Via Brian, who quotes from a David Bordwell blog post, Barthes-an reflections. As Brian quotes The Pleasure of the Text: Make no apologies. Make no apologies for allowing memories mixed with encounters, popular culture, fiction, narrative to motivate your understanding of identity.

Whatever called out to you when your window opened.

If any medium allows for periodic openings of the metaphoric childhood window, it is the blog. Why should one apologize for using the blog to remember?

Whatever called out to you when your window opened is likely to retain its bright purity throughout your days.

Cracked magazine. A stack. An enormous stack. Maybe 100. For some reason, I take them with me to summer camp. They are all stolen. No one knows who took them. I’m devastated. For some reason, one issue, whose cover sports a spoof on M*A*S*H, still sticks in my head today. Where is that cover now? I can still see the exaggerated drawing of Hawkeye and BJ working at an operating room. Two thoughts stick with me. M*A*S*H, was on the air then. We could watch new episodes every week. A second thought: No one realizes the magazines are stolen. It’s as if the crime never happened. But it did. Two moments quickly forgotten. A TV show. A stack of magazines.

Keith Richards’ earring. We are motivated by celebrity. TV. Music. Films. All are mirrors reflecting what we want to be or look like. McLuhan said that with TV, the viewer becomes the screen. An earring motivated me at 13 to have my own ear pierced. My mother, never blinking at my request to be driven to the nearest strip mall, took me to have it done. My son is getting his ear pierced. What could she have thought about my request as she drove me, waited for me, and drove me home? My son has an earring. What is shocking: that she wasn’t the least bit shocked. What is more shocking? Today, a 13 year old with an earring shocks me.

Batman. In Oklahoma, my uncle had cable. The only show I remember watching was Batman at six in the morning. Is this true? Was Batman on at six in the morning? Was syndication of a show only seven or so years old showcased before anyone was awake? Was syndication a mystery to early cable? When do we show Batman? When everyone is sleeping. Even to a five year old, Batman was campy. How would I have defined camp then? Bright colors. Swirls. Pow. Kabang.