Volume 14 – #5 – May 2011

Buddhists believe that life is suffering. There is always a conflict between how one thinks his or her existence should be and the unfulfilling reality. The bottom line being that desire is the culprit. The world is overflowing with things to want. It’s a gushing volcano, actually, and it’s bound to get much worse. There’s just too much temptation to spice up an otherwise dreary existence. The gnawing to quench the thirst never goes away, constantly creating distractions from getting down to the real purpose of living. Although defining such a purpose wouldn’t be particularly important to Buddha and, in fact, attempting to define the purpose of life would have one falling back into the whole desire thing again. Yet, enlightenment should have something to do with understanding the big picture better, right? And part of that certainly would include answering why we’re here in the first place, I would think. But this is putting a Western way of thinking into an Eastern box. I organize myself according to that which I’ve been exposed. Everyone does. But, I do think I see the power in changing one’s perspective, which is what this is all about. If you could truly not compare your life to anyone else, you wouldn’t feel short-changed and it wouldn’t matter who had what new video game or who went where on vacation. The Buddhist view point really takes advantage of that whole “mindfulness” thing, because freeing oneself from the need to compare brings out the subtleties in the details and you notice more. Smaller things get bigger and events flow more easily. Christians, and I’m qualified to speak because I spent my early years in the Baptist Church, believe that a righteous life opens the door to Heaven, as long as you profess your acceptance of Jesus as your personal savior, which means you’ve joined his team because God is his dad. Everyone’s picking sides, having opinions, drawing conclusions. Amen. I’m right, you’re wrong. Although I’m not involved anymore, growing up in a Southern Baptist Church environment has made me somewhat defensive about the general elitist attitude toward Baptists. For me, a little white boy in a southern town, it was what it was. And, for what it’s worth, I think I learned about being a nice person and, oddly enough, about not being judgmental because that’s what Jesus commanded. I was taught this in a Southern Baptist Church by older people that followed this philosophy. This was pretty good for East Texas middle class folk. I don’t remember everyone being all pissed off and militant and hating the President, that’s for sure. And maybe most Christians are still like that; live and let live types. Perhaps we’re only hearing from the Christian Taliban. Perhaps there are morality forces, other than Muslim extremists, that would have us all live by their value system and perhaps their infiltration isn’t as obvious as one might imagine. When Disneyland was just in southern California and it was this exotic one-of-a-kind place, I thought it was pretty special. After seeing the movie THE PARENT TRAP (A Disney Production), starring Hayley Mills, I got hooked, just as the forces planned. I even wrote to Hayley and got a response: a small postcard with her picture on it and a note typed on the back informing me that Hayley was out of the country working on a new movie. But, also included in my package was an 8X10 color photo of Walt Disney. This should have told me something. Fast forward a few decades, to around the mid-to-late 90s. Disneyworld and Epcot Center have are well-established. The old Disneyland is now considered quaint, if not old news. Orlando is widely accepted as a wonderful squeaky-clean vacation destination, even if the rest of Florida is viewed as rather seedy. THE NEW MICKEY MOUSE CLUB is unleashing on the world Britney, Christina and Justin and all that will come with them. This was an important step in the Children Empowerment Movement. Kids really did start to run things and everyone else was apparently unable to stop them. To the contrary, this new bizarre sense of entitlement was encouraged. Think about it. What if there had never been THE NEW MICKEY MOUSE CLUB or anything like it (Hannah Montana, for instance)? Or if, at least, a lid could have been kept on, so that it all stayed in its own little jar and once a person became old enough to be embarrassed by it he/she would be let out of the jar, not allowed to return. But that isn’t what happened. Like Pandora’s Box and the Gulf oil spill combined, the crap went everywhere, infecting community after community with insanity and twisted values. What happened? How could something that started out so innocent looking become so ominous? Why do eight-year-olds know that sex sells? I guess how it happened doesn’t really matter. It just happened. The lure of unbridled desire was just too great and now, it seems, we live in culture obsessed with it, drunken by it. The “freak show” is normal now, like men with long hair. That was a freakish thing when I was in high school and I was one of the freaks. There’s certainly nothing radical about that anymore. In fact, the fringe elements couldn’t be more commonplace these days. Tattoos and piercings? Available at the mall, baby. The truly radical path is the one right down the middle. It’s radical to try to consider both sides and break down barriers so that greater empathy and understanding can be achieved. It’s still radical to suggest that The United States and Cuba get on the same page, even as relations between the two countries are improving. China, Russia and The Middle East are all learning that the hard-line won’t work anymore. Taking the middle road, listening to both sides, is the only way, politically. But how does this relate to THE NEW MICKEY MOUSE CLUB? Because it represents a hard-line attitude concerning what kids are supposed to be, which are sex objects and not kids. But perhaps there are other choices in music. Not everything is just an offshoot of THE NEW MICKEY MOUSE CLUB, even if the media would have you think otherwise. There is more to the world of music than Pop, Pop Rock, Country Pop, Hip Hop Pop and Alternative Pop, even if that covers 95% of what’s heard on radio and TV. Anyway, I’m not sure if I pulled all of my thoughts together very well, but that’s cool. I mainly wanted to tell you some things you already know. To sum up, life is suffering, THE NEW MICKEY MOUSE CLUB caused a lot of trouble and radical isn’t just for radicals anymore.

Brave Combo is playing a lot these days. Festivals, Clubs, City Concerts, Libraries, Car Wash Openings, Weird Séances and Happy Fun Parties! Don’t be a stranger, stranger. But, if you decide to remain a stranger, be a really strange stranger. Not a radical fringe stranger, but a radical middle way stranger. Not a silhouette in the corner, but a glowing fireball. When you stay in a motel, don’t tear it up. Fix it up! And when you pull back the bed spread, push it all the way to the foot of the bed. Bed Spreads don’t get cleaned that often. Oh yeah, also disinfect the TV remote. Good night.