The Worst Kind of Wasted: 2.46

Aim for the fences, people, that's all I can tell you.

"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn burning for an angry fix."

Ack-- is that even right? I used to be able to recite, like, scary amounts of that poem from memory. Working for an angry little man must've rotted my brain. And if you don't recognize that 'best minds of my generation line', you missed some required reading somewhere along the way.

The best minds of my generation are being wasted on stupid, meaningless, idiotic monkey-tasks while old fat cats get rich for doing less than nothing. It feels like if we ran the world, we'd do it much, much better. Here's the good news- you've made us truly believe in the power of democracy more than any other generation has in a long while. Here's the bad news- we now know you're evil and we might want to do something about it.

And we've still got our free speech for now. The class system sucks, the business world sucks, my education sucks, the air I breathe totally sucks. The world I'm being handed is a craphole-- and you want a f*cking double-foam cappuccino? Well, right away, sir!

All I'm saying is that I, like many [but not all] in my generation, am being wasted. Literally, figuratively, however you want to slice it, my talents are being actively discouraged, my mind dulled, my muses ignored, my ambitions trampled. None of the 'creative industries' in Los Angeles can seem to find a place for someone who 'actually reads scripts' and 'acts in a [proven!] positive creative capacity'-- despite my being 'involved in great projects' and 'a natural for a development position. . . down the line'.
Why? WHY?!?! [howls]

Hey, Dubya, Schwarzenegger, where's the vibrant globalized economy I moved out here for, huh? I got the weather, just missing that whole 'American Dream' aspect. Hell, I'll put up with the rock stars in the 'California Dream', if you just don't let me fester too long before swooping me from these hot, dusty streets. Please, I can only beg for so long. . .

Oh, except for the anonymous blog, of course. There I'm doing great, nice influx of traffic and links, ton of email to go through, lots of old assistant stories, plus hot gossip [Superman Returns gossip straight from the set-- bidders? Wait, wait do they do gossip on Ebay?] It's all there-- for the BLOG.

My career is in the toilet. Neither sharks nor dolphins are calling and the other options seem to be well-- 'meh' at best. But I do kinda like being an anonymous crusader. It's like being a superhero, but being one in real life-- which frankly, is not as interesting as it sounds. It's like, how many massive global emergencies are there? Well, some, but not that many, really. Most of the time, I just sit around in my superhero lair off Mulholland and wait for the phone to ring. "Oh, another email, I'll get that roomie, just lemme use your G5 again."

Look, I know Ho'wood is a messed-up industry. Really, I've been there. I'm there now. But I have to keep my eyes on the prize, count the blessings I've got, and soldier on. So I leave you with this:

Dave Chappelle once asked: "What happens when you take two of Brooklyn's finest emcees and put 'em together in a group?"
"Well," he continued, "then you have my next guest. Make some noise-- Mos Def, Talib Kweli-- Blackstar."
The following is a PSA from the Blackstar Embassy in Brooklyn entitled "What Is Beef?"

[Atlas note: The song discusses the meaning of 'beef'-- American slang generally known to mean 'problems' or 'conflict' or 'drama'. For example, Mos Def says: "Beef ain't the summer jam for Hot 97. Beef is the cocaine and AIDS epidemic." In the context of this, it's impossible to make a LA-is-a-cocaine-candyland joke. . . see it's working already.]

Take it away, Blackstar. . .

Talib Kweli [on beef]:
"It's terrorists with etiquette /
who vote and kill their president, /
the capacity for evil's so evident and prevalent. /
Ain't no hesitation, resolve /
a nation dissolve /
while we sit back waiting to evolve /
those who trade in their freedom for their protection deserve neither."

Mos Def:
"When a soldier ends his life /
with his own gun /
beef is tryin' to figure out what to tell his son. /
Beef is oil prices and geopolitics /
Beef is Iraq, the West Bank, Gaza Strip /
Beef is real, like happening, everyday /
and it's realer than them songs that you dedicate, Slay."



Thanks for stopping by, Mos.

TECHNORATI TAGS: Howl/Generation X/Politics/American Dream/Superhero/Mos Def/Hip-hop/Freedom