Nashville Rocks

Somebody once asked what the best thing about the Nashville music scene is. It's a pretty crazy question considering how diverse the music scene is here. Everything from 12 types of country/western/swing/bluegrass, to an amazing symphony, to a thriving rock scene fuels the city. And really, the more the merrier. There's always a show to see. From The Don Kelley Band at Robert's, to Vivaldi at the Schemmerhorn, to a Spoon show at Cannery. There are no shortages of amazing tunes going into the night.

The locals put on a pretty good show themselves. One thing is for certain though, when it comes to fuckin' rock, there is Jeff, and there is everyone else. The show is amazing. Anytime anyone in the room hasn't heard Jeff before makes it through about half a song, they move up close. They are the Pied Pipers of blowing minds. Jamin plays the drums like a Buddy Rich possessed and Jake's guitar riffs hit hard and heavy.

So, when I think of the Nashville music scene, I think of Jeff. Maybe more bands in town will be able to come close to their glory.....


probably not.

Who's That Knocking On the Door? Bad Air in Your Lungs

Guess what people of Nashville, bad air is here. Buried in the Tennessean is an update talking about the air quality in Nashville for tomorrow, and yet I believe that most people reading it either don't understand what they're reading or don't believe it.

Bad air.

The people in the laboratories are saying if you want to stay healthy, avoid going outside. The same people that make all those drugs you take are saying your kids should stay indoors.

The usual idiots talk about driving their SUVs tomorrow with the air cranked, and I sit there and wonder why a person would say something like that. You wouldn't go stick your head in the chimney of a coal burning plant, or sit in your garage with your car running would you?

Well, I can tell you, I wouldn't because the emissions from the aforementioned are bad for my health. I think that much is common sense now. That does get me thinking though, how does this effect the the world as a whole?

I am no scientist, so know the realizations I'm about to say are personal ones that I've come to through my education at Nashville public schools and what I've researched through places like the US National Assessment of Climate Change and The New Scientist.

We breathe oxygen to survive. Oxygen comes from things such as trees and sea algae. The reason the oxygen that is produced does not escape into space is because there is a protective layer of atmosphere that keeps all the stuff on Earth, good or bad, on Earth. The Earth is like a big garage, so I don't want to pump a bunch of unhealthy stuff into it. I believe that I am a product and inhabitant of the planet Earth. If the above is bad for my health, I believe that it is bad for most living things on Earth.

Plants such as trees, consume carbon dioxide and convert it into oxygen that is in turn consumed by humans which in turn convert that O2 into CO2 etc etc. If you take away trees, the things that convert the CO2 into breathable air, through deforestation at the same time you increase CO2 production through power plant emissions and car emissions you have interrupted the natural (dare I say it God given) balance. That sounds bad to me.

Now, add that to water pollution that kills sea algae and holes in our atmosphere that cause the Earth to bake from increased solar radiation absorption, and it seems to me we have a huge fucking problem Houston.

Maybe it's just me. Maybe not.

Iraq

As a US citizen that feels that he is genuinely concerned about the war in Iraq, I can't help but wonder who the war is benefiting.

Is the war benefiting America in the sense that it is making us, as well as the rest of the world, safer from Islamic radicalism? It seems that as the war drags on that our exit is going to be a little less glorified than the proponents had once expected. The birth of new sectarian violence has stifled the infant government and our continued military presence is wearing thin on the already war weary (we're talking a long time) region. As more and more Iraqi citizens (the true losers in this war) die, it seems the military is incapable of doing anything to stifle the influx of "insurgents" and bringing enough calm and stability needed for the fledgling democracy to be effective. Without a strong central government, Al Qaeda will continue to flourish in the region. As long as our military is in the region, it will give cause for new recruits against us, because I believe we are seen as occupiers, not liberators. I think that the visit to Syria to discuss border security was a step in the right direction and that more diplomacy with neighboring countries would do greater good than 20,000 more troops could ever do.

Or is the war benefiting the Iraqi people? It seems that for every American soldier killed in Iraq, many, many more civilians die.

My humble opinion is that the only way Iraq can become a good story, like Bosnia, and not a horror story, like Afghanistan, is through open discussion and diplomacy with the entire Middle East.