Teach Them Young

What follows are two reasons why we are fucked as a society.

9-year-old boy told he's too good to pitch


Eight year old guitar player told to stop playing


As you can see, these two stories came out within a week of eachother and it quickly seems we have a rash of over-achieving youngsters being held back because they are "too good." Congratulations America, we have been punishing adults for being successful for a long time, now it seems the next logical step is to squash any attempt by a child to rise above the status quo.

This shit makes me absolutely sick.

Baseball

Ah how exciting it is that playoff baseball is only a month away! How excellent it is that this year's pennant race is one of the most exciting I have seen since recently (in the past five or so years) becoming a fan of baseball. How sad it is that the beloved New York Yankees have a very slim chance of getting into the playoffs.

I don't know enough about baseball to write a really smart analytical article on the sport, so I'll just tell you what I think right now.

First of all, even as a Yankee fan, I feel some people need to learn that the Yankees are not entitled to a playoff spot. Unless they win something like 22 of their last 29 games, they won't have earned it. To be honest, thats fine with me. Over the past few years I have evolved from liking the Yankees in the playoffs, to liking the playoffs in general, to liking the Yankees in general, to liking the American league in general, to liking baseball in general. Easy enough right?

So what happens to such a wishy-washy Yankee fan the first time they don't see the post-season since 1995? I'm jumping on the Tampa Bay Rays bandwagon of course! Oh, and the Cubs too.

First the Rays, Im pretty sure they have been the worst team in the A.L. East since their inception, and they have never won more than 70 games in a season, which is pathetic. This year they have lead the division for pretty much the whole season, and I say Tampa Bay all the way! Maybe if they win a world series they can sell some tickets to Tropicana Stadium, but prbably not.

And how about the National League? Im pulling for the sentimental favorite, the Cubs. Again, a bandwagoneer am I, but why not? They now have the longest standing dry spell in baseball and it just may be their turn on the 100 year anniversary of their last win.

So yeah, its an exciting time, even for a real pedestrian baseball fan, such as myself.

Christina Applegate

So my friends and my wife know I have a long list of celebrity crushes, both male and female. It is understood however, that it's not just an issue of "she's so hot." As it goes for a lot of people, there has got to be some substance to back up a pretty face and earn my admiration.

All of a sudden a few days ago, It struck me how rediculously gorgeous Christina Applegate is. You may ask "where the hell have you been for the last fifteen years?" but trust me, I've always been aware of her. My dad was a big Married With Children fan, and though I remember not really be allowed to watch it, I do remember seeing it sometimes. I imagine that most of the show consisted of airplane jokes for me around the age I was at when it was on. And sure, Christina as Kelly Bundy was quite hot even back then, but she was never a big deal to me.

So comes the news that Ms. Applegate recently underwent a double mastectomy to defeat breast cancer.

All of a sudden I think Christina Applegate is the greatest thing since sliced bread. I think she looks better now than back in the MWC days, and I only half know why. Am I all of a sudden enamored with her because I just realized how well she has aged, or do I admire her so for her courageous battle with cancer?

I don't know, but she is now on my list, and I wish her many years of good health.

Your art should be free.

You may or may not be aware that I play guitar and sing in a band called Annoying Customer. You also may or may not be aware that we recently completed an eight song piece of work entitled "Mongoose." (We don't know whether to call it an lp or an ep. It is eight songs and clocks in at about fifteen minutes. It is really a conundrum.)

In any event, we as a band wanted to make a quality product for the handful of people who have heard of us to enjoy. At first we struggled with the choice to self-publish or pay someone for pressing. In the end we went for self-publishing, and I am very glad we did. The final product is something all three of us are extremely proud of and we can say every copy was hand-made.

Though certain parts of recording and publishing were extremely stressful, we made it. One of the last minute decisions we made was how much to charge for a cd copy of "Mongoose." When all was said and done, it cost us ninety dollars to make 100 copies of a cd that, if I may say, looks pretty damn professional. In the end we decided to give our cd away free of charge. But we didn't come to that decision instantly. I'd like to discuss the actual concept of paying money for a piece of art, specificallly in the context of the band I am in and the cd we just made.

There are two schools of thought that come to mind for me when "this business of art" is brought up. The first comes courtesy of Joe Barbiere, the brilliant father of two former bandmates of mine. When faced with the "give it away or charge money" question in regards to a demo we had made, Joe offered these words of wisdom: When you give something away, there is a perception of worthlessness.

The second take comes from one of my favorite tv shows, Six Feet Under, in which one of Claire's art school professors proclaims "All artists should want to give away their work for free!"

Of these two ideas, I am lately leaning towards the latter.

We as a band have almost never made money for playing music in our near-decade together. It has never been our business to be in business. When we were in high school, we were happy to have gigs. Now we all have full-time careers, and are happy to have gigs in this hobby of ours. We are, and have always been, in the frame of mind that we are delighted that anyone would want to spend some of their valuable time listening to us. For that, you can have our cd.

What price can one put on a good album? With huge profit margains on cds and the industry leading to internet/digital publishing, what band can honsestly say they deserve money for you to listen to the work they did? I am leaning towards a rant so I'll wrap in up right here. I'll just say if you make art, consider the fact that you could be (or maybe are being) completely ignored. Someone's interest in your work is priceless. We should be grateful for anyone who shows interest in soemthing we created. Artists should want to give away their work.