Oops, I did it…..

Again! Yup, I am going to go a little off course this week and talk about,,,drum roll please…Britany Spears! Oh my, how can this be? If you’ve been following me at all, you know that Ms. Spears and I have very little in common when it comes to music. I dare say I managed to not even hear the above mentioned song for at least two years after it was originally released, which would seem rather hard to do considering it was pretty much playing on the radio around the clock. But not on all radio. And not instantly picked up by Target (or some other retailer) to use in their TV ads (I am currently feeling deepest sympathies for the Black Pumas and what is currently being done to their “Colors” song, basically turning an awesome song into elevator music, all for the sake of selling a few probably unneeded goods. Sure, they got paid, but at what point does it stop?) And especially not in your local bar, for explicitly that reason, it is the place you have chosen to relax and enjoy yourself, not to have to be exposed to music you really don’t like. Two years! Then, out of the blue, one night, it happened…”Oops!..I Did It Again” came blaring through the local bar’s jukebox and I did a double take. How could this be? Of course I knew who Britany was, that part was impossible to avoid, but for two years, no song. As it played I had to assume this was the one, the words were there and it could not be possible someone had completely written another song with the same words. So be it. Turns out it had been on my local bar’s jukebox the whole time, just that no one had played it! I was grateful for that. And not a bad song, just not my cup of tea and something that would clearly never play from my home stereo.

Of course, Britney sure was popular at the time and pretty hard to escape, what with tabloids, gossip shows and down right news stories (and you know we all need a good dish of celebrity gossip once in a while). I believe I may even recall some crazy things that she did and pretty much just chalked that up to “stars doing what stars do to remain in the public eye”. No big deal, right? Which brings me to the whole point of todays chat, the Conservatorship!

If you’ve paid any attention to the news of late, seems Britney has been in this “Conservatorship” for at least the last decade and it has all been in the hands of her father (plus friends). If you are not familiar with a conservatorship, it is basically a court or some legal authority derived edict, stating that a person is no longer responsible enough to take care of themselves and thus they will be under the supervision of an appointed person or group for all of their decision making needs. This especially includes all things financial and the person’s (who is no longer able to make their own decisions) money. That’s right, Britney’s money, and in this case, a fairly sizable amount of it.

So let me break this down a bit. Britney does some wild and whacky things. We all know this never happens with Pop/Music stars, correct? Her dad decides she is out of control (this never happens either, correct?). Somehow he manages to convince a court that she needs constant supervision, constant management of her own personal wealth and constant control. Court appoints him and a team of others to oversee all things Britney. Apparently, none of these folks have actual jobs, so they all become employees (paying themselves salaries that I am guessing they get to vote on) of the money making machine that is Britney. And this goes on for years and years. You’d think I was making this all up, right? Oh, sadly not. Almost seems like a political land grab based on eminent domain being handed down by a group of crooked politicians (did I need to add the word “crooked” there, not sure). But it happened.

So it makes me happy that it appears the days of this Conservatorship seem numbered and daddy has gotten the boot. Not sure what the future holds for Britney but I can only wish her the best of luck. I do know that I still won’t be playing her music on my home stereo!

Six weeks into the post surgery rehab and things still going good. Doc says should be released for getting back to all things normal sometime just prior to Thanksgiving Day, so have that to look forward to. Find myself taking on more and more light tasks and the guitar playing starting to feel real good again. New songs out soon!

See you next week.