Happy New year, and the politics of Superman

As a present to my computer, I have just scrubbed the keyboard clean, and cleaned the dried Moe’s taco sauce from between the E and R keys. I bootlegged what sounded like 33^rd Parallel off WWUH, a fairly cool college station down the road. 33^rd Parallel (or is it 43^rd?) is a very spacy, ambient, yoga type band. You can dance to them.

I used a salvaged cassette tape marked “Supertramp” that some kid made in the 80’s. Supertramp was an excruciating bubble-gum dingbat- band that all the Long Islanders at my college loved and played constantly. The lead singer was a total tranny and had the most annoying nasal voice. This and AC/DC’s “Back in Black” gave me migraines my freshman year. Drunken long island chicks singing Supertramp’s “dreamer” would send me into psychotic fits. Then again, they had to put up with my constant spins of Bob Dylan’s “Blood on the Tracks”. Especially the tune “Idiot wind”.

Taping over this was a pleasant moment indeed. The tape is even “high biased”.

Then the new WWUH DJ comes on and plays a modern 1988 symphony titled “Superman”. It won the Symphonie Fantastique award. I guess that’s in Paris. The last name of the writer is Dougherty.

It has a very urgent, paranoid, rushing theme. Booming drums, squealing violins, crashing bells, you can get the drift.

While I am not a symphony fan, and so am half listening to this as I write, I am thinking about the DJ’s most eloquently spoken prayers for the New Year to us all for hope, peace, and love in this “time of escalation“.

It’s strange, because it just doesn’t feel like we are at war here in CT, the state that grew rich from textiles, tobacco, And of course weapons manufacturing from every single war. It just feels like we are gliding along.

The DJ talked about the original 1950’s TV series which I loved as a kid. When everything was about to get really globally messed up, Superman would save us all. I loved some of the lesser episodes though when he would battle, say, the mafia, like Sam Giancana. That was pretty cool too. George Reeves was the second actor, and there was some speculation that he was murdered as opposed to commiting suicide. Allegedly, he jumped out a window, attempting to fly. Okaaay, Hmmm.

I wonder if Christopher Reeves was his son? Please help me out if you know the answer to this. I liked Chris Reeves, he was a cool guy. And kudos to his amazingly beautiful wife, who stood by him until the end.

So, yeah, we need Superman. I rapidly tired of President Obama’s headlined “outrage” about the recent Xmas holidays airline terrorist attempt. To me, the guy was just an incompetent terrorist. Superman did not grab the plane or anything, a bunch of guys tackled the stupid burning man, like the 2001 shoe-bomber, who tried to light a fuse on his Nikes.

Lookit, why bother to get on a plane and mix crazy chemicals in the plane’s bathroom when you could just blast one out of the sky from the ground with a S.A.M. ? Just climb up on your roof in Brooklyn… Some of these guys are just not too bright. Jeez, you could probably shoot one out your bathroom window.

But we Americans need to wake up again and help each other out a little more. But I don’t have to tell you this, right?

So what does any of this have to do with bike riding? Well, I’m working on the script for a new documentary, which incorporates war, the so-called “Green” movement, and it’s role in CT. If you have any ideas for cool stuff to film, send it in. I’m still in the index card phase, this will take awhile.

I have seen some downright hilarious inventions on the internet. My two favorites are:

A micro-windmill that you attach to your car’s roof to charge your cell phone.

Tapping the C02 gasses emitted from human breath (and methane from fart gasses as an apparent side bonus) at the John Lennon Airport in London. The C02 will run a generator….

I have been lent an amazing Sony digital camera for this task (I also acquired two analog types) , I just need to deal with a software issue for computer editing.

I always loved the sound Superman made when he flew. It always sounded like a jet engine Ker-whoosh (the “Ker” part was when he took a running bouncing leap to get going) .

You gotta give him credit for fuel efficiency, though. Except when Sam Giancana would lock him in a room with some Kryptonite. When Superman somehow broke free, six hours later, he always looked like he'd been at Happy Hour. This was the only time his brillcreemed hair would be messed up, but it always stayed neat when he flew.

I was so bummed when my big sister said “he’s not really flying, you idiot! They hang him in front of a big fan to get his cape flapping. Oh, and you think Batman really climbs up the wall with that rope? DUH!! They turn the camera sideways!!!

"Ok... dinners’ ready, Swanson’s TV dinners again tonight. No you can’t watch the Vietnam war on the news. Turn that damn thing off. MOM!!! Why can't I go to Scranton PA with John?"

Peace out.