of exceptions and emergencies

Music: CNN at the Volkswagon dealership I’m sitting in the “customer refreshment” area at Austin’s only VW dealership. The good ol’ boys at the dealership in Baton Rouge—you know, the boys who had to rebuild my engine because they didn’t put the oil plug in right during a routine servicing—have apparently not screwed something in right, again . . . or rather, have screwed me again. We’ll see. Oil’s been leaking for weeks, but here you have to schedule an appointment like going to the doctor’s office.

There’s a big, brown cricket walking across the floor. It’s dragging what appears to be a damaged, back right leg.

So, I’m sitting in the “customer refreshment” area at Austin’s only VW dealership, and CNN is blasting at an uncomfortable volume level. I never watch CNN. Today they’ve titled their coverage of Katrina hurricane “Katrina: State of Emergency,” and alternately, “Heroes: The American Spirit.” Right now we’re being treated to a montage of still photographs of rescuing (mostly in New Orleans), to the soundtrack of some sort of tribal-bongo “state of emergency hurry up and go” kind of canned music. At this point, I probably only have to describe what I’m seeing and hearing, as most of y’all know what I’d say about it: the maudlin machines are in full force, and the Spielburging continues.

From what I’m seeing now, CNN is worse than the network news. I was listening to an interview with Jim Lehrer last night, who was detailing how CNN’s decision to cover the O.J. Simpson trial changed news coverage forever. He said CNN executives believed that the trial would last a day, but it turned into a year-long story. CNN didn’t plan to cover it that long, but lo, their ratings spiked.

What’s the moral to all of this? I’m tempted to say: “Blame O.J.”

Of course, we know more forces contribute to this movie-fi-cation, the hyperrealization, of catastrophe. God dammit! I can’t even escape it at the freakin’ car dealership: as a mediated citizen, I’m constantly being primed to support the domination of wealthy white men (yeah, yeah, it’s more complicated than that, but y’all know what I mean). Apparently academics are jumping on the CNN-ifcation, the Spielburging, of catastrophe: my boi Rog reports that a meeting was held among a group of scholars and teachers wherein it was proposed some sort of conference panel should be put together detailing the heart-felt sense of empathy and heroism of . . . well, read it for yourself, then you can gag with me.