Culture vulture

Annual round up
The collected wit and wisdom of Culture Vulture winnowed from the previous year’s columns.

Sometimes art can be found in what the brushes of the street sweeper miss. (1-20-05)

In my opinion it’s not what you kill, but how respectfully you kill it that defines your relationship to life (2-3-05)

If, instead of using young people as weapons, our governments encouraged them to interact and cooperate in optimizing the environment and the economy, would there be less war and more hope for the future? (2-10-05)

Viewed from a cosmic distance, such shenanigans as religious war and economic collapse may seem no more significant than the lifecycle of a spot of mold on a piece of cheese that’s been in the back of the refrigerator drawer for a little too long, but for those of us living through such cataclysms the cosmic view is cold comfort at best. (4-7-05)

Dogs thrive on having a job and being acknowledged for doing it well. Show me a happy dog, and I’ll show you a dog that knows what its human wants it to do. (4-28-05)

God bless all musicians everywhere. Theirs is not an easy fate. (6-2-05)

The amount spent on one high-tech missile could no doubt prolong several lives, and the world’s collective military budget, if diverted to health-maintenance expenses, would be far more than enough to ensure that every human being on the face of the Earth received the best of care from cradle to grave. (6-16-05)

When religious fanaticism and economic opportunism are becoming indistinguishable in their mutual quests for domination of everything that is noble, righteous and compassionate, I believe it would be worthwhile for all soldiers to sincerely question any orders requiring them to bring harm to innocent people. (7-14-05)

The past is a shimmering illusion fading into memory, abstraction and not-quite-nothingness. (7-21-05)

The best response to neglect is to do things yourself. (8-25-05)

Support your local pomegranate grower. (11-10-05)

Frankly, the marketing of religious ideas, symbolic or not, strikes me as a perversion if not an outright abomination. (12-22-05)

A really happy new year
Due to circumstances beyond our control, the annual get-together usually attended by Culture Vulture was laid to rest. But endings are, at best, opportunities for exploring new experiences, so this New Year’s Eve found us gathered with a diverse group of friends beneath a roof festooned with tiny lights, facing a back porch stage occupied by, in turn, rockabilly mutants Cornfed, led by the groove-tastic guitar work of Ken Lovgren, and the psychedelic, snarling-Rottweiler punk of Shrew, led by the ultra-dazzling sonic guitar textures of my former Bone Gruel bandmate Faizal.

There’s nothing like hearing a performance of genuinely brand new live tunes on New Year’s Eve to affirm one’s belief in the infinitely restorative powers of music.