February Miscellany

National Transportation Safety Board 

 

I have the February blahs folks.  My problem, not yours.  But it's a short month, so I hear, which does mean that in order to feed the beast of public clamor for my words, I must heed any and every inkling of inspiration that graces my attention span.  Ergo, the ensuing listicle of items.

1) I've seen a couple of videos recently rebutting this fellow, Rick Beato, a musician by education and avocation and a YouTuber of some renown, on his speculation about the threat that Gen Z poses to the future of music and his critique of the use of autotune as a musical flavoring.  Rick Beato is years younger than me chronologically according to wikipedia, but let's just say, in terms of musical preferences, he's my elder.   The heroes of the music he adulates -- rock, jazz, country-- were already long in the tooth when he came of age in the 80s.   He had the misfortune I had of coming up between revolutions. I enjoyed a few of his takes on specific songs when I first came across his channel not long ago, but  when I saw the title of the Gen Z video I got strong uh-oh feelings.  I didn't watch the video and cooled on the rest of his offerings because of it, but sight unseen, I still preferred to give a musical expert the benefit of the doubt that he would probably offer a bit more than crotchetiness in considering the music of the succeeding generation in spite of the click bait title.  Apparently my gut instinct was more correct than my generosity of spirit.  It's really nothing special that old people don't care for their grandkid's music.  Rick Beato's grandparents hated his progressive rock collection too.  Musical snobbery in my long experience is a declaration of the limits of one's taste, appetite and imagination-- I don't care how many degrees you have in it.  It's old, buddy.  And kind of sad.

2) Another YouTube experience that excited my synapses concerned Rebecca Watson's studiously antiseptic take on insinuations of underreporting about the  derailment of  50 cars on a 141 car train near East Palestine, Ohio, releasing a cloud of a growing list of toxins-- including vinyl chloride, "butyl acrylate, ethylhexyl acrylate, ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, isobutylene, combustible liquids, and benzene residue"--  that are causing health issues in the area.  In spite of an otherwise reasoned account, Watson minimized reported damage, failing to mention documented deaths of pets, fish and frogs in the affected area. Watson  also minimized the heavy-handed arrest of a reporter at Gov Mike DeWine's news conference on  the crisis.  She also dismissed concern that the topic was being shut out by the ongoing China balloon saga, the latest mass shooting, Russia's latest aggressions in Ukraine, the latest lies of George Santos, frankly cherry picking a reddit critic to mock the source of the criticism.  Watson in general can be counted on to do stellar work on the topics she covers,  and in spite of the pressure of her thumb on the scale to disappear any hint of impropriety on the part of the mainstream media or Ohio officials as a way of refuting sensational accusations of conspiracy from alternative media critics and skeptics, this video was no exception.  Yet-- while she acknowledged the obvious advantage that the freight company, Norfolk Southern, is likely to take from their vast financial resources to downplay the tragedy and kill every threat of consequence they are apt to face for the role of their negligence in causing the incident (to say nothing of the negligence of the Biden administration in not restoring regulations removed by the Trump administration that permit trains of toxic chemicals of extreme length as a cost and labor saving measure on the part of these companies), and she did touch upon one of the most egregious examples of it in the company's exploitation of its employees to a lethal extent--  in her dispassionate appeal against passion, why could I not shake a desire to issue a warning -- "Don't turn into Steven Pinker!"  

3) In retrospect, ladies and gentlemen, in my zeal to own up to my own lameness as a revolutionary, I was remiss in my discussion of Revolutionary Blackout Network's takedown of Nina Turner and David Sirota last month in neglecting to defend them from attack.  A commenter to the video encouraged the hosts to "keep punching up" which I readily personalized as referring to my direction.  While I am certain I'm on nowhere near the same plane as Nina Turner and David Sirota and while no one is theoretically above reproach, it does occur to me, that someone who thinks that Turner and Sirota are up is really misdirecting their punch.  If you think the two Bernie Sanders warriors are up, you are not punching nearly up enough.  In fact, what is wrong with you?  I accept without reservation that as miserable as I am because of the same forces that oppress and immiserate the hosts and listeners of Revolutionary Blackout Network, I could personally always use some smacking upside the head-- I have it coming.  Nina Turner and David Sirota on the other hand-- famous and yes, even more comfortable than I am-- are fighting for your ass, motherfuckers.  What are you doing?  Focus your anger and your righteousness where it really belongs and you'll find so many more people with you.  Including me.  And we need people.  You need people, people. Come on!