PHILOSPHICATION

My General Thoughts On Life...

Religion
"To each his own" is my philosophy. Everyone has had different life experiences and everyone finds God (or lack of) in their own way. I myself believe in a higher power or energy that lives in everything including people, nature, molecules, cows, etc. It is how we harness this energy that makes all the difference. You can call it Jesus, Mohammed, Bhudda, Tao, the Force or whatever else you want. I call it God. It is your own personal experience, an experience that each person comes to. When will right-wing propagandists realize that they are not the only ones in this world? How many McDonald's do we need to build to make the world a safer place? I sometimes feel I should tell every self-righteous Christian that they are already outnumbered by Muslims on the face of this earth. Religioustolerance.org says this # is dropping even more in the next 20 + years. Be tolerant and accepting.

People
"And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make." This is the philosophy that has guided me through the adult years of my life. I believe if you surround yourself with a small group of positive talented people you will grow far more than you could by yourself. Find out how you can compliment one another's weaknesses and gain from each other's strengths. Give and you will get. But it is not only what you give to others, but to yourself as well. People must have the internal desire to educate themselves from ignorance and want to make a positive contribution. This is a parent's main job. In this way, we can make the whole greater than the sum of its parts. Everyone can rise up and fulfill their potential together.

The Music Business
Most people don't realize it but the biggest business decisions in America are made by the largest demographic groups in our society. Who is the single largest group? The children of the baby boomers. The U.S. population currently includes almost 32 million teens aged 12 to 19. And who is marketing to this group? The second largest group in our population - the 45-60 yr old baby boomers. Wonder why everything seems so risk-averse, boring and corporate nowadays? The first reason is our society's trust in computers and autotune. However, the second reason is that these aging boomers have finally traded in their flowers for the big payout. Too bad we all have to suffer. Music has been made into a formulaic science by this group. It is one of the largest factors that has ruined music in the last 15 years. We can only hope that in another 10-15 years the ruling boomers will retire and the music industry will finally open up again. Music will be experimental again when the Britany Spears generation leaves the safe haven of home and demands a deeper message. My favorite quote on this topic is one I read by Jimmy Page - a boomer himself..."Why do you feel the music of Led Zeppelin is so enduring? Because I think at the time it was recorded, we didn't have the corporate pressure laid on us as we recorded each album. So because of that, we recorded the music that was coming out at that point and time relative to where we were at that point in time." Record companies want their security today, a guaranteed 15% return. That's not self-actualizing for any artist or human being out there.