January, 2013 |

Yeah, that episode is on right now. I didn’t grow up in a period where Spongebob Squarepants was relevant to my personal development, but when I see the occasional episode nowadays, all I can do is wonder where the cranky morons who gave me and my peers a problem about Beavis and Butthead and Ren n Stimpy are.

What gets up my craw is really our continual quest to find the actual trigger to the end of western culture. Each generation has its liberals and conservatives, and I’m sorry, but the conservatives are almost ALWAYS wrong. Look at how jazz music, rock n roll, peace n love, punk rock, heavy metal, disco were received and then look at the actual implications of their existence. Then grow up and quit whining.

I’m more into finding proof that we’re evolving into a better world. Signs that we’re moving ever forward into a humanity that’s worth being part of. I’m not going to find the answer to that question in Spongebob, you’re not gonna find it in Gwar, and neither one of us (hopefully) will find it in a Ziggy comic. There’s a possibility that we might find it in some of Mel Blanc’s work on the Jack Benny show, though. Radio, not TV of course. Television is the work of the devil, after all.

Sometime, Imma haveta tell you about pop music, but I’ll wait until I’m back on my mac for that rant. Suffice it to say, “if you dislike something that much, (unless it’s actually depriving anyone of rights or property) you’re probably wrong.

Take a chill pill, you guys.

Saw a Billy Collins’ TED talk which was so good I had to watch it again. It includes this poem:

Some days I put the people in their places at the table,
bend their legs at the knees,
if they come with that feature,
and fix them into the tiny wooden chairs.

All afternoon they face one another,
the man in the brown suit,
the woman in the blue dress,
perfectly motionless, perfectly behaved.

But other days, I am the one
who is lifted up by the ribs,
then lowered into the dining room of a dollhouse
to sit with the others at the long table.

Very funny,
but how would you like it
if you never knew from one day to the next
if you were going to spend it

striding around like a vivid god,
your shoulders in the clouds,
or sitting down there amidst the wallpaper,
staring straight ahead with your little plastic face?

Man, this speaks to all of us somehow I think. To me, as a writer, performer, frontman, sideman or punching bag… To you at your job, whatever it is. We got good days and bad. Sometimes we feel like we’re in control, and sometimes we can’t seem to get a handle on a single goddamned thing. I think ultimately, what matters is how we handle the adverse that teaches us the most about our character. As I write, I’m more or less trapped in my bedroom working out how exactly I’m going to be productive from here. Not unhappy, not super glad, but I’m at peace with the moment. Some Days, I’d be freaking out about whatever it was I couldn’t do today, but I’d rather ponder the possibilities.

Struggle through another day, everybody.

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