Coffee and Code

Okay, I just found this picture on Hannah’s facebook profile so I just had to write a post about it.

My cousin Hannah lives in Montreal. She flew down for the weekend to visit my sister in Denver, and yesterday they went up to Cheyenne to visit the family there. Pictured here is Hannah holding Sebastian, my newest nephew as of April 11th, 2008. This is a great picture! In the background you can see Don Bess, my sister’s boyfriend. (Andy, my brother is in there too, but you can only see his leg...)

I haven’t met Sebastian yet. Hopefully I will get a chance later on this summer when my schedule slows down enough to allow some vacation time. I haven’t seen Claudia and Don in a really long time, and I know that they will show us a hell of a time in Denver. Plus, it’s only a two hour shot from Denver up to Cheyenne to see Mom, Dad, Andy, Hayley, A.J, and of course Sebastian.

In other news, I picked up some new music this weekend: Avenged Sevenfold (self-titled), and the Dropkick Murphys’ "Meanest of Times".

Avenged Sevenfold is the band’s latest album, and I do like it. It’s not quite as heavy as their previous album, and contains a lot of twisted love songs. However, they still riff sick and make me bang my head.

"Meanest of Times" is my favorite: the Dropkick Murphys’ brand of Irish/punk/hardcore/folk music really wants me to get out my bottle of Jameson and "tear it up". Their music kinda makes you want to sing along. I’ve been listening to it loud all weekend.

Well, that’s all for now. I wish everyone a great Memorial Day and happy trails!

I read this article on CNN.com the other day, and it really pissed me off.

To paraphrase the article, apparently talent is just not enough for women to be successful as entertainers - now, they have to be "sexy" too. A music industry executive (a woman, no less) is quoted in the article as saying:

"The music is not about just music anymore, it's about the look, the 'it' factor if you will ... it's marketing."

Is there anything more harmful music than to put more stock in how a musician looks than how he or she sounds? I don't think so. For one thing, professional musicians now must have to devote time and energy to maintaining their "perfect" physiques, which could only eat into the creative process. Should a talented musician have to endure withering comments from fashion critics? Should an extremely talented musician lose out on a recording contract because they just didn't have this year's 'it' look?

To hell with the record industry, the beautiful people, and those that support them. They are the Great and Shallow, and their legacy will be the corrosion of the musical arts in America.

They can keep their shitty Pussycat Dolls, and American Idols, and blonde, brainless lip-synchers galore. I don't want any.

They can keep their lame, quasi-sensitive poor excuses for rockers, too. Those guys aren't fooling anyone (with a brain anyway). Weakness!

Music can change lives. It's capable of awakening and inspiring people. If the trend of valuing phyiscal beauty and style above talent continues, however, music will cease to be a powerful force in our lives.

It's up to us, as consumers, to demand substance and to ignore fluff. So turn off American Idol or whatever, and crank some REAL MUSIC!!