Fame...

...doesn't exist. Not anymore. Not in music anyway. Sure you have your Bieber's and your GaGa's, but that's it. Popular music is crap. It's all about micro-markets now, small niches of people who support artists through rabid technology use and word of mouth.

Movies are different. We still have superstars of the screen. Bogarts and Grants gave way to Cloonies and Pitts who gave way to Ledgers and Blooms and all the while nobody has figured out how to effectively deliver free, high-quality movies to the public and destroy the business model with free content on the internet. Sure you can stream movies for free on the internet, just like music, but it's time consuming and the quality is questionable. Our ears can hear a quality difference between digital formats up until a certain point, higher than the 128k/s standard for MP3's to be sure, but not much higher. Movies look surreal at 1080hd and once you've experienced that, anything lesser looks grainy.

Netflix knew this. They also know that all the movies I REALLY want to watch, are on DVD only and come in the mail (an extra two whole bucks a month!). They took what they knew to be the future of distributing content and owned it, made it profitable.

In comparison, the music industry looked like a fat man drowning in a lake, weighed down by his physical inventory and cash requirements. If only he could have just let go of the money bags to rise to the surface where he would have gotten a breath of fresh air and fresh perspective. But he didn't, the fat lardy music industry refused to recognize the new internet horizon and fought pointless legal battles and still, to this day, takes sweet old grannies to jail for sharing a couple thousand songs with their bridge group.

I'm not saying file sharing is OK or even that granny shouldn't go to jail if she steals music, but what are you going to spend your time doing?

It's like the drug war. People are going to do what they're going to do. You can spend your time putting people in jail, or come up with a system that is more beneficial and less harmful for society as a whole.

So as the movie industry protected it's system, and improved on it, the actors and their perceived "fame" were protected. Not so in music. File-sharing became a reality and artists who were looking forward to retiring on their recorded catalogue saw album sales fall off completely.

When Phish or Sting Cheese Incident or Blink 182 or Sublime or Styx or any other group that has announced retirement (or should have) need money, know what they do? Pile into the bus and sell some concert tickets baby!

I don't know about you, but Blink 182 seemed a lot more "famous" when they dominated the radio waves in my teenage years, versus now when the same, exact, song, is still being played on the radio. Phish was a lot more magical when they didn't need to take a hiatus to cure a lead guitar player's drug problem, only to return touring as what many have dubbed Phish Lite.

I think a lot of the destruction of fame and mystique came with the rise of the internet in different ways, too. As soon as you know every detail about an artist, available at any time of day, unmitigated by Rolling Stone but exposed for all to see on Wikipedia, where is the mystique? A blogger named Bob Lefsetz put it eloquently when he wrote: "You used to have to go to the show".

It's probably for the better. Fame is destructive and ultimately annoying because we as humans weren't programmed to be exposed to millions, it's not in our nature. Being an artist today is about sustainability, finding a way to produce and sustain off something that is not easily marketable or even describable. Fame is not the reward. Making art a career is about finding a balance between entrepreneurship and worldly knowledge, capitalism and community-building. That is your reward.

Osama bin Later

"As for me, all I know is that I know nothing."

-Plato

I'm already sick of it. The conspiracists, the news, the celebrations, the over-analysis... ENOUGH!

This is not to deny something so historic as an evil mastermind being taken out.

But we have to be the bigger country. When we danced in the streets after World War II it was not primarily because Hitler's body itself could no longer breathe, eat, fart and sleep, it was because OUR citizens got to come home. And Obama can only take so much credit for taking him out. What call would you have made? Hand the guy a smoothie?

Some will say Osama's death does nothing to curb terrorism and that nay, it may even galvanize the movement. But we'd neutralized Al-Qaeda's abilities several years ago already. It was the fact that this one man, a figurehead to both those who love and hate the US, was able to evade the most advanced nation in the world for 1o years that gave strength to a movement who's warriors relied on crude weapons and earthen caves for shelter.

But our media and society are wrapped up in the details. We want to know the gory details, see pictures (I wouldn't mind), know exactly how we got him. The media stands to gain from outing every single detail possible and the government stands to gain from restraining the galvanization of terrorists, world-wide, by not showing pictures of Osama's body.

This is where the conspiracists jump in. They will say that the absence of a body is questionable, which I can agree with. That's why creationists are so annoying. The burden of proof should be on the party claiming that there is something invisible out there, to have "faith" in.

I understand this notion. But what I do not understand is a belief, one that seemingly many adults my age subscribe to, that someone or something else, some New World Order, took the towers down and continue to create media events, such as Bin Laden's death. This is supposedly to control you and me, some sort of Brave New World where Big Brother is a Bank with Bombs.

Talk to a former Navy SEAL or wife of a marine and they might lose their mind on you, citing how the US has to protect it's sources, can't reveal info because people in the field will lose their lives.

And my favorite part about it, is everybody KNOWS. The plumber, the doctor, musicians and artists, kids that do nothing but take bong hits on the couch all day. Everybody KNOWS what happened and I'll tell you one thing, when New Orleans found out that Osama was dead after drinking all day in the hot sun at JazzFest, tensions ran high.

Here's a news flash from the desk of TJMUSIC that I hope you enjoy: YOU DON'T KNOW. Remember learning about primary and secondary sources in elementary school? You're a secondary source. So is the media. Take everything with a grain of salt, for sure. But some sort of overarching conspiracy theory, involving media and government, pulling the shades down over our eyes, is ludicrous.

I'll tell you why: because the media stands to gain far more from outing a conspiracy like that, than covering it up. And a conspiracy involving four planes, three locations (DC, NY and Penn), two ensuing wars and media coverage to support it all the whole time, takes a number of people and amount of money operating in total secrecy that would be impossible to cover up.

Politicians are outed for sending sexy text messages to a young page or not paying a couple thousand bucks in taxes. Bill Clinton got caught based on one snail-trail! Those scandals are a media frenzy, but somehow "they", whoever "they" is, planned an attack on our own soil and keep the media quiet to this day... have you people gone completely banana-rama bonkers?

I truly do not care what YouTube video you've watched, which paper you've read, how you interpret politician's comments. Far be it from me to tell anyone to trust a politician, but look at the whole picture and follow a scientific concept most call Occam's Razor. It says the simplest explanation is most often the correct one, and it holds true in most areas of the universe. Either the banks, corporations, media, military and by the way, thousands of civilians who work on government contracts are ALL out there in one cohesive conspiracy, or the truth resembles what the truth always resembles: a gumbo of events that are filtered through special interests (secondary sources), to get to you.

But don't sit around and tell me the world conspires in one big cohesive way to fuck you over. That's a pity party.

Tell me you can admit what you don't know for sure, or get on a plane to the Middle East and become a primary source.

New Orleans Express

I actually met a guy who takes a train called 'the New Orleans', but it runs Carbondale-->Chicago. We're headed the opposite way. Ballin' down I-55 let's you know you're in the deep south with it's dense treeline on either side of the clear-cut highway and a smoky smell which isn't quite campfire, and not quite forest fire. I'm not sure, and definitely don't want to find out what really happens a couple clicks back in deep woods Mississippi.

I've done this drive many times, at least this direction. It's the only way to get to New Orleans, down. Down down down. 'Till you're at sea level, and below, and in the bowels of America's subconscious. You know those colonial re-creation farms? Come on you know, the blacksmith and the live animals, all meant to take you back to that period in history? New Orleans needs no re-creation. A walk through the French Quarter, and I mean several blocks off the succubus that is Bourbon Street, presents the same small shops and offices that would have existed many years ago. Not the same business, per se, but to the exterior observer, a preserved world, all the same.

It's all the same. The immense greenery and flora, an architectural pallet rivaling Europe, the smell of garlic (and occasional fish from either river or restaurant), the slowed bustle of normal city life, retarded to account for the heat and moisture in the air, a slowed inertia.

And why not? Haven't we progressed far too far from community-based living? We are trying so hard for our brains to catch up to modern, technological life, we can't walk down the street and smell a flower, reaping the benefits of such a simple action. New Orleans forces this slowed enjoyment of life. Getting a sandwich is slower, streets are closed because looking at colorful floats (used once a year) is more important than however fast someone may need to get somewhere on that particular day during Mardi Gras.

America IS MacDonald's, Stabucks, and Wal-Mart and you can't refute that because those chains are in EVERY town we tour through. New Orleans has those things but the amount of small eateries, hardware stores and pawn shops, and even outdoor cafes crushes any attempt at corporate takeover. Even Mardi Gras itself, a powerful economic bargaining chip, has never been sold out to a sponsor. The sponsor of Mardi Gras is Mardi Gras, the people of NOLA who dedicate their entire year to that almighty Cycle of Carnival, sewing beads meticulously or crafting grandiose floats with pointed visual themes for pure enjoyment and the resetting of the Great Cycle, for next year.

The musicians in New Orleans are classy individuals, for the most part. New York or LA has nowhere near the access or dependency on their (musical) artist assets. I learned what it meant to play on a stage by rocking out with a smile on my face alongside my favorite players, as well as being berated for making mistakes or letting my ego overstep my musical spirit.


Frogs @ The Maple Leaf - Mardi Gras 2011

Music is a spiritual experience, not an ego-based one. New Orleans allows for that because once your ego gets in the way, a drumstick flies at your head, or you're berated for not recognizing the amazingly accepting, but very tangible, musical hierarchy in the city. We'll arrive there today to accept our place in that hierarchy, and respectfully sweat and jam our asses off to move on up.



*PLEASE VOTE HERE FOR FROGS IN WESTWORD MAGAZINE'S BEST JAMBAND CATEGORY!

Judging Obama

Not like that, silly. He has a birth certificate! We all know how great an orator, organizer and in some situations, leader he is. But as a voting citizen, and closet perfectionist, that's not good enough for me. I voted for Obama and want him to do what he said he was going to do, make significant, measurable changes in Washington.

Instead what we have seen so far is a mixed bag. He has passed historic healthcare legislation, a feat of leadership if nothing else. He's removed "combat" troops from Iraq, a positive sign, but whether he or events on the ground initiated their departure is tough to call. We have handed some peaceful regions of Afghanistan off to other parties, but their leadership is as corrupt as ever and we seem eager to entertain that, if it entertains our interests.

Before I talk about his most recent decisions and how they reflect on his leadership and advisors, I want to highlight that I don't think any president should operate with as much power as today's executive branch does. Bush expanded presidential wartime power to an unprecedented level. In that way, the Tea and Republican parties get things right. (Purportedly) aiming to leave things up to states, they reduce the amount of ways the Fed can screw things up. Government is only good at a couple, but necessary, functions. Some of the most important functions our government should play include protecting our country, regulating commerce and deciding (to an extent) what functions should be up to states. These are all constitutionally defined but in the vacuum, where corporate interests, instead of states, lobby Washington with ease, the puzzle gets complicated.
This Euro-centric fear of America becoming a socialist country because of Obamacare is unfounded. The idea of our healthcare system, with all its privatized incentives for just about everyone but the patient, becoming socialized is ludicrous, if not for our greed alone.

Another thing I should point out. I'm not in dire, full-agreement with free market economics, either. Call me a socialist (I love gettin' paid those Benjamin's son!) or hippy (I shower), I just think the pursuit of money for money's sake in a world with such limited resources and massive socio-economic problems is non-compassionate. In the parlance of modern American, you're an asshole. If you went in to finance for the money, you're an asshole. I have lots of friends who are assholes. They are killing it on Wall St., or maybe not, but some of them are interested in the system, some interested in the cash, and none on helping people who have no access to a market that greatly affects them.

Case in point: when the world's financial bubble burst because of the assholes at AIG, Goldman, Lehman etc who quite literally bet on the investments poor people would make in shitty loans, 20 million Chinese migrant workers lost manufacturing jobs. Now, a dire free marketeer will tell me that this is the nature of supply and demand, a necessary expansion and contraction in the market and to that I say NO! If you have the information to tell me that you fully understand a system, it is your duty as a human being to make that system the most compassionate it can be. 20 million people losing their livelihood because of the decisions of a mere hundred at a couple worldwide banking firms is not free market economics, it's criminal.

This is where Obama really fucked up. He was compassionate to those who needed affordable healthcare and those who were discriminated against by insurance. He signed a bill making sure women are afforded equal pay to their male counterparts and drew-down troops in Iraq. He has a hard line against sending ground troops to Libya, while supporting a popular uprising with resources we can commit. Although we are obviously interested in Libya's oil market, we feign interest in democracy to protect their people, a sentiment I'm sure the Arab world appreciates. But Obama could not remain compassionate in the face of that which would crumble most of us, money.

Well knowing the people and intertwined system of large firms, academia, lack of regulation and personal greed that cost the public billions, in not trillions, Obama put the same faces back in their same (non)-regulatory places. If we wanted to follow some lame, psuedo-academic, analogy, we could think of the economy like a ship. If the captain and his mates are responsible for running the rig aground, killing everyone and distorting the hull of the ship, do you hire said captain again? Or if this was sports, a GM and his staff lowers ticket prices until the team is bankrupt, all the while reporting profit, what would happen to said GM.

Yet, we still have Timothy Geithner as our Treasury Secretary. The only thing that sucks more than his haircut, are his policies. Geithner's advocacy to bail out Lehman has been widely criticized and decision to let AIG exec's have bonuses after the crisis is downright criminal. Look up a picture of this guy on google, his stare will give you the willies.

So Obama is doing alright with foreign policy. He's taking steps to allay hatred in the Arab world and fighting terror in a more subtle way. He's taken an open stance against torture and would like to close Guantanamo, something that has eluded him thus far.

Domestically he's far more conflicted. Republican/Tea Partiers will try and defund "Obamacare" and talks are in the works about how much of the budget to slash, not to mention a full-blown government shut down, possible this weekend!

I really wanted to go see Mt. Rushmore on tour this summer...

But I'd like to spread a message of persistence and non-complacence. We have the info and tools as American citizens to hold our politician's feet to the fire with this stuff. It's very easy to say "politicians will be politicians" with this stuff, but that's weak and inherently un-American. Informed criticism and voting is patriotic and if we want to keep this ship afloat, we all have to pay attention.

a note from the plane

Wanted to post this morning, sitting on the tarmac at DIA. Frogs played the last two nights in Vail and scurried home to Denver for an hour, just long enough to shower and head to the airport. Life is crazy right now, to say the least. After playing the Maple Leaf tomorrow night, we'll cruise around New Orleans, enjoying a much needed psuedo-vacation. Returning from NOLA on Fat Tuesday will hardly be the end of what we are calling "Marchdi Gras". Our amazing, multi-purpose road homie, Double A, will pick us up where he dropped us off just days before, for the trip back to the valley for CarniVail, playing to a blocked off street of 500 people or so. The next day I turn 25 and we open for the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. Later in the month we team up with heavy-hittin' Ivan Neville and his Dumpstaphunk. I'm blessed to have so many friends and fans across the country and I cannot wait for this plane to take us to New Orleans, my home away from home. Thanks to everyone who supports me in this entrepreneurial, oftentimes stressful and hectic, job. Happy Mardi Gras!

*forgive all spelling and grammar errors as this was composed via blackberry on flight 1222, with a southwest stewardess breathing down my neck...