Using Your Audience As A Target
by Your Diva, Robin Pastorio-Newman

Your Darling, Your Diva, Your One True Love tries to keep a positive outlook on life, and why not when one is healthy, radiant and possessed of a fine manicure? VH1's mortifying I Love the 80's? Bring it on. A smug commercial from Mayor Bloomberg's office about how the smoking ban will triumph? Merely offensive - we can fire off an email and get over it.
 
However, a curious ad from campaigning Middlesex County Freeholder H. James Polos disturbs with its choice of words. Mr. Polos' voiceover begins, "It's a choice no senior should have to make: between buying food and buying prescription drugs." We agree that Grandma and Grandpa should never, ever have to sacrifice food for medication or vice-versa. The question arises: should anyone? Does this mean people under 65 without a prescription plan should go suck an egg they can't afford to crack open? The level of compassion for the down-sized and benefitless middle class, the working poor and the outright impoverished is underwhelming. Mr. Polos's ad does not address this significant issue, and we were so upset by this omission we had to leave the house.
 
Fortunately, several interesting movies are in the theaters right now. We saw Lost in Translation and loved it. When faced with plugging our ears and singing, "Lalalalalalalalalala I'm not liiiiiiiiiiistening!" on another night, we found the just-cut-the-ribbon-with-the-scary-giant-scissors-new Strathmore Art Cinema on Route 34 in Aberdeen showing American Splendor. We loved that, too.
 
Looks like our two-out-of-two streak is lending a rosy appearance to films we haven't seen yet. Last weekend, Kill Bill Part One (oooooh, Tarantino-y) and Intolerable Cruelty (quirky Coen Brothers-y) opened. This week, enigmatic Mystic River (dark, dark, moody Clint Eastwood-y) opens, strangely, on Wednesday - bless us, that's today. We might leave the house in a good mood.
 
As an aside, Hollywood's rush to tally opening weekend receipts sells its best films short. Your Delight, for instance, is simply not going to stuff her lissome person into a theater on an opening weekend so her $9 vote places a film in the Top 3. It's not going to happen. Bored teens with laser pointers aside, self-respect prevents us from packing ourselves body to body with complete strangers. Better to wait a few weeks, and if in a few weeks the movie's out on DVD so much the better. At home, we can gather our friends, drink a few beers like grownups and smoke a few cigarettes.
 
It's so urbane to actually enjoy yourself.
 

©2003 Robin Pastorio-Newman