We live in an age of disruption. Both in technology & politics. The exploitation and corruption rival the Gilded Age. Tech giants and startups alike make end runs around hard-fought labor rights and democracy. Political opportunists go all in on accommodating them. Meanwhile, we are told that disruption is not only an economic necessity, but […]
Small Penis – a Feminist Take
Feminism – for want of a better term – has been a liberating force for women and for men. What started with challenging received notions about femininity and women’s roles, has blossomed into a framework for human liberation. First, rape jokes were questioned, then, prison rape jokes. First, female circumcision was opposed, then, male circumcision. […]
The Invisible Hand is Broken
[Scroll down to view video] Adam Smith’s law of competition is supposed to create an optimal economy of consumers and producers. When a better product appears on the market, the consumer rewards the producer with his or her custom. This spurs the producer’s competitor to create an even better product, etc. ensuring a cycle of […]
Millennium Glitch
[Scroll down to view video] In 1999, the year 2000 was going to be the end of the world. Because of the Y2K bug, our computer-dependent civilization would fall into chaos come New Year’s Day. “Two thousand zero zero/Party over/Oops, out of time.” But Y2K was not a bug; it was a failure of imagination. […]
Conspiracy Theories are the False Flags
[Scroll down to view video] In 1969, as an 11-year old Beatles fan, I learned that Paul was dead. The devastating evidence in the clues laced into songs and album art was irrefutable. My only nagging doubt was how they’d found someone who looked, sounded and wrote songs exactly like Paul McCartney. Since then, the […]
Notes Toward a Manifesto on Genre Diversity
Recently at a music conference “radio panel” I found myself apologizing for the number of genres I use on my new album (country, power pop, electro pop, bluegrass, jazz, world music; with lyrics comic, political, psychological, philosophical). Until I realized there was nothing to apologize for. For me, genre diversity is not an accident, it’s […]
The Presumptuousness of the Singer-Songwriter
Anyone who has gotten up to sing an original song in front of a crowd walks a tightrope between the twin poles of humiliating rejection and triumphant embrace. Regardless of what she is singing about, the singer-songwriter trades in intimacy. She makes herself vulnerable, exposes herself by the very act of raising her voice to […]
Music Wants to Be Free, Musicians Want to Be Paid
Musician Bemoans Death of the Music Business It all sounded very appealing thirty years ago when a Bay Area programmer first explained to me the concept of the entire catalog of recorded music being accessible from a home computer. I wanted that. But between ’84 and when it actually came to pass, I made a […]
Old Fart Syndrome and The Kids These Days
Being of a certain age – I’m 55 – and a music guy, I naturally share some of the perspectives of my late boomer cohort. Newer, we’ve learned, is not always better. We’ve experienced the depth of analog recording, we remember the visual richness of Super 8, we’ve watched Antonioni without a fast-forward button and […]
Wake Up from the American Dream
When did the “dream” become a metaphor for ambition? When did dreaming become an entitlement to success for aspiring American Idols? The one thing besides “hard work” necessary for achieving fame and fortune, as we are frequently assured by celebrities? Once upon a time, a dream was in the realm of the imagination, a fancy, […]
