Volume 10 – #10 – October 2007

Scurry about. Get caught up in the frenzy. There’s too much to do and not enough time. How cliché can we get? This isn’t living. It’s constantly running a race. Maybe that’s the way society always worked, with daily desperation and a sense of losing ground. To be fair, there is a lot to think about: our country’s karmic debt from the deaths of innocent Iraqi civilians, an impending military attack on Iran, historically significant wildfires, a disappearing polar ice cap, a growing buzz about the next Presidential elections, which could actually yield the USA’s first female President (way cool, but represents a significant journey into the unknown) or first black President (also way cool and represents an even deeper step into the unknown), the latest exploits of Britney or Paris and, of course, the looming holiday season. That’s right. As hard as it is to fathom, Christmas, it appears, really is always just around the corner. Are these, indeed, heavy indicators of some major period of flux that we’re entering? Or perhaps we’ve already been here for a while, and things are just getting more obvious and intense. And all facets of the media are simply out of control. I thought we were suffering from information overload before anyone was ever hooked up to the Internet and when there were only 25 television stations to choose from, instead of four. But now, as a producer of entertainment, I’m almost ashamed to add more media-geared crap to the mountain of crap, called Crap Mountain, because so many people are selling so many things to so many people in so many ways, so many seconds of so many days. I don’t think we want to be enticed all the time or encouraged to buy this or that or forced to see the outrageous things that are happening in every corner of the globe and then given a point of view about something we didn’t even need to know about. Although, we are being totally conditioned to take in and process a million things an hour. Do we want to look at and hear that much stuff all at once all the time? Somebody thinks we do. Our current culture seems to depend on all of us being sucked by something on a regular basis. For what it’s worth, I suggested celebrating Christmas every other year some time ago and no one took me seriously, then I came up with the idea of adding flavors to diet soft drinks to cut that horrible after taste. Then I wrote a bunch of hit records that even my band ignored. Then I figured out which stray cat in the neighborhood was spraying our front porch 100 times a day and made him come to live with us full-time. My point is, we apparently have no choice but to adjust to change and accept some things that we have no control over and embrace the drama of it. Here we are now, right? So, what we have is what we were dealt. You can gamble with it and take some chances and risk losing or you can accept it, reject change, and be happy with your decision (the peaceful life of no possessions). And, although we know that advertisers want to sell as much as possible with the least resistance, we accept that anything goes in that pursuit, because we live in a “free” society, governed by Capitalism, posing as Democracy. Greed is a very strong drive and hard to quell, especially in surroundings that encourage it and reward it. I believe we’re beyond the point of thinking that “free” rich people are going to take proper care of the less fortunate “freebies.” Even in the best of all possible countries, opportunities are limited. And if someone starts out poor, due to no fault of his/her own, he/she needs some guarantee of support that’s built into the system. Our nature is to be like obsessed squirrels that just can’t stop gathering acorns for the winter. The desire for wealth and accumulating objects sometimes seems to be the logical and normal path, like when you thought, to be a complete person, you had to go to the prom or have a baby. And the power that comes from wealth and having lots of objects is also quite a lure. No one wants to be just another disrespected, insecure, dork. That’s almost worse than anything. But, bullies come in all sizes and ages and races and sexes and bullies like to pick on weaker people. And dorks feel weak and potentially bullied. That feels bad. So, to fix the situation, dorks usually learn how to become bullies. And we love to celebrate seeing a dork take on characteristics that we despise in bullies. Maybe we could learn to not feel these things, one way or the other and finally graduate from high school.

Halloween ponderings. What if someone came up with (maybe they did already) a story about the origins of Casper, the Friendly Ghost? You know, like, CASPER: THE EARLY YEARS or THE UNTOLD STORY OF CASPER. Maybe Casper was a brat as a living child and was so evil, his ghost became unreasonably tender and sensitive. And so, it’s possible that Casper, the Mean Little Boy, tried to shoot another little boy with a BB gun and it malfunctioned and shot backwards and got him between the eyes, causing immediate death. This would be much easier to take than if he had been a model child that met a tragic end and then had to endure heartbreak after heartbreak scaring every set of new buddies by walking through a tree. It seems like he got pretty upset in every episode I ever saw. I don’t think he was born a ghost. I never heard of a pregnant ghost, but I guess it’s possible. Something to think about.

Speaking of Halloween, we’re playing our “monster” hit, “The Vampire Twist” at all the shows these days. Danny Jerabek has added some wicked trombone to the horn mix and will be performing the song with us, whenever he joins us on stage. In addition to the Denton Halloween Spectacular, you can catch Danny jamming with BC (on button box as well as trombone) at Wurstfest and at the Fitzgerald’s Christmas spectacular in Chicago in December. Other Danny J. appearances may be added to that Midwest jaunt, as well. Don’t miss this wall of sound. And, there are still rumblings from Tim Walsh that he plans to blow his brains out with us at Wurstfest. Every BC fan on the planet should consider coming to this show. If for no other reason, the gig is four hours long.

And, speaking of the holiday season, once again it’s time to reconsider the cruel tradition of eating turkeys. And, almost everyone knows, it’s not healthy. Hmmm. Cruel for the turkey and unhealthy for the person. Sounds like a winning combination. The turkey you’re not eating will be happy you’re putting his potential suffering ahead of those fleeting seconds of chewing and swallowing him (and all the chemicals he’s full of by that point). Come to think of it, we should probably look at the negative impact of all the special holiday treats. I wonder how many days of life we give up by indulging in the onslaught of Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s comfort food year after year. Okay, you can consider me the first grinch of the year and if it just takes away too much fun to cut back on the candy and cakes, knock yourself out. But do think about the pain and misery that a living thing had to endure to be sliced up and plopped on your plate. I guarantee you after a couple of seasons, Christmas will be just as meaningful and, for some, just as unbearable, with or without dead animal flesh lodged in your teeth and colon. HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

“Golden Opportunity,” “A Little Bit Irish,” “For Me” and “The Denton Polka” have been scored for full symphony orchestra. A performance is scheduled for early February 2008 with The Mesquite, Texas Symphony. This will be an amazing show. Well, I plan to have a blast. Hope you will join me.

Modern Nursery Rhyme For Thinking People:
George-y Porge-y
Puddin’ and Pie
Kissed the girls
And made them cry
Little ones
To him belong
They are weak
But he is strong
Oh, George-y Porge-y
Oh, George-y Porge-y
Oh, George-y Porge-y
The dish ran away with the spoon.

Okay, we are rocking and rolling here in Denton. Hope you are doing the same where you are. The sun is still in the sky and the ground is still where it’s supposed to be. Hooray! Time to celebrate! So, get to it!