August 2004 Cover
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But the crowd's empty
By
Mitzel
I read that David Bowie has been hospitalized while on tour-- in Germany I think. (Get better, David!) It was in the newspapers that the tickets to Madonna's summer tour are being discounted-- she's having trouble filling venues. It has also been reported that the audiences for
literary fiction, poetry, essays, etc., are shriveling up, due to disappear in 50 years. What's happening? Is this the end of the world as we know it?
Fashions come and go. Should there be fashions? Shouldn't more go than come? I don't understand most of what is put out for public consumption. Much is aimed at the youth market, which used to be 13 to 24 but now seems to be 18 to 45 (apparently the young
seem to be getting older). I have no idea how they dice this data.
How do you navigate the fast change in the culture? The constant barrage. The glut of so-called media. The bloat and the blather. The blogs. The assault. Which is what it is. Where do you go for relief?
When I was younger, I tried to swim in the popular culture, which then, like now, was everywhere, if less aggressive. The comic books I grew up with in the early 50s came under assault by a Congressional committee. Superman, Batman, and their kind were not acceptable
role models, apparently, but had lasting appeal. Batman may have been a tad too queer. Certainly, young gay boys like me read the strip that way, as intended. It's easy to trick the young, the central mission of much of the entertainment industry. The best moments of my young
life were lying on the sofa, curled up with the latest issue of
Mad magazine, just giggling away. Back in the 50s, my mother once wondered what it was I was getting off on, and I gave her the latest issue, and she read it, had no response, and gave it back to me. Silly, silly, silly. And
lots of good goofery.
Where is the port to get away from all this stuff? The places in your head implanted back in those days when you grew up are still there, even if, maybe, slightly pickled, or put on museum-quality picture post cards. Why leave? The current world is a place in flux, each
day being in some ways a new shock. And everyone on their cell phones, yakking all the time, most of the connections crummy communications at high prices, not even as good as Dick Tracy's wrist-watch picture-phone. Quality is traded for convenience, about which something
should be noted, as well as the beginning-of-the-end of the pay-phone, something you'll miss when you lose your mobile unit, or its battery dies, or whatever. Do I hate the new paradigm? You bet I do. Why? I'll try to get around to that; it's a big cud to chew.
Your opinion please
How do I feel about gay marriage? How do I feel about the Patriot Act? How do I how do I? I get asked about things all the time, some trivial, some important, some simple up-dates. I've stopped having opinions about things-- many things, especially those that are
coughed up by the media engines. I have disconnected from the world of what is presented as important, because the mendacity is so great. I will leave the administration of the men currently serving in the White House out of this conversation, as even I pretend to have standards; yes,
I know, these days, an oddity.
On tour. Who is there left to perform in front of? Cheering throngs, who pay hundreds of dollars? What a trick. Who is there left to tell a story to? Once upon a time. As the publishers and the screens get narrower and narrower demographics, will the bright, the new or
the subtle get a chance? Or do only the hard, loud, and mean get featured?
A certain gay advocate for gay marriage has done well in media-land. I watched his meteoric advance with wonder-- they do create these folks in that format every way possible? Who gets picked? Who gets dumped? Does merit matter? Or just a loud mouth and a savvy
pitch? I will never know. This is not my world. I like the bright and informative and not the famously yak-yak-types, so adored by the screens and the organs of the sameness, especially when it comes to "minority" communities.
The late Ronnie RayGun had some trouble with understanding the pandemic-- he grew up in the 20s and that was that, 'nuf said, party never over, party never really begun, and carrying on long after he couldn't hit his mark. Did AIDS get mentioned in his reign? Don't you
recall? The rededication of the Lady of Liberty in the polluted NY harbor? The Mitterands, from France, he the President, and his lovely bride, Danielle, were seated next to the RayGuns, and Bob Hope was a featured "performer." La Hope got up and did his number. That type can't
resist. He did a salute to the Statue of Liberty. "Have you heard? The Statue of Liberty has AIDS," said Bob Hope. "What we don't know is whether she got it from the mouth of the Hudson River or the Staten Island Ferry." The populace, there for the fęte, guffawed, including, if
memory serves, Ronni and Nanci. The Mitterands looked aghast, having just come off a scandal in France wherein donated blood was not screened and then put in the mix for hemophiliacs.
It's nice to get out and about, and go on tour, if you are so inclined. Sometimes, it's nice to stay at home and entertain a book group. There's a nice catalogue of writers that can take you anywhere, and the joy is completely yours, imagine that.
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