Leader of the Band

Thanks to Leaning Straight Up I learned on first rising this a.m. of Dan Fogelberg’s passing. LSU posted an appropriate Fogelberg performance, but I thought this one particularly poignant (keep in mind that Fogelberg’s dad was a high school band director during Fogelberg’s youth):

A quiet man of music
Denied a simpler fate
He tried to be a soldier once
But his music wouldnt wait
He earned his love
Through discipline
A thundering, velvet hand
His gentle means of sculpting souls
Took me years to understand.

The leader of the band is tired
And his eyes are growing old
But his blood runs through
My instrument
And his song is in my soul —
My life has been a poor attempt
To imitate the man
Im just a living legacy
To the leader of the band.

Well, Dan, you left a musical legacy of your own. Requiescat in pace.

We’re All Cretins

…Or, “What Advertisers Think of Us”

Of the many reasons I especially like to avoid television during the Christmas season, one stands head and shoulders above even the crappy “holiday specials” that turn the Christmas season into a hode-podge season of slush: the commercial that as much as says straight out that women are all prostitutes. You know the one. A guy gives his (wife, girlfriend, lover, whatever) a diamond do-hickey and the jingle “sings,”

“Every Kiss Begins with ____”

Yep. That’s right. guys, the commercial states right out front: women sell their favors for jewelry–especially jewelry from the particular company that markets their wares as a means to “get lucky.” IOW, according to that particular jewelry manufacturer (the most direct and honest of the lot advertizing during the Christmas season–others are a bit more subtle, though their message is pretty much the same), women are whores and guys are all just johns.

Now, that’s just plain disgusting. And insulting.

Guys, if “getting lucky” with your gal depends on getting her some jewlery, you’d be better off traveling to Vegas or some other such place where whoring is at least legally recognized and regulated (to some extent, at least) and out in the open. Paying for sex at home is just degrading.

And women, if some guy thinks he can buy your “favors” with a gift, then you’ve got the wrong guy, and it’ll cost you bigtime down the road. Worse still, if you do “sell” your “favors” for gifts, you know what that makes you.

Exactly what the commercial says in so many words.

And the fact that advertizers think (probably rightly) that most folks won’t see this means they think we’re all cretins.


Trackposted to Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Mark My Words, Allie is Wired, The Pink Flamingo, Leaning Straight Up, Chuck Adkins, Conservative Cat, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.