Stepping out of the two-party box

"Yes," he answered to no one in particular when the question appeared in the room; staring off into the open space that connects us all, "it is a challenge. But it is also extremely entertaining. Perhaps because it is just so damn interesting."

He was referring to the question, more of a statement it was really, regarding how difficult and challenging it must be to handle the constant influx of comments and mail both good and bad, both slobberlingly gracious and downright nasty, that one receives or reads online about oneself when one places himself out THERE in the public domain. Especially in such a personal and potentially vulnerable manner in which our hero has made a habit of over the last fifteen years. The internet has made it all the more overwhelming now of course because to give an interview in the Times is one thing. To post your latest rant on the internet as fair bait for everyone and anyone takes a brave soul, or perhaps just an insane one. But truly, and this just might be the greatest benefit of it, it eventually reaches a point where there is no conceivable way to actually read all of it, let alone personally answer it.

But every now and then I do. Truth is, for better or worse, thoughtfully complimentary or insanely rude and hateful, I enjoy scanning through Youtube comments especially. Real human dialogue is almost always instantly and immediately created. And again it is not a practice for the faint of heart. Not only am I just as addicted to the revolution we call YouTube as the next guy, I see it as a very exciting harbinger of what's to come. In essence, that which we now call YouTube is the future, our future.

When I can find the time, which is becoming less and less available and more and more valuable these days, I will sit down and shoot off as many replies as I can when a community has cropped up around a particular video. It always amazes me how regardless of what the actual video is about people will still find a way to turn the dialogue that begins to mushroom around a particular video into these little bickering arguments amongst themselves. How quickly one or more will jump to ad hominem attacks of perfect strangers right there online for all the world to read - rather than simply staying on point or on message. When the video in question is one of my own I will on occasion attempt to jump in and add my own two cents in order to quench a few fires and get people back on track...

Such is the case often in relation to the political or social commentary vidoes that I post. And remember the whole Transcendent Television on YouTube project started out as a social experiment that i was only meant to conduct for a year. A way to explore and monitor what got people's attention, what motivated them, what excited them, what keywords they typed in the most, what would attract the most views, and what would attract the most comments. The results were predictable and at the same time surprising at times.

To answer another question, no, I do not take the comments or emails personally. I learn what I can from a business and artistic perspective and move on. If I can't help myself I will chime in if for anything to either say "thank you" or to just lend a bit of light to the ongoing debates...

Such was the case with the comment below. Unfortunately I do not remember what specific video nor which comment this reply belongs to. I just felt it important enough to copy and paste to use in later work, which we are now doing this very minute. This, in effect, is just one of the many powerful benefits that YouTube and the vibrant community that has sprung up around it has given us all. A good laugh most of the time, and every once in a while true inspiration.

Dear Rev1,
That was actually funny. dude. funny! Ok so i beg to differ with your somber and frightfully hateful appraisal of me, especially seeing that we have not even had the pleasure of meeting face to face yet. But seriously do you really acknowledge 'liberals' versus 'conservatives?' I mean, are you just kidding? -- playing into the whole charade for the sake of humor? Or are you really that brainwashed that you believe that there is a difference between the two parties? Do you not realize that both parties are in the end slaves to the same few who control the system? Now that you're a raving fan (LOL) see my video series entitled FIGHT THE POWER which addresses this scam in more detail.

Same thing to you my friend: It has nothing to do with republicans or democrats. Nor with whites or blacks. Please wake up and start studying what has really happened and what is happening and stop attacking each other. It is simple: good or smart or ethical people versus lame racist imperialist assholes. They come in all shapes and sizes and colors and political affiliations. Please stop attacking each other and start fighting for humane causes that TRANSCEND political party lines. Some republicans have been assholes. Some democrats have been assholes. Conservatives are nice as hell sometimes. Other times they're murdering thieves. Liberals are great when it comes to caring about others sometimes - at least that's what they want us to believe. But they are just as greedy as anyone else -- depending on WHO it is. Get out of the two-party box that they have you jammed into. You don't deserve "five thumbs down" because your comment was freaking hilarious by the way. But if you're serious, bro, you have to spend some good quality time studying some history books. Turn off the TV for good and learn what's really going on. It has nothing to do with liberals versus conservatives. It has a lot more to do with US versus THEM.

Yours,
The Raconteur

To Vote or Not To Vote?

Watching the democratic national convention every day on the Internet. Caught up a bit tonight till about 4 in the morning actually, watching everyone deliver their speeches. Dare I say I almost feel hopeful? I guess compared to what we have now, even the democrats seem inspiring.

Later in the day, I'm in the office and everyone is abuzz about the speeches the last few days. Al Sharpton and Bill Clinton and of course jimmy carter are the speeches that are the most brought up. People cannot stop talking about them. the republicans may have stolen the white house, but they don't have many current heroes to speak of unfortunately. Except John mccain, who of course is a hero and should be joining up anyday. Hehe. Old guard. Old tricks. Old hat. No one that people look up to in their party anymore now that Reagan passed on. but the democrats on the other hand.... if you're a young idealist patriotic American or even just a ultra-concerned-liberal citizen of the world, the democratic party offers so many heroic visionaries and leaders. Bill and Hillary are basically rock stars now, for better or worse. All the guys in the office were on the Internet researching to see if Clinton could serve again. They were actually on the Internet researching the constitution. [we looked it up: he cannot run again for president. Congress passed an amendment in the fifties limiting it to two terms max because of FDR getting elected four times consecutively. BUT Zeke reminds me that he CAN run for VP under someone else just to grab another eight years if he or we wanted him to. Let us hope it never comes to that. [as we well remember, even though I volunteered for his election campaign as a bright-eyed young college kid, the minute he got on TV and lied I was one of the first to jump on the ‘o.k. impeach that fucker’ band wagon. I have no tolerance for liars, unless perhaps we’re talking about matters of national security. Other than that, get the hell out of dodge pal.] I think there are probably plenty of guys who can do just as good of a job or even better. But boy what a speech he delivered. It was spellbindingly to the point and coherent and intelligent and just a wee bit smarmy.] This guy says to me ‘man I don't know why we can’t just get bill back for a while. at least till things smooth out a bit. Just another four years.

But its true. the dems now, they have Al Gore, Jimmy carter, Ted Kennedy has always voted for the people, so he's a true liberal hero. Al Sharpton? Forget it. that guy was awesome. Jesse is always good. he's like ‘take it for granted kind of good;’ that's how good of a speechmaker he is. John Edwards is like the wunderkind of the party; the future Clinton. But hopefully he’ll keep it in his pants, or at least do it somewhere other than the oval office. They even have Ronald Reagan’s son Ron. Basically a rock concert of bright idealistic heart on their sleeve liberals. I can’t say I'm not against any of it. [I mean, lets try to forget that they killed 180 innocent Americans in Waco, Texas under Clintons watch and no one did shit about that. so because of that, McVeigh retaliated at Oklahoma city. yes times are changing. People are fighting back now. And I'm not going to bring up all the rumors of them selling military secrets to China...] But at least the dems have heroes. Real American heroes. People like us. I'm not saying these people are any less shifty than the other lot of slimy script reading hand shaking short-hairs. I mean cheese is cheese. Occasionally cheese can be good; like brie or Roquefort or feta or mozzarella. Yum! But of course American cheese just sucks. And both parties are super American-cheesy. No taste and filled with artificial shit and preservatives. Hence to belong to either party at this point is choosing hamburger over steak. But man, where is the fucking steak? That's probably what a lot of Americans are wondering. Well perhaps in Kerry we have a bit of steak. We’ll just have to wait and see.

But you get the feeling that the repubs are those people in school who were just full of shit and didn't understand anything about life. they were the sheep who drank their milk and watched their TV and spoke their lies when they had to. just to keep face and keep the money in the right hands. Whereas with the dems, you find this kind of idealism.... this underdog fight for the rights of your fellow man kind of thing that I can relate to a lot more readily. Normal people that you can talk to and talk about issues with. People that care about other people. .. and of course they have all the actors and singers and writers too. I couldn’t imagine being an entertainer and being a republican. i guess you just have to keep it a secret so you're not embarrassed.... imagine if they ask you to speak at their convention and you're like ‘uh well yeah I mean that's a great idea but uh yeah I'm uh going to be out of the country that week. gosh I'm really sorry guys....’ . I can not imagine being up there at the republican convention and trying to come up with good things to say about this current administration. You would just have to throw truth to the wind and just say fuck it and come up with a bunch of bullshit platitudes and hollow words about values and strength and courage and all that other empty crap.

Today me and Beav spent all day helping mom move all this stuff she had stored in this warehouse she was paying for for the last ten years. Just a bunch of old stuff from various homes that she never found time to go through. We emptied the whole thing and helped her sort it all out. the whole warehouse now empty. it was great relief for her. In this one moment we were driving and I looked over at the Beav and asked, ‘dude, you know that the greatest feeling in the world is?’ ‘What dude?’ ‘Waking up one day and realizing that you accept yourself for who you are. That you're just happy to be yourself.’ ‘You can say that again man.’

More love letters from an angry anti-fan:
-----Original Message-----
From: Naughty Tom [mailto: xxxxxxx@xxxxxx.com]
Sent: Saturday, December 26, 2003 5:00 PM
To: Transcendence Television
Subject: Re: George W. Bush's Resume

Gosh, your clever resume really convinced me. I'll stop voting for Republicans and start voting for the socialist Democrats so they can tax away everything I earn and leave the country defenseless.

Yes, I'm going to vote for Dick "VOTE FOR ME BECAUSE I'LL GIVE YOU EVERYTHING YOU WANT AND MAKE OTHER PEOPLE PAY FOR IT" Gephardt, or maybe Howard "I WOULDN'T MIND IF SADAAM HUSSEIN WAS STILL IN POWER TORTURING WOMEN AND CHILDREN" Dean.

Fuck off you morons. And take me off your mailing list. I hate your band now.

Dear Naughty Tom,
You are funny. Consider yourself off the list. And hey for your own sake (or at least your family’s) lighten up a bit.
PS—the staff here at TTV is not all democrat. You are so funny, perhaps just naive, a bit short sighted to think that just because PEOPLE don't like Bush that they are democrats. Don't you see that you're just being scammed by the whole bi-partisan two party system? You think because Transcendence Television mailed this out that we are democrats? Seriously. Because we’re not. We’re a rock band. We are too rebellious and anarchistic to be a part of any party. We’re just concerned citizens. Which you should be too. It has nothing to do with democrats or republicans. It has to do with basic integrity and honesty and the dishonest drunk driving draft dodging druggie sell out war mongering imperialist creep that is pretending to be our president. Keep on voting republican if you want to. And keep on cursing and getting angry over nothing at people that have an opinion different than your own. And we’ll keep telling it like it is.
Sincerely,
U know who

In other news:
Played the rough tracks from nothing is cohesive to Beav. Beav is like, ‘dude give me something I can work with here. This album doesn’t rock like sleep with you. Where are all the guitars bro? What are you guys thinking? It sounds like piano music from the seventies. Or dance music from the late eighties. What's up with you guys? You're going to follow up sleep with you with this? oh man don't do it!’ later, flipping through spin magazine’s year end issue. Looking at all the scraggly-haired jangly-guitar 3-minute indie-rock-song bands that are all the critic’s rage this year thinking oh my God we’re going to release an album that sounds like piano music from the seventies? But we can’t help it. We love the album so much. Are we destined to be lambasted in the press and broke our whole life?! But then I got up and flushed and thought, you know what? Do what you love and love what you do. Let the critics go fuck themselves and if you have to, go on food stamps. But just keep doing what you love.

Last screening: Circle by Eddie Izzard. His newest DVD release. What happened to Eddie on this one? Was he just high on crack perhaps???