There's a phrase that some people in the film industry use: "multiple bites of the same apple." I'll bet the first time you had all three Lord of the Rings DVD's you felt pretty good. Then they released a "special collection" that had extra footage on it. After ponying up more cash for that, along came a "box set" that had a limited edition gollum action figure inside. In order to quench your thirst for the coolest collection of mass marketed ephemera on the block, you basically just shelled out hundreds of dollars for almost the exact same product, three times over. This isn't just limited to movies or entertainment. Everything is a product today, one you're expected to endorse.

Corporations spend millions to lobby our elected officials. Those powerful lobbies wrap those elected (and unelected) politicians and government officials around their fingers. Who are your leaders beholden to? How many politicians truly represent their constituents anymore? If we all believe that most politicians are crooks, why do we keep electing them? We all feel like we have so few options. We feel like we have so few options because we're only given two songs to sing every four years and the lyrics to each sound increasingly the same.

Politicians speak in high minded platitudes because it distracts the public from the hidden handshakes that take place in boardrooms. Who doesn't love freedom? Who doesn't think of the children? Who doesn't want a chicken in every pot and an HDTV on every wall? The democratic process we're taught to revere growing up is little more than theater. Politics may as well be bread and circuses fed to the masses on a jumbotron in an arena. One half wears a t-shirt with an ass, the other an elephant. Expect the bloopers on a new release this fall.

Egress, please?

carve these words to the back of my wrist
isn't life worth something much more than this
can we really expect just to subsist

lull me to sleep rock me to bed
whisper sweet nothings right inside of my head
all eyes on you and nothing more be said

line up, march on
sing it proudly all in the same step
another four more years to go

line up, march on
sing it loudly all in the same breath
another four more years to go

which way to the exit?

standing side by side we feel so alone
is a mass market what we really call home
how often are your ideas bought and sold?

and sometimes it's so hard to see all the signs
when we're all fighting behind enemy lines
but i guess these are just the signs of the times

line up, march on
sing it loudly all in the same step
another four more years to go

line up, march on
sing it loudly all in the same breath
another four more years to go
which way to the exit?

_{(Note: I'm trying to become a bit more consistant with blogging here, among other things. Slowly easing my way back into productivity, in one form or another. This is actually an explanation for a song I wrote. You can listen to it by clicking over here. The recording isn't that great. It sounds much better live. That's why I've included this 30 second video clip you may or may not have seen, which is as close to live footage as I have at the moment.)}