Have you ever noticed how many musicians being interviewed will plug their next album? These are not my heroes, as I consider recording to be the lowest form of musical expression (with live performance to a small audience being the highest). I’m still searching for a decent stage drum box, and a clerk at Guitar Center said a Steinberg “Groove Agent” is what I need. I’m going to check that out, but I have the feeling it will be another Dr. Rhythm type contraption designed for studio work. I know recording is where the money is but aren’t those the first musicians to claim they aren’t in it for capital gain?The media still refers to 15 million unemployed as a “recession”. In economics, we learned that stat does not include those who have “stopped looking for work”, a categorization which mystifies me to no end. Is it like a decision you make one morning while shaving? Who wouldn’t decide never to pay rent or buy food if given the option?
There is also a slowdown in temp hiring, which are the lowest paying jobs. Who was the president who said all factories dependent on paying less than a living wage should be banned from operation in America. I’ve been a temp, but it was always full time and I made a lot more than they make today. A shortage of minimum wage jobs is more ominous than society admits. The stock market remains a mess and I’m curious how the system will tilt after 2010 when the old people try to permanently pull their money out. That won’t be a sell-off, that will be a sell-out.
Remember those annoying robo-calls that your “factory” auto warranty was about to expire? They were finally put out of business by a lawsuit. The case interested me because robo-calls could (at that time) only be temporarily halted by court injunction, and even then, only calls originatingin the state where the parent company is located. Worse, the injunction merely bars them from making the calls using a false caller ID. Oddly, having to display their real phone number is enough to stop the callers, something those who don’t think privacy has value should ponder a while.
[Author’s note: In case you are wondering, the parent company was “Automotive Warranty Solutions” in Arkansas, whose telemarket department is (was) called “Transcontinental Warranty Inc.” owned by Christopher Cowart. Rhymes with “coward”. He hired the robot callers at “Voice Touch Inc.” from Ft. Lauderdale to do the actual dialing. Robo-callers were outlawed on Sept. 1 this year, but only to residential numbers on the No Call List. Cowart, like any money, has disappeared. The other two outfits are still in business, meaning certain types of accessory to crime are de facto quite legal.]
A growing group are taking this 2012 “Nostradamus Effect” seriously. I explained it twenty years back as pure coincidence. Although I do believe the date has some significance, it does not represent the end of the world. All calendars have to end sometime and one can easily read all the other associations into Revelations, Hitler and cereal boxes.
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