The Lovely Carla yesterday: "whatever it takes to feed the monkey." Indeed...
So, lately my favorite band is an outfit from L.A., now defunct, Rage Against the Machine (nothing like truth in advertising!). Not that I missed them the first time around, but lately, I've been spinning "The Battle for Los Angeles," over and over, and the pure, bone-crushing drums, the throbbing bass, Tom Morello's unique, avant garde approach to the electric guitar and Zach De La Rocha's raps on oppression and resistance, really ring the monkey's bell...thanks to the wonderous YouTube (instant fame three minutes at a crack!), you can view RATM in all their raucous glory (Morello and De La Rocha are human pogo sticks!), so anyway, my order from Amazon just arrived, a biography of Timothy Leary, and two more RATM discs...
Rage indeed...the world scene demands it...at the same time, it's all so damn ridiculous and heart-breaking, as Bill Montgomery over at Whiskey Bar puts it: "Welcome to the 'new' Middle East -- the geopolitical equivalent of the 'new' Coke. The recipe may be different, but it still tastes like blood." Yes, no sense in taking sides in a fight between lunatics...only adds to the madness...
I know a group like Hezbollah would probably be happy to have my head on a stick, but as I like to say, "one man's terrorist, is another's freedom fighter." It depends on which man or woman you happen to be...so what's a pilgrim to do? An accurate reading of the world scene seems to demand cynicism, sarcasm...how not to succumb? Rage...but, no it isn't enough...action? Anything one man chooses seems so miniscule, so ineffectual...become philosophical? Kind of a "cop out?" Leary once said, "tune in, turn on, drop out." But so much of the drug revolution proved to be a bran-numbing dead end...the beast actually thrives on a drug addled, consumer-crazed, populace...is it enough to note that we are in the belly of the beast, but we are not the beast? No, prrobably not...there's rage, but no refuge...where is the love???
