Today’s sign of the apocalypse. Read online yesterday that several IMAX movies are facing protests in the south. It appears that they discuss evolution in the film (which isn’t surprising given that one of the films is called Galapagos) and that has caused a huge uproar in certain communities. Because I mean, who wants to see evolution discussed in a science museum? Don’t we all know that evolution has no place in science? Sigh. The article mentioned that this might impact future films as it will be tough for producers to move forward if they know that they will not be allowed to show their film in a tenth of the theaters before they even shoot their first shot.
I don’t have a problem with what people believe. Believe in evolution, believe in creationism, believe that the earth is flat and is carried on the back of four elephants that are standing on a turtle that is swimming through space. Everyone is entitled to their own belief. But don’t try to ban another person’s belief. Especially a scientific theory being presented in a museum. I can’t even imagine the way some people think.
I know that I’ve mentioned it before that I feel more and more out of touch with America. Let’s face it, I am a victim of the culture war. People protesting IMAX films, protesting the movie Kinsey, getting up in arms over a sketch on Monday Night Football, this isn’t the country that I remember. This isn’t anything close to it and I grew up in some pretty rough times. When VH-1 shows I Love the 80’s they always try to gloss over the early 80’s. Because who wants to hear about unemployment and inflation and assassination attempts and the film The Day After. But that was my childhood and the thing is, people were more open minded when we were dealing with that crap on a daily basis. Now we have the wonders of the InterWeb and all this information at our fingertips and it feels like the country is just trying to close its mind.
Oh well, at least I have music to fall back on. Got to see fellow Chicagoan Nora O’Connor in concert tonight. Huge props to anyone who covers The Handsome Family’s “Drunk by Noon”. [Check out The Handsome Family. How can you not like people who write lyrics like, “If my life lasted only one day, I’d still be drunk by noon.”] I think that this was a concert that I needed to go to. There were maybe two dozen of us in the audience and it just felt right sitting down on a Tuesday night and listening to good music without any of the concert scene posing. No one was there to impress anyone else, no one was the friend who was dragged along to the concert. It was just a crowd of people who really wanted to hear Nora and get away from the world for a moment. Which is what I really needed to do.
5 comments:
Props if you remember the early 80's mini-series 'Amerika.' Even more props if you remember the SNL parody of it, 'Amerida.'
By the way - I have seen the 'V' boxed set out on DVD. that's sweet. might have to buy that. I'm still waiting on the official 'Voltron' release (don't quite trust the unoffical one out in Australia/Hong Kong). I wonder if they'd ever release 'Charles In Charge' on DVD? Not a bad idea. just don't go so far as doing Jerry O'Connell's 'My Secret Identity' on DVD (but feel free to do 'Out Of This World' -- dude I had a big crush on Evie as kid)
Would you like to swing on a star (whoa oh oh) carry moon beams home in a jar (whoa oh oh) and be better off than you are (whoa oh oh) or would you rather go to Earth? an earthling's a creature that's as plain as can be, he's not as unique as you or me. his body comes in lots of different shapes (uh-huh) they say his relatives are chimps and apes! well, you can take my advice for what its worth (yeah yeah yeah yeah) or would you rather go to Earth? ... you could be swinging on a star
new boy in the neighborhood, he lives downstairs and its understood. he's there just to take good care of me, like he's one of the family. charles in charge of our days and our nights. charles in charge of our wrongs and our rights ... and I see I want charles in charge of me.
(yes, I can also remember the theme to My Secret Identity, but I'd rather not)
by the way - had another 80's TV/movie flashback. so Evie's best friend in Out of This World was the girl in the movie 'Cloak and Dagger' with the kid who played Elliot in E.T. and Dabney Coleman. sweet movie.
Interesting post.
First off, let me say I agree with you that as a nation, our priorities right now are really fucked up. I think that the internet, while not the sole cause, still is a major contributor to this. It seems hard to believe that access to as much information as we have could be a bad thing. But I think we are at a point where there is too much information and too much bad information, and that people are getting overloaded. Opinion has replaced fact, and he who shouts the loudest or acts the angriest is King. It is probably easier to go after the TV programs, movies, and book bans (which have been going on since pen was first put to paper), then it is to tackle the tough problems like war, far too easy accessibility of guns and the increase of violent crime, the raping of our environment, our over-dependence on oil, intolerance of other people’s beliefs and values, poverty, and genocide. To attack those kinds of problems, you need to develop a solution (or at least an idea), get enough people to embrace it enough to mobilize them, and then execute it and see it through despite all the other challenges that arise. And none of these could get fixed overnight. We live in a time where instant gratification is the norm, and people don’t have the patience or attention span to see these things through over the course of several years or decades.
You mentioned growing up in some pretty rough times. I submit that the early 80s were no easier or tougher than the other decades of the 20th century. In the 70s you had, among other things, Vietnam and disco. The 60s saw the assassinations of several leaders who defined and inspired their generations, plus the start of the war in Vietnam. The 50s had the escalation of the cold war and McCarthyism. The 40s had WWII. The 30s had the Great Depression. On and on it goes. Every generation has its ups and downs. Some faced their challenges head on, while others found easy targets to pummel. And each generation thinks the one that followed is more fucked up than they were. That’s History 101.
Oh, and by the way, people were not any more open minded back in the early 80s than they are now. Just look at the discrimination and the inability to openly deal with the existence and emergence of AIDs in its early days as one example. Different challenge, but the same basic reaction – first deny its existence, then when you realize it is real, find someone to blame and try to chase them out of town.
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