20021210 - visual symbols

Black Cowboy Hat = Contemporary Country Musician
 

20021206 - I wish I had a river that I could drown advertising executives in

While writing code in a local bar tonight, I was exposed to a television commercial for "MessageFromAmerica.com". The commercial seemed to be about "taking care of" Our Boys with messages of support from home and DVD players to watch porn on.

I may have to really think about it, but I really don't have anything against Our Boys. I understand that the majority of them are hardworking men and women who joined the military to get out of their dead-end rural area or urban ghetto. We here at BrokenOffCarAntenna.com understand urban decay and rural backwaters and the need for many people to escape those settings. For many Americans throughout this century, volunteering for military service has provided an escape for non-heterosexual people, those without the financial backing to go directly to college, hell-raisers who didn't really do much wrong but are forced out of the community by the local judicial system, etc. I myself joined the Civil Air Patrol in high school because I was looking ahead to having to enlist to afford college.

I do wonder a bit about sending them anonymous "personal messages" and DVD players...but I guess that makes it easier for warmongers and other people who votied Republican to cleanse their conscious.

What really bothers and disturbs me is the soundtrack for this commercial: Some guy playing the piano and singing "River" by Joni Mitchell. How the hell is a song by a hippy folksinger -- a song about winter and regrets; a song about Christmas, trees, and "singing songs of peace and joy"; a song about escaping (going AWOL?) because she made her hippy boy cry -- appropriate for a commercial which is about making Our Boys more psychologically comfortable while they're out doing their duty (whether you agree with the duty or not, we've got men and women stationed in a lot more places than just preparing for a possible war in Iraq. I'll leave the snotty "Safe for Democracy and Oil Executives" crap out of it.)

Joni Mitchell "River" from the album "Blue" and "Hits"

It's coming on Christmas,
And they're cutting down trees.
Putting up reindeer
And singing songs of joy and peace,
Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on.

It don't snow here,
Stays pretty green.
I'm gonna make a lot of money
And quit this crazy scene.
Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on.

I wish I had a river so long,
I would teach my feet how to fly.
Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on.
I made my baby cry.

You tried hard to help me,
You put me at ease.
You loved me so naughty,
It made me weak in the knees.
Oh I wish I had a river I could skate away on.

I'm so hard to handle,
I'm selfish and I'm sad.
Now I've gone and lost the best baby
That I've ever had.
Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on.

I wish I had a river so long,
I would teach my feet how to fly.
Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on.
I made my baby say goodbye.

It's coming on Christmas
And they're cutting down trees.
Putting up reindeer,
And singing songs of joy and peace.
I wish I had a river I could skate away on.

Remember, G.I.'s: While you're sitting in your tent, 30 year old hippy music is being refashioned into corporate (ABC & Circuit City, etc.) propaganda of patriotism in your name.

Lock & Load!
 

20021119 - Prediction

Television networks, especially the non-cable networks will campaign, both blatantly and behind-the-scenes, for community planning, efficient transportation construction, and public transportation.

This isn't because the 'media' and actors and union camera operators are all a bunch of liberals. This is because the corporations are going to need to start to protect their bottom-line.

Commute times are rising every year. Bad city layout and planning is cutting in to people's television watching time. Digital Recording Systems (DCR's) are making it easier for people to watch shows that they aren't home for, and likewise cutting into the viewed advertising numbers. That driving time is cutting into the viewing of the mindless morning shows (who the hell (with a job) has time to sit and watch Good Morning America?) as well as edging closer and closer to Prime Time. It's just in their best bottom-line interests to have people sitting on the couch, not sitting in their cars. The networks need to start lobbying on the local, state, and federal level to protect their ratings and revenues.

People are spending more and more time in their cars. While sitting in stop-and-creep traffic they are listening to tapes, CD's, NPR, pre-recorded music and talk radio. Cars are getting more expensive sound systems and more advanced media playing options because of this. Don't expect the radio congloms or the sound-system or car companies to support this. Their best interests are to keep you safely struggled in your cheaper-to-make SUV, listening to a pre-recorded-to-sound-local radio show from your upgrade speaker system which also plays MP3's on CD while you're stuck in the bottom of Spaghetti Junction while "onlooker delay" caused by that car fire on the other side of the freeway for another half hour.

Expect this to happen in the next 5-10 years, unless the network's parent companies decide to invest in the DCR industry. Expect more shows and reports about children raising themselves because mommy and daddy are working too much and/or driving too far, through highly congested areas, to get to and from work. Expect more reports about the pollution caused by the morning commute and the bad health effects of sitting in traffic. Expect TV's to be placed in mass transit, funded by the networks. Jet Blue has DirectTV piped 1.5 feet from your face, shouldn't the local MTA? The networks need to recognize this war, before they completely lose it.