I saw something sad today.

I was waiting in line, when in front of me, there was a young skinhead. He had a pleasant enough expression on his face, but his body art was far from warm and cozy. He had “HATRED” tattooed on the back of his shaved head. His arms were fully tattooed as well, and he had swastikas on his hands.

But that isn’t what I thought was the saddest thing.

To me, what was sadder was that he had a non-tattooed, rather pleasant looking young lady hanging on his arm.

The mind reels…Why would she demean herself to be with someone so obviously racist and confrontational? She has to know that she will be considered to have the same closed minded loathing of anyone who doesn’t look/pray/think exactly like he does. Does she feel the same? Does she believe that if he treats her well, its okay if he treats others like dirt? Does he treat her like dirt, but her self-esteem is so damaged that she feels she deserves the abuse, or that he’s all she’s worth?

Then again, what if I’m wrong about him? What if, like the movie American History X, his tattoos represent an earlier philosophy, and now he’s seen the light? Maybe hatred isn’t inside his head, only tattooed on its surface?

Personally, I find that unlikely. If he no longer felt the phrase “HATRED” represented him, he could wear a hat to cover it, grow his hair, etc. But it does point out the power of symbols. Clearly, he wanted to make a statement with his tattoos. And I accept that statement for what it is: a complete pigheaded groundless loathing of anyone who is different from him.

Did that girl find that sexy? Did she want those symbols to speak for her? Did she somehow think that she could hang on his tattooed, swastika-bearing arm without those symbols infecting her like an angry cancer?

I don’t know. But I hate to see women demean themselves to the level of their dumbass boyfriends. It’s just…sad.

In the news section, I just posted that we have over 1000 “friends” on Ember After Myspace. And considering when we started a few months ago, we had a single friend, the ubiquitous Tom, that’s pretty cool.

But what do “friends” mean in a social networking site like Myspace, Facebook, etc? (Sorry, I guess they’re called “fans” on a Facebook or Bebo or whatever page). It’s an interesting concept. Most of them are other bands who found us when checking out Myspace Music. And that’s great! We love to meet fellow musicians. I’d love to think that Myspace is really capable of fostering a “scene” of like-minded Myspace groups, who can collaborate, set up shows, all sorts of things.

Of course, some of them are groups that I sent my own requests to be friends, because I found them on Myspace. Again, I think it’s great, and maybe something will come of it. But do I really think that Peter Murphy, Tony Iommi, Jeff Beck, Trent Reznor, Thomas Dolby, and so on, are my “friends?” Well…

And of course there are simply the “friends bots” out there who troll around, looking for adds. Ember After has never used such software to artificially pad our friends lists—who would we be fooling? But I’ve no doubt that we’ve been hit by some of them. When a folk/jazz/kazoo act from Thailand wants to be our “friend” something tells me that it’s not because they have been deeply moved by our music…

Myspace Music, theoretically, can be a great way to get our music out in front of people, as well as a great way to meet music lovers and musicians. And certainly, those groups out there who have hundreds of thousands of friends have no doubt made a lot of fans, who have dutifully signed up for blogs and updates. But at the level we’re at, while I’m happy to see forward momentum, it’s hard to know how much is “real” if that makes sense. And the same goes for Facebook, Bebo, and the other social networking sites we’re currently on or will be soon. I think—I hope—they can become great ways to interact with an audience. But we’ll have to see how it works.

I dunno, maybe part of this “rock star” game is that I’m not supposed to reveal how I really see these things, and I’m supposed to try and keep up this illusion that 1000 Myspace friends and climbing means that its inevitable we’ll be playing football arenas in your region in no time, etc. But that’s just not me. I’d rather use this space to be honest, and hope it strikes a chord. I hope you don’t mind. Thanks for reading.

Happy New Year everyone!

May 2008 bring health, happiness, and lots of good things! And for Ember After, we have plans to help make this the year that we put ourselves “on the map,” musically speaking.

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned!