We’re here, just get used to it.

I’m getting so sick and tired of the anti-blogger backlash these days. Who says that we should not have a voice?  The opportunity to speak out?  Lots of people with boatloads of cash can say what ever the hell they want.  So now that everyone potentially has a voice the upper crust has something to say about us talking back just smacks of oppression in the worst form.

The Gutters.com

Listen Bub, I never pretend to be anything I am not.  I am not a reporter. I am not a scientist, I am a guy who has the means to share my experiences with a slowly growing crowd of like minded folks.  I tend not to rant and rage excessively.  I don’t generally care what Billy Bob Thorton is wearing on any particular day. In fact if I saw him filming here in Winnipeg I would probably just let him be.  I don’t need his autograph and I actually just finished reading his book and agreed with 90% of his rambles.

People deserve space and yes bloggers do tend to go overboard, but please don’t judge us all with the same gavel.  Some people are just mouthy and want to make money and spread gossip, that is never going to change.  Just hit your local spa or beauty salon if you want to refresh your memories on this sad fact of life.

Some people are busy bodies and others like myself most times could give a shit.

If you can read, do check out Billy Bob’s new book, it’s a great read.  Also check out The Gutters.com  it’s normally a very funny comic parody website.

See guys all bloggers are not DICKS. Now fuck off and go back to work.

I’m done now.

Bob

CRTC Reconciders: Money For Nothing Back on the air.

It’s a great day in Canada today, the forces of good and the sensible have prevailed over one single voice that tried to staunch our freedom of expression.

Mark Knophler of Dire Straights (Shaughn Butts, Edmonton Journal)

As I wrote many moons ago the Dire Straits song Money For Nothing was pulled in its unedited form from the Canadian airwaves.  My local station, 92.1 CITI fm, took a hard-line on this fiasco and simply refused to play the song in any form due to the censorship debate.  Afternoon DJ Shadoe Davis summed it up perfectly in my opinion.  “We at CITI fm refuse to alter in any form the artists original intent, so when a song is banned in its original form we simply will not play it.”

I for one am glad that people like music director Frank Andrews and Shadoe Davis have stuck to their guns on this one.
As I gave frequent example in my earlier posts It’s only rock and roll and they don’t like it and Money For Nothing Revisited I went on ad nauseum about the frequent slurs and vocal images portrayed on today’s hit radio that go completely overlooked.  Then for one person to complain about a song released in the freaking 1980’s to have a classic yanked.

Needless to say I was a bit upset, come to grips people. The gay rights movement has made substantial gains since the late 20th century. So why pick on a song that was in no way mocking a gay person.  The satire of the song, should you choose to listen to it is that a dullard is expressing his beliefs on the rock and roll industry.

That’s the point of the piece people!!

So lets all just relax a little and lets see that little jem from the creative minds of Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits again, shall we.

UPDATE

I did some more digging so Mark can tell you himself where the song came from.  It’s a great interview but the Money For nothing part starts around the 8 minute mark.

Money for Nothing Revisited

It seems that the wheels that make the government go round and round here in Canada are getting a good oiling from outraged citizens after the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council decision to effectively ban Money for Nothing.

Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms album artwork

The precedent setting ruling stated that due to one complainant, a gay and lesbian rights supporter in Newfoundland, the award-winning 1985 classic rock hit be pulled from the airwaves in its unedited form.

It’s Only Rock and Roll… And They Don’t Like It.

It’s a dark day for music lovers in Canada.  This week the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council announced that a hit from the mid 1980’s has been deemed unfit for broadcast on Canadian radio stations.

Money For Nothing

The classic rock song in question is Money For Nothing, by British rockers Dire Straits.   The ruling states that due to a complaint from a listener of CHOZ-FM in St. Johns, Newfoundland an investigation was launched based on his outrage of hearing the word faggot three times in the twenty-five year old song.

The word faggot has apparently become a lightning rod as the council states in the official ruling that even if the word was at one time acceptable it has evolved and become unacceptable in most circumstances in today’s society.

Why We Blog

Lots of people ask me why I blog and I rarely have a straight up answer for them.  Sometimes it’s because I need to get something off my chest.  Sometimes it’s because I like to post some pictures I have taken.

But in the end I guess it’s just because I have a voice.  One of many howling in this sometimes cold and inhuman world.  A voice that needs a place if not to be heard, then to be spoken.

If someone reads what I say that’s a good thing, if it’s good enough to be talked about that’s better.  If it’s shared and on and on and on.

The point is I guess that we are the voices of the free, we have the right to yell and rant or cry.   Many of us will give thanks this week.  Speaking of love and family, that’s cool too.

But the point is we can.  We are able, and we must.

As long as we have the ability we should express ourselves, because we can.  Let us rage about punk music in London, or cry about the death of a relationship.

This Internet is a glorious thing, for the people by, strangely enough the military.  But it’s ours now and let us never ever give it back.

Let us love and rant and share and care.
Why?

Because we can!!

I’ll get off my soap box now.

Bob

P.S. Because I can let’s have some porn star dancing!!