Thursday, September 01, 2005

Bummed

I am bummed.
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Ty Taylor got cut from RockstarINXS last night. I guess it was a good thing I fell asleep. Really I wasn't rooting for him because I thought he should win. It was a school solidarity thing. He was at CMU when I was there for undergrad. The last week they really did cut down to some very good artists. I am beginning to suspect that there's really nobody left in the competition who is from the self taught plays for tips in a bar background anymore. Seems like everyone left has a professional background that the show is trying to quietly supress for entertainment value. The Tuesday night show this week was staggering, and it looked like everyone was a little flat on Wednesday - hence my drifting attention. So, well done Ty, too bad. I have no idea who to root for now, Mig maybe. My heart just isn't in it.
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bummed
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I think I have to stop watching the news. The footage out of New Orleans is too depressing. I really don't even know what to say. It is just shattering. They keep showing the street outside the Superdome and I keep thinking about rolling our exhibit down that sidewalk after USITT a couple of years ago. I just can't wrap my head around it. Last night I blew open Amazon's site knowing that they would have a red cross donation thing on their homepage, but then I stopped short because this is the worst cashflow month of the year for me - and I am scared to death that next week gas will be $5/gallon. That'll be $100 to fill my tank. I'm sure I will go back and get the donation done, but at that moment I was thinking that I'm going to take the tiniest little hit from this too (by comparison anyway). In some ways the radio has been worse than the TV. Both the right wing guys on KDKA and the Left wing people on AirAmerica are finding people to blame - interestingly some of them are even blaming the same people. But its not time for blame. Plenty of time for that later. Now is the time to get help to the people in need. There'll be time enough for counting when the deal is done.
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really, quite bummed
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I don't know what to make of the looting. One the one hand it is disgusting and embarrassing as a nation. On the other hand the people are desperate. In some cases I think that really the store owners, or the corporate owners of the stores, were they there at the doors to their facilities would be standing there saying "take whatever you need." And I think honestly that were it less frenzied that there are people doing the taking that would be fine with paying if there were anyone there to take money. People taking food, shoes, clothes, batteries, camping gear, whatever, I think maybe they get a pass. For a while it looked like people were hoarding too, but I have settled myself by thinking that the people running out with 10 boxes of diapers or a dozen pairs of shoes were going to spread that stuff around rather than keep it for themselves. Maybe that's naive, but it made me feel a little better. People taking from other people in need, or jamming up relief efforts, or behaving outside the realm of human decency (I heard there were children raped in one of the shelters, people shooting at relief workers), I think there's a zero tolerance under these circumstances. Them and anyone carting out a plasma TV, bust a cap in their ass. Nobody needs a big screen there right now.
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I hope I am not bumming you out
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I fear this will get much worse before it gets any better, and that the ramifications of the whole thing will hit the country as a whole. Its not going to be something we can just watch on TV. What with the impact to gas, the refugee situation, the impending insurance industry hit. Its going to be an ugly fall financially for many many people. I think this weekend I may go buy a Honda scooter. Something that gets 80 mpg. Just for till it gets cold. The way things are going it could pay for itself in a couple weeks. Why is it that everyone in a position to do something in this crisis seems to be thinking too small? Bussing 12,000 people to Houston, how much time does that buy you? You're really only moving the problem. Need some really big, out of the box thinking here, and soon. I hope that occurs to more people than me.
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and yet, as bummed about all the big things, I still have something left to be bummed for Ty. Do you think there's anyone laying in the dark in the New Orleans convention center bummed that Ty got cut from RockstarINXS?

2 comments:

BabelBabe said...

i donated to the red cross and sucked up the gas issue. they have it so much worse. i am even insanely contemplating registering to host a family from down there. but where the hell are the feds? where is all the help? all that moeny going out of the country and people are dying in New Orleans. am i just being naive? as far as looters, i am with you, david. food,w ater, etc., fine. take what you need. but a tv - hello! There's no electricity...and looting hospitals helps NO ONE.

BabelBabe said...

as far as ty - he is too MT for INXS. I am leaning towards Sweet Suzie McNeil, oddly.