Just Let Me -- G -- Indoctrinate You!

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Dear America,

I'm finding myself strolling down memory lane this morning.

It must have been that letter from papa; I started looking at the scribbled three pages in the handwriting I've always known, the envelope still intact with the 7 cent 'airmail' stamp in the corner -- as it came all the way from Honolulu over the Pacific to San Diego -- and it immediately moved me to another place and time. 

1962 was the year.

The little number for the day, highlighted exclusively on Dear America,  is from '67, featuring A Taste of Honey, with Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass.  If you're not from Southern California, you may only recognize the name Tijuana in connection with drug lords and massive shoot outs with local police and gangs, or perhaps on Dave's top ten list of reasons not to venture south for cheap tacos from street vendors or paper mache flowers.

To it's credit, Tijuana is the birthplace of the infamous Caesar Salad and an easy jaunt for prescription drugs  -- where it is widely known to be less economically challenged, shall we say, and an acquisition where certain papers that are normally required, are not.  The irony huh, for some things we see Canadians migrating south to the United States, all the while Americans are doing the very same thing -- however simultaneously risking life and limb.  Guessing we'd do anything for cheap Prozac and Viagra.

Having now meandered off on a little sub-culture, it was the sound of the trombone that took me there -- "there" being childhood. Not only did my papa play the trombone, he occasionally brought it out of the closet to wake us up to pull weeds on a Saturday morning or to liven up the cocktails when hosting parties for fellow officers -- now talk about good times.

Anyway, I think what set into my subconscious from the letter was what papa said about 'the sights, the sounds, the tastes...' aspects of life.  Certain things just take us there in an instant; and for me the smooth sound of a trombone -- even as much of a violation before noon on a Saturday -- is still a sound that makes my heart sing. 

Any time I hear a trombone, papa bing! which moves into the smell of bacon with pancakes on Saturday - bing!  the smell of wet dirt pulling weeds - bing!  the splash of the hose in the face by a younger brother -- bing!  the sun shinning on the back that's getting burned -- bing, bing!

Growing up, the television certainly didn't raise us, but by all accounts we spent alot of time being entertained by it.  Just think about the era:
  • Variety shows -- Bob Hope, Carol Burnett, Laugh In, Flip Wilson, Sonny & Cher
  • Late Night -- Johnny Carson and Dick Cavett
  • Cartoons -- Roadrunner, Bugs Bunny, Tom & Jerry, Flintstones 
  • Family 'Reality TV' -- Brady Bunch, The Jefferson's, The Partridge Family, The Cosby's, The Walton's and Little House on the Prairie, Sanford & Son, Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, All in the Family
  • Friday Night double header -- Love Boat and Fantasy Island
  •  Sci-fi pop Icon -- Star Trek (don't care if there were others, this was the only one that mattered)
  • Crime Investigation -- Hawaii Five-0, Magnum PI, Colombo, Starsky & Hutch, CHIPs
  • then of course, Gilligan's Island, MASH, Hogan's Heroes, Leave it to Beaver, Jackson Five...
I think TV tells us more about ourselves than we'd care to know.

Nevertheless, as I was mesmerized by sitting in front of the tube last night with my baby girl, all of thirteen now, I got a chuckle.  We were actually sitting there watching sitcoms reminiscent of an era gone past, reconfigured and updated to display what is funny in family today.  I actually woke up this morning captivated by this nagging thought, the ABC line up now appearing on Wednesday night's is a basic copulation of the times.

So bare with me a bit,
Hank (Kelsey Grammer) portraying the out of work corporate sports equipment mogul, trying to find his way back from the brink, in utter desperation at times and looking like an idiot, but funny
The Middle (Patricia Heaton and Neil Flynn)  The typical overworked, average -- very average and sometimes below average -- family with a host of more problems within 30 minutes than anybody would rightly know what to do with, but funny
Modern Family (whole slew of funny people all put together) characterizing what the typical family and extended family consists of , branching out to things like old white guy marrying the young trophy wife -- and proud Latina, the family expands to his daughter -- mother of two and wife to the dorkiest dad on the planet, and also to his son -- gay and partnered with Fred Flintstone meets Chaka Khan, who recently adopted a little Asian baby girl.  All I can add is, funny, very funny.
Cougar Town (Courtney Cox) the desperate little hottie and divorcee, at forty questioning everything, except apparently her good sense on dating,  a show capitalizing on what may work in Hollywood only looks silly in real life (cuz it is).  I have to confess, ONLY seen this show once.  For starters, it was funny, but not that funny and second, it is just not worth staying up passed my bedtime.

Is this America, or what?

Let's just hope that the magnification may be a little off for entertainment purposes, but the essence may be spot on.  And to tell you the truth, television hasn't really made me laugh in awhile (unless it was a show based around the premise of someone making a total fool of themselves on National TV, as in American Idol or America's Got Talent tryouts.)

Perhaps it is just a guttural reaction -- being inundated with stupidity in the world, personal wealth of only pocket change, and family issues of my own -- that I found myself laughing hysterically over the escapades and slap stick of everyday life according to TV on ABC, I don't know what it was.  All I can say is, thanks, I needed that.

Where is the truth?   Where is the reality in reality TV?  Where do we tell lies, in exaggeration or in leaving something out on purpose?  Where is the line we draw in the sand?

I know at times my opinion can sound provocative or 'out there'.  I know it is just my truth, and not yours.  And I also know the story played out my little head is different from yours, and so on, and so on.  But here's the thing, who's reality are we living in and what choices do we have for changing it, if we don't like what we see?

Perhaps then, what we may want to look at is just WHAT it is we choose to pay attention to and how do we react in return, as the line blurs between reality and make believe tests the truth; the reality is, this is how we make a day which turns into a life with the ability to walk down memory lane.  This is how we all do it, every day.

Remember when we landed on the moon, how there was speculation if it was real or on some back lot studio in Hollywood? The reality of landing on the moon, let alone getting out of a spaceship to walk on it, was so out there, some people questioned if it was true.

"Question with Boldness"
Glenn Beck

What I think we are beginning to see, is a story line unraveling, or perhaps it's just a problem with the lighting (someone is looking into it as we speak).

As I have noted before, President Barrack Hussein Obama, was voted into office by way of how he projected himself on the big screen.  He captured the hearts of all of us, even some conservatives, to the degree that this one man was changing the face of America -- which the majority felt deep inside was for all the right reasons, and for the right kind of change. 

The people who actually voted for him, besides the steadfast Democrats or 95% of African-Americans, were people who believed he was the right one to place in the highest office of our country after two years of hard core commercials, documentaries, reality TV and mini series journalism. 

IT was the really big show, the pitch, the madmen of politics whipping up margaritas; and like I said in my VERY FIRST BLOG (July 23, 2009) today --and yesterday too-- are showing syptoms of the "Day After" -- remember how it feels, the day after?  Party's over.  Everyone has gone home. All that is left are the dirty dishes.

We see it in the reaction by the Human Rights Campaign -- a knee jerk reaction going something like this:

"I shaved my legs for this?" 

Let's be honest, The MAN has made some PROMISES --
what between Hispanics, African-Americans, Gays, Environmentalists, Al Gore, Europeans, SEIU/AFL-CIO, MS and BS NBC, ABC, CBS, the poor, Hollywood, David Letterman, Jeannie Garofalo, Seniors, Small Business (yeah right), TIDES Foundation, ACORN, Polar Bears, Hillary, Chavez, Palestinians, Pakistan, Russia, China, Chicago, Public Option, NY Times, Trial Lawyers, Harvard, and any and all Community Organizers- except those with any Judeo-Christianity roots...

I know there are more, I just got tired.

Truth is, the MAN won valiantly, dominating his rival, because of who we thought he was --
a true blue born and raised AMERICAN.  A CENTRIST.  A MIDDLE MAN.  Someone who could lasso both sides of the isle and tie us all up together, harnessing the American spirit, emboldened, for all the world to see. We voted for him seeing victory for American Ingenuity, Free Enterprise and as an answer to our prayers for Small Business American capitalism; Obama was the one -- he's our man, if he can't do it, no one can -- our faith was placed in him to get it all done, everything that is.  The man was gonna fix everything.

Now,  the man knew that small town America was hurting and at one of her lowest points in history; we were unstable, plumped down in one catastrophe after another, overworked and underpaid, vulnerable to any promise that walked on by. 

It was a blizzard, too; having to find our way home, up a hill, for what had to be at least a mile.

And deep down, we thought of him to be very much like ourselves -- good, hard-working people, who believe in God, raise children to be anything they want to be, and hold ourselves accountable, responsible and lucky to be in charge of our own destiny and most definitely, our own lives in a country demonstrating and living under the Constitution of the United States of America.

What we are watching now,
just a man,
who happens to be peeking out from behind the curtain.

Make it a Good Day, G

"Beware of the Prophet making profit."
Dennis Miller, 10/14/09, with Bill O'Reilly

Tune in Next Week ...  when G continues
 "The Mirage"

Coming to a home theater near you, a literary mini series comes to life, masterfully captivating the hearts and minds if I dare say so myself, even if I'm not exactly sure... of exactly what I'm gonna say...or even if it will be good...
oh poppycock, details!

Oh my, this just in, and I'm not kidding this time.  I leave my blogworld for one minute and tune into Fox, and what do they have going on but a search for a kid, who somehow disappeared after launching his father's weather balloon (that looked an awful lot like a spaceship).  But all humor aside, the kid is missing.  Gone.  So now, I'm really gone so that I can find out more about this  -- and we'll see you again right here, tomorrow.

Same bat channel.



2 comments:

  1. Dear Gretchen,

    Surprise! Daddy left me alone and I figured out how to Post A Note. Actually I wrote it 3 times because I'm always messing up on this laptop and had to keep redoing it. Then Dad came home and didn't know that I'd written it so it got deleted when he checked his email so once again.... Loved your blog on the Log Cabin Club. Laughed and laughed. I didn't now about the LCC until we became active in VA politics. Know some of them pretty well. Watch for a commercial on the Health care bill's negative effect on seniors. I.m in it. Probably be a week or two. Can't believe the depth of your blogs and how entertaining. You go girl. Love and hugs to you and yours. M

    ReplyDelete