I don’t need no stinkin band

This was for a band that sent me 12 requests to get involved with them. I told them I didn’t want to sing for them.
Then they asked if I would arrange. Again I said no.
Then they asked if I would manage.
Then they asked if I would book for them.
I finally caved in and told them I would write lyrics. This was my first (and last) song for them.
Enjoy

___________

 

No, No , NO.

I don’t want to be in a band, I don’t want to play
I don’t want to sing, or record here today.
I don’t want to mix, I don’t want to teach
I wont give lessons to singers who screech.
I don’t want to be, your bassist or drummer
Your band is so weak and you music’s a bummer
I don’t care about, your questing for fame
Your promos or demos, or your new made up name
I won’t be your manager, producer, or writer
But I’ll punch your lights out if you squeeze any tighter
So please send your requests to somebody else
and allow me to leave with my sanity and health
I’m tired of the roadies, the gaffers and waiters
The security, the drivers and the people who cater
The groupies, their buddies, the skanks and the thugs
The complete friggin strangers who offer you drugs
The buses, the hotels, the airports and trains
The gigs that get cancelled due to contracts or rain
The thief and the crook and the things that he says
Like Rubinson, Yonas and happy Sanchez
Who smile in your face with their knife in your back
and nibble your cheese, an assemblage of rats
No, I’m tired of the biz and all the people like that
And the fakes and the phonies and the vampire bats
With their slick little cards, and the big-sounding titles
Your showcases, contests, and weak-ass recitals
You’re just getting geared up, but still you don’t know
I’ve already played more than 5000 shows.
So you’ve asked me again, and again I will say
I don’t want a band and I don’t want to play.

(Copyright, Piero Amadeo Infante 2012, Irony productions, INC)

By request: my lifetime stats in the entertainment industry

For interested parties, here are my career statistics, such as they are, and some life story.

Before. 10 years old singing with the harmonics, (I think) at Shakey’s pizza on Telegraph and 63rd, doing covers do-wop, and Caribbean songs, with four adults.

I have four California Music awards, (Bammies) and one “Whammy” SF weekly music award) in various categories (Freaky executives, Los Angelitos, Mingus Amongus and Los Mocosos) A “Best artist” From The Latin Music Academy, and a Diamante De Palmas, from the Spanish institute of Modern Music in Madrid.

I have published works with ASCAP, BMI, PEER music, Southern Music, & dozens of other Publishers.

AS BANDLEADER AND COMPOSER:

For an idea of my musical History, (all the bands I founded, wrote music for and toured with) go here: a rare clip from my early days:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLTT3Hv4Ftw

My bands throughout the years.

http://www.myspace.com/freakyexecutives

http://www.myspace.com/losangelitos

http://www.myspace.com/losmocosos415

My rock Opera about Oakland:
http://www.myspace.com/papamalo

AS COMPOSER FOR OUTSIDE ENTITIES: I have composed, produced and arranged over 100 original pieces of music for various commercial entities: My catalog is used by over 50 film, radio, and Television companies. including: California State Lottery (Scratchers themes)
Sony Media (Acid Latin Library)
Toyota International (Five national commercials in English and Spanish)
Music Orange
Great America (With Los Mocosos)
Nash Bridges
Producer Wayne Wang (“The Center of the world” title track, “Callejero”)
HBO’s “The sopranos” (“Narco Traficante”)
Polaroid Cameras (Polariod Joycam theme)
Scarface: “the world is yours” (Title track)
“Dead like me” (television)
And many others.
I am also the composer of the most-used Latin sample library in music history, the ACID LATIN library for SONY ACID PRO.
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/acidlatin

I also Re-Mix and create custom musical and multimedia content, upon request for various applications, and entities. Rates upon request, and projects upon availability.
Bands and artists I have performed/recorded/written/toured/worked with include:
Plena Libre
San Francisco Ballet
Lazz Rockit
Sheila Escovedo
Pete Escovedo
Joe Cano and Grito
Salsa De Berkeley
Bill Summers and Summers heat
Tipica Cienfuegos
Greatful dead
Last Poets
Huey lewis and the news
Chris Issac
The Alkaholiks
The Beastie Boys
Tower of Power
Los Papines
Chaka Khan
Digital Underground
Bad Brains
The Clash
The Specials
The Uptones
Ustad Ali Akbar Khan (mentor)
De La Soul
The Lunies
Melly Mel
Leaders of the Old School
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Massive Attack
Freaky Executives
George Clinton and Parmlament funkadelic
And far too many more to mention here.

Names/stage names I have been known by:
Piero Ornelas
Piero el Malo
Piero Abdul Basit
Pio Ornelas
Pio
Alpha Lobo
Piero Amadeo Infante (my real name)

Favourite Music: Ravel, Debussy, The eagles, Santana, Enrico Caruso, Stephanie Grapelli, Philly Soul, Thom Bell, Motown, Rumba, Afro Cuban, Van Dyke Parks, Roni Size, Portishead, Metallica, Massive Attack, Joni Mitchell, Shawn Colvin, Nelson Riddle, James Taylor, Bread, and anything with beautiful melody and meaningful lyrics.

I am all about beautiful melodies and meaningful lyrics.

Styles of music I am fluent in, and have composed, produced, recorded, and published with, include: Big band Salsa Traditional Afro Cuban Son and Religious music Bossa Nova Brazilian pop, and traditional Religious music Ambient Retro Disco Philly Soul Alt Rock Orchestral Jazz Standard Experimental Folk, and Folk rock Hip-hop (all regions) A Cappella (jazz, doo-wop, scat) and many others.

My all time Production heroes are: Thom Bell, Van Dyke Parks, Daniel Lanois, Rick Rubin, and the Alges, both Tim lord, and Chris Lord

AS SPOKESPERSON:
I have been a spokesperson for several non-profit groups, as well as business entities in the State of California, Such as:
Life on the Water theater
Eco-Rap INC
The City of Berkeley
Berkeley Alternative Schools district
UC Berkeley Cultural Archives (Interviewed)
International festival of the Latin song
Bigstep.com
Keystone Nightclub, and many others.

INTERVIEWS: I have been interviewed, quoted, and noted hundreds of times in the mainstream press in articles ranging from East Bay history and politics to arts, music, and culture. Publications That I have interviewed with include:
Rolling stone
East Bay Express
SF Chronicle
SF Bay Guardian
BAM Music Magazine
Berkeley Daily Planet
Miami Sun Hearald
Berkeley Daily Gazette
The Daily Californian
Latin Beat Magazine
Honolulu Star Bulletin
Latinovision.com
NY Times
Miami Times
“The history of funk” By Ricky Vincent

HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE: When not performing, I have always gravitated towards the other side of the entertainment industry, in positions ranging from Bodyguard, to club manager. Venues and events I have worked with include:
Exotic Erotic Ball (Chief security coordinator, police liaison)
Berkeley Square (Manager and booking agent)
Keystone SF (security)
Knitting Factory Los Angeles (security, and artist liaison)
Stage Craft Bristol, UK
Telemundo (consultant)
Urban Jam (security)
West Coast Productions (Security)

CONSULTATION: Consulting. (For bands, artists, and companies) I have consulted, & acted in promotions, & management for over 45 bands & individuals. This was mostly before I took it on as a part of my professional life Generally speaking these are all “Consultant” capacities.
My services in these areas are not inexpensive, and comparatively, that, is a good deal, compared to the cardiac arrests that often occur when bands, and individuals venturing into this business without the support of solid and qualified support and management, suddenly realize that they misspent their money, misplaced their trust, and, misjudged the terrain, and are forced watch their projects come apart at the seams, despite great music, and good intentions. That said, I am spiritual and loyal in this craft I have chosen as a calling.

After:

Piero Vs. IKEA: The final conflict.

I.K.E.A.:   (Ikea Kidnaps the Entire Americas)
A survivors blog.

(a totally trivial piece of unworthy pop fluff for the masses)

Yesterday, at the end of my rope for trying to trick out a room that is in an absolutely gorgeous location, but a little smaller than rooms I am used to, I sold out big time, (perhaps “bought in” is a more accurate term) and when to that dreaded vortex of domestic hegemony, IKEA.
I had exhausted looking for stuff on Craigslist, and all my local spots (Omega Salvage, Goodwill, East bay center for creative reuse and so on) had nada. I am usually luckier than this, but I thought maybe it was time to tackle the real word of IKEA, and it’s 99,000 selections.

I prepare myself mentally, toughening up, hydrating, doing 200 push ups, bringing all my notes, measuring tape, and GPS locator in case I go missing, and dutifully notify a few friends of mine to send a rescue party if should become candidate for the back of a milk carton.

I am ready. pumped up, and fully loaded.

Arriving at the spot, the first thing I  notice is a very carefully planned and controlled traffic flow outside. Even for walking. you see, you simply cannot just go walking all herky jerky like some circus clown just anywhere you want to at IKEA. no sir. From the minute you leave your car, millions of dollars and countless performance studies go to work, corralling, guiding, prompting, forcing you, to walk one way, and then another.

We’re not in walmart any more, Toto.

At the entrance, I see several men, mostly husbands, psyching themselves up on coca cola, and officially sanctioned IKEA hot dogs, like navy Seals before a black ops mission.

I immediately notice a few things. This store is packed to the brim with attractive, 30-40 year old women who all look like they work out regularly pushing carts around. and they dress in a similar fashion. Even a lady behind me comments on it. It’s uncanny.

I jump into the predetermined flow prompted by the current wave of shoppers. like a brave canoer jumping in the whitewater section of a deadly river, following arrows on the floor, and hit the bed and bath section, or what appears to be the bed and bath section.

I find a cobalt blue series pure plush cotton towel set with a matching floor mat, wash rags, and dream up a scenario where my bathroom looks like   of fantasia, with all blue cobalt glassware, blue lights, and  ambient music from Air, or portis head on a loop constantly.

I weigh this against the options of either going for a virginal all white motif, including a picture of clouds,and perhaps a few fluffy white bunnies, or an all black, doom and gloom arrangement with some dreadfully post Gothic HR Giger artwork, all black towels, rags, and a black metal soap dish since we’re all gonna die anyway.
Eventually, I decide to go with the Cobalt blue scene. This place is all about accessories. even the accessories have accessories. suddenly I hit a rich vein of couples, mutually eyeing bedsets, (I didn’t see one man in the bed and bath section alone, but then not everyone can be as metrosexually inclined as me)

Couples enter Ikea it seems, on equal terms, each making commentaries, and concessions to what the other wants. Many of these are newly living together I can tell, because they are having deep conversations about pure , Vs, polyester-cotton mix for a bathroom mat, or how they like to sleep, and on what kind of bed and other vital, life changing discoveries.
It’s terribly cute, and now I am nauseous. I realize I forgot my water in the car.

Turning the corner, (I obey the arrows) I find myself awash on a sea of desks for day and days.
Desks and hutches, meant to fit into every conceivable nook and cranny of any house apartment or room any where, no matter what size, or angle or color. Often a seemingly exact replica of another object will be priced completely differently, leading to grunts, ooh, and aahs, and the looks on the faces of men that I can only refer to as “dazed puppy face”

I don’t find what I am looking for here, and in this section it seems the men have a little more leeway, or clout with their female partners, saying outright what stuff they want, and how their man cave will be so cool with their alienware computers and strangely named desks.

I look at my notes and see a suggestion for a desk called a “Valiva” and walking up to a young lady working at the store, ask here where it is, and  when she pronounces it “Vulva” I desperately suppress a laugh until  actually start coughing, when she asks: “are you ok?”

“Smoking” I lie, tapping my chest  with the inside of my fist. “gotta give it up”

I delve into specs of the the “Vulva” desk and find it too small for my turret, so I pass on the comically named item.
I have it on good authority that the founder of IKEA, Ingvar Kamprad, was a black out drunk for the majority of the time he was building the company and named many of these products himself while completely ripped on booze. now it makes sense, the names are all totally random. “Milon”  “aporit”  “Bolare” “Schlooffenofer” Yep. either a stoner or big time alkie came up with most of these names for sure.

I didn’t see two men or women together the whole time I was there. are those darn gays keeping secrets from me again? do they all come at once when regular hetro shoppers like me are unaware? is IKEA for losers? it makes me concerned because If it doesn’t have the blessing of the GLBT community, than it’s obviously not a place to decorate your house in, even if you are straight, and macho and Pieroesque, as I am.

Using my cool cart drifting that has positively driven workers there crazy since the moment I came in, technique, I run, jump on the cart, and bank the corner left into the pots and pans area, making a nice skid stop. suddenly I am among hundreds of flimsy Woks, and teflon covered pans, designed for people who really don’t know anything about food or cooking, which is probably why they are selling like hotcakes. Just for fun a few times, I creep up stealthily behind a manager, and then say really loudly  “EXCUSE ME!!! can you help me?” I am sure it’s all on camera, and the IKEA special forces will handle me at some point. But they have to catch me first.

I screech into one of the last sections. Art. I am left a little confused by generic art, in frames and decorative plastic vases. As I stand there a woman with an incredibly prominent derrier, (I mean if derriers were kept in the Smithsonian, or the library of congress, this one would be bronzed, and the lady would receive the nobel peace prize for her ample contribution to American’s contentment and well-being) I, and every other human are struck silent as she passes, (I am not making this up. you can’t make stuff like this up) and she seems totally used to puny little humans cowering in tinyness when confronted with this celestial body)
Eventually she turns, knocking over a display, and nearly wrecking the entire store with that thang, and we all turn away, still amazed, and giggling. she smiles back at us like a saint, and continues to shop. Her husband eventually shows up with her kids, and they are all like 6’3 and athletic looking. What a family. I’ll have some of whatever their having, thank you.

But the mood changes as you pass through the art section at IKEA.  Clouds of darkness are gathering for the final conflict.

What was once tranquility, turns to indecision, and then debate, and now busts out into open combat,  when communication completely breaks down between makes and females about what is appropriate art for their shared space.

I can hear men “harumph’ing” and sulking after being told that, no, we are not going with the “49′ers forever” in the gold lame frame, for the living room, and yes, we will be going with the Maxfield parish, subtle pink cloud nymph in heaven series, and the white orchids. this is where the “slaughter of the hubbies” occurs, and I step back and take it all in.

It’s been like two hours and I don’t really know where the time went n I am tired dehydrated, and finally looking down into my shopping cart, and seeing the line I am like “fuck this” I don’t really want any of this stuff. I’ll do something else to my bathroom, and room.

I ask if I should put the stuff back, a clerk says no, its ok, and I skip line feeling like someone who has just benefited from intervention by amnesty international, as I skip to freedom and some water.

Outside, rows of women on their cell phones like a cadre of generals and strategists, bark commands into their cell phone, summoning their platoons of menfolk to action, loading their purchases onto various minivan and SUV type vehicles, and wrangling kids, and looking steely eyed in general. The ladies  don’t mess around. they get shit done.

The occasional man shows up, looking haggard, beaten, and like he could really use a beer and some sympathy, and as I watch them drive off, with the women generally talking and the men silent, I realize that this place is the great equalizer in the gender wars.

practically crawling back to my car, mortally emotionally wounded, I try to forget, but cannot. What has been seen cannot be unseen.

I drive out onto the open road towards freedom, and swear to never go to that place ever again.

Maybe I can order online.

© Piero Amadeo Infante 2011

(a totally trivial piece of unworthy pop fluff for the masses)

Bring on the girls: The rise of spokesmodel politicians.

In the past few years, there has been a trend in the media and politics that I believe no one will contest.

Several pretty, fashionable, spunky, and well-put-together women, in the field of politics, and political philosophy, are now at the very forefront of the world stage in American politics.

Michele Bachman, Sarah Palin, Christine O’Donnell, and others. are now part of a wave of  over-groomed, well-coiffed talking heads,  that are passed off on the public as “philosophers” and “Politicians” despite the fact that they possess  no rudimentary knowledge, nor functional conversational understanding of  either.

The individuals I have mentioned here, have proven themselves time and time again to be Politically, philosophically, and geographically illiterate, and  the majority of them got their start with help from the now infamous FOX television network, and all of them look similar, and speak in the same vague, populist and nationalist terms, that offend  anyone with a passing knowledge of English or political science.

What  is really offensive to the learned, and to those to whom logic, science, and civil liberties are important, is that the new pretty talking heads are only a small reflection of a larger problem, that being the dumbing down,  dolling up, and reconstruction of the American female archetype.

American women have achieved great things, and without their demand for full participation in the political process it could easily be argued that some distinctly American things,  ranging from sexual and political equality to civil rights, and the humanitarian movement, would simply not have existed without their full participation. In science, the arts, politics, the humanities, Language, and philosophy, women in this country have a great deal to be proud of.

However the media is not interested in these examples of womanhood. They are not partaking in a historical remembrance of all the things achieved by women, they are saying something quite different altogether.

“Shut the hell up, while we bring out the hot babes. Not a hot babe? Then we’re not interested”

Whereas in the past decades,  where Heroines like Amelia Earhart, Mary Pickford, and Harriet Tubman idolized for their bravery and personal risk-taking in the name of progress, and posters of hardcore female political icons like Gloria Steinem, and Angela Davis adorned the walls of college students, now, in the wake of the women’s liberation movement, and the post-civil rights generation, the women that young girls are more likely to have on posters on their walls are Lady gaga, and Amy Winehouse, and a mention of Earhart, or Tubman will get you blank looks from the vast majority of college students, on both the right and the left, male or female.

Somewhere in the corporatism, and mass commercial sexualization of  women, something that has gone on for centuries, but never more than in the past 50 years with the rise of new media technologies, along the way, along with the drop in educational standards, and original thinking, a relatively new phenomenon has occurred.

Spokesmodel as politician.

It is a by-product of commercial sexualization, and 30 years of soft porn, (and more and more hardcore porn as well) in every part of the media, that now, all you have to do to get attention, is to look pretty or handsome, sexy, and fashionable, and you will be showered  with praise for so much as putting together a badly arranged sentence in proper English.

This is also true with men, as it has been for centuries, and especially in the past 50 years, when the post of President in this country is now more an artifice of acting, rather than political skill, and only relatively handsome leading men get the job.

Now the same thing is occurring in political circles but with a marked difference.

People are “crushing” on good-looking female politicians, in a big way.

A way that wins votes.

None of these new “female politicians” are anything less than very attractive,  all of them are white, all of them have a Midwestern homecoming queen quality about them, with their “natural” looking hair, their good skin, and their tendency to dress in what can only be called “conservative chic”.

it doesn’t take a discerning eye to see what they actually are, these new Spokesmodel Politicians”,  it is obvious to anyone with knowledge of media and history: They are the new mouthpieces for both the right and the left  in this country, and when you challenge their  words, or attack their points in debate, men and women alike, come to defend them with an emotionalism usually reserved for the heroine of a soap opera.

How could you? can’t you see that she’s “cute?

The right hasn’t traditionally had very many hot female superstar sex idols to fawn over, and these newly minted fresh ingenues give a face, and emotion, to the normally cold and calculating right-wing image in this country, and Americans who are conservative politically, but now sexually indoctrinated commercially, are turning out on droves to worship their new soft porn girl politicians.

Not like the left hasn’t done this for decades. There are no fat or ugly female political superstars remembered by the left either.  From “Tania” to Angela Davis, to Gloria Steinem, the left too, puts a premium on sexual appeal, good features, and a nice voice, and both sides have a vast history of allowing lies, ignorance, racism, nationalism, illiteracy,  and just plain dumbness, so long as the face it is coming from is reasonably attractive.

Most ironic about this is that the rise of this, is practically an all-male corporate affair, with the top media outlets, political parties, and power positions in  the Democratic and republican, parties, and on the Left and Right  being owned, controlled, and run by men.

I won’t go into  all the things wrong with male perceptions about female beauty, strength, virtue, and the completely ridiculous and idiotic associations we often make between looks and  values, much to our own demise, in relationships, picking an evil “hot babe” over a-plain looking female saint all the time, and then decrying the cruel fates, when we discover that um, no. Beauty and virtue have zero real definable associations, and a pretty face is not an assurance of an equally pretty intellect or set of ethics.

I myself, have made myself victim to this on several occasions, and know well from first hand experience that there is a segment of the female population, that is resigned to the idea that men actually do not respect them in the slightest,  and so they ply what they have, (beauty)  to get what they want, (money and power) and are probably not surprised when droves of men rush in to justify their worst opinions of male behavior,doing what many men often do,  plying what they have (money and power) to get what they want. (beauty and youth)

With all the attention on glamor and billion-dollar advertising budgets, television long ago decided that no matter what the message, be it a Coke commercial to a political ad, they they’d choose beauty over virtue, and looks over smarts, every time, with nearly no exception I can detect in 35 years of watching and studying media. it’s all about looks. It first occurred in movies, then in product advertisements, then in music, so it should come as no surprise that it is now firmly a part of modern American politics for many people, since showmanship is the hallmark of any good political campaign.

Looks equals votes, and the modern politician must be a consummate entertainer.

This “Glamor equals intelligence” is not only dangerous to American politics, but also to the lives of young Americans, whose entertainments now seem largely focused on reality TV shows, stripper poles, wild spring break parties, junk food, and some of the most depressive, pornographic and violent music that modern history has yet produced.

It sends them the clear message, that appearance is more important than education. That to be too smart is unattractive.  That aggressive ignorance and racism is acceptable so long as its “Hot”. Now, our own weaknesses for the western ideal of beauty are coming back to haunt us in some very ugly ways, and we are all a party to that, with our fixation on looks, fashion, status, power, sex, entertainment, and diversion.

I watched some of these talking heads on television today (A rare occurrence) and was astonished that an organization would choose to so much as allow them speak on collecting seashells, much less American and global politics, when it seemed clear that to put anyone like this in power, would be a simple act of lunacy.

And its our own fault. We allow men and  women in the this society to think that being beautiful makes them intelligent, worthy, and clever. That being hot is a hall pass for being an idiot.

It’s a great political strategy when your base cannot stomach the lies and stupidity.

Works every time.

Just bring on the girls

Battlefield: Freedom of the human mind

I have been asked recently, (and many times in my life) if I felt free or not, and honestly every time, each time I heard the question, I had to admit that I don’t know what such an all-encompassing word, really means. Nor am I of a mind to have someone (ironically) dictate to me what it should mean to me, though many errant and misguided people have tried.

The word “Freedom” means a lot of different things to a lot of different people.

Here in America, people, men in particular, have evolved an idea that freedom is riding with your girl, on a Harley, wind in your hair, on your way to have beer and good times with other rebels, who reject “Society’s rules” or we think of living an unmarried, or unattached life as free with constant partying, and No financial worries.

Marketing companies have been onto this since the 40′s and have marketed “freedom“
and”freedom of choice” into nearly product that was ever commercialized. To business, our “freedom to choose” means their windfall profits.

Regardless, people crave what they perceive as ‘freedom“.

It is one of the great secrets of the entertainment industry, that people are attracted towards entertainments,  mindless, or not, because entertainments, free up their critical thinking, long enough to relax, engage in some fantasy, dream play, and child-like letting-go of control that all humans seem to crave from time to time.  Entertainers also know this, making ever more and more lavish spectacle, and like waiters at a restaurant, serve up to society, whatever society at that time thinks of as ‘freedom”. Entertainers not really revolutionary so much, as they are merely sensing an already existing need in the public mind, and pounce upon the collective psyche, with exactly what is missing.

Examples of this ever-changing American ideal of freedom, can be found in how different movies, music, and arts, are now, from how  were even 50 years ago.

50 years ago, (around the time I was born) Movies were about heroism, and patriotism, and, secret agents, foiling the spy plots, and innocent romances, with slightly “naughty” implications, and justice, and  freedom were mainstays of most of the movie industry.

The occasional “social commentary” movie (Guess who’s coming to dinner, “the Graduate” and the Manchurian Candidate are some examples) was there, but nothing like what was  soon to come.

In the 60′s while political unrest was fomenting, serious political statements in pop music and culture, had not quite caught on yet in mainstream American Music or radio.  (the industry made sure it never would again, too)  Many of the songs were about love, stories about America, tales of spooky happenings, and this was all set against a backdrop of music in the united states that consisted of R&B, Modern Classical pop, Brazilian Bossa Nova, Acoustic Folk, (which along with R&B, was one of the first genres to directly challenge the status quo) and English pop music, along with some older torch songs,  big band, and Brill Building epic songwriting. You might be amazed at the lyrical innocence of the times, just look at some of the song titles. This music had some rebel spirit in it from the 50′s and 60′s but as Bob Dylan said,  change was-a-comin’

Later when a new generation of American youth directly challenged and confronted their elders ( I was present on telegraph Ave. the day this picture was taken)  on matters ranging from personal morals, and sexual mores, to how the country was being run, advertisers once again rushed in to create products for them too, including Hippie Products, Black Power Products, and “revolutionary” products.

In the 1970′s the industry, and corporations in America sensing a changing trend, rolled out their best and brightest, spending hundreds of millions on commercial studies, watching our habits, seeing our fears, and then supplying us not only with commercials that highlighted out concerns, but then also offered a solution. Suddenly revolution was commercial and Cooler than ever before.

It worked like gangbusters. And it has until this very day, where generation after generation of young people are more than willing to let someone else tell them who or what “cool” or “right” is.  It’s sad because I have a lot of faith in youth, yet these days, this particular generation in my area especially, seem enslaved to icons, and ideas they do not even know the origins of.  That is, if they don’t rebel against those, and become conservatives themselves out of disgust for their parent’s posturing.

Suffice it to say I don’t think that children should be indoctrinated into any politics until they have learned the art of critical thinking. (same could easily be said for 99% of all adults)

because, this is not freedom.

All of these products, and promotions, and movements, and ideas, as always, gave us the impression that we were making our own decisions, living our own lives, and being individuals.  And it was a lie. Decisions made from fear, misinformation, lies, corporate interests, and simple lack of information, are not “self will”

They are self-deception. I am involved in dozens of these daily, as is nearly every person I know, and the only difference I can see between them and I, is that I am aware, that I do some things for wholly superstitious reasons, like banking, eating certain foods, believing in certain sciences, and disbelieving in others. Some I know a little about, some I know a great deal about, but the truth is that I don’t now everything about any of them. I am working on this. I do not wish to die in ignorance, of a reality that is often difficult to define, so I am not under the impression that I am “free” either.

The Freedom merchants:

Then there was also, and still is today,  the phenomenon  of what I now call “mimics”,  people who pretend they are leftist, or hippie, or about revolution, or black power,  or whatever, who come and get involved in some “movement” for sex or power, to make money, or manipulate and use people for their own personal reasons.

Mimics also exist in great numbers on the right. On both sides, they are usually the most hardcore, and outspoken of evangelists for their causes, and the most “radical”. They often sport the most obvious clothing, possessions, and style themselves in the most obvious language and manners, as a way to draw attention to their “revolutionary fervor” when in reality, it is a pose, purchased at a store, along with their propped-up, issue driven “politics”   I include political groups when I say “Advertisers” or “corporations” because every political group is looking to sell you something, and wants you in their ranks regardless of how inappropriate that might be to your actual spiritual or political disposition. Once again, this cannot even remotely be called “freedom”.

I would say the entire corporate, religious, and political world, is together , a “mimic” of itself, and of human values in general. Entities do not, and should not drive human values. Human values should drive those entities.

Example: People like the so-called “Revolutionary Communist Party” (RCP) in my hometown, who once even recruited me when I was 16, before I realized they were a mind control group with no real respect for me, my freedom, nor my youth, or  ideas.

They use images of “Che” and Early Black civil rights activists, (for an almost entirely upper middle class, mostly white membership) and also capitalize on a permissive attitude on the part of Liberal Parents  to recruit, brainwash, incite, and control teenagers who know nothing about politics, freedom, or critical thinking.

Then they get them into direct confrontations with Marines, Police, and other segments of society that they deem “conservative”, and  many of them actually are, however that does not warrant mind control over children, and using their feelings of wanting to be cool, and rebellious against them, for your own purposes.

Here is a video clip from a right-wing website, whose politics I am not in agreement with. However it is one of the only sites that will show this teenage mind control process through political and emotional advertising in action. I show this, because while I believe my readers know of my functional left-leaning politics, that they sometimes ignore perpetrators of mind control right here in our own backyard, and in doing so make us not only a laughing-stock around the world, but also mentally and politically abuse children who do not know what they are doing, and are acting solely on their own youthful energy and drives, and are being misdirected by the people in question.

It is a process that has nearly completely destroyed the left, in favor of leftist theater, usually directed by out-of-towners who came here for exactly that purpose.

This is not freedom

Once again, these advertisers know something about us, that we often do not admit ourselves. We thirst for what we believe is “freedom” without ever once having really decided for ourselves, free of influence, free of suggestion, and free of commercial persuasion what “freedom” really means to us, on our own.

I mean they should know better than us. They spend billions of dollars a year now studying us, (even the right and left-wing political groups as well) and we, don’t even stop to ask ourselves what freedom means in our time alone. It’s clear who the expert in that exchange will be.

Then there are religious  groups of every kind, who employ the same strategy, but with awesome afterlife, and apocalyptic implications, threatening our very souls to be dammed to an eternal  state of pain and suffering. Now That’s effective advertising!

I think the coming years will be a test of people to freely think for themselves, against the backdrop of a world that encroaches from every side on their minds, the minds of their children, and on their freedoms to think,  feel, or speak as they choose. The threats will come from the right, the left, up the economic ladder in the form of commercial mind control, from down the economic ladder in the form of felling guilty about being middle class, and being told you are revolutionary because of your birth, and always, the most visible threat, coming from corporations, politics and religions.

The dis-corporated “free zone” of the mind:

If you get a chance, sometime, sit down by yourself, no cellphone, no book, no television, no distraction, and ask yourself what freedom is to You. What does that mean, and how does it differ from just being able to do whatever you want whenever you want?

Write it down. think about it. you. your own ideas? are they really? can you separate what you have been taught from what you actually know? or what you truly feel?

Are you really free?

Freedom, for me, is a feeling. I have no proof of it. I possess no hard and fast definition of it, and no one can dictate it to me, or persuade me unless I want to be persuaded, no threats, mental games, “cool” factor, or other ploys designed to control my thinking will influence me. It took a whole life to get here.

Freedom. what does it mean to me? I don’t know yet, but I call tell you one thing.

I’ll be the one to decide what it means for me.

Piero Amadeo Infante. 2011

Reality got you down? Pseudo-Science to the rescue!

Cults suck. Really. All of them.

I have a lot of friends in the fields of science, physics, immunology, ecology, bio-mechanics, and many other fields. It’s kind of just a by-product of living in and near Berkeley, that most of my life, I have been rubbing shoulders with PhD’s or friends who were on their way to becoming PhD’s.

A lot of them have come to my gigs over the years to dance, drink, and relieve the stress of science problems such as the Super complex “X-(gh) 4, /100=’dual binary convex equation problem“,  Which I just made up, to Illustrate that aside from a basic knowledge of science and physics, I have no idea whatsoever about what they are usually talking about. These are my science buddies. I also have buddies in English, History, and Political science, who I am only slightly more accustomed to bantering with, about subjects in their chosen field.

The thing I admire about these people, is that they are usually looking for evidence that disproves their theories, as much as they are looking for proof of them. That is science.

On the other hand, as I said, This is Berkeley and I also have numerous friends and buddies who believe all kids of unprovable, unscientific, unfounded, and  unless you stay glued to the Syfy channel and smoke a ton of weed, completely “out of the realm of known possibility” type stuff. I don’t think that’s a bad thing per say, I mean Gene Roddenberry  created many popular modern science innovations that we use daily, in his head, decades before the science was even there, so free thinking, I am a fan of. But he knew at the time it was fantasy, and he didn’t try to start a cult around it (though Trekkies could easily be called one) and here we are with cell phones, wireless ear pieces, portable computer memory, and GPS tracking, all things that first appeared on Star Trek.

However even Star Trek had its limitations. To date, there is still no proof of an alien race that looks like a hippie commune from SF in the 1960′s who like to have music jams with  Vulcans, and nothing resembling a Tribble has ever been discovered.

But there are those among us who just don’t believe what anyone says, and want to form our own realities, especially where governments and conspiracies are involved.

I don’t  begrudge anyone a healthy suspicion of our government. I possess one myself, since our government’s record of telling the truth is, well…. actually our government doesn’t have one. pretty much whoever is in office will say whatever they want to get whatever they want, and that my friends, tends to be an American tradition.

So I understand the desire for alternatives to the mainstream press, and to the commonly accepted theory how we all came to be in this place all confused and messed up.

But this is spooky to me, because there is a trend by New-Agers, and “spiritual seekers” to do exactly the same thing as the government, and the conspiracies they claim to eschew, and for exactly the same reason. Some people like reality so little, and are so offended by it that they form belief systems out of thin air, that even Gene Roddenberry would chuckle and shake his head at.

Enter what I will call the “Celestial one world life force new age command army“         (coming soon to an ashram near you) I just made that up too, like they do, all the time

Thousands of groups have sprung up on the internet, and in public, doing everything from extolling the health benefits of “Colloidal gold solutions” for the body, (despite the fact that gold is entirely inert to all chemicals it encounters inside the body) to how to prepare for the coming of another helpful spaceship that will rescue us from the coming doom.

For the most part, a lot of these people are pretty inoffensive. usually because people who work regular jobs, and raise families, as our race has done successfully for a million years, (don’t quote me) and weathered all manner of earthly and celestial calamity, are just too busy living and dealing with real life to entertain fantasies of being the one and only contactee of a futuristic race of aliens who choose them alone for a special message that will “save mankind”.

We, are usually trying to save our house, our kids, or our behinds.

So we just go about our business, and try to be polite when they bring up the subject of the well-known fact that The Royal Family of England,  the Bushes, the Clintons, and many other wealthy families, are actually man-eating shapeshifting lizard-people from the fourth dimension.

Or in line, waiting for my cappuccino at the local cafe, when a nice older lady kindly informs me that, “Niburu is coming to level the entire solar system in 2011, and our only hope is friendship with the Zetas“,  but just as kindly neglects to tell me that the person responsible for this theory, Nancy Lieder, describes herself as a “contactee” with the ability to receive messages from extraterrestrials from the Zeta Retculi star system star system through an implant in her brain, and is known to lie regularly in her fight to expose the coverup of alien supremacy, and coming global Armageddon.

I said: “Thanks! I guess maybe I should get TWO cappuccinos, then?”.   “Not funny”, she replied sadly, realizing that I was not as enlightened as she had hoped. I guess the crystal Chakra energy-work didn’t help me that Much after all.

Normally, on a good day, these people do little more that amuse me and other open-minded people, who would positively love to find out that some old scientific idea had been proven wrong, or that we actually do have some kind of contact with extraterrestrial life forms, because that would be so cool.

Or better yet, God? it’s been proven? a special dude from the cosmos who is on my side, like a big brother, and will protect me from all calamity,  and will magically whisk me up into what amounts to an eternal rave chock full of all the happiness and fulfillment I don’t get here, and he loves me? Sign me up! I mean not wanting to believe in that is like not wanting believe in the Easter bunny when you are a kid.

Except it’s a myth, promoted by what is historically the deadliest cult in history,  using  one of the most dangerous memes in earth’s short life span. Religion.

Strangely, a lot of new-agers, battle these old religions, in favor of either older ones, or new ones they just made up. However, they do far more than that. Since the rise of what some people are calling the “New-age movement” there has been an incredible upswing in cults, ritual cult suicide, criminal cases where rape, murder, extortion, and blackmail, and other crimes are closely linked with the rise of these cults, and worst of all, children that suffer, for the idiotic inability of their parents to develop critical thinking.

My family was one of these families, now in recovery from our experience, and it only saddens me more to know that not only was our experience common among religious groups, but that millions fare much worse with their cult experiences. And they are beginning to rival conventional Judeo-Christian religions,  in body count and “damage done” statistics.

Along with charismatic leader‘s total control over their followers, refutation of known science, abuse of children, the wiping out of people’s bank accounts, and the destruction of lives,  there is also quite simply, a deliberate intention to put the brain, and its critical thinking to sleep in favor of a multi-colored, creamy flower, surreal, happy, opiated  fantasy where “you create your own reality”, which would be fine, were it not for the fact that people who create their own reality, are all too happy to re-create your reality too.

Crop circles, (Proven to be a hoax), the erroneous “Niburu” theory posed by an opportunistic crazy lady, the dangerous claims made by faith healers, and religious leaders, are all now more than just theories. They are industries that take in billions of dollars a year, and ruin lives. And yes, I am Including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Pseudo-hinduism, complete with people constantly re-naming themselves after  cultures and in  languages they neither understand, nor really respect. Like little kids pretending to be American Indians complete with feathers and war cries, and all other made-up, reality-bending, fantasyland drek that is being passed off as reality.

I would point out here, that exceptions to this can often be found in the some new ager’s recent suspicions of the FDA, the AMA, the CDC, and other branches of the government who lie regularly,  and sell dangerous drugs and “foods” to the public, and then suppress real nutritional information that would keep millions healthy. But then this is not Pseudo-science. This is science.There are also some new-agers that keep it real.

But then these are the fruits of skepticism, and not beliefs, and that means that some critical thinking was most likely involved.

On the other hand, religion, cults, Bigfoot, “the grays”  “The battle of Dulce” (a human vs. alien western-style shootout purported to have taken place near “area 51″ in the 1970′s) colloidal gold, Niburu,”Children of god“, and The Hare Krishna movement,  while making this place more colorful have also taken a great deal of blood, money, and contentment from the people here in the Bay Area, and abroad.

Over 40 years, I have noticed several things about the more dedicated people in some of these various movements. They usually have no children, or their kids are grown up and gone away. They place a high premium on physical beauty in western cultural terms, though they claim to be “above superficiality”. Many of them are trust fund kids, and nearly all of them are white, no matter what exotic names they give themselves. You can find many of them at Burning man, reggae concerts, Cafe Gratitude, (sorry! just calling it like I see it!)  and everywhere else Upper middle class white Americans go to get an infusion of cultures they are not really connected with, because of a preconceived deficit in their own cultural connection with the earth, and the heavens. They usually have a charismatic leader or father or mother figure somewhere nearby “guiding” their meditations, and telling them stories that make them feel important, and in the right place..

In other words, they tend to be really phony. Blond-dreadlocked so-called “Rastafarians” who know nothing about the Coptic origins of Rastafarianism, (itself another cult), pretty ingenues from Wyoming, naming themselves “Shanti” and wearing Bindis as a fashion statement, “Psychic healers” in Marin naming themselves “Yemaya” this list goes on and on.

Is this really spiritual seeking, or is this merely a board game for spoiled Americans to play out their culture fantasies, and feelings of inferiority together, and block out some of the ugly truths about themselves and the world?

I think the latter. It’s insulting to the human spirit, to the cultures (dubiously) involved, to free thinking, and to the forward progress of humans as enlightened beings, to dis-engage your critical thinking and have the nerve to call it “spiritual” because you are too lazy to learn real fundamental knowledge, and culture. This is a hallmark of American consumerist privilege. sort of like saying: “I wanna be a Hindu master NOW and I don’t wanna wait!”

Understandably, titles abound. “Masters”‘ of this. “lords” of that, Guru, Mhadi, Qadi, Sensi, Sheik, Grandmaster, Magi, Shaman, and all manner of self congratulatory titles, regardless of the fact that no real learning, or achievement  has taken place. This, is a theater of the western Ego, and the only way to believe the story, is to stay in the theater, and never, ever, come out into the daylight of rational thought or critical thinking.

There is so much beautiful reality that we know about, really know about.

The heavens, physics, nature, the oceans, the earth, people, our brains, our incredible abilities, our bloody, violent, amazing, expansions and histories, and it’s all right there. it’s real and tangible, and like  piece of ripe frit, that needs nothing on it, and no changes to it, to make it enjoyable and exotic, and a revelation for anyone who seeks deepness and learning.

Ahhhh…

Reality. That is the most exotic thing these days. Reality.

Try it. You might like it.

Dear Google: Don’t be geniuses for once

Dear Google,

Here we are on our third try, wading around your latest new social networking tool, Google plus, with all kinds of nifty gimmicks, and your new whizbang seamless layout , marveling once again at the integrated design, and simultaneous user functionality, and hoping that you, once again will be the provider of everything we need online. While muttering under our breath.

It must feel unfair.

You’ve given us the world’s greatest webmail platform, created millionaires out of people who sold local products, made overnight music and arts stars with your search engine, given us chuckles, and oohs and aahs a-plenty with youtube, which for many of us, is merely short-form television with 20,000,000 channels, and after all that, here we are muttering, complaining, always complaining, that we want more

Well we do.

You see, we’re not the naive young kids we were when we first started dating. we know that you use our information for target market demographics. We know that our selection or mention of a product is part of what keeps you and the sellers of that product, alive. We know that Government agencies,  have access to all our data, or if we don’t that we’re probably in denial. We understand concepts like the Cloud, your geometric growth, adwords, adsense, SEO, and a bunch of other stuff we used to scratch our heads at. Ok, we still scratch our heads at. But we’re catching on.

And now that we’re mature young adults web-wise,  we want some respect too.

A company as big as yours can afford to not be so monolithic, and to respond better to critique, and to requests. We expect you to mature as well if we are going to stay in this relationship.

Which brings me to the whole reason I am writing this letter: Google Plus.

You see, Mark Zuckerberg is like that brash kid in school that no one really likes but is charming anyway because he does things that no one else does. We can’t stand him, but he is like that kid who does our papers for us, and hacks into Ticketmaster and gets of front row tickets at red Hot Chili peppers shows.

We’d dump him in a second if you asked us go steady, but sometimes you are like another kind of kid in school too: The quiet misunderstood loner type.

Between the two of you , we’d much rather hang out with you, saving ourselves the embarrassment of everyone knowing what little groupies we are, but he just has so much cool stuff! And using it is fun. At least until we get used to it, and become bored with it.

He’s still a jerk though, and no one really trusts him.

So here we are in the cafeteria of the internet, and here is the big showdown.

Facebook on one side, and Google plus on the other.

I must admit that he looks  a little bigger in person than he does from his yearbook. And he appears to have a lot of support. but they’re mostly kids who don’t know much about him and are still high on his new rep.

So let me take this time to give you a piece of advice on how to take him down.

Don’t be a genius. For once, this might be the best strategy you could ever employ.

Facebook won people over not because it’s genius, (which it kind of is) but because it straddles the line between simple, and complex, perfectly. At least until mark started getting sneaky as hell with our personal information, and changing privacy, and app  functions almost daily, and just being a shifty little billionaire weasel in general.

Here’s some pointers.

1: The great migration:

There are like 500 million people wanting to try google plus, and jump ship. Make a official video to explain what functions are similar between Google Plus and Facebook. Kind of like a Google-Facebook translator. What is the G+ equivalent of “notes”? is there one? Kind of like when someone leaves one company for another or arrives at a new college they get orientation. Give us better orientation.

2: Don’t be afraid to mimic the good things about Facebook.

Facebook functions on a high vanity-level platform that allows us to play games, write notes, hit chatrooms, create groups of our own, send out invites per chatroom, all at the same time, and much more. STEAL THESE IDEAS OUTRIGHT. TAKE THEM.

I mean Zucky (It’s fun to use a diminutive with billionaires) didn’t personally invent any of these things, he just put them together in a way that flows. and man does it ever flow. Can you please give us a package that does not require an HTML or C++ code manual to understand? DON’T BE A GENIUS. We saw you get your ass kicked twice already with Wave and Buzz and we’d like to see you win this one, seriously.

3: Please reconsider your “Not safe for work” (NSFW) rating system.

Look, we all understand you want to keep the web clean, but it’s a little late for that. If I type “girl” or “guy” into google search, your highest level of filters will not fully protect me from a little more flesh than I might want to see, or see at work, or in mixed company.

It’s fine to keep porn, and seriously violent stuff from being able to be posted in google plus messages, but lighten up ok?

We want the freedom to sometimes post something ‘risqué” or “naughty” or even :::gasp::: “Erotic” without BIG BROTHER, cancelling our account or erasing the image. And what’s up with the Picasa anti-erotica rule? Are you Kidding? Art? Statues? Tasteful photos By Helmut Newton, Man Ray, and Imogen Cunningham?  You haven’t been hanging out with those spooky doomsday fundamentalist kids near the rec building have you? that would be creepy.

4: We want you to win, so KEEP IT SIMPLE.

Look, we’re already practically sleeping together, and with as much as you now about us, it’s pretty intimate. if you give us half a chance we’ll dump Zucky, and follow you into the sunset, because we’re basically weak in the knees for social networking that works, and a lot of us are just tired of his shenanigans in general, and his smuggy, sweaty-palmed overcaffeinated marsupial hegemony. We like The cool thoughtfulness  of Sergey Brin and Larry Page better, and if you can just keep it simple, and maybe even lift a couple of ideas from him, we’d all be cool with that. Just keep it simple.

So let’s review a winning strategy for google plus. from your loyal friends and users.

                                                            ___________________________

1: Make the great migration from Facebook to Google+ EASY

2: Don’t be afraid to emulate or create things that are successful on Facebook

3: Please reconsider the “Not safe for work” (NSFW) rating system. We’ll parent ourselves, Thank you.

4: KEEP IT SIMPLE

Love,

Your Loyal fans.