I find the constant presence of piped in music exceedingly annoying. It's everywhere. In restaurants, gas stations, malls, stores, on the street outside the f**king stores...everywhere! And you know what? It's the death of the live musician. People quickly become jaded when they can have any kind of music they want (or in my case, don't want) at the push of a button. Who really needs a minstrel any longer in this deluded, rat race society? Who will pay said minstrel a decent living for his talent. Nobody, unless the media have made said minstrel into a huge star through a relentless marketing campaign.

The whole thing is sick, and it is very Orwellian.

I try to avoid the muzak every way I can, but it's not easy.

Has anyone noticed, all around us, the death of subtlety in this society? Everything is loud, blatant, and overdone. It's been Whitney-Houston-ized.

AAARGGGH! Read Dylan's liner notes on the album "World Gone Wrong". He alludes to the decay that has occurred in people's musical and cultural sensibilities and to the values that have been lost.

"I've seen thousands who could have overcome the darkness. For the love of a lousy buck I watched them die." (quote from "When The Night Comes Falling From The Sky" on Empire Burlesque)

I sometimes feel that I am living in the 2nd decline and fall of the Roman Empire...one sickening step at a time.

- LH