For someone who has not had a drink of booze for more than years, starting the new year by having breakfast at Lefty O'Doul's sports bar in San Francisco might sound a tad misguided, but the World's Laziest Journalist's New Year's Resolution for Thirteen is: "Have more fun!" So, a very good breakfast, with good (regular not Irish) coffee for a wee bit more $ than we are used to paying was in keeping with our game plan for the New Year.
After breakfast, we discovered that our plan to proceed to a
movie theater complex and view Quentin Tarintino's new movie was moving ahead
of schedule and we could see the 11:30 a.m. show for a bargain matinee price
and our budget could recoup the money we had spent on the (IMHO) lavish breakfast.
While watching the story of a freed slave who becomes a bounty hunter in Pre-Civil War America, we saw an opportunity to write a column that would suggest that the saga of mean slave owners could be interpreted as a parable for contemporary America with the plantation owners being the one percenters and the slaves seen as the exploited middle class and poor workers. Some comparisons with a spaghetti Western, with some of Ennio Morricone's music, could be thrown into the hypothetical column.
Watching the slaves fight with each other, literally as well
as figuratively speaking, we were reminded of the Republican strategy for
holding the Democratic Party at bay:
"Divide and Conquer!" The
Democrats fall for it every time!
Would "(Gun)Violence is as American as cherry pie" be a good headline for such a review?
We could do some pop culture nit-picking and point out that
at one point what seems to be a Winchester 73 rifle is shown in the story that
takes place before the Civil War started.
Writing such a column would be too much work and be a betrayal of our intention to ignore politics during a year in which no politician in Washington D. C. faces reelection and just focus on pop culture as a way of keeping our New Year's Resolution.
Around Easter time, gyms will start running TV ads suggesting that viewers get in shape for summer excursions to the beach this summer. (It is summer in Australia and folks going to the January White Sales can wear short sleeve shirts and other summer attire.) Thing of it is anyone who has ever started toward that goal on New Year's Day knows that exercise is like a train pulling out of the station. It is recommended (for good reason) that people start with very easy workouts because their bodies aren't ready for a long workout session that will burn up beaucoup calories.
The gyms should be running the ads now that truthfully
advise that folks who start now and keep at it faithfully will just be starting
to show results by the time tax season is over and have a small but realistic
chance of showing some results by the time the July 4th picnic is
being served. Those ads will run about
the time Ascension Thursday arrives and most of the people who pay to join a
gym will have given up the effort by the time Independence Day arrives.
Easter of 2013 should coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the release of the film "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" and for fact checking purposes we viewed it on New Year's Eve and noticed that the star studded comedy is still funny and that the story of a wild scramble for $ is ripe for comparisons to the current situation in the USA. A group of travelers learn that they can acquire a large sum of money (an obvious metaphor for happiness) "under the W." Was this a very accurate prediction of the philosophy of George W. Bush in action or what? So maybe we'll have to permit some occasional political commentary to seep into our year of living (as much as our meager budget will allow) lavishly in decedent splendor.
On New Year's day of 2013, a Perils of Pauline finish
avoided the financial disaster that the journalists in the mainstream media
have been (enthusiastically?) predicting and so the politicians have nothing to
do until its time for a replay later this year in December so it would only be
an exercise in wasted effort to write about politics before then.
Based on past experience we think it may be too late to start applying for press credentials to cover this year's Oscar - Awards Ceremony but then again (as we were once advised) it never hurts to ask.
Maybe we should start now to apply for credentials to cover
this year's Le Mans
sports car race?
Maybe this is the year we will be able to scratch a ride in a DC 3 airplane off our bucketlist.
Later this month the Noir
City film festival will take place in San Francisco. Usually a film noir movie opens showing a guy
who is doomed. Maybe we could use some
pessimistic pundits' quotes to compare him to the USA? Whoops!
Staying away from political commentary is going to be challenge to our
will power.
If Jeb Bush is going to jump into the 2016 Presidential race maybe we could do a column with a headline about the Bush Dynasty's will to power?
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