affirmative action. I am for spending money on education though. I definitely don't believe we should "spread the wealth." To that end, I don't give a shit if your house has lost 1/2 its value or you can't pay your mortgage. No one told you to buy a house at the top of the market, and it's not the government's job to bail you out. That said, I don't think we should bail out Wall St. either. Let 'em fail! It'll hurt like hell, but it's the only way to purge the economy of all its ills. Warning, angry tangent approaching: I DESPISE the media and don't trust anything they tell me. And the douchebag liberal Hollywood crowd: SHUT THE FUCK UP AND MAKE MOVIES! WE DON'T GIVE TWO SHITS ABOUT YOUR POLITICAL VIEWS! Same goes for musicians. Unless your a political band like Anti-Flag, just play your songs and don't use the stage as your own personal soapbox. I love ya Bruce, but I didn't pay $125 to hear your take on politics.

I'm all over the place politically, right? So who do I vote for? Thanks for all the choices America! I don't think this partisan shit works anymore. I read a quote in Newsweek from one undecided voter who said, "it's like choosing between a douchebag and a turd sandwich." I couldn't have said it any better.

Is there a whole population of people out there just like me? Or is there nobody weird like me?

MP3: Nobody Weird Like Me - Red Hot Chili Peppers

Conservative Punk

If you listen to punk rock, but feel alienated by leftist punk politics, go check out the website http://www.conservativepunk.com/ right now. It's a great site that underscores the belief that punk is not about conforming to the popular view, but accepting ALL views, even conservative ones - a belief that all these poser, johnny-come-lately, snot-nosed, spoiled shits have forgotten or simply disregarded.

Absolutely inspirational...

I had the president of Harvard University speak at my high school graduation. Don't remember a word of it. But this school gets alumnus Patton Oswalt, who despite being a tad too liberal is quite awesome, to speak. His words and message are nothing short of amazing. Read his speech here.

Cheers!

Musical Cross-References

I left a comment about this over at Bleedin' Out, but just in case no one sees it, I'm gonna reiterate it here.

One of the great things about being a total music snob is that you pick up on subtle references in songs -- sometimes to other songs, other bands or sometimes complete albums. One of my new favorite bands, The Hold Steady, seems to share this penchant, and constantly name-drops some of my favorite bands, movies, books & songs in their own songs, which makes me dig them all the more. On their song 'Constructive Summer' off their new album Stay Positive, they reference one of my other favorite bands (also from Minnesota), Dillinger Four with these lines:

"Me and my friends are like
'doublewhiskeycokenoice'
we drink along in double time
I drink too much, but we feel fine."

Gotta love that. And at the end of the song, they tip their hat to maybe my all-time favorite band by saying, "Raise a toast to Saint Joe Strummer"...makes me smile every time I hear that.

For fear of fawning at the feet of Mammon

Cautiously optimistic. That’s the only way to describe how I’m listening to the new radio station in New York - 1019 WRXP. For now, all is well. But is the end just around the corner? We’ll see.

You see, I grew up in New Jersey in the 80’s. It was a glorious time to be a music fan, and it was an era that spawned many a music snob such as myself. Big and small stations alike, radio ruled from 87.5 to 108.0. And it felt like the majors really cared about their listeners. WNEW had awesome live concerts on the King Biscuit Flower Hour, WAPP played OZZY when he wasn't a punch line to a drunken joke. Even the old WPLJ played The Smiths on occasion. Sure, we were inundated with terrible new wave and bloated arena rock on the big New York stations. But we had so many options - we could go elsewhere. We had WFMU, WDRE and WSOU. We had MTV when it actually played music…sometimes even good music. We had the U-68 Power Hour to bang our heads to. Music, and a diversity of music, was everywhere. I went off to college in Washington, DC and WHFS was there waiting for me. I was serenaded with the sounds of Fugazi, Jane’s Addiction, Helmet and then-unheard of bands like 311, Green Day and something called Nirvana.

Then, the mid 90’s arrived, and media empires like Infinity and Clear Channel rose from the Earth like lamb-horned beasts in The Revelation of John and homogenized all of the major radio stations. And the indies soon followed suit. WDRE changed format, and WFMU, while still great, lost consistency and gained obscurity. WSOU still rocked, of course. Darkness fell upon the musical land, and we were forced to listen to hours upon hours of Stone Temple Pilots, Filter, Linkin Park, Creed, and other sorts of regurgitated Seattle Grunge-Meets-Butt Rock-Meets-Shit Metal-Meets-White Boy Rap. I won’t even get into what the Top-40 and Hip-Hop stations were playing as I don’t usually like the taste of my own vomit in my mouth. Yeah, there were glimpses of bright spots, but it was a dark time my friends.

Behold a revolution! Satellite radio seemed to be the answer. Freedom! No pressure from the prehistoric record industry – let ‘em die! No AOR format! Deeper Cuts! Real rock! Real punk! All ska & reggae stations! No commercials! And thank God and the geniuses at Apple for the iPod! And thank you Napster and all the mp3 blogs! Ah, real music was back again! Behold, I could listen to what I wanted to hear, when I wanted to hear it. If I didn’t want to hear a song twice a day, I didn’t have to! Fuck the radio and their heavy rotation of Led Zeppelin. I love LedZep…but it’s flippin 2008, not 1978! Diversity has returned! With new sounds to explore, new frontiers to conquer, I turn a misty, sentimental eye back towards the radio and it’s dusty, archaic dial. Let’s give a listen…

92.3, Opie & Anthony, yes...your music, no. 104.3, sheesh, Aerosmith...really? 105.5, man I hate New Jersey sometimes. Z-100, um what the hell? 95.5, please kill me now. Ugh. They just don’t get it. But wait, what’s this? Some new station calling itself RXP on 101.9. Hey isn't that the old "smooth jazz" station? Let's check the website...hey it's that fat metalhead from MTV. He was OK. Let’s give a listen. Hmmm…Generation X. Haven’t heard them on the radio since I don’t know when, nice. The Duke Spirit…wow, surprising. Black Crowes…ugh, here we go, another record company owned station. But wait, the Pixies?! Awesome! A deep cut by Springsteen from Nebraska?! OK. The Shins? The Clash? Bob Marley? Now I’m diggin’ the variety! Haha…boy the chips are stacked against these guys.

A closer look reveals the fact that the station is owned by Emmis Communications out of Indiana. Seems they own Hot 97 and Kiss FM here in New York as well as a WHOLE BUNCH of other shit around the world. I don't know what their political interests are or how they manage the content of their media outlets, but if they allow their stations to deviate from the standard AOR/CHR format, then they're OK by me.

But like I said, we'll see. For now RXP is the best thing on the air. But that’s not saying much these days. That’s like being the winner of an all-male wet t-shirt contest. But they do have something all the other stations don’t have: Diversity. But that could all change with a little old fashioned bait-n-switch. Remember, when K-Rock went to an all-rock format (again) in 1996, they played the Dead Kennedy’s on the air…the fucking Dead Kennedys! How awesome was that?! Now look at K-Rock. Their idea of cutting edge is the new track from 3 Doors Down.

So please Mr. Smulyan, surprise us all and shun the notion that you're just another evil force in the collective that's out to destroy American Radio. Please tell the major record companies to go pound sand. Please let your DJ's play more Cake and less Coldplay. More Tom Waits and less Tom Petty. More Bad Religion and less Bad Company. For God sakes stop playing shit before your core demographic was born unless it was a band that incited riots or had Iggy Pop, Joe Strummer or Henry Rollins as a lead singer. Guns & Roses was great...we get it. But if we wanted to hear them, we'd tune in to the half-dozen other stations in the NYC area that are playing them RIGHT NOW too. Please remember what it was like to be young. Please save the radio.

The Bouncing Souls said it best, "Gimme something to hold true, gimme something to sing about. Gimme a reason to care, I'll sing along forever. Give it to me straight, touch my heart, I'll sing along forever."