I'm always "game" for the unexpected when it comes to music. And today is a perfect example of that. Bang On A Can is a contemporary classical collective based in New York City that have pushed boundaries of classical performance. The Asphalt Orchestra is the name of Bang On A Can's marching band. Yep you heard right. And talk about pushing boundaries - Asphalt Orchestra have recorded an entire album of Pixies songs. The Pixies' the popular 4AD label band that was edgy in it's own right.
Here is Asphalt Orchestra's live performance of the Pixies classic WHERE IS MY MIND (incidentally that could be the name of my biography LOL). In this video the string quartet with the Asphalt Orchestra is none other than Kronos Quartet (classical boundary pushers in their own right).
Enjoy this live video along with the Pixies version below.
*** the quote above is from the popular Star Trek TV series and is frequently uttered by the enemy of humanity – a machine biological hybrid race called the Borg who are known to transform biological life forms into machines with a hive mind. Re-purposed here as a reminder that we as humans are unable to resist our weaknesses no matter how hard we try.
Hello again and welcome to America. Here in the “United States”, home of the Christian Jihad we are one step away from making burning Bibles illegal and declaring Christianity the state religion. The religious far right has seized power and are looking to force everyone into one limited, unified religous ideal. Everything else will be illegal. And by god, if they have to be dictators to do it, they will. In addition to goofy church signs with quotes from “god”, billboards are another popular place to put sayings from “god”. In fact, they are all signed “-GOD”. And these are not always quotes from the bible. These large black monstrosities with bold white lettering create a black hole in the fabric of spirituality and life.
Well, as a Christian Atheist (look it up on wikipedia), I’ve decided to come up with my own billboard idea. I’d love to see someone pay to put this up in the ultra conservative environment we live in and I’d also be curious to see how fast someone would pay to take it down again. LOL. Enjoy.
Sadly we live in a time of outrage. Everyone is outraged at something or someone. Media is outraged. Politicians are outraged. People are outraged in the name of religion. Regular citizens are outraged. Will it take destroying ourselves to stop the madness? For all it's advances in technology humanity is still living in the dark ages emotionally. In fact I think the case could be made the humanity is not evolving but devolving to the most base animal instincts.
In fact if you watch the opening section ("The Dawn of Man") in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY https://youtu.be/ypEaGQb6dJk the only difference between us today and the animals portrayed in the film is technology. The behavior is the same. Outrage causes reasoning that is only used for destructive purposes.
What do you think? Do you have hope? Why? What can you provide that will make me believe? Your considered thoughts and questions are welcome.
I don't know if the rest of the world has the problem we have in America. We are in an all out culture war. Tolerance has completely dissipated like water being poured on red hot steel.
I am sick at heart to see what has happened and continues to happen in my country. But it has to end. Personally I'm reverting back to unwokeness and shunning cancel culture.
You can be unwoke and not participate in cancel culture and still be a happy decent human being. Don't you want to be happy again? Are you tired of being woke? Do you want to be more tolerant of those who differ from you and have different opinions from you? Do you want to be more respectful? Then join me now. We can make a difference. We must be the change that we would like to see.
Like Eric Clapton sings in his new song - "THIS HAS GOTTA STOP" ... enough is enough... I can't take this BS any longer....
https://youtu.be/dNt4NIQ7FTA
Let's remind ourselves of Plato's Cave allegory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_the_cave
In our time the cave is made of the walls we have built around ourselves as we stare at the screens of our phones iPads or other portable devices and shut everything out around us. Things that keep us cooped up and blind to reality even though they do their best to try and convince us that what they are showing us is reality. These devices only project shadows on the wall that people believe to be real. And the more convinced people are that what they see on their devices is "real" the further the cords of bondage bind around them making harder to pull away. It's time to put the device down and look around to come out into the daylight and be human again. Come out of the Cave. It's glorious out here in reality. Sure it's not always pretty but it's REAL!
A great song and visual expression of this is in the song/video for A Perfect Circle's song DISILLUSIONED
"It's time to put the silicon obsession down" (if you dare)
https://youtu.be/BIsH686xWl0
... on being and becoming ... 