http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=61583475

i think one of the best bands ive ever heard. check em out. in particular their third song, dont ever leave me...

"Compared to the rest of the world, though, the United States is an experiment in unbridled competition. This experiment has made it the richest nation in the history of civilization. Something puzzling is going on, however, as the nation's health is increasingly lagging behind its wealth.

The United States used to have the world's healthiest and tallest citizens, but now ranks at the bottom among industrialized nations in terms of longevity and height and at the top in terms of teenage pregnancy and infant mortality. Whereas most nations have been adding nearly one inch per decade to their average height, the United States has not done so since the 1970's. The result is that Northern Europeans now tower on average three inches over Americans. This isn't explained by recent United States immigrants, which constitute too tiny a fraction of the population to affect these statistics. In terms of life expectancy, too, the United States is not keeping up with the rest of the world. On this critical health index, Americans don't even rank among the top twenty-five nations any more.

How to explain this? The first culprit that comes to mind is the privatization of health care, resulting in millions of uninsured people. But the problem may go deeper. British economist Richard Wilkinson, who has gathered global data on the connection between socioeconomic status and health, blames inequality. With its giant underclass, the income gap in the United States resembles that of many third-world nations. The top 1% of Americans has more income to spend than the bottom 40% taken together. This is a huge gap compared with Europe and Japan. Wilkinson argues that large income disparities erode the social fabric. They induce resentment and undermine trust, which cause stress to both the rich and the poor. Noone feels at ease within such a system. The result is that the world's richest nation now has one of its poorest health records.

Whatever one thinks of a political system, if it fails to promote its citizens' physical well-being, it has a problem. And so in the same way that communism collapsed due to a mismatch between ideology and human behaviour, unmitigated capitalism may be unsustainable as it celebrates the material well-being of a few while shortchanging the rest. In denies the basic solidarity that makes life bearable. In doing so, it goes against a long evolutionary history of egalitarianism, which in turn relates to our cooperative nature."

in the words of John Gray...

"It may well be that the culture of celebrity and the entertainment economy of which it is a part will turn out to be unsustainable. After all, they developed in a period of unparalleled peace and prosperity, when democracy was unchallenged by extremist movements, and continued improvement in the average standard of living could be taken as given. It will not be surprising if they go into retreat when these historically abnormal conditions pass away. Staving off boredom is a pressing need only in rare and privileged times. With war and terrorism, financial collapse and the return of unemployment, more mundane needs come to the fore. Security ceases to be a burden, and the taste for individuality is lost."

And so, everything leaves us with some price to pay. Everything, even our prosperous economy and peaceful west-european existence; we must smile and sit through (a relatively miniscule price to pay no doubt, but that doesnt make it any easier) the deification of non-entities like... you know I'm not even going to name any particular celebrities because it will only further perpetuate their fame. The current Irish infatuation with the famous would never have been possible in the relative financial hardship of the eighties. Vulgar displays of wealth and petty use of paparazzi would have largely been unfathomable.

Celebrities are vacuous, meaningless individuals that exploit your personal sense of boredom and perceived inadequacies for their own ends. The more infatuated you are with celebrity culture the more bored you must be. No wonder a blond knacker with huge tits was so successful in the celebrity game recently, millions of bored young housewives could directly relate to her and could relieve their own boredom through her. Win your mind back, vicarious existence is non-existence. You want these people to go away? Stop paying attention to them.

"...so we were at james blunt last year at electric picnic, hey dont judge me it was a fucking session! anyway yeah, i decided to go take a lash and on my way through the crowd a couple cops rushed past me and grabbed this guy to go haul him off, he was wearing a "fuck home blunt" tshirt. he got busted for throwing stuff at the stage and shouting abuse, dunno what exactly but who cares he got busted!"

and goddamn right. i dont know whether i pitied this guy or just plain hated him. pity??? here was someone whod paid a shitload of money to go see a brilliant line up of musicians and party it up at a festival, a festival that did its utmost to provide entertainment for everyone, people of all musical persuasions, and no matter what kind of music this guy was into there had to be something on another stage he liked a bit more than blunt. but noooo, he had to make a stand man, like, if he didnt then who else would you know? the musical crusader, valiant warrior against all things processed and manufactured, throw up your battle cry! whos with me?! aaaaaahhhhh! this guys ignorance of and disrespect towards other peoples right to be at the festival, their right to hear who they wanted to hear (having paid their money fair and square), damnit even their right to fucking exist, this guy should be strung up and shot, if he hasnt died from idiot related injuries in the meantime. although im sure he fucking loves telling that story now, im sure he makes it sound like a truly epic struggle of good against evil ("and evil fucking won, da cops da lousy bastards..."). ill bet he leaves out the part of that story where we think hes a cunt (we being the majority of people in the crowd that day, nobody cheered for him i think some people just pointed and laughed at the idiot, others scratched their heads wondering what the fuck???......). cos he is one. music is a communal experience and nobody has a right to interfere with the group, just head off if you dont like it, and leave quietly...