Burnin Up on Re-Entry

These past two weeks since returning from Mordor D.C. to the plasticene hyperreality of L.A. have me dazed and confused for the moment. My sense is that the accumulated effects of five years of Bush-ism have, for the moment, transformed Washington's dominant civic culture into an even more repressive environment I do not care to tolerate at this time in my life...Yes DC does have an underground, an alternative culture which manages to survive amidst the ditto-headed madness, but most importantly many members of my immediate family still live there. Still my future will be written here in Southern California, where the threats are more likely to be seismic or environmental (see Mike Davis' brilliant Ecology of Fear) as opposed to your friendly next-door Creepublican operative or CIA agent. The entertainment law program at UCLA in particular beckons, it's without a doubt the premier such program available, and seems to make so much sense as a natural progression of my recent and current combined professional/artistic endeavors. I envision the program providing the networking, guidance and ultimately credentials to become a more effective music entrepeneur, and transition from a sole focus on developing my own artistic career to working with other emerging new artists as well. Just started reading the slightly glassy-eyed yet fascinating Future of Music co-written by Dave Kusek, inventor of MIDI and Passport Systems, which delves into the new opportunities offered by the explosion of digital media, Internet and non-corporatized music.

The ominous warnings of the "triple evils" of militarism, racism and poverty continue to ring true today, as we commemorate the birth of one of the truly great leaders of the 20th Century Martin Luther King Jr. Now, as then, we confront the legacy of enduring economic inequality - in America's cities, countryside and truly throughout the world - in addition to civil rights struggles not only over race, but also gender and sexual orientation, and of course yet another injust foreign war with a body count rising daily. You can hear some of King's historic speeches at KPFK .