IP: I hear America singed

[Dave Farber <dave@farber.net>]

>From: "Janos.Gereben" <janos451@earthlink.net>
>To: "jg" <janos451@earthlink.net>
>Subject: I hear America singed
>Date: Sun, 28 Jan 2001 09:35:31 -0800
>X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4522.1200
>
>At the end of a week-long trip, I had several strange experiences in the
>exotic, fabled Southland. Most of the 120-mile stretch from Palm Spring to
>Los Angeles offers severely limited opportunities to the radioholic:
>mariachi, Rush and his ilk, and religious programs. I cannot be sure of the
>lyrics I heard when the dial stopped momentarily on music stations, but all
>(please note: all) other stations had only one topic on this fine morning, a
>week after the Bushauguration. The abomination of Bill Clinton.
>
>Yes, Rush and pals are in a time warp, obsessed with evil incarnate, even
>after eight years, even after the man is gone. No mention of Bush or anyone
>else. No other topic. It's like a never-ending spasm, and the preachers are
>raging on too, backtracking from the pardons, connecting the dots back to
>Monica and to Arkansas stories 20 years ago, then contrasting it all with
>the pure being manifested in St. John the Ashcroft. Here's a bet: check the
>airwaves in the desert a year from now. Or two. It will be the same. Forever
>and ever, amen.
>
>I SEE AMERICA GATED
>
>There is a striking similarity between La Quinta during the day and LA at
>night: empty streets. The Palm Springs suburb consists of gated communities,
>walled in and guarded, and a main street of fast-food restaurants for those
>working inside the fortresses. The neutron-bombed LA downtown is something
>that stuns me every time; in the middle of a huge metropolis, I walked three
>miles and saw seven people. But even during the day, from among the
>thousands working in the downtown skyscrapers, almost nobody ventures out.
>People drive into the well-guarded basements in the morning, drive home to
>their gated communities in the evening. Whatever may bother you about
>London, New York, San Francisco or any real city, just check out LA, and
>count your blessings.
>
>I SENSE AMERICA FUTURE
>
>You *can* see people on the streets (which, to me, is what a city is about),
>but you have to go to Chinatown, Little Tokyo, the Korean quarter or visit
>the sections where only Spanish is spoken. That's where life is... where the
>future is. "America" was built by the most daring (and most desperate) from
>England, Ireland, Germany, and so on. The same kind of people from China,
>Korea, Vietnam, Central America will be the "America" of tomorrow. Then, if
>they are as successful as the immigrants of the past turned out to be,
>perhaps they too will go from safety to safety, leaving the streets empty.
>
>(A tip for retro-romantics on a budget and hungry in the empty night of LA:
>at Figueroa and Ninth Street, for the 76th year stands The Pantry, open even
>after the "late spots" close at 8. It serves huge piles of meat with
>mountains of peas and mashed potato under lakes of gravy, in the manner of
>the lamented Forties, for under $10. The place, the menu - on the wall, of
>course - the waiters, the prices. it's all out of some old movie. This being
>LA, perhaps The Pantry *is* part of a movie set.)
>
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>Janos Gereben/SF, CA
>janos451@earthlink.net



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