by Peter Marus

Just a quick couple thoughts for tonight.

First, I”ve been listening more and more to Nirvana's “MTV Unplugged” album. It's one of the few albums I don't ever think about skipping any tracks. It's probably my favorite Nirvana album, mostly because it showed the band in it's more raw and pure form. Sure the live compilation that was released sort of did that as well, but that was like a mish-mosh of live tracks, whereas their Unplugged album is one show. The idea of “MTV's Unplugged” at the time was a great concept and it really showed at the time, what bands had true talent, and what were using the crutch of studio effects. I think this also showed that all the “alternative” bands on the 90s were amazing musicians. Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, and other bands from the time that did the show really had some amazing performances. Eric Clapton had one as well, despite his fans pissing and moaning that he made all his hits unrecognizable by re-arranging them for work acoustically. All during the 90s this was a great show, until the turn of the century, where thanks to the PC world forcing inclusion on us all, rap and R&B acts started doing the show. First off, having an R&B act do it isn't revolutionary, since most of their songs are based on acoustic instruments. Rappers sucked at the show, since they can't rely on their samplers and pre-recorded beats. The only one that seemed interesting was Korn's, but I still never seen it since I still haven't gotten myself up for it, for various reasons (look in some of the past entries to see what happened when I first tried to watch/listen to their performance). So once again, inclusion screws up something perfectly good, just because God forbid White people had something they enjoyed.

Now for something more local here in NYC. Here they are pushing this idea of “congestion pricing”, which would have people pay to come into Manhattan during Rush hour, and the theory is that it will discourage people to drive in and help clean the air. It's a hot toping in the city here, and I am against it. First, I live in the outer boroughs, and whatever pollution cloud that is over Manhattan will be put on the outer boroughs due to everyone parking and driving around there. On top of it being a bitch to get parking now, it would be a nightmare if this passed since everyone would have to park in the outer boroughs and catch the train in. Sure it's promised that the money raised would go to improve mass transit, but we all know that won't happen. The City had a great idea they used during the transit strike that would make the city air cleaner and better in the city overall. What they did was require any car coming into the city to have at least three people in it. When this was done during the strike, the city was great to walk around, less cars, noise, and pollution. Small my problem with this plan, where does the City profit from this, and make the rich in the city richer. Besides, look who runs the city, and it's clear that the non-money making idea would not be even considered.

Also, for those who think I'm nuts or unstable, after reading what I write here, at least I am not as bad as this rambling jackass.

ooooh, I”m so scared of Scientology...bunch of glorified Trekkie fans who couldn't get a cheap lay even if they went to Hawaii.