Remember when you could walk into a bookstore and there were just two sections – Fiction and Non-Fiction? Or a record store (assuming you remember what records were and aren’t just being a trendy "vinyl freak" or whatever you Johnny-come-latelys are calling yourselves these days)? There’d be a ton of Rock/Pop and then some Classical, and that’d be it. Rock and Pop included everything from Psychedelic, Punk, Blues, New Wave, and Electronica, to Ska, Bluebeat, Folk, and Country. Nowadays we have "nu-" this and "nu-" that. Nu? Wasn’t that a super-civilization from before Atlantis or something? Don’t tell me; it doesn’t matter.
The world is changing and I guess I just have to cope with that by finding twisted proof of humankind’s ongoing invincibility amid the growing reports of our decline as a mammal species, albeit one highly-accomplished at manipulating its environment. I read somewhere recently that certain regions have acid rain that is capable of melting plastic – some of which is so unusually structured that age-old bacterial enzymes are incapable of breaking it down. One of the big beefs the eco-toxic folks have is that plastics persist for too long in the environment. Could we maybe store this acid rain, purify the acid from it, and use it to break down the non-biodegradable plastics? Will our own environmental insults actually end up being the solution to our own environmental insults? You see how brilliant we are as a species?
Are we already doing the same with other things? What about the garbage currently masquerading as music, for instance, and its relationship to the Wrinkly Rock Reunions of late? There are bands and musicians out there so God-awfully crappy that our brains are no longer capable of processing it as music. Kinda like the plastic those bacteria are struggling to dispose of. And that’s what they are, these college-angst-despite-an-incredibly-boring-life-devoid-of-real-feelings-and/or-drama-or-passion-or-anything-$%#%$&*-else-worth-mentioning. They’re plastic. KnowhatImean? Are we using the ageing rock band reunions as a form of salve against this excrement? Do we actually need that old rock ‘n’ roll as an antidote to the poisons the likes of Daughtry and Guster are inflicting upon us, in the hope these young shysters will listen ‘n’ learn? I can well visualize the sound-waves from a good Yes or Clapton set hitting the hammer, anvils, and stirrups of some young ignoramus, being metabolized aurally, knocking his uncultured brain-proteins for a loop, and suddenly – Eureka! When I see kids of college age, proudly bearing Trane bumper stickers on their cars, I am truly confounded. How these hip young things can dare to wear tie-dyed shirts, dreadlocks, and sandals, while openly proclaiming their admiration of such guff is truly mortifying. Christ, I thought marijuana these days is supposed to be stronger than it used to be?!? What is the world coming to? These kids need to get the hell off drugs and into Jesus if that’s what the new-fangled high-grade chemically-infused rocket-fuel is doin’ to ‘em! Seriously…Daughtry?
Speaking of Our Lord, have you read lately about how credit-lovin' Bobos, Yuppies, Yippies, Dinks and Nimby’s are adding to the garbage mountain by insisting on buying trendy new Christmas decorations every year, rather than reusing the family faves from out the loft like normal people do? Plastic baubles, polyvinyl trees, plastic tinsel, you name it they use it. And all while driving their hybrid SUVs, recycling their Pottery Barn junk mail, and using George Bush as a scapegoat for our poisoned soils and groundwater. I bet they listen to Daughtry on their hybrid sound systems, too. All that plastic and so little acid rain. It’s sad.
