Redneck Friend

"Plucked her eyebrows on the way. Shaved her legs and then he was a she. She said, hey babe, take a walk on the wild side." From "Walk on the Wild Side by Lou Reed.

An organization called Super Happy Fun America staged a "Straight Pride" march in Boston this past weekend. It was their rebuttal to the "Gay Pride" movement of the LGBTQ crowd. Members of Super Happy Fun America donned Stars and Stripes T-shirts, wore Make America Great Again baseball caps, and held flags with the slogan "It's Great to be Straight". I can't think of anything more comical and idiotic.

Since junior high school, I've lived in liberal college towns, or in the inner city of New York and Philly. Because of that, I tend to lean left of center. You're a product of your environment. I also had a sister who came out forty years go. It was a big deal back then. I was a little slow on gay marriage, but so was Barack Obama. Equal rights for everybody. Times have changed, and I'm much more accepting than I was in 1980. The Stonewall riots were in 1969. Fifty years ago. Super Happy Fun America and their ilk should be ignored. Unfortunately, it's difficult to do that in the times we live in.

Think globally, act locally. That's what they tell you to do. You'll never see more of a dichotomy than when I was standing in the checkout line at Wegman's, our regional grocery store. I was behind a guy with a Make America Great Again cap as he gave his cash to a transgender cashier. A microcosm of the culture clash.

"Well, I'm not dumb but I can't understand why she walked like a woman but talked like a man."

That line is from "Lola" by the Kinks from 1970. Yes, there was controversy about those lyrics a half century ago, but that's not why the BBC originally banned the song. The Kinks used "Coca-Cola" in the original lyrics, and the BBC had a policy against product placement. We now live in an era of, for and by the corporation. They used to say an artist "sold out" if they were involved with commerce. After Nike used The Beatles' "Revolution" for a TV commercial, all bets were off. The floodgates opened as the counterculture was now commodified.

The divide in the country, if not the entire industrialized world, makes me think of the old days when Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill would toss back a few after a long day at the office. It seemed more civil. Maybe it wasn't, it just seemed that way. I don't know. Mary Matalin married James Carville. Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski tied the knot. How can you forget Kellyanne Conway and her husband George? Not only very public relationships, but televised, too. Rock ribbed conservatives hitched to a partner much more left leaning.

Sometimes you have to take what you're given. Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh were both Nazi sympathizers. They believed in the extermination of blacks, Jews and gypsies. They're considered great Americans. At least that's what they taught me in school. Technologically, they were way ahead of the curve. Socially, they sided with Adolf Eichmann. Both were instrumental in the development of the aeronautical and automobile industries. I still drive and I still fly.

It's the same way in the arts. Some of the artists I enjoyed and respected growing up are alt-right at the most, Trump supporters at the least. James Woods, John Voight and Clint Eastwood come to mind. I still watch and appreciate their work, just don't agree with their politics. Just like John Travolta and Tom Cruise in the Scientology movement. Love their work, hate their religion, but I'm not going to miss a movie such as Pulp Fiction because one of the stars believes he's a descendant of Martians.

Clint Eastwood is the artist that's let me down the most, although as you get older, you learn not to get disappointed with people. It began when he had that rift with Obama at the 2012 Republican Convention with that soliloquy with the empty chair. He's since apologized for that, but it took me back. I'm not a starfucker, nor do I worship people (especially at my age), but I put Eastwood in a class with few others as far as creative output is concerned. It goes back to his Rawhide days. I recently watched the series on STARZ Encore Westerns along with Bat Masterson. They didn't disappoint.

Most actors pine for one big hit. Eastwood has many. His resumé spans 60 years from Rawhide to the Spaghetti Westerns to Dirty Harry to an enviable career in directing. In the directorial chair, he learned from the best. Sergio Leone from 'The Man with No Name' movies which included The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and Don Siegel of Dirty Harry fame. Taught, well crafted movies that influenced Eastwood. Influenced a generation for that matter. You don't make films such as American Sniper and Million Dollar Baby by accident. Clint's even been venerated in song. Back in 2001 Gorillaz did "Clint Eastwood", and going back to 1980, Adam and the Ants performed "Los Rancheros" off their album Kings of the Wild Frontier.

Although we live in a divided country, both culturally and economically, we're still Americans...for now. It's time to start rowing the boat in the same direction. Clint Eastwood has a new movie recently released on HBO, The Mule, which received good reviews. I think I'll watch it this week.