spynotes ::
  May 23, 2006
A long time ago, we used to be friends.

We received a fabulous CD from freshhell ostensibly for A, but which, I have a feeling, we�ll be fighting over. With selections that include tracks by Kermit the Frog, Inkspots and Riders in the Sky (�I�ve got spurs that jingle, jangle, jingle��) as well as the Chiquita banana radio jingle (not, I think, related to the spur jingling, although we had to explain the difference to AJ who wanted to know why there was no jingling in the banana song) and Schoolhouse Rock, Louie Prima (more bananas) and Judy Garland. Not to mention the theme to Wonder Woman, which is hysterically mired in 1970s idioms and features the fantastic lyrics: �In her satin tights, she�s fighting for your rights!� Thanks to both Wonder Woman for her intervention and to freshhell for sharing! We�ll be listening to this a lot, I can tell.

* * * * *

AJ and his dad are currently cooking up a project in AJ�s room. They watched a video about Skyscrapers that they checked out of the library earlier this week and are now setting out to build a model skyscrapter out of rolled up newspapers � a sort of modification of the bundled tubing used to construct the Sears Tower. They will test out their construction by putting it in front of a fan to see if it blows over.

* * * * *

I�ve got a new TV addiction. I�ve tossed over The Gilmore Girls for Veronica Mars. I�ve been stewing over what makes me watch the shows I watch � I don�t actually watch that much TV, just because I tend to find little I�m interested in. When I do find something, I often sign on with great loyalty. Consequently, there are frequently numerous shows I�ve not only never seen, but that I�ve never heard of. I tend to only commit to one or at most two shows at a time.I know I�ve written about my somewhat embarrassed commitment to the Gilmore Girls, which I attribute primarily to my need for girliness after spending most of my waking hours with the male of the species. I also like the fast talking, which suits me. And there�s something about the incessant pop culture references that make me feel connected in some way.

In Walker Percy�s The Moviegoer, Binx Bolling tries to deal with his increasing alienation with a society governed by mass media, through seeing movies repeatedly. He discusses the importance of seeing places you know in real life in movies, of repeat viewing in the same location (same seat, same movie theater, preferably on the same date), and others. The best of all is to see a movie in the neighborhood in which it was filmed. He gives each of these experiences a different term � �certification� is the only one that I�m remembering at the moment, and I don�t remember off the top of my head which experience it refers to. But the effect of all the experiences he describes is to somehow ground the mass distributed media in a specific time and place. It is at once communal or unmoored in time and specific or personal.

The pop culture references in Gilmore Girls function as a certification of sorts. It connects my viewing experience to a wealth of other experiences by conjuring up music, events, media, etc. with which I have personal experience. The fact that the show takes place in a small Connecticut town and I grew up in a small Connecticut town does not hurt either.

Veronica Mars is a different experience. Pop culture references are mostly communicated through the soundtrack, which I usually like a lot. Instead, it�s the character I respond to. While I enjoy watching the Gilmore Girls, I�m pretty sure I wouldn�t want to spend too much time with any of the characters on said show. Veronica is exactly who I wanted to be in high school. I wrote stories with characters a lot like Veronica for my sophomore English class, stories that lead to a few strange reactions with Mr. K., the teacher of that class who seemed to confuse me with the characters I wrote about. It was an easy mistake, though, because of course I wrote about myself, or, rather, what I wanted to be like.

I moved halfway across the country at the end of my sophomore year and went to boarding school in France in protest for a term before finishing up high school in the Hoosier State. I kept in touch with many of my friends at the school I attended my sophomore year, though, and I went back after my own high school graduation to attend theirs. I brought my yearbook from my Indiana high school with me, and many of my Connecticut friends signed it. I liked the connection between my two spheres. I ran into Mr. K. while someone was signing my yearbook and he was clearly disappointed in me. I got the feeling that he�d thought I was somehow above high school behavior and there I was reenacting it. I always thought he thought I was someone better than I was ready to be. I tried to rise to the occasion, but in the end, I was still a kid. Still, he introduced me to many things � avant-garde music, French New Wave film, John Cheever, Robert Coover, Richard Brautigan. He expanded my horizons. He was also the best writing teacher I ever had. He taught us by combining reading and doing. It has long been a tradition in the study of music theory composition to write exercises in the style of famous composers in order to understand from the inside how their pieces work. Mr. K. did a similar thing in our English class. We read a wide variety of writers for style and tried to define what was unique and then write something in the style of. It�s an interesting exercise, one that can be very instructive. I�ve never had another teacher suggest it.

But I digress (who here is surprised at that?) So the question is, do I watch shows about and aimed at high school students, as my husband has suggested, because I am reenacting trying to reenact high school? No, I don�t. Why on earth would I want to reenact high school? But there is that moment when you leave home for the first time where you have freedom without responsibility. I think it�s possible that I�m trying to recapture that moment. It�s a moment when I felt most myself, shaped less by my experiences and choices than by my essence. At my current stage in life, I often feel that I�m irrelevant � certainly by comparison to the extreme ego of a teenager � my life is in motion and I merely have to follow through. There�s a lack of adventure that I don�t work very hard to change. Is it possible that watching television may be to try to alter the complacency of my current position? I�m sure it�s not the best way. But perhaps a reminder that there is adventure out there and that there is a person behind the activities that I do is not all bad.

4 people said it like they meant it

 
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