Dickens would feel right at home in the present ... it is the best of times ... it is the worst of times, depending on whether you sold short or long.
If Dickens were alive, I'm pretty sure he might put out a contemporary version of A Christmas Carol. Since theaters these days only show 90 minute chase scenes filled with CGI special effects, the updated version would go direct to video, and it might look something like this ...
Scrooge is haunted by the Ghost of Christmas Past who shows him a vision of too-thin, hopeless men in breadlines and soup kitchens. The grainy black and white footage is accompanied with a Thirties soundtrack featuring Bing Crosby singing Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
They used to tell me I was building a dream, and so I followed the mob,
When there was earth to plow, or guns to bear, I was right there on the job.
They used to tell me I was building a dream, with peace and glory ahead,
Why should I be standing in line, just waiting for some bread?
Ghost of Christmas Present shows Scrooge his fat-cat friends enjoying the season thanks to outrageously expensive gifts from Santa Henry and his congressional elves, gifts paid for with yet-to-be-printed currency. The soundtrack plays Pink Floyd’s Money.
Money, get back
I'm all right, Jack, keep your hands off of my stack
Money, it's a hit
Don't give me that do goody good bullshit
I'm in the high-fidelity first-class traveling set
And I think I need a Learjet
The Ghost of Christmas Future shows empty homes, foreclosure signs, ravaged neighborhoods and more breadlines and soup kitchens, thanks to Scrooge and his friends cooking the books and taking advantage of the ignorance and exuberance of economic illiterates. The soundtrack plays a chillingly prophetic song from The Seventies – Merle Haggard's Are the Good Times Really Over for Good?
Are we rollin’ down hill like a snowball headed for Hell
With no kinda chance for the flag or the Liberty Bell
Wish a Ford and a Chevy would still last ten years like they should
Is the best of the free life behind us now?
Are the good times really over for good?
Thank goodness, this is only fiction.
©2008 Tom Cordle
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Jeremiah Horrigan
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Comments
rated
"One slip, and down the hole we fall
It seems to take no time at all
A momentary lapse of reason
That binds a life for life
A small regret, you wont forget,
There'll be no sleep in here tonight..."
Of course this is/was a love song, but in context, Bush's One Slip turned into many more. Which is so often the case.
rated
Pawed!
MaryT - would that it were only fiction
Greg - would that in were only a momentary lapse of reason
LadyM - things that go bump in the night and the pawed that refreshes
ManTalk - I fear the soundtrack of the next few years will be in a minor key.
Screamin' - Look out, Hollywood, the Oscar is mine.
"Hey you Whitehouse, ha ha, charade you are
You house proud town mouse, ha ha, charade you are
You're trying to keep your feelings off the street
You're nearly a real treat
All tight lips and cold feet
And do you feel abused?
...!...!...!
You gotta stem the evil tide
And keep it all on the inside
Mary you're nearly a treat
Mary you're nearly a treat
But you're really a cry."
Thumbed.
Oh, mercy mercy me
Oh, things ain't what they used to be
No, no
Where did all the blue sky go?
Poison is the wind that blows
From the north, east, south, and sea
Oh, mercy mercy me...