Friday, December 11, 2009

Not the Land of Milk and Honey

What do you think of when you heard that American is the land of milk and honey?  I think horseshit, that's what I think.  Back in the day you could rest assured that America was prosperous enough to earn that moniker but no more.   Unemployment rate in double digits.   Scads of home foreclosures.   Children living in squalor and suffering from malnutrition.   Need I go on?  This is not the America we used to know.

But you could think of the new America in different terms.   Change milk and honey to fat and sodium.  Plenty of that stuff going around.  Check any food container label or the nutritional analysis of the fast good that you choke down two or three times a week.  Loaded with salt.   Loaded with fat.    Or America could be referred to as being the land of Pork and Corruption.   But milk and honey we are not.  What's happened to us?

During the time of Milk and Honey movies used to be worth seeing.  They even had a message for the audience or a moral.  Gone.   I'm thinking that films made today reflect our culture, our society, who we are as Americans.   That's a pretty sad state if films are used as the stick to measure who we are.

Then there's music.   Music today focuses on and play to the idiots of our culture.   Most musicians can carry a tune unless there's a bunch of F bombs in the lyrics.   Lowbrow shit.  Nobody is writing music that's going to endure the test of time - like was written during the Milk and Honey period.  

Then I read today about a criminal on trial in Florida for Lord knows what.   So that the jury doesn't get the wrong idea on who this guy is the court has hired a makeup artist to cover up some of the tattoos on him - like the Swastika on his neck for one.   If I were the judge I'd want the jury to know everything about the scumbag and not protect him.   Geeze.  Points out that who you are is defined not only by the company that you keep but also on the tatt's you put on your body.  The makeup artist is your tax dollars at work and what a waste that is.

Enough of counting my blessings.  Have an LOL on Bob while you're at it.

5 comments:

Max said...

Should of closed that entry with:
"...and GET OFF MY LAWN!"

Two movies good movies I saw recently were The Soloist and World's Greatest Dad. Both had a message for the audience, but yes, both did reflect problems in modern society.

As for music, there's so much out there that it's hard to know what's good. Check sites like www.metacritic.com to get aggregated reviews, then go over to Amazon to listen to previews of the tracks. The latest from Norah Jones is quite nice.

The man in Florida is on trial for murder. The defense motioned that the jury could be swayed by his tattoos; the judge agreed and now the state is paying for the makeup artist. However, only the tattoos he obtained in jail after his arrest are going to be covered. So, he'll have a teardrop tattoo in court that will be plainly visible. On one hand, I agree that this is ridiculous and he should be seen as he has made himself. On the other hand, I think it's fair that his new tattoos are covered up...though it is a bit ridiculous, and I hope this doesn't become a precedent.

Tattoos are ugly. They're a huge turn off, but they're becoming more popular. Eventually some generation of girls will think, "I don't want to look skanky like Mom and Grandma" and the cycle will stop, if only temporarily. People who think tattoos bring aesthetic beauty to the human body need to go visit a classic art museum and realign their compass... and also use a crystal ball to see their droppy faded tattoo in 20 years.

Bob said...

Ha! Get off my lawn - classic Clint Eastwood quote from Gran Torino - a film I loved.

Deech said...

Bob,

I am with you on this Rant....The question I have is, how can we change America Back? Is there going back?

Bob said...

Joker: As they say, You can never go home again.....Time will come one day for some Mad Max shit.

Max said...

"get off my lawn"... Doesn't that go way back to Dennis the Menace? It's the classic grumpy retired guy rant.

And yeah, Gran Torino was awesome.

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