10 Ideas for MMJ

[ycartrob]

Jeeez wellfleet, you're an apologist for media conglomerates, pharmaceutical companies, and Ashlee Simpson....no wonder we disagree so much!  ;)

[ratsprayer]

tracy, for a number of reasons, im starting to like you more and more.  its a scary world out there, folks.

to everyone:
here whats the fuck i think.  you do what you think is right, ill do what i think is right.  stop fucking attacking people and saying you think someone else is flat out wrong.  if you feel so passionately about this, focus your efforts on some other issue in the world that will make this world a better place, and believe, im not changing the subject, but it cant be argued there are more important things that could use more attention.  

[wellfleet]

apologist would imply that i and they have something to be sorry for.
not all big media is bad, making money is neither shameful nor a sign of bad faith, my dad's company saves lives and makes lives better, and ashlee simpson is like, the best singer since hilary duff, so take that!

i honestly believe that people who rail against big business are immature. not all corporations are evil and success is not to be begrudged. any one of those people, if they hit the lotto, would welcome their windfall and enjoy their money, but nobody else can? if you come up with something people are willing to pay for then you're a bad person? i wish i could see the world in big=bad, money=greed=evil, success=selling out, meaningless=worthless. it shows a severe inability to discern the nuance in life.

everyone loves to hate wal mart, for example. i am aware of their wrongs and there are many of them. but i live in arkansas now, home of wally world, and i see how much they out into the community. seriously, man. they endow libraries, scholarships, breakfast programs, recycling, they offer employment to people who would otherwise suffer from their lack of skills in this statistically undereducated state, if arkansas moved to say, honduras and did not endow so many charities and good works, this state would be devastated.

seeing these things in such a simplistic manner is not based in reality and not seeing the good with the bad is intentional blindness to stand by some self-righteous point. and i don't mean you tracy, but some people.

[wellfleet]

it's not my fault, i'm mouthy about everything!

but dudes, to each his own, and judge not lest ye be judged... i don't think anyone here is wrong, and certainly tracy and sweatboard and chills made some really good points for and against downloading. the test has to be if you can look at yourself in the mirror every morning and feel ok with yourself, then it's all good.
my ethics prof said one of the tests was "if what you were doing was in the news tomorrow for everyone to see, would you be ok with that?" and that's valid too.

i, for one, like the hell out of all of you.



(supposed to convey affection...)

[ycartrob]

Main Entry: apol·o·gist
Pronunciation: &-'pä-l&-jist
Function: noun
: one who speaks or writes in defense of someone or something

As for media conglomerates, I have a problem with 5 major corporations distributing 95% of all music, books and movies in this country.

As for pharmaceutical companies, they pay off psychiatrists for certain diagnoses' so the shrink will prescribe their drug. EXAMPLE: the prevelance of true bi-polar (actual manic/depressive episodes) in adolescents is less than 1%. At one point last year, half my case load (5 of 10) of adolescents was dx bi-polar and they were all on 2 or more meds (they got 13 year old kids on Risperdal for God's sakes!). The pharm. companies are not doing this for R@D, they're doing it for marketing expenses and to get the kids hooked early.

Wal Mart is the lesser of 2 evils ( do not work or work for a company that makes billions but does not offer health care to it's workers).

I buy music from Sony, I take Zantac for acid reflux and I sometimes shop at Wal Mart. I don't hate these people, but I cannot pretend everything is a-ok either.

I see it differently b/c the people I represent and work for are homeless or close to homeless. America does not exist without a poor working class, I have no choice to fight for their rights and point out how "freedom" is subjective.

if a 19 year old person in our program asks me if it's OK to download Beethoven's 9th for free b/c Beethoven's 9th is the only thing that brings him joy, I'm not about to tell him about the evils of taking from corporate America. Hell, I might even front him a blank CD!

[Meddle]

has anyone wondered why "Z" was protected?  Maybe MMJ had some input on that except for the hidden software aspect of it, but maybe they want money from sales because after all their job is making good music for the fans to enjoy, but for a price... And for them by supporting the protected cd type then they would make money off of hard copies.

[EC]

Woweee.  I'm actually pretty torn on the downloading subject.  I used to be a pretty big downloader.  Now I don't do any downloads at all.

Here's a bit of truth.  When I knew I was going to see My Morning Jacket in Nashville, and I'd heard ISM twice on my brother's stereo, I downloaded everything I could find.  I took all the mp3s that were available here, found whatever I could on (hmm, what was that called, donkey something..)  anyhow, I found At Dawn.

I didn't get the real copy until my Mom got it for me for Christmas that year.  I STILL have Harvest on my computer and I've never bought it.  I listen to it all the time.  And I feel shitty about it because I really really like and admire Neil Young, but I am broke as hell and can't even remember the last time I bought myself a new cd.  

Holy crap.   Aside from Z, I honestly think it was last summer.

I don't download now.  I don't feel right about it.  This is not a moral judgement on the world, it is me.  I also worry about people like me a little (ie having Harvest and never buying it).  

I like the idea of a myspace, say, where at least you have a bit of control.  People can check stuff out, can listen whenever they want, but they have to be on the computer - it's not like they can stick a song on their ipod or burn it.  It gives a fair hint at what kind of music the band is all about, and then you can choose if you want to purchase the album.  

I really don't know where I stand.  I go up and down.  But man, I kind of hope I decide that I'm ok with downloading, because I could sure use some new tunes.  ;)

[wellfleet]

tracy... honest to god, i don't think you even read what i write slowly enough to understand that i, more than many people here, do see both sides of the coin very clearly. of course concentrated media ownership is bad, i'm in journalism for pete's sake, i KNOW it's a bad deal. of course pharma companies do evil shit to make more money, but a drug my dad work on, an AZT inhibitor, helps people living with HIV live longer and better. wal mart treats some employees poorly, but it also does a lot for the community.
nothing is completely one thing or the other and that's what i've been saying all along.
no, america cannot exist without breaking the backs of the working poor (and illegal immigrants, and women, and minorities). but that's because, as sad and terrible as it is for your cases to hear, not everyone can be a neurosurgeon or an engineer. not everyone can be a pilot. by necessity, some people must become nurses, janitors, electricians and flight attendants. all respectable jobs that fine, hard-working people do every day, they're just not the "glamour" jobs.
i can see how much compassion you have for your kids and how their lack of opportunity is due to poverty and related circumstances. but in a market economy, someone is almost always working for someone else, it's just a fact. it's not fair, it's unjust, it's sad, but it's true. not everyone has the talent to become hendrix, someone has to become a foley artist.
you know, it's just not that easy for me to see things as wholly black or white because i don't fit the typical hard-left liberal box. i'm so left-wing on so many issues but i also have less sympathy for people who don't follow the social contract.

[wellfleet]

and also, big T, god love you, but i don't think you have a leg to stand on defining words for me. when your grammar gets better, feel free to dictionarize me.  ;)

[sweatboard]

Wellfleet, at this point you have contradicted yourself so many times that I'm not even sure YOU know what your trying to say.  I still love you though.

Brian

[ycartrob]

Wellfleet, at this point you have contradicted yourself so many times that I'm not even sure YOU know what your trying to say.  I still love you though.

Brian

ditto

[ycartrob]

and also, big T, god love you, but i don't think you have a leg to stand on defining words for me. when your grammar gets better, feel free to dictionarize me.  ;)

wellfleet, being an apologist has nothing to do with apologizing or being sorry for something (like you said), it simply means you are defending something, usually controversial.  You look pretty silly when you act all tough about your grammar skills.

Do yourself a favor and look it up. And follow EC's lead when someone called her on a word last week, she accepted it and thought it was funny.

I swear, you got a chip on your shoulder the size of a 1975 Buick LeSabre.

[EC]

Yesterday I was walking and I had Z playing and Law Loy came on, and I was on a side street, and the car above (or one very similar) passed me by, and I look around and I thought it was the PERFECT car to start a video for such a hot song.  Can you imagine, some dudes are in the car ready to find some ladies who stay home and don't get high, and they're in their special car...

Don't you think that's a GREAT idea?!

[ycartrob]

Yesterday I was walking and I had Z playing and Law Loy came on, and I was on a side street, and the car above (or one very similar) passed me by, and I look around and I thought it was the PERFECT car to start a video for such a hot song.  Can you imagine, some dudes are in the car ready to find some ladies who stay home and don't get high, and they're in their special car...

Don't you think that's a GREAT idea?!

This car?

[EC]

This car?

for sure.  don't you think?  it's kind of an old funky car, you imagine kind of bassy funky sounds comin' out of there...  songs about going full tilt all night and passing out...

[EC]

wait!  NO!  i didn't see the picture of the car when i replied, i meant the one you'd posted above.

that car is pretty fun, too, though.  but the lay low car needs to be big.

[peanut butter puddin surprise]

hmmm....like this?

[EC]

yep.  that would do.  i think the soft tops in both the cards are a real selling feature for the lay low car.  i can't decide if i want it to be able to bounce or not.

that's gotta be some kind of woman in that picture to park the car in her living room.  i am VERY fond of the porcelain white dog, as well as the fact that she's sitting on the table when there are two perfectly good chairs not in use.  in addition, those are the longest candles i've ever seen, and the art director must've been very tired because everything is so precise except for the bit of carpet that is snagged under one of the chair legs.

holy crap.  i hope that my golden ear training this weekend doesn't turn me into an obsessive compulsive detail person.  don't want that at all.

but yeah.  lay low video.  want it.

[sweatboard]

yep.  that would do.  i think the soft tops in both the cards are a real selling feature for the lay low car.  i can't decide if i want it to be able to bounce or not.

that's gotta be some kind of woman in that picture to park the car in her living room.  i am VERY fond of the porcelain white dog, as well as the fact that she's sitting on the table when there are two perfectly good chairs not in use.  in addition, those are the longest candles i've ever seen, and the art director must've been very tired because everything is so precise except for the bit of carpet that is snagged under one of the chair legs.

holy crap.  i hope that my golden ear training this weekend doesn't turn me into an obsessive compulsive detail person.  don't want that at all.

but yeah.  lay low video.  want it.

are you high?

[ycartrob]

are you high?

ditto