C I P R I A N I

I have no beef with getting a free U2 album, as presumptuous as it may very well be on the part of the band and Apple, I do happen to like U2. That said, I do know people that don’t. A very old friend of mine despises U2 and referred to Apple’s recent PR move as “egregious”. I don’t think he was overstating his disapproval. I don’t know if U2 lost my friend at “Lemon” or if he was never with them to begin with. All I know is that even though U2 and Apple called it a “gift”, my friend found it to be pollution on his iPad.

Recently, I was approached by an up and coming rap artist. I was strolling down Hollywood Boulevard with my family near the Chinese Theatre. This is where I assume most up and coming rappers congregate – with street performers, tourists and favorite costumed movie characters like Spider Man, Superman and Captain Jack Sparrow. An aside:

Those cosplayers at the Comic-Cons around the country are mind blowing with their attention to detail. Is it much to ask the folks in front of the Chinese to try to come somewhere near the zip code of “picture accurate”?

Unless that actually is James Earl Jones underneath that black t-shirt – which come to think of it would actually would be kind of awesome. He should try that. I bet Bill Murray would do something like that. I bet Bill Murray has done something like that. Where was I?

My family and I were walking back to our car after spending the morning at the Feast of San Gennaro, the Los Angeles Italian Festival. Being of Italian descent myself, it’s important for me to introduce my children to my people’s rich cultural traditions of pizza, beer and carny rides. As we approached the entrance to the parking lot, a musician offered me a copy of his CD. I took it, thanked him, and was on my way back home, to put the children down for a nap and afterwards my wife and I would listen to the disc immediately.

Ah! But the disc wasn’t free. The guy handed it to me, but it wasn’t free. And why should I be so bold to assume it is?

I blame U2.

The CD of this struggling artist didn’t have a set price – any donation would have been appreciated – but unfortunately I didn’t have anything smaller than a twenty (thanks to the beer, pizza and carny rides). So I had to give the disc back to this poor guy.

Or give him twenty bucks.

So instead of the sweet sounds of “DJ Flippy Crisp and Quake” filling our ears when we returned home, the naps didn’t happen and we were relegated to listening to the Frozen soundtrack again and, of course, U2’s recent album, Songs of Innocence.

In a way, U2 giving out free albums is almost like some kind of reverse  “movie star eats at an expensive restaurant for free while a guy outside that hasn’t eaten in a week goes hungry” kind of thing. Or perhaps more specifically, “U2 can afford to give albums away at this point, but if you haven’t broken into the record biz by now, you may want to consider dressing up like Darth Vader and asking tourists to take a picture with you for a buck instead” kind of thing.

Truth be told, I felt bad I didn’t have a buck or two because I am pulling for the guy on the street handing out discs, figuratively speaking. Why? I am that guy. Or at least I’m certainly a lot closer to him than I am to U2.

Perhaps another aside, but in the grand scheme of things I guess Zach Braff would wind up right square in the center of my clumsy analogy:

http://www.fashionnstyle.com/articles/26529/20140929/zach-braff-shocked-by-controversial-kickstarter-campaign-backlash-wish-i-was-here-actor-refuses-to-crowdfund-future-movies.htm

But do you know who I really feel for in these, our changing times?

John Mellencamp.

In an age of Big Brother watching every move I make, algorithms hidden on my computer that enable Big Business to send me personalized ads (I’m looking at you Facebook, with your scotch giveaways and apartment rentals in Florence, Italy) somehow iTunes revealed what I can only assume is a massive glitch in their surveillance system. And I’m not talking about giving U2 albums to folks that hate U2.

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a fan of John Mellencamp. He’s well represented in my iTunes library – and no shit – he literally just came up in random shuffle of 15,361 songs. I’m not making this up. This is happening in real time. I literally typed “John Mellencamp” and a few seconds later, “iTunes library” and then “Troubled Land” from Life, Death, Love and Freedom came up.

This might be an eerie coincidence or further proof that I am being watched, which goes completely against the thesis I’m moving toward but as Fun. would say (who is also in my iTunes library), Carry On…

Waiting for it…

Waiting for it…

Waiting for it…

Next up on shuffle, “It’s About That Time (Live at Filmore East June 17, 1970)”, Miles Davis, The Bootleg Series, Vol.3: Miles at the Fillmore 1970, which couldn’t be any further from Fun. Or Mellencamp’s “Troubled Land” for that matter. It was in fact from listening to another few songs from Mellencamp’s relatively recent album (2009) that made me admire the fact that after so many years, he was still putting out great music and I was curious as to what his most recent album even was – perhaps he had a new one forthcoming? I had recently heard from a friend that he was touring. Surely he didn’t have anything new. This was last Wednesday by the way. Every Tuesday I check iTunes for the new releases. Right now, for example, they’re promoting some guy name Ed Sheeran, George Harrison, Fergie, One Direction, The Script, Prince, The Beatles, Blake Shelton and the fourth Transformers movie. And, of course, that execrable U2 album.

Funny thing. Still no mention of John Mellencamp’s new album. That’s right, it came out last week.

http://www.mellencamp.com/news.html?n_id=2098

And it ain’t bad. And it wasn’t even “Recommended For Me”. It wasn’t flagged on Facebook. But, hell, I don’t even know if I “like” John Mellencamp on Facebook. I like him in real life and don’t really think too highly of Facebook, but anyway…

He even had a “live” album come out this summer and I didn’t know about that either.

http://www.mellencamp.com/news.html?n_id=2085

Now to be fair, I’ve been a little busy and there’s a whole bunch of other really important stuff going on in the world right now:

http://www.nytimes.com

and if the new Mellencamp album isn’t on my radar or even as close to the top of the list as it used to be, perhaps that’s indicative of a certain graduation to another level of maturity. However, after devoting this much copy to this, perhaps I shouldn’t reach for that diploma just yet. But if it isn’t being jammed down my face like some guy on the street or given to me in my iTunes library by the world’s largest corporation, maybe all this talk of “Them” watching and controlling and trying to sell something to “Us”, is perhaps a little overstated. Not by much certainly, but maybe a little. I mean if The Machine didn’t point me toward the new Mellencamp album, maybe “They” don’t have as close an eye on us as everyone thinks. Or maybe “They” are so smart they knew I’d figure it out for myself. I’ll never know. Seems that’s the answer to my biggest questions of late so, how’s it go?

Oh yeah, “life goes on…”