The Devil's Riding Shotgun In My Car

I just got back from the exclusive-invitation-only songwriting thing, which went really well until white supremacist Ku Klux Klan fucker (resident of Tucker) blows his cover and let's slip his little "nigger hatin'" everywhere. I'm serious. Of all the things in the universe that I greatly abhor, these two are at the top of the list:
prejudice
hypocrisy
After those, there's nothing that really ticks me off and sets the alarms running day and night. I do hate humanity's complete disregard for others, though. I think prejudice fits right in with that category, but the disregard is in a category all its own. I'll talk more about that later.

I just can't get over that incident. We're just sitting there talking about folk music--well, acoustic guitar, etc etc--and jamming and this awesome guy from England named Louis was complaining about the lack of audience around here. It's true. You go to an open mic night and there's no one there...save the performers. And, to top it all off, you have to pay to perform in them! WTF? Anyway, his analogy concerning open mic nights in Atlanta, Georgia and its suburbs was quite classic if you ask me: "It's like masturbating in front of an audience, that frankly, isn't there!" Right on, man. I'm sick of going to places where either I'm the performer, or my friends are performing (or both) or just sitting in an audience that shouts through an act and gets up and leaves in the middle. No one is interested. So much for the arts.

Anyway, in the middle of all this, before we started working on my song and we were still on my dad's, I asked where the bathroom was and the KKK man (who's house we were in) says: "Use the lady's bathroom so we won't have to hear you tinkle--down in the foyer on the right," and he gives a little wink and smile. What. The. Fuck? "So we won't have to hear you tinkle"??????? Who the FUCK would say that?

Anyway, that just threw me off a little. Then, we get to talking about musical structure and all of that and trying out some new things when he suddenly bursts out with "How many times is it that you walk into a random shop in the mall and that fucking nigger music thumps you in the ass?"

I just felt all the air rush out of me and a very loud buzzing arose in my ears. My father's face just kind of grimaced as we tried to go past that bit of Southern Bigotry-oh-it's-just-our-heritage shit.

That's what really gets me. The Civil War. "It wasn't about slavery. It was about States' Rights." And what was the issue at hand...the main issue? Slavery, perhaps? But now, oh, no, we just can't take the Stars and Bars off our Flag (yeah, decade long issue in Georgia...they finally got it off the state flag) because the symbol doesn't represent hatred and bigotry. No. It represents "our heritage". Too bad I throw up everytime I hear that. Maybe it's because I'm just a Yank. Maybe it's because I actually have a conscience. Whatever.

We all did make really good progress on the songs. The guy just bought a pair of those 8ft high Bose speakers and the whole system with it. Incredible. I got to test it out...in the spotlight. Yay. Then when we finally made it out of the house, friggin I-285 and its asswipe, good-for-nothing signs led us the wrong way as usual, so we ended up making it home at 20 to 1:00 as opposed to 12:00. Lovely. It was fun though. We got the Paul Brady CD of his greatest hits in the mail today from Dara Records (finally) so we were listening to that on the way. There's so much road work around here at night. It's ridiculous.

That's all I can think of right now. Down with the KKK and anything remotely related to them! I'm LEAVING the SOUTH. (Fucking moral conservatives...hypocritical bastards.) I'm sorry, but I'm not sorry if that's offensive. The government just absolutely *wins* my approval. (Retches indefinitely.) More to come later. Laila tov.