Everything is "extreme" now. I used to rock and ice climb, started over 20 yrs ago. back then very few people did it .It was something to do to get away from everything. Now its almost become a mainstream sport, with competitions, tv coverage, and you even have big name designers putting out climbing outfits! WTF!! Now i cant stand it. Plus I dont want to be thought of as just following the trend. Labels are the important thing now. If you dont have clothing with a name brand on it you are not hip.
It cracks me up, I drive past the schools and see 600 kids all wearing the same black North Face jackets. What happened to indivduality.
Getting back to the cars, I guess when i was a teenager(i'm 39 now) I guess there was certain simularities regarding cars, we all had 60's and 70's muscle cars, we all worked on them and our lives pretty much revolved around our cars. Most were jacked up with air shocks and leaf spring kits and had big hood scoops and wide rear tires and Hush or CherryBomb mufflers. The 80's version of a ricer! :D :D Our stickers where on the rear quarter window. We raced them too, cant lie about that. But i dont think we where as reckless. anywhere we did it was way way out in the middle of nowhere , away from any kind of traffic. im not saying it was right, it was stupid and dangerous. I just feel todays "racers" have absolutely no regard for anyones safety including there own. and by the media promoting and glorifying it only makes matters worse. Fast and the furious, Biker Boys, movies like that burn my ass. Kids see them get all hyped up and then go out and kill themselves. (or someone else). :mad:

i am not at all suggesting that if you can't beat them, join them. what i am saying is that instead of b**ching about the sh**ty weather, simply pick up an umbrella. there are ALWAYS going to be problems within our society and people that tick us off. what i am saying is why let them tick us off. what i am NOT saying though is to do nothing about it. i just don't think much of what i have read in this thread has been very helpful or positive and i only hope that why i have been saying challenges someone to try to come up with something positive, similar to your outlook of having 'better standards'
i admit that i get plenty ticked-off and pissed at what i see and encounter on a day-to-day basis. i realize that this forum has become a method of expressing our like and dislikes but they are so many people who simply criticize without taking a real good look at the situation and themselves.
and OF COURSE we should attempt to inspire the ignorant cause those are the people who require it most. much of what you dislike about our current society is due to ignorance and ignoring that will simply exacerbate the problem

see what I mean? My 11 year old and I play together whenever we can.

i must say though that i am impressed with the overall intelligence applied to the discussed topics.

it's obvious we all feel that something is wrong. i applaud you all for wanting to do something about it

Yen,the problem is, there isnt enough people that care. Most are happy to go on living thier life oblivious to whats going on around them.

THEY PLAY MUSIC ON MTV???

Wow when did they start doing that?

Can you believe when they first came out they didn't even have commercials!

Your right dj we should do something constructive...

Let's bomb Canada!

It's a joke! (he says dodging bottles of Labatts)

Seriously the problem I have with these shows is that they obvious encourage the street racing lifestyle which puts innocent lives in danger.

SmileWavy

Ha Ha - FrankB watches MTV!!!!!

Somehow, I just can't imagine FrankB watching MTV.

Wow, you must really have had a lot of time off with your broken leg!!! I know when I was recovering from my leg injury, I watched many programs that I never would have ever watched if it wasn't for the pain medication. Luckily, I had satellite TV, so I had PLENTY of crap to choose from.

On a side note, one of the things that I hate about the new automotive shows, it that after a little metal fabrication and spotwelding, everything immediately gets painted and chromed, with no real recognition of the amount of work it takes to paint. This is especially true of some of the biker/chopper shows. Those paint jobs take weeks, yet only seem to take a few minutes on TV.

Also, I think as a culture, we are way too Victorian in attitude. I recommend shock therapy - MORE BOOBS ON TV. (Even us old guys like boobs).

MTV started its downward spiral when it did the first Spring Break or whatever. they found out that mindless garbage sells, and never looked back.

Remember BattleBots? That show used to rock soooo much. Then it stopped being a father-son hobby and went all commercial. Then every network got some version of the show and killed it off.

Do these people ruin everything good in the world?

"can you stereotype anymore frank?!?!"

Aha. Therein lies the problem: in my opinion, the 21st century so far has witnessed the death of individualism. Everytime a new band comes out and starts a new trend, people copy that trend in order to stand out and only end up fitting another stereotype. In highschool, all the counterculture kids just wanted to be different from the Abercrombie-football-cheerleader types, so they adapted personas (punk, goth, metal, hip-hop, hippie, etc) in order to stand out... it was only much later that they realised (or didn't) that they were only fitting a stereotype.

It is much the same with ricers. I probably mentioned the kid that works with me that has the Honda Civic with the jeweled tail-lights. When I asked him why in god's name he would do that to his car, his response was something along the lines of I want to stand out, I want to be different, etc... you should have seen his face when I pointed out the three other Hondas in the parking lot that had the same treatment. All were owned by 17-22 year-old males, all dressed the same. People claim that they're doing these things to express their individuality, but they are unconsiously just trying to fit in.

That's what it's all about - the media tells us we must fit some mold or another. The highschool sophomore starts listening to Good Charolette and all of a sudden they start buying spiked bracelets and spiking their hair. Why? They don't feel that they "deserve" to be listening to this music (which isn't REAL punk, by the way) without fitting the image. Same goes for Deadheads/Phish Phans with their tye-dye and caucasian dreadlocks, the Metalheads with their ripped jeans and long hair, the wannabe gansta with their doo-rags and baggy pants, and, yes, the would-be highschool football star in Abercrombie shorts.

Stereo typing.. I forgot the Jocks, Cheerleaders, Rush fans, Hippies and oh yeah, Canadiens.
Woops I forgot, Democrats, Republicans, left wingers, rightwingers, liberitarians, Goths, Punks, Death Metal heads, Speed Freaks, Sluts, Giggalo's, Actors/actresses and POrnstars.
Did I leave out Mobsters and hitmen, oh my bad......

$$$$$$ :( :(

Frank - Rush fans? haha I am not sure what the image of the Rush fan is... someone with tastes just eccentric enough for progressive rock, but not eccentric enough for early Pink Floyd or current Radiohead?

I'm a Rush fan. However Pink Flyod is my favorite all time band; Roger Waters and back. I like Raiohead as well. Funny thing is I also swoon over a great classical compilation.

I have a wide pallet.

Pink Floyd's best albums are the ones from OBSCURED BY CLOUDS to DARK SIDE OF THE MOON. WYWH and ANIMALS are good, too, but I really don't understand everyone's fascination with THE WALL.

I think I wore out at least one album each of Dark side of the moon WYWH...
Some friends took me to The Wall concert here in L.A. for my birthday, it was really cool to see with all the crazy production but I never bought the CD.
Albums? The Wall concert? hoo boy am I dating myself or what!

Anyway what's up with all these youngins crying about being "flamed" just because someone disagrees with their opinion? You are free to say whatever you want we are not free to comment on it?
Aren't you being intolerant of our intolerance?
:p

I wonder what the next big car thing will be?

Anyways, I just want to say what the FCC is doing to Stern is an atrocity. Currently he just got shut off clear channel and infinity(?)which have a monopoly on radio stations. Now Stern is getting large fines from the FCC so all the remaining stations that air him will not want to have him on the air for fear of fines. This is so freaking rediculous. I guess the government has found a nice way to get around the first amendment. Also, the reason why the FCC is doing this is for money. The FCC was going to be phased out because they really didnt do much. They really have no power in the government except for the 7 dirty words. Now they have made this deceny act to draw some controversy so they will still exsist for a couple more years. I dont know a lot about the government but from what Ive seen it seems pretty corupt.

I dont watch TV anymore, its horrible. I feel the same with the radio now since the deletion of Stern, its all coporate. I am lucky to live in Connecticut because we have WCCC FM which is a non coporate radio station who started Sterns career. The other Rock station in Connecticut was phased out by a rap station. I am pretty tired of hearing what the masses want me to hear, seeing what the masses want me to see, and thinking the way the masses want me to think. This society is going to implode soon and I dont wanna be near it when it happens.

Precisely, the fact that Howard stern gets ridiculed is sad, and Martha Stewart gets Sympathy, she a Fuc#ing criminal and Stern is... a D.J. and umm.. doesn't commit any sort of crimes and gets less respect is deplorable at best. OUr Gustapo.. err.. Government will be building walls around our neighborhood in the form of security checkpoints soon if The Fcc continues to exercise it's own form of freedo of enterprise on individuals excersizing their right to freedom of speech.
Why the FCC has become the new, hot ticket to invest in (control wise) is simple, Clear channel and Infinity are monopoly's and they are fighting over control of the airwaves.
Going for Sushi, I'll be back to comment more on this later.
Frank B

Hey Frank, gotta say that I have to agree with some of what you're sayn'.. After backin' up some pretty crazy people as a drummer over the past 17 years i've met quite a few people that have lost all sense of reality..

The Indi crowd seems to be more fun!! and imo is a lot more fun to work with!

Excellent review Frank!!

Frank, I have to be honest here. I see much more danger to my children from a mainstream entertainment industry that glorifies drug use, sexual promiscuity, and the idea that money is everything, than a series like Tuners or Pimp My Ride.

I am very disinclined to support censorship, but many artists, and certainly the bulk of the industries that support them have sold out completely to the quest for the almighty dollar. If musicians, actors and DJ's can sell the image of coolness with sex and drugs, why shouldn't the artists involved in the car series be allowed to sell the image of coolness with tacky car modifications?

Society's willingness to plunge toward the lowest common denominator is certainly disturbing. If Howard Stern is so perverted that the government is simply responding to public outrage in their demand that he clean up his show, why does this same society give him the financial support to make him and his employers so rich? If sex and drugs are so offensive why do they sell? And most of all, why do we expect our government to protect us from all this immorality when we are so unwilling to deny ourselves a lifestyle filled with these immoral influences? Still, I bet it is easier to convince my kids that a nice car is more than some lights, graphics, and a N2O bottle than it is to convince them that a life of integrity is more worthwhile than simply chasing down the next pleasure.