06 May 2009

How Did I Not Know About THIS?

Alright. I'm losing whatever claim I ever had to being a cognoscenti. Clearly.

While listening to the Rick Emerson show this morning on my way to work, I heard a discussion of this.

Um. I was JUST in Bend over the weekend. No way now that I can't be one of those lookie-loos [by the way, I can't quite figure out how to spell that term correctly] that goes to take a look at this trainwreck.

Emerson's take on it is that THIS is exactly why Oregon is so weird. Maybe.

It also reminds me of this story that I've been telling a lot lately that seems to relate to a lot of what is going on in the world around us.

A few years ago I went to the Alamo (for those of you non-Austinites, the theatre--not the actual monument) with my cousin to see David Schmader do his now legendary commentary of Showgirls. David Schmader's whole perspective on the film can be boiled down to this: what is amazing about the film is that there are SO many people involved in the making of a movie with that kind of history and budget. And not ONE of those people, at any level of involvement, at any stage of the process said, "wow. This is a truly awful, awful film. We really shouldn't make it." It passed through hand after hand after hand, and it was STILL unleashed on world audiences. How can it be that not one person (and not everyone involved can be a complete idiot or totally crazy. That is just statistically improbable.) showed any sort of common sense at all?

It's that completely profound? Think of all the things around us that are examples of the Showgirls phenomenon: the reality shows on Vh1, the Pinto, the US involvement with the Contras, New Coke, the credit crisis. I mean, there are Showgirls (and Bend Shires) all around us.

2 comments:

Marcus said...

Real estate disasters are fun! Unless you hope to get an inheritance.

KRD said...

Ha! I have one word for you, PJ. And that word begins with a "ch" and rhymes with "disdain".