let the gap begin... i just caught some of the mtv video music awards. wow. i am turning into an old codger. i realize that i am getting older, and there is some unwritten rule about not understanding the younger generation's customs, but... how do people function in the mainstream these days? is it me or is enimem the biggest, no-talent loser to stretch his career to the limits of a quarter hour? i don't understand the hip-hop culture. i enjoy rhythym when i hear it, but what the hell is with the designer sweat suits, and licking your lips every three seconds? i don't get it. why does everyone sing like they have a mouth full of chips? is it me or is jennifer lopez slowly morphing into gloria estefan? why do these things bother me? i guess i'm just tired of the rehash. are there no more original ideas? are we at the end? the best i can hope for these days is the mixing of elements that worked before. whatever the case, if the end product doesn't have a soul, why bother? oh, yeah. money. now we just take elements of songs that made money before, sample them, rip them off, spit them back out, and cash in. lovely. even newer musicians i like, seem to be archetypes of old favorites. i'm not a classic rock puritan. don't get me wrong. my tastes are an amalgam of my sisters' and brother's before me. i can enjoy almost any kind of music. i can dance along to the top 40 hit with the great beat you can dance to, get lost in a twenty minute long arena rock song, or slip into an electronica trance. i think i'm musically open minded, but 90% of what is new sucks ass. i don't get producing something just for shock value. howard stern, jackass, tom green crassness is shallow, empty and luckily short lived for the most part. where does it end? when you've smashed the last boundary, what's next? enimem sings about killing people and rape, and he's a genius? he's a dirty, little, perverted child kicking and screaming in public, and too many people are giving him attention. just because he can rhyme to a beat? rose are red, violets are blue, get this little white punk off the stage... i have been surprised on occasion. that which i rail against has thrown me a curve, and i've bent in the favor of the masses. i don't like to admit it, but sometimes it's nice to be proven wrong. someone out there please prove me wrong. show me talent and words that speak to me, and i'll go along. until then if you need to find me... i'm the thirty-something guy blasting indian tribal rhythms in his station wagon.