La Vie n'est que des putes et d'argent

ok. I screwed up. Jeff, the guy with the office next to mine pointed out something important: David Brooks didn't say that rap music caused the riots just because it's angry, but because it is also nihilistic and hedonistic, romanticizing violence and pooh-poohing cultural institutions. Since the guy with the office next to mine is my only reader, I take what he says very seriously. So I guess my experiment should have included some more nihilistic/hedonistic/violent stuff. I don't have time to conduct a new experiment just now, but I promise to you, my dear reader (that's you, Jeff!), that I have successfully listened to Leon Payne, Mission of Burma, NWA, The Doors, and Merle Haggard without rioting.

Ok--so one last thought on David Brooks before I let this topic drop forever. How hilarious is this passage:

This is a reminder that for all the talk about American cultural hegemony, American countercultural hegemony has always been more powerful. America's rebellious countercultural heroes exert more influence around the world than the clean establishment images from Disney and McDonald's. This is our final insult to the anti-Americans; we define how to be anti- American, and the foreigners who attack us are reduced to borrowing our own cliches.

Dear Mr. Brooks. What kind of dickweed really thinks that rap is counterculture? Rap music, ALL major label music, is in the business of making money, and nothing's more American than that. As one of those presidents said (I think he also said that we could eat cake): the business of America is business.

And that the foreigners who attack us are all hopped up on 50 Cent and Ice Cube??? Bitch, please.

Feemus will now cease to discuss David Brooks. Happy, Jeff?