Monday, September 19, 2005

In an Iggy kinda mood

How busy am I? Boo hoo. I got this cool Iggy Pop DVD "Live at the Avenue B" for my birthday more than a month ago and I am just getting to watch it now ... very loud ... and it is so wonderful. It is amazing that this guy is 58, jumping around, like he is 12. And he still rocks as hard as he ever did!
Actually, there is something to be said for old rockers of late. I saw Lou Reed live on CN8 from some place in California and he was pretty good too. He still has that amazing Fernando Saunders playing bass with him too which is great.

The sucky music industry
How bad are things? Check out this pretty good overview in the New York Daily News about the payola scandal going on in the music which you don't hear word one about except in the newspapers: ["Sleazy listening "]. I especially love this line:
Daniel Glass, CEO of New York-based Artemis Records, a small company with a limited promotion budget, said the impact of payola is demonstrated by the scant radio time given independent releases.
"We are 23% to 28% of record sales, but we're 3% to 7% of radio airplay," he said.
Pathetic. That is the thing about the world today - almost everything is effin' rigged. Airplay on the radio is rigged. Rescue attempts are rigged. Government contracts are rigged. The stock market is rigged. Gas prices are rigged. The tax code is rigged. You name it; it's rigged. It makes me want to pull out Iggy's "Search and Destroy" ... Hah!

"Takin' on the Kennedys ..."
What are Kevin Scott's odds? ["Republican maverick to oppose Ted Kennedy; Belongs to the "Howie Carr" school of thought"]. I wonder ... although the Carr connection can't hurt. It will be a long shot but who knows?
This reminds me about this great documentary produced by a guy who lived in Somerville about Kevin Converse, this congressional candidate in Rhode Island, who ran again Ted Kennedy's recovering addict son Patrick "Patches" Kennedy. It was partially taped on those Fisher Price 8 mm cameras and followed this moderate Republican doctor, who worked with AIDS patients BTW, while he got pummeled by the Kennedy machine. It was aired on PBS of all places and it was something else to watch.
Someday, I hope it comes out on DVD, because it was a pretty good film.
Speaking of Carr, he has a book coming out: "The Brothers Bulger" ... I can hardly wait!

A class act
How about this? The weekend before the NYC primary, I happened to be in the area helping my inlaws pack up their home to move south. It was a pretty interesting trip ... made all the more interesting after leaving the Washington, D.C. area, entering into the deepest of Red States south, with cotton fields, southern twangs, friendly people, and really low food and gas prices. But that is another story.
Before leaving the New York area, I was able to catch some of the NYC primary ads in what one person could easily consider another brutal Democratic primary. However, something happened: One of the losing Democrats - who could have pushed for a run-off and possibly wounded the eventual nominee, like what happened to Mark Green a few years back - bowed out! ["Concession Sets Up Bloomberg-Ferrer Race"]. How about that, huh? Maybe there is hope for some pols after all.

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