In the hard line news world, supposedly Mondays are a slow news days, but in the online 24 hour news cycle, no day is a slow news anything. In this forum, I make it my business to keep it real. In fact that's real simple. Usually I have only about three to four items that make the cut each posting. Why you ask? Thanks for asking. Because the attention span of readers has reached a "blink" plateau in which they need to be informed in snippet seconds. It's the new a hit em and move on sneak attack of grabbing their attention. Personally, I enjoy a lengthy story or item but others can only deal with the about a paragraph, if that. So, our format addresses this situation with about 3 postings that gives it to you in nano versions. With all that said, here we go. Are you ready. Go...!!
Living in America: In the land of free and home of the brave, one of the wonderful attributes of being American comes from the fact that we can choose where to live. In that wonderful bonus also comes folks in the know, whom feel obliged to tell us about America's Most Livable Cities and those are so livable. Fortunately, I live in Little Rock, AR which was ranked according to the Forbes list as No. 15 most livable city. Arkansas' capitol city was cited for a 6% income growth rate (18 of 379) and a 5.4% unemployment rate (59 of 379.) According to the story all the info was filtered through metropolitan statistical areas--geographic entities defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget for use by federal agencies in collecting, tabulating and publishing federal statistics. We eliminated areas with populations smaller than 500,000 and assigned points to the remaining metro regions across five data sets: Five-year income growth per household and cost of living from Moody's Economy.com, crime data and leisure index from Sperling's Best Places, and annual unemployment statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Sounds like heady stuff doesn't it? But actually, it all boils down to the quality of life issues that either make a city or not. Also, this issue affects individuals in various aspects ranging from those seeking "family oriented" outlets to some in the GLBTQ community that size it up totally different. Nevertheless and believe it or not, Little Rock has much to offer on a wide range if you just access it. Do we have bath houses, gay leagues, circuit parties or other snazzy outlets that the mega cities have, well no. But we to utilize what outlets we do have, do our damnest to support those organizations that need us across the board and gosh dern it can we get more welcoming to visitors when they do come to town. Look em in the eye and say HELLO! It's so simple people and guess what, it's FREE to smile.
....And Then there was Bea!
Every time anot
her one of my favorite performers or personalities pass from the scene, I probe myself as to what was it about that person that delighted me or entertain me. On Saturday, Bea Arthur, Emmy Award winning comedienne and Actress who died at age 86 was one such person. Many moons ago when before IA ( Internet access), TV (television) reigned as king in my world. I've always been a self entertainer and found myself watching countless hours of it, especially the extremely witty and then controversial shows such as Maude, a spin off sitcom of All in the Family. The Characters were colorful people that I had as yet interacted with but found qu
irky and interesting. Especially the dynamics between title character, Maude Findley and her self assured domestic, Florida Evans played by Esther Rolle.(pictured)
her one of my favorite performers or personalities pass from the scene, I probe myself as to what was it about that person that delighted me or entertain me. On Saturday, Bea Arthur, Emmy Award winning comedienne and Actress who died at age 86 was one such person. Many moons ago when before IA ( Internet access), TV (television) reigned as king in my world. I've always been a self entertainer and found myself watching countless hours of it, especially the extremely witty and then controversial shows such as Maude, a spin off sitcom of All in the Family. The Characters were colorful people that I had as yet interacted with but found qu
irky and interesting. Especially the dynamics between title character, Maude Findley and her self assured domestic, Florida Evans played by Esther Rolle.(pictured)Ms. Rolle a tour-de-force actress in her own right, later starred in yet another groundbreaking spin off called Good Times which was more to the liking of others in the house. Yet, each week Bea Arthur's embodiment of that character offered me a not only great laughs but some edgy insights that I wasn't privy too in my own household. I loved her trademark shoot from the hip quip, "God's gonna get you for that..." I must say that although the show was not a crowd pleaser in my folks house, I usually trotted off to our second TV set to catch the show. During this heyday of 70's TV, many shows won viewers if they had a catchy opening theme. Maude filled the bill with music legend, Donny Hathaway singing the opening with it's memorable lyrics and snazzy music. It's become an pop icon unto itself. Ms. Arthur's career is so storied and filled with accomplishment that have been recapped by all the mainstream outlets including her later success on the Golden Girls that found a whole new audience and continues the laughter. Thanks, Bea for "being" apart of the soundtrack of my life while giving me something to really think about weekly. RIP. (photo credits: infinitepresent.livejournal.com / IMF sources)
No comments:
Post a Comment