Roll Over Beethoven
Overheard this weekend:
“Du-u-u-u-de”. As in five syllables. Or maybe better called the “Rolled ‘u'”. I look over to the person who said it. He looks like you’d expect, and fits the stereotype.
#2: “Way!”
“No Way!”
I think this a progression from Bill and Ted over to Wayne and Garth. I do not believe the people who had this dialogue fit the stereotype quite as well. It might have been done with a sense of irony.
A few days ago, I was trying to find the words to a monolouge from the movie “Jaws”. The bit about a Shark’s eyes being like a dog’s eyes, soulless, and all of that. I could not find it, and still cannot — my transcript precision is off just enough.
Interestingly, Jaws was played by the Parks and Recreations Summer Movie “Flicks on the Bricks” series, part of the “Movies on the Parks” series. Of the five or so movies played this summer, the two that caught my eye, that might be worth attending for the movie and ambiance, were “Muppets Take Manhattan” and “Jaws”. I went to the Muppets one early, didn’t like the general ambiance — a few too many wee ones — and left. The reality is the only reason I took to Jaws as against this “problem” was that probably I came late for this one.
I did see something interesting there. I watched a family walk by. The 15 or 16 year old daughter was wearing a “Kiss” tank-top. The father had on a Radiohead t-shirt. The mother — I think Joan Jett, maybe? “That’s one Rocking Family!”, I thought. The only one not in proper attire was the pre-teen son, who I’m going to assume is rebelling by focusing all his musical tastes on Beethoven and Bach.
Other less common denominator snuck through at other parks. This, I assume, came in from a completely different cultural organization. I meant to see that one, but somehow missed it.
The “Shark’s eye” dialogue popped up in Jaws, toward the end. The thing is, my reference point for it is topsy-turvy. I know it less from Jaws and more from a parody on the Chris Elliott tv show “Get a Life”. Such is the way of things. Several years back, I read an essay from a teacher (college professor, I assume) who watched a reference point for his classes for a particular pop culture item shift from Tom Cruise in his underwear lip synching “Old Time Rock and Roll” in Risky Business to Alf in underwear lip-synching “Old Time Rock and Roll”, not knowing fully the source material. I’m temtped to suggest that if he’d waited a few years, everyone would know it from Homer Simpson, and lose the belief that the Simpsons was parodying Alf.
These things have supposedly warped into hyperdrive. Take something like this, for instance. These things have proliferated, warping pop cultural points of reference. It also takes new dimensions to the old debates — if the creatives that are creating these things were to channel their energy into something more substantial, would we have a new generation of Shakespeare? Or, perhaps these disposable (more so than ever) diversions are just what we need — and the alternative is turgid didactic overhype.
………….
Other things seen: “I’m on Team Jacob” Twilight bag. I assume there’s a “I’m on Team” Whoever the supernatural creature that is not Jacob bag. I give props to the Republican Candidate in 2012 who runs against Claire McCaskill if they bring the Supreme Court question up in the course of the campaign. Hard to say if I’m being sexist with that — throw me an equally inane male dominated pop cultural Senate item and I’ll see if my reaction is the same.