One Foot in Front of the Other...
Nov. 13th, 2024 09:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatWas going to do more memage - but I'm way ahead. So will wait.
One foot in front of the other...(now I have that song from Santa Clause is Coming To Town Christmas Stop-Motion Clay Character toon in my head.)
The other bit I keep getting reminded of - for some reason or other - "The BurgerMeisters" (the villainous rulers of the world in the cartoon) finally died out, but they kept the traditions that they came up with during that period.
The plot of the cartoon is basically a bunch of toy-making elves and their adopted son, Chris Kringle, trying to figure out a way to get past a variety of seemingly impossible obstacles to get their toys to the village below and most importantly to the people and children within it. One of the obstacles is that the village under a dictatorship. The evil dictatorship, the BergerMeisters, doesn't allow any of the children to have toys. And collects all toys. Chris Kringle, in order to evade this obstacle, cleverly comes up with a variety of peaceful, non-violent, and kind work arounds. The first time he's thrown in jail. But he gets out and manages to get toys almost mysteriously to the kids. Gaining allies from former enemies (or obstacles) along the way - by melting their hearts with his kindness. Finally the BergerMeisters (who no amount of kindness can ever win over) die out, and the work arounds - such as stockings on the fire place, and going down the chimney, become fun traditions and a way of remembering the past, without. dwelling on the trauma of it.
As a child a lot of the political references, and themes went over my head. Now I see them clearly. The cartoon was made in 1970. (I honestly thought it was earlier. But it was made for television and in color, so that makes sense.)
The 1970 animated Christmas TV special Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town was produced by Rankin/Bass Productions and first aired on ABC on December 14, 1970:
The claymation film tells the story of how Santa Claus came to be, and features the voices of Mickey Rooney, Keenan Wynn, Robie Lester, Joan Gardner, and Paul Frees. Fred Astaire narrates the film and also voices the character Special Delivery Kluger, a mailman who reads letters from children asking about Santa. The Westminster Children's Choir also performs a song in the film.
Rankin/Bass could get movie stars and directors of the 1960s all the way through the 70s to perform. Rudolph the Red Nosed Raindeer had Burl Ives, while Santa Clause had Rooney and Fred Astaire. The Hobbit, also by that group, had John Huston as Gandalf, which is the perfect Gandalf next to Ian McKellan, they even sound a like.
At any rate - this was made after the Vietnam War ended and during Watergate. So the themes are there - with the villains hidden as German, WWI Kaiser. But mainly representative of Fascism and an anti-capitalism sentiment (or socialism). Americans confuse the economic system of socialism with fascism, not realizing that fascism can occur with any economic system. Fascism isn't socio-economic. It's a social system or political system. Socialism, Communism, and Capitalism are economic systems, Fascism, Totlatrianism, Tyrannical, Republic, and Democracy are political power systems. The difficulty with language - is a lot of folks use certain words interchangably. It's called poor syntax or improper syntax. (I do it every once and a while - but I'm aware and fix it, or someone points it out to me, and I fix it.) Anyhow the cartoon does to an extent combine or conflate Fascism to include Communism. The Bergmeisters seemingly own everything. Also they are German - a reference to the tyrannical Kaiser of WWI, and the Nazis in WWII. However they hid the Nazi reference behind the Kaiser of WWI, which is interesting. (Not sure why.)
All of that aside, what comforts me about the cartoon is something I picked up as a child - which is that over time, the evil bullies fade away. They die off. And are replaced with saner, and less corrupt and kinder more logical leaders. It's temporary.
Star Trek Verse shows that as well. Over time, evil fades. It can't hold on. It just sometimes takes a long time and a lot of people die under the weight of its shadow. (See the rise of fascism and totalarianism in the 1930s-1950s in Europe (Eastern Europe and Western Europe) and Latin America. Also the rise of imperialism with both Europe and Far East. ) But that did change, and things shifted. It gives me hope for the future, even if it is very far away. And I may not live to see it? Oh well up until now, things have been okay.
There's no rain. There are however, lots of wildfires. Amtrak shut down operations from NYC to New Haven because of fires on the tracks in the Brox and on up. NYC is under a red flag fire watch, so is Long Island, New Jersey keeps putting out fires and there's one that has been burning in New Jersey and New York several days this week. Also fires in Connetitcut. Then I looked it up..and was blown away with the number of wildfires in our country. My niece was involved in preparing people for evacuation at Rocky Mountain National Park during a forest fire over the summer.
ME: America is on Fire and burning. I mean that literally not metaphorically. [Pause]. Actually maybe both.
Breaking Bad: Yes, it's horrible, dry weather.
Me: Climate change.
Breaking Bad looks skeptical.
Me: Warmer currents, Glaciers have melted and dried up, there's no water source, so not a lot of rain, and you also have warmer winters. Although Denver - Colorado got 45 inches of snow.
Breaking Bad: That's high elevation, just in the mountains.
ME: Friends of my mother live between Denver and Colorado Springs, not in the mountains, well not really, more like right before you get into the mountains. (I went to school in Colorado Springs.)
Breaking Bad: Oh...that's...interesting.
Shame it didn't come here. No, we just have one crystal blue day after another. Not a cloud gracing the sky. Not even the big white fluffy ones. I never thought I'd say this? But I'm missing the clouds.
Below, the bright big shinging moon - so bright, I could mistake it for a sun, against a crystal blue sky.
One foot in front of the other...(now I have that song from Santa Clause is Coming To Town Christmas Stop-Motion Clay Character toon in my head.)
The other bit I keep getting reminded of - for some reason or other - "The BurgerMeisters" (the villainous rulers of the world in the cartoon) finally died out, but they kept the traditions that they came up with during that period.
The plot of the cartoon is basically a bunch of toy-making elves and their adopted son, Chris Kringle, trying to figure out a way to get past a variety of seemingly impossible obstacles to get their toys to the village below and most importantly to the people and children within it. One of the obstacles is that the village under a dictatorship. The evil dictatorship, the BergerMeisters, doesn't allow any of the children to have toys. And collects all toys. Chris Kringle, in order to evade this obstacle, cleverly comes up with a variety of peaceful, non-violent, and kind work arounds. The first time he's thrown in jail. But he gets out and manages to get toys almost mysteriously to the kids. Gaining allies from former enemies (or obstacles) along the way - by melting their hearts with his kindness. Finally the BergerMeisters (who no amount of kindness can ever win over) die out, and the work arounds - such as stockings on the fire place, and going down the chimney, become fun traditions and a way of remembering the past, without. dwelling on the trauma of it.
As a child a lot of the political references, and themes went over my head. Now I see them clearly. The cartoon was made in 1970. (I honestly thought it was earlier. But it was made for television and in color, so that makes sense.)
The 1970 animated Christmas TV special Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town was produced by Rankin/Bass Productions and first aired on ABC on December 14, 1970:
The claymation film tells the story of how Santa Claus came to be, and features the voices of Mickey Rooney, Keenan Wynn, Robie Lester, Joan Gardner, and Paul Frees. Fred Astaire narrates the film and also voices the character Special Delivery Kluger, a mailman who reads letters from children asking about Santa. The Westminster Children's Choir also performs a song in the film.
Rankin/Bass could get movie stars and directors of the 1960s all the way through the 70s to perform. Rudolph the Red Nosed Raindeer had Burl Ives, while Santa Clause had Rooney and Fred Astaire. The Hobbit, also by that group, had John Huston as Gandalf, which is the perfect Gandalf next to Ian McKellan, they even sound a like.
At any rate - this was made after the Vietnam War ended and during Watergate. So the themes are there - with the villains hidden as German, WWI Kaiser. But mainly representative of Fascism and an anti-capitalism sentiment (or socialism). Americans confuse the economic system of socialism with fascism, not realizing that fascism can occur with any economic system. Fascism isn't socio-economic. It's a social system or political system. Socialism, Communism, and Capitalism are economic systems, Fascism, Totlatrianism, Tyrannical, Republic, and Democracy are political power systems. The difficulty with language - is a lot of folks use certain words interchangably. It's called poor syntax or improper syntax. (I do it every once and a while - but I'm aware and fix it, or someone points it out to me, and I fix it.) Anyhow the cartoon does to an extent combine or conflate Fascism to include Communism. The Bergmeisters seemingly own everything. Also they are German - a reference to the tyrannical Kaiser of WWI, and the Nazis in WWII. However they hid the Nazi reference behind the Kaiser of WWI, which is interesting. (Not sure why.)
All of that aside, what comforts me about the cartoon is something I picked up as a child - which is that over time, the evil bullies fade away. They die off. And are replaced with saner, and less corrupt and kinder more logical leaders. It's temporary.
Star Trek Verse shows that as well. Over time, evil fades. It can't hold on. It just sometimes takes a long time and a lot of people die under the weight of its shadow. (See the rise of fascism and totalarianism in the 1930s-1950s in Europe (Eastern Europe and Western Europe) and Latin America. Also the rise of imperialism with both Europe and Far East. ) But that did change, and things shifted. It gives me hope for the future, even if it is very far away. And I may not live to see it? Oh well up until now, things have been okay.
There's no rain. There are however, lots of wildfires. Amtrak shut down operations from NYC to New Haven because of fires on the tracks in the Brox and on up. NYC is under a red flag fire watch, so is Long Island, New Jersey keeps putting out fires and there's one that has been burning in New Jersey and New York several days this week. Also fires in Connetitcut. Then I looked it up..and was blown away with the number of wildfires in our country. My niece was involved in preparing people for evacuation at Rocky Mountain National Park during a forest fire over the summer.
ME: America is on Fire and burning. I mean that literally not metaphorically. [Pause]. Actually maybe both.
Breaking Bad: Yes, it's horrible, dry weather.
Me: Climate change.
Breaking Bad looks skeptical.
Me: Warmer currents, Glaciers have melted and dried up, there's no water source, so not a lot of rain, and you also have warmer winters. Although Denver - Colorado got 45 inches of snow.
Breaking Bad: That's high elevation, just in the mountains.
ME: Friends of my mother live between Denver and Colorado Springs, not in the mountains, well not really, more like right before you get into the mountains. (I went to school in Colorado Springs.)
Breaking Bad: Oh...that's...interesting.
Shame it didn't come here. No, we just have one crystal blue day after another. Not a cloud gracing the sky. Not even the big white fluffy ones. I never thought I'd say this? But I'm missing the clouds.
Below, the bright big shinging moon - so bright, I could mistake it for a sun, against a crystal blue sky.
no subject
Date: 2024-11-15 03:03 pm (UTC)Anyway, it's really beautiful.
Apparently the Japanese word I would have used here is not considered de rigeur in Japan these days, so I'll just say thank you instead.
kerk
no subject
Date: 2024-11-15 04:34 pm (UTC)