unKool

I saw a teaser ad in the SF Weekly for the "New Jazz Philosophy Tour 2005" featuring The Roots, Busta Rhymes and De la Soul and (despite the ridiculous name of the tour and the barf worthy tagline "The evolution of sound. The progression of music.") was interested enough to log on to evil promoter Kool cigarette’s web site for tour dates. Who smokes Kools anyway? And why are De la and the Roots selling out in goofy commercials and promoting smoking when they could have much better sponsors!?!? Sorry to say it but choosing your sponsorships has a direct correlation with selling out.

Hmm...I wonder who Kool is marketing to with this tour? Is it pill-popping, elderly grandmothers who enjoy an occasional Kool ciggy in the evening with some brandy? Or perhaps the mid-50s Caucasian law professors who often need to unwind with a Kool after a long day of debate at the University? With top hip hop acts and flavors that blend menthol tobacco with and flavors like berry, mocha, coconut or lime, they surely couldn't be trying to capture the urban minority youth demographic! Oldest trick in the book! Kool's ethics are questionable.

ANYWAY, as suspected the Kool site was very -->unkool--< and required me to register to use the site, thereby forfeiting all kinds of personal information that I'd rather not hand over to aggressive marketers. Bug Me Not was of no help with this one, so I used my investigative skills and found out that De la Soul is playing at the Fillmore on August 19th. No luck on the Roots/Floetry show, but by the looks of it, they are only playing at colossal stadiums, and much as I love these artists, no way am I going to break the cardinal rule and experience the show from 176th row. No sir.