On Tuesday night, Brother Price’s Traveling Deprivation Show staged a bravura performance at the monthly meeting of the S. Ellen Jones Neighborhood Association.
3rd District Councilman Steve Price was capably supported by the hard-riffing “Fact” Masters, his backing band, whose morose recitation of impenetrable and unverifiable rhythmic cadences freed the headlining Price to explore countless creative variations on a solitary, numbingly repetitive melody from his chart-topping single, “Paralysis.”
We sure ain’t got no money!
(cut the fat, cut the fat)
Pertty soon we'll have less than that!
(cut the fat, cut the fat)
We got no in-for-mat-ion!
(it’s the mayor, it’s the mayor)
We just can’t get to the facts!
(it’s that mayor, it’s that mayor)
We ain’t got no account-ing that’s right!
(we’re dumb, oh yeah, we’re dumb)
Yeah, we’re gonna be deluged!
Big troubles coming soon!
How’re we gonna pay for it?
(gotta run, gotta run)
We ain’t got no money for downtown!
(just let it go, c’mon let it go)
We sure can’t pay to clean it up!
(no no no no no no no no)
We don’t know nothing.
(never have, never will)
We’re just helpless and lost.
(watch the cost, watch the cost)
We gotta stay scared.
(all is lost, all is lost)
We’re done and paralyzed … paralyzed … paralyzed.
(all is lost, all is lost …fade to oblivion)
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7 comments:
I hadn't heard this little ditty before, but it must be topping the charts. The nice folks over at the state examiner's office are humming the same tune:
http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050518/NEWS02/505180431/1025
The old "can't do" spirit is alive and well in NA. Where's Norman Vincent Peale when we need him most?
I don't get the sense that it's just simple negativity, Roger. It seems like the years of mismanagement and ineptitude in our city government are finally catching up with us. The people who have been driving this machine for so many years weren't fit to do so.
And so the buck has been passed, ad infinitum, with a change every 4 years, each administration just as incompetent as the previous one. And an incompetent administration plus books that don't balance is one lousy equation.
I'm not disagreeing with your assessment.
It would be refreshing to hear proposals for revenue enhancement, rather than bunker building, coming from the flat earthers.
I think ordinance enforcement would be a great way to bring in revenue, and would be relatively simple to implement, since you'd just have to get the people who are supposed to be enforcing laws to go out and start doing so. Chief Harl, let's start issuing speeding tickets. Mr. Building Commissioner, let's start inspecting buildings and writing up the violations. City Attorney, get to work!
I read an article in the Courier several months ago regarding the revenue that's generated by the city of Louisville by building code enforcement and fines for non-compliance. It was a good chunk of change, as I recall.
Also, there is a new Indiana state law that allows cities to add the cost of property clean-up to property tax bills. I am sure New Albany gov't either a) doesn't know there is such a law or b) has no intention of taking advantage of it.
And what's with this rumor I have been hearing about a state law that prohibits an adult venue within 500 feet of a church? If this is accurate, we could have saved about $69,000 in legal costs spent fighting those evil adult DVD vendors by simply invoking state law. Of course, then we wouldn't have been able to chuckle over the irony of a $69k bill.
My point is, there are so many private citizens like me and you who can--and do--suggest numerous ways to generate revenue and run things in a business-like fashion. But the suggestions have to be made to the city incompetents, who unfortunately happen to be in charge and are the decision makers.
Steve Price, darling of the Brambleberries, was the one who suggested nationalizing downtown building, not I - it may be our sole point of agreement, and it sounds rather Marxist to me.
There is something of Pynchon in the haunting melody: quite delicious! I was thoroughly impressed.
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