Watching TV last night I came across The Wizard of Oz, which was playing on TBS.
I remember back when I was a kid that The Wizard of Oz only came on once a year, and it was sort of a big deal. One year - the first I remember, actually - my mom, my dad, my brother and I were at Sears on some family errand, buying an appliance or something similar. And the Wizard of Oz was starting soon but we weren't finished with our errand so our mom started telling me and my brother the story of the movie, so that when we got home we'd be caught up to speed. We got home and parked ourselves (my brother and I) in front of the TV on the shag carpet, chins in hands, elbows on the carpet, in that way only little kids watching TV sit, and watched it. I don't remember watching much of the movie then, just mainly being at Sears with my family beforehand, and my mom beginning to tell us the story. Or maybe it was on TV at Sears and she told us what we were missing as we drove home, between TVs, between Sears and the house. Either way.
And so today The Wizard of Oz is still kind of a big signpost for me, an important thing. Same with the Grinch (which, coincidentally, was also on last night). I wonder if this is true for others of my rough age. And I wonder if it will remain true as the 2000s continue to tick far-too-quickly on by (what's weirder than being 26: it being 2006). Similarly, I wonder if, 50 years from now, we'll still be listening to Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra in scarred-wood bars, all the old ephemera of the Thirties and Forties bars still intact and resonant. I'd like to think so; I'd like to think that that music and time period are somehow special - and they must be: otherwise why should I, who lived nowhere near those decades, still feel some weird nostalgia when those tunes come on the juke at a bar and still feel some weird affinity for bars and places that feel like they existed then: McHale's Tavern, the tile bars, Peter Luger's, and so on and so forth.
"With the thoughts that I'd be thinking, I could be another Lincoln, if I only had a brain."
"In the lissome light of evening /// Help me, Cosmia, I'm grieving."
Fires in Progress
The Moon & Antarctica
The moon over the Royal Society Range, McMurdo Sound—Taken by Angela Garner, National Science Foundation
A Brief Bio
- Hunter R. Slaton
- Brooklyn, New York, United States
- Originally from Arkansas, I've been in New York for seven years now.
3 comments:
How about the remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? People loved it... Do you think they'd feel the same way about an OZ remake? In fact, I'm going to put it in stone now: OZ remake in the next five years.
Hunter, Paulo and I feel you're not living up to your blog potential and we'd both appreciate it if you'd post something new. Just try, sweetie. We know you can make us proud.
Hunter, where are the words of wisdom from Hunter R. Slaton. That entry is gold. Especially what you said about Miller and Lucinda. I feel like I should have grown up in the south and we should have been friends when we were little. But, would I still have had a pony and a bluberry patch? And, I've never been too fond of grits. But, I would eaten them if it meant that I could have known little Hunter Slaton.
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