I’ve been derelict in my duties and haven’t been at the Rush Rush for a while and I’m delighted to report that they haven’t missed me a bit and all is well. But at long last here I am – here at last – here at last! And still the joint is jumping I don’t know why that should surprise me when a guy like So is running the place. When I came in I was treated like the long lost son arriving home from a long trip abroad to warm his soul at the family hearth. And it’s not just me, everyone gets this treatment. Once So greeted me I sauntered up to the counter but didn’t have to place an order as Cool and Lady S had it waiting for me and treated me as if I had never been gone. And all I could do was to smile.

During my exile I spent too many evening in front of the tube and can that be troubling! All these years have past since Marshal McLuhan pronounced that the “medium is the message” in this “global village” and there I was growing potatoes on the couch. I think that I get something like 200 channels and still I couldn’t find any thing that truly engaged me. Maybe every third day or so my eye would catch something to watch but generally it was something I could do without. And then there is the news – lots and lots and lots of news. But its entertainment news and today you choose a news channel that gives you the news with an opinion that you can agree with and forget that other stuff like getting just the news. I just wish that they would let each other finish their statement and not be so loudly belligerent when bewailing the state of our culture and or nation. I’ve missed the Rush Rush and its ambience. Why so many of us would rather sit at home with the tube when there is such a wealth of people out and about in places like the Rush Rush or the FEW. In fact it was at the FEW last evening that I saw one of the incongruous gatherings that bring a small smile to the soul. There they were again, this Christian bible studying knitting group assembled at the FEW for several hours in the evening while sitting under posters and paintings of Hindu gods. For this independent minded Westerner scenes such as this make my day. I get a funny feeling that few in that group spend their evenings paying homage to the one eyed monster, HDTV or no HD. But would Mr. McLuhan have to say about this day of modern wonders with cell phones, phone apps, laptops, WiFi, portable readers, text messaging, e-mails and more. Do you want to communicate with someone anywhere in the world, it can be done and almost instantaneously. I started working with computers around 1985 and jumped on the PC revolutions as soon as I could but while I spoke about the revolution I had no idea of its expanse or multinational cultural impact. And yet we don’t seem to have much to say, well except for blowhards like myself. But what’s most interesting for me about all of this is the concept that often with more of this communication via such media the more we can become isolated, in particular with those around us. He felt that it al might have started with the Gutenberg press. Information was brought to the common man but so was the need for isolated moments in order to read this information. Every unanswered e-mail or fbook post only reminds me of such isolation. So what can be done with this conundrum of so many ways to communicate with such little knowledge of what to say? And then I have to ask what have we been doing since 1967 when The Medium is the Massage
written? Watching TV? Let’s celebrate these wondrous devices and use them while developing true dialogues rather than letting just the use of the method or device be the message or the massage.

And how do we do this you might ask? Welllll! How about the Rush Rush or a similar shop? And if you don’t have one near you remember what Scoop Nisker closed his show with – “If you don’t like the news go out and make some of your own!”

Gump’s Brother

This entry was posted on Friday, January 15th, 2010 at 11:15 pm and is filed under 2010, Information, Januarry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.