peacocks and lilies

Do not dance, dance. Sorry for the hiccup. I’m not talking about the song (if you were born after 1980, you may have no idea what I’m talking about anyway). I’m talking about the movie. I have a copy because I was, for the longest time, a superfan of the Cowboy Junkies, and tried to own every piece of merchandise they were featured on. My affections chilled as the band went more and more in a marketed direction (it became all about paying tuition for the kids, I suppose, just like anybody else), but I’m so glad I went through that phase, because if I hadn’t I’d have never even seen this J-list movie from 1990. (I also wouldn’t have many of the very dear friends I have now.) The soundtrack alone is worth it, but the movie’s pretty good too, even if it is a teen movie. I wish they made teen movies like this these days.

For a quick synopsis, the story is of a high school boy, played by Christian Slater, who runs a pirate radio station from his basement room in his parents house. He’s just moved into a sleepy suburb in Arizona from the big city. The local students make him a sensation and he uncovers a plot on behalf of his school principle to contrive expulsions for academically under-performing students and others deemed undesirable. He reveals the scandal on the air, chaos ensues, and the movie ends with Hard Harry (that’s Slater’s radio handle) broadcasting from a roaming jeep and being chased by the FCC. He makes a roaring entrance into a the high school athletic field, which is filled with teens, FCC people, police, and the press, broadcasting that other people should do what he’s doing, because the air is free and so is speech, and there is a general feeling of discontent among teens that should be communicated. This is one way to do it. Talk Hard says Hard Harry.

Obviously I love this movie for it’s focus on education rights, among other things, but also I happen to agree. And I think a similar revolution is happening with blogs. We are all blogging in the wilderness, especially those of us who are estranged from our base, the Democratic Party, right now. Truth is a virus. Speech is still free. That’s why we write. And I really am privileged to participate in this thing.

That said, I won’t be talking hard this morning. I’ve got some ideas, but I’ll be out this morning signing our new lease (yes I’m that kind of working class, I rent), and I’ll be out later running errands and playing taxi driver to my 14 year old daughter. But I wanted to encourage you this morning to talk hard. Give me something to read when I get back. I need to feed my head. Post the link to your blog in comments, and let’s all share some ideas on how we can make this thing better, identify subtexts in our objectives, or move the movement along.