Aww, change the channel. It’s a rerun…
Wait, it’s not another rerun, just another mass shooting/ terror event in Anytown, USA.
Another episode of America- The Series.
Same basic script– crazy ideologue(s) with automatic weaponry goes into a school/church/community center and kills multiple people before dying in a firefight with responding police forces. Insert a montage of non-stop cable news network coverage with “experts” and politicians praying and posturing in clips of some saying there are too many guns and others who say we need to be even more armed.
You could even insert a clip here of a nutty bible college president — let’s have him played by Jerry Falwell, Jr. of Liberty College–saying he wanted the students on his campus to have carry/conceal permits so they could “shoot the Muslims.” Because that’s the kind of measured rational response we expect from those entrusted to lead our kids. Besides, nothing says safety like an arena filled with armed college age kids. Kids with inflated self-images emboldened by being raised on a diet of action movie heroes who are somehow never hit by the hail of bullets from their enemies and in a culture of video games that cheapens life.
Seems reasonable to me. There certainly won’t be any confusion or problems with law enforcement agencies when some of those young armed students are of African or Middle Eastern descent. I see a spin-off in the future.
The script plays out for a few days of hand-wringing and funerals but little real action before fading to black. Hit replay and do it all over again.
That’s seems to be the gist of it. I wish whoever is writing this crap would come up with a new storyline.
I am going to change the channel now. It’s time for Sunday music and I’ve been singing this song all week. It’s the Tom Jones version of Elvis Presley Blues which was written and performed originally by Gillian Welch. I am a big fan of Gillian Welch and love her version but I really admire Tom Jones’ take on it as well. It’s pared down accompaniment really highlights the power of his voice which is still formidable even at age 75.
The images shown here are from my Outlaws series from back in 2006. The one at the top is Two Sides and the one to the left is Elvis in the Wilderness. I thought they fit today.
Enjoy the song and have a good Sunday.
Sunday morning and I am in need of a little kick. Maybe a little flamenco music? There something in the energy and precision of the music and the dance that makes it invigorating while still feeling calm. And that seems right this morning. Just want I want and need.
Flamenco always reminds me of El Jaleo, the huge ( it’s about 8′ by 11′ in size) masterpiece shown above from John Singer Sargent. that hangs in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. The very large painting at the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum in Washington, shown here on the right, is actually a study for the dancer in El Jaleo although I think most people who see it think it works very well as its own painting.
Another Thanksgiving and it might seem that it would be hard to find much to be thankful for in this turbulent world with its endless cornucopia of anger, hatred, intolerance, injustice and inequality set out for our consumption each day. With a diet of so many negatives it would be easy to forget that one simple thing that truly feeds and sustains us– gratitude.
I’ve been in a pretty deep funk lately. I wasn’t going to write about this at all though I am sure it seeps into the writing that I do post. But in the name of transparency I thought I would share a few words on the subject.
Redtree Times 