To T-Shirt or Disc It?

There are days when I wonder why music stores are not around.  And then I find a playlist of Jenkees’ music and I sorta kinda know.  It is not because we could not have the exact same discovery experience and kept the stores, but simply because Blogger, YouTube and even Spotify look the way they do - the people in power want things this way and no other way.  Me, personally, could have found a way for record stores to be cool and hip despite the cyber assault on the music industry.  In fact, the very term I used assault is derived from the RIAA warfare on our tech culture and is the exact opposite of how things should have evolved: record stores and streaming and downloading are all complimentary.  There are days when I still listen to CDs and I still have my walkman, it’s a different experience that MP3s can not replace adequately.  Flipping the CD booklet is not the same as flipping through a PDF.  Never will be.  I can only enjoy digital media when there is power and equipment works - but in a zombie apocalypse the booklet is at least a fun thing to enjoy with others.  I know end of world isn’t exactly the ideal scenario to prove my point and yet it is.  Music is about life.

Love and Golddiggers

As a young teenager in Canada, after fleeing the cruel balkan-style Yogurt, err, I mean warfare that tore Jugoslavia apart, though it could've been the bad yogurt, I'm not yet sure, I realized something very interesting.  Heaven can be on Earth.  The house we moved into in Toronto was so beautiful, and the neighbourhood so pristine, clean, manicured, and void of graffiti, all the houses looked brand-spanking new, that I honestly thought I was in another world.  Not only that, but at twelve it was the first time in my life I had a bed in my own bedroom.  I know for most North Americans this is interesting as you all grew up with a room of your own and toys and clothing and so forth, but I did not.  At most I had a converted kitchen pantry that had a bed hanging from the ceiling so that I'd have space to pretend to be a bad ass Run DMC breaker.  Though after rotating on my knee once I gave up as it hurt like a cop.  So I never learned to dance, and I still don't know how.  But back then I noticed how in all the MTV videos and even in TO on Much I saw how love, masterfully crafted and dressed up better than a supermodel's salad, seemed to exist only for the super rich.  At least that's what I thought of this big white world.  I knew better though, but still I wondered if it existed beyond that landscape.  The role models for love in my life thus far could not provide even a Ferrari toy to push around as a kid, let alone a non-school related vacation.  So whlie love existed, I didn't see those whom truly loved rewarded by their society anywhere other than on American television.  Clearly celebrities had love.  Clearly.