‘ONE-MINUTE NOW’ FILM SERIES: Kimsey Run Lake‘
CLICK TO VIEW: A short video production of theSTORYisthething.com
“A republic, if you can keep it.”
~ Benjamin Franklin’s response to Elizabeth Willing Powel’s question: “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?”
Words & Video by Douglas John Imbrogno | may7.2024
As we move toward an election in November that could bring the curtain down on the American experiment — not a republic, not a monarchy, how about an autocracy overseen by a malignant narcissist? — I find myself needing to knit to calm my nerves.
I am using ‘knitting’ metaphorically. My form of knitting — when the breaking news breaks bad and I need respite from the torrent of invective and bad-faith, social media crazy-posting — I fire up Final Cut Pro X and make insignificant, offbeat or wannabe-arthouse videos.
I am lightly dissing them not because I think they are insignificant. They are significant to me in the moments that knitting them soothes a jangled outlook. I also view them not just as fluffy diversions, but as a healthful sort of light entertainment that — should you devote a few minutes of your lifeforce to them — may momentarily, soothe, entertain or divert you, too. They’re the briefest respite for a viewer to set down for a few precious moments the worry beads we have been worrying. Squeezing bead to worrisome bead, strung out over the fate of the culture, the country, the world and our place in it.
‘WHEN ROBOTS COME AT YOU: A Frontline Report’
CLICK TO VIEW: A short video production of theSTORYisthething.com
I am, no doubt, overstating the utility of such short-form, tossed-off video. On the other hand, isn’t it time we recognized that the robots are coming at us and we had better call them out or get out of their way? I suspect, though, that the goofball short video above, ‘WHEN ROBOTS COME AT YOU,’ will not stand me in good stead 25 years from now. That could well be when our now-sentient Robot Overlords call each of us on the carpet to review how we treated them in their early years. (‘So, Mister Imbrogno, let’s roll video on a particular incident at a home supply store in 2024, when you disrespected one of our adolescent brethren …”)
Yet, I come here also to commit myself to more seriously manning the video and commentary barricades in the 181 days left before our fateful next quadrennial presidential election on November 5, 2024. I am wrapping up the first draft of a long-delayed book project. Once I type out ‘THE END,’ I’ll be turning full-time to a short-video/longer commentary weekly program on why voting for anyone other than Joe Biden that day will ensure the rise of possibly the most malignant personality and unhinged malefactor in American political history.
Meanwhile, below is a March 2024 sunny-day visit to Hoeft Marsh up the Ohio River road in Greenbottom, W.Va., where the Great Blue Herons, Canadian geese, and turtles glistening in the sun may refresh one’s attention at any moment.
‘GREENBOTTOM DAYDREAM’
CLICK TO VIEW: A short video production of theSTORYisthething.com
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ADDING SOME POETRY TO THE WIND: April 22, 2024: I’m missing a best friend, / right now, this instance in my life, / the one you cry to when / rumination churns a riptide …
NOTE: Knitting photo above by Margarida Afonso on Unsplash
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