I’m a nostalgic; I love to watch old TV shows, old commercials, old movies, old Communist scare public service announcements, etc. one show I enjoy is Dick Cavett’s old interview show. The guests would be there would be there for at least half hour, possibly to plug a project but mostly just engaging in good thick conversation with Mr. Cavett who had a way, in my view, of making people feel grounded, engaged and free to be themselves. Compared to today when stars are rolled out for five minute interviews, show clips of whatever they’re doing and then shushed off for the next guest, it’s shag orange carpet magic for me. Everyone’s grounded. Mature, adult, developed. Now we’re a little ADD and caffeinated in twenty directions. Football was even calmer in the 70’s. I don’t believe in going back to the way things were but there are times when I feel like we’ve lost a bit of something graceful and can bring that back with all of the extra-higher order DNA activating juicy fruit in the air now. Sometimes it feels technology is outpacing us by a few lengths.
For me, I’m not a Facebook fab. I update my status about once every two months and have an account to stay in touch with friends who use it. I just have trouble with sharing certain parts of my day to day with people who may or may not be my friends. What also happens is that when i’m in one of my several hundred moods, I notice how happy everyone is. It’s a marvel and when I feel lower than a blues scale I see someone posting ‘on the moon right now auditioning for MacBeth with aliens and winning the Oscar while giving birth to my beautiful twins’ I get more upset at my own life. It’s been my experience that life is pretty inconsistent and challenging. Path to greatness is littered with invisible jagged boulders ready to tumble;if you catch one, you can turn into something beautiful. It’s hard. But in a certain mood Facebook makes me feel like shit because it seems that everyone is happy all the time except me. It’s wild. Then I begin to think that I must be responsible for all major global conflicts and school shootings and I need to apologize to all the heads of state who are probably checking out Michelle Obama’s Twitter account and don’t time for me.
But then I think if they had Facebook for dogs, who are the happiest creatures on Earth, their status updates would read “Happy poop.” “Food eat love belly rub!” “Make sleep poop ball!!!!! (Smiley face)”. But even on Facebook for dogs there would be the occasional “My owner poops and I don’t” general upsettedness. When I read Facebook happy statuses, I get the sense the human species is a happier one than dogs and yet when I look at world conditions, Plus, I know one or two people via friends who I know are miserable people and when I look at their Facebook accounts, it seems like Buddha’s calling them for advice on joy jumping. So I’ve come to a conclusion that most people are full of shit. It’s not a bad thing. It’s liberating. I’d say a good 80% of what I see is bullshit. It’s fantastic. What’s Real anyway is usually invisible and something you scrape your ass or head on for a few moments the way the world’s constructed at the moment. I have a rule. When I feel tender in the heart region, a little down, or violently artistically pre-explosive, I don’t view social media. Too full of French Fry expressives and I feel like I’m another species; I thought I was human, as I feel rage,love, hate, despair, envy, a touch of paradise, ecstatic joy, the need to hold a baby, thoughts of killing myself and then flying to Russia afterwards, performing Hamlet, sitting quietly listening to extinct birds, fighting to stay awake, keep the dreams of a 1977 Pontiac Bonneville hubcap alive. I know I’m a little more extremist than most but you know, not really.
I’ve said this before but I prefer Myspace where I could invent mood words (I feel Floisty, that’s my favorite) and invent personae from moment to moment. I’m going to invent a new social platform called rantwave.com or something; be yourself and no baby pictures allowed or quotes by Gandhi. Rant, squeeze, express.
When you reach the end of your wits, the wits will try anything to save themselves.