Posted by: JasonH5
Category: Culture, Music, Random
Tags: America, Economy, Music, Tacoma, Unemployment
“Shutting Detroit Down” – John Rich
Country music and Jason go together like oil and water…however, I think John Rich is on to something with his song “Shutting Detroit Down.” I think this guy really captured the sense of many of the people in our country. You really should take a listen to this song, and even check out the video (stars: Mickey Rourke and Kris Kristofferson). He captures the reality of what is taking place in our nation at this time. We’re going through massive unemployment in some of the cities of our nation that are upwards of 30-40%. While we are bailing companies out to fill their pocket books with their bonuses of hard work…Don’t tell me Chris Dodd didn’t know of these! This politician received hunderds of thousands of those bailout dollars in campaign contributions. Imagine that, politics and business intermixed. Corruption in politics, of course not. Corruption in these bail outs? Of course not.
America’s poorest neighborhoods and cities are crumbling, while we have people in the banking industry and government getting bailed out with BILLIONS. With the multiple bailouts, it’s in the TRILLIONS! We have a statelike Kentucky crumbling under the pressure of the economy, with thousands of people being laid off, while the University of Kentucky hires John Calipari for $4 million dollars a year…WOW…Are our values way out of wack?! Of course…
Now to our city. Tacoma, we’re not far behind in the unemployment yet, but who is to say that we won’t reach those levels? As my friend Jermz mentioned on his twitter “200 people deep at Worksource.” When I saw that…all I could think was WOAH! I know our area is probably around a 10% unemployment rate, but I could see us at 15-20% by the end of the year.
If you take a drive through Hilltop, the city is starting to look like it was in the 1990s…same with parts of downtown. The economic boom of our downtown core is no longer…you still see some projects in the works, but those new and amazing renovations are going to remain open and vacant…Pretty soon the lovely coverings of plywood will bless the buildings outer cores.
Back to John Rich….He’s a normal guy who I don’t think had any idea of the caliber of song he was writing. Is it lyrical genious? Far from it. But it is mastery in it’s own sense because very few songs out there can capture a sense of millions of people in every facet of society. Really take a listen to his song….Check the video out when it comes available…Country is not my music…but this song transcends my preferences.
http://www.johnrich.com
Hiphop Saves. When the local hiphop community found out that a favorite venue of its was going to get shutdown by the city of Tacoma for some new regulations now requiring a sprinkler system it quickly began planning a benefit to help raise awareness and money. Numbers going around for a sprinkler system it at around 60k. This is an outrageous number for a small live music venue here on 6th avenue. 
