Picture This

Harkening back to the 1970's I swiped this title from one of my favorite bands, BLONDIE. They came out of New York and put out a bunch of really FUN albums. Once they moved itno the 1980's they became commercially successful and the music became less spontaneous. But that's not the point of this topic, it's the subject of pictures. There are all kinds ofg expressions, like a picture being worth a thousand words, or a Kodak memory is lasting, well this scandal probably isn't, so I'd better get it written right now!...

Miley Cyrus. That for those who are living in a vacuum, is the real name of the Disney Channel's teen sensation, Hannah Montana ( no relation to football legend Joe). Miley or is it spelled Mylie(?) appeared in the June issue of Vanity Fair in some revelaing photos taken by the acclaimed shutterbug, Annie Leibovitz. Hanna/Miley appeared on the cover with a bed sheet clutched to her chest, her hair covering her back and the photo is taken from an angle where the most skin you see is on her shoulders and uncovered side. Back in the vacuous '80's her father, Billy Ray Cyrus had a Country/Western hit with " Achey Breaky Heart". She is now fifteen years old and had a sold out tour in 2007. The tickets went for exhorbitant prices and parents were going bugnuts trying to get tickets for their young darlings to see this manufactured pop sensation.

I imagine the uproar is about a fifteen year old looking like a vampish tart on the cover of a national magazine. I personally think it's a fart in a hurricane. Who cares? You can find teen porn plastered across the inernet, so why would I care if a fifteen year old poses minus her pajamas with only a bedsheet covering her goodies? The same kind of ado quickly came and went when a fourteen year old model named Brooke Shields played a preteen hooker in a movie called "Pretty Baby". The uproar was over faster than a sneeze, and Brooke wasn't suddenly thrust into a world of vice and sin. Teens are resilient creatures, and we all do stupid things in our lives, so Miley did hers, it's out of the way, now just let it go! The really audacious thing is that on the inside of the magazine is a picture of Miley and her father in a pose that is truly creepy! They're positioned ion a way that looks like a child molester and his victim more than a father and his daughter. According to Leibovitz, they were shown all of the pcitures before they went to press, so they had the option of nixing any that they objected to. The fact that they let the photos go is a reflection on the Cyrus family's decision making abilities, more than Vanity Fair exploiting a teenager. Miley's been around, so I'm sure that she's a bit world-wiser than the average fifteen year old girl. I think she's literate and is aware of how Britney Spears downward spiraled into rehab clinics and trashy press coverage. Of course the media is like a fireman dumping 98 octane on a six alarm blaze, feeding the frenzy rather than pointing out that people all do stupid things at one time or another, and this was her Blunder Du Jour. So let's forget about Miley and concentrate on how candidates can spend hundreds of millions of dollars just campaigning to be the runner for the Presidential post, and what that money could do if it was spent on environmental or health issues. I'll worry about Miley when she poses for Playboy, ( if my subscription is still valid )

Planet Earth

Going back to my radio heyday, I borrowed this title from Duran Duran. Double Ds are a band that recently reformed for the typical reunion tour. Although thye won't be making the rock and Roll Hall Of Fame, I kind of liked Duran Duran. They produced some good dance music in a time when dance music was sneered upon. Disco was the basic form of mindless beat that was used for dancing in the late seventies to mid eighties. Although it was less mindless than disco, new wave dance music was still pretty low on the totem pole of danceable rock. But nobody cares about that in the late Two Thousands. I borrowed this title because of Earth Day.


Earth day started in April of the late seventies. I always believed that Earth Day was April Seventeenth, but it fell on April twenty fifth this year, so either my memory is failing or somebody else's is. In any case as human beings we are rapidly developing junk that is polluting ourselves out of existence. Plastics, which are oil based can only be recycled so many times before they break down to unuasble levels. Whereas glass and aluminum can be recycled eternally and they don't become any less viable as materials with each reuse. Unfortunately our representatives in the grand forum of politics don't seem to find this to be an important issue. Litter is everywhere, but legistlation to fight it is nowhere. Electronic gizmos with limited lifespans are also increasing in popularity and use, but when these things reach the end of their lives they end up in landfills or our sewer ssytems. The silicon chips can be resued in all types of other electronic circuitry yet reusing them has gotten very little notice in the media. Here are some pleces that specialize in the recycling or reuse of electronic refuse...Myboneyard.com
eBayEZtradein.com
Freecycle.org
Earth911.com

are all places that spcecialize in reusing our garbage for worthwhile purposes. Yet they will remain virtually unknown because the powerbrokers to make them household names are too busy acting like morons to focus on telling the world about a better way to use our leftovers.

Back in the early 70s, I saw a news report about how batteries have potent pollutants, adding acids, toxic heavy metals and other potential pollutants to our air and water, we were told to recycle our used batteries, but to do so was a logistical nightmare. If it is made an easy step, I think people will try to follow the lead they are given, but if just left up to to us, it is unlikely to happen. I recall this specail saying that we should put our batteries in a glass jar and mail them becak to the manufacturer. Did this reporter have any idea how much this would cost? I had a Toshiba telelvision, it came with a Toshiba remote equipped with Toshiba batteries. How long do uyou think it would be, before I filled a glass container with Toshiba betteries? They aren't on the store shelves the way Duracell, RayO Vac, and NeverReady batteries are. Why isn't it easy to recycle batteries? Because it would cost the battery manufacturers money to make it easy. In the end it would save them countless dollars and cents, but the initial lay-out of funds would be sizable, so we won't see it untill it becomes mandatory. And our political candadates won't make it mandatory becuse they're all wimps, and they don't want to lose the votes of those battery company employees. So we all will pay for it in the end. Funny, I don't recall seeing any battery connections in my asshole.

Politician

Ahhhhh yessss, going back to the fabulous sixties for this title. "Politician " was a tune by the famed supergroup trio, Cream. What most people don't realize is that Jack Bruce did most of the vocals, NOT Eric Clapton! In my opinion, he's one of my favorite bass players in all of rock, plus one hell of a vocalist too. But that's not what I'm writing about. I'm writing about the era of that song. The age when psychedelic rock was all over the radio, protest in the air due to the increasing military involvement in a place called Viet Nam, and youth seemed to be a dominant force in everything that was seen and done in those days. I was a freshman in high school in 1969, the year that Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, and this little outdoor rock concert in a small place in upstate New York called Woodstock were dominant stories in the news. Of course there was a whole lot other than that going on, but we have selective memories. We tend to overlook the less pleasant moments in our biographies, and dwell on the memories that grow in scope and scale as we age. In my opinion, youth have always been interested in the political process of the United States, but when riots are breaking out across our great nation, things get hyped more than they really are. I think that was the case in the late sixties, but not by much. There was a buzz in the air, protest songs were what suddenly was being played on the radio and reaction to what was going on in Southeast Asia was more important to young people than it was in the following years.

My mother was what many would describe as a "bleeding heart liberal". But she wasn't as liberal as my friends who had "cool" parents. In her mind, there was no need to try drugs, no need to get drunk, no excuse for wild parties, there were laws and they were in place for a reason and it was a citizen's duty to follow those laws, like 'em or not. My mother also disliked change, and was not very adaptable to new technology or changing standards. The way things were done in her youth was the way they should stay. I remember asking her why she never used her sideview mirrors when she drove, substituting that for a rapid back and forth head swivel that made me nervous to sit in the car with her. Her answer to that question was, " They didn't have them when I learned to drive". My response was,

" But the car has them, it's not like you have to go out and buy some, so why not use anything that will make life easier?"

Her response was, to remain silent and ignore the question. Old habits are hard to break. One Election Day she called me up early in the morning and began spouting off about some candidate she was particularly impressed with and urged me to go out and cast my vote for this hopeful. Resentful at being told who to vote for I said I had no intention of wasting my time going out in the rain to vote for anyone other than a President, knowing full well that it would piss her off to an extreme degree. Upon hearing that reply, she resorted to extortion. " Don't ever call me up and ask me for help if your car breaks down, if you don't vote...." I interrupted her to explain that I had already voted and I resented her telling me who to vote for, simply because it was a candidate that SHE liked. That shut her up and she apologized for telling me WHO to vote for but expressed interest that I did vote. It was an important issue. During the police action in Viet Nam, people not old enough to vote were being drafted and killed in the conflict, so fighting for that right was a big issue in my day.

I'm also glad to see that youth are playing an important role in the upcoming election, although I'm less impressed with the candidates. I actually like John McCain because of what he endured in the Viet Nam war, he seems less impulsive than our second Bush, who has gotten us into a HUGE mess in Iraq, which had absolutely nothing to do with the attack on September 11th 2001, but now he has created a breeding ground for Al Qaida to thrive in. Not to mention, Osama Bin Laden is still runnning around untethered. If we had spent the amount of money looking for that goon, as we have on the conflict in Iraq, he'd be dead or captured by now, but Iraq has become a quagmire that we cannot get out of gracefully and without creating more enemies than we had before our involvement there. I'm a vehement anti-theist, and I dislike McCain's religious ideas however, despite them being much less intense than some of the other Republican candidates had. I supported Hilary Clinton when she ran for Senator of New York, simply because she's a woman and I like to see things turned upside down. Halfway through her second term at that position, I cannot think of a single things that she's done other than campaigning. Whereas I am completely impressed with Senator Chuck Schumer, and he's frequently in the news because he actually does things.

I have no firm feelings about Barack Obama. I don't dislike him, but on the other hand, I can't say that I like him either. I have no feelings positive or negative for either Democratic candidate. They strike me like a couple of schoolyard rivals taunting each other, but actually lacking the guts to call each other out to the bike rack after school. I keep expecting to hear one of them make the accusation, " I'm rubber you're glue, it bounces off me and sticks to you!" When the other makes any statements that are less than flattering. " I know you are, but what am I?" probably will be the official response to what the first has to say. Afterwards a speed round of " Afraid Not!", " Afraid So!" will ensue until the host declares the debate over. These are the youth of my era now in position to become the leaders of the free world, and this is what campaigning has boiled down to.

I think I'll get out my headphones and listen to what Jack Bruce, Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker have to say, it's more entertaining and a whole lot better sounding than Hilary's story about landing under sniper fire in Bosnia.

P.S. I hate the fact that this blog forum doesn't allow indentation when starting a new papragraph. What the fuck is the deal with that???

P.P.S I'm adding this afterthought in February of 2009...after the presidential campaign got to the nitty gritty, I did 180 degree rotation. Barak Obama ran a skillful and erudite campaign, I ended up voting for him because McCain ran a sloppy bid for the P.O.T.U.S ad made a seious blunder in his choice for Veep. Our new President is a much more eloquent speaker than Mr Bush and has hit the ground running in his efforts to clean up the economy. He's inherited a big mess and will be spending the honeymoon period of his term just trying to dig us out of the cesspool he chose to jump into. My hat goes off to him, I admire the gusto which he's taken in his new job!

Make A Circuit With Me

The Polecats are hardly a household name in the Rock and Roll archives, but they had a semi-hit with a song by that title in the mid 1980's. It essentially ran down a bunch of terms of semi-conductors and then had the chorus, "Make A Circuit With Me". This was the best I could come up with in my title management, and it's a song that i like so it will have to do. Naturally, I'm not really interested in the Polecats or their one hit semi-wonder, I'm writing about how we've become a "Disposable Society". Environmental issues have long been a sore spot for me. I'm not a tree-hugger or one of those fanatics that throw paint on people who wear fur coats, I'm directing my anger at our administrators for being so lax in making it easy for the citizens to to recycle our resources. I believe that many more would do so, if it weren't such an effort. Our daily lives are bombarded with electronic devices, gizmos and gadgets. I bet you can't recall the last time you were in an environment where there were no cell phones, PDAs, laptops, Ipods, MP3 players, walkmen, battery operated watches, or any other forms of conveniences that require batteries. I can't. These things all fail at one point in time or another, and they're often more expensive to repair than replace. So our trash system is filling up with all types of eco-hazzards that we're ignorant about. I recently saw a story on some news program about a guy who was down-and-out, he lost his abode and like so many others, began living on the streets. He was mazed at how many old computers and other electronic paraphenalia he came across while dumpster diving. He saw that the circuit boards had gold on them, and he began saving them and cashing them in to sell the semi-precious metals. At one of the places where he sold the goods, they informed him, that the Integrated Circuit Chips were actually more valuable than the gold, silver and beryllium on the circuit boards. He started a business salvaging used electronica, and in the stereotypical "rags to riches" story, he's now a very successful businessman. Here on Long Island, I have seen zero places that do the same thing as this innovator did, asnd I keep asking myself, "Why?".
There's obviously money to be made in it. It's good for the environment, and good for the economy so what are we doing sitting on our fat, lazy asses throwing these treasures into dumpsters for? I would love to see my old stuff going to a better use than just taking up space in a landfill! I lack the knowledge to differentiate what can be salvaged and what can't but it can't be all that tough. Why don't municipalities make it easy for all of us to do the right thing? Why does everything have to reach critical mass before it makes headlines? Why do we all have to wait until somebody else does it first? I always thought it was cool to be the first, to be the innovator not the imitator, to be the leader and not the follower. Yet our trash cans runneth over.
Let's complete the circuit and get as much of this stuff out of our waste system and put it to good use. Then we can revel in the fond memories of that song by The Polecats!

Hell Hole

This title I swiped from "The World's Stupidest Heavy Metal Band" Spinal Tap. I recently had to vacate the apartment I lived in for twenty some odd years and moved in with my father. He grew up on a farm and what other people thought of the appearance of your proerty, was inconsequential. Unfortunately, living in suburban Long Island, that is NOT the case. He's become obsesssive about keeping things. He has a garage, a basement an attic and rooms filled with crap-ola that he'll never use, but he refuses to dispose of. A carpenter by trade, he always comments on television programs that feature tradesmen working in shops or garages that are efficiently organized, expressing his skepticism over wheather or not any "real work" gets done there because of the clean nature. I happened to mention that I' ve worked in shops that were neat and organized, and yes, the did get messy, but at the end of each day, we had to clean up and actually throw out the stuff that doesn't get used. He'd reply with a snort.
I find myself in a true to life hell, I'm something of a pack rat myself, but I can face the obvious and will toss things out when I get buried under and need space to work. I had hoped to get a job or start a business airbrushing. That image has long since faded and I seriously doubt that I'll be able to pursue my dream simply because I have no place to do it. He cannot throw away a box, the garage is full of semi-damp cardboard containers. He's got a wood-burning fireplace, so any branches, limbs, twigs or scrap pieces of wood are all saved, even though he only makes fires on rare occassions. He began saving styrofoam packing material because he noticed how hot a cup of coffe is and yet when in a styrofoam cup it can be comfortably held with a bare hand, so he plans on insulating the house with it. Forget the fact that this is strictly against fire codes and would turn the house into a funeral pyre in seconds if it somehow ignited, which judging from the substandard wiring is a very real possibility.
The section of the house where I have my kitchen is filled with boxes of stuff that I have no place to put, there's an air conditioner from the 1960s sitting on the floor, a fish tank with no fish in it on the counter. I'd like to unpack my belongings and find places for them, but I'm facing a tough job, because he hasn't moved a finger to make space for me to put my possessions. I had to throw away my bed, several chests of drawers and workbenches because he won't stop collecting firewood for the fireplace that gets used four or five times a year. He seemed annoyed at me that I threw thigns away. The old bumper sticker, "He who dies with the most toys, wins" seems to hold true for him, but he doesn't have toys, he just has junk, trash, garbage, and things which take up space and collect dust. I said that I'd like to do some serious cooking in my kitchen once I get some space. He perked up and pointed out that I'd managed to empty three or four boxes of stuff. I said that was aonly a fraction of the mountain, and I had no place to put the rest. His reply was, " Well find someplace". This made it clear that he had no plans to assist in this endeavor by actually tossing out any of his goodies. So I find myself halfway through my first month of living in a Hell Hole, with only remote prospects for jobs and no assistance as to where I can easily store and access my belongings while living with the King Kong of packrats. I have seen the future and it isn't bright, shiny or easy to maneuver around in. Somebody shoot me...please!

Hot Rod Lincoln

This song was a big hit for Commander Cody and The Lost Planet Airmen when I was in high school, back in the early 1970's. I grew up living across the street from a guy who's father was a cartoonist for the local Long Island paper, Newsday. He was a hot rodder, and it was always cool to see T-bucket roadsters, and bubble top Impalas in his driveway. This guy was also a pinstriper, an art that I truely didn't appreciate until late in my life. Now I wish that I had befriended him when I had a chance, who knows what I might have learned. He later opened up a speed shop called,
" Northeast Performance", it didn't last long and he soon fell back on his pinstriping skills to make his living. I was always into airbrushed customs, for one, because I picked it up relatively easily, whereas pinstriping takes practice, and I was too itchy to do that.

I recently left my job in hopes of making my living airbrushing full time. My timing couldn't have been worse, I broke my ankle and while laid-up, was unable to practice, or do much else for that matter. By the time I was mobile again, I had exhausted my suppply of cash on medical bills and was stranded with the inability to get around and try to find a gig doing custom-paint work. Car freaks are everywhere and Long Island is no exception, but the messy winters and salty air play havoc on car bodies, so those who have show-quality machines keep them garaged during the winter. The economic news hasn't been rosy either, so people of moderate incomes can't spend money on frills when the mortgage is overdue, and rich people go to established places to get custom work done, not some start-up who has no reputation or resume to fall back on.

Cars have evolved to the point where many of them look like gum drops that have sat on the rear deck of the car in the sun while parked at the beach in summer. They don't have the lines that accent their shapes. Two tone paint jobs, no matter how well executed they are, add little flair to their amorphous lines. Front wheel drive and transverse mounted engines make hot rodding more difficult and the skyrocketing gas prices make it even less appealing. Hot Rods are on the endangered species list.

Not that it will ever die off, because young people and car-freaks will always look for ways to modify their vehicles. If they can't soup-up the engines, they'll trick-out the paint jobs, the body shapes or the interiors. Anything to individualize what they choose to drive. A car says a lot about its' owner, and todays cars are saying that we are a boring, unimaginative group. Let's prove them wrong!

Lie To Me

I copped this title from a blues guitarist named Johnny Lang. He was sixten years old when he had his first major CD release, and has several releases since then. Despite his age, he has a worldliness that surpasses his years, so he sounds like a Mississippi Delta, struggling, working stiff rather than a midwestern kid. But that's not what I'm writing about, as usual I'm writing about...me.
I am currently out of work, I am not inept, lazy or difficult to get along with, yet I've been experiencing a tough time getting back into the working world. I've always been fascinated by cars, custom cars especially. I'm NOT a whiz of a mechanic, or a hotshot at body work, my forte is modifying cars to stand apart from the crowd, rather than just blending into it. Long Island, New York is hardly the center of the custom vehicle industry, so I am limited as to the number of places where I can attempt to make a living altering vehicles, and yet when I do find places where I think I could make a noticeable impact on what is done there, they seem rather closed to my attempts to work with them.
I have a friend, who is a Type A personality to an extreme degree. When I've mentioned my lack of success getting jobs in the custom industry, his advice is always the same...LIE!
The problem with that is, once people figure oput that you fudged the truth, they think everything you do is bogus or bluster. I have no problem exaggerating my experience, but I'm not going to come straight out and say that I'm adept at doing something that I've never tried before, because those who are experienced will notice it right away and trying to explain the lack of sincerity with previous statements become an anchor around your neck.
I know lots of people who are chronic bullshitters. Most of what they spout out is far beyond believeablity, so they aren't fooling or impressing anyone. Instead they are inviting people to talk about them behind their backs and the way they play with the truth. Most of their stories make Hollywood dramas appear tame by comparison. I have no interest in having that sort of label dropped into my skinny lap. The same friend that urges my modifying the truth with job applications also suggests the same thing when attempting to woo women. For the same reason, I tend to shy away from that tact. It's one thing for a one-night-stand, but for a lasting relationship, any falsehoods will tend to pile up and it then gets difficult to sort out what I've told to whom, and keeping those stories straight will become a burden that builds up over time, eventually the dam will break and I'll look like an even bigger loser than if I just admitted ignorance.
So, for the sake of sanity and keping my image intact, I am saying that lying is something that we all have done at one time or another, and it's part of human nature. But THINK about what lies you tell before you open your big mouth. It will save you a ton of embarrassment in the future.