Payola

Ooooh Payola in NY - shocking!!! Nowadays terrestrial radio sucks so bad and the artists that are breaking are so talentless that no wonder the record companies - Sony in question; have to pay DJs to get the junk on the radio! I posted an earlier blog on why I love Satellite radio and this is even further reason not to ever come back to terrestrial radio once Howard Stern is gone...why bother! I also found another great outlet for Lounge and great House music Rautemusik.de in one word - FABULOUS!! But back to the payola, was it any surprise that JLo's airplay was fueled by anything but payola, I mean really who wants that and the fact that Sony paid people to call and request songs is pathetic!!! Album sales shrinking but airplay sky high - uh I say something wrong there. Terrestrial radio = same 10 songs ALL friggin' day! Radio is in the toilet and I am praying and hoping that Satellite - Sirius and XM crush it to pieces. I am the biggest advocate for Satellite I LOVE IT. Plain and simple and to the artists, if your label has to pay to get you played, well right now you should be burying your head in shame.

Digital Divide

Ok I meant to post about this. As I walk about town here in the NYC and see all the tourists a snapping away and attending the weekly weekend festivities about town and all the floatsam and jetsam snapping away, I notice something startling - digital is the new camera of choice. People want to see themselves, their poses, how they look or don't look right away! And they want to edit for maximum effect. Even my little god daughter after having snapped a pic with a standard camera, came over to look at the back for that little square with the image right there, she isn't even familiar with the concept of film these last days. So I say all this to say that the fact that Kodak is shrinking and declaring yet another loss is no real surprise. We all want the immediate gratification of seeing ourselves immortalized in whatever circumstance and the ability to edit and retake is fabulous, no more imperfection, no more waiting and then - ugh, why did I have my face like that or gosh I look fat, oh no, my eyes were closed. Nope digital has taken over, even shitty cameras built into phones and all, we want it to grab from out of reality and shoot over the internet or via e-mail. Kodak had better find another biz and not that I like Kodak, I found their film less than superior anyway (I prefer Fuji, works better with ethnic skin tones)So here it is 2005, Kodak shrinking, and time moving, I wonder - where will it all finally shake out.

All's Well!!

The landscape of American TV and film is filled with "perfect" bodies, all sculpted and cut up, even to play walk on parts, one liners etc. Everyone is toned and pumped to precision. No one looks like the crowd that looking back at the screen, everyone a perfect specimen. This is startling to me as I am exposed to all sorts of foreign films and the folks in them look like me, or people that I walk by everyday as I take the train, or ride the bus; they have real problems and they live in houses and apartments that look like mine or the ones I've lived in. I was watching the EastEnders, a British soap and this was so evident and comforting at the same time. Not so in the US uhh uhh, nope everyone, even hosts of silly shows have to be perfect. I wonder all the time, do they have issues like me, they don't ever look average or wear a size 6, 8 or God forbid at 10. They don't have bad hair or features that they don't like to see staring back at them from mirrors. Do they have hormonal issues, do they gain weight from birth control, do they have upsets in life are they always perfect, even in pregnancy and then drop the baby to look fabulous 3weeks later!? Do they, somehow I think the outside is perfect but there is more under the surface. As they trot across the screen my mind wanders on all these things, as I have my own issues my ups and downs I wonder if these folks have the same or if they are somehow a cut above us mere mortals or are we just strange castaways who will never really have it together.

Black Radio

Has anyone besides me noticed how prevalent ads for bad credit and no credit seem to dominate the airwaves of "black" radio stations. Also PSAs for staying out of jail and "stop the violence" campaigns. Why is it that its assumed or actual that black folks are all overdrawn and outta control, they want new cars but have bad credit, saddled in debt, going to jail, eating at McDonald's (and lovin' it) or KFC (by the bucket fulls) or drinking Kool Aid. I hate those greasy, soulful, yuckin' and chuckin' ads for all things stereotypically "black" - things like Popeyes Fried Chicken and all the while there's a "black" voice going on about how they looooove the fried chicken, and those ones for no credit bad credit!!! Yes they burn a special place in my heart. No credit, but yet you want a new car, which will soon be in the hands of the repo man. Why is it that we can only seem to talk about what bad shape we're in but yet seem paralyzed in respects to doing anything about the situation, why are we in such a mess but can only talk talk and talk ourselves into more circles about it? What a mess. Bill Cosby is on one old grand tour yapping about it, but still the madness continues. Just this weekend there was an all out murder spree, with about 3 black males seemingly senselessly gunned down. Or maybe only black males gunned down get air time because it fits the "profile" of scandelocity. Who knows but the ads keep on pumpin' and the call for "stop the violence" is still on and has been since I was 16 and I'm now 33, so go figure!

So You've Never Been Arrested

This morning I somehow got a call (a wrong # no doubt) from the Cumberland County Jail from one Juan Ortiz. It was quite interesting and of course had to be denied since none of us know a "Juan Ortiz" or ever heard of him (and Lord knows that they're probably millions) It intrigued me enough to go scouting around on the internet for this jail and voila! I found it. Cumberland County Jail has a web site, full functioning with a virtual tour that was as disturbing as it was hilarious. It starts off regular enough with a mission statement. Yes I said it a mission statement - and to think I always thought jails had one mission and that was Lock 'em up! Well beyond the mission statement there was a lovely virtual tour of what your stay might be like when you indeed fall into the hands of the great people at Cumberland. The waiting room, booking, picture taking, POD showers...oh yeah! Like one of those photo pictorial from a Hotel in say an exotic country only thing is, these walls were depressing mental patient faded blue and awful standard-issue green. Yeah all the way thru, right to the nighttime when you go beady bye in your lovely miniature cell (also featured in the pictorial) This was disturbing on many levels and another level was their claim to fame of having a Jail Olympics - I mean now you make games out of how well you can keep watch over and keep lockdown inmates, they have now become fodder for the Correction Officers fun time. Humm just a lil distasteful. Now I'm not saying that these folks are angels but hey, they're locked up - rehabilitate them properly so they don't come out gunning for me or anyone else, don't play "jail Olympics" with em. Shouldn't that time be better spent "rehabilitating" instead of playing! They even have statistics of inmates, GEDs and other things we're burning to know!
Point is - America's incarceration system is not meant to rehabilitate, it was meant to bring revenue to small counties and half dead towns, shipping in inmates who's families in turn have to visit thereby keeping the town resuscitated with a few dollars and keeping the town population employed in the depressing job of Jailer/Correction Officer. This is all it does, depressing on both ends. After all who wants to be imprisoned and really, is anyone out there dying to be a Correction Officer - NOPE! Jailing and jails seems to be yet another industry in America these last days, big profits, an inexpensive labor force in the prisoners, who couldn't love that. A few claims to jobs in the community and some talk of rehabilitation but I'm sure that is a myth. What is needed is a better social system, better equipped schools and after school programs and way better outlets for the society as a whole to deal with the problems before they become incarceratable. Locking up is not going to solve all the problems, lets head off the problem before it becomes inventory for another jail.