WELCOME TO THE LAND OF FEAR

     

I know what you're thinking and I fear it as well.  You might think this post is about our current cultural climate.  Yes, but only to a degree.  It's interesting that I mention the word 'degree' because I'm about to drop a cold hard truth.....about me.  I don't think I exist without fear.  I am neuroticism personified.  I worry, I fret, I freak out; you name it-I own up to it.  I actually fear the concept of fear.  Fear is the ultimate paralyzer.  Once it works it way inside you can only hope for temporary relief because it never completely leaves you.  Three decades of therapy and medication keep it somewhat at bay but it is always leering over your shoulder.  Perhaps that why I dislike horror movies.  I'm my own ultimate fright fest.  I'm not completely this way 100% percent of the time.  I live.  I laugh.  I love.  Or maybe my best simulation of these.  I can't be sure.  Fear has kept me from achieving all I wanted to achieve in this life.  Fear has kept me from growing as a human being.  Fear of rejection is the ultimate poisoned apple.  Because of this I live on the outside looking in and between the margins of society.  It's safer but lonelier.  I think one can be lonely and unsafe but can one be safe and not lonely?  Society seems to say yes but I'm not completely convinced.  Who will convince me?  I may not find out in this life.  Isn't that a little scary?

INTERESTING READ-I'M TIRED OF WRITING RIGHT NOW.....

 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/05/us/carl-lentz-hillsong-pastor.html

MISCELLANEOUS FILE

      I feel strongly that the "Sell Before" date is a more accurate economic indicator than the "Sell By" date because it gives consumers a much greater false sense of security.

     Dwight Eisenhower wrote a book called "Waging Peace" and Neil Young wrote a book called "Waging Heavy Peace."  However, Dwight's version of 'The Needle And The Damage Done', written about Attorney General Herbert Brownell Jr.'s tragic mayonnaise overdose, is much more haunting.

     I feel that the internet could be much better organized if someone came up with an algorithm for it.

     If someone is looking disheveled, what do they look like when they're sheveled?

     If someone is acting disgruntled, what do they act like when they're gruntled?

     Is it 'aesthetically pleasing' or 'pleasingly aesthetic'?

     I know what it's like to have survived a character assassination attempt.

NO ONE SAID LIFE IS FAIR (ALTHOUGH SOME OF US TRIED TO HELP A LITTLE!)

   

I know this is difficult to believe but, at one time, there were rules and regulations on how the general public received their news and information.  Before the government was perceived as the enemy of the people, different factions of it attempted to set policies and procedures to make to the transmission of news and information by radio, TV and to a much lesser extent print media honest and factual.
     The Federal Communications Commission which, just by the title of the group, was probably started by some left-wing pinko deep state illuminati ski rental store disguised as a pizza parlor (you know because the name of the group has two 'Com's in it-you know, for Communism, of course), set up the first part of what came to be known as the Fairness Doctrine in 1941 which stated that radio stations, due to their public interest obligations, must remain neutral in matters of news and politics and were not allowed to give editorial support to any particular political position or candidate.  In 1949, the policy was somewhat modified to give time to a opposing viewpoint after each and every original view on a popular or controversial subject, mainly because of the rise of television after the end of World War II in 1945.
     One major overlooked part of this picture was that television, much more than radio, was always going to be a power struggle between information and entertainment.  The leaders of the few TV network there were at the time basically said "hey boys, we'll be nice and set aside a few hours each week for public affairs and news programs.  They'll be boring as hell and won't make us money but we don't any trouble from the government, see?"  I imagine Edward G. Robinson saying those words for some reason.  Anyway, most of these network Presidents were politically conservative but realized that in order to serve the greater good (and to make tons of money for their shareholders), the knew they had to play ball to keep the government off their backs.  And thus, their network news divisions were loss leaders so that they could get wealthy by getting General Electric and Kraft Cheese to sponsor their live plays of the week.  However, over time, these networks found out that they would have to keep making more money every year to satisfy the whims of their needy shareholders and so eventually they started making these news and public programs more and more sensationalistic and bombastic.  Honesty and facts become more and more an afterthought.
     Simultaneously, new technologies were coming the forefront that could also deliver information and, meanwhile in Washington D.C., the FCC were being seduced into reversing many of the earlier rules that encouraged not only fairness in showing both sides of a story, but also fairness in competition. 
     In the 1980s, it was argued that these policies and procedures regarding having a opposing view for every view regarding a controversial or vital public issue violated the 1st Amendment and so the FCC, during the Reagan administration, decided to do away with with the fairness doctrine.  It was very easy to do since almost everyone on the commission was appointed by the current President.  It also paved the way for our current state of cable news networks being horny cheerleaders for one political party or the other.  The broadcast networks also made more cutbacks to their news departments leading to cutbacks in journalistic integrity.  However, the true end of the doctrine ended in 2011 when the all parties involved could agree on exactly the correct language used in the law that sent the doctrine into the crapper.  Then the real party started.  Cue the cashflow.
     The 1996 FCC Telecommunications Act further eroded any resemblance of fairness deregulating most of the regulations that encouraged healthy competition by opposing journalistic and entertainment business monopolies since and, in essence, journalism and entertainment have done a pretty damn amazing job in merging with themselves.  It also made it easier for anyone to spout their opinions and then proclaim them the God's honest truth. And that's where we are today. You see; once you let the proverbial cat out of the bag, that darn cat just won't find the inside of the bag very attractive anymore.  But, hey, at least we tried, right?

ALTERNATIVE PROGRAMMING

   

     Isn't it fascinating that even though there is so much killing going on in the world today that somehow we would find a way increase the horror and tragedy of death-again most likely in the name of dollars and cents that don't even belong to us?
     Just think about the new uses for old items.  Remember that refrigerated semi truck that used to send unhealthy food to your local fast food dump?  Now we are using those vehicles to store body bags of people who passed away without saying goodbye to their families or even knowing where the hell they were when they shook off this mortal coil.
     Remember that old smelly handkerchief that we found while cleaning our parents or grandparents house?  Now we are using them to cover our pieholes and snouts when we go into our retail stores and perhaps even those houses of ill repute.
     Remember that artisan ale you and your trendy friends would go out to drink during weekends when you should have been at home with your wife and kids?  Now that alcohol is used to manufacture giant batches of hand sanitizer that turns your hands into pasty white paddles.....but in a good way.
     And for all of you misanthropes and others who actually believe that 'hell is other people'?  Well, I suppose you're in heaven now.  But there are still others who don't 'know' that any of this is even taking place.  They believe that everything I just described above is completely fabricated.  Maybe some of them are the same people that don't believe in the Holocaust but can't resist telling their friends and neighbors what actually is happening around them according to the tabloids.
     Is the power to believe stronger than the power of disbelief?  When does 'I can't believe what is happening' become 'I steadfastly refuse to believe what is happening'?  Please don't tell me when you know.

MY REVIEW: WHAT THE BLANK! PILOT (2004)

   

Fred Willard was one funniest people ever to walk the earth.  He was simply on a different level than anyone else.  But he surprised everyone whenever he would speak because when he walked out on stage he didn't look like anything remotely resembling an actor or comedian.  He looked like your Dad's insurance agent.
     He was the secret weapon of any TV show he was on or any movie he was in.  He was always comedy gold as a part of any ensemble.  But he would never make it as a leading man.  And that was a good thing.  How he ever got involved in the game show hosting business is beyond any human comprehension.  Yet, sometime in 2004, he hosted a pilot for a bizarrely retooled pilot of Match Game called "What The Blank!"
     The actual game took a back seat to everything else in this version.  Willard came out, introduced the starts and the player and asked the first question of the game  However, when he got to comedian Laura Kightlinger and asked how her relationship with fellow comedian Jack Black was going, Laura very quietly said she was no longer seeing him.  The Fred floodgates opened right there.  He spent a few minutes mourning the fact they were not together anymore and then kept pontificating on what might have went wrong.  I admit that I was laughing so hard I never wanted him to stop.  I don't know if he knew about this fact beforehand and frankly didn't care.  Neither did his former Fernwood 2 Night buddy Martin Mull.  He was loving every minute it.  I think he finished getting all of the stars answers by about the 8 minute mark.  Oh, then there was also the 'inside voice' that would just appear every so often where the hosts and stars would all 'ask questions' about the questions or the stars.  It works for a cartoon character like Homer Simpson but not for ANYONE on a game show.  Horrible idea.  Wait a second; it gets much worse.  A little later, a rapper comes out and performs a horrible rap.  Then Fred and him actually rap the next question.  Now I'm wondering if they wanted this show to be intentionally infuriating.
     Everything after that was just inane.  For one thing, the questions were boring and most importantly not funny.  They did manage to pick a winner and go to the bonus round which followed the classic format but by then, I was just wishing for a quick painless death to this terrible pilot.
As Willard's character in the film "A Mighty Mind" might ask, "Wha Happened?"
     My grade: D+

SO I WAS BINGE WATCHING "THIRTYSOMETHING" AND THEN THIS HAPPENED.....

   

As you may have gathered from an earlier post of mine, I am admittedly not much of fan of the art of 'binge-watching' TV programs where you take a show and watch the entire series in a short period of time.  Try doing that "Gunsmoke" or "ER."  I'm pretty sure the term is meant to applied to 'so-called series' from streaming services that at the most, seem to crank out 10 episodes a season and then usually get cancelled or end after three or four seasons.  Most of these actors doing these kinds of programs are movie stars the wouldn't be caught dead on a TV series ten or fifteen years ago. That's probably because they didn't want to be tied down to a network season commitment of 22 episodes which means they would have to squeeze in one or maybe two movie during their hiatus period.  But six or ten episodes?  No problem!  And I notice these major stars don't seem to be too bummed out when their show ends either.  You don't hear these people saying things like 'I'll never forget this experience' or 'We became just like a family.'  That's because these little ditties are something they just cram in between movies now.
     There was a recent New York Times article about trying binge-watch older yet classic and revered shows from the pre-streaming days during the COVID lockdown.  The program I decided to dive headlong into was "Thirtysomething", a critical and raitngs success about a group of friends from high school in the late 1960s now having to deal with real life in the 'looking out for number one' late 1980s.  Could they really make a living without having to sell out their Woodstock era progressive beliefs?  Could they actually they still all be friends?  Could they make good parents?  That's about it.
      I have watched the first 8 episodes of the first season the last two days and what I've noticed is how downplayed the political ideology is compared to almost every newer drama or comedy that has recently come along lately.  Hell,  "Family Guy" is ten times more political than this show has been (so far).  I personally think the producers took a much more personal 'touchy feely' approach to make it seem less of a TV copy of movies like "The Return Of The Secaucus Seven" or "The Big Chill,"
     Okay, now for my big "WTF" moment.  It happens in the beginning of the 7th episode called "Nice Work If You Can Get It" the characters of Michael and Elliott get a big break for their struggling ad agency by getting hired by the city to come up with a new campaign for local municipal art museum.  In the first few minutes of the episode I noticed the character of Melissa is in the kitchen cooking a meal and over a nice ladies shirt, she is wearing a Big Sky State Games sweatshirt.  Suddenly, I was 14 and it was really 1987 again.  I'm from a city in Montana that started this athletic event in 1986.  It's still a huge deal in this area even though it is still unknown if they will occur or not this Summer.  However, the show takes place in Philadelphia and was mostly shot in Southern California.  So what's the deal?  If anyone knows, please leave a reply.
     By the way, there are 86 episodes (there could have been more if it were not for a writer's strike in 1988) so I think I should be done by about Christmas?  Will we all still be in Zoom meetings then?