The most far-flung part of NewsCorps empire

No news, it turns out, is good.  Things have a way of still creeping in.  There are headlines on the newsstands, there are people who may mention this or that… there are many friends who have tried to tell me that ridiculous things have happened like pot was legalized and the nation’s debt solved, or the nation’s debt solved by legalizing and then taxing pot.  There have been reports on the comedy shows that Fox said this or that, but otherwise, living as the vast majority of Americans life has not changed much about my daily life nor my impact on my surroundings.  The infotainment industry goes on, perhaps the war in Libya, perhaps more soldiers have been killed in The Iraq or a wedding party bombed by a drone flown by a pilot who is right now stuck in traffic outside of Flagstaff, AZ and he or she is late to bomb another gathering of goat herders and their wrenched flock of starving children, women, and goats (not in the order of importance to said fictitious goat herders).

There have been times of great weakness.  When the DOW went down, word was out on the Clusterfuck blog comments, it is true that I sneaked a peek using the built-in app on my iThingy and saw that the “market” did indeed fall, only to rise again… and then fall… and then rise, more like the erratic member of a  French finance minister and less like an indication of the work and value of the collective endeavor of human economic activity and value.  It was tempting to see what this would do to the interest rates.  I almost looked at the Times – the link to the website pops up every time I type “www…” since google reads more than my email, but wants to read my mind. 

Published NYT Poet Sells Work

However, I have maintained my news sobriety.  There was a moment a day or so ago that I was in my car watching a super cell come blowing over the New York skyline, a green and black front of clouds and in a moment the storm was upon me, and my car shook back and forth and I wondered if this was not a front of twisters and that all of the East River would be funneled up and dumped on top of me….  I turned on the radio to 1010 WINS, a repetitive station of infotainment that has a soundtrack of a teletype in the background, as if anyone alive today remembers what a teletype is.  I wondered if a warning was issued by the guberment, if private industry was warning the general public and taking the role of civil defense, trash cans blew down the street, the roadsigns bent and twisted in the wind, my car shook back and forth as if was about to lift up and roll over.  “This is the Accuweather™ forecast for the Tristate region (chaka-chaka-chaka-chaka-chak).  Chance of strong thunderstorms with potential for heavy rain.  Currently 75 degrees and winds variable from the south west at 7 miles per hour.  This is K – with Accuweather™ forecast at ten, sixteen, blah, and blah blah blah past the hour.”  Oh great.  They’re pumping  news through the Interwebs from India again because my fucking Accuweather looks like a Bruckheimer film.  This front, the lightening hitting the power plant, the dark black and green clouds… this didn’t look real and perhaps it wasn’t seeing how when I turned to the “news” to learn some actual shit to inform my Motherloving life the infortainment delivered trivia.   If the radio, TeeVee, Interwebs, and print media can’t even tell me about the storm I’m in, how can it be expected to inform me about the true actions of the guberment’s wars, or the real forces behind the “market” “fulgurations.” (Gebus Spice, I’m wearing out the print on my “ “ “ key.)

I am almost a month news free.  I still read a few blogs, but have also cut back.  I have read some books (the paper thingys with the ink stuff).  Mostly fiction.  For reasons unknown to me I have embarked on re-reading Death on the Installment Plan.  A little light reading for the remainder of the summer as we journey to the edge of the heating degree days and once again scurry about burning up our oil supplies in an attempt to maintain our native African savanna environment our furless selves require.  I have wondered what to do to reintroduce myself into the world of media again. 

Clear Channel Uses Homeless As Media

Should I start by reading Hitchens (or people  like him) again?  Should I read only front pages of newspapers and the first paragraph of websites?  Does it matter?  Should I be another blogger who spews words about some dump I took while on vacation, how my kids Zoe and Cloe and Dante are doing in school, or posting pictures of my cat in, then out, then back in various things a cat can get in and out of?  I could become a true Ranty-Mc-Rantrant.  Go offline for good.  Maybe I’ll start yelling at kids who knock their wiffleball into my yard.  I’ll wear a greasy spousebeater and no longer lace my shoes.  I’ll grow [more] hair out of my ears and cultivate proper nose-hair.  “You know what’s wrong with the world?  I’ll tell you what’s wrong!  Mr. Sniffles won’t use the litter box correctly!  That’s what’s wrong!  Total drapery ingots, you know what I mean?”

What does the current media offer?  Should we just get newsfeeds from the sources we “trust” or agree with or can use to “decide”?  Is there another format in which we can get information that assists with something other than material for dinner table fights and a smug sense of superiority that comes with spending Sunday morning with the NYT and going to the Style section first and working one’s way from there to the front pages so that along with the latest review of Somebullshit we also know that another victory was won for Oceania and that such-and-such people while conforming to every commercial consumer product that everyone else is buying, still has a culture with a rich history of music, dance, and food?  Can we look out the window, see the world headed right for us, and tune into another source that positions us on the map, lets us know what is outside our personal lived experience, and connects us to those we may never know in person.

Another storm is forecasted for this evening.  My iThingy has a weather app, but Apple has disabled my AppleID™ and I need to again reset my password.  Also, I have updated my iThingy iOS but it only talks to iTuning 10.1.1 or “X” or whatever.  Now I need to update my entire iOS – thus having to replace all my softwear – to allow iTuning 10.1.1 to run and talk to my iThingy.  With an unstable connection, my iThingy won’t update with the network or run any apps.  It barely works as a phone…  So, I am looking for the weather and it has timed out several times.  “Update failed,” it tells me.  The Interweb connection where I am has a broken IP.  Maybe I’ll try looking out the window.  Hmmmm…. Looks cloudy.  Feels warm and I can feel the humidity.  Lookin’ like it’tl be a hot won.  Maybe even a storm latr’.  Maybe I don’t need to know more than that.  Like world events, economy, Peakeverything™, and the weather… there’s not a damn thing I can do about it.