evident in the mtv video award winners. madonna has managed to reach new lows at boorish attempts to shock. why can't this woman age gracefully? especially when she's got the $$ to do so.

i'm glad i don't have cable tv. i checked usa today because i wanted to find out if my fav band won an award. they did. but how the hell could Johnny Cash lose?

the music industry is in a sad state. the real talent is hiding in nyc subways singing and playing for change or doing a set at the local dive to an audience of 5 (usually family and friends). it's impossible at times to get good tickets to see the big names and radio sucks. but i hear punk is on the rise. we need a good cage rattling. we need dirty t-shirts and blue jeans. and musicians that can actually play instruments. we need people who sound great in the studio but who can also carry a tune live. no lip sinc'ers here.

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i had a heated discussion with a very close family friend. she made a few snide remarks about one of my family members moving to a town that wasn't like the environment in which my parents own a home. somehow culture and plain good manners get mixed up.

-drug selling/buying in that neighborhood has nothing to do with culture.
-nor does playing loud music at 4am, littering, and generally behaving like a horse's ass.
-beating up your girlfriend or smashing car windows isn't cultural either.

(i've witnessed the above first hand unfortunately too many damned times so i'm speaking from experience.)

i can't blame my family member for not wanting to raise his/her children in such an environment. there is nothing wrong with wanting to live in a neighborhood where your private property will generally be respected, you won't go to bed wondering if the windshield to your car will be all over the street, or have to chase the neighborhood thief who had the balls to walk into your backyard and is wheeling away your grill (a personal experience i had...)No, these kids will grow up bi-lingual. their parents will see to that. they will eat foods native to their background, they do already. they will visit said countries and stay with family, and learn family stories. that's cultural.

my parents raised us to:
share
be nice
respect your elders
you didn't talk back to them if you knew what was good for you
we went to church on Sundays unsupervised, that's how well behaved we were
we ate what Mom put in front of us
they NEVER had to go into school for anything other than parent-teacher conferences. sure some of us didn't have the best grades, but we all graduated high school. half of us have college degrees, families of our own, homes of our own.

i am not a white woman. but my resolve to get an education or to pursue a career has put me on the firing line with those that equate education with caucasian. not only is this ridiculous, but it seriously undermines All minorities by placing a "white wannabe" label on them. and it elevates "whites" as the ideal which delivers that group a double blow of not being taken seriously because "everything comes easy to them", and hated because "everything comes easy to them".

i can't tell you how many times i am perceived as a white woman. one of my dance instructors in nyc put it bluntly, "i thought you were some irish girl from brooklyn". i should have asked her why.

this is why i love animals (the 4-legged, feathered and furred. they don't care, just love them, get that can opened and you're in for good.)
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all in all, a quiet farmhouse in the middle of nowhere sure sounds nice about now.
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