7thDRXN

Some (way too) smoothness to start the spring.

Alvino Rey & His Orchestra – Blues In The Night

Ethereal chill-out sounds.  Surreal video as accompaniment.

Baths – Lovely Bloodflow
  

Back in action!

Drip Dry Sip Sigh

Ooo la la, swinghouse is one of the most awesome genres to bust out this century.

Caro Emerald – Back It Up

Seriously!

Work deadlines have been crazy, so consequently I have been a little crazy.  Job ends on the 10th so will be happily moving along to all sorts of little projects that I’ve been aching to tackle.  Including (in varying levels of certainty):

A) Finessing some articles on thoughts, things, thoughts on things, things on thoughts and thoughts on the thing of thought, to be posted here and elsewhere.
B) Really building up the Aesop Rockology wiki; lyrics and de-cyphers.
C) Making a greenhouse out of a pool.
D) Making some beats!
E) Relaxing.

Hope to share some of my fruit labors.  Stay tuned.  And listen to this awesome, surprisingly upbeat remix of Aesop Rock’s “The Harbor Is Yours”:

The contrast is brilliant.  Would love to hear more Aesop Rock backed by soul/R&B samples.

Apologies, December has been a month of transition for me.  More details later!  And work deadlines have been crazy.  Back into the swing of things!  Plenty of seventh directioning for 2012.

To really get things going again, how about this heck of a track?

Okay, people.  I know you’re itchin’ for a fixin’… so, fixed.

019 – The Lies Disguised As A Wise Surprise

Good workin’ music.  Feels like Fela Kuti, great horn section.

Marijata – No Condition Is Permanent
 

Keep up the good workin’, readers.

‎”When an honest man, honestly mistaken, comes face-to-face with undeniable and irrefutable truth, he is faced with one of two choices, he must either cease being mistaken or cease being honest.” – Who Knows?

One day I was minding my own business, spouting off incendiary, revolutionary rhetoric at random passers-by, and I had the unseemingly good fortune of running into The Modern Day Die-Hard Capitalism Fan.  Not surprisingly, we got into a huge argument.  

Anyhow, I think our exchange turned out pretty well in the end and we parted ways with a bond we may not have previously shared.  Luckily, I remembered to turn on the vintage tape recorder I had on hand and I’ve painstakingly typed up a complete transcript (as the audio quality wasn’t that great on this busy street).  Enjoy:

The Modern Day Die-Hard Capitalism Fan: “… but socialism hasn’t ever worked!  Ever.  It never will.”

Me: “Well, that’s not necessarily true.  If you look at smaller scales like, uh, within a functional family or community, socialism is actually the norm for what is technically economic behavior; investing in other people.  And then if you go through history you’ll find functional examples in one of the most ancient discovered cities, Catal-Hayuk, as well as in the Minoan civilization which prospered for approximately two thousand years, or in Native-American tribes, or even a modern city like Auroville in India.”

TMDDHCF: “Well… uh, sure… but capitalism obviously won out, because it is clearly more awesome!  I mean, it’s totally responsible for all of this technological progress, innovation and cool shit.  What you’re talking about is a totally socialistic redistribution of wealth, and that’s wack.”

M: “Capitalism definitely has some awesome features, but I wouldn’t deem what I’m talking about as a “redistribution of wealth” [I even did the bunny-ears in real life -hm] so much as a capitalistic, entrepreneurial “reinvestment of wealth” [again -hm] with radically beneficial social bonuses.  And obviously a wack…”

TMDDHCF: “But again that’s just big government and…”

M: “Hey!  Let me finish, please.  But it’s interesting you mention big government because what I’m talking about is most definitely not that, and I actually think you’ll like it.  So hear me out for a minute and let me explain the specifics of my point.”

TMDDHCF: “Fine, fine, I’m sorry.  Let’s hear it.”

M: “As I was saying, a wack redistribution of wealth would most assuredly be wack.  But as I said before, the point I’m trying to make here is that we know which ventures would be better for our long-term health and survival, so we should purposely encourage competition and innovation in those areas… which is what capitalism is all about!  Let me explain.

Obviously, the modern day expansion of big government is a total pain in the neck for economic progress… but not in the way that most people think, I think.  We definitely want to shrink the federal government dramatically in order to restore the economic influence of communities and individuals.  Instead, we have perpetual handouts to piggy-backing, purposely inefficient, politics-influencing corporations. It’s a ridiculous, revolting, revolving door between the two, particularly between the FDA and big agribusiness.  

Then we pay for that cancerous marriage in healthcare costs down the road thanks to eating carelessly regulated, nutrient-deficient, industrially mass-produced garbage that is covered in pesticides… which are primary products of the petrochemical industry!  The links between politics and big business are bad enough, but then there are those types of interlinks between other big businesses on top of that.

Yet the most frustrating example has to be big oil getting dozens of billions of dollars in subsidies EVERY YEAR to keep gas prices low while ensuring US import levels stay INCREDIBLY high.  I mean, Europeans pay 2.5x more than Americans do for gasoline… or petrol if you’re one of those folks.  Instead — if local governments were restored their original power over a small-yet-necessary federal government — we would naturally incentivize toward innovative big-picture-sustainability profits reaped by individuals and small firms with rapid technological advances in solar, geothermal, bio-algae, etc.  Our modern practice hands trillions of dollars to a small handful of stagnant, profit-desperate, nation-less corporations using the ridiculously ancient energy source of burning shit that is solidified in the earth and placing it in the atmosphere.

I mean, doesn’t that sound better?”

TMDDHCF: “Well… yeah, I guess it does.  It really does.  I mean, it seems like what we have now is more like socialism for big business and they’re the ones leeching off of the system!”

M: “Exactly!  And regardless of the binary political debate ineffectually arguing over regulation or deregulation, it’s just a distraction from the fact that the same people are still going to reap the benefits and purposely — even if unconsciously — prohibit progress in pursuit of perpetual profit.”

TMDDHCF: “Well, gee.  Now I’m all riled up.  This is bullshit!  What do we do about it?”

M: “Well, I really don’t know, but I do know that we have a planet full of creative people with innovative solutions to problems.  If we could empower these individuals to empower their communities, our problems would be tackled in a variety of ways we could never predict.  As capitalism is intended to do, the best ideas/technologies/services would be clearly visible and applicable anywhere on the planet as our more inefficient, inhumane and problematic practices die off.

I mean, it would be great if we could get the political momentum to overhaul the US government… but that’s going to take complete and utter popular support.  I guess with the connective power of the internet nowadays we could actually do that, though.  It really is our only chance to bypass the political binary babble everyone will get from mainstream media.  Regardless of how well you present this to people, the corporate media is in collusion with big business to work within a certain narrative, and it has this overwhelmingly hypnotic effect on the public’s perception of everything.”

TMDDHCF: “Oh I know!  No matter what television outlet you get yours news from, it seems like there’s a lot of talking about problems but never about functional solutions.  But I I bet it is possible to really change things if we all just rile each other up with the internet!  Wow.  It’s weird how much we agree on things.  I really wasn’t expecting to agree so much with a crazy person on the street spouting crazy talk.  I mean, you’re not crazy or anything!  It’s just… uh, I guess I was just stuck in a way of thinking about these things, and maybe I was mistaken.  I’m sorry.”

M: “Oh no worries, comrade!  If you never went out of your way to tell me I was wrong, we wouldn’t have found we shared this little nugget of truth, you know?  And I mean, I admit I’m probably wrong on a lot of stuff but I’m pretty sure about this kind of thing… I’m just drawing some pretty simple conclusions from some obvious facts, you know?”

TMDDHCF: “Yeah I gotcha.  Very cool.  Anyhow, I’ve got to get off to my corporate wage-slave job… I’ve got a family you know?”

M: “Of course, do your thing!  Best of luck to you out there in the trenches.”

So that was that.  What an uplifting encounter.  Usually when we give ourselves and other people the space to really talk about the fundamentals of how we want the world to work, we all want the same things.  It’s just that a lot of the time, we don’t think the world can give us all what we want.

But times are changing.

“It’s not ignorance that’s so bad but all the things we think we know that just ain’t so.” – Will Rogers