Well, Dan (mobius, of Jewschool fame) told me I gotta get a blog, and I said, "What do I need a blog for? I write every month on Zeek, this would just be wasting my time."

But then I went to the Dave Matthews Band concert tonight in Central Park, and I realized, sometimes there are ignoble thoughts that you nonetheless want to express. And Presto! metatronics.blogspot.com is born.

I have a rule that if there's something going on and it costs you nothing to go (not just money but time, effort) then you should go. This is what a responsible, living, cultural creative does -- you go to things and experience. So, I had just finished writing a grant application for Nehirim, a project I'm directing, and I hear this music coming from outside, and then I remember - it's the Dave Matthews free show in Central Park. So I went -- it's about a two minute walk, and what the hell.

Things I experienced at the Dave Matthews Band concert:

- This was the straightest, whitest, most goyishe crowd I've ever seen. Even the Jews were goyish, and even the queers were straight. I've never felt like such a freak -- and yet, somewhere amid all my hostility to the crowd, I felt good, because... jeez, if this is normalcy, keep me away. Number of boys who made my gaydar go off: 0. Percentage of guys who were wearing baseball caps: about 30. Number of black people I saw: 8. I started playing "spot the black people" because I was bored. I was stuck at 3 until the last few minutes. What do the two black guys in DMB think when they see an audience that is 99.9999% white? Does it bother them?

- There's a "little person," I guess she's called -- although I think that term is far more demeaning than 'dwarf' -- who lives on my block. I see her every few days, and I recognize her, because she's about three feet tall and so you notice people like that. I feel like I know her, and yet, obviously, the only reason I know her instead of everyone else is her size. So I don't say hello or anything. I feel like anything I would say would be demeaning. But to look the other way feels disingenous. This has nothing to do with Dave Matthews, except that the black people at that show were about as rare as little people are in ordinary society.

- The thing with Dave Matthews is, he himself is not really so bad. He's very talented, and when the band jammed tonight, they were quite good. A lot of the time they just played the hits, color-by-number style. And the hits are so boring. Mediocre music at its best. Bland, inoffensive. The people who came to the show were mainstream, normal, boring people. I'm sure there were exceptions, but they hid it. I didn't see a single person wearing any of the Williamsburg hepster clothes -- no ironic old t-shirts, no trucker hats. It was sort of refreshing. And yet, I think this is the least cool crowd I have ever seen, counting my grandmother's friends in Golden Lakes Village, counting Congregation Kol Ami, and counting the office of Senator Connie Mack (R-Fla.).

- A lot of the crowd left early. I left about an hour ago, and the show is still going on (I can hear it). And yet when I was leaving, the walkways out of the park were all completely filled with streams of DMB fans. I guess if you like mediocre music, you're the sort of person who leaves concerts early.

- What, exactly, is so mediocre about DMB? The lyrics are pretty dull, the instrumentation is uneventful, and there are only a few moments of ecstasy -- none of which are contained in the single-versions of the songs. And yet there is plenty of ersatz emotion from Dave. I feel like he's lying to me onstage. Again, the only honest moments were a cool, jazzy piano solo, and then after that a very energetic drum piece. I feel like his lyrics are impersonal products.

Something's coming from Central Park now that sounds like Brian Eno. I wish!

- The thing with DMB fans is, they are the people who determine my freedom. They are the swing voters, these mostly decent, well-meaning, uninteresting, non-cultural-creatives. I usually spend time with weirdos, or with people who are creating things, making them new. On the superficial level, there didn't seem to be any of those people at this show. Why would they come? The music is the opposite of art. But we have to depend on this vast, slightly overweight middle of America. Will they vote for Wesley Clark?

- One encouraging fact was that a bunch of people were smoking pot at the show. They had the same, uniform look as everyone else -- the guys had about three options, girls four or five -- but they were smoking. And no one seemed to mind. So at least those people, hopefully they're not voting for the corporate-fascists.

- There were some assholes, but not too many. Mostly, people were having fun, and a lot of the time, I felt stupid for being so elitist not to be able really to join them. But when someone is lying to me and serving me product, and I'm standing literally half a mile away (this was the farthest I've been from a stage since I saw the Rolling Stones at Shea Stadium when I was 18), and the product isn't even that original except in spotty moments -- sorry.

I'll say one thing, he's putting on a long show. He started over two hours ago. That's the thing with Dave Matthews; he's not like Michael Bolton or Kenny G. As a musician, he's got the chops, and I get the sense that he is smarter than his fans. Kind of like Pearl Jam. Interestingly, seriously 90% of the guys at this show looked like my friend Josh, who likes DMB and Pearl Jam and can't understand why I laugh at him for that. Same sideburns, clothes, attitudes, even body type. It was spooky.

The most elitist thing I have to say is that, whatever the truth is about ethics, it needs to convey itself to the DMB fans and cause them to be generally more gentle and decent to one another. The assholes are irredeemable, and the artists are few in number. These are the people that matter.