More “Me decade” Redux and Madness

Happy Friday the 13th for the second month in a row.

“I’m as mad as a hatter and I’m not going to take you any more...”

You may or may not recognize that as a corruption of the famous line screamed by apoplectic news anchor Howard Beale in Network (1976):

“I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this any more...”

He builds up to this crescendo after saying other things that eerily resonate with our current climate of anxiety:
“I don’t have to tell you things are bad.
Everybody knows things are bad.
It’s a depression.
Everybody’s out of work or scared of losing their job.
....
Banks are going bust.
Shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter.
Punks are running wild in the street and there’s nobody anywhere that seems to know what to do and there’s no end to it.
....
We know things are bad, worse than bad, they’re crazy.
It’s like everything everywhere is going crazy so we don’t go out anymore.
We sit in the house and slowly the world we’re living in is getting smaller and all we say is,
‘Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms ... just leave us alone.’”

When the madman utters the climactic line, he is exhorting the Everyman, the Silent Majority impassively assembled in the anemic blue glow of their living room television sets, to literally get up out of their seats and go scream their outrage out their windows.

Paddy Chayefsky, the creator of this timeless American character, explained his attitude about Network like this:

“People say to me: ‘Jesus, you moved into some pretty surreal satire.’  I say:  ‘No, I still write realistic stuff.  It’s the world that’s gone nuts, not me.  It’s the world that's turned into a satire."  We never lied.  Everything in the movie is true—with some extensions.  It's very hard to describe simply and realistically what is going on without being grotesque.  I think the movie is right now. .... I think the American people deserve some truth—at least as much truth as we can give them—instead of pure entertainment or pure addiction.”—“Chayefsky: ‘Network Is True’,” Time, 12/13/1976

I was reminded of the Network rant scene for the umpteenth time recently while checking out “Silver Spring, Singular,” a downcounty blog that attracts a lot of attention because of its whip-smart & candid writing, topical currency, and its connectedness to the goings-on of greater Silver Spring.  Plus, it’s got plenty of photos and graphics and the blogger keeps comments open to Anonymice, which makes things livelier and more engaging.

SSS introduces a recent post with the following:

“I don’t know about on yours, but the locals on my neighborhood message board are mad as hell about the ‘melee’ in [downtown Silver Spring] this past Saturday and they aren't going to take it anymore!”
[Acronym expansion, formatting, & linking all added.]

SSS accompanies the post with a movie still from the Angry Man classic Falling Down (1993), which left me scratching my head over the madman movie mixed metaphors.

SSS: “... the regularly expressed opinion that ‘it's just like that in Bethesda’ is total bulls***.  Anyone who says this has clearly never been to Bethesda.”

Springular sure got that right.  Downtown Bethesda invests a lot of money in attracting the right crowd of self-actualizing professionals and big spenders.  BUP and friends do a bang-up job of keeping baggy-pants, saggy-seat crews out of their scrubbed urban districts.

The most aggressive people you’ll encounter in Bethesda generally include the Type-A jerks that jockey for the plummest parking spots in the downtown garages, the aging frat boy drunks that frequent “Caddies” on Cordell Avenue, and the Valet Parking Mafia that extort fat tips out of west-county and NWDC gentry flush with an embarrassment of disposable income.  While some of these potential rowdies may threaten bodily harm if you make the mistake of wasting their time or delaying their gratification, none of them is very likely to break out in fisticuffs with you.

123cartoon on WashingtonPost.com quips:
“The ‘Stop the Violence’ concert is over. You may now return to your previous violent nature. Thank you for coming.”

»»»

Sublime Magic theatre. Entrance not for everyone. For madmen only.

«««

Here’s an English etymological enigma.  “Mad” variously means angry, crazy, and a combination thereof.  Why and how did this come about?  Is there psychological research that bears out the observation that raging makes can make you raving?

SSS: “Also, while people certainly have every right to be upset, some use this as an excuse to prop up their bogus theories about how these miscreants will invade Silver Spring throughout the week once the Fillmore is open. Yes, because those Seal (actual Fillmore performer) crowds can get completely out of hand.”

Hey now, once Seal starts singing some of his more provocative lyrics, what if the crowd starts to take it a tad too literally:

“But we’re never gonna survi-i-i-i-ve unless, we get a little crazy...”

Now back to more madcap madness:

Thayer Avenue said [on SSS’s blog]:
How did you gain such a penchant for drawing in the crazy people to the comment board? I never cease to be amazed.

And “Thayer Avenue” said this before I added my damage to the mix.

I splenically snorted in return:
“‘Thayer Avenue’?  Perhaps this proud member of the Nouveau Silver Spring gentry should try on the address and blogger moniker ‘Woodmont Avenue.’  It appears that Thayer doesn’t much care for the untidy opinings of us ‘crazy’ east-county riff-raff.

Springular, how did you gain such a penchant for drawing in the downcounty gentry to act as such wet blankets on the comment board?  I never cease to be crazed, er, amazed.”
[more crazy stuff followed this jabbering....]

Thayer Avenue said:
“Wow, Sleepless. I make an off-handed, generalized comment and you end up attacking me, The X-Files, *and* linking to classic Bernstein all in one fell swoop? Very impressive.

I think my work here is done!”

Indeed!

Springvale Roader informs us:
“Well folks, this is timely. This coming Sunday and Monday, AFI will be screening the documentary, ‘Crips and Bloods: Made in America.’ http://www.afi.com/silver/new/nowplaying/events.aspx#crips

I plan on wearing my red bandanna...or should I go with blue?”

Thomas Hardman weighs in:
“I was more hoping for a screening of ‘Lord of the Flies’.”

Well, here in the south-central loco-en-MoCo ’hood of west Wheaton, I guess we would have to sport blue bandannas to this cultural event, as MS-13 claims to be the dominant “click” in these here parts.

Yeah, so I’ve heard that the AFI Silver is trying to make it in this recession just like a lot of others arts-and-culture institutions.  May I suggest the following quadruple feature, curated by myself:

“The All-American Angry Man Film Marathon”
…featuring conniptive classics from the 1970s through the 2000s…
Network — 1970s
Ruthless People — 1980s
Falling Down — 1990s
Gran Torino — 2000s
Why, this could even be the basis for yet another AFI superlative list...

...“100 Years, 100 Rages” !

Wheaton Redevelopment: Security First

(DRAFT)



In a recent post, Aspen Hill blogger and Council District 4 candidate Thomas Hardman has gotten me thinking about Wheaton Library and urban redevelopment in downtown Wheaton.

The county has been soliciting public opinion on whether to relocate the Wheaton library to the Central Business District (CBD).



Here’s my take on this.  Overall, it’s pretty simple:

Keep the library in its current location in east-central Wheaton.  This area straddles suburban and urban segments of Wheaton very nicely.  Instead of relocating the library as part of a costly and protracted construction project, give it a major overhaul and increase its accessibility to west-side and downtown Wheaton residents.  This latter goal could be met by broadening sidewalks/walkways and adjacent public spaces and by creating more pedestrian-friendly crosswalks and traffic patterns in the immediate vicinity, for instance.

As for the Wheaton library itself, give it a well-designed renovation with vigilant project cost oversight.  If the existing building is structurally sound enough, it can easily withstand a major renovation.  The county only needs to recruit architects and structural engineers creative and responsible enough to rise to the challenge of such a renewal project.

Wheaton does not need a cool, glittering edifice to rival the regional libraries of places like Rockville and Bethesda; we only need a comfortable, serviceable community library with enough upgrades to meet our population growth.

The county can use the funds saved to help relocate the “Wheaton” Police Station to Wheaton proper.

As it stands, the District 4 station is located in Glenmont, probably more for historical than logistical reasons.

The station would better serve county citizens if it were moved to downtown Wheaton.

1. Wheaton has become an unfortunate magnet for crime and other social ills in the county, being located along the southeast-to-northwest crime corridor.

Some Glenmont and Aspen Hill residents will object to moving the District 4 station south along Georgia Avenue.  If you are such a resident, keep in mind that criminals based in Wheaton and other points south/southeast often prey on your communities.  In addition, remember that well sited and coordinated community substations can very effectively meet local community policing needs and can also tailor their operations to your particular area.

Also note that many other urban MCPD stations are either located in or adjacent to downtown areas; Bethesda, Rockville, and Silver Spring are good examples.


2. MPD personnel based in Wheaton would be at the nexus of several major regional arteries:

MD-193 / University Blvd (W/E)
MD-97 / Georgia Ave (N/S)
MD-586 / Veirs Mill Rd (NW/SE)

A site like Wheaton Triangle might be a good option for a new police station.

A location along a key downtown street such as Grandview Avenue (N/S), Amherst Avenue (N/S), Reedie Drive (W/E), or Blueridge Avenue (W/E) would also provide good secondary routes for 4th district police.


3. Law and order are potentially good for business.

Image-conscious business interests helped eject the police substation out of Wheaton Mall several years back.

Some of us are old enough to remember when “Wheaton Plaza” was a place where more suburban county residents felt relatively safe (and you could enjoy free Fourth of July fireworks with family and friends, for that matter).

Mismanagement by offshore landlords (Westfield Group) allied with powerful county business/developer interests have helped turn this so-called “Shoppingtown” into a local crime haven.  Residents from all over the region routinely pan Wheaton Mall as a hangout for thugs, juvenile delinquents, and their groupies.  On top of the constant reports of shoplifting/thefts and other crimes that happen around the mall regularly, we have high-profile shootings, stabbings and gang displays at the mall that bring notoriety to the area and ward off many customers with higher disposable incomes.

Moving the police station to downtown Wheaton could help lower crime and disorder in the business district overall.  Ultimately, open-minded residents from surrounding areas would find Wheaton more welcoming for running errands, shopping, and dining.  This would potentially counter the creeping retail blight that has been afflicting Wheaton in recent years.

Many south-central county residents seem frustrated with the course of Wheaton “redevelopment.”  Does anybody have an inside line as far as what the Wheaton Kensington Chamber of Commerce, the Wheaton Redevelopment Advisory Committee (WRAC), and other controlling business/development interests are really up to?  Much of the information out there seems to be mostly slick packaging and promises.