I've been thinking a bit about what Kwame had said in a recent email - it's been rolling around in my head the past couple of days, even spoke to Sy about it this morning during my usual early morning coffee-fueled rambling preachings - about our generation being the glue that holds the old skool ways and teaches the new skool. True. About how we can speak this generation's language: true, too. About listening to the same music.... er, screetching halt there: not so true. One thing I keep noticing is the massive infiltration of pure shit that is being constantly fed through the star-processing machine these days. Sadly, like most forms of art, music has become not much more than a sort of Frankenstein with assemble-yourself prefab parts from Ikea - know what i mean? Take a pretty face (or not even so pretty face - not necessary - there's always makeup and stylists and photoshop...), or better put, some famous person's offspring or relative who's really good at mimicry, run 'em through the Star-Making app, choose from a pull-down menus of styles, genres, catch-phrases, tones, pitches, tempos, etc. - u can even mix n match for that true authentic-like factor, and press 'render' and *voila* the new It. Look at, hmmm, say Lady Gaga. Seriously? SERIOUSLY? why are people goin on about how she's changing the face of entertainment - how she's bringing theater back to entertainment and so on? uh, Madonna, anyone? has everyone forgotten Madonna? wtf? we haven't travelled that many light years forward in time, have we? It's all so damn disappointing - watching the Grammy's this year was just a big fat disappointment - every act has been done before, no new sounds, no new nothing - just better processed and repackaged in a younger body and face. The most outstanding performance, in my opinion, was Mick Jagger's - and I was never a RS fan, mind you - but he just stunned the shit out of me with the way he has not changed a bit - still got all his moves, still vibrant, still strong, still true to himself. no gimmicks, no bs. Cee-lo, on the other hand... oh man... it was like watching my dad putting on high-tops and a tight jeans and crumpin to Wu tang beats... embarrassing! Then check Bieber with Usher - as decent a job that Usher did with his little Canadian protégé, I admit- he learned the moves well - it's just so synthetic and so obviously all about marketing. ARRRRRRRRRGGGGGG - it's just all driving me nuts!!! Look at Will Smith's kids, too.... again, talented, but WTF? Complete little star droids - camera face on, trained personality cranked up to max - poor kids are going to be so damaged by the time they hit their 20's. And I don't get it - I mean, Will Smith - he's a decent guy, no? even his most camera-friendly charming act feels authentic in most ways - but his kids - it's as if they were born void of souls. how?!?!

My point is that, no, we are generally NOT listening to the same music as our kids - not unless we have taught our young Padawans well ;) Sadly, our kids are being bombarded with all this fake shit. Point is that it's our responsibility (duty?) to make it clear to them just where these current acts are getting their material from - point out the MJ's, the Tribe, the Bob Marley, the Stevie Wonder, the Cure, the NIN... fuck, anything and everything before 2000... damn, even Milli Vanilli was more authentic than some of these little robots they've got in the mainstream - they just got caught in a time when authenticity was still valued, rather than prefab being the norm.

:)
further point is, the new generation is being bred to be lazy. less effort for eveything as technology advances. part of my reason for moving back here to Budapest is that I know that much of the old skool ways are being taught in the arts - that they still drive kids here to paint and draw with their hands, rather than introducing painting to them through an application on a computer. Same with music...
part of me - a big part of me - keeps dreaming about just moving to the top of a mountain or somewhere on an island by the sea and living in a little cabin or hut with no tv, no internet. sometimes. like today. but that's not realistic, is it?