July 24, 2010

 

Ground-breaking Stuff...

Suppose a plucky band of New England Puritan stock set off from parts Northeast, somewhere around the era of the Early Republic, and settled in a secluded little mountain valley that was unattractive to railroad men and geographically shielded from the broadcast reach of early television. Suppose, furthermore that the town fathers took a kind of salutary pride in the town's cultural isolation, that they fostered a "great books" approach to learning, a libertarian approach to regulation, and a Calvinist approach to the encroaching spread of the mega-meaningless mega-church? Suppose, in short, they missed (half by choice, half by circumstance) the wasting trends of hyper-Victorianism, checked-out dispensationalism, class-baiting populism, group therapy, self-esteem, self-indulgence, and great society government largesse?

Would that be something like heaven?

Your answer to that question may determine how much you like the town of "Shiloh's Gate," because those are foundations upon which the fictional township is built. We call it "half Shire, half Bay Colony," and our first episode starts Victoria Jackson (Saturday Night Live), Basil Hoffman (Milagro Beanfield, The Box), and Sonja Schmidt (In Living Color). Along with the music of the Mill Creek Boys, we hope to produce American radio that is actually, well, American.

The first episode--we'll be frank--is inspired by what might be called an ugly, ongoing Hollywood skin rash. It seems to flair up at the Academy Awards, when Hollywood informs us movies like "American Beauty," "Brokeback Mountain," "Milk" and "Boys Don't Cry" are what they call "pioneering" or "groundbreaking." Make no mistake. When filmmakers use those terms, they are telling you "not only is this a great film; this is a film that will change people's minds about ____________," and they fill in the blank with whatever socio-sexual cause they think the film addresses. Americans, by and large, are a fairly tolerant lot, so they allow this self-important quackery to pass by, more or less, without comment, but really, isn't it about time we started calling these fools by their real name?

The people of Shiloh's Gate think so anyway. Buy your ticket today!

(And don't worry, unlike the "groundbreaking" tomfoolery itself, this is family friendly!)

More of the Farm Journal --July 17, 2010