Busy

I've had a crazy weekend. I feel kind of wiped out and now I have to go to school again. Spring break is almost here, maybe I'll get some rest then. I talked to my tattoo guy and I'll probably be getting my piece done right around then.
Part of why I've been busy is because of work. One of the cool things about where I work is that they do some policy stuff. The state legislature is meeting soon and there's been lots of hearings. It's cool because my research may influence the way a bill gets written or amended. It may even influence if makes it out of committee after my boss has testified at the hearing.
I went to the Sage Francis show on Friday (after going to work, driving to Seattle, going to a reception, and driving back from Seattle). I think he's talented but it got me thinking about politics in music. I generally don't like it. Anytime you have to put politics into a format that will fit in song lyrics it generally becomes sloganeering. It makes everything simplistic and black and white. That tendency is part of why I hate this president and his administration so much. I hate feeling like I'm getting preached at. It doesn't matter which side is doing it. I think preaching is what led me to be an atheist. In music it gets ridiculous b/c you have to force "the message" into the meter and rhyme of the song. It feels artificial. 7 Seconds is a great case in point.
I think the stuff I'm doing now has more of an impact and actually changes things more than any song ever could. But I have to recognize that the reason I care about a lot of things is because that's what my favorite music was singing about. As cheesy as 7 Seconds could be, I always loved circle dancing and singing along with all the Oohs and Ahhs. It's kind of a chicken and the egg thing. Revolutionary fervor doesn't really change anything. Without revolutionary fervor everything is stagnate and nobody is motivated to change anything. The reason I have the ethical bent I do and value the things I do is because that's what the revolutionaries, I'm not talking about 7 Seconds here, were pushing for. I've distilled that down to something that will actually be effective and diluted it so that it's palatable to the mass of people.

I found this game today. It is the Devil.