Author: Makerbot

I am not an animal! I am a human being. I am a man.
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And Now, A Little Perspective

Whenever life gets you down, Mrs. Brown
And things seem hard or tough
And people are stupid, obnoxious or daft
And you feel that you’ve had quite enough
Just remember that you’re standing on a planet that’s evolving
And revolving at 900 miles an hour
It’s orbiting at 19 miles a second, so it’s reckoned
The sun that is the source of all our power
The sun, and you and me, and all the stars that we can see
Are moving at a million miles a day
In the outer spiral arm, at 40,000 miles an hour
Of the galaxy we call the Milky Way
Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars
It’s a hundred thousand light-years side to side
It bulges in the middle sixteen thousand light-years thick
But out by us it’s just three thousand light-years wide
We’re thirty thousand light-years from Galactic Central Point
We go ’round every two hundred million years
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe
The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whiz
As fast as it can go, the speed of light, you know
Twelve million miles a minute and that’s the fastest speed there is
So remember, when you’re feeling very small and insecure
How amazingly unlikely is your birth
And pray that there’s intelligent life somewhere up in space
‘Cause there’s bugger all down here on Earth

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This Is Genius

What can a Black artist do when wronged by the law? Make art, of course! In addition to his using home surveillance video (and video shot by his wife during the raid) in this song, Afroman also posted some images to the socials.

One example was Afroman wearing a shirt with an image of [officer] Shawn Cooley beside a picture of Peter Griffin from Family Guy. Another shows [officer] Shawn Grooms next to a picture of the Hunchback of Notre-Dame. Another is of Afroman fans holding up merchandise that has images of Cooley. More include images of other officers.

So of course the cops are suing.

The complaint claims that the police officers have been “subjected to ridicule” by members of the public who have seen some of Afroman’s posts. The episode has allegedly “made it more difficult and even more dangerous” for them to carry out their official duties, the complaint adds. Some of that activity has included anonymous death threats, it says.

“As a result of Defendants’ actions, Plaintiffs have suffered damages, including all profits derived from and attributable to Defendants’ unauthorized use of Plaintiffs’ personas, and have suffered humiliation, ridicule, mental distress, embarrassment, and loss of reputation,” it reads.

Explains Afroman …

“I’m a civilian. Then, to make matters worse, I’m a Black civilian in America,” he said. “The police department was not designed to serve and protect me. I felt powerless yet angry. These guys can destroy my property and I literally couldn’t do nothing about it. The only thing I could do was take to my pen and sing about the injustice. And to my surprise, it’s going over well!”

Source here.

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Unreal

We’ll all be living in a simulation soon enough. Assuming we aren’t already.

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I’m Working Too Hard

Both proof that one needn’t be especially proficient as a musician to write killer songs AND an explanation for my recent blargh absence.

The Nerves weren’t around too long but are regarded by some as ground zero for the LA punk and power pop scene. Drummer Paul Collins went on to form The Beat (“Rock N Roll Girl,” “I Don’t Fit In”), bassist Peter Case formed The Plimsouls (“A Million Miles Away”), and guitarist Jack Lee’s song “Hanging on the Telephone” became a massive hit for Blondie when they covered it on Parallel Lines in 1978.

And here’s Collins a few years later with The Beat …