that's it...i've had it...i've been pushed to my limit of pop music disgust, and i'm about to do some serious ragging, so fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy blog!

"baby if you give it to me, i'll give it to you, i know what you want, you know i got it..." cooed in breathy desperation for a hit by none other than the possessor of one of the greatest vocal treasures in pop history, miss mariah carey, who could marry those beautiful vocal cords to any number of worthwhile songs, yet resorts to the ashanti school of minimum talent, maximum paycheck recording. sorry suckers, i'm a bit miffed by this. in a recent interview with jay-z and 50-cent, they talked about how we've got to just face it, the world wants sex, drugs, and violence in their songs, so it's about supplying the seedy demand for trash. sorry suckers, i'm a bit miffed by this. i challenge you to listen to casey kasem or rick dees sometime and check out the pitiful excuses for art that we are being fed for the sake of you know what...ka-ching! where are the artists who are truly aspiring to the utmost levels of creativity to uplift the human spirit? where are the revolutionaries who seek to rise above the smog of the recording industry landscape?

i love music. i love the arts. i love the power they contain to impact our worlds and the big world for greatness and positivity and healing and fun and truth and peace. to be blunt, i am seeing the prostitution of beautiful raw creativity day after psychic-debris-filled day. i despise hearing astonishing...excuse me but that busta/mariah song just came on as i'm typing this...how poetic is that? that's like the dark spirits trying to spit in my face and distract me from typing the truth. well it ain't gonna work, babies. now as i was saying, i DESPISE hearing astonishing God-given talent like Christina Aguilera and many others, uniting the power of their phenomenal instruments with the equivalent of artistic pigslop.

i'm going over to a little eastside park to teach some kids about music tomorrow. what a challenge to meet them where they are at...singing their juvenile praises of pigslop...to take them where they need to be...at a better place of greater artistic fulfillment, at least for one moment in time. we will play games, laugh--i hope, act crazy, and ultimately give our attention to a different kind of artistic approach, that rises above the "casting pearls before swine" syndrome.

now my girl beyonce is on. lest you think i dis all da pop out dere, let me tell you that one of my new faves is miss beyonce, a huge talent, who always seems glamorous rather than gaudy, stable rather than sleazy, and just exuding a joy and inner glow through her performances. and she is really aspiring to be a whole and complete talent, exploring different artistic styles and mediums, as well as composing and producing. that's a strategy i can get behind 100%.

believe me, i have so-o-o-o much more to say on this subject, but for now i will end with one last anecdote. i went to an inner city park last night and did a little concert. as i was chatting up the kids, attempting to interact with them and connect with their culture, we talked about songs they liked. they even wanted to come to the microphone and be stars themselves for a moment. so i said fine, as long as you can choose a song that has lyrics that i will like...meaning non-profane, non-obscene, non-gangsta, non-thug, non-bump and grind. guess what...none of us could even think of any that would pass my test, so none of them got to come up to the mike. if that doesn't strike you as at least a little bit sad, then i'd like to congratulate you on receiving my "numb and dumb" award. please slap yourself, pour water over your head, anything to wake up and realize how foolishly we're squandering and surrendering the awesome forces of art, and watching our children turn into foulmouthed porn-flick supporters right before our eyes. no i am unfortunately not exaggerating. that is what we're seeing right now, and i'm sick of it. let the record show, i am devoting my life to the utter annihilation of crap that was supposed to be creativity. it grieves me to the core of my being every time i smell the repulsive stench of compromise in music and all of the arts. so i guess if i decide to stay in this whacked-out world, i'm going to have to be a force for the complete elimination of this vomitous compromise. stay tuned...there's plenty more where this came from. sorry fence-sitters and apathetic non-wavemakers, i can no longer be silent about such critically important matters. go ahead and rationalize if that makes you feel better, but when you find yourself immersed in a vat of rancid artistic jelly, don't come running to me. i'll be safely ensconced on my mountaintop of idealism, tossing down postcards to the masses below that say, "having a WONDERFUL time--wish you were here, BUT YOU HAD YOUR CHANCE, AND YES, I DEFINITELY TOLD YOU SO!"