Just Because We Can...

Doesn't mean we should.

That's my new motto.  It applies to all kinds of things - 3D TVs, video monitors in cars, 24/7 news cycle, 479 cable channels...

What brought this on today, you ask?  Well, I'm was reading the paper, but I had the news on in the background. Before I knew it, the news transitioned to Entertainment Tonight and the *EXPOSE* about John Edwards and the *TELL ALL* book written by his former staffer.

I'm not sure that I want to reward a former staffer - presumably sworn to a code of confidentiality- who tells all.  I have had this conversation with several people who have said, "Well, John Edwards betrayed him. He has a right to..." Um. No. He doesn't.  Just because someone wrongs me doesn't give me the right to break my own agreements.  If you don't want to lie about his "love child", don't.  And you quit your job and walk away.  You don't write a tell-all memoir. But I digress.

I know that people want to know all this stuff - nobody admits to reading the National Enquirer, but someone is buying it.  The gory details of anyone's life - politicians, actors, celebrities, local people - just make me cringe. On the one hand, I want to just shake some of these folks and say, "What were you thinking???  Why can't you figure out that someone will catch you?" and on the other hand, I just want it to all go away.  I LIKE just watching an actor disappear into a role. I don't need to know about his affair 17 years ago with his next-door-neighbor's cousin's ex-girlfriend's brother. I DON'T CARE.

On days like today, I long for a culture that is forward thinking, that sees the consequences of their actions, that looks toward the future and considers what is best for all. I know that sounds quaint and old-fashioned. It's my generation gap showing again.

Newfangled Internet

So, I registered for an online class and I tried to pay for it...turns out I had a parking ticket from the local community college from this fall so there was a hold on my account. I called and got that taken care of and they told me that all was well and I could proceed to paying for the online class (which would be put on hold until I paid for it).

I called the Parking office and took care of the ticket, then I got transferred to the Business Office where they took the hold off. The Business Office tried several times to transfer me to Registration - both the general number and several people's direct line to their desks, but no luck. The Business Office lady could not see that I had registered for the class. I kept telling her that I was registered because how else would the intstructor know my email address, send me the syllabus, send me the first 2 lessons and 2 quizzes? But they can't find it.

I decided I would try to figure it out online, but I have had no luck. I called the direct number to the Non-Credit Community Ed courses but I have not been able to get through.

Computers are only as good as the person using them - either on the front or back end. I'm just smart enough to get myself into trouble - I can figure out some things, but MANY other items are a mystery. This is one of them. I haven't figured out if I will have to drop the class and re-register or what...it is so annoying. And now my class is on hold. So once I figure out how to pay for it, I have to go through the whole thing again to get the classroom access back up and running.

How hard does it have to be people?

iPod-o-phobia and the Fate of Music

I watched an American Masters episode on PBS this weekend called "Pete Seeger: The Power of Song".  I have never really paid much attention to Pete Seeger as a performing artist, but I know that he is responsible for many of the folk songs I loved so much as a child.  

Coming up in the early 1970s (or becoming concious of music in 1972 to be more specific), there was still a wild array of music converging from the Vietnam protests, R&B, popular music, country, rock, etc.  I feel lucky to have been exposed to so many types of music, so many singers, so many songs.  My parents had an 8-track player with a copy of Kenny Rogers and the First Edition's Greatest Hits (one of the greatest albums of all time), a reel-to-reel with a variety of Charley Pride, Charlie Rich, Tanya Tucker, Kenny Rogers, some musicals...all the music my parents loved, and we had the radio - in the car, in the house, in the back yard.

I think the idea of iPods are great - I have one...I love the idea of having the whole season of shows in a portable device so that if I lose the CDs during the year, I still have the music in a location I can find.  HOWEVER - the fact that we can just download 4,000 songs onto our iPods removes the power and exposure of radio and the ability of parents to pass down their music to the next generation in many ways. 

Obviously, each generation has their own music - I'm not disputing this, but I think it is healthy for people to listen to music together, to sing together, to enjoy debates about artists, albums and songs they are listening to together.  iPods are another way of isolating ourselves from others - in a different way than cd players/walkmen.  The iPod can keep you busy for DAYS without coming up for air - not good for the ears or for the psyche.

One of the things that I related to in the "Power of Song" program on PBS was the conversation about participation - most folk music involves the performer involving the audience as participants.  It brings an audience together when they sing together, love a song together.  Are we going to come to a place where we don't really even share songs in common across ages, genders, ethnicities?  Did we ever really do that or am I just romanticizing the past and being old-farty?

I'm not a great singer, but I love to sing.  About 10 years ago (maybe longer), I was invited to a concert by a local group called Motherlode.  Four women who have been singing together for years.  It was during the Measure 9 campaign to legalize discrimination against people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, etc. - an extremely difficult time for us all in the NW.  Anyway, I went to the concert, not knowing any of their music and at one point, they sang a song called "Everything Possible" and EVERY PERSON in the audience knew the song except for me.  They all sang it to the rooftops and it was one of the most moving experiences I have ever had in a concert - to be in the space when everyone connects on that level and to hear the passion, the love, the heart coming from all those people singing. Amazing.  I guess I just hope we aren't giving up experiences like that so that we can listen to our iPod in solitude.