ALL*MYTEE

Got my first two songs in the can. Working on getting Mr Jonze on the phones.

I saw a great article in the Tribune this morning. Talking about movie theaters and DVD releases. The point it brought up was: can you imagine hearing a song on the radio and going to the record (I know I'm old fashioned) store and having them say you can buy it in 4 months. Wouldn't work. In fact I'd refuse to buy it on principle. But then I don't buy m/any DVDs either.

What the article discovered, but didn't necessarily come straight out and say, was that this manipulation, to make more money, is ridiculous and backward. I'd add that it props up bogus Hollywood films and messes up a whole diveristy of cultural and creative produce, but that's besides the point. It's that old Woody Allen thing: we all want to join the club that wouldn't have us. So we respond positively to manipulation and contempt instead of negatively. And we've built a whole culture on it. Witness the song: "Don't you wish you girlfriend was hot like me?" If you were really beautiful (and she is physically), and felt beautiful, why the hell would would you spend one second of your time a) thinking about someone else's girlfriend, or b) trying to impress some man who's got one. It's a strange arrogance/insecurity thing that I think we're pretty much nailed as a country. In my world, people who feel beautiful just do what they want. Make beautiful things and hang out and be beautiful in myriad ways.

Which brings up the point that she probably wrote the song to make money. That's another wierd thing about us. We have artists who are sold out to a ridiculous degree. It's like a huge high school thing.

If you're smart, and I know you are, you're saying "Eben, you're doing the same thing right now." And you'd be right. I must be tired (or procastinating).

Another note: this morning I saw a kid pull up and say hi to another kid he went to school with. The first word out of the pulled up to kid's mouth was "Bitch". It was in an almost friendly way, the same way some folks call each other N**ga, but at the same time, it had a cold, we may never really know each other feel.

Some people may respond to the things they see like this as "Those kids today", but I see it as a natural response to where the economy seems to be going. Even dark circles under the eyes of four year-olds (I see them all the time) don't surprise me. Both the high schooler and the kid are being prepared to be productive members of our materially competitive economy. To be harder, faster, stronger. There's lots of bemoaning the loss of childhood these days but none of the adults (that I know) who say these things are doing shit to create a world where it is safe for children to be relaxed. Where relaxation, being inside your body, and having a sense of yourself is prized and valuable. Most of them just miss their own childhood so much that it makes them sad that others don't have what they percieve as one.

The answer, in my opinion, is to scrap the nostalgia and the crocodile tears and get down to the business of making what we want. Ain't none of us victims. We get the world we create. And we create a world that the rest of the world will inherit--because it's what will feed, house and clothe people (and let them be free--no small thing).

The left blames Bush, the right doesn't think a much better life is possible, and here it is 2005 and we're still operating like most of 20th Century physics never happened. I won't go into all that, but why don't we have any artists strong enough to make the real s**t and own and get the money off it? Why are all the most interesting artist aiming their love an knowledge at 16 year-olds? And making clothes for children. Bubble gum clothes, t-shirts? I saw an ad for a Tim Burton movie and it was about dead infantile cartoon characters. Doesn't this motherf*&ker want to grow up? Is he really living such a happy life off of coffee and pop culture that he wants to stay that way? Or is he just geting paid and laid and hasn't yet gotten sick and tired enough of being sick and tired?

And you! Are you still buying this crap? Is it because you don't see anything else possible, or because you actually still find value in this hypnotist show? Yes Radiohead is attractive, but don't you feel yet that it makes you sad every time you listen to it. Don't you think you deserve something both beautiful and inspired? Don't you think there's something to satiate that hunger you've always felt? Don't you see that there has to be? That it's promised?

That doesn't mean it'll be easy (although it will be), that doesn't mean you won't have to sacrifice or do things you think are scary (you will), but if you don't believe, it will be a lot longer in coming. Believe is being live. Be-Live. Buy this stuff you really want. Where you put your energy and love (especially with your attention and cash) is how you build the world. No big corporation is in charge. No one is foolding the people. It's just the people are buying lots of crap, then throwing it away and buying more. Eventually they find they can "afford" (though they've been rich all along) what they want--something they deem expensive--that will actually last. Can be recovered (yeah, I talk about couches a lot). Is worth repairing. Maintaining. Keeping up and clean. Not very cool in the now omnipresent underground of shabby chic pre-ripped jeans and distressed houses, I know, but that doesn't change it's relationship to the truth.

(A note: in my city, Chicago, they are now building houses with old, weathered bricks on the front and new ones on the side. In the old days, they would put the best brick out front and the cheaper on the side. How you feel about this fashion may be one of the most important questions of our liifetime. On another note: I just bought my first pair of weathered-look jeans. Banana Republic ones for $10 at the thrift store. Lord, please help my book make money so I can make some real jeans for the people.)

Now imagine how inauthentic our culture or feigned distress and drama is--especially those who insist they are. Like the punk rockers. I read about how Curt Cobain hated having to play the tortured artist every night in front of thousands of fans yesterday. He made his own world, got fabulously wealthy, got all the love he could stomach, and cemented the revolution and he hated his own life. He took his own life. Something to think about if you think you're punk. Or if you think punk was cool now that it's been dead long enough to feel safe.

I'm off to continue making a popular culture that's fun, loving, enjoyable, safe, takes massive risks, is radically vulnerable, replicable, profitable and will save the world. From itself.