THE SKINNY

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SUBCULTURE FEBRUARY


SUBCULTURE by wendythirteen


As yet again I rush to write this column I wonder if I’m repeating myself ... I figured I’d just scribble down a bunch of musings at work as I’m listening to extremely loud death metal... Hey, it actually ripped me away from twiddling with my phone for a couple of hours...

I had an interesting conversation with a cab driver the other night... As I was checking the NHL app on my phone for the hockey scores, he chimed in about how the world is changing people’s attention spans with technology...
Now, I find myself guilty of being glued to my handheld device... It really is an antisocial action of social avoidance I suppose... As I’m sitting at work it’s just way too easy to delve into a game of Scrabble...

I can’t even say that I talk to anyone on the phone too much anymore... It’s just easier to text or Facebook message a person... I even find email annoying these days... Every time you open the program you have to sift through and delete loads of spam messages... Disturbingly, I find myself less productive artistically... I need to ground myself from the technological vixen named iPadPhone...

So in other news I am pleased to report that my perception of Gene Simmons has changed... It’s all about business to him... It kind of makes you wonder if it was ever about music... He has over 2,500 KISS merchandising items out there in the world for sale... I listened to a phone interview with him on Hockey Central at Noon and he sounded like a complete advertising machine pumping all things KISS... I’m actually glad I had to work and missed the KISS performance at the Ducks / Kings Stadium Series as I heard it was pretty tragic...

I don’t know why Gene Simmons’ vainglorious spiel was rubbing me the wrong way but it was certainly annoying... It was kind of like having bands flood your social media with constant P.R. shit... How much is too much?

Gene Simmons’ Twitter account is a fascinating read though... He gets trolled pretty hard and he responds to these people too... In some ways there is a human element to his persona there, as opposed to the ‘buy me’ robot he scripts when given any media airtime...

In the weird category, I received my quarterly, went to voicemail call from Stan the Karaoke King... His latest idea for me was to reach out to my imagined political and big league musical circles and get Bizarro-World mayor Rob Ford to replace Axl Rose in Guns N Roses and embark on a world tour as ‘Ford N Roses’... He even had a backup plan if the Guns N Roses angle didn’t pan out... It was to just hire musicians and have simply ‘The Rob Ford Band’... Hey Rob Ford! There is life after politics for you out there just waiting! Glad someone is thinking big about my future... These calls are always early morning so I’m safe to assume that Stan has some hugely vivid boozy dreams going on...

SUBCULTURE by wendythirteen -  Cat Ashbee Photo

If only life worked quickly on the whims and wishes of scoring unlimited cash flow... Dozens of peeps would have hit the lottery by now and bought a bar that resembled everyone’s favourite memories of the Cobes... I love hearing these musings and how happy people were there... It takes me back to a happy place and makes me feel really proud to have shared that type of space with everyone... I wonder what my life would look like though these last dozen years if I had a video camera attached to my being... Gotta love it!

-wendythirteen