Neighbor Lady.

When I was a boy I would look through my bedroom window and stare at the neighbor lady standing in her kitchen. Never questioned where she was from. Never wondered what she was like as a young girl. Didn't care that she was a waitress. Single mom with two kids. Didn't care that she let her daughters watch R rated movies. I watched those movies too. This lady had eyes that made me sad. That's all that I knew. So I'd stare. R rated movies or not.

Sometimes I would laugh at the way she pressed buttons on a microwave. I don't know why. I wasn't making fun of her. Her long fingers dancing across those buttons just made me laugh. The kind of fingers that could scratch your back real good, you know? But, when she'd take those fingers, brush her hair out of her eyes, and look outside to find the moon, I'd stop laughing real quick. She wasn't a joke to be laughed at. And I'd never want her to think that. Her sad eyes might hear my voice, misunderstand, and think me cruel. I wasn't cruel. I was just a boy.

This neighbor lady made me think of the time I caught my mom climbing a tree. I was afraid she might fall and hurt herself.

Two Feet.

I have kissed the mouth of a 35 mm queen.

Beneath the light of the silvery screen, we kissed like lovers of honey and light.

She played her reels for me, as we danced along the beach.

We talked about what we wanted to be when we grew feet.

I said, "I don't ever want to grow feet. I want to grow teeth"

She said, "That story has been told. You must be asleep. Wake up. All must grow feet."

I said, "Sweetheart, I don't sleep at the movies. You must be mistaken."

She said, "No, it was you, I remember the fire when the clowns came on stage."

Puzzled, I scratched at my head for answer. No recollection of the night in question.

Two clowns came to my house, asked me for some water.

I invited them in. They said the queen was their daughter.

I knew what they meant. They made words sound sweet.

So, I stood up and walked like a bear on two feet.

Cultural Imperialism.

From Milos Stehnlik at Facets:

"Over-simplified characters and cartoonish plot-resolution lead to an eye-for-an-eye philosophy where conflict is resolved by the gratuitous use of excessive force. In the tried and true good-guy versus bad-guy morality tales of American Westerns, good and evil may have been overt, but they were governed by a code of honor: may the guy with the surest aim and the fastest trigger win. Today, this code has been put on steroids. Conflict resolution plays out with entire buildings, planes, boats, cities or planets destroyed in battles to the death between good and evil characters.
Sweetheart deals gave Hollywood special access to European markets after World War II. Exporting American films overseas was part of the Marshall Plan that reconstructed post-war Europe. American films were viewed as a way to oppose Communism by promoting the “American way of life.” U.S. films were dumped at cut-rate prices onto war-torn Europe, whose film industries were in ruins, under the guise of promoting the “free market.”

This scheme gave American films world-wide dominance. Today, entertainment is America’s largest export, with sales higher than any other industry, accounting for over 60 billion dollars annually. English-language films account for about 65% of the worldwide box office gross."

And just think: Its ONLY entertainment folks, right? Hooray for Hollywood? I think its time we the artists and the audience raise our voice in challenge to a system that is corrupt at its core. Too long has this medium of cinema been misused and abused. And yet we continue to pay for the spreading of this cultural imperialism with our ticket stubs, and our popcorn, and our soda. We have been blinded by the light of the silvery screen.