Emergency Message to my Wonderful (Best) Friend--Santa

Mama's Disastrous Error

I wrote my first seasonal letter to you. Mama typed and posted it, not to my blog but to her own Entertainment and Media Creative Development blog, which may I add is unimpressive (dare I say uninteresting?).

However please use this link to open my personal letter in which I send my very best greetings and provide some guidance on your upcoming crunch time. All of us good little boys and girls all over the world depend upon you. (BTW, although grandpere thinks I'm a boy, I AM NOT)

Love and kisses from your best and most dependable friend, Mercury Murphy Roushanzamir

PS: Don't hold this mistake against Mama this Christmas. xoxox I won't let her make the same mistake again.

Is the shoe horn going the way of the wash board?

Technology is a topic of great interest among tech professionals, scholars, and the general public. But usually the interest is only generated by the latest innovations or futuristic improbabilities.

What has begun to intrigue me is, how in the passage of time, low technologies tend to quietly fade away.

Take for example, the shoe horn.

Who remembers the shoe horn its appearance, history and eventual transformation from a physical manifestation into a metaphor?

Or the paper weight (in a "paperless" society).  Read George Orwell's comments in 1994 on the value(lessness) of a lone silvery glassed-in flower-globe displayed on an aging wooden table.

Wikipedia provides a concise history and explanation of the washboard (but to learn how first uses fade over time, read the disambiguation section).

All of which to say is while high technology, digitization, computerization, mobile devices, etc. and so forth attract far more than their share of attention, some basics should be thoughtfully considered as part of a fleeting way of life. How can we evaluate the impact of loss and change over the 32,000 years of our doggie-human cultural formation?

Thank you, my friends and fans, for any insights you may care to offer.

As always, your pal, Mercury Murphy Roushanzamir

Disgruntled

Sometimes a doggie is in the correct time and place to fulfill their fondest dreams and their rightful place in society. Other times, not so much. I fall in the latter category. 

My heart belongs in the film industry. Acting, directing and editing would have been my forte. Like my favorite star, Asta, I could have been a contender. Asta, star of, among other films, the Thin Man series, never won an Oscar (nor did his co- star, Myrna Loy). But his work has long been acknowledged as first-rate. He claimed his rightful place in the universe.

I am the third generation of the impact of what can only be called: devastatingly bad decisions. Sadly, my rightful place in the universe remains unfilled.

If Grandpere had followed his path, as stand up comedian, screen writer and director, Maman would now be a successful screen and TV writer. If Maman had been a successful screen writer, I doubtless would have become a star of big screen and small (and perhaps even made it to the Broadway stage).

But no. After Princeton, Grandpere attended Columbia Medical and became a physician. Maman earned a Ph.D. at University of Wisconsin. True, each had distinguished careers, Grandpere in academic medicine, Maman, a professor of media studies. 

But what about me? Without the Hollywood/show biz contacts, I've wallowed in an academic environment far distant from my true destiny. Their bad decisions and lack of foresight led to half-lives for them (but that's down to them) and devastating loss for me and for the dramatic arts.

I've made the best of things. I take vicarious pleasures where I can find them: I watch classic films on TCM, indie/ international films on Film Struck, Brit films/TV on AcornTV, TV and film on Hulu, independent productions on Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Prime. Enjoyable, yes. Suggestive, yes. Even inspiring, yes. 

But, yes I should have been a contributor.  I could've been a contender. 

Best regards to my faithful friends and followers, Mercury Murphy Roushanzamir