Pop music

Of a sudden, I am strangely and ashamedly enamored with pop music: Rihanna. Katy Perry. Lupe Fiasco. Taio Cruz. etc. The culpable parties are "fireworks" and "exercise." Allow me to explain.

On the 4th, I watched New York City's Macy's-sponsored fireworks display on television, with my parents, in my basement. Evincing incredible cleverness, the producers jammed Katy's "Firework"  and Taio's "Dynamite" during the show. All in all, it was an impressive set-up. I immediately downloaded the songs.

Subsequently, they infiltrated my exercise mix and imposed hegemony. Over time, the population of nakedly poptastic singles procreated and diversified. Madonna is represented.

Most bizarrely, I find that I hanker for Rihanna's "Rude Boy," which is among the most sexually explicit and, to be fair, super-sexy tracks I know. The video may partly explain my interest.

This is a drastic reversal. See, I have a memory of this song. I was in a work van, listening to the radio, on my way to tutor at a downtown Syracuse city high school. The track came on and literally disturbed me, I had no idea who the artist was, and I recall later describing it to a friend in exasperation, disgust, and befuddlement. "This is what we've been reduced to!?" It was cataclysmic. And now it's on repeat during exercise sessions.

This interest in base pop music is paradigmatic of an overall shift towards consumptive anti-gourmandism. I'm embracing my intellectual roots: Jeremy Benthamite utilitarianism (cosmo-consumption) but with a bit of the garbage disposal thrown in. From a certain perspective, it will seem that all is going downhill, down with the Bradstreet.

Actually, what's transpiring is ancient. It's my life story. Octopus hands all on me, multidirectional tugging.

Lupe puts it proper: "One day we're listening to N.W.A, the next day we're listening to Ravi Shankar." One day, it's goat utilitarianism, the next, it's Cartesian dualism... well, not really, but y'all get the point.

Eep, eep, where are the modern science fiction authors at?

I shudder to think of the path that society is taking. I shudder not out of fear, exactly, for fear is mostly useless, but out of anticipation and curiosity. Yeah. Where are we heading? It seems as if the physical-consumer world is disappearing. Everything is becoming e-commercialized. Purveyors of physical music - CDs and records - are noiselessly falling by the wayside. Booksellers are following suit. Before that, we saw the incremental elimination of the Mom and Pops, the little guys, the stores with care and character. And, of course, the larger-than-life economic recession is not helping the situation.

I take the position that this is stuff we should be concerned about. I simply dislike the one-stop-shopping model, the humongous, impersonal, hideous factory-stores, the mass-produced, unwholesome food, the uniforms, the slogans, the sham, the glitz, and the kitsch. It is blatant and undesirable homogenization and insipidization. It is depressing.

Of course, there is a flip-side. There is always a flip-side. We must recognize that current capitalist processes are making life cheaper and, indeed, better for many if not most people. Stuff is cheap, decent, and outrageously accessible. The Walton model works wonders.

Then again, this throws a lot of uncompetitive retailers and manufacturers out of business. Simply put, they cannot compete with the monster-scale of super-corporations. Small stores' prices are higher, and so they lose.

Of course, poverty, exploitation, and social calamity are all the more egregious and hideous overseas. But...those people are poor. They are "underprivileged." Too bad. We get the cheap goods and, many previously poorer people abroad now earn an income, however meager. We love the $2-tee shirts, the mangoes in December, the dirt-cheap televisions, eye-glasses, DVD players, drugs, automobiles. The price per value ratio for stuff today is truly miraculous. Everyone has a big-screen TVs and uber-cable. The commercials impress themselves painfully on our eardrums, the glare is blinding.

If we want change, it is up to us, the informed and willful consumers. We own our current predicament. We do not have the prescience to recognize cause and effect or the discipline to stop ourselves. Some of us care enough to boycott what we see to be the biggest, meanest retailers.

But even beyond that, may the Earth-mother continue to smile upon us, some of us are ABLE to boycott the big, bad corporate bullies. Yes, yes, it is nice not to have to depend on Walmart's generous social services, bargain-buy drugs, diapers, and TV-dinners.

It is necessary to recognize corporate irresponsibility, and capitalistic excess, but equally important to note consumer preponderance. We pertain to coercive systems, sure, but ultimately we design those systems.

I just wonder, where we are going? What will this world look like in 15, 20, 30 years? We need to examine the science-fiction and dystopian-novel gospels. Maybe we need some prophets. I have ambiguous tremulousness thinking about mankind's future. It is quite exciting, no?

Consumerism

Consumerism is my only culture, I have decided. Also, I like it. I abhor shopping, but I like buying. I like consuming with people. I delight in the simple joy of coffee and a blessed book in a pleasant, artful cafe. I treasure music in all forms. Live music might be the most exhilarating thing I am cognizant of. I also appreciate movie watching in many realms and contexts. Salty cheese and warm, baked bread make me giggle and sigh contentedly, in a tipsy manner. I am an unsophisticated, indiscriminate gourmand. Add warm red wine, and I lose it. I like ornamentation. Hats, non-fashionable clothing, wall-posters, functional and beautiful objects. I like tastes, preferences, discriminatory consumerism. I like being judged and interacted with. I, I, I. I like individualism and selfishness. Naturally, I depend on you, my friend-followers, family, and strangers. All of you others, without whom I would be nothing. I like things the way they are. I would not have it any other way. Of course, it helps to be rich.