Born on the Fourth of July

If you've read the description, you get that this is going to be an eclectic blog--I'm a Gemini, and I'm interested in everything except most of contemporary American popular culture (although I should say I'm interested enough in it to deplore it). Maybe that's why I'm so late to start a blog. It won't, I hope, just be a mish-mash of stuff that no one finds interesting. My own interests are quite specific, and once I've decided I like something, I can really get passionate about it.

Take, for example, my EastEnders fixation. I'm an American, so I don't get it four times a week the way people living in the UK do. In order to get my fix, I have to watch it on my local public TV station, KBDI-12 (Denver). In order for them to keep airing it (2 episodes per week only, not the four seen in Britain), I have to, from time to time, donate to the station (anyone reading this outside of the US: there is very little support for public television from the government, and what there is of it has recently been hijacked by the right wing). A few weeks ago KBDI had a pledge drive, and so I gave them $100. As a thank you gift, they sent me a copy of EastEnders: 20 Years in Albert Square. It arrived Friday, and by Saturday night I had read the whole thing cover-to-cover.

This fixation is despite the fact that the EE episodes KBDI is currently showing are six years old (UK readers: Matthew hasn't gone on trial yet, the Slaters are only a thought in the back of some producer's brain, and Grant still hasn't taken Courtney to Rio). Of course, I know who the Slaters are--EE was on BBC America until about 16 months ago when they yanked it for low ratings. Eventually, KBDI's episodes will get caught up to the point where I started watching EE on BBC America, and so I'll get to watch them all over again--watch Ethel's assisted suicide, Jim's marriage proposal to Dot, Barry's brutal treatment of Pat after Roy's death, etc. (Denver readers: I'm sorry for the spoilers). And yes, I know about Dish Network's pay-per-view, but I'll stick with cable for now.

Another example of my devotion to things that I really, really like: I'm one of those people who often re-read Lord of the Rings. You, if you had known me in the 1970s when I was in what was then generally called "Junior High," but now is called "Middle School," would have seen me reading one of the three volumes every day of the week during the lunch period. Every day. For three years. I had an English teacher (Jerry Hedges, South High School, Denver) who wisely talked to me about that particular habit, and from then on I didn't read LoTR for several years--once in the 1980s only. In the late 1990s, with Peter Jackson's film announced and produced, I started reading LoTR again, but I limit myself to once per year (usually in the late winter, when I tend to get a bit anxious about life).

But this isn't going to be just a narcissistic blog--I'm very concerned about the state of the world, and will regularly be spouting off about the people running Washington, and on the homegrown idiots here in Colorado. We have quite a few, from the single-issue Congressman who wants to send Mexicans back to Mexico, to the deer-in-the-headlights governor, who, thankfully, will soon be term-limited out of office (it could be worse, I suppose--at least he's not a movie star).

And I'm passionate about history. My co-worker Jeffrey originally gave me the notion that I should do a Denver blog. Whenever I'm with someone in a car, or walking down a downtown sidewalk, I have this irritating habit of saying things like "this building used to be a JC Penney, from the 1930s to about 1945, when they moved two blocks up the street, and that California Street Penney's closed in 1982 when they built the Sixteenth Street Mall" (Denver readers: the building in question is at 16th & Champa, the building with Floyd's Barbershop). But my history postings, if there are any, won't be just about Denver's past. I majored in History and English Literature in college (University of Colorado at Denver, 1999--I was a "non-traditional" student, in my 30s at the time).

The power of corporations will also be a theme of this blog, I think. Last year I was part of a local group that was one of several that worked to stop Wal-Mart from opening one of their "Neighborhood Grocery" stores in my part of Denver (West Highlands--the store would have been built on the site of the old Elitch Gardens parking lot, at 38th and Wolff). Wal-Mart pulled out after about five months of angry public meetings, a flock of yellow "Stop Elitch Wal-Mart" yard signs, and lots of phone calls and petitions. But it's hardly just Wal-Mart. They may be the biggest, but there are lots of corporations that are hurting our world more than they're helping it.

My motivation is to hear from others, to find out if I'm just a cantankerous grump or if I'm onto something. One thing to know about me, however: I try to see both sides of issues. I think a lot of fellow liberals fail when they refuse to listen to what conservatives have to say (and vice versa, of course). You don't have to change your beliefs when you listen to them--but you owe them (and they owe you) the decency of a hearing. Dialogue will accomplish a lot in our world if we'd only let it. When I was younger I tended to be more strident in my beliefs--but now I recognize that we all inhabit the same planet.