Just a few random thoughts, some of which may be amusing to the general public, others relevant to yours truly and yours truly alone.
First, check out this article from "Charisma" magazine, which I always thought was a venue for some of the less reputable televangelists. But if this recent installment of "Fire in my Bones", by J. Lee Grady, is any indication, the publication has either changed it's tack or I've misunderstood it all these years (maybe both).
Anyway, the piece is called "The Deadly Virus of Celebrity Christianity", and it addresses exactly the same issues that I have with popular Christianity and a good portion of it's adherents. It's a concerted effort to avoid falling into the ranks of these snake-doctors and their followers (many of whom infiltrate even the most orthodox of congregations) that drives me to search for truth in other religions while accepting what I'd like to think of as "real" Christianity"...at least it's real to me, it's what's been revealed to me in the journey that I'm on. I have no doubt that revelation will continue to manifest in my life throughout the remaining years, but I'm just as certain that it will come through several belief systems, standing in the freedom that Christ offers. Such freedom, as I see it, allows a paradigm in which the exploration of and even the embracing of other cultural religious traditions is not forbidden. After all, a desire to enrich the spirit in various ways is not the unforgivable sin.
Okay, enough of the loftiness. I wanted to say something about a commercial that is being shown a lot recently.
A gathering of amateur musicians are gathered together for an impromptu "unplugged" jam session. They look as if they're having a mighty good time, singing the lyrics of "Viva Las Vegas" as if every word was written for and about them.
Then they get to the chorus, where they've changed the lyric to "Viva Viagra".
There are a lot of commercials that insult the intelligence of a pre-schooler...then there are commercials that are just goofy. This one falls into the latter category. Plus it's just plain unsettling to see a group of men congregated together to sing the praises of Viagra. "Hey, guys, I had a problem getting it up, and Viagra took care of it in a jiffy...How about you guys? Oh, really? Well let's get together and SING about it!"...
What the fuck? God, I hate stupid shit like this. I get an unpleasant physical reaction when I'm exposed to such pure, undistilled foolishness. I may be the only one who gets this feeling, I'd like to think not, but I sure do seem to be stricken with it a lot when I watch TV for very long.
How I long for the days when such things as erectile dysfunction and "male enhancement" weren't acceptable topics to discuss on television (and I'm not crazy about feminine hygiene products, either).
One thing, though. All of these Viagra commercials say you should call a doctor if you get an erection lasting for 4 hours or more...Let me tell you, if I get one of those, the LAST person I'm going to call is the doctor. I'm gonna dust off my "little black book" and go straight down the line from A to Z... then I might give the doctor a call, but by then it will be my back and not my pecker that's in need of his services.
Last night I saw a teaser for a new series beginning this fall called "Cavemen"...apparently the world famous Geico cavemen have scored their own television show (I was wondering why they hadn't put out any commercials recently).
I love the cavemen, I can't deny it. They're one of the few commercial "personalities" that I find humorous. The concept of the piltdown man somehow finding himself in the 21st century, replete with social skills but the gnawing suspicion that they're being condescended to by an insurance company (and maybe even the world at large), is hilarious, in my opinion.
But...but...
Can they sustain the comedic properties of the concept over the course of a 30 minute television show?
I just don't know. I hope so. I'd hate for the whole thing to be ruined by overexposure. For some reason I have a sneaky suspicion that this is exactly what is going to happen.
We shall find out...one thing is for sure: it's the first television series I've looked forward to in a long, long time.
Tom Petty was right on the money when he said "the waiting is the hardest part". I used to think he was talking about waiting for a hook-up to come through (ha ha), but these days I tend to apply this wisdom to the ongoing expectation of my Social Security disability check. It's supposed to take between 2-3 months after the appeals hearing before the initial check (w/back pay) comes, so the best I could get would be in a couple of weeks. Knowing how the government usually takes care of things, it will probably take another month and a half.
It's funny...I waited a year for my appeals hearing but it doesn't seem like that wait was nearly as long as the month and a half I've waited for this check. I'm sure the next month or so will be just as hard, maybe more so.
It might not be so bad if there weren't so many important things that need to be done in this house. The central heating and air unit has been down for some time. We froze our asses off last winter and we're burning up right now. A small window unit in the bedroom is working overtime as we take refuge there when the rest of the house, cooled only by fans strategically placed in windows, becomes unbearable.
Furthermore, our refrigerator broke down about three weeks ago...you never realize how essential those things are until you find yourself in need of one.
The couch in our living room has been broken for months, taking it's toll on our backs.
My car has sat in the driveway with a donut on the front passenger side for a month or two because I can't afford a new tire right now. 4 new tires is what I need and 4 new tires is that I plan on getting when the money gets here.
While I'm thinking about my car, the CD player needs to be fixed, too. Driving in silence took some getting used to...I thought I could never adjust to that, but I did. Still, I much prefer music while I'm puttering down the road. My wife's stereo needs to be repaired or replaced, too. The cassette player in hers is somewhat outdated, made worse by the fact that the Eject function doesn't work (which means that there's been one tape in it ever since she first got the car...luckily she found a way to get the radio to bypass the cassette function).
All three of us stand in need of new wardrobes. I need new shoes, new jeans, everything, really. I'll have to take the whole family to the mall and blow some cash on clothes.
These are the main "needs'' that I can think of...but with the wait I've endured and the general nature of the whole thing I think it's reasonable for me to get a few "wants" as well. Maybe a nice HD television to watch DVD's on (and "Cavemen", too!!!). My son wants an Acid 6.0 Music Studio computer program. I've got my eye on a sweet pair of Bose headphones that I've convinced myself I can't live without. An extended visit to Barnes & Noble is in the offing.
Hopefully we'll still have a good chunk of the funds left after all those expenditures for whatever might come along.
But it does no good to think about it all right now. In fact it's downright frustrating.
So I'm slapping Petty's "Hard Promises" into the CD player and singing along to "The Waiting" with as much passion and exuberance as those bozos in the latest Viagra ad.
