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| You say you want a revolution... |
| Roy Starin |
Hello again from the beautiful Northwest. Summer has officially begun, and I am feeling a little inspired. It might just be gas, so we'll see what happens. I decided to forgo chasing fish this morning in order to provide you all with some nuggets of wisdom. Before I really start though, I thought I would share a paragraph from the book I am reading. It's called "You Are Being Lied To" and it is right up my alley. It's a collection of essays that challenge all sorts of commonly held truths about stuff like religion, media, politics, science, and the social fabric of everyday living. I got sucked in right away by the first essay, Reality is a shared hallucination. That's just the kind of bumper sticker quote that makes my little black heart go thumpity thump. Anyway, the following essay by Noam Chomsky was all about how the mass media operates, and how closely meshed it is with corporations and the government, so much so that you are really unable to distinguish between the three. Here is a paragraph from his essay that describes how us average joes are viewed by the guys that call the shots.
"So, look at these categories and see what leading figures write about these matters. The basic line (I'm partly quoting) is that the general population are 'ignorant and meddlesome outsiders'. We have to keep them out of the public arena because they are too stupid, and if they get involved they will just make trouble. Their job is to be 'spectators', not 'participants'. They are allowed to vote every once in a while, pick out one of us smart guys. But then they are supposed to go home and do something else like watch football or whatever it may be. But the 'ignorant and meddlesome outsiders' have to be observers, not participants. The participants are what are called the 'responsible men' and, of course, the writer is always one of them. You never ask the question, why am I a 'responsible man' and somebody else, say Eugene Debs is in jail? The answer is pretty obvious. It's because you are obedient and subordinate to power and that other person may be independent, and so on."
What do you think would happen if the current generation of angry kids wrapped their heads around this stuff? If they were able to pull themselves away from all the distractions modern life offers, some interesting shit could actually go down. I am not really advocating anarchy or anything, just a general sort of step back to consider the source of the info that's shoved down our throats. Maybe I am advocating some sort of upheaval, if only for the byproducts. Art reflects life, so it's said, and upheaval and uncertainty seem to offer up divine inspiration. Think about your favorite art, then think about the circumstances in which it was created. I am willing to bet that some sort of upheaval/heartbreak/hard life was an inspiring factor. Much of the same social circumstances exist right now (war, financial uncertainty, an unpopular leader) but for some reason, I can't seem to find the great works that it usually spawns. Where is the desperation? Where are the artists with nothing left to lose? I would like to think that I know where to look. None of the older artists are gonna take crazy chances, groundbreaking work usually comes from the young and hungry. Maybe I am looking in the wrong country, everyone (including myself) is pretty darn comfortable around here. This paragraph is starting to sound familiar, I think I have ranted about this before. I'll stop now.
Whew! That was a little heavy. By the way, if you haven't read up on Eugene Debs, you should. But enough about all that. Let's switch gears for a sec.
I have been wanting to do the following for a while:
Dear Ozzy Osbourne,
My name is Roy, and I have been a fan of your music, both with Black Sabbath and solo, for many years now. I have seen you in concert several times, most memorably at the KNAC fifth anniversary show at the Long Beach Arena. I was in section 154, row D, seat 12 and I totally swear that you looked right at me and made the devil horns. Do you remember that? Anyway, your music has helped shape my life and musical tastes, and I consider you one of the best rock and roll singers of all time. By the way, I don't know how you manage to find all those awesome guitarists also, but man, Randy Rhoads totally shredded, as did Tony Iommi, as did that other dude that was on No Rest for the Wicked. What was his name again? Oh yeah, Randy Castillo.
Sorry, I am rambling. I tend to do that when I get nervous. Allow me to get to the point of my letter to you, Ozzy. You have just released a new album called Black Rain, and the general consensus is that it's pretty good. I haven't had the chance to listen to it yet, but I am sure that it is a solid collection of songs from the king of metal. I don't really know how to sugar coat my request so I am just gonna throw it out there. Ozzy? Will you please stop making records? See, you have had a really long career and everything, and I am sorry to be the one to tell you this, but you haven't had a great record since Bark at the Moon. You haven't had a good record since No Rest for the Wicked, and most of the stuff between then and now just really kinda sucks.
I hate to have to be the one to say these things to you, and I am honestly a really big fan of most of your work. But I am taking the tough love approach on this one. Dude, I love you. Please stop. I know you are musician, and you probably don't feel comfortable unless you are creating something. I can totally understand that. I just don't want you to end up putting out more bad albums than good ones. Right now you seem to be at about 65/35 good to bad, so I would say that it's a good time to call it a career.
With love, respect, and admiration,
Roy Starin.
Man, I feel so much better. Can one of you make sure that he gets this letter?
I am always on the lookout for new types of music, and I love it when I find some new subgenre. Let me set the scene for a sec if you don't mind. I do landscape design, with an emphasis on water features like streams, waterfalls, and ponds. That's what I do to pay the bills. What all that fancy talk really means is that I dig holes in peoples gardens, move some boulders around to make it look pretty, fill it with water and surround it with plants and stuff. It's hard physical work. What is weird about my job is not the nature of work, it is the nature of my co-workers. It turns out that we are some over educated mofos that decided to go outside and play in the dirt for a living. One dude has a degree in history, another has one in philosophy, another is working on one in bioengineering. Makes for some interesting ditch digging conversation, let me tell you.
One of the guys is a bass player and a fellow music nerd. I was complaining to him that haven't found any new musical subgenres in a while, and he replied with, "Well, have you ever heard of circuit bending?" Why no, I haven't! Apparently, circuit bending is the art of taking old Casio keyboards, Speak and Spells and the like, cracking them open, and fucking with the guts in order to produce sounds that these toys were not originally intended to produce. Sounds fun, and just the sort of thing I was complaining about not being able to find in the beginning of this column.
So what does circuit bending sound like? Read the last paragraph over again. That's exactly what it sounds like. Pretty interesting stuff, actually, and if you are any sort of fan of experimental music, especially stuff like...hmmm. I can't really compare it to anything that's out there. It's just different. I think my favorite part is that the center of the circuit bending world appears to be the Midwest. People who aren't afraid to take chances are the folks who initiate change. Maybe I should start keeping tabs on what's happening in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Sounds like that might be where some new stuff is going down. By the way, go to getlofi.com if you would like to expose yourself to the circuit bending world. Til next time...
rstarin74@yahoo.com
Roy Starin
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Friday 22nd 2007f June 2007 08:44
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