Category: Uncategorized

PUMPKINS, HAYRIDES AND MICKEY MOUSE

Mickey I’ve wanted to go on a hayride since Annette Funicello did – in maybe "Spin and Marty" or maybe "Annette" — not sure which (these were Mickey Mouse Club stories, for those who are too young to recall.)  Today I got my hayride – but it wasn’t the romantic kind with the guitars and the moonlight.

Hay_ride

Instead, we went with two amazing children and their equally amazing parents to a pumpkin festival.  There was a hayride (pulled by a tractor, not horses.)  There was a petting zoo with goats and lambs and pigs.  There was a simple wooden climbing thing in the shape of a train, with a tunnel and a caboose and a dining car (picnic table in a kind of box.)  It was just wonderful and, nostalgic as we are for the early years of our own kids, we were ridiculously grateful to be included in this family adventure. 

We also were amazed that there were no souvenirs.  No muzak.  No fancy, produced play apparatus.  The same stuff at this orchard/pumpkin patch/pre-school heaven must have been there for 25 years.  And the kids were having a blast.  They didn’t need fancy stuff or animated stuff or even stuff with fresh paint — just a gorgeous fall day, parents (and their friends) who loved them and their imaginations.  I know this sounds really corny but after years at Disneyland and Disneyworld and Universal City (and we had fun — we did) I was just so struck by the simplicity of this place and its impact on these very very happy kids running around in a big field, putting pumpkins into wheelbarrows to take home, eating popcorn and racing their parents up and down the paths.

No moral to this except if you have friends you like who love your kids, bring them along. 

OH BRUCE!

So this came in my e-mail today.   "American Land" Premiers On CMT and CMT.com   The video for "American Land" premiers today on CMT and CMT.com– showing again how Bruce’s music transcends all genres and musical boundaries. "  And I didn’t have time to look at it – I really didn’t.  But I looked.  And you should too.   Here.   It’s just so much fun.  Maybe it’s better because it’s been raining all day – but I think it’s just a pleasure on its own.  What do you think?

9/11

Today is hard.  I have been working to let bloggers know about the CNN free re-broadcast online of their 9/11/2001 coverage and so it’s been on my mind for weeks.  Even so I can’t get past the awful feelings to anything resembling wisdom. 

I just posted to Mom-101, written by Liz Gumbiner, whose birthday is today.  Can you imagine carrying that around?  I met a kid around 10 with the same birthday and when I asked him his birthday his response was positively apologetic.  He already knew. 

Instead of me writing what everyone else is writing, I’m going to send you to Liz.  Her words say it all.

AND THE EMMY GOES TO…

When I was in high school, there was a TV show called EAST SIDE, WEST SIDE. It starred George C. Scott as a social worker with a black female co worker. The show portrayed the pain and injustice that was part of inner city life in the early 60s. Once, and this is the show I remember most of all, the baby of a young black couple was bitten, in its crib, by a rat. Desperate to get the child the a hospital, they were unable to get a cab to stop for them – – cabs didn’t stop for black people.

It had an enormous impact on me and helped to form my political and social perspectives. So even then TV sometimes had a powerful and positive impact. [EAST SIDE, WEST SIDE, by the way, social impact and all, was cancelled after one season. I later learned that the black-white work environment kept the show from being carried on any southern TV stations – which reduced its ratings and knocked it off the air.]

In general, TV somehow seems different now. Even the awards shows are better.

The Emmy Awards used to be kind of trashy and dull. The show tonight isn’t bad, though. Besides, these days, television offers more quality than feature films, as far as I can tell. I love popular culture and can watch plenty that isn’t great without embarassment, but right now there’s so much that’s really amazing. With the power of EAST SIDE, WEST SIDE in 1963, I’ve seen West Wings, Six Feet Unders and Sopranos that take your breath away and acting that does the same. Heartbreaking stories and hilarious ones. Classy characters, righteous outrage transformed into great drama, provocative ideas and just plain fun.

In fact, TV news, where I used to work, has in many cases sunk far below what’s on fictional TV. Sure there’s trash too, but the good stuff is so good, and there’s so much more of it. If the news folks stuck to their guns as well as the drama and comedy producers do, reporters wouldn’t rank so low in public opinion polls.

Is TV better now or do I just watch better shows now? What do you think?

INSIDIOUS

REPOSTED FROM VOX 8/10:

I quit smoking in 1992 – right after the elections, just like I promised. Of course it was the 6th or 7th time I’d promised but I actually did it. Put the money away in a jar just like they told me to at Smoke Enders and, since my kids had made me quit, gave each of them a year’s worth when they graduated from college. One on the road with the Grateful Dead; the other went to NYC, where we lived when he was little. They deserved it, living with all that smoke for all the years it too me to quit, throwing whole packs of smokes out our apartment window and generally being real pills until I finally kicked the habit.

Why am I talking about this 14 years later? Because today I really wanted to smoke a cigarette. Amazing. Of course I won’t and it will pass but it’s a shock to remember the desire after all this time. Probably all the terrorism nonsense. Peter Jennings said he started again after 9/11, I remember. But I’m just generally appalled at the power of this drug. It may not capture me again but it’s a powerhouse.