TV worth watching/or Pop goes the revolution
When I was a child, the marketing geniuses at PBS used to say that ‘TV worth watching was TV worth paying for…’ Today, what with *my* high cable bill (because we get our high-speed internet that way; and ‘Dish Network’ we are all paying for the crap on TV. I don’t watch a lot of TV – mainly because it’s all dreck to me – but I do try to support and watch my PBS stations.
Last week, on the 2 PBS stations (Akron’s WEAO and Cleveland’s WVIZ), there were some wonderful shows about musical roots. The first one aired on WEAO/Akron and it was entitled ‘It’s everything and then it’s gone’ (LINK)
This was a great candid show about the music scene in Akron during the late 70s and the punk music that came out of that gritty city. The show was really interesting and I really enjoyed hearing those first hand accounts. DEVO’s history was especially intriguing.
On Wednesday evening WVIZ ran ‘Get Up, Stand Up’ (LINK) ‘The Story of Pop and Protest’. This was a wonderful show as well – however I could see where something like this would actually require a Ken Burn’s ‘treatment’. They did a really good job of covering the days of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, as well as the anti-war movement during the 60s/70s (the Vietnam era), but I feel that, after that the documentary was a bit lacking – not giving nearly as much attention to the decades that followed.
I really wanted to sit with my son and watch these programs but he was working his job at the local pizza shop. Also at times (other than the music of the Beatles and one Sir John Lennon) – it’s hard for me to get him to understand the power of Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan etc. However, he does adore Bob Marley (but I fear that’s for less than altruistic reasons: (probably the ‘ganja mon!’).
Part of me thinks that kids should be taught from early on to think about what the ‘powers that be’ are trying to sell us – to not be so complacent – to not heed the call of the piper and turn into sheep. I feel that when I was growing up I lucky because my older cousins talked to me and I was ‘socially aware’ at a young age. And, while I talk to my son, and I do feel he is not a sheep, I don’t think I’d see him at a protest rally (but then it might be too early to tell), I don’t want to suggest we were braver then (perhaps we were stupider then – or more ‘drugged out’). Perhaps the problem becomes in this day and age, we WANT our kids to be sheep. It’s too much trouble when they talk back to us. Or perhaps it’s the culture of the administration of the schools and the teachers that would rather have their charges be docile than deal with ‘trouble makers’ – but to not question, to just go blithely through life, melting in with the background, always being good, always doing as your told – I guess part of me longs to see revolution in the streets. And I am not saying that the youth of today does not ‘act up’ but I don’t know…other than what I see as anti-fashion statements, being more vegetarian, listening to punk music, I don’t think a lot of them are getting out and protesting all that much (or acting on what they view as injustice in the world) hell most of them didn’t vote in the last election- how sad that is to me….or maybe it’s just what’s going on here in the Cleveland scene that’s boring, staid, listless. I don’t know but if what I see on TV as a ‘documentary’ is just going to become history frozen in time – and not set a fire under anyone’s ass, I guess I’d be better off not watching it in the first place because all it does is make me nostalgic – and that’s not what activism is about.
Last week, on the 2 PBS stations (Akron’s WEAO and Cleveland’s WVIZ), there were some wonderful shows about musical roots. The first one aired on WEAO/Akron and it was entitled ‘It’s everything and then it’s gone’ (LINK)
This was a great candid show about the music scene in Akron during the late 70s and the punk music that came out of that gritty city. The show was really interesting and I really enjoyed hearing those first hand accounts. DEVO’s history was especially intriguing.
On Wednesday evening WVIZ ran ‘Get Up, Stand Up’ (LINK) ‘The Story of Pop and Protest’. This was a wonderful show as well – however I could see where something like this would actually require a Ken Burn’s ‘treatment’. They did a really good job of covering the days of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, as well as the anti-war movement during the 60s/70s (the Vietnam era), but I feel that, after that the documentary was a bit lacking – not giving nearly as much attention to the decades that followed.
I really wanted to sit with my son and watch these programs but he was working his job at the local pizza shop. Also at times (other than the music of the Beatles and one Sir John Lennon) – it’s hard for me to get him to understand the power of Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan etc. However, he does adore Bob Marley (but I fear that’s for less than altruistic reasons: (probably the ‘ganja mon!’).
Part of me thinks that kids should be taught from early on to think about what the ‘powers that be’ are trying to sell us – to not be so complacent – to not heed the call of the piper and turn into sheep. I feel that when I was growing up I lucky because my older cousins talked to me and I was ‘socially aware’ at a young age. And, while I talk to my son, and I do feel he is not a sheep, I don’t think I’d see him at a protest rally (but then it might be too early to tell), I don’t want to suggest we were braver then (perhaps we were stupider then – or more ‘drugged out’). Perhaps the problem becomes in this day and age, we WANT our kids to be sheep. It’s too much trouble when they talk back to us. Or perhaps it’s the culture of the administration of the schools and the teachers that would rather have their charges be docile than deal with ‘trouble makers’ – but to not question, to just go blithely through life, melting in with the background, always being good, always doing as your told – I guess part of me longs to see revolution in the streets. And I am not saying that the youth of today does not ‘act up’ but I don’t know…other than what I see as anti-fashion statements, being more vegetarian, listening to punk music, I don’t think a lot of them are getting out and protesting all that much (or acting on what they view as injustice in the world) hell most of them didn’t vote in the last election- how sad that is to me….or maybe it’s just what’s going on here in the Cleveland scene that’s boring, staid, listless. I don’t know but if what I see on TV as a ‘documentary’ is just going to become history frozen in time – and not set a fire under anyone’s ass, I guess I’d be better off not watching it in the first place because all it does is make me nostalgic – and that’s not what activism is about.
1 Comments:
les suivantes shows. ils me manquent. i miss the following shows.
1. murphy brown
2. friends
3. golden girls
4. sienfeld
5. drew carey
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