Thanks For Listening

I always get a big kick out of reading these at the end of every year. Ah hate, you just keep reeling me back in!

Speaking of hate, can the Grammys possibly out-suck themselves next year? I know I say that every year, as if I'm expecting something different than the last year. And I know my sentiment is hardly revolutionary, like someone taking a hard and radical stance against rape or, or drowning puppies or something. But obviously the formula works if they are just going to keep circling the suck-drain until the cycle comes full circle into something "new". And new as in what was hot twenty years ago. Which I suppose I protested that time as well. Have I become as cliche as the Grammys themselves?

The funny thing is that I keep expecting something revitalizing just around the corner. Or revolutionary in terms of mainstream music consumers who are currently blown away by the edgy likes of Lady Gaga. Not that I am so hard-lined that I am strictly opposed to Lady Gaga, per se. As a friend of mine described, her music wouldn't be all that interesting if we weren't watching her performing it at the same time in her David Cronenberg-goes-to-Vegas body horror fashions and demonstrations. It's what a generation raised on an MTV that no longer exists does to get noticed in the music industry these days. Of course, then you have Susan Boyle, who seems to be an almost negation of that. Initially laughed at before she first opened her mouth, she suddenly sold an outstanding number of albums without having to strut in pair of Alexander McQueen's 10-inch heels. Then again maybe Stephen Colbert was on to something when he questioned why Boyle wasn't at the Grammys with all the other glammies this year.

That's why I think something's coming up to switch things around a bit in the near future. Bands like Poison and Motley Crue were riding high in the late 80's and early 90's until the grunge scene surfaced, although rappity-rock groups like Faith No More and the Red Hot Chili Peppers were already drawing kids' attentions away from the hair-metal direction. Punk is stale now. Gangster rap is so ten years ago. It has to be something else. Yet somehow, no matter how new it might seem to the masses, it's still just a rearrangement of the same four chords. Sometimes I really and truly wish that rock 'n roll would just hurry up and die already.

Man, I'm cynical. See what being cooped up in a snow storm does to the genteel southern mind? Where's my fucking mint julep. *reaches for Robitussin*