Let's play a game

Let's play a game, do you know who these people are? With all the mass media that we get bombarded with  either you recognize them immediately as the Insane Clown Posse of Detroit or you stare at the picture and mutter WTF?

With the internet and a billion smart phones, tablets and lap tops the average person has the kind of access to information that's beyond the wildest dreams of the most visionary thinkers of only a generation ago. So if you don't know who the Insane Clown Posse are, well you're only a couple of mouseclicks away from enlightenment.

I've always been an old school type of person. I enjoy taking advantage of technology, this blog is a lot easier than printing a zine but I am concern that people spend too much time in front of a screen.

I was reading a medical paper on the development of the first artificial retina. It is thin membrane chip similar to the chip in your digital camera. The amazing thing to me is the implanted chip sends its signal directly to the optic nerve and the person actually sees an image. It's not only a miracle of modern medicine but it's another step towards direct computer to brain interface.

Ten or twenty years down the road the boundary between our minds and cyberspace might not even exist. Many of my friend just roll their eyes when I say stuff like that and usually reply with "like duh - it's coming"

I worry about the quality of human interaction. The more time we spend in the cyber-world the less time we spend face to face with real people. As the cliche goes -a million friends on facebook but no one to go out with on a Saturday nigh.

Computers and all their spawn of mobile devices are never going away but maybe we can use them to help bring people physically together. One thing I am grateful for is how internet can fact check almost anything. Think of how many bar fights and tons of erroneous BS was nipped in the bud by going to Wikipedia.

Back to game playing. When hanging out with a few friends the conversation turned to music of the 1980's. Someone asked if George Michael was still alive. "Of course" I said and then wove a tall tale of how he was making a movie. It's a murder mystery where George Michael reunites with his old band and while on tour each member of the band is suspiciously killed.

Finally I was challenged with the question of what this movie is going be called? "Silence of the Whams" I replied. You could imagine the groans and at that point nobody had to fact check me.

But we did have fun afterwards remembering old music acts and looking them up on-line. So the Insane Clown Posse are alive and well, and recently came out of the closet as evangelical Christians. You know that still doesn't sound right.

Dick Dale, just beat cancer and is playing clubs up and down the Californian coast.

Elliot Murphy and Jonathan Richman are both big hits in Europe but now almost totally unknown here in America. What? You don't know who either of these guy are? Really? They were once great...no, really.

Somebody in our group was a Hawkwind fan. I impolitely asked if they were even still alive but not only are they happily above ground some of their newest music is their best. After than we had fun laughing at the mangled English of The Cardigans but were impressed with their musical arrangements.

What I'm getting at is that day we used the computer and the internet to bring friends together. Instead sitting at home and clacking away on the keyboard alone, we use the computer as though it was our own music library to shared our favorite tunes, being both presenter and critic of some forgotten gems of pop culture.

We plan to do this again real soon, dredge up those acts that have fallen off the radar and ask "dead, retired or still touring?"

Be creative, play games. Don't just be a passive consumer of what's on your screen. here are three videos for you, are they dead, retired or still touring?