Thursday, October 3, 2019

Could the answer be that we're all right and wrong at the same time?

What's shakin Party People!

I'm up early on a Thursday morning and I'm trying to fix the worlds problems from my studio. Keep in mind, when I say "Fix the World" I mean I'm just trying to find a way to make it do what I tell it to do.

The topic of censorship has been coming up a lot in stand up comedy and rather than have a thoughtful discussion with a way to move forward as a society, a lot of us have chosen to pick a side and show up to the war with merch. Meaning in the argument there are a few valid points, and with those points come many selfish self serving interpretations that suit many a selfish needs.

In my opinion, censorship is trying to ruin comedy but it's making it better by accident. I think anytime you try to control thought and expression it comes back with even more force and meaning. We've already seen this in every decade going back to the 50's when it comes to music and film.

Censorship has evolved along with our technology in the way of demonetizing and search engine results. These tactics are effective in this day and age but I wonder if they will have the same influence in the next few years. At this point I think YouTube is begging for someone to come along and knock them off their perch. The same can be said for Google. Keep in mind that 20 years ago, the power and influence they wield was then possessed by the 24 Hour news cycles, 15 years prior to that it was the 3 major networks, before that the newspapers and so on. In the end , it always backfires.

This week I read an article trying to state the case that comedians George Carlin and Eddie Murphy wouldn't be on the "side" of UN-PC comedy. That whole premise stinks of someone who hasn't been in comedy for a very long time. First thing is first, putting words and intention into a dead person's mouth is fucking gross. Secondly, if you were going to state a person's ideals in an article, maybe ask the person who is still alive instead of just watching a video of someone else's work and using that for your argument.  The weird thing about comedy is no matter how offensive the joke is, there are a lot of us who will always ask the question, was it funny? We're people laughing?

I'll try to be cheerful and inspirational here but life and existence is pain and suffering.  A big part of life is being able to see through the misery that comes in two forms, constant and in abundance. When we can see through all of that bullshit and laugh, to find joy in the cosmic joke of humanity, we are able to rise above the muck and see the true joy in life. That being our thoughts, our feelings, the way we have bonds of love and friendship in a reality that craves conflict and evolution. Laughter is very human, it also spits in the face of power, now matter if that power is above you or below you.

I see both sides of the debate , you won't like either, I'll just tell you now.

I see the comic who cries at how he can't say anything offensive and that his rights are being taken away from him. He's usually a young comic (0-4 years in stand-up) who hasn't figured out how to be funny yet. For the life of them they can't figure our why the baby raping jokes aren't going over.

On the other side , is a comic who doesn't think other comics should say anything offensive and is more interested in influencing the world for the better. They also are about 0-4 years into comedy and haven't found a way to be funny yet. They have a tendency to perform in their support bubbles and mistake clapter for laughter.

The point is, a great cause is an even greater distraction from creating something personal and real in their art. When that work is finally created, you're going to need that freedom of expression to get it to as many people as possible, so be careful what you wish for. Causes have a bad habit of swallowing up the individual if we're not careful.

Till next time Party People, keep on a chooglin!

Saturday, March 30, 2019

I don't write as much as I used to and nowhere near as much as I should.

Evening Party People,

               It's been awhile since I've sat down and hit the keys hasn't it. I think in my ego I think perhaps one of you out there on the Internet is waiting for me to write something. Perhaps you connect with what I feel from time to time, maybe these silly blogs give you joy or perhaps just a little piece of mind.
               I bask in my ego for just a moment and realize that perhaps you aren't waiting for me to write something, I am. That part of me that's waiting is wearing a mask that has your face. It knows I crave an audience...it knows me so well. Strange that I don't at times.
               This next month is going to be a challenge, this time by choice. I'm calling it the DisJointed Challenge. In the month of April , I'm going to push my body to work out 15 times in 30 days. 5 workouts must be before work and 5 after work.
               I'm doing this because I want to see if I have what it takes to state a goal and follow through with it. I did a similar challenge of no video games in the month of February. I learned a bit about myself in that month so I'm excited about what I'll learn in April.


               My car seems to be working great now, one less excuse to not hit the open mics. I'm a little nervous about the scene, perhaps my perception of it isn't attuned to what it really is. Everyone has the best intentions of not wanting to offend anyone, which I think is a good thing. However in my view , the world doesn't always deserve to be treated nicely, no one does. That's not to say we shouldn't be nice to one another, I'm saying no one deserves to be treated nicely for no particular reason. The key word is "deserve".
               I think we as a species have forgotten how we got to this era, this time and place of our civilization. We live in a world where we don't treat people with special needs as being mentally ill. While we incarcerate way too many people, we don't don't execute people for minor crimes. Granted we love to watch a person's career and character be publicly executed, we don't hang people or behead them in a town square in America.
               While I think we have many lofty ideals about acceptance and tolerance, we forget that forgiveness is an essential part of moving past (or overcoming) our caveman dna. I think if we can't forgive , if we can't see our enemies with love and compassion, then I don't think it matters how many people are on "Our Side" , in the end we wont change a thing.
               Still stubborn, still vengeful, still clenching our first in the name of what's right, we just can't have nice things.

               Lucky for us, if we stand back a few steps from the world around us, turn the canvass and adjust our view, we can see how comical it all is. My favorite example is everyone hating Kanye for liking Trump and in the same week pretend to care about people suffering from mental illness. That's funny to me. I should save some of this for my act, just felt the need to reach out and say hello.

I hope you're doing well my friends, I really do.

Monday, January 28, 2019

New Home for The DisJointed Podcast

Find The DisJointed Podcast on many of your favorite listening apps here!

Wednesday, November 28, 2018

Humanity fail on my part!

Morning Party People!

I know it's been awhile since I've written anything on here, it's been awhile since I've done anything truly creative to be frank. I'm feeling the effects of it for sure.

I'm not sure that this post would be considered creative so let's just say it's mildly productive.

In the past two weeks I've fallen down two YouTube rabbit holes. One being African Americans reacting to heavy metal music. The other one being updates on Tekashi 69 vids.

For those of you who don't know , Tekashi 69 is a rapper from New York that sports an insane amount of face tattoos and rainbow colored hair. I listened to 1.5 of his music videos so I am no means an expert. I will say that his music has some catchy bits and is very aggressive , so I get why young men would dig it.His other skill seemed to be with social media and trolling. Most of which seems to be working against him.

The past week the artist was arrested and charged with some serious crimes such as racketeering, robbery, and drug distribution. The kind of charges that would make you pray for just being charged with domestic violence. Now I'm no legal expert, hell I'm not any kind of expert, but I'm pretty sure they're going to say that everything Tekashi 69 posted on line was for entertainment only.

It reminds me of Schrodinger's Paradox, a concept my friends Amy and Aaron told me about. It states that a person's words are totally serious until another person gets pissed and confronts them, at that point the previous statement "miraculously"  turns into a joke and was never meant to be taken seriously. The social media generation uses this rule quite often.

You're not the only one's who do this kids, you're just the generation that grew up in this new environment and see the world just a little bit differently than the one previous generations grew up in.Lucky you.

I think the next generation will have a rediscovery of honor and integrity. Meaning they'll have to find a way to create( or recreate) a level of value to one's own word. It used to mean something, then we found loopholes, then we lessened the value, and then the internet came along and flipped the game board all together. So congratulations young people, it's up to you to save humanity....or maybe just yourselves for right now, but you get the idea.

Till next time Party People,
Keep on a Chooglin!