The reprise of "No B Side"

I was looking at some of my old blogs today, and came across this one.  I wrote it in Feb. 2017.  Re-reading it, I see that not much has changed at all in the last 2 years. I think it bears repeating.

February 2017
 As an observer of all things going on around me, it appears that the media has lost the fact there there is a B side to all that is going on in the world right now. 

Let me clarify. "B Side" is a music industry term that originates from when record labels release 45s. One song on each side. and A side (Which was supposed to be the hit song) and a B side which featured another song on the album that was good but not being considered as an A side single.  So, you played the A side song and the B side may NEVER get heard. 

Funny thing, though, sometimes people want to know what's on the B side. And occasionally, a B side song is a hit.  Maybe a DJ at a radio station played it by mistake. It's happened many time in the course of music history. Google "B SIDE HITS" and you will be surprised at what songs charted that were never supposed to be hits.  
Now, in the world of CDs and MP3, and streaming services, the B side is not a factor anymore and we now hear the Chart Cut and it's all we ever hear. (Listen to XM radio and tell me what the repeat rotation is) I was a radio DJ for many years. My luck was that they never made me follow the national rotation, and I was allowed to play what I wanted.  So, I mixed it up a lot and played songs that you didn't hear a lot, but everyone remembered. The songs you don't hear anymore."

I have a point to all this. Really.  It has to do with the news media. 

We are in a time of great division. It is not the first time, and it will not be the last time.  I don't choose sides, I observe what I perceive to be only A Side information.  All the media seems to thrive on is the anger and the negative energy that is spewed forth by people who don't or won't accept the current world and political situation. 
You see riots, and angry mobs, celebs who think they have the voice and ear of the people. And it's only so because the news media shoves it into your face and surrounds you with this hate and anger. All for ratings.  Bear with me. If  you are watching the news and there is rioting in the streets, and cars being set on fire, and you switch to the other news channel and see some warm and fuzzy story about happy people doing good things, do you shake your head and go back to the riots and anger because it's "more interesting?"  It's like listening to the first 10 seconds of a B side single and deciding that the A side song is better because that's what the record company has chosen to give you. It's what the networks chose to broadcast because they know that you will watch. 

I want to see the B side to all this hate and discontent. Show me the good. There is good in everything. It's the Yin and the Yang. You can not have one without the other.  Problem is, we are only looking at the Yang. We need a little more Yin I think.

I used to counsel teens. At the beginning of a group session, which I KNEW was going to be all about bitching about their parents and their life, as teens are prone to, I would go around the room and tell them to give me a HAPPY before we started. It had to be thought out . Not "I'm happy to be here...or I'm happy the 49ers won the Superbowl. (It was a long time ago) It had to be a genuine, happy feeling. It was hard for them. They were so programmed to be negative that it was beyond them to think that they had anything at all going for them. But.. they managed in the end to come up with something thought provoking. 

We have a higher power of some sort watching over us. I believe that.  Sometimes we just need to turn off the constant A side and flip to the B side and see what is there. It might be a better song. 

Have a great day.

The Olympics are over???

I almost missed it this year.  The Winter Olympics. They came and went without a lot of fanfare. Or maybe there was fanfare, but I was on the wrong channel.  I expected lots of social media. Facebook, twitter, instagram, whatever...but...there was very little of that.  Strange.

I remember when I was a kid...back in the 70's...everyone was talking about the Olympics! Months before they started! Granted, the Summer games were always a bigger draw, but the Winter games also generated a lot of buzz.  There was American pride, and everyone was glued to the games to see the USA kick some ass.  It was the Cold War all over again. Didn't matter as long as we beat Russia. 

So this year, they banned Russia from the games because of doping. (Go figure). The ones they did allow to compete were the Olympic Athletes of Russia or OAR. Nothing they did went into the official record books. As a matter of fact, they had to give couple of medals back after the Russian curling team was busted for doping.  THE CURLING TEAM IS DOPING???? WHAT THE HELL IS THAT ABOUT?? Gotta pump up before you slide a rock down the ice. And those guys sweeping the ice...they need that extra steroid bump to handle the brooms.....That being said, curling is one of those things that you won't admit to watching, but it draws you in. hooks you...and soon you realize you have watched this thing for the last three hours. It's quite memorizing.  More so than the skiing I think. I can watch downhill skiing for about 15 minutes. It's all the same. These guys and girls are so good, they never fall. Snooze. What's on PBS?

I missed most of the opening ceremony, didn't care about the closing ceremony,  and in between caught snippets here and there.  I did tune in to the figure skating to see Johnny Wier's  hair.  All kidding aside, there was some amazing skaters this year.  

The event I like the most is the skeleton. These guys are shooting downhill on the ice covered bobsled run on what is basically a half sized Flexible Flyer doing about 90 MPH. Arms at their side, no real way to steer....These guys have my total respect.  When I was 12 years old, I was on my Flexible Flyer going down dead man's hill.  I lost control and hit a tree face first at maybe 10 MPH.  I had to drink Thanksgiving dinner through a straw.  

So, with the winter Olympics over, life gets back to normal. Which isn't much different than a week ago when it was in full swing. Let's start getting ready for the 2020 Summer games. I'm pumped!!