2008 Heritage Blues Festival, Wheeling, W Va
Maybe readers have noticed. I've been pissed off this week about the overt dishonesty of a corrupt corporate media hellbent on propagandizing the American public over town halls and health care reform.
Why I didn't anticipate this depraved behavior by media…..I can't say. I guess it's the level of dishonesty, the full metal jacket dishonesty, that's caught me off guard…..but I should have known better. All I can say is that I'll try to be more realistic going forward.
Conservatives and Republicans, coupled with health care industry big dogs and their public relations deceivers, will do anything to stop meaningful reform of our busted health care system. Why? The two P's….profits and power. The American people don't even enter into the equation.
Corporate media, which comprehends every dispute as a potential ratings bonanza, could care less about the actual health reform discussion. That's why you'll rarely ever see a serious dialogue on the teevee about pressing health care issues. Corporate media only cares about the game of politics, not the substance of policy making.
Today's teevee "news" figures are nothing more than carnival barkers for corporate interests……and I know that….but this week, the brazenness and obvious dishonesty got to me anyway.
The Mrs. and I are taking a long weekend starting this afternoon. I need to hear some blues I can use. We're headed to Wheeling, WVa to the Heritage Blues Festival. It's a three day event featuring numerous national blues artists and local talent. If you're not a blues enthusiast, you may still recognize the name….The Fabulous Thunderbirds. They're the feature act on Sunday. Others include Walter Trout, Bobby Rush, Sonny Landreth, and The Sapphire Uppity Blues Women.
While jazz is said to be America's contribution to music, being the contrarian that I am, I think that blues is more American. With it's often mournful sound, it's earthy lyrics and it's chord progression building and breaking like ocean waves seeking resolution……the blues never fails to move me emotionally.
Three straight days of solid live blues, hopefuly, will bring me back to reality. Societal change is always accompanied with struggle. A struggle that will never end, never be won. Substantive societal change will always pit entrenched and powerful players against the will of the masses, as it is doing today in America. Intuitively, I know this to be true. Experientially, this struggle, when accompanied with so much dishonesty and deception, is extremely frustrating.
It's time for the waves of the blues to wash away those frustrations. Next blog post will be on Tuesday.
