i just woke up. is the kennedy assassination over again yet? i cannot imagine how all these tv networks, radio shows, news sites, etc. possibly do what they do. really, every single one put someone on the air to just say the same ritual sentences. every piece had the same shape. 'everyone remembers where they were' is the first sentence and then it goes on through the same snatches of tape, the same super-blown-up hyperbolic contentless cliches. the editor who assigns that, year after year, who assigns you to say precisely the same words in the same order as everyone else, really has got no business in this business. i heard that same piece two dozen times even though i tried like hell to avoid it. every time it came on, i screamed and turned the channel; still i got the whole thing many times. it is sheer cult of political leadership, focused on an absurd object. i'm beginnning to wish that everyone who was covering it back then etc was dead, so we wouldn't have to listen once again to their dramatically re-shaped repetitive accounts. or wishing them dead is a little harsh. i wish them alzheimer's and the blessing, to all of us, of forgetting where they were.
no one can forget where they were when they heard the rigidly conventionalized narrative delivered again for the 8 billionth time.
it becomes a little unclear, if you ask me, whether we are mourning kennedy's death, or rather being really, really into it, celebrating it. we can't watch that assassination enough, can we? it's addictive, like that last robin thicke video. frame by frame through the zapruder film: i think the fundamental motivation is that we really find the killing of jfk very fun and entertaining. how are the ratings? i bet we can get a couple of more movies and tv specials out of it, which seems incredible. still, i don't think that bullet to the skull has been exhaustively monetized. i want spiellberg, daniel day-lewis, doris kearns-goodwin, and tony kushner on it. we can start with a scene of spielberg licking lewis-as-kennedy's toes, move on through daniel day-lewis's crucifixion and resurrection, and from there to oscar glory. you might think that daniel day-lewis doesn't look much like kennedy, but with dap-brand spackle(tm), anything is possible. if he does that voice from lincoln again, though, we're going to have to assassinate him harder this time.
i was five, and who could forget that moment? when i heard, or rather saw, that kennedy was dead, i was on the grassy knoll, fumbling to re-load. i missed that dickwad john connally, though. well, i was only five! i blame montessori education. still, that moment where i didn't even wing connally was the moment i lost my innocence, my naive idealism, my self-confidence as a young nation.
