Hollywood, located in LA LA land.

" Yankee detectives are always on the T.V.
'Cos killers in America work seven days a week."

Joe Strummer

The Americanisation of my culture first began creeping in to my world in the mid Sixties, our screens began to fill with imported cop shows, where you know who the killer was within the first scene. Language that did not reflect the way real people spoke on my street & then those appalling comedies that were so inept, laughter had to be dubbed on to the soundtrack to signal that a joke had taken place. Even the poorest most destitute characters lived in well furnished comfortable homes, that looked like palaces compared to my mine.




Then there is the later re writing of classic English stories, who can forget that horrendous version of "Robin prince of thieves " from the Eighties ? Northerners with American accents ? Hah! No wonder Alan Rickman stole the show. No matter how much he played it like an English pantomime, he would never look as big a ham as Kevin Costner & his insufferable "brother " Christian Slater did, who on earth at the time of the crusades, would refer to their long lost brother as " A spoiled little rich kid " ?

I've seen the Legend of King Arthur butchered so many times it is difficult to recall the true story, even Shakespeare has suffered re writes at the hands of Hollywood hacks. Please leave things alone you know nothing about & that includes English.

Then there is the changing of our diet. Shamefully, I have been involved in this plague of three ring binder, fast food. While I understand the basis of standardisation we seem to have missed the point that Cafes & Fish Shops survived, on their ability to be different, each one original in it's approach. Where's the choice when all the Burger restaurants offer the same bland options ? Let me also kill that myth that American customer service is the best in the world. It is not, because of the rigid structure of their processes, you cannot request anything out of the ordinary, if it veers away from the goods on display they do not have the capacity to think outside the box. They are not allowed to.

Originality, trying something different, experimentation are words you cannot use in either commerce or the film industry. We are doomed to watch film after film that has no substance to it, each one with a happy ending, while eating upsized popcorn with a jumbo coke, before dashing home to watch the latest episode of life in the U.S.A.


Listening to:

Weather Report
John Coltrane
Courtney Pine
Bwa Gayac
Sonny Morgan