Music Is Dead

Do you remember when Mtv first aired 'Video Killed the Radio Star' back in 1981? I don't, I mean I was what 3 years old and my whole life revolved around Seseame Street, Mr. Roger's Neighborhood, and where my next meal was going to comefrom... Ahhhh, the good ole' days!(Although I still wonder about the third sometimes) I am sure that it looked, back then, as if music video television would be a lasting trend that brought the sounds of rock and roll to life.
I never even got to watch Mtv as a kid at home, a)my parents wouldn't let me andb)our tv was not able to get the channel in the first place. It was not till I went off to college in 1996 that I finally could watch MTV without the fear that if I got caught than very bad things would happen to my physical well-being...flashbacks...ARGH!

By the time I could freely watch, the golden days(if there ever were any) ofmusic television were already long gone the way of the dinosaur. Nowadays it's hard to even find a music video on music television. And, you have to know exactly what sort of music you want when you want it since MTV has segregated all music types into different hour long shows loosely sparsed between the latest reality shows and other crap.

I mean it is not even worth trying to find the music because most of it is crap or sounds the same. But what happended to the music? After the 80's and all the great music that we had during that decade what happened? I have a theory MTV KILLED IT, yes MTV killed the music. Here is how

THEORY:
MTV chairpeople have made a bet with the president of MTV. The wager: to see if we the viewer would really eat up any cottoncandy crap music the channel played as long they played alot of the videos for the bands in question, and show them on MTV news alot... and at their little music award shows....the answer sadly is YES.

PROOF:
Hanson-
The first lab rats MTV tried on views these year were Hanson. Three cute chicksfrom the south that were given instruments and instructed to get 13 year old girls love sick. Disguised as boys this band was given a bunch of songs by MTV and told to make a video at their house. The result worked. Hanson got all theyoung ladies to stop looking at their Kurt Cobain posters (which they probably had no idea who he was anyway, they just noticed he had nice eyes) and start grooven to the soothing sounds of Mmmmmhhh Booppy mmmmhh boppy.
MTV Chairpeople= 1 Viewer= Nothing

Spice Girls
Five british lady's were given songs by MTV and told to scream something called "girl power". Some of the girls we're kinda short so they were given platform shoes. The Spice Girls we're given little dances to do on stage by MTV and somevideos and slots on MTV's little award shows.....the result........ Spice Girls won over little girls everywhere and convinced them it was alright to be annoying and yell girl power. But in ten years when the spice girls become golden girls.....watch out!
MTV Chairpeople= 2 Viewers= 0

Marilyn Manson
MTV wanted to see if the viewers would give into a total idiot with a wacky eye,who dressed up in nylons and biswick pancake makeup, and had a Metal band andsome songs to sing. He was told to make fun of everything even MTV itself......The result....... actually the viewers (for the most part) weren't this dumb yetand didn't really accept him. Pat yourself on the back for not accepting HermanMunster Manson into your lives...although Vanilla Ice did fool us for awhile!
MTV Chairpeople= 2 Viewers= 1
I could go on but it only gets uglier.

But you know the biggest offender of all...The "Artist" once known as Puff Daddy (Puffy, PDiddy, Puff, H.R.Puffinstuff or whatever he calls himself these days), I mean this guy recycles more crap from the 80's than Greenpeace! I remember when rap was cute I mean you had M.C Hammer, and Rob Base/DJ Easyrock, and even Vanilla Ice.....Yeah! I mean Rap was all a ploy to get white kids to buy Raider's Hats and wear ugly baggy pants so everyone could laugh at them! Then rap got tough and angry with Ice Cube, and Dr. Dre, and Wu-Tang.....well to me it seemed angry....they kept saying something about "Capping Whity".

Now what's with Puff Daddy? Like I said, this guy recycles more crap from the 80's than green peace! C-mon it's one thing to sample a song, but to lift entire songs and just put lyrics over it, and do this to more than 1 song! C-mon!!!Even I can go into a studio and take a Sting song, and put new words toit...what's next!! Imagine what he'll do to "Fields Of Gold!"
And shame on Sting for actually letting Puff Daddy do this to his songs.....is Sting this desperate? He's been on Vh1 alot lately and that's always a bad sign!And don't get me started on Jimmy Page redoing "Kashmir" with Puff for the movie Godzilla(from the 70's I know but the point is still valid).Puff.....leave our precious 80's songs alone. Please don't touch them anymore! Ihope one day I don't have to wake up and hear him butcher Electric Avenue....

Even bands I liked a few years ago have 'Sold Out', an example being the Dave Matthews Band. I remember when they were about the music and being original and different now its the same processed radio processed crap. I haven't bought a CD since 2003 and have only downloaded a few albums of of iTunes, like Ben Fold's. I don't listen to the radio anymore either because I am sick of the same crap that sounds like the last song. Right now I listen to Toad the Wet Sprocket, Lemonheads, Radiohead, and most recently Johnny Cash.

My point and I had one when i Started is...MTV what happened? Back in the 80's"we [could] dance if we want[ed] to" to music television, because Mtv played music. And,even if all we had back then was Men Without Hats dancing "The SafetyDance" through some sort of twisted, Scandinavian ,renaissance festivalnightmare and Michael Jackson cavorting with cadavers in "Thriller", at least we had music videos all the time. Save your REAL WORLD and other crap for someone else.

-c

Insomina

I fear my insomnia is coming back which no surprise since I am feeling more and more depressed as the days go by.

This is due to many reasons I think. First, I haven’t had a teaching job since Tuesday and been hanging around the house trying to entertain myself wishing I was out there making money. The second is the fact that I don’t see that there is anything good on the horizon. While I was in NYC I got my first of three rejection notices for PhD programs (UCONN) and not really expecting any different from the others. Not sure what is happening with the fellowship I think I should find out something by the end of the month and I hate waiting.

It is looking like I am going to have to move back home beginning of May because my friend who I am living with now is moving into a new place with some other friends…I don’t want to move back home there is just nothing there for me in the way of friends or jobs, or anything besides family. Almost 28 years old and while my other friends are out working and/or starting families or whatever I am back at square one and overeducated.

I am slowly but surely putting weight back on although I am not sure why.I hardly eat anything. I physically feel like crap since I haven't been to the gym in many months.

Oh yeah, had to take the car to the dealership because the “check engine” light came on the other day so it is supposed to be fixed by tomorrow, although I bet tomorrow I get a phone call to come and sub…which would be my dumb luck.

There are very few things that are good in my life right now and I am struggling…again.
I would like to think that as we get older we become more able to deal with the things life throws at us, that our skins get tougher and we are able to better deal with things…ME I am just becoming numb and disillusioned to say the least.

Guess I should try again to go to sleep

-c

New York, New York Pt.2

Well...
We got home from NYC on Saturday around 9pm. After getting back into Morgantown I went over to a friends house and fell asleep on the couch. Still very tired since I still been going to bed late and getting up early.

Highlights of the Trip:
Times Square
Statue of Liberty




























Wall Street









Empire State Building










ChinaTown/ Little Italy
Coney Island and Nathans Hot Dogs
Walking the Brooklyn Bridge
Lunch in Central Park
My Whirlwind trip through the Metropolitain Museum
World Trade Center - Ground Zero
Seeing the St. Patricks Day Parade
Radio City Music Hall















Seeing THE PRODUCERS on Broadway

I had a great time but walking everywhere and all the work was killer on my feet















For my reflections on the service side of the trip visit : http://wvunyc2006.blogspot.com/

New York, New York

Greetings from New York City…well actually Brooklyn. This is the third full day we have been here and already we have had some great adventures and some that have just been plain tiring. Saturday we had a 9 hr train ride to Penn Station and then took us another hour so trying to get to the place we are staying. It was supposed to be a straight shot but due to route changes due to construction it was not as easy…then we had to wait outside the church while we waited for the person with the key to let us in…lucky it was nice out and not freezing cold or raining. After stowing our stuff and settling in we headed down to Times Square to grab dinner (NY style Pizza) and take in the sights. While it was an interesting place it was just to many people for me, especially trying to keep track of 23 people (I was the one in the back of the group) and keep them together.

Sunday we went to the Statue of Liberty and Wall Street. It was pretty cool. I would post pictures but I am too lazy and my camera won’t sync up using USB and I don’t have the software to read the cdr w/o finalizing it, but I digress. Sunday we had our orientation on Midnight Run which I will be going with the Thursday night group. Yesterday we worked at the Food Bank distributor for NYC, with a group of students from Iowa we sorted about 15,000 pounds of food in 6 hours. We then went to the Empire State building and watched the sunset and the dusk fall over NYC…INCREDIBLE!

Today we went to a food distribution agency and helped them unload and sort food that they ordered from the Food Bank we worked at yesterday. This evening we are headed to Little Italy and Chinatown. The place we are staying at does not have shower facilities so I have been doing the “sink bath” the past couple of days. This afternoon we had the option of going to a local gym and taking a shower but I decide to save the $10 and take another sink bath.

Overall its been a good trip all around. Riding the Subway’s has been fun but I think I know what a sardine feels like now. Oh and there is a Starbucks across the street which gives me motivation to get out of bed first (so far been the first one up every morning) and get ready to go ahead of everyone else so I can get a jumpstart on the day which I really need

-c

Updates

ARRGHH!!! been so busy with no time to Blog.

Went to Chicago this weekend. Flew out of Pittsburgh of Friday where I got "the business" from the TSA and we are talking the wand and a pat down...if it wasn't for the "No Joking" policy I would have asked the TSA agent if he was like me and craved a smoke.

When I got to Chicago, me and my friend waited for 45 minutes for my bag before we checked with the airline rep to see where my bag was only to find that it had come up on a different belt ...contrary to what the marquee said...fun times...NOT!

Anyway Chicago was fun, almost did not make it back to Morgantown last night due to snow in Chicago, but I finally did. Got home about 1am and to sleep at 2am and then woke up and went to work at 6:45 am to go to work.

I am beat but I just can't comfortable to sleep.

-c

READING LIST UPDATE
Currently Reading:
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Team of Rivals - Doris Kerns Goodwin

Completed:
Baudolino - Umberto Eco (Jan.)
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Jan.)
Gospel According to Tolkien-Ralph Wood (Feb.)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Feb.)
The Physics of Superheros - James Kakalios (Feb.)

To Read:
God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It - Jim Wallis
Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking
The World is Flat - Thomas Freidman
1776 - David McCullough
Superheroes And Philosophy: Truth, Justice, And The Socratic Way - Thomas Morris (*)
* New Addition

Actions Speak Louder Than Words...

So the week of March 11th-18th I am going with a group of college students from WVU IV, Kappa Phi, and some of the guys from the WVU chapter of Sigma Theta Epsilon to New York City on a missions trip. We will be serving the homeless people and in the evenings doing some sightseeing and taking in the culture of NYC. Hopefully I will have internet access so I can post on this and the other blog I created specifically for the group and has information about the trip.

So check it out, especially during the week we are there and hopefully you can follow our experiences.

Actions Speak Louder Than Words

-c