Various connected and unconnected philosophical thoughts on the Internet, Perez Hilton, hatred, racists, friends, kinship and Pete Townshend

We could use the internet to change the world and get rid of shitty leaders and bad fashions and foods made in China with lead in them but nothing is really going on but Perez Hilton's 24 hour Right wing Cuban celebrity public masturbation.

Ok, there's a lot more than just THAT but sometimes I feel like I fail at much of what I've read and tried to learn about Meher Baba and leading a kind, happy life when I deal with the internet and how it makes me feel, yet here I am.

The internet just never stops, not if you are trying to make (or maintain) your name in show business that's for sure. I like to entertain on a mass scale and I plan on being very successful and this goal is a shared by many, many others who also want fame and fortune in the arts. About nine months ago I wrote a post about how the internet was radically changing things for artists (especially musicians) and that my brand of cheesecake eschewed by many serious performers (of which I place myself in despite) was a great way of standing out in cast of millions. It's turned out to be a really smart move because I'm having fun and making great connections, I have an EP collaboration with a band

,Kill Switch...Klick

that's in wikipedia that was just released but with the internet comes hatred. Hatred from haters and hatred from myself.

The internet is now the dive bar, the "200 Motels" of today but without the fresh air and the interaction of physical energy-two seriously huge, crucial omissions for the singer, musician except the hecklers and snarkers can come at you anonymously, quickly, constantly. Your boyfriend can't kick them in the nuts and the bartender can't have them thrown out. There were no hecklers and haters in my life until the internet and there were no stalkers either, now I have plenty of both along with about ten times as many fans but they too come with a responsibility. They want to ask me questions about my life, my goals, my physique and some have become my trusted friends and i love all of them.
So while one wall is on the way down, the wall of my privacy which I carefully maintain is going to stand. Sure some of what I'm scared of, what hurts me...it has to be out there because I want to change the world. "Get them to know who you are and they will want to hear your song" was what Paul Robeson told Harry Belafonte and he was right but you can still keep a lot unseen as both man did.


How funny to finally have a smidgen of what it must feel like for many of my heroes like Pete or Sophia Loren dealt to me. It's a huge price to pay. Thankfully, meant in a perverse way, the hatred also works in the other direction, an rabid attempt was made to rip me off a few months back and I used the internet to hit back and I was astonishingly successful.
" *** should be strung by his balls." wrote legendary cult actress

Tura Satana

to me on MySpace when I relayed my feelings. (The beauty of the internet is that some of the greatest talents, legends if you will, heroes of music and cinema are only a click away, doubt I could live without that now)


So we have power we never had but what about kids, teenagers dealing with the internet? How are they not going to lose themselves in it and find their way out? What about the internet bullying or just the visceral way it must feel to be having your first love in High School (and then wondering who is commenting on her MySpace page when you're not with her?)
When a hating tween or teenage girl contacts me (their are staggering amount of minors on both YouYube and MySpace) I immediately try to have a dialog with them and be friendly. At first I would hit back and then I realized that this is not some languid and

tattoed loving older Troglodyte

sitting in a room somewhere in the Midlands talking about his poetry and calling me a fat whore for no reason other than he can but it's a young girl who might appreciate a friendly attempt at communication. 90% of the time it's a positive exchange and 100% of the time I tell them to log off.


Then there are the racial extremeists. Not one to sit back idly when I see Nazis and Fascists I've ended up on some of the harsher YouTube channels debating with people who "mourn Apartheid" or who live to 'cracker jack.'

Seriously, I owe it to my fondness for Paul Robeson to get in there and say something in the interest of changing narrowness. Still it was awful when two weeks ago I was accused of being another member (You Tubers notoriously maintain numerous socket accounts) and this member happens to be a vocal white supremacist. It was horrifying. Two dozen channels of my most loyal subscribers were swamped with comments directing them to "me" and explaining that I was an 'anti-black and an anti Semite.' It took me about two days to "show" my accuser who only called himself 'BigBeautifulMan'(account now closed) that I had argued numerous times with the very person he was accusing me of being. I had already prepared what I was going to tell my colleagues in the Paul Robeson Committee about why I was fighting (instead of updating the charity website) on YouTube with avowed racists that "I was doing research and trying to change people's opinions."


That said all of us original Boy Who Heard Music bloggers have a lot to be proud of. I still have yet to see a such a large group of bloggers who were as kind, considerate and as willing to just be mellow and easy going. I think that ultimately says a lot about Pete. Even Terry and his 9 billion word posts that gave you carpel tunnel as you scrolled past like a text waterfall and the occasional pleading needy demand on Pete to 'look at me!' is really nothing compared to what's out there. Perez Hilton is raising millions of teenagers to just be nasty, guttural and putrid and worst of all anti-intellectuals and he has FANS! Thousands of them. I hardly recall Hedda Hopper, Rona Barrett or Walter Winchell having fans and being revered but then they never had blogs....And the bar has been low lowered and lowered ever since Madonna taught the Britneys how to act like trash and show their vaginas to get attention.
We were all really fortunate I think to have Pete put his story up for us which reminds me of Piera, one of the original of TBWHMB. She's here in England now and has put up up some great photos in her Myspace page (see below)
I remember what it was like to go to Brighton the first time because The Who had inspired me and going to White City actually thinking it was going to be an all painted White City because Pete had worn a medal and stood in front of a building on an album cover and looked really British. I could see in the pictures how much joy and fun she's having and how I hope to inspire people someday in that way. To go across the oceans and find fun landmarks and meet the characters that could be from a Who song the way Pete inspired us resonates and brings that kind of happiness and good thought to people which after all IS entertainment, mostly hate free, on and off the grid, a big inspiring love- (any way you shake em. ;)