Evil starts a chatroom...

I like the idea of internet shorthand for evil masterminds AFV = Away from victim, YSPFYI = You shall Pay for your insolence, RTH (I leave this one for readers to figure out), etc... I aspire to come up with a list. Any ideas?

The Promise Of Equality stalled...

A friend recently posted about her frustration at the lack of progress in our society on the treatment of women. Well, I have been thinking about this my whole life it seems... and as someone that often gets dismissed at the heated man bashing marathons with a wave and a curt "oh, we don't mean YOU!" I figured I was allowed to offer advice.

Perhaps we have not moved further on the problem because we have been largely ignoring one half of it. We have been talking for many decades about how to help girls and women, but little thought has been put into how to help boys become the men we expect them to be. Yes the pink aisle is a travesty but no one ever talks about the black flaming death aisle. My son told me the other day that boys are "not cute" I quizzed him a bit and found out that it was something one of his teachers had said... we teach little kids that girls are precious and dainty and boys are gross and tough... what bullshit! Wanna know one reason I think things have not completely changed? Fear that little boys may "turn" gay. Most people are not ready to embrace the steps it will take to fundamentally change our society. Boys have their whole self worth pinned to whether or not they can throw a damned ball, or fight, or risk their life. Few people talk about it as a problem... but boys are greatly judged on their size from birth. I would feel so bad for the boys clearly being compared in to our gigantic infant/toddler. Men never ask me if I would try to get our son into sports, but I heard it constantly from women. I finally got fed up with them putting this propaganda in his ear that I started whispering to them that I was giving him coffee to stunt his growth in hopes he would be an artist. Are you a small dude? You are screwed. You will see it in your parents eyes. Boys get abused, and yes, boys get raped, worst of all boys get ignored. And I would say its not only the men in the lives of boys that are messing them up every single day, Women contribute greatly. Back when we were 14, my friends mother constantly railed about the evils of men in front of both her sons (and me). Next time I see two toddler boys beating the hell out of each other and hear the young mothers who have their little girls dressed like princess say "oh well... Boys will be boys!" maybe I should call child protective services. Then there is how fathers are portrayed by the media... Boys grow up seeing fatherhood constantly portrayed as a "joke" or worse, fathers are domineering killjoys, even often the villain. Hardly ever are they cast as loving co-parents who nurture and adore the children. Boys and young men are getting sent the massage that they are "bad" and there is little escape.

We are two halves of a whole... you will never fix a flat by patching a leak in one side of the tire and saying... "Screw the other side! It has 20% less wear over the last decade so it can patch itself!

If we want better equality, we should start by doing these impossible things...
Teach ALL young people respect for the full spectrum of human sexuality.
Teach young people not to use any size and strength advantage to dominate others.
Teach young people not to use sexuality to dominate others.
Be honest about the differences between the sexes and explain why that can be an advantage.
Fundamentally change sports at all levels and remove the gladiatorial element, privilege and worship of athletes.
Fundamentally change the fashion industry... (this is often talked about, but I add it for balance)
Stop treating 16-25 year olds like children; expect more "responsible adult behavior" from young adults. 16-25 year olds are not "KIDS." Treating them like they have no responsibility is robbing them of the time of their life when many important lessons should be naturally learned, Hopefully with some guidance.
Stop worshiping youth culture and acting like 16-25 year olds have the answers... they rarely do.
Fundamentally change or eliminate major religions. (I am encouraged by some recent papal talk)

Mix all that together and wait about 50-100 years for all the remaining assholes (of both genders) to die and things may be noticeably better.

Favorite Musician Jokes

Q: What is the difference between a dead opossum lying in the road and a dead trombone player lying in the road?
A: The opossum may have been on his way to a gig.


Q: What dose it mean when drool is coming out of both sides of a drummers mouth?
A: The stage is level.

Here, in my own verbose fashion (and hopefully updated to have less stereotyping crap) is the classic "When drums stop, very bad" joke...

Deep in a jungle, a eco tour was camped for the night. In the darkness, distant drums began a relentless beat that continued through the night and then into the morning, gradually increasing in volume and intensity. The tour members were disturbed and went to their guide to ask if they were in any danger, but the guide tried to reassured them: "NO! Drums good! When drums stop, very bad." The drumming continued, never stopping and steadily becoming more fevered and menacing. Once again the tour members, tired from lack of sleep and feeling very unsafe, questioned the guide, but the guide reiterated, as best he could in a language foreign to him, "NO! Drums good! When drums stop, VERY bad." This continued day after day and night after night until one morning the drumming suddenly stopped! The tour members, unsettled from lack of sleep began to panic. Some started to scream, cry, hide, or run mindlessly in the building terror of the camp. The tour leader found the guide, grabbed him by the shoulders and screamed "Whats happening!?" The guide frozen in place and staring into the distance slowly whispered: "When drums stop, VERY, VERY bad," The tour leader shook the guide and begged "YES! YES! But why is it bad? What happens when the drums STOP!!!" And with trembling lips and a single tear streaming down his cheek the guide spit out the words "Bass solo." 

The well of fun

I was reminded by my friend Marlena to have fun with your children wherever you are. I feel like I used to be better at that, but might have been slowing down on the skipping in the mall as he got older... am I getting too serious? He is a challenge at times, willful, inattentive, argumentative about just about everything, hugely energetic... Most of those traits are things that can be an advantage if he gains the wisdom to use them well. So where to draw the line? Clearly it's not a free for all, h e need guidance, but I may be forgetting the fun a bit more than I should recently.

I want to create many good memories for my son, and I feel it's important for us to have silly good fun together. I think those little fun things can dramatically shape his memories about being young.

Once in a store I was entertaining Jamieson in the shopping cart (various crazy stuff) and a woman ask me "how do you have the energy to think all that up?" and I said "Luckily I have a vast repertoire of immature behavior to draw upon".

I hope he and I haven't exhausted that supply.

Corporate Anthems And Privacy Genies That Are Not Going Back In A Bottle

Back in the seventies I can recall being freaked out by the idea of a "corporate anthem" playing in the beginning of the movie Rollerball. It was a powerful image of a future that needed to be avoided and it was an early source of the concept for a young Murdock that our lives are increasingly influenced by corporations and people in positions of power outside of government. Schoolhouse Rock had been blowing smoke up my ass! Well, many years have gone by and other movies shocked us with dystopian futures run by uncaring corporations. Omni Consumer Products, Weyland-Yutani, at the time their fictional antics seemed so shocking... but now, after living a life in which I have witnessed the real life actions and negligence of the powerful, that aspect of those movies seems quaint.


Traditionally, our government has been a tool to protect us from overpowered corporations, but people don't seem to LIKE or TRUST the government as of late. They do however appear to pacified by the marketing, services and entertainment provided by corporations. This seems dangerous to me. People are getting very understandably upset recently about our government having access to personal information, but I rarely hear them speak about the fact that they GAVE the information being collected to corporations themselves without demanding it be absolutely private. Often times agreeing to share shocking amounts of personal data under questionable guidelines of privacy. We did it.
And why is the government worse than FB or Google? I think people are shouting about a big scary dog (which may or may not be friendly) while petting a hungry lion dressed as a clown (which was always planning to eat you).

So, maybe its time to drop the pretense, show our true allegiance and just write some anthems for the worlds largest corporations and most powerful individuals. We can sing them in schools and at sporting events. It will be fun! We can post about it.

Excellent Support From Chordbot Developer

My copy of Chordbot for IOS stopped working last night so I shot off an email and just now I got a response that I am confident will solve the issue. I should say that it is less the developers fault that it stopped working and more mine for pushing the iPad to hard.

If you are interested in cobbling together chord progressions on an IOS device Chordbot is a great app. Plus they actually read emails! Gotta love THAT!

Plea to maintain best in class IOS music product

It seems to me that developers sometimes throw things at a wall to see if they stick without thinking much about the people who use the tools. If a product is really good, that may be enough reason to keep it healthy and see what happens in the long run. When the pros come over to IOS in larger numbers... (and they will) I hope these guys won't have been short sighted. Here is the note I sent them.

Dear WI...
I am absolutely in love with WI Guitar on the iPad. I have been a vocalist/electronic composer/producer for nearly 30 years. Honestly I had never heard of your company before as my gear purchases stabilized years ago. I have a ton of virtual instruments and soft synths as well as racks of classic gear, I don't need much that is new... unless that is it happens to be for an innovative new touch based tablet. Which is exactly how I discovered you. WI Guitar is by far the best sounding and most playable app of its type on the app store. But, today I am sitting here wanting to strum an idea into cusasis and then transfer that over to cubase on the mac and well, no audiobus, so no love. I came to your site looking for news about possible pending updates and found disturbing verbiage in the FAQ regarding support for your other IOS offering. "We currently have no plans on changing or updating the core functionality of Wivi Band for iOS." I hope this does not apply to WI Guitar. I feel you have something unique in this product and would hate to see it get left behind or abandoned. Charge IAP for amp simulators, or new samples if you need to, but please consider updating this app with current technology. Nothing else I have found sounds nearly as good. 

This may sound like me blowing smoke but I do lack orchestral samples in my collection and have been casually looking at different packages for years... because of WI Guitar, I am now aware of your company and understand your commitment to making instruments that sound "right". Something to consider. Thanks for your time.

This was a supplemental note I sent.


I also should have mentioned that although I have owned WI Guitar for a long time I have recently been on a buying spree of new IOS music apps, the primary qualification that drives my purchase is if they have audiobus.  I will consider buying anything that has audiobus and often use their list of compatible apps as a reference for shopping. in fact I recently purchased a different guitar app because it had audiobus, but it sounds tragic in comparison to yours. sorry to babble on... I hope you find this information useful or encouraging. 
Thanks again.
Doc.

Succinct thought on why we make rules

"Society is the result of using the gift of our intellect in an attempt to deal with the issues of being animals that enjoy the benefits of living closely with other animals."

                                                                                         -Murdock Scott 2013

So yeah, its a little obvious, (and maybe I have heard or read something similar in the past) but it flowed so well then the thought came to me and I like the way it puts hammer to nail. People have told me that they often repeat clever things I say... I always forget those same things, so I don't often end up feeling clever in the long run. I would like to remember thinking these words and be remembered for saying them.  -Doc