Rulers of the World

Hi everybody.

This is Mike. I'm here, I believe, to fill in the spaces around the edges of the blog. I don't plan to write any massive screeds, but I'll say what comes to mind. Hey, well, you're welcome!

First, the bits I am actually qualified to talk about: Ben Flash and objects of pop culture.

Ben, you know you're always a-okay in my book. But can you really. REALLY. really promise to suddenly have A BETTER FILTER? Have you changed this much since I've seen you, or is Ben Flash just saying some sayings? Hah? Haaa, I'm messin'!

Hey, you know what's an amazing song? "Float On," by Modest Mouse. In 2003 I somehow found a video of them playing it live on a Canadian TV show that started with a Z. I posted the link on my AOL Instant Messenger profile (For the kids: think of this as Facebook v. 0.0) with the caption: "Modest Mouse plays a U2 riff and changes my stupid life." And then, what happened, well, you told a bunch of your friends, and I told a bunch of my friends, and weirdly enough, everybody really liked this song sung by a dude with a squawky scream and a terrible lisp.

Now, when a person experiences a piece of music or art, I do believe that the music or art is fundamentally changed because of that person's relationship with it. And that seems to be what you're so upset about here, that this great song has been polluted somehow by all these people (well...your friends, anyway...the fact that you were so bummed to hear from your friends with whom you talk music is a conversation for another day) who made this great song into an embarrassing song by liking it. Wait, but really? So when Modest Mouse made 100,000 people really happy (Lonesome Crowded West sold this much) it was all coolzz, but now that Modest Mouse has gotten to 20 times more people, it's bad music? We can't talk anymore about the first time we heard it and how blown away we were? Not to mention: YOU WERE TELLING PEOPLE THIS SONG WAS GOING TO BLOW AND IT DID!! You were right! Why are you feeling so much shame about this band you like, and this song you like, and correctly predicting a pop culture phenomenon?

I think the dog video is the exact same thing. We can feel a little bummed that the secret's out, but we're still just talking about an appropriate number of people getting into a really cool thing. I don't think this is something to feel ashamed over. It's still great.

Know what else was astonishingly great? The 2009 Grammy Awards. Holy god, it was an amazing show. AND it was on network television.

God, it's really easy to write a lot on this blog you have. And I'm not even done.

CZ:
Gramsci's point from your post actually came to me walking through Philadelphia last summer (it was cool, seeing it written out on the Internet with words outside my vocabulary - thx!). There are millions of Americans who will aggressively fight to defend the right of their bosses to take advantage of them and their neighbors and families. People with tons of money have used their resources to shape the opinions of poor people to make sure that a giant chunk of the U.S. population will look out for them and protect their every right to do whatever is necessary to make the most money possible. So the poor, in the name of patriotism and freedom, are looking out for the rich. And the rich are looking out for...the rich. My first question for someone sticking to a set of nonsensical ideals would be..."who is looking out for you, anyway?"

Meet the person where he is. At this stage in our ridiculous economic situation, this will be easier than at any point thus far in our lifetimes.

My god, look what I just wrote; a massive screed. Count me in, boys!
Michael