Just another in a long list of reasons as to why Kurt Vonnegut was The Man..
In October of 1973, Bruce Severy — a 26-year-old English teacher at Drake High School, North Dakota — decided to use Kurt Vonnegut’s novel, Slaughterhouse-Five, as a teaching aid in his classroom. The next month, on November 7th, the head of the school board, Charles McCarthy, demanded that…
It’s after midnight.. I wanted to listen to something that would help me relax and unwind. How I ended up listening to the Killing Machine album (Hell Bent For Leather) by Judas Priest is beyond me.. But it is totally the RIGHT album..
I’m not a very political minded person. If you are not one either, you may not want to read that giant sized grouping of blog words I just posted. ‘Just letting you know. It’s political-y kind of stuff..
Here’s why I have lost interest in the political process. And this has very little to do with my own personal politics. But, giving full disclosure, I’ve been a Democrat for most of my voting life, save for one election when I was a member of the Green Party. Now you know a little about me. But I ask that you mothball that information before you make any final determination on whether or not my words are bunk or not.
OK.. Here we go..
It doesn’t matter WHO is in the White House.. Whether it’s Obama, Romney, Joe Walsh or me. It makes NO difference, because even though the Commander In Chief has a sweet pad in Washington, and the band kicks out a mean version of “Hail to the chief” for you.. You are little more than a spokesperson for the chorus of blue and red in Washington. During the early days of the Obama presidency, I saw more of Nancy Pelosi’s agenda at work than I did Mr. Obama’s. And anytime the President has the house of representatives on the same side, there is going to be some cartoon like stuff happening. Just you wait.
I’ve fallen out of favor with the Democratic Party, for a few reasons.. I saw the ideals for the things that I believe in, turn into professional wrestling fodder. I was a fan of some elements of what the right calls “Obamacare”. The part that makes health insurance easier for the less wealthy to get. If the government wanted to regulate the healthcare industry, what they could have been done was simple.
The drug companies spend a staggering amount of money on marketing of pharmaceutical drugs. Over the past 20 years, we have been barraged with television commercials for drugs that promise us lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol even a better penis. We as consumers are unable to roll into a CVS or Rite Aid and get these pills as an end user, without or Doctor’s permission. Big Pharma employs young, stunningly beautiful sales reps to charm doctors into signing their script pads with their RX du jour. Sometimes, they’ll send the doctor to a golf course, a concert, or feed the entire practice a lavish lunch. Every day this is happening somewhere in hundreds of places at any moment during business hours.
Someone has to pay for that.
It’s not going to be the drug rep. It’s sure as hell not going to be the doctor. It’s going to be the poor slob who needs this medication in order to stay alive.
If you regulate how these medications are priced, and marketed, you make a big dent in the problem that many people have in getting medical help in this country. That’s not the way they decided to go. Instead, people would be mandated to purchase coverage, like we are with car insurance, so that we can hopefully get a break on the overcharged, inflated prescription prices.
This is my example of one of the ways that my beloved Democratic party let me down. There is that issue of President Obama not following me on Twitter @michlanthysmith - He’s got 700,000 people he follows. He could have followed me, to show me that I mattered. Nothing..
Now don’t get the idea that I’ve dived over to the right because I have not. Here’s why..
The Republicans are very smart. Their ideology points to the very essence of all things American. Freedom, Patriotism, The American Dream… All great things. But you don’t have to search very far to find how, why and where the gravy train runs.
Think of the US economy as a pail full of jellybeans.. You got some green ones, yellow, red, blue and yes even black jellybeans. Now, ALL of our Jellybeans are in this bucket. If we eat them up, or give away all of our jellybeans we are gonna be SCREWED. So lets be careful with what we do with the jellybeans OK?
Now, naturally.. You will want to have as many jellybeans as you can. For our stories’ sake, Jellybeans make the world go round. You will naturally align yourself with the people who also have a lot of jellybeans. Perhaps, we can pool our jellybeans together and create a business where we get even more jellybeans. The people with a lot of jellybeans are going to look out for the other people with lots of jellybeans. Because if they don’t they will find that the people who do not currently have a lot of jellybeans may possibly become holders of the elusive jellybeans, and they will start behaving in ways that we don’t like. We will get to behaviors some other time.. Right now, we are busy trying to keep our jellybeans.
Now the right, they had the idea that those who have the most jellybeans, do not be burdened as much as the less fortunate with jellybean taxes. This will enable the wealthy jellybeanies to spend more jellybeans on things, and those working class people will get more business by those rich people’s jellybeans and the next thing you know.. Everyone is supposed to have jellybeans. It didn’t work out that way.
The left believed that the people who didn’t have jellybeans needed help getting a better quality of life. So, in order to do that we would subsidize different things for those without jellybeans. Be it housing, food, medicine, any number of well meaning charities to help the less fortunate make their way. Well, all of this stuff costs something..
Someone is going to have to pay for this.
It’s not going to be the politicians, or the people in the soup kitchens. It’s going to be the people with the jellybeans. Taxes.. Lets face it, taxes are necessary. They pay for roads, they pay our teachers, they pay to keep our military tooled up. They also pay pensions on retired politicians, car allowances, vacations, even haircuts on airport tarmac.
The left raise taxes like there is no tomorrow. The rallying cry is “We need more money to keep Sesame Street on TV”. I agree!! Then why don’t we stop spending money on the stuff we don’t need to spend money on. Legend has it that A United States Government Ball Point Pen could be bought for 100 bucks. 50 bucks gets you a hammer.. The government hemorrhages money.
The fact is there are better ways to do things on both sides of the political aisle. Every politician I’ve seen that waves the cutting spending flag immediately goes for our children’s education. Not the pensions for the politicians who went on to write books, open businesses etc. Frivolous spending is all over the map. Not the expensive pens and hammers…
My party will tax and spend into oblivion before they cut a bureaucratic program off at the knees.
The right will wave the flag, freedom and american way in front of a person of whom life liberty and the pursuit of happiness means a great deal, then ship his job overseas where it can be done cheaper.
Right now, Gas is 4 dollars a gallon, because we will pay it.
Everything that you consume that you didn’t raise on your own farm, or garden went somewhere on something that burns fuel.
Somebody has to pay for that.
It’s not the farmer
It’s not the cow.
It’s you..
And when you find that you have to pay much more than you used to for less than you are used to getting, the entire economic house of cards crashes. Thud.
Suddenly businesses can’t afford to operate, so they lay people off.
Those people can’t spend money in the marketplace because they don’t have it.
The marketplaces feels that pinch too..
The have to fire people or go out of business.
And by this time, you can drop the price of fuel to 50 cents a gallon, and you won’t fix it.
This is all because someone wanted more of the jellybeans. Remember, the people with a lot of jellybeans, like the other people with a lot of jellybeans.. And they don’t like the people who only have a little..
Later, we’ll talk about behaviors. Why your behavior is so bad that there needs to be a law against it. And why we’d like it if you’d try doing things more like us…
Thank you for indulging me..
My band “Michael Anthony Smith & The Dirty Thieving Gypsies” wants to play some more shows. Here’s our big obstacle. We only do our own songs. This can make filling up an entire night of music, a bit of a challenge. Furthermore, we don’t look at our performances like a 3 sets a night kind of deal, we think of it more as a concert performance. We’d like to team up with another BAND that follows this model also. All originals..
We’d like to book shows with another band, we both do a 90 minute set. We split the take at the end of the night. I don’t care who goes first or last. If you are in a band, with a few fans, and your music sounds like it’d team up with ours well.. Get in touch with me. Lets talk about it..
Hello Friends..
I’ve been asked how things have been going with the band. People ask me, they say, “Michael Anthony Smith… How are things with the Dirty Thieving Gypsies”? And a lot of times, it’s hard for me to know myself. Here’s what I do know..
At the moment we are looking forward to playing some shows. Our friends in the Dutchland Derby Rollers (www.dutchlandrollers.com) have asked us to play a show to raise money for their roller derby team. They do a lot of great things in the community, in addition to looking great in fishnets, and putting on an excitement filled entertainment extravaganza every time they hit the rink.. We will be appearing at the Lizard Lounge located in the Chameleon Club in Lancaster Pennsylvania on April 6th. This will be our first concert appearance of 2012.
On Saturday April 28th, we will be taking the stage at the Marion Courtyard in Lancaster Pennsylvania as part of the LAUNCH music conference (http://www.launchmusicconference.com/news/index.html) Last year I played the festival as a solo artist, which I rarely do. This year I’m proud to bring the band out to the Marion Courtyard. A couple of years ago, Rick Johns and I were at the Marion Courtyard where we saw a couple of our favorite bands Zelazowa and Hydra Melody play. It’ll be exciting for us to play the same venue where we took in some great music. I hope we continue that tradition.
Saturday May 19th takes us back to Harrisburg (Our home base of sorts). We return to City Island to play Sound Of For Vets III. We are honored to be asked back to play for the troops for Armed Forces Day. If you watch the live video for “Just Like Charlie Brown’s Blues” on our reverbnation page (http://www.reverbnation.com/michaelanthonysmith) that video was filmed at last years sound off for vets show.
There are a few other shows on the horizon, but nothing set in stone so I can’t talk about them. We are hoping to do another Heroes Wear Boots show, we’ll keep you posted.
About the album: I never thought that this would take as long as this has to complete. When Rick and I started recording it, we were basically looking to make the completed version of my first album called “Play”. Slowly new songs crept into the fold, and pretty soon we would have nearly 30 songs working.. Some of them, album material, some B-sides (Mostly covers), even a Christmas album! We want the first DTG album to be right. A lot of that falls on my shoulders. The songs have to be there. I write em, and play a lot of the parts, and Rick makes magic happen while we record them. As recently as this week we are switching out songs.. There has been a song that I’ve loved on our reverb page called “The Problem Song”, that’s going away. It’s not going on the album, in it’s place is a new song called “Christina”. We want this album to make people feel good when they listen to it. We want the girls that listen to these songs to imagine the songs were written about them. We want the guys who listen to want to dedicate those songs to the girls they see in their lives.
All I can say is, I hope it’s done soon. I joked at practice the other day, that we may be the most famous band to have never earned a penny playing music professionally. I am ever so grateful for the support of our fans and followers. The people who went to the trouble to download the demo versions of our songs to put them in their iPods because they couldn’t wait for the full album to be done. And for anyone who has taken the time to just listen.. Thank you for sharing your ears with my music.
I want to thank Rick, Fran and Leon for having the faith in my vision to let me shout orders at everyone on how I want things to sound. You guys are the best. Also to Dan Kann and Mycenea Worley who pitch hit for the band last summer when we couldn’t play as a band for show in Mechanicsburg Pa. Dan and Mycenea learned the songs, (Mycenea already knew a couple of ‘em, and learned the rest ON STAGE), it was fun. You are lifelong members of the gypsies. Along with Suzi Brown who came into the studio and recorded some amazing backing vocals for “Forces Of Nature”. And Brandon Danner who also lent his voice to some of the recordings.
My dear friend Scott Church paid me one of the highest complements that a songwriter can receive. And asked that my music be used in his movie “The Art Of Scott Church”. Hearing that my music is part of someone else’s artistic vision is a leap of faith that words cannot express gratitude towards..
Hopefully this brings you up to speed. When you have a moment, check out Friction Broadcast, which is the band that features our Rick and Fran johns. Also check out Zero Gravity featuring our drummer Leon Grickas.
Thank you all for making my dream of writing and performing my songs a reality.
It doesn’t matter how nice you are to someone, if that person is happier thinking of you as a creep, you will never ascend beyond creepery in their eyes.
I think that’s why I like dogs so much.
Ok.. I admit.. I’ve had an almost hipster like uppityness when it comes to Pink Floyd., I have long maintained the opinion that the jumping of the shark for Pink Floyd occurred very early in their career, when Syd Barrett could no longer fulfill his duties (this would be halfway through the recording of their second album)..
In my old age, I will conceit that, that David Gilmour guy knew what he was doing, and Animals is a pretty good album. I don’t think they would have pulled off the 17 minute “Dogs” the same way with Syd.. That being said, I don’t think “Interstellar Overdrive” or “Lucifer Sam” would have gotten off the ground with Dave..
I knew i was in trouble when I started embracing their post Roger Waters stuff.
First off. Thank you for coming by my page, or friending me, or accepting my friend request. I feel blessed to make your acquaintance.
I wanna get some stuff out in the open..
Thanks for refraining from the mangled animal pictures. I had to let a couple people “go” because it wouldn’t stop. Thank you for digging that showing a picture of someone suffering (people / animals) will do nothing to stop the problem.. Stopping the problem, THAT will stop the problem.
As some of you know, I have a band. I think we are pretty good. You can visit our site at www.reverbnation.com/michaelanthonysmith - See what I did there? I gave you the link in this message, maybe you’ll go look. I hope you do. It would make me very happy if your web traffic helped my band reach a rating over 41 in Harrisburg Pa. We’ve never made it any higher, except that one day when a glitch put us at #1 for an hour. That was truly rad. If you go to the site, you can hear songs, and find out where we are going to be playing. It’s beautiful. Here’s where I draw the line. I will not, under any circumstances post anything of a promotional nature about my band on your wall / timeline, without your permission.
I ask that before you promote an event or cause on my wall / timeline you ask me if it’s cool. I can dig that we all have things that we are passionate about. I look at someones FB page like an extension of themselves. It’s possible that you like “me” but think my band stinks. So if I post on your wall that we are at the Chameleon in Lancaster April 6, helping out my friends in the Dutchland Derby Rollers, it might offend your musical sensibilities, and that’s not what we come here for. A few of you have posted stuff about an event or cause, I’ve deleted a couple of them. I just wasn’t “there”, if you can get to that. Just ask me first OK?
I have a weird sense of humor. I post what makes me laugh.. If you don’t get something that I posted, don’t worry ‘bout it.. It’s probably because you are more grounded in logic than I am..I find some bizarre stuff funny. If you laugh at it, thanks for laughing with me. I know this sounds narcissistic but I do that to entertain *me*. I repost other pictures that other people post.. Especially George Takei. I don’t wish to offend anyone. My mantra in life is “I love everybody”. If I say something that offended you, or upset you.. Let’s calmly talk it over. Until then “Visualize Grilled Cheese”..
I was having lunch with a friend of mine. On the way to where ever it was we were eating (probably his treat, I’m always broke), I’d said that my constant lack of money has caused all kinds of trouble in my life. We pulled up to a red light, and in front of my car was some high end luxury model car. I said “I wish I could live like that person, he probably doesn’t have a care in the world”. And my friend said that he has problems just like me.
I don’t want to turn this into a political kind of thing. But I’ll admit to having seen more than a few politicians vying for office lately who are drastically out of step with what I think are most of the people in the country. One of them talked about how he’s “just like everyone else” and followed it up with “My wife has a couple of Cadillacs”. This same person challenged someone on a whim to a ten thousand dollar bet.
So, tonight I’m up later than I want to be, stressed out. I can’t find a full time job for love or (you guessed it) money. I’m not sure how I’m going to get this month’s bills paid. I really don’t see a simple solution. I’m not asking for any pity or anything like that. But there is something I would like to know..
If you are that person who has garages full of high end cars, and can wager 10 large in the blink of an eye, what kind of problems do you have? I’d really like to understand what keeps you up at night. I’m not asking in a malicious way. I ask because it seems like the answers to all of my problems would be in my having a good job that would pay me enough to have money to take care of the rent, phone bill, car payment, shoes for the kid etc. And I hear that even when you have all of those security offering trappings, you still have “problems”.
What are they like? I’d really like to know.
