the second tear

Music: Brian Eno and Harold Budd: A Brief History of Ambient, Volume One (1993)

Nikki Moore, a local journalist, artist, scholar, and friend interviewed me recently for a "kitsch" piece in the local alternative paper, The Austin Chronicle. The story is quite good, of course, and especially because I had nothing to do with its writing! Nikki is brilliant and super-talented (y'all should check out her website). Nevertheless, a few nights ago we thought the editor was going to kill the piece because it seemed to poop on Christmas joy (it didn't, really . . . but). I added some quotables about the necessity of kitsch and love to sort of balance my earlier, less cheerful comments (which I gather pleased the editor). Yes, kitsch is a shit-screen, but, I love my kitsch! We all do!

Everyone knows that Christmas is a kitsch-fest. It reminds me of a Milan Kundera observation about two tears:

Kitsch causes two tears to flow in quick succession. The first tear says: How nice to see children running on the grass! The second tear says: How nice to be moved, together with all mankind, by children running on the grass! It is the second tear that makes kitsch kitsch.

How nice to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony! How nice to look upon the wonder-filled eyes of children as they behold the suburban home a-blaze with a synchronized Christmas light show!

Yes, it's more observations of the obvious from your Aus-Vegas Expert of "Duh!," D(Jx3)!