fashionable: June 2011

Thursday, June 30, 2011

I fear I'm turning into Andy Rooney

Yesterday I was in a bookstore and I heard a sound I hadn't heard in a long time. It was the sound of a manual typewriter. The elderly man who was typing was perched on a stool, and wore a pair of small round metal rimmed spectacles. The sight and sound could only be described as elegant, and for a brief moment I mourned the inevitable loss of him and his entire generation.

I'm not as old as this man, nor am I young. Yes, I am most definitely middle-aged (though that moniker feels nearly vile). My relationship towards what's "new" is right in the middle of things, too, though I'm worrying (lightly) that my propensity towards a curmudgeonly attitude (though I've always had one) is nudging me into Andy Rooney territory, that of the older generation who looks down on the young and says "Idiots!"

Ugh.

I don't watch television, so I have no idea if Andy Rooney is still on Sixty Minutes. I don't even know if Sixty Minutes is still on TV, nor do I know what station it airs on. For all I know, Mr. Rooney is dead. Yes, I could google this information, but it's beside the point.

For those of you too young or too uninterested to know, Andy Rooney has been the resident curmudgeon on Sixty Minutes for, well, forever. He's been whining about the silliness of modern culture and life since I can remember, and since I can remember I've found him terribly annoying. I clearly remember talking back (out loud) to the television set many a time, saying, "Oh, please, shut up!" Then I'd remember I had a remote control unit and I could indeed shut Mr. Rooney up quite easily.

He's complained about the little plastic windows on mail (yes, snail mail. Do you get any still?) He's whined repeatedly about the stupid gifts his viewers send him. Mr. Rooney seems an old-fashioned fellow. I'm surprised he doesn't carp about people not saying a gracious "thank you" for gifts received.

Every time there's a new twist on anything, Mr. Rooney has been there to bemoan it.

So, here I am, in this middle age, giving more and more thought to how our culture is making us all into idiots, or how "we" seem to demand more idiocy in everything. Yes, I'm now squarely in Mr. Rooney's camp, though if you send me gifts, I will say "thank you."

I hate how emotions have turned into emoticons (even if some of them are clever, which this one is not). :-(
I hate the way we're communicating with txt msg pre-packaged feelings such as OMG and LOL.
I hate how we're confined to low character counts on Twitter and Facebook and how there's site after site of advice for the would be web savvy individual demanding that we learn to be terse. "People want to read status updates, not books!"
I hate how I want to say, "Go read a book, preferably something terribly long!"
I hate how the latest book I read, one of Picador's BIG IDEAS/small books series, was sloppy, stupid, and sounded as if it was a few month's worth of status updates.
I hate how every site on the Web now has the LIKE button. If someone dies, folks will hit that thumbs up LIKE button to give their condolences.*
I hate how Amazon has the LIKE button, but one can answer the question, "Was this review helpful?" with a yes or no answer, and it appears that people do not understand the question. The question is not whether one agrees or disagrees with the review.

I could go on, but I hate how the phrase "I hate" looks repeated so many times. I doubt I've used the word "hate" much on this blog, and the truth is that I really do not hate any of this. I find it worrisome, annoying, and infuriating.

Really. Though I disliked (no - hated) the movie Wall-E, I fear we will eventually become what's pictured above.

*There is no fan page for Death on Facebook. I checked.**
**Nor is there one for Life.

Why did I google "Did Gandhi use a typewriter?" No answer to that question; instead was directed to this photograph. I can imagine Andy Rooney asking, "What ever happened to the good ol' fountain pen?" I hate writing with a pen and paper. I love the rhythmic sound of a keyboard. Besides, I can't even read my own handwriting, though, if I slowed down, I have beautiful penmanship. That is quickly becoming a lost art.

"Just think. Less than a month ago. . .

. . .Santa Mira was just like any other town. People with nothing but problems! Now, you're reborn, into an untroubled world."

"Where everyone is the same?"

"That's right."

"But I don't want to live in a world without love or grief or beauty! I'd rather be dead!"

Watch the original 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers here.

They say this movie was not supposed to be a metaphor for anything. That's fine. It's doesn't take away from the fact that it is.

"We" perhaps were paranoid about the wrong things back in 1956. Later, the hippies protested, but I contend that the baby boom generation were about as conformist as any, if not more.

Of course, I am wildly oversimplifying here, but the truth is, we've mostly gone to sleep, happily. . .

As Dr. Bennett says in the movie, "In my practice, I've seen how people allow their humanity to drain away. It happens slowly instead of all at once. They don't seem to mind."

No, they don't. Now they ask for it. They ask their doctors.

We've brought back the once considered barbaric electroconvulsive "therapy" for folks who are "treatment resistant" to drugs. Perhaps we should look forward to a renaissance of lobotomy, or maybe we'll learn to grow pods of perfectly happy people.

I'm kidding, of course, but then again. . .

We have all been assimilated.

Image note: Before torching the pod he found planted in his car's trunk, Miles (Dr. Bennett) pokes it a bit.

1ST TRAILER FOR "TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY" WITH TOM HARDY, RALPH FIENNES, COLIN FIRTH & GARY OLDMAN! CHRIS HEMSWORTH IS "SHADOW HUNTER"! DIABLO CODY HELMS "LAMB OF GOD"!

Diablo Cody, whom some like as the writer of JUNO, and I like her for UNITED STATES OF TARA, will direct her first film. It will be LAMB OF GOD, a comedy about a young conservative religious

woman who loses her faith after a plane crash and decides to go to Las Vegas to live the life of a sinner. According to "Variety", the writer of HORRIBLE BOSSES is working on KING OF ELVES, an animated film about an average Mississippi man whose reluctant actions to help a desperate band of elves leads them to name him their new king. Hunky Chris Thor Hemsworth, who is quickly becoming a huge star in Hollywood will star in SHADOW HUNTER, a new action thriller about an elite team of covert operatives who are great in finding ways to complete the most impossible missions.

Some great new images have just been released for what promises to be a barbaric visual feast when CONAN THE BARBARIAN comes out this August. Starring Jason Momoa, Ron Perlman, Rachel Nichols and Rose McGowan, the remake of the 80's

classic will begin with a personal vendetta of the fierce Cimmerian warrior which soon turns into an epic battle against hulking rivals, horrific monsters, and impossible odds, as Conan realizes he is the only hope of saving the great nations of Hyboria from an encroaching reign of supernatural evil.

____________________________________________________

You've probably seen by now, the first trailer released earlier today for British action TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY which

premieres this Autumn with the most amazing cast including Tom Hardy, Ralph Fiennes, Colin Firth, Gary Oldman, Benedict Cumberbatch (from BBC's SHERLOCK) and Ciaran Hinds (Caesar from ROME). This movie adaptation of a popular cold war bestseller by famous John Le Carre is set in the aftermath of the cold war, and it tells the thrilling tale of a spy-hunt within the highest echelons of the British Secret Intelligence Service. Back in the 1970's there was a very popular TV show based on the same book which became a television classic in Great Britain.

Buffalo Check Dress

Hot Celebrities Wedding Picture

Wedding Pic of World Beautiful Celebrities

Smitten or obsessed?

What's the difference?

Watch some of Adam Curtis' documentaries. Very interesting, to say the least.

As I've now watched them all (but they deserve multiple viewings), I'm scrounging the Web for his shorter works. Just watched "Oh Dearism," and "Paranoia," from Charlie Brooker's Newswipe.

Something about these comments amuses me greatly:

". . .political conflicts around the world are now portrayed to us as simple illustrations of the mindless cruelty of the human race. . .It's like living in the mind of a depressed hippie."

"Richard Nixon told his psychiatrist that when he looked in the mirror, no one was there. When we look in the mirror, we think we're too fat."

Image note: Elvis meets Nixon. There's a movie based on this event. Go read the description, both of the movie and the real event. Do you think you're crazy? Sorry, folks, but most of us are garden variety crazy compared to these two.

The more I learn about the past, the more sane I realize I am. Watching Adam Curtis' documentaries helps.