| RANTINGS |
| 29.03.2004 |
LET'S TALK ABOUT POLITICS, BABY. |
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"See, free nations are peaceful nations.
Free nations don't attack each other. Free nations don't develop weapons of mass destruction."—George W. Bush, Milwaukee, Wis., Oct. 3, 2003
I think George W. unwittingly summed up the U.S. fairly nicely in that statement, don’t you?
Due to the upcoming election, and my probably very naive idea that I can make a small difference to the outcome of it, I’m dusting off my U.S. passport and marching to the U.S. embassy to vote this fall. I’m also spending alot of time in the internet, reading up on our two candidates as well as getting involved in alot of very pointless political arguments on various forums. And I’m not the only person taking part who is getting fed up with being called “anti-american” the second I dare to criticise our current leader. I did, however, get quite a chuckle out of the guy who told me to “go someplace else and see if you like it there better”, assuming that since I’m american, I must live in the states. Um thanks, I did that already. And yes, it’s much nicer here. Thanks to the Patriot Act, my name is now probably on some list somewhere. Whatever. Along with the “George-W.-can-do-no-wrong-and-Clinton-had-sex-in-the-Oval-Office-and-lied-about-it-and-therefore-all-democrats-suck” (no pun intented) faction, there are also hordes of people like myself who are so scared of having Bush in office for another term that they will be going out to vote against him. I don’t care what the motive is, as long as people go out there and do it. It’s going to be a close one, I think.
If you’re interested in what the candidates say about themselves, here are their official websites:
http://www.johnkerry.com
http://www.georgewbush.com
On to a lighter topic: the music business! Ah, the glamourous music business. Where the term “restructuring” would make any republican proud, being a pretty way of saying “You’re fired, buddy!”. There’s an alarming amount of unemployed music biz folks running around these days, and in all but a few well-deserved cases, it’s really a shame. And it’s just going to get worse. What boggles my mind are the statements coming from some of the Über-Big Cheeses of the major music industry. Statements such as “it’s time to start building up talented new artists and thinking more long-term”. Well duh. You mean like the indie labels have been doing all along?
But still, it’s scary, watching companies close right and left. And there have been some direct “hits” too. Our french distributor, for example, who went under owing us alot of money. C&D Promotion in Köln. They didn’t owe us anything, but we worked with them for years, they are wonderful & hard-working folks and we feel really bad for them. EFA, one of the oldest indie distributors here in Germany, who were responsible for the distribution and export of the Fishtank series, including the one with Motorpsycho. This list could continue, but it’s just too depressing.
And is it any wonder? Look at the masses of CDs that are released – daily. Who is supposed to buy all this? The supply so vastly exceeds the demand, in every genre. Quality, not quantity, I say. But that’s a whole other rant.......
To be continued.
Jeannette
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| 23.12.2003 |
Welcome! |
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So we finally go online with the new website. First of all a huge thank you to Eva Nahon, the web-goddess who designed it, and to Rex the programmer. Klaus Cornfield, who is responsible for our two sampler covers did the funny Rolf & Jeannette animations. Thanks for making us look so YOUNG!
This spot here will be reserved for whatever I feel like ranting about, therefore the name. I suppose I should call it a "blog", but "rantings" is probably more appropriate, knowing myself. It won't always have something to do with the label, or even with music, but will just be about things that are currently important to me (Jeannette). Maybe I'll even let Rolf get a word in edgewise once in a while....but probably not.
Two major things have been going on lately here, neither of them pleasant. First of all, we took on the german tax office regarding their ridiculous foreigner tax laws (which apply to all non-german bands)....and lost, of course. Oh well, chalk that one up to experience, I suppose. So meetings with lawyers, tax officials and accountants have been taking up TOO much of my time these past months. The other thing that happened here, and which hit closest to home, was the disappearance of one of our beloved cats. Now as you will learn in the future (should you care to stop by once in a while), and as people who know us are already aware of, there is nothing in the world as important to us as our cats! So I've been spending more time than is healthy on the search for the missing feline. She's been spotted several times, so we know she's alive and out there - somewhere - but it hasn't helped us to get her home yet. I will of course post any news regarding this on the cats page in the future.
I'll abstain from ranting about good ol' George Dubya this time around. I'm sure he'll give me lots of ammunition for the future. For now I just want to say: enjoy the website, take part in the forum, and have a good start to 2004!
Jeannette |
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