Money Money Money

When I was 16, I was in a production of Cabaret.  Oddly enough, throughout high school I was never cast in any school plays, so I went and worked in professional theatre instead.  And so (even though I was a tad under age...) I was Rosie, a Kit Kat girl.  In the show, one of my favorite pieces to perform was the song "Money".  It started out with all of us Kit Kat girls being lead on stage in black slips with our wrists all tied together on one long rope.  The MC and two dominatrix hench-women lead us all in our dance of desparation as we writhed together below them.  The finale was when paper money was grabbed from the bosoms of the dominatrix and thrown over our heads as we all fought and scrambled for it.  Money money money... Paper paper paper...
I still wonder about it... money.  It is a piece of paper (which hasn't been backed by any tangible assets for over 30 years).  And yet we die for it, kill for it, cry for it.  It is dirty, literally filthy.  Covered in shit, dirt, and coke.  But we still pray for it, and live our lives in it's name.
Today, I read in the news that California just opened up the country's most expensive school ever built.  Never mind Cali's non-existent budget, the drop out rates, or the infrastructure.  Why they have a shiny new object!
I also read that it will now cost $300 in the Phili to acquire a "Bloggers License"... which may be required...
I am also, personally, disappointed and disgusted at the concept of having to pay money to submit my music to booking agents.  It seems to be a new revenue model of sorts - 'Would you like to play this show?  Submit your EPK to our famous establishment for only $45 and you could be chosen to play!"  Mind you, you will not be paid for your gig, you will PAY FOR YOUR GIG.  Sound like the lottery?  Only more expensive?  And yes, folks do win the lottery.  And yes, I suppose if you invite submissions from all over the world, you will have a lot more work going through all of them.  And yet - I believe a booking agent, or just yourself acting on your own behalf (along with some cozy connections...) is probably far more effective than paying money for what will most likely be nothing.
If money really made the world go around, we'd all be somewhere else right now.  As in: not on a world that is rotating on it's axis.  Money comes, money goes.  Sometimes money is a shell, sometimes it's a coin, or paper, or a number in a computer... But none of it holds any tangible value.  Food is real.  A home is real.  Commerce with a community is real.  And ART is real to every person on this earth.  But 'that clinking clanking sound' of money is a passing thing.  So I do my best to not walk to the rhythm of it, but rather to the rhythm of everything else that is real.
p.s. click on the title of this post to see/hear the song of which I write :)

xoxo
-Dion