Another crazy screenprinter

Having been around the screeprinting industry since I was 5 years old and putting covers on glass jars on a Saturday morning, I often joke that it is both a disease, and that anything stupid that goes on can be explained by the noxious fumes that get inhaled over an extended period of time.

Well, today I discovered via e-mail what may well be the future of America radio, and democracy. This is a site put up by a t-shirt printer and self-appointed guru. (Something I am familiar with.)

http://www.t-rad.com http://www.t-rad.com T-Rad radio is for screen printers, but I suspect that the only trade secret you will discover is that we are all nuts. Oh, and there are a lot of moonlighting musicians crafting original music, that you will never find at Wal-Mart with an RIAA label on it.

There was a time in America when we had both slaves and apprentices. We abandoned both in the name of “freedom,” and instead chose a system of relentless competition. T-Shirts were thought to be a fad, that would soon expire. Instead, they took over the screenprinting industry and is the world’s most dominate form of advertising.

There is something going on, but I don’t know what it is. The first t-shirt I ever printed was IMPEACH NIXON, and that was in high school art class. (That was back in the days when we were scared of communists in Vietnam. Funny how there is always something to be afraid of. What if Johnny doesn’t get paid for playing his guitar?) Imagine if whole industries cooperate, rather than compete, like they did in the old days of apprenticeships. What a dramatically better world it could be.

The sucess of Apple and iTunes is based on cooperation both within and between industries. What screws it up is the competition and the privileges of patent and copyright protection.

Anyway, go hear some new music. And decide for yourself if I am right about the noxious fumes.

For What It’s Worth by the Buffalo Springfield

There’s something happening here
What it is ain’t exactly clear
There’s a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware
I think it’s time we stop, children, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
There’s battle lines being drawn
Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind
I think it’s time we stop, hey, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
What a field-day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly say, hooray for our side
It’s time we stop, hey, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you’re always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away
We better stop, hey, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
Stop, hey, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
Stop, now, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
Stop, children, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down