Giggling like a schoolgirl while cleaning brushes

I was waiting for a slow news week to post this. I wanted to write about humble and silent heroes that make our lives better. There are so few, and yet they are so important. I wonder why we take them so often for granted. Well, I wanted this to be a tribute to those unsung heroes that changed our lives just by reminding us to smell the flowers, even though we always find ways to forget it. That special brand of people that lives for the little things that life brings us. The little things that get us to appreciate life, the only path to true happiness. Silent heroes seem to relish in them while we just watch with one eye, find it cute, and quickly move on.

People around me, including my loved ones, don't know this...but I loved to watch The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross, on PBS, late 80's and early 90's (see video for a taste of the show).

I just loved watching Bob Ross paint. I was a teenager at the time, a sort of hard-nose rocker that found trouble easily. I don't know why I enjoyed it . It's very ironic because I don't even paint. I never was attracted to painting or drawing. Even my stickmen look awful! But there was something soothing and reassuring about Bob Ross in general. You know the "everything's gonna be alright" feeling. He lived for the little things and he surely appreciated life. It showed...as I secretly watched.

But you know, sometimes public figures on television are very different in really life. Sometimes they are quite the opposite of what they represent on T.V. Take O.J. Simpson, for example. As an American football fan, I just loved to watch him every Sunday as a broadcaster. He just sounded like a very sweet guy. We surely had another thing coming...

So, at one point, after the O.J. incident, before Bob Ross passed away in 1995 (at the age of 52), I wondered if Bob Ross could be a different person in real life than the soft spoken painter on T.V. I even imagined the worst scenarios: he would stop his show right in the middle, take a canvas and smash it on his head and scream at the top of his lungs "Fuck this shit...I'm gonna drive to California and drop acid. So long, fuckos!!"

But it never happened. Instead, he would simply giggle like a schoolgirl every time he cleaned his brush (see video...the "cleaning brushes festival" starts at 0:09).

And when he said "Maybe we'll get a little crazy today"...geez, the word "crazy" had a different meaning for me. For me it was partying. For him it was trying to paint something different. But, even then, I was totally digging his message.

And how about that: a white boy wearing an afro...In some parts of American cities, he could have been beaten up just for that reason. Hey! You have to respect the dude! That guy had to be the major dude! And not only he had cool hair, the guy acted cool too. He was soft spoken. Never raised his voice. He's been often compared to Mr. Rogers from Mr. Rogers' neighbourhood. In so many ways, his T.V. show was the adult version of Mr. Rogers' neighbourhood. Every week, he would take us on a new adventure. And even for adults, the adventure was magical.

I always pictured Bob Ross as a Vermonter. Can't you picture him making his own bread, drinking herbal tea, spying birds? Well the guy was born in Daytona Beach, Florida, and was raised in Orlando.  But I was stunned...no, not enough strong of a word here...I was floored when I learned that Bob Ross was enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and at some point was transferred to an Air Force base in Alaska. Ok. Maybe not Vermont...but Alaska is starting to make more sense.

I don't picture him for a second being a military. He doesn't look like a tough guy. But hey! It's just to say that you don't really know a man until you walk a mile in his shoes. In his case, his military boots. He had to do what he had to do at that period of his life. But that was surely not the true nature of our soft spoken white dude hippie with an afro. I'm pretty sure the first time he held a paint brush, he just knew that he had to leave the Air Force.

Of course, when you become such a public figure, people will start to imitate you or make fun of you (see the following two videos):

I'm sure he would have the sense of humor to appreciate such attention. In any case, one of his famous quotes was "There are no mistakes in your world. We don't make mistakes, we just have happy little accidents". He would say it very often on his show, sometimes with different words. I'm pretty sure he believed in that. If not, he fooled me...and he got me to believe in that too.

So any time I paint my home walls (I can't draw or paint a picture...but, I can apply paint on a wall!!), when I clean the brushes, I always think about him. I'm sure that if he's watching me, he's giggling, and telling me what he used to say on his show "just beat the devil out of it".

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I would like to take this opportunity to wish you and your loved ones a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

I will post articles on December 24 and 31 (no rest for the wicked)...so stay tuned!!!

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THE HODGEPODGE

This week’s lucky number: The Clue. A movie starring Will Smith: _______ pounds.

Sad Clown of the Week: Lowe's. The U.S.-based chain of retail home improvement and appliance stores pulled all its ads from TLC's "All-American Muslim" reality show because Muslims were portrayed as "normal and ordinary" people (as opposed to portraying them as terrorists!!!). When you think people are getting away from racism...some stupid-fearful-weak-ignorant-narrow-minded hillbillies keep pulling you back in it!!

Happy and Dandy Clown of the Week: Russell Simmons. The co-founder of the Def Jam record label and creator of the clothing fashion line Phat Farm has offered to buy all of the advertising time dropped by Lowe's for TLC's "All-American Muslim" reality show. Good for him! (But he couldn't do it because all the advertisement slots were already filled by other companies).

Clever song lyrics: "All you need is love. And love is all you need." - Song: All you need is love - Artist: The Beatles

Cheesy song lyrics: "I wanna know what love is. I want you to show me." Song: I wanna know what love is - Artist: Foreigner (I don't know who's the girl he was talking to...but that's a lot of pressure: "showing" love???)

Philosophical Quote of the week: "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!" Character: President Merkin Muffley (wonderfully played by Peter Sellers) - Movie: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Sign the end of the world is near: Colorado Pastor Wayne Hanson said about Tim Tebow's (Denver Broncos' quarterback) recent success with his team: "It's not luck. Luck isn't winning 6 games in a row. It's favor. God's favor". Two things I have to say about that. Firstly, God does not give a rat's ass about football. Secondly, if God was a football fan, He'd be a New England Patriots' fan...and my Pats shall beat Tim and the Broncos tomorrow afternoon!!



Love letters, comments, opinions and complaints: reflectionsonamoderncircus@gmail.com

Gay soldiers unhappy

I’ve always had mixed feelings about American patriotism.  I’ve always admired it.  At the same time, I’ve always been a little jealous of it.

However, sometimes it’s just too much and it gets on your nerves.  Fortunately, it’s only a minority that exaggerates.  For example, when you are in a beach resort, everybody is waiting in line for a drink and someone in the back says “But we are American!” (true story!!).

One aspect of American patriotism I admire is the support for the troops.  My position on the war in Iraq and Afghanistan has always been clear: waste of time, money and most importantly, waste of lives.  But if there is a war, you have to support soldiers fighting for your country.

When I think about soldiers, I see a uniform.  Nowadays, I don’t necessarily see a man.  I don’t see a particular ethnic group either.  As it turns out, my opinion sounds more progressive than I thought.

This is an excerpt of the GOP Presidential debate held last week, in Orlando:

Since it was held in front of a Republican crowd, we would be in our right minds to presume that the people that booed were Republicans.  When I first heard this on the news, I just couldn’t believe my own ears.  I had to verify it on different news sources.

Let me get this straight (no pun intended!!).  Republicans should change the “Support Our Troops” Magnets on their cars for “Support Our Troops...except the fag soldiers”.  What is this?  What’s next?  Catholic Americans booing Muslim American Soldiers?  Brunette females booing blond female soldiers? Red Sox fans booing soldiers supporting the Yankees?

I’m a heterosexual male.  I have friends that are gay that I see every week.  They know I’m heterosexual.  I know they’re gay.  If they didn’t know, and if one of them would try to make a move on me, I would just kindly and diplomatically tell them that I’m heterosexual.  To me, there is absolutely no difference between telling a gay man that I’m not interested than telling a woman I’m not interested (not that they get in line to throw themselves at me either...).

Why are the Republicans so homophobic?  They’ll tell you the Bible-Jesus-God argument.  We all know this is bullshit and that it goes way deeper than that.

Rick Santorum, who runs for the Republican nomination for President of the United States in the 2012 presidential election, says, right after the boos, that "Sexual activity has no place in the military." Sexual activity? I thought we were talking about sexual orientation. So, does Santorum suggest that being part the military imposes a solemn vow of chastity? Really? And you know what really is ironic? Rick Santorum family name is also a word. The definition of a santorum is: a frothy mixture of lubricant and fecal matter as an occasional byproduct of anal sex (I am not making this up!). Maybe Rick Santorum knows more about it than we thought...

So if we go deeper (no pun intended!!), what would explain the animosity of Republicans towards the gay community?

Examples?

LarryCraig, a former Republican politician that represented Idaho's first district in the U.S. House of representatives for 10 years and that served 18 years in the U.S. Senate. Craig namely voted for a proposed constitutional amendment banning gay marriage and against a bill prohibiting employment discrimination based on sexual orientation. Ironically, in 2007, Craig was arrested at the Minneapolis International Airport on suspicion of lewd conduct in a men's restroom. He was accused of soliciting a male undercover cop for sexual activity.

Wait...it gets more slippery...

Mark Foley, another former Republican politician that represented 16th District of Florida in the U.S. House of representatives for 11 years. Foley voted against a proposed constitutional amendment to ban legal recognition of gay marriage. He also voted for a bill that would have banned gays from adopting children in Washington D.C. Despite all of this, in 2006, Foley had sent suggestive emails and sexually explicit instant messages to teenage men who worked or were still working for Congress as pages. Funny note, Foley was one of the foremost opponents of child pornography.

And how about Bob Allen? Here is another Republican member of the Florida House of Representatives, for 7 years, representing Florida's 32nd district. Allen, like the other two, has a record of voting for anti-gay legislation. Nevertheless, in 2007 he was arrested for offering $20 to perform fellatio on an undercover male police officer.

A last quicky?  Glenn Murphy Jr, former Chair of the Young Republicans National Federation.  A young man staying at the home of Murphy’s sister was asleep when he woke up to find Murphy performing oral sex on him.  Brutal wake-up call…

What do we make out all of this?  The Republican Party has a significant gay wing that is strongly opposed to marriage but in favour of secret swinging and adventures?  Or Republicans have a 3 steps program to come out of the closet:

1-     Gay bashing;

2-     Political suicide (or getting caught in a scandal); and

3-     Coming out (voluntarily or…not).

Preaching loudmouths that don’t practice what they preach…let me think...I wonder what they remind me of…(See Catholic Priests from the USA, Canada, Ireland and Belgium).

Gentlemen of the Republican Party, if your Gaydar is buzzing too loudly, maybe it’s because you are standing too close to it.

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New Character(s) brought to this Blog: The Republican Party Gay Wing.

This week’s lucky number: The clue…Mickey Mantle, David Beckham (Manchester United), John Elway and Phil Esposito’s respective jersey numbers.

Personal message: To the guy in the car behind me, honking like crazy: “Maybe I drive slower than you, but I’m still ahead of you!!!”

Note to self: Keep driving slow: you are about to lose your driving license because of an impressive collection of speeding tickets.

Quote of the week: “Love can be magic, but magic sometimes is…just an illusion!!” – An anonymous cuckold

Bad jokes when you are at the customs: “Do I carry any weapons? I refuse to answer this question. I’m taking the 5th [amendment] on that one".

Bad pick-up line: You must have been beautiful, you know, when you were young.

Bad names for rock groups from Boston: New England Clam Chokers, The Red Sucks, The Red Bruins and, The Big Flappy.

Love letters, comments, opinions and complaints: reflectionsonamoderncircus@gmail.com