When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now that I have become a man, I have put away childish things. Childish things like The Who's Pete Townshend. Now is my summer of discontent with one of the greatest rock n' roll icons.
Last week, with all the caché of doing this from Old East Berlin, Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey, 41 years after they sang the refrain "
I hope I die before I get old", announced to tepid media coverage that they will be touring "select" cities in the United States in September.
When I was 14 years old, I went to my first of hundreds of rock concerts. I have had the good fortune of seeing some of the genre's most recognizable artists since that Fall evening of 1974 including The Who who I've seen about six times. Many of the acts that I saw, many times were at the peak of their popularity. My regrets of never having seen an act that I wanted to have seen are few: Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Beatles (I was too young and my parents were not that cool) come to mind. Truly, there are very few.
In addition to that, before Wifey decided to shed the business suit, she was the Promotions Coordinator for VH1. For many years before we had children, I attended many events associated with her job that people only hear about in the press or on television. Unplugged sessions, awards shows, mega shows and small club performances.
I could not attend every event since I have a job myself. These concerts were many and often and from an insider's perspective. One day Wifey had to travel to Los Angeles for some awards show and begged me to go with her, but I could not. She called me at work from Los Angeles that time to tell me that she was sitting at the end of the piano that Elton John was playing and singing at and Tina Turner was singing and dancing just a few feet away at a rehearsal. She put the phone up so that I could listen and then I put it on the speaker at work and called some fellow workers in. They were all awed as I was. That was wayyy cooool.
So, I feel like I've been-around-the-block regarding music pop culture through my generation. And my CD collection reflects that. I am very fortunate to be able to say that. I got my Ya-Ya's out some years back in more ways than one.
So it was with great consternation that I received the news of the "terms" that Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey, half of what "The Who" used to be, will be selling tickets to their performances. In the New York City area, those two will be doing three shows: Madison Square Garden, The Jones Beach Amphitheatre and The PNC Arts Center.
Regrettably, they have ratcheted up the price of their tickets way too much for my tastes and level headedness the last couple of times that some incarnation of The Who has arisen.
I think about it this way: I do not want to sit in the sticks for some fifty dollars because the crowd there would not be weeded-out of the burn outs and jerks because of the price. The 100 dollar seats are a palatable amount, but if Wifey wants to go and we get a baby sitter (since we have no family in the area to burden), that's a $325 evening after it's all said and done with no souvenirs.
The $160 and $260 tickets are for the Wall Streeters wanting to woo someone. If not for the Wall Streeters spending as a business expenditure, then that requires no mortgage and no children. So that kind of expenditure is reserved for teenagers or adults my age still living at home with their parents. The same kind of repugnant losers I do not want to sit next to at $260 samolians or $50 dollars.
The New Jersey gig prices:
http://www.livenation.com/event/getEvent/eventId/243099The Madison Square Garden gig had a presale to American Express card members. That's three days before they went on sale for the general public. I used to have an American Express card for years, but I found no need for it except until I heard about these gigs. By the time tickets became available to the general public last Monday, practically everyone was shut-out of the MSG gig.
Do I not earn enough? Do I feel inadequate because I won't spend that kind of money for half The Who? Am I turning into a geezer myself?
Absolutely not. Pete and Roger are just squeezing and wringing all the fools, all the wannabes and all the never beens these days.
The Sun of London legitimizes my feelings this Saturday morning with this quote from Roger Daltrey: "
It’s a great feeling to be on stage again after all this time. It’s a terrific band and the audiences are a really exciting mix of young and old. I’m delighted that a lot of our younger fans are now coming to the shows and it feels almost like 1965 again when you look at the front row and it’s all teenagers."
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2006140003-2006330751,00.htmlTeenagers? The "band" have not released an album of original material since 1982 and are content with teenagers in the front rows? Folks born after 1987? Wuz up wit dat?
There are many bands playing those three venues mentioned above and do not charge those prices. So, it is not a question of inflation or the cost of doing business these days. No, these two jebronis have turned their back on the people that made them who they are. It doesn't matter that The Who are my favorite rock band of all time. No to Pete and No to Nissan every time I here "Magic Bus" plugging their "Quest" mini-van recently. It doesn't matter that a variation of a lyric to the song "Bargain" is inscripted on my wedding band. It doesn't matter that I haven't seen you perform in many years. I doesn't matter that friends and Wifey can't believe that I won't pluck down the money for old time sakes.
A very big F-You power chord!
I won't get fooled!!
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I'm a sicko boring dude.
Not only do I watch all three of the network's evening newscasts almost every day, but on the average, I read or scan about five or more dailies every day. The Newark Star-Ledger, The New York Times, The New York Post, The New York Daily News, Newsday and whatever other regional newspapers I can get a hold of at work. USA Today, The Bergen Record, The Staten Island Advance, The Asbury Park Press and The Record (Morristown) are some of these regional dailies. Others that I brief over are the alternative weeklies like The Village Voice and The New York Press.
I also read Newsweek and my local New Jersey town's weekly newspaper. The same newspaper where I enjoyed some notoriety a couple of years back when the city council and the planning board were effectively stripped down (by me) when they threatened my TV satellite dish.
Recently a lawyer I know in my town, kiddingly said to me how she hasn't read about me in the paper in quite a while. Way too funny. I said to her that if you do read about me it would be in the Union, New Jersey newspaper because recently I was baited into a traffic ticket by a plain-clothes police officer. Baited! I told her the story and she said she wants to represent me pro-bono. I told her what angle I was going to take and she said that I would very likely piss off the judge. She said the judge would not like a "smart alec" in his court room. I'll post about that particular misadventure later when the issue of this summons is settled.
When I'm on vacation or traveling, even on a layover at an airport, I always buy the local newspaper and study it. My buddy Paul at work does the same thing except that he's the most extreme reader I know. Not only does he read the dailies, but everyday he's reading two or three year old newspapers before he relegates them to the recycle pile. I'll drop by and see Paul in his office at work and my first question to him is: OK....what's the fucking date today?
Sometimes I'll actually gloss over some of these yellow papers of his, and you know what? It's interesting to occasionally look back in this manner. The most intriguing aspect of reading these very gentrified newspapers are the Op-Ed columns. It's funny to look back and see how many of the Op-Ed writers are so full of shit two or three years down the ways.
Another fella' that I work with, Harry, is a steady reader of the New York Post and The New York Times. The one thing he does is that about two or three times a week I'll look in my physical mailbox and there will be clippings of what he believes I would think would be interesting reading. Everything from the macabre to the epicurean. Harry knows my sense of humor well so he does clip many things worth checking out that I may have missed over the weekends or on days that I'm not at work.
So, whenever Harry or Paul or I are away, a newspaper is the preferred and well received offering. We all look forward to them. Paul is in Toronto right now and Harry is headed to the Carolinas soon......I can't wait.
You may ask what I may have read today that could be deemed interesting?
Well now. Not only did I read something very interesting today, but I read about something that very likely will be repressed by the major media outlets and their copy managers across the United States. It's the climate of the time I guess. Although the news of this has broken today, I sense that except for top fifteen newspaper markets, a few blurbs here and there may suffice about this particularly interesting, maybe infamous, finding regarding Psilocybin.
I feel that the topic of this particular finding deemed as "God In Pill Form", is alien to the average reporter out there. It is especially alien when the average 'chippy' on the TV screen or writing for dailies in markets lower that fifteen, cannot relate to young America 30 years ago. I'm talking about the ones that have never heard of Timothy Leary nor of Hunter S. Thompson.
These writing and on-screen television assignments will be handed to the former dorm room heads turned journalists. These are the journalists, who with their insights, will out themselves of their former 'user' selves. In the coming days, I'll be looking forward to seeing what journalists are courageous enough to articulate the findings from this study released today:
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-mystical11jul11,0,3028620.story?coll=la-home-headlineshttp://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB115258280486902994-AkOJkdepEq_uYKdjxsfSC_cKVtw_20060809.html?mod=tff_main_tff_tophttp://www.cbc.ca/story/science/national/2006/07/10/mushroom-psychedelic.htmlAin't that something? I may be submitting my name when these "scientists" may want to "study" these psychotropic effects while one is having sex. Heyell, Johns Hopkins down in Baltimore is only a three hour drive.
John Waters may have known this 30 years ago, but who knew that Heaven could be three hours away in Baltimore?!?!?!?!
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I will start this blog entry with a grandiose thesis statement.
A thousand years from now (and I'm being very very optimistic here), future society on Earth will deem the beginning of The Industrial Revolution as also being "The Great Era of Lost Opportunity". Debates will be robust whether the structures of politicized insular dominions with wealth, prosperity and power were the key detriment that seeded larger hardships on other populations and negative physical changes to the environment. These large scale negative effects were overcome once these more prosperous minority sovereignties were dissolved.
WTF?????. Well, essentially, people will look back at this contemporary world with all its where-with-all and wonder why certain elemental problems weren't solved. Problems that created bigger problems later. And, much of the blame will be directed at governments and their policies. When conflicting governments become a thing of the past, it will be then that the "True Era of Enlightenment" will occur.
WTF?????. Well, I blame many of the world's problems today on governments and until just one equal and democratic governance or a collective of governments representing the entire world emerges, it will be then that human beings will truly flourish.
WTF?????. In the last week I've been thinking about the publicity surrounding Warren Buffet and Bill Gates. I've been thinking about their historic merger. But, I've also been thinking that what they've done and have pledged to do, realistically is just a drop-in-the-bucket to pave the path of significant change for the planet. Yes, seventy billion dollars is a pittance to effect change on easily conquerable world problems that could be solved by governments around the world.
What I believe is the most significant problem that can readily be eradicated with today's technology, is the scarcity of fresh water and adequate sewage in lesser countries around the world. This is truly the root of many other problems. It is the root of famine, disease and poverty. Some of the world's emerging maladies like HIV, Ebola and The West Nile Virus can be traced to areas that do not have abundant access to fresh water or good sewage for the clusters of people who live in these flashpoints. These areas are neither agriculturally or economically robust.
So what's the solution? Desalinization plants and water purification plants. Many, many of them. Enough to irrigate land and affect economies in a large scale. There are approximately 7,500 desalinization plants around the world. Seventy-five percent of them are in the middle-east. I believe that a 100 fold increase in the number of plants around the world is needed today. Africa, India, and many far-east countries would benefit immensely if this were to happen. Imagine huge areas of arid land becoming fertile growing regions. It is possible today. The first link below, you'll learn that the issue of water and sewage is one that is being tackled by this recent historic philanthropic merger.
http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=NEWS%20FEATURES-qqqs=news-qqqid=15419-qqqx=1.aspThe second link, while it may serve as an investment tip, underscores the emerging importance of water for a growing population across the globe.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/story.cfm?c_id=157&objectid=10388628The second link is the one that alarms me. Eventually, water could become a negotiating tool by capable first world governments around the planet. Allowing water to become a great commodity would perpetuate the ills that humankind inflicts on itself while technology AND economics allows the world not to do so. Something as elemental as water could become an item fiercely dividing the haves and the have nots in the future.
Fresh water and sewage is not addressed enough around the globe, yet. Benevolent foundations and think tanks around the world appear to be the only voices pounding the drum regarding this at this time. This debate does not lead in any first world legislative hallways. If it is discussed, there is little proactivity about it and is only evaluated and droned about in the abstract.
Karl Marx deemed religion as being the opiate of the masses. He was way wrong. Fresh water is the opiate of the masses. Without sufficient amounts of it, civilization stands to experience catastrophic withdrawals by way of major violent conflicts or diseases that medicine or technology may not be able to cope with.
Oh yeah.....and if civilization is to survive a thousand years from now, humankind needs driving lessons!!!
Have a wet and wild Independence Day Holiday!
http://www.worldwater.org/chronology.html*!*
