I met a boy
wearing Vans, 501s,
and a dope
beastie t
nipple rings
new tatoos

and claimed that

HE
was OGT
back in 92
from the first ep

and in between
sipping coke
he told me that he thought
he thought we were selling out
laying down
sucking up
to the man

well now i've got some advise for you little buddy
before you point your finger you should know that i'm the man
if i'm the the man then your the man and he's the man as well
so you can point that fucking finger up your ass

all you know about me is what i sold you
dumb fuck i sold out long before you even heard my name
i sold my soul to make a record
dip shitty
you bought one

i've got some advise for you little buddy
before you point the finger you should know that i'm the man
and if i'm the the fucking man then you're the fucking man as well
so you can point that fucking finger up your ass

all you know about me is what i sold you
dumb fuck i sold out long before you even heard my name
i sold my soul to make a record
dip shit
you bought one

ALL YOU BREATH
AND WEAR
OR SEE
AND HEAR
ON TV
IS A PRODUCT
BEGGING
FOR YOUR
FATASS
DIRTY
DOLLAR

SHUT UP AND...

Buy
BUy
Buy
Buy new record
buy
buy
buy
send more money
fuck you buddy
fuck you buddy
fuck you buddy
fuck you buddy


-- Tool, Hooker with a Penis

Ok, now that I've listened to that song about 5 times, and gone to the web site to check my transcription of a few sections, I'll attempt to make something of a coherent commentary, if such a thing is possible past 5am.

After reading one in a series of nice little articles about how corporate labels are corrupting the punk genre (of which the above lyric is most certainly NOT; it is what the editors would consider to be the epitome of "corporate rock". The irony being that that the song satirizes the entire issue with a vengence.)

Reading now that material from 1994 -- which itself admits its own dated-ness with regard to much of the content -- the subject matter seems both intensely relevant now, and at the same time passé. (The trail of links by which I got to it in the first place leads back to comments from the Slashdot story announcing the AOL/Time-Warner merger with EMI music.)

So... where to begin. Reading these old articles in the context of this most recent news feels so strange. On the one hand, I'm sitting here thinking how, had I read this back then, I probably would've dismissed it as mostly the rantings of kooky, alarmist liberals. (1994: Rush Limbaugh was my hero.)

Now, it's like... they were so right, but they didn't even see the half of it (or maybe they could see the direction things were going, but the truth turns out to be far more dire than what even the most astute observer could see back then). Or maybe I'm just now (now being defined as the past 1 to 2 years) catching on to what's been going on ever since the founding of the London Exchange (Wonder). Or the dawn of humanity, and mega-corperations are just the latest manifestation of human nastiness. Who's really being niave?

I mean... with all the crap that was obviously happening with major record labels back then, the whole mp3 idiocy hadn't even started. Encryption of media streams to allow the big boys total control of everyone's access, including legal sanctions -- backed by government -- against anyone bright enough to figure a way around it, was just a glimmer in some would-be tyrant's eye. Now, it's reality.

Besides that, anti-corporate themes (superficially anyway) are even more prevelant than ever in music distributed by the mega-conglomorates. Rage Against the Machine, anyone? It's insane. I mean, why not just use the works of Karl Marx to boost your corporate image? You know, peddle a few choice quotes from The Communist Manifesto in the hopes of boosting soft drink sales.

Robert Jordan used the symbol of a serpant devouring its own tale to represent the Aes Sedai since the Age of Legend. Every ring given to a Novice when she was raised to Accepted depicted the serpant. I've also seen it used other places. The now-defunct Millennium, for example. I suppose it would be interesting to research the origins of the symbol. Anyway, I think I'm drifting on a tangent. (Or maybe I've just got snakes on the brain after last night's X Files.)

So... where does this all lead? Will it become the case in my lifetime that less than a half-dozen CEO's, supported by board members, make all the laws and control their enforcement? Or is that already the case today (as many would argue)? Why not just dispense with pretense of democracy. Dissolve Congress and the executive branch entirely. They're just there for show anyway, right?

I couldn't help but laugh at the irony in one of the articles, in which the author suggested a worst case future in which any device capable of storing music, such as cd players or vinyl, is made illegal. The only way to listen to anything is to get it on-demand over the wire, and be charged for each repeat listening. Who would've thought such madness would become reality so quickly?

Ok, cds aren't illegal yet, but the RIAA has already taken legal acton against companies whose only crime was to create a device capable of playing mp3 files. They've already tried to push DivX on all of us (and thankfully failed at that one). Next, we've got this nebulous SDMI "standard", not only with its tyrranical attempts to control what people do with content they've purchased in the privacy of their own homes, but, if successful, would probably also have the side effect of forcing anyone wanting to listen to music to use Windows. And forget about independent bands or labels, so touted in above linked-to publication, distributing their content.

When mp3 players are outlawed, only outlaws will be able to play mp3s. When DVD decoders are outlawed, only outlaws will be able to decode DVDs. When making your own choices about what you watch and listen to is outlawed, only outlaws will have freedom.

In the rambling posted a couple nights ago, I said I didn't think I had the resolve to boycott the major movie companies. The more crap that happens, and the more I think about the implications of what's going on right now in places such as a Santa Clara courtroom, the more I wonder how long I'll be able to keep putting money into their coffers and still sleep at night. (Ok, that obviously wasn't the right figure of speech to use, since it's nearly daylight now.)

Right now, I feel like amending my list of New Year's resolutions, and add a committment not to do any business with megacorporates beyond what is absolutely necessary for basic survival. That would mean no movies at big theater chains, watching films produced by the big studios. Only buying cds from artists I find at places like mp3.com. And probably not eating food from restaurants such as Taco Bell or McDonalds either.

Watching tv? I dunno. While that doesn't actually involve the transfer of money, it is like lending out brain space in exchange for entertainment.

The truth is, I don't want to make a statement that I'm gonna do such a thing, and then make a liar out of myself inside 24 hours later.

Also, given the fact that I've been practically falling all over myself at the idea of getting a position in a firm that's publically traded on NASDAQ, I'd really feel like a hypocrite. No, they're not some mega-conglomorate, so it wouldn't be like going to work for the AOL/Time-Warner/EMI bunch. But if you buy the idea that corperations are evil by their very structure (which I have become increasingly convinced of in recent times), I would be a hypocrite. Well, maybe I already am. Be that as it may...

My swap is full, and I'm pretty much just spouting drivel at this point anyway, so I'll quit typing, and continue to keep these issues in mind during the coming days/weeks/months and probably spout a whole bunch more drivel then too.