Lets keep this thread sensible and no flaming or attacking individuals on here please, otherwise I will be asking Joe to remove the thread or at least moderate it.

So no opinions to the contrary or else you'll be petitioning Pope Joe for an excommunication, huh? Well - I always thought Mudcat was a discussion group where people are allowed to think for themselves regarding matters of minority relevance - not some society for the mindlessly mutual adoration of the latest fabricated phoney MOR celebrity superstar, whatever human interest element has been woven into the mawkishly grotesque and sickening fantasy by way reality. Reality TV becomes reality music! Except reality isn't real any more - it's been annexed by the spectacle!

I tell you - it was this sort of diabolically commercialised soul-deadening CRAP that pushed me out of the box as a somewhat desperately inquisitive 12-year-old (circa 1973) thus leading me to the real stuff. It's a journey that continues to this day - and the merest thought that such mind-numbingly manipulative culture-killing so-called music still exists ensures that I remain well and truly out there - where the wild things are, the real things, the truly wonderful things which includes a whole world of human & musical possibility. Hey, and that includes folk - remember that, you guys? Mesmerised as you are by the tinsel-glare of the Susan Boyle image-myth-making marketing super-star machine.

Snap out of it. Keep it real. Here's the antidote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZmJnY6N56M