Volume 12 – #9 – September 2009

The United States of America is falling apart. Or so it would seem if you listen to nothing but political pundits arguing constantly that one side is right and the other side is totally wrong. Of course, I voted for Obama. He wasn’t my favorite Democratic Presidential candidate. I didn’t have one. Mainly, he wasn’t Republican, and that’s really all that mattered. He’s done about as well as I expected and, to my daily delight, he is still not George Bush. So, in my opinion, we are much better off than we were a year ago and, in fact, it appears the economy is turning around, which is not a bad thing. And many of our friends and enemies worldwide are acting a lot nicer to us. However, the bickering over health care is so stupid, or at least the way it’s being handled. This is such a country of whiney asses. And anyone hides behind the “will of God” in any of these “debates” and doesn’t put “do unto others” first has absolutely no credence or real knowledge about what the Good Book is all about. Whatever, I’m not digging Democrats or Republicans right now all that much if all they can do is sit there and look pious and pissy. Boo to them all! I support whatever serves the public at large the best. And it appears the Democrats consider the act of taking care of the least of us pretty critical to their whole concept. I just wish they could, somehow, get in the same boat. I’m really tired of adults acting like children and children trying to be all grown up and looking like freakish adults. We’re living in Topsy-Turvy land. But, you know what, how else can we be? A lot of the country, despite all the evidence to the contrary, still believes that capitalism is the best way, even though it basically doesn’t work and can’t work because individuals can’t seem to control themselves and certainly aren’t inclined to avoid the pitfalls of greed. Our version of capitalism can only continue to feed the top 1%. And everyone else will envy that 1% and try to create their level of the same. How can it work any differently? We are human, living in a do or die society. We are scared, self-centered and greedy by nature. This will never change. How can it? And I guess we’re always in denial, too. This is so stupid. It’s really okay if the government guarantees that even the poorest US citizens are covered if they need medical attention. How can this be bad? Okay, I’ll be left-wing pundit now and then leave this alone. If you can’t open your eyes and see what’s needed to provide a better environment for our own citizens, screw you! You are the problem. Someone give me a TV show. I think I could be pretty good at this right-wing bashing game. But, here’s a warning. If you do give me that show, I’ll probably be doing a lot of left-wing “Hollywood” bashing, as well. Both sides can be mighty gross. And everyone would get really sick of me pushing vegetarianism and animal rights. So, give it serious thought if you’re planning to invite me to your party.

Speaking of animal rights and vegetarianism, I can’t believe an ad I saw on TV recently. Things are changing faster than I would ever have imagined. Here’s how the ad went. A bunch of big sports jocks are sitting around a table eating snacks, about to play cards, I think. A late-arriving buddy shows up with a bucket of chicken and all the other guys vibe him out about it and tell him, basically, that they don’t eat meat anymore and that he’s living in the past. The ad was paid for by some cancer prevention group, not an animal group, like PETA. So, the poor guy that brought the fried chicken just smiles and everyone smiles and says something about him being the new guy and that he’ll learn. Then they all start laughing and eating carrots. I actually thought the fried chicken guy’s buddies were pretty rude, as I know vegetarians can be, especially recent converts, but this blew my mind. We’re entering a new era where meat will soon be the same as cigarettes. Nothing can stop the movement now. Representatives from every angle are realizing that the meat industry is the worst thing happening on the planet right now, probably way worse, actually, than cigarettes.

We see a lot of strange things on the road and we’ve really been rolling down some roads this summer. The other day I noticed a funky old steak house just about 100 miles from Denton called THE COW CAMP. That brings many things to mind, including a rancher trying to decide what to do with his cattle and deciding that he should send them to cow camp, to get the slaughtering of their life. What fun! In a related story, I also heard that if trends don’t change soon 75% of Americans will be dangerously overweight, primarily due to too much animal fat. Okay enough of that, too. Let’s talk about something else, like more insanity.

I’m amazed at how dead-on, writer/thinker, Marshall McCluhan was. Surely he’s being recognized these days as a visionary of the highest order. His coined phrase, “The medium is the message,” which was first introduced in 1964, in his book, UNDERSTANDING MEDIA: THE EXTENSIONS OF MAN, predicted, among other things, the idea that eventually there would be no news other than our obsession over the means by which we can share news. Congratulations! We are finally here! It appears that no one is saying much, but we’re drowning in the myriad ways we can say it. McCluhan also pointed out that our chosen medium would affect the content of our message. I’d say that’s right. We are getting the networking down like crazy, though. Unfortunately, the fact of the information usually isn’t as interesting as the fact of knowing how many people one can reach all at once by pushing a button or clicking a mouse. We are so fascinated by ourselves. How sweet.

Speaking of networking and sharing info, I wonder how much of the current trends toward technology obsession is fueled by an epidemic of short attention spans. Or vice versa. I don’t know how kids think and haven’t for a very long time, but I understand that there is growing concern over this topic among parents and teachers. It’s obvious to see how the bombardment of visual clutter on TV and in stores and along the side of the road could push us toward creating the need for fresh info every few minutes, or rather freshly dressed-up old info. Sometimes it seems that we are mainly concerned about the shallowest version of things; the image, the surface, as if there was no substance to anything. Everything is just a façade. This is a little scary. However, I don’t think the actual robot zombies will start roaming the earth freely for another 30 to 40 years, so I probably won’t get to see the full impact of this phenomenon myself. Shucks.

Well, let’s talk about music for a change. I love it. Always have. I do get tired of performing music on occasion, but find it easy to bounce back, too. It’s never very far away from me. I especially like music that blows me away and rocks my world. How about you? Brave Combo plays music . . .often. We are lucky that our fans enjoy us enough to keep coming out and for this, we are extremely thankful. We are in the middle of Oktoberfest season, and that means polkas galore! You should peruse our itinerary at least twice a day, cause dates are always being added. We are currently excited about our new CD that we recorded with The Mesquite Symphony Orchestra and are planning a special event to officially release it. The show will be Saturday, November 14 at Poor David’s Pub in Dallas. But between now and then you have many chances to see and hear us do our thing. So go for it and don’t look back. Polka without regret. That’s what Brave Combo is all about, Baby!

More music news. Fellow Texas band, Bowling For Soup, has a brand new release that features a cut of Brave Combo performing a polka version of a BFS standard. The CD is called SORRY FOR PARTYING and the cut is “Belgium.” It’s a strange idea, yes, but we are Brave Combo and nothing has ever been all that normal for us. So, search it out. It shouldn’t take you that long. And, that much-anticipated (in my mind) album by Mike Dillon and me is almost finished. It’s been four years in the making, so it’s just gotta be good. We are mixing in November and hope to have something tangible and available online before 2010. Mike’s been playing with Les Claypool (Primus) and Ani DeFranco, in addition to his own projects, The Dead Kenny Gs, Go Go Jungle, Critters Buggin’ and The Hairy APES BMX. I also hear that there’s a possible Billy Goat reunion in the mulling stage. Maybe I got that wrong, but this dude is definitely the hardest working man in show biz. He never stops, except to smell the roses or to take his dogs out for a walk.

Thirty years ago in September, Brave Combo played seven gigs, including our first appearance at Westfest, an annual Czech polka blowout in the small Texas town of West. Tim Walsh, our first woodwind player contacted the festival people and talked them into letting us play in the corner of the beer tent for tips. They set out some plywood for us to set up on and for dancers. The crowd went cuckoo and we made $160 when a new fan passed his hat around. According to the calendar, six days later we played at Benny’s, a popular jazz club in Denton and made $150. Things were looking up, that’s for sure.

Okay, I have no more to say, other than this. Think for yourself and don’t even take my word for it, whatever IT is, at the moment. Dig? Cool.