So last night I was at home with the hubby. It'd been a great day. I was invited to one of my student's soccer matches so I went and sat with his parents. The sun was warm; the air was cool. The leaves were in their full fall color. It was actually the peak day. I'd completed my recycling bought several books at goodwill for my students and even splurged for the book which is soon to be next huge kids movie Eragon. It will be huge -- I can tell by the number of kids reading and wanting this huge (AS IN i think it's LONGER THAN HARRY POTTER) book. So I was feeling very satisfied, very this was a really nice day in america.
Then I went home and watched a documentary on George McGovern. (One bright shining moment: the forgotten summer of 72 -- anybody's who's hot for Gloria Steinem or Howard Zinn can check it out; they're both in it: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl? ... 19/1346210) It was about his grass roots rise to the democrat's nomination. It was about the summer of '72. It was not just about a man who really deserved to be our president, but also about a bunch of Americans who really believed enough in our system to make it work. And then, and then, it was about how the republicans and Nixon squashed him with propaganda that began with a democrat himself, Hubert Humphrey, and with the word ACID.
So I was really unhappy about propaganda, about how the media and the political mechine have really destroyed our chances of having real democracy. My Proud to Be an American moment was over. Then the hubby came home. He switched the channel to something else, something mindless, something like a baseball game . . . And that is when I saw it, the commercial that is going with me to school soon; it is the perfect illustration of something called a glittering generality, which is a very old technique. I can't wait to dissect it and show how empty the real Chevrolet is of concern for "our country", a la Roger and Me (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098213/) thank you thank you very much Michael Moore, and FUCK YOU JC Melonhead when I do -- i was furious, he was like that was great advertising. i was like that was a great way to put a shiny bow on a peice of shit and sell it to someone stupid . . . is that what you mean by great advertising?
And then today I got on the website of our favorite band and smiled.
Here's the thread for pearl jam's nation:
“anyone see this Chevy truck commercial? Its got John Mellencamp singing "This is our Country"...and in the commercial there are images ranging from 9/11, Martin Luther King, Jr., Vietnam, President Nixon...and all kinds of stuff.
I thought of a pj show i saw in LA and Ed was talking about how he wanted them to take all the Truck and Vehicle ads down from the stadium before they played....â€
the day the music died, again
Thankfully I haven't heard the song or seen the stupid Chevy commercial but John Cougar Asswipe is one of my most hated musicians on the planet, so if we've got another reason to hate him, I say pile it on.
The irony as I understand it on the other board is, he's supposed to be against the Iraq war/GOP etc. but the lyrics to the song don't spell this out at all, in fact they're completely ambiguous. Why he would choose to even do a song about "our country" at this point in time without explicitly stating some hard truths in it is beyond me, but then this is the guy who thinks fucking Pink Houses are supposed to symbolize the U.S. and like I said don't get me started on him or I'll be here all day.
The irony as I understand it on the other board is, he's supposed to be against the Iraq war/GOP etc. but the lyrics to the song don't spell this out at all, in fact they're completely ambiguous. Why he would choose to even do a song about "our country" at this point in time without explicitly stating some hard truths in it is beyond me, but then this is the guy who thinks fucking Pink Houses are supposed to symbolize the U.S. and like I said don't get me started on him or I'll be here all day.
i'd never really cared one way or the other. i always liked blood on the scarecrow, blood on the plow or whatever that song is.
"this is the guy who thinks fucking Pink Houses are supposed to symbolize the U.S."
ha!
but i didn't want to vomit when i heard pink houses, i was like cool, communists and cancer survivors
now he along with chevy and their over the top jingoistic jingle make me want to throw up. gross.
!
"this is the guy who thinks fucking Pink Houses are supposed to symbolize the U.S."
ha!
but i didn't want to vomit when i heard pink houses, i was like cool, communists and cancer survivorsnow he along with chevy and their over the top jingoistic jingle make me want to throw up. gross.
!