Boom Boxes

iPhones - iPods - MP3 Players - whatever.

Remember the days when big, bad Boom Boxes ruled the streets? That was cool. With a Boom Box, you could stake out your own little space with your music.

People walking by, for good or bad, had to listen to your music. This usually lead to a conversation between strangers. With iPods, people don't talk to each other anymore. They just walk right by with their ears plugged up listening to some downloaded song instead of supporting their local CD store and staring at their cell phones hoping that someone calls them. It's kind of sad in a way. Everyone is in their own little, non-interacting world.

The only social-able group left are smokers.

A few years back before Joe Strummer passed away, someone asked Joe how he would make the world a better place to live. He basically said, "Turn off the fxxking TV, grab a glass of beer and head towards the streets. Talk to your neighbors, talk to strangers, get to know other people." That's good advice by me.

So, turn off your iPods for a while.

Dust off your old Boom Boxes, drop in a good tape, pump up the volume & head to the streets.

Remember Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing"? Now, that was one bad-ass Boom Box.