{"id":7891,"date":"2010-09-07T13:27:10","date_gmt":"2010-09-07T17:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=7891"},"modified":"2010-09-07T13:27:10","modified_gmt":"2010-09-07T17:27:10","slug":"the-thud-of-adult-cool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2010\/09\/the-thud-of-adult-cool\/","title":{"rendered":"The “Thud” of Adult Cool"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Once, when I was teaching, I had this fabulous idea for a series of lessons. I just knew it would be a hit with the kids. I just knew I’d love teaching it. It would dazzle my peers. And quite possibly I’d get written up in the local paper — in a, y’know,\u00a0good<\/em> way. I could even imagine the headline: Local Teacher “Rocks” Poetry.<\/em><\/p>\n

Yes. I cringe with you.<\/p>\n

Especially do I cringe in memory of some of my selections. This was the mid-1970s, for gods’ sake. It’s not like there wasn’t any, y’know, actual rock<\/em> music to choose from. So what did I think would happen when I played for my high-school juniors and seniors the Kingston Trio, performing “MTA”? If you don’t \u00a0know the song, its lyrics, in part, go like this (and by the way, “MTA” is an acronym for Metropolitan Transit Authority<\/em>):<\/p>\n

Let me tell you the story
\nOf a man named Charlie
\nOn a tragic and fateful day
\nHe put ten cents in his pocket,
\nKissed his wife and family
\nWent to ride on the MTA<\/p>\n

Charlie handed in his dime
\nAt the Kendall Square Station
\nAnd he changed for Jamaica Plain
\nWhen he got there the conductor told him,
\n“One more nickel.”
\nCharlie could not get off that train.<\/p>\n

Chorus:<\/em>
\nDid he ever return,
\nNo he never returned
\nAnd his fate is still unlearn’d
\nHe may ride forever
\n‘neath the streets of Boston
\nHe’s the man who never returned.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Charlie’s wife goes down
\nTo the Scollay Square station
\nEvery day at quarter past two
\nAnd through the open window
\nShe hands Charlie a sandwich
\nAs the train comes rumblin’ through.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes: a socially-conscious folk song<\/em>, accompanied by banjos<\/em>, about a long-forgotten political issue<\/em> in Boston<\/em>, of a nickel increase<\/em> in subway\/train fares… in a well-to-do suburb in New Jersey with absolutely no subway\/train service of its own.<\/p>\n

When it finished playing through, I lifted the needle from the turntable (!) and said something like, “So…” (I had no idea what to say.) “…What’d you think?”<\/p>\n

The quick-thinking football player a couple rows back, sprawled carelessly at his desk, growled:\u00a0I thought it sucked<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I couldn’t help it; I burst out laughing. “What… sucked<\/em> about it?”<\/p>\n

Football Player: Why’d she hand him a sandwich? Why’n’t<\/em> she just hand him some more money?<\/em><\/p>\n

And thus ended that<\/em> lesson.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I was thinking of this moment when I read, just recently, of a little experiment by the Disney folks. They call it Blam!<\/em> The simple and very, deeply dumb concept — and I like thinking of this as a series of PowerPoint slides at a marketing presentation:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Re-issue classic Disney cartoons and show them on cable TV’s Disney Channel.<\/li>\n
  2. …but first, “improve” the existing product by adding Funny Comments and Silly Music to the soundtrack, and special-effect overlays to the visuals.<\/li>\n
  3. […]<\/li>\n
  4. Profit!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Here’s the\u00a0Blam!<\/em>med version of a cartoon in which Donald Duck bakes a cake, or tries to:<\/p>\n

    <\/param><\/param><\/param><\/object><\/p>\n

    Inevitably, some wag — maybe that old Football Player, or a descendant — has worked up a parody of the idea. Here’s the Blam!<\/em>ized version of the recent Pixar classic, Up<\/em>:<\/p>\n

    <\/object><\/p>\n

    I burst out laughing at this, too. (But I’m not trying to be cool.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Once, when I was teaching, I had this fabulous idea for a series of lessons. I just knew it would be a hit with the kids. I just knew I’d love teaching it. It would dazzle my peers. And quite possibly I’d get written up in the local paper — in a, y’know,\u00a0good way. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[38,94,13,53,274,37],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7891","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-backwards","7":"category-02_in-the-news","8":"category-05_media","9":"category-movies-media","10":"category-cartoons","11":"category-onlineworld","12":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-23h","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7891\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}