This time I'm not agreeing with Jerry Falwell, I'm defending Dick Cheney. I should admit I've always had a soft spot for the guy's personality (not his policies). Besides I heard that in his high school yearbook it says that he was voted as the murderous cyborg most likely to become a teddy bear (although probably a grumpy one).
There has been a bit of talk lately about Dick Cheney's attire at the Auschwitz ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the deat camp's rescue (if you can call it that). Robin Givhan wrote an article about the "wardrobe malfunction" in the Washington Post. Givhan points out that Cheney was dressed as if he were about to "operate a snow blower." Well, first of all. Maybe he did! For all we know he decided to help out with the grunt work beforehand. If things took a little longer than expected he may not have had time to change clothes.
But seriously here's my theory. Cheney went ahead with inauguration ceremonies on January 20th as planned and wore standard formal attire. He caught a bit of a sniffle afterwards and the doctors that make sure he's still breathing everyday gave him a dressing down.
"Mr. Vice President I don't ever want to see you out in weather like that in formal wear again. It could kill you! In fact, I'm not sure you're really alive now!"
"But, doctor. I have to attend a memorial to the Holocaust in Poland in a few days. I can't dress like an Eskimo. Next thing you'll be telling me I can't kiss my wife. We'll have to rub noses."
"Oh no, no kissing or rubbing noses for you! Your heart just can't take it. Either dress warmly or I'll have to tell the President that you are not fit to travel."
"Well. It's not like I'm the head of state. They're not going to put me right up front or anything..."
So that's how I think it happened. I really don't think Cheney was being disrespectful of the loss of life and other suffering that occurred at Auschwitz.
You know, I'm beginning to panic over the state of society in the U.S. I am at a deli/coffee shop in the Pittsburgh, PA USA area. This establishment has free wi-fi access, which is good. Sonic Wall content filtering service is in use, this is very bad. A couple of weeks ago I was having trouble researching strings for my guitar and my viola because any page that had "g string" in it was filtered out (Okay, I'll admit that once I figured it out I had a good laugh over that one). I also noticed that the popular blog Talking Points Memo was being blocked.
This has me very perplexed. The only thing that I can think of is that Mr. Marshall blogged once or twice about John Kerry breaking a guitar string. I really couldn't find anything on that website to offend anyone except some actual analysis of current affairs. Today I discovered that the site for the Christian Science Monitor (a well-respected national newspaper) is also being blocked by this service. This publication prints many "cutting edge" articles about science, religion, politics and world events. I can see no reason for this website to be blocked by the Sonic Wall Service. Maybe it had an article about the mating habits of raccoons or something a while back and now the site is blocked.
I'm beginning to think this sort of content filtering is nothing short of censorship. One site I'm sure is wrongfully blocked is www.penisland.net. Though that one is totally understandable. (I got that link from The Dave Barry Blog).
I saw a link on faisal.com to an article in the UK Gaurdian describing Polyphonic HMI's Hit Song Science (HSS). This software uses 30 years of Billboard Hits and analyzes new songs to determine their likelihood of being a hit. This is pretty revolutionary. I must say that it worries me that record companies are starting to gravitate to this sort of analysis to decide which acts to sign. I don't think Zappa ever would have gotten a record deal with this sort of system. Do you?
I think the heart of the problem is that most people who buy music actually hate music. What they like are pretty sounds. But music is much more than pretty sounds. Yet, I have rarely heard of "ugly" sounding songs becoming top 40 hits (excepting when the ugly sounds resolve to something pretty or at least consonant. Ex: Nirvana). Am I wrong here? I don't necessarily think that pop music is going to get any worse because of this system, but I don't think it's going to get any better either.
When I listen to the music that the kids I teach seem to be listening to, it all sounds the same to me. Now, I do not dislike hip-hop or r&b. In fact, I like them both quite a lot. However, I don't like most of the hip-hop or r&b they listen to. Their music seems simplistic and calculated whereas the music I listen to (and have for the most part always been drawn to) seems more meaningful, more risky and more complex. If I hadn't been exposed to some of that music through radio and MTV I probably never would have developed broader musical tastes. I fear this hit-picking software is going to filter out every bit of eccentricity in the music world. (Much like focus groups have stripped much of the art out of the cinema).
But then again, I guess true music lovers will seek out interesting and new music from other sources than the record industry. In theory the internet should allow the music makers (and other artists) of the world to self-publish their work cheaply. But the entertainment industry is trying very hard to squash the free trade of self-published work on the internet. But that's probably best left for another blog entry.