Consumer conumdrum
by Jon Worley

I like music with power. Music that has a point, assaults me and makes me think. Music that floods my soul and directs my being. Simply put, music with attitude.

Every couple of weeks I review between 20 and 30 such albums for Aiding & Abetting. Invariably, the artists involved are scraping by, with barely enough money to get from gig to gig (if they even get gigs at all). If you think Smashing Pumpkins is beyond the pale, don't even think about treading the real underground with me.

But my interest runs to all sorts of music. I look forward to Thanksgiving each year not to any turkey reasoning (or even the odd Chiefs game with Dallas or Detroit), but because I know the Met's season is about to begin.

The Metropolitan Opera of New York, of course.

I recall a television ad years ago that featured a cabbie singing some famous opera. This. of course, was a Texaco ad, as Texaco has sponsored the live Met radio broadcasts for more than twice the years in my life. I thought the image of a cabbie singing along with an opera was silly, just like the ad intended. It was a light, "look how nice we are" kinda Texaco ad.

This year, of course, Texaco is sponsoring the broadcasts again. And they don't just sprint for microphones, mixing boards, engineers and transmitters. If you want, you can call an 800 number and get a free program for the whole season, which runs from next Saturday through late next spring. Hey, aren't those guys at Texaco nice?

Well, yeah, it's nice that they sponsor opera. This is one way to mollify the same folks who are appalled by the recent revelations of naked racism amongst the highest ranks of the company. Personally, I've decided to not buy Texaco gas. I'm just not swayed by this generous support of vital cultural programming.

But Texaco is not the only company trolling the ranks of libaralism in hopes of creating a better image. Archer Daniels Midland, better known as ADM, is an agricultural giant. I have a somewhat personal recollection of how these folks do business, and let's say it's just as distasteful close up as it seems from afar. And the Justice Department seems to agree. A price-fixing scandal has brought down the chairman, and now his son and plenty of other top officials face some pretty serious charges.

Some time ago, ADM began sponsoring All Things Considered, the afternoon news program on National Public Radio. You know, the folks that Newt Gingrich publicly calls "enemies of the state", but that privately he reveres because the folks tell the news in a fairer form than any other broadcast organization. ADM always has its announcements read with the company's slogan, "Supermarket to the world", along with a brief description of an ADM product. Each of the products I've heard listed has been one involved in the price fixing scandal.

Coincidence? You've gotta be kidding me! Now, most of the folks who listen to ATC and NPR in general are critical thinkers who aren't swayed by such silly tactics. But still ADM, Texaco and other big companies seem to think that by supporting important endeavors like the Met and NPR, folks like us should look the other way when those companies act like boors. Unfortunately for them, we know better.

But still, I'm fascinated by this concept. There's a long tradition of big corporations buying goodwill, and everyone I know has at least one pet conglomerate. Plenty of folks admire The Body Shop, which announces that it is "against animal testing", even while it tests some of its products on animals. Others are pleased as punch to lay down their American Express card because of that "charge against hunger" deal, though they're loathe to donate time or money to a local homeless shelter. And in the weirdest display of misguided affection, lots of people flock to Denny's because of "all they've done" (a truly vague concept) since the big discrimination scandal. I just don't understand.

Now, I also like to listen to the opera on Saturday afternoons (driving my wife positively batty), despite the ditry laundry of its sponsor. Of course, I know where the programming would be without that multi-national's massive support.

Even Ralph Nader would be moved to hotwire a Corvair, fill it up at Shell and pick up a pizza at Domino's.

Jon Worley has a pin-up poster of Cecelia Bartoli on his office wall.

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