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windsorblue at 01:12am on 26/06/2009
windsorblue at 01:12am on 26/06/2009Slow news day, eh? Oi.
lavenderfrost linked to this article at the Washington Post, which - like most columns about my generation - gets it a little bit right and a little bit wrong. This quote really pinged me, for some reason:
"This," he said, "is the moment when Generation X realizes they're grown up."
Well, no. Not exactly. This is the moment Generation X realizes we're (a) mortal, and (b) probably not going to die in a nuclear holocaust after all. No, we're just as likely to go from disease, old age, and other natural causes as our grandparents and parents. Not to be flippant, but this particular Gen X-er realized she was grown up when her kid started to love a completely different Star Wars than the one she loved at his age, and gets monthly affirmations of her adulthood in the form of her mortgage payment and her ever-shrinking retirement account.
I remember being desperately, horribly jealous of Farrah as a kid, in the way that only a gawky, clumsy adolescent girl with body image issues and completely convinced of her own ugliness could be. And then I was impressed by her after The Burning Bed, and continue to be impressed with how her performance was a turning point in the discussion of spousal abuse and marital rape in this country. I have to say I find her death the sadder of the two, because of how much she's suffered through the last few years, and because the word 'cancer' still pings me harder than almost any other. It was hard enough for my dad to lose what was left of his hair to chemo - I can't imagine losing hair that had all but made your career.
As for Michael Jackson, well...somewhere around here I think I have a copy of "Thriller" on vinyl, and I remember making my parents watch the video premiere on MTV with me. I never thought of myself as a huge fan, but I thought his videos were interesting. I was one of the few people I knew at Disneyland who didn't see him there. I saw his entourage a few times - he went through the Park regularly when I worked there, usually surrounded by at least three Tour Guides, five Park Security guards, another five personal security guards, and various other hangers-on. You could tell when he was in the Park because everyone from management to guests would be talking about it. I did, however, work two shifts during the 36-hour party for the premiere of Captain EO. The red rodent-looking creature with the butterfly wings and the long tail - we had plush versions of him, and one of my managers made us all walk around the store with the damn things sitting on our shoulders the way it does in the film...which led to several rather uncharitable thoughts on my part about Captain EO, 36-hour premiere parties, and Disneyland management, in that order.
Neither one of them had a particularly easy time of it recently, and I hope they're both at peace now.
lavenderfrost linked to this article at the Washington Post, which - like most columns about my generation - gets it a little bit right and a little bit wrong. This quote really pinged me, for some reason:"This," he said, "is the moment when Generation X realizes they're grown up."
Well, no. Not exactly. This is the moment Generation X realizes we're (a) mortal, and (b) probably not going to die in a nuclear holocaust after all. No, we're just as likely to go from disease, old age, and other natural causes as our grandparents and parents. Not to be flippant, but this particular Gen X-er realized she was grown up when her kid started to love a completely different Star Wars than the one she loved at his age, and gets monthly affirmations of her adulthood in the form of her mortgage payment and her ever-shrinking retirement account.
I remember being desperately, horribly jealous of Farrah as a kid, in the way that only a gawky, clumsy adolescent girl with body image issues and completely convinced of her own ugliness could be. And then I was impressed by her after The Burning Bed, and continue to be impressed with how her performance was a turning point in the discussion of spousal abuse and marital rape in this country. I have to say I find her death the sadder of the two, because of how much she's suffered through the last few years, and because the word 'cancer' still pings me harder than almost any other. It was hard enough for my dad to lose what was left of his hair to chemo - I can't imagine losing hair that had all but made your career.
As for Michael Jackson, well...somewhere around here I think I have a copy of "Thriller" on vinyl, and I remember making my parents watch the video premiere on MTV with me. I never thought of myself as a huge fan, but I thought his videos were interesting. I was one of the few people I knew at Disneyland who didn't see him there. I saw his entourage a few times - he went through the Park regularly when I worked there, usually surrounded by at least three Tour Guides, five Park Security guards, another five personal security guards, and various other hangers-on. You could tell when he was in the Park because everyone from management to guests would be talking about it. I did, however, work two shifts during the 36-hour party for the premiere of Captain EO. The red rodent-looking creature with the butterfly wings and the long tail - we had plush versions of him, and one of my managers made us all walk around the store with the damn things sitting on our shoulders the way it does in the film...which led to several rather uncharitable thoughts on my part about Captain EO, 36-hour premiere parties, and Disneyland management, in that order.
Neither one of them had a particularly easy time of it recently, and I hope they're both at peace now.