Eyes of a Stranger

Well, this year's Riverbend Festival has come and gone with the appropriate amount of under-reported and locally covered-up black on white crime, and I can finally say there was something there worth seeing.

I was with a group of folks that were in attendance to see the Black Crowes stink up the riverfront when a friend stopped by and we decided to see if there was anything actually worth listening to.

We traversed the throngs of smelly hippies, black thugs, and 'the unwashed' until we came to the Unum stage in front of the Hunter Museum and we found a wonderous sight to behold:

There were no lines at the bathrooms. The beer tent had plenty of staff and quick service. There were throngs of white faces listening enraptured to the music on the stage.

...and then there was the band. The band I'm speaking of is Rathkeltair and in my opinion, was the breakout hit of Riverbend. Their musical mastery, the interaction with the audience (standing room only), the crowd of white faces they were playing to, the folks dancing in front of the stage...all combined to make the best listening experience I've ever had at a Riverbend Festival.

I strongly urge you to look up Rathkeltair online and purchase their CD. (They have a new one coming soon!)

Thanks Riverbend musical planners for slipping in a white-friendly band in the middle of so much worthless trash. I'm sure it was an accident, but with any luck, more accidents like this will be made in the future.

“America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great”
Alexis DeTocqueville – famous statesman, historian and social philosopher 1805-1859

After remembering reading some post about ‘A Day Without A Mexican’, (an article made into a movie supporting amnesty of illegal alien Mexicans) I thought I would do a kind of a sequel – and call it – ‘THE USA WITHOUT A JEW’.

The original ‘A Day Without A Mexican’ was supposed to show – in a positive light - what wonderful contributions these illegal aliens have made to the heritage of America. Well – as you might have guessed – it backfired – BIGTIME!

It seems that hard working taxpayers here didn’t buy the BS. Apparently the reality —- of the statistics of violent crime – ruthless street gangs – gang wars – countless murders and rapes WAY out of proportion to the number of Mexicans – degrading of entire communities – burning and looting of major cities! - disruptive conduct in schools – constant welfare drain – lost jobs – the proclivity of these people for violent Marxist ideologies (Atzlan etc etc) and a laundry list of other horrific social problems – not to mention a HUGE economic drain on our already shaky double-digit inflation economy —.woke up most American citizens.

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It shouldn't be a shock to anyone's ears to hear someone complain about how 'Chattanooga radio sucks.'

From playlists that were cemented in the late 70s to sawed-off hipsters who claim to have their fingers firmly planted on the pulse of the area, our airwaves are filled with the odor of cheap booze and decay.

Local stations play both kinds of music...'Southern Rock' and 'Country,' and even the local talk powerhouse WGOW is packed to the rafters with the self-proclaimed elite.

Many of the 'DJs' sound as if they skimmed the 'urban dictionary' for pop culture slang terms a few moments before going on air, and toss their new vocabulary around with reckless abandon to seem 'with it' and 'hip.'

(Closed-circuit transmission to those 'in the know' out in the ether: It's 'Puff, Puff, Pass' for god's sake.)

The truth of the matter is that most of them have lost sight of the primary quality that once endeared them to their listeners: You are not the single repository of all Useful Knowledge, and you are not free to pass summary judgement on subjects and terms that you don't understand.

Some of you are quite close to the 'Limbaugh Line' where a skewed sense of self-worth transcends what the rest of the universe thinks about you. (Not to be confused with the 'Glenn Beck Pyramid' which has a small spear-point of reasonable fact and a large weighted base of nonsense.)

Get off the cross and kiss the ring.

I believe that I've taken the time to speak on this before...but I believe it bears repeating.

Stop living your miserable and pathetic lives on the Internet. An alarming percentage of you spend every waking hour and minute browsing MySpace, posting on messageboards, and waiting for that next sweet blog post to feed your addiction. There are those of you that have no social life or social interaction aside from what you find online...and this is a very sad thing.

Before you simply brush this aside, understand that I am a recovering addict. I have read literally hundreds of thousands of 'posts' through various media and posted tens of thousands myself. I have made some real friendships online (that have crossed the line into 'real life'), but the vast majority are simple online love/hate relationships that honestly don't matter in the grand scheme of things.

There are some that even go to the lengths of impersonation, multiple 'screen names,' and outright lying to generate sympathy, 'drama,' and (in some cases) real problems for their 'peers.'

What the hell is going on with this? Why would anyone prefer to exist in a completely intangible world that doesn't really matter instead of actually affecting real change in their real lives and the real world?

It's possible to see pictures of the ocean online...but it's not possible to smell the salt of the sea. You can see pictures of a warm summer day, but you can't feel the sun on your skin. You can see pictures of attractive people, but you'll never know what it's like to make actual eye contact with them or engage in a two-way conversation.

This bookends quite nicely to my rant on 'Getting Off Your Ass.' You want to have some real friends? Go out and make some. Go out and do things with them. Be active...and be active with REAL people in REAL places.

I don't mind the sun sometimes
The images it shows
I can taste you on my lips
And smell you in my clothes
Cinnamon and sugary
And softly spoken lies
You never know just how to look
Through other people's eyes

Some will die in hot pursuit
In fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain

I know I'm not the only one that sees the news stories and reads the articles about how fat this country is becoming.

While news outlets are making hay over shortages of rice and other staple grains (...a 'shortage' that's been created by President Bush's mandate that all gasoline be fortified with at least 10% ethanol...thus creating a huge market and demand for corn...but that's a rant for another day...), we see an interesting trend:

Fresh, whole foods are skyrocketing in price (and in some cases are being claimed to be in a shortage state)...processed crap and high-fructose corn syrup-based products are being tossed down our collective throats and rock bottom prices.

As many of the talking heads continue to wring their hands over the 'fattening of America,' more and more mindless 'reality' TV shows are being generated to keep those fat asses on the couch...and Taco Bell promotes 'Fourth Meal,' and most national pizza delivery chains allow you not even have to exert the force needed to lift a telephone handset to your ear to get giant, piping-hot pizzas delivered directly to your door.

Don't fall into the trap. Get up, get motivated, and get outside.

It's enough to make a conspiracy-type folks wonder if there's a diabolical plot out there to make us all fat.

Fight the laziness. Get up and do something instead of settling into your couchnest and zoning out to 'reality' nonsense.