Drive-by pontification
When events are small and time is short, what’s a blogger to do? Why, he does a drive-by. Yep, it’s another installment of the semi-regular feature devoted to the idea that quick and dirty is just as good for opinion as it is for sex.
(1) The city of Roanoke Rapids, economically challenged ever since the closing of the town’s textile mill (which “Norma Rae” made infamous, by the way), decided to build a theater and invite Randy Parton, brother of Dolly, to help turn the area into the next Branson. But just a few months later, Parton was ordered by the city to leave the theater. His offense? He allegedly was intoxicated and profane. Hurrah, city officials! Country music cannot allow itself to be tainted by such behavior. Did Hank Williams ever appear onstage drunk? Did Johnny Cash ever pop pills and cheat on his wife? Has Willie Nelson ever toked up in his tour bus before a performance? Has Toby Keith ever publicly sung about putting a boot up somebody’s ass? No, the giants of country music … Wait, this just in: It appears that country music has a long history of drinking, carousing, infidelity and profanity, with wicked hangovers thrown in for good measure. In fact, such activities and events are the very basis for approximately 99 percent of all country songs. So Parton got thrown out of the theater that carries his name because he was acting like a country singer? I’m confused.
(2) I saw the movie “Into the Wild” this weekend, but before I tell you what I thought of it let me make sure you understand that I was as close to a blank slate as you’ll get: I hadn’t read the book it was based on, and I had only the barest outline of the real-life event. In short, I brought no baggage to the movie. OK, here we go. I loathed it. “Into the Wild” was beautifully filmed and had a wonderful soundtrack, but director Sean Penn had the hopeless task of making a self-involved, condescending, pretentious, callow and cruel young man seem sympathetic. (The character’s sole considerate gesture in the film was to not sleep with a lonely 16-year-old girl who was, as another character observed, “about ready to vault herself onto a fencepost.”) Worse yet, the young man was an idiot. What fool wanders into the Alaskan wilderness with so little preparation or knowledge, and expect to survive? He went in search of life’s truths, and he found a big one: When the spring snowmelt occurs, that river you waded across a few months earlier will be an impassable torrent when you’re starving and ready to return to civilization.
(3) I have three primary radio stations that I listen to while driving. Two of them have been playing Christmas music continuously since well before Thanksgiving, which means I’m basically down to one station. As a result, I will become a satellite radio customer at the first financial opportunity. Also, I will make myself available to speak at radio industry gatherings whenever the question of why the audience is dwindling for over-the-air broadcasting
December 11th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
Hey Dan -
I’m pretty much down with you on all three counts, except that in number 1, there is more to the story than just Mr. Parton’s state of drunkenness before going on stage, I think, whether it was habitual or just that occasion. It appears to be more about the drunken and/or criminally negligent way he managed the theater and several million dollars of the taxpayers’ money - that was just the moment they chose to give him the heave-ho.
On number 3, I will not be investing in satellite radio any time soon. I will either listen to one of my relatively few CDs, listen to NPR, or just listen to the wind whistling in the windows. But I too will not listen to nonstop Christmas carols at any time and will do my best not to return to the stations that play them even when they have stopped. One an hour the week of Christmas and a couple of hours on Christmas itself are pretty much all I will tolerate.
December 11th, 2007 at 2:59 pm
Go for the Satellite Radio Dan but know this, it also is becoming infected with commercials. I bought the service 3 years ago (I’m an XM guy). At that time it was pretty much commercial free but now even the all music channels roll a few commercials each hour. For music, news, sports all in all it is great! It even has NPR and Air America (unless the latter has finally heaved it’s last breath) for the Kool Aid drinkers on the left!
December 11th, 2007 at 6:33 pm
2. Gender might account for this, though I don’t really understand why. Of the couples I know who read both Into the Wild and Into Thin Air, all of the women empathized with the Wild guy and thought the Thin Air (Everest expedition) group was insane. Male reaction was the reverse. Their reviews of the book mirrored your feelings about the movie. Strange.