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Friday, September 23, 2016

SLOW DOWN.. YER MOVIN' TOO FAST


September 23, 2016

I heard that in England, if a car is stalled on the highway, blocking traffic, people who are behind the stalled vehicle simply stop, all lanes blocked briefly as others get out of their cars and push the stalled car to the side of the road.  This informs my daily journal, seeing a car headed south on the 101 near the Cahuenga Pass approaching Hollywood.  Traffic is slow by nature at this time of day, but the poor guy in the center lane will be stuck there until the AAA or one of those free trucks can come and help.  The point is that if in the next ten years we taught kids and others who are driving or will be driving to just slow down and slowly block the entire road, get out.. push the stalled car off the freeway which could take only a couple of minutes, then we get back in our cars and away we go.. that might be an idea.

There are many who will naysay this idea and they are right, of course.  Why should we take care of one another?  Why should we risk an accident? Put life and limb on the line?  Or, if in another time, why not? If we all agree that it might be an idea that would save literally millions of dollars in lost time and gas and hours on the therapist's couch, then, we train the driving populace to take a minute to render aid and get the freeway moving properly again.   Of course, this is not an over night fix.  But, with education and the willingness to be responsible for our entire society, if it works for the Brits, it could work for us. It's just an idea. 

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The Academy presented a long and boring Student Academy Awards last night.  I was so looking forward to seeing at least a couple of the Gold Medal winners.  Instead, there were momentary clips of the three finalists in each of a handful of categories with lengthy speeches by not only the Gold Medal winners but the Silver and Bronze as well.  "I'd like to thank the Academy..." is limited in the annual big time Oscars Awards to about 45 seconds. One student director went blathering on for seven minutes (I timed him) with a heart felt ramble that, at times, made no sense whatsoever.

I'd expected to be entertained.  The best moment may have been in the line waiting to enter The Academy when a rather self important looking guy in his fifties with long steel gray hair was confronted by a small scary woman carrying a bag (was she a Beverly Hills Bag Lady?) who was vocally upset that she felt that this man had cut in front of her in the line!  Ignoring the dust up was difficult.  Turns out that the man was German and may not have spoken English at all. By the cut of his jacket and demeanor he may have felt that he should have been able to get in the Sam Goldwyn Theater ahead of others because he was connected to a winning filmmaker!  Privilege! The Bag Lady was bristling and the poor Academy security guy, Brendan or Brandon? who was charming and efficient really had his hands full herding the long line of attendees who had failed to make up much of a line at all! 

Richard Stermer, the man who oversees the entire evening was, as always, friendly and busy.  In fact, the entire staff at the Academy is so well trained that even in tense situations like the German and the Bag Lady, all goes very smoothly as we are frisked and wanded and sent into the hallowed halls.  The written speeches for the presenters and for Academy President, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, were cordial and welcoming and stiff.  Reading a teleprompter is difficult and those speeches never sound really sincere to me.  Presenter, Parker Sawyers, had to have the teleprompter screens moved up a foot to accommodate his height. His ad libs were a highlight of the long program. He recently starred in Southside With You as Barack Obama.

I've learned that the powers that be are not much interested in hearing suggestions for improving anything. However, common sense would, at least, require the winners of these awards to limit their thank you speeches to a reasonable time and to have the folks at the console flash a light or even have music play as they do at the Big Boy Oscars to signal the winner that his/her time is up.  If the awards are about the movies, then, figure out a way to include the screening of the Gold Medal winning films as they have done in the past during the presentations instead of at the late, late hour. 

It was well after 9:30 (two hours of thank you speeches by seventeen winners!!) when the screenings started and they started with the longest film first!  Oh well.  The film makers had a ball! 
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The Brand Associates Works on Paper 44 opens at the Brand Galleries in Glendale tomorrow at 7PM.  I don't have a piece in this show, but am looking forward to see what Laddie John Dill chose to include. He's a local artist who embraces conceptual artwork. 

September 23. 2016
michaelsheehan


2 comments:

  1. I experienced something wonderful once while on the freeway. I was in the right most lane of a four lane freeway when I became aware of myself slowing my speed. It was very gradual so I didn't notice right away because the other cars in the middle and two left lanes were also slowing at about the same measure. Everyone was going slower and slower. Since I was in the most right lane I had an advantage of looking left to see all the cars going at this slower pace without causing myself concern. I looked at the drivers one at a time but stopped when I saw the woman/girl in the vehicle in the middle lane immediately to my left. She had either passed out or fallen asleep as her head was lowered but her hands were still on the wheel. My memory is sketchy after this. Someone was out of their car knocking on her driver side window and when she was alerted her car started to gain speed as did all the others. It felt as though a greater force was in play here for reasons that were not meant for me to know so although I remember most of the incident vividly, I never wanted to know anything beyond the experience.

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  2. Wow, good post and long. Is it a record???

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