Holy crap. I think the time has come to stop making celebrity the most important thing in the world. Being famous doesn't mean anything anymore. It's not based on talent or dedication or intelligence or hard work. It is just something that happens for no good reason at all. And most of the people who attain fame are raving lunatics.

At any rate, I'm so tired of going to read the news and having half of it be about celebrities, and then talking to people who are worked up about whether or not two famous people are fighting and/or getting divorced and/or joining a religious cult and/or dying of something.

Really? You can't find time to vote in local elections, which are really important because those are the people who have the most to say about the stuff that affects your daily life, like sewers and roads and schools, but you have plenty of time to give a crap about feuds between 19-year-old pop singers? You don't have time to cook your kids real food so they're not constantly inhaling processed junk, but you have time to dump some ice water over your head (but not actually donate any money to the cause, which is probably slightly more helpful to researchers trying to cure diseases)? You don't have time to volunteer a couple of hours a week to sit with an old guy who has no family and probably spends about 23 hours a day just being alone, but you have time to give a crap about Britney Spears?

Blergh.

I weep for the future.

Can't we all just give maybe half a crap about less-advantaged kids in our state? They aren't glamorous, but maybe they won't all constantly try to kill each other if a few of them get some decent parenting (even if it's not by their own parents). I mean, if I hadn't had some people besides my parents giving me the stink eye every now and then, I would be way more of a hoodlum. Also, the old people need somebody to help them out. Maybe mow that old guy's lawn or just let him talk about old guy stuff for like 15 minutes. Seriously.

Or maybe some people could give a crap about kids and old people, and some people could give a crap about running the cities in which they live. I know my town needs some guidance in that arena, and I'd like it if maybe somebody would run for the County Council and actually make the busted-up roads and sidewalks a priority and maybe, I don't know, not re-landscape the main street for the fiftieth time.

And then there's the sad fact that the arts are getting less and less important because we don't care about people's souls; we just want to produce and consume. (Or maybe that's just because I'm a musician and I'm getting awfully tired of comments about how expensive lessons are, especially from parents who buy a new car every year and live in a five-bedroom home and take three or four vacations every year. Some of us went to college, too, guys. Some of us know that creating a beautiful inside is just as important as having a beautiful outside.)

Ugh. It's Monday and I already hate everybody.

At any rate, I don't care if Beyonce and Jay-Z are getting a divorce. I just don't want to hear about it anymore. I'm sure they're both lovely people and they have a lovely family, but come on. Grow some brains and give a crap about things that really should matter to a large group of people, like whether or not my mood is going to improve...because, if not, you're all in for it.

Also, in un-related news, I may have another cup of coffee. That might be a good idea.