Holiday shopping is dumb.
In fact, it makes “us”, the people who are supposed to run this society look even dumber. Every year, we let the media tell us when to shop, how to shop, what to shop for and how excited to get over it. It’s this constant inner-desire to “collect”. I’m as guilty as anyone else, having to have the Lord of the Rings DVD, then the four disc DVD extended cut, then the popcorn containers with the LOTR characters on them that you can only get by purchasing the popcorn/drink combo at any participating AMC theaters. (Those things, post popcorn don’t smell too good in the display case.)
I was sitting around one night about 8 years ago, having been in Los Angeles for about 2, watching David Letterman when the real concept of how this country works finally hit me. Everything you see around you is all related to the consumer. Any guest on any talk show (99.99% of the time) is not there to entertain, they are there to SELL. A book, a movie, an album, a stand up comedy tour that will hopefully make them more money, get them a TV show which will sell advertising time to companies who will in turn hope to get you to spend your money on their items. It’s a vicious circle. And it all comes down to even telling all of us when to go out and buy. You know how the weekend after Thanksgiving is the biggest shopping weekend in the entire year? Do you know why? Because they tell us it is, so we go out to get the deals so as to not miss out on, especially this year, the Hokey Pokey Elmo.
C’mon, people. Wasn’t Tickle Me Elmo enough?
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Some of you may or may not know about Whitley Streiber. He was the author of many horror/fantasy books over time, but is best known for his books about alien abduction. I haven’t really followed much of what is going on with him, but someone recently shot me a link to his journal on his site Unknown Country. According to him and his latest journals, there’s a lot of dark and dastardly things going on currently, and if you take any of it seriously it’s sorta freaky.
Don’t know what to believe, but I can tell you that it’s freaky. Did I mention it’s freaky? This, on the eve of the Sci-Fi Channel’s new mini-series Battlestar Galactica. All I have to say is this — Cylons having sex is a genius way of reintroducing it into the public. Fingers crossed for them and Edward James Olmos — he hasn’t had a hit since Stand and Deliver.
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Finally, we must all wish Jack a happy birthday. On December 1st he was officially one year old.
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