Addictions

I've been more than a little frustrated by the president's handling of this war in the past year; but we have to draw a line under that now. The past is the past. And George W. Bush is our president. He deserves a fresh start, a chance to prove himself again . . .

http://www.salon.com/opinion/right_hook/2004/11/09/onefingered_salute/index1.html

If I do not stop obsessing about political news, I will never write a piece of music again. I've written two this semester: One is a tiny voal piece talking about black clad anarchists objecting to non-fairtrade coffe. "In more FairTrade news, Marks and Spencer just switched to selling nothing but Fair Trade coffee. Maybe if Starbucks switched over, those black clad anarchists would stop breaking thier windows" And the other is my Ann Coulter piece which everyone on earth has heard. Actually, it's been played on two coasts and in two countries, so I'm kind of proud of that, but I need to move on. I'm working on something with Rush Limbaugh talking about prisoner abuse in Iraq, but Paul De Marinis did a piece with exactly the same process more than ten years ago and his sounds nicer than mine was going to. Alvin told me to write the piece anyway. He also said that if I wanted something to sound beautiful, I shouldn't use Limbaugh. "Garbage in, garbage out" he said. It's also hanging my computer.

We've been talking in class about using text in music, for the last couple of weeks. Leticia Sonami is coming in a couple of weeks from today, so maybe we can talk about her piece Conversations With a Lightbulb as that has got a lot of spoken text in it. This week we listened to Copland's Lincoln Portait or Portrait of Lincoln or whatever it's called. The text does have some kind of pretentious constructs, but I mean, you can't fault him for sounding like his time period, as some folks seem to want to do. His stuff is incredibly beautiful.

George Bush deserves a fresh start because he's incumbent?? That quote was written by a swing voter before the election! So, What: He's fucked up, let's give him another shot???? Oh yeah, that's why we have elections, to keep fuckup assholes in office! It all makes sense now! This is why we need term limits! Because we're fucking idiots! People don't deserve another shot at fucking up just because they've been fucking up!! How could anyone think that? What is wrong with people? What the hell kind of logic is that? "I disagree with everything he's done, but he did get into office illegitamtely and so deserves another term." WHAT?? What is the matter with people? Are the public schools really this bad? Does anyone do critical thinking anymore? Have all the "swing voters" lost their mind? How can people think somebody is a giant fuckup and then vote for them anyway? (gratuitiously: fuck fuck fuckity fucking fuck fuckjob fucktastic fuckup fucknaught fucker fucked fuck fuck fuck fuck fucking fuck fuck fuckity fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuckfuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck)

I nee dot back slowly away from the politics. One day at a time. One step at a time. Ok, I admit I have a problem. I just got a nice sample library. Maybe I'll write a nice piece about train sounds. If we had decent transportation policy in this country, I could just walk downtown and record the sounds of passenger trains, but nooooo, we must have massive auto industry handouts so we can keep using as much oil as possible so Bush's buddies can keep making money and we can keep invading countries in the middle east, which is good, because the bible says there has to be a massive war in the middle east before there can be the second coming. Of course, before that, the anti-christ must appear who will try to stop the war, so watch out for people who want peace, they're EVIL. This is a great way to run a country. godfuckingdamn it

Um, but seriously, I understand that some people write music that is not political. How is that even possible?