Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Cleaning House

It's been a while, so allow me to get a few things out of the way before cutting to the chase...

So, yeah...I went and saw Shania Twain while I was in Vegas.  Now, I didn't go alone...I promised The Better Half that I would take her to see Shania Twain when her Caesars Palace shows were announced over a year ago.  The opportunity to fulfill that promise presented itself and unlike every other situation I had promised to do something, I actually saw this one through. 

I am not a fan of Shania Twain's music.  At all.  However, Shania Twain's music was never meant for someone like me, it is/was targeted to females...the twang version of 'Girl Power' introduced by the Spice Girls in the mid-90's.  And that's fine.  I understand and accept that, so I just enjoyed the show for what it was, and that was a magnificently produced Vegas spectacle.  The set was simple but still saw numerous large piece changes ranging from a western saloon to a fake camp site to an icy snowscape...and there were two live horses and a flying motorcycle.

As a performer, Shania Twain is a pro.  She's much calmer than she was a decade ago, no longer running around the stage dressed as the world's wealthiest aerobics instructor.  Her voice is a lot stronger than I would have giver her credit for.  Song arrangements were stripped down and straightforward, driven by a top notch drummer that kept everything tight.  From a musical standpoint, it was good to hear the Mutt Lange overproduction from the studio kicked to the curb.

Overall, it was an enjoyable experience, one that TBH enjoyed more than I did.  I still had fun (the depth charge sized mojito I had before the show helped) and hey, if you are in Vegas and looking for a show you could do a lot worse than Shania Twain....

Now, back to business...

Here's the deal.  I've once again managed to roll up on some kind of identity crisis when it comes to this blog and writing in general.  Too many times I've stopped writing/posting out of fear of offending someone's tender sensibilities.  In my previous blog, that really wasn't an issue.  I had a dedicated set of readers that posted encouraging comments and sporadic readers that enjoyed telling me to get bent.  Good times!  I've been walking a fine line since linking to Facebook.  The fear is that some of my Facebook 'friends' may not get my humor or my point of view on certain topics, so I've self-censored.  A lot.  And it has been disastrous for me.

A turning point for me occurred shortly after the Boston Marathon bombing.  I posted a comment that read:  How long before the talking heads on CNN and MSNBC start asking, 'Does anyone really need a six-quart pressure cooker?'  This, of course, was a play on what some pundits had been saying about certain guns/ammo/clips leading up to the gun control vote.  The post was parody, but also designed to get people to think...why do we attempt to solve problems by skirting around the root of issues and going balls out to assign blame on inanimate objects and pass ineffective laws?

Well, this post set someone off and for some reason I allowed this person's hysterical and nonsensical reaction to influence me to the point of deleting what I had written.  I've regretted doing so ever since going back and reading our message thread about my post.  Unfortunately, I let someone's illogical and emotional reaction dictate my opinion on what I should and should not post.  As time passed I realized that I have been actively going out of my way to avoid posting on FB or writing in this blog anything that might be controversial or remotely interesting. I've stifled myself and that has turned something I really used to enjoy doing into a chore...worse, it made me boring.

Now, does this sudden burst of self-awareness mean I'm going to start dropping F-bombs all over the place as if they were fire bombs over Dresden?  Of course not.  It also doesn't mean that I am going to go out of my way to be offensive just to be offensive...or profane...that has never been my style.  I do have opinions though, very strong ones that not everyone agrees with, which is fine.  I welcome disagreement and opinions that differ from mine, as long as they aren't the rantings of conspiracy theory fever swamp apes or melodramatic mewling.  I've no time for either.

            

1 comment:

  1. Jesse, I'm glad you have decided to keep it real. Your sense of humor is who you are and coming from one of those mindless Americans you talk about, your comments make me think. Also, since The Voice is over for the season, I can now catch up on your offensive rants. :-)

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