Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Saturday, October 07, 2006
“Yeah, yeah, yeah"
In 1964, during Beatlemania, my parents were contemplating a move away from Los Gatos (CA). My father watched his daughters’ burgeoning >ahem< assets with the usual trepidation of a dad who remembers being a teenaged boy. He figured that, if he got them far enough away from the large concentration of boys in Los Gatos High School, he could make it into his 50s without becoming a grandpa.
The sisters being in school already, the parental units packed my four-year-old self up and drove us off to Coueur d’Alene, Idaho, to see how remote it was and how many boys there were to threaten the virtue of my precious sister. Flying woudn’t have helped much, since my father hates rental cars and wouldn’t have driven one from Walla Walla, Washington, all the way to Coueur d’Alene and back. We got in the Caddy and motored for two days.
My mother HATED car rides. My father and I both LOVE them. We sang, we played games, we had the best time! There sat Mama, a miserable lump of old woman (as my father quite unkindly said to his 7-years-older wife).
Finally, we reached Coueur d’Alene on a brisk fall afternoon. It was spectacularly beautiful...trees in gold and read and conifer green covering endless hillsides that all parted to reveal a beutiful, beautiful mountain lake...I was in love and I never wanted to leave EVER.
My mother, on the other hand, was late for the door two minutes after we got there. She was completely silent, which always boded ill...she was never completely silent unless an artillery barrage or, if the silence was accompanied by vigorous exhalations of smoke, the nuclear option was about to be deployed.
My father was tramping around town, huffing smoking silent miserable lump of old woman behind, eager young redheaded sprout racing ahead and exclaiming in overjoyed delight over the most mundane things...when IT happened. We chanced on a dance night at the high school.
There were boys. There was Beatles music. There were teenagers doing the Twist. I joined in, abandoned to the pleasures of dancing, and was laughingly embraced by the assembled teens as a little mascot. It was a blast!
We were gone in 12 hours, and I’ve never been back since.
Posted by Mudge on from Austin, Texas 10/07 at 08:13 AMHello Expendables...past, present, and future. The sun is shining on this warm NYC fall day.
Nice story, Mudge...but I’m wondering if our Beatle tales have scared off the others. Where is everyone? Will we get more stories?
Captcha sez: yes
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 10/07 at 02:11 PMnice story mudge and hello mudge mickey and everyone else
i was going to write a long story but i am currently experiencing a weird sensation of being on cloud nine and heavily homesick simultaneously…
because of this…
the reason for the homesick is were i at home i would have been there with my brother and friends etc etc
incidentally, about the little film mickey posted
1. i did it as a response to the monkeys thing from earlier in the week.
2. the words are from a fantastic book called “last chance to see” by douglas adams (last chance to see means animals that could soon be extinct. he goes around the world with a zoologist and visits the habitat of seven species that are on the brink)Posted by michael on from exile 10/07 at 02:48 PMGood day Mickey and Mudge,
If the weather’s as nice where the rest of the Expendables are as it is here today, I imagine it explains the quietude on the board.
It’s a staggeringly beautiful sunny day and while I’m always stumped to come up with any stories, I can share that I’ve been watching a family of chipmunks grow chubby with acorns leading up to the cold of winter and they’ve become accustomed to my observing them and I think they’ve been observing me too, becoming less timid of my presence.
Being able to witness such things is something that cannot be undervalued, today more than ever.On our childhood car trips (and there were many) it seemed that my dad would always have to continue to drive for at least an hour beyond the point of comfort before he’d stop for us to eat, etc. Wait until everyone was thoroughly fed up before giving in. (If you thought you weren’t fed up yet, you soon be told otherwise.)
Mickey I noticed both articles were written by the same person, but the independant art. was not accessible without login (only saw the first paragraph)
Apparently bowhead whale numbers are on the rise. I’m sure it won’t be long before we humans can do something about that though.
That’s another great video, Michael.
Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 10/07 at 02:54 PMMichael: I can relate to your emotions today. The Yankees start playing in about 2 minutes and are on the verge of being knocked out of the playoffs. My mom, 1600 miles away in Texas, is a big time Yankee fan and it would be great to watch the game with her.
Sorry about the link, Empress. I should’ve explained that the drought article was just an abstract of sorts. Still, it’s enough to get the sad drift.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 10/07 at 03:01 PMoops - Hi Michael
Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 10/07 at 03:11 PMO-O-O-O-Ozone:
http://tinyurl.com/opwomPosted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 10/07 at 03:16 PMfunny you should post that… one of my favourite terms of abuse is to describe someone as “a waste of ozone”
Posted by michael on from exile 10/07 at 03:23 PMit was a beautiful day today, too much for computer, and shortly I´m going to bring a friend visiting from Mannheim down to beach to the full-moon party where we´ll play some music and in general act like buffoons. Mickey your story reminded me of metro rides home after a concert I´d usually have a ukelele with me, and how easy it is to get a whole carriage singing or playing some makeshift percussion.
Posted by owen on from barcelona 10/07 at 05:17 PMJust breezing through. This is disturbing. Right?
Posted by Keir on from The Hague (Jackowski election hdqts) 10/07 at 05:41 PMHi everyone. Still watching…
Keir - thanks for the link, not sure why its disturbing though.
Posted by Uncle Joe on from Britain, not great 10/07 at 05:55 PMAlways a pleasure, Uncle Joe.
Keir: I could only watch a minute or two. There’s something deeply disturbing about Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Michael Moore, and their ilk. It’s as if they are actors playing left wingers...turning it into a shtick as the rich get richer and the situation gets more dire by the second. I was literally just working on article that referenced these guys. Perfect timing.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 10/07 at 06:10 PMI don’t know the whole Colbert shtick is pretending to be a “Bill O’Reilly” conservative.
His speech at the Presidential Press dinner awhile back earned my respect as he rendered the room speechless, (and laugh less).
It was the best American satire I have seen in the last twenty years.Jon Stewart blows.
The lot of them seem to prop up the wiffle waffling of the one party system so they never really get anything but laughs done.In the end they are just ambitious capitalists feeding off of the perpetual misery machine.
I can’t explain it but I have a soft spot for Colbert -he is such a freak.
Can’t wait for the article Mick, I’m sure you are going to put a lot of “liberal” noses out of joint.Posted by Youngfox on from Canada 10/07 at 09:37 PMThanks, Youngfox. I’m not sure if this planned article will skewer the high-profile characters as much as those of us who watch them. We’ll see. It’ll be here by the end of the week, I hope. You’ll see 2-3 other articles of mine here first...starting tomorrow.
Captcha sez: audience (of course)
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 10/07 at 09:57 PMI’m not sure what’s disturbing about Colbert either, with the huge exception that his satire is representative of people who actually think like that, they are the disturbing part.
Looking forward to those articles, MZ (I think?!) I’m prepared to reflect on being skewered ;)
Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 10/07 at 10:50 PMHI everyone. Just popping in here quickly late at night, after the Mets wrapped up their series.
Mickey said: “There’s something deeply disturbing about Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Michael Moore, and their ilk. It’s as if they are actors playing left wingers...turning it into a shtick as the rich get richer and the situation gets more dire by the second.”
I totally agree. As Youngfox notes though, Colbert does on occasion show flashes of being more substantial than the others you mentioned. I’m not willing to completely say he’s one of the “good guys”, but at least I have some doubt that he’s not a schill for the system like Stewart and Moore.
I sometimes wonder… if I was somehow given a TV show, how would I act? If I blurted out the truth of the situation on my first night, I’d probably just be labelled as insane and off the air before the first show was even over. However, if I was to slowly drop hints towards the truth of the world situation, pushing my audience slowly in the right direction a little bit more every night, would that in the long run, be a more effective plan?
Not saying this is what Colbert is doing, but it’s worth considering.
Posted by Banta on from Inner Circle of Hell 10/08 at 12:00 AMYou’re right, Empress and Banta, I’d probably do something similar if I had their platform. If I just talked about reality, like Chomsky, I’d lose my audience in one week. I dunno…
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 10/08 at 06:31 AM
Next entry: The NBA says "no" to leather
Previous entry: Running with the bulls
Copyright © 2005-2007 Mickey Z.
