Saturday, October 16, 2010
50 Years Ago This Month
Buz and Todd jumped into Todd's Corvette and rolled into teevee history.
"Route 66" was shot on location all across the country, and the heterogeneous, energetic land through which its protagonists traveled -- full of small town secrets, big city bustle, moral ambiguities, unlimited potential, newly-minted veterans from someplace called "Vietnam"
and the occasional run-in with Lon Chaney Jr., Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre
out by Chicago's brand-spankin'-new O'Hare international airport --
-- sometimes seems to be as long gone and far away as the Battle of Gettysburg.
That while the Buz and Todd of 1960 used to roar fearlessly into a future full of Big Things, the fearful, sclerotic Buz and Todd of 2010 would now rather ride their Medicare-paid-for HoveRounds down to the public park and bitch about how Big Gummint and the Kenyan Usurper are fucking everything up.
That our better selves have grown up and become the very brooding, small-bore, small town bigots we used to roll our eyes at: that a critical mass of our fellow Americans have -- for lots of reasons -- taken that almost-invisibly-down-sloping Road to Hell and are now stranded at the bottom of a valley of fear that is too damned steep for them to ever coax their plastic knees and tired hearts into climbing back out of.
Too damned steep for them to do anything anymore but hole up in their homes-of-plunging-value, listening to Glenn Beck and waiting for further instructions on who to hate.
Of course, in a very real sense, none of this is true: America is not tired or old or ready to kick the nearest brown person in the face just because its scared of its fucking shadow. This is because America is not a tribe or a patch of dirt, but an idea: an idea through which a particular demographic and economic bulge -- drunk on nostalgia and/or bad religion and/or Libertarian Kool-aid -- is now passing like a cow through an anaconda.
The future still awaits us and the road is still out there.
But whether we widen it out into a broad boulevard available to everyone, or allow it to become ever-more narrowed and gated and privatized into a carriage lane accessible only to the privileged few is still an open question.
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That our better selves have grown up and become the very brooding, small-bore, small town bigots we used to roll our eyes at: that a critical mass of our fellow Americans have -- for lots of reasons -- taken that almost-invisibly-down-sloping Road to Hell and are now stranded at the bottom of a valley of fear that is too damned steep for them to ever coax their plastic knees and tired hearts into climbing back out of.
I don't mind ending a sentence with a preposition when it's necessary...and that can happen.
But (or beginning one with a conjunction, for that matter), in this case, can we simply drop the OF?
Love your work. I'll try to be more positive in the future.
cousinavi,
Thanks...and nope. The "of" stays. In most cases I would build the sentence more formally, but here it is the bottom step without which the reader would hit the ground floor too abruptly. Maybe bust an ankle. I couldn't have that on my conscience.
I missed most of the run of the series because we were in Germany, but I have seen a few episodes.
It is a sad thing that this series couldn't be made today (never mind the expense, having to retitle it Interstate 80, catering to the narrowed perspectives you mention; two men? two-seater car? protect the children!).
"... like passing a cow through an anaconda ... " indeed. Full marks, DG.
(Not to be too cranky: me thinks you can put your prepositions any damn place you wants. That's 5 semesters of Shakespeare and English Lit majoretteness talking there.)
Being full-frontal crankass, as a long-time progressive knocking around in the Wet Swamp Grass, I like pungent verbal pungee sticks.
I think Stephen Thrasher (great surname, huh?) nailed the pungee sticks in the Village Voice. Here tis, if you haven't already savored what comes outta VV Elsie AFTER the snake sick exits . . .
White America Has Lost Its Mind
The white brain, beset with worries, finally goes haywire in spectacular fashion
By Steven Thrasher
September 29, 2010 Village Voice
http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-09-29/news/white-america-has-lost-its-mind/
I've seen a glimmer of hope that all the rethugs aren't jumping on the beck/crazy bandwagon, and it nearly knocked me on my ass. My dad has always been a reactionary, James Watt-supporting, hard core republican who thought that discussing politics meant screaming at people until they gave in.
He recently sent me an email recommending a "no" vote on 3 proposed amendments here in Colorado that are teabaggerific in all ways, and incredibly destructive to civil society and government. When I commented on it he wrote that "some right wing crazies will vote for these, but sane people won't". Funny, he has always been one of my best examples of "right wing crazy"; I suspect the rivalry between his buddy O'Reilly and crazyman Beck has something to do with it, but he isn't buying what Beck's selling, and I really did NOT expect that.
Baby steps...
"It is a sad thing that this series couldn't be made today (never mind the expense, having to retitle it Interstate 80,"
That would be Interstate 40...and the minds along that road are as narrow as old 66 was in it's hey day.
Thanks; I ran into a dull, poorly-written _'route 66' episode when I gave it a try on netflix a while back, and went no further.* I'll give it another shot now....
(*It was on when I was a kid, but was not what my mom wanted to watch, which was about all we ever got to see....)
BTW, another real treat to [re]visit (from '57) is Peter Gunn. Netflix has 32 episodes on 4 disks.
Another goodie is My Favorite Martian, about as good as it gets within the constraints of '60s sitcoms - with snatches of intelligence, culture and progressive help-everyone-not-just-me optimism sprinkled throughout.
BTWBTW, watching old shows, you notice there were 9 minutes of commercials per hour - it's double that now (unless it's a pure-commercial 'paid program' (no one paid me) which now occupy about half the bandwidth of the cable (which you pay for by the month.) Such progress. Just another 'little' thing congress might work on for us, if they really represented us instead of corporations....
May I recommend:
http://www.theroadwanderer.net/route66.htm
I particularly like the photo of the arrows at Trading Post, AZ. The series could still be shot, and on Route 66. The lads could encounter exactly the people you are describing in the wonderful piece you're written, hunkered down in places like Trading Post, Tucumcari, and Needles. It would have to run on cable.
'America is not a tribe or a patch of dirt, but an idea...'
Many of your countryfolk (to use a blatant generalization) don't understand or wish to entertain that fine distinction between idea and reality. The difference is highly unappreciated by those whom it might benefit the most - not that a soupçon of ideals would make the medicine go down in a more delightful way, but a shared purpose and many shoulders to the grindstone might.
I wish I had more time to entertain positivity in this realm, but a foreign infidel needs to put the daily hummus on their family, no?
;>)
Interstate 80 begins at the George Washington Bridge in New York City, passes just South of Chicago and ends at the Bay Bridge in San Francisco. Sure it passes through some prime flyover country, and parts of the self-reliant West (where low BLM grazing fees and the Mining Law of 1872 provide government support for local self-reliance), but I-80 is truly a Liberal Highway.
Interstate 40, on the other hand, begins in the Carolina swamps and proceeds through Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, the Texas panhandle and on into Central Aztlan (the Western portion of which, now called Arizona, is ignorant of history) before finding The Grapes of Wrath in California. Interesting how a road a few hundred miles South has such a different character.
Road tales of America are always illuminating, and it may be most important to remember that the real America is not found in hatred and bigotry, but in the dignity and Liberty promised from the get go, that we still aspire to and which remains a work in progress. Some of the most important infrastructure work remaining in this Nation is that of building stable bridges between people.
Drifty -
I don't recall ever watching this show (I'm sure it was in reruns when I was a kid, but I tended to shy away from black and white shows), but I know that it is a touchstone for my older siblings. I had some curiousity about it when Depeche Mode made a cover of the theme song in the '80s or '90s, but by then you could not find episodes as easily as today.
I'll put it in the queue on NetFlix and see what it is about. You've made me curious.
Rgds,
TG
PS - I understand something else was launched 50 years ago this month...
My parents were the same generation (age-wise) as the stars of Route 66, but instead of driving across the country in a 'vette, they were raising children, like most of the people I grew up with in the 60s.
I don't think their worldview is all that different now than it was in the 60s, quite frankly. I think there are distinct worldviews around the country that you can attribute to upbringing and geography. Suburban people eschew urban living, expense and crowds and have little experience with racism, poverty or class warfare.
While those who dwelled in rural areas were isolated from much of the culture of the suburbs/cities and have disdain for the "elites" that had money, power, glamour, sophistication. There is envy and alienation and they are easy targets for manipulation.
Obviously, the tea party caters to the rural mindset and to some extent those who have been displaced by immigrants and minorities, but they represent a small voting bloc to this day.
The rich, white guys financing this movement can't even stand the constituency they are cultivating, but need their votes to take back power. If the rural "real" Americans would just realize they are merely puppets in this scheme, maybe they'd be angry at the right people.
Well Hell's Bells, that's the road I travel on each week when I take the dog for a hike. Who knew:-)
Wish I could ride it in a 'Vette but you work with what you've got.
"It is a sad thing that this series couldn't be made today..."
There was a remake/sequel done back in '93 as a summer series. Needless to say it bombed. And if network TV can do something like THE AMAZING RACE, they could certainly re-do this.
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