Wednesday 12 August 2015

Summer Respite



Today we live in a world where all but the most authentic of people unfortunately 'act' their way through everyday life, where Shakespeare's "world as a stage" has become ever more hyper-real, because of the detrimental influence of merged worlds: of 'idiot's TV', social media 'trolling' and  "hipster-consu[meme]rism".

Inside a frenetic world of layered visual and aural semiotics, programming much of humanity's own mass and personal consciousness, time must be made to metaphorically 'buzz-off' for much needed rest and recuperation.

Feed the pigeons, ducks and swans, stroke a dog or cat, look up to the sky and into the trees. Take precious moments for oneself, and stop adhering to the ridiculous, often meaningless, socialised diktats of modern life.

Envisage what was truly a slower time: the era of 'Drive-In' movie theaters on the outer fringes of suburbs, from Cherry Hill, New Jersey to Blacktown, New South Wales; and in a reversal of the idiom: the laden "magic-lantern" trucks of the mobile village cinemas, across India and beyond.

A time when the (silver) screen - Hollywood to Bollywood - relayed moral tales of respect and righteousness, honour and decency.

So for just a short while, stop, stare and muse at what might be termed the 'B-movie', 'flip-side' of life ...

...Thankfully still available 'off-line'.