Steve Schwartz:

>Did you ever notice how almost no one is willing to admit belonging to
>a musical elite? How have our cultural values become that screwed up?
>Furthermore, as Stirling Newberry points out, even those considered elite
>feel powerless against the tide they feel is overwhelming all that is True,
>Good, and Beautiful.

Sometime ago, *Fresh Air* - a program I loathe for its fluffly stupidity,
but which often has excellent guests who are making the publicity circuit
- broadcast an interview with actor Nicholas Cage.

One question that was asked by the interviewer was why he used "Cage"
as his screen name since "Coppala", he is the director's nephew, would
certainly have been a career boost.  Nicholas Cage talked about the need
to assert his own identity, and stated that he chose "Cage" because he
was listening to the music of John Cage at the time, and involved with
the avant-theatre aesthetic.

It might surprise many people on this list how many performers of
accessible pop music have tastes that run to the abstract or avant-garde.
This includes people who, in their own field, are quite conservative.
The popmeister spends his life mining a very narrow vein of acceptable
for money, and is looking for "something else" quite often.  Many have
dreams of doing things which are "experimental".

Stirling Newberry
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http://www.mp3.com/ssn