"do you have any david bowie?"

will loose ends do? had a real boss time at the tiki bar last week. the one-and-only scotty hard literally rolled through w/ some pals and it was great to catch up w/ an old friend... around 1 am a small group of good looking kids stopped by for a nightcap. though it's more of a cocktail lounge vibe, i was stoked to see 2 of the girls in the party dancing away to the sounds. after a few minutes, one of them sauntered up to the decks and asked where i was from? "toronto..." i said. "toronto? well you better step it up!" she wasn't joking and started demanding requests. i pointed over to my flight case and small box of 7"s thinking that there's no way i brought what she wants to hear—unfortunately for her, i have yet to master my iTunes impersonation. "do you have any david bowie?" "damn, sorry no, but i hope you've been enjoying what i've been playing. i'll do my best to make it nice..." after another separate request from the same girl i took a different approach, "i'd love to hear that too, but don't be afraid to go outside of your comfort zone and listen to something new..."

this mini-episode made me think of a larger issue in today's western society, something i've thought about quite a bit over the last 10 years or so... sense of entitlement. w/ the open availability of technology and free-flowing streams of culture, there's a disturbing underside that seems to be brushed aside. since everything is free and instantly accessible today via the net, downloading, etc... we (almost) always get what we want. great for the most part, but i believe that it breeds a spoiled and quickly dissatisfied nature. of course, this is a total first-world "problem," but i sense that a lot of people feel it's their birthright to have every cultural whim and fancy catered to at every moment and f@ck anyone or thing that doesn't comply. while accessible technology and social networking devices make us feel that we're all DJs, all artists, all curators, it's easy to forget that there's still hard work involved behind the scenes, and yes, something usually more involved than clicking away at a keyboard and paying your internet bill each month. though some folks would rather us be, we are not computers (yet)...

so here's a BIG cheer for mystery, to those who take the time to dig deeper, and those who don't give it all away (for free)... to loving longer, paying dues with a little old-fashioned elbow grease, and most importantly... world peace!!!