day twenty five

i am not liking the route this book is taking and i feel the only way to add some originality some uniqueness is to add some marvellous controversy to be opinionated now you all know my feelings about that fucking war assuming you actually read that far but i do not want to go into things like how it is a humungus waste of tens of billions of dollars and possibly hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands if not hundreds of thousands of lives mostly innocent arabs and of course the fact that there is already one major environmental catastrophe and there will likely be more instead i feel like getting controversial over things closer to my heart things like the stupidity of commercial radio the fact that there is no nz music quota system of any size on ninety nine point six percent of all radio stations privately or publicly owned the fact that new zealand is now in the wake of an americana takeover in radio and television and hence we are losing our cultural identity and any hint of goodness local tv and radio may once have had and if all this is too heavy for all you mortal plebeians tough shit and now we will get into it starting with the growing american influence here because i feel like it you see on tv we have such kiwi americana as sale of the century and soon to be wheel of fortune and new zealands funniest home videos although the only trueness in that is the home videos bit because they are generally not new zealand nor are the particularly funny and it is just a cheap exploitation of mans willingness to laugh at the misfortune of others rather than making any sort of entertaining or entertainment statements and we also get through the box half a dozen shows again mostly cheap american cable tv video shows of cops or rescue workers on the beat or retelling tales of great feats of braveness and supreme courage they have to face in their daily lives and of course we get all the prime time soaps all afternoon and most of the routinely appalling comedies including among others whos the boss charles in charge wwf superstars of wrestling abcs gulf war coverage and family ties and all this just really sucks because it means that new zealand is not really creating an identity for itself by means of the arts because any talent this country may produce will inevitably scoot off overseas in search off the fame and fortune awaiting them and this americana thing and lack of identity is enforced by new zealand radio and certainly not helped by the lack of a music quota system because nz radio is being overrun by the american and hence sad trends in radio and it is only stations like the six or seven student radio stations and pirate fm previously 99fm who are doing anything remotely innovative and against the current grain of radio in this country and because radio plays a large part in what the public buys musically speaking and because the stations playlists are influenced only by overseas charts it is extremely difficult for any new zealand and hence bloody good music to make it on to commercial radio and that just enforces this loss of identity rather than doing anything positive especially when you consider all the crap that does make the charts both here and overseas and adds importance to the need for a quota on radio now i must admit that there are some acts who have received airplay lately from nz but for the most part the songs which are played are unfortunately remakes of overseas hits and therefore known to the listening public and all this does is make the station say hey look we play kiwi music we support the quota when in my opinion it is about as kiwi as the red deer ie it is not really kiwi music but an import which has just grown up or more probably down here and the good original kiwi artists are just avoided like they always have been and possibly always will be unless there is a huge shake up of nz radio which currently seems very inconceivable sadly for all concerned but that is america for you the place where every kid can grow up to be the president but where originality innovation ingenuity and imagination are looked upon as a pestilent sickness of an unhealthy perverted mind and this attitude is sadly slipping into new zealand culture and thus resulting in the loss the emigration and abandonment of all the people who are intelligent enough and talented enough to give this country back more than its sporting culture but something just as important if not more so its artistic culture we need a cultural identity to survive and if we do not get one we may just as well call ourselves new zealand the fifty fifth state of america after kuwait iraq and saudi arabia and that is something i most certainly do not want to ever happen in my life or anyone elses for that matter