2000-06-18
Dear Diary:

PeeWee Herman, love god extraordinaire. I *heart* Pee Wee Herman.

Dork-o-meters? everywhere have had near seismic reactions to that confession, I'm guessing. Oh well, as I've said before, there's no secret too dark to reveal at Diaryland, eh.

My kid was born in '78 which means that she had two basic choices in kids' TV. She could watch the earnest, informative and very white bread stuff such as Sesame Street, Mr. Dress Up or Bill Nye Science Guy.

Or ... she got dreck like "Transformers" which was a very cynical show written around a toy, a straight merchandising effort. There were lots of those shows when Jess was a kid.

And then there was Pee Wee.

I am still amazed that something as subversive as Pee Wee made it into mainstream TV.

Pee Wee's Playhouse admitted that it's no simpler being a kid than it is being an adult. Those cut throat moves that folks use in boardrooms? The playground is ground zero for stuff like that, that?s where folks learn the basics of those moves--lots of cruel things happen to kids.

Gawky?  Did someone call Pee Wee gawky? Pee Wee didn't forget any of the business of being a kid, the pain of it as well as the fun of it. He had that goofy, gawky, "I don't quite fit in my skin-ness" we all felt as kids, something I still feel now from time to time in my 50th year. He was a strange brew of bravado, goofiness, spite, empathy, jealousy, smarts, pettiness, loyalty and generosity. He was complicated in a medium that wanted to make everything simple.

Pee Wee challenged stereotypes, but not in the earnest Sesame Street way. Think about Laurence Fishburne as Cowboy Curtis, stomping on both the Roy Rogers AND the "Shaft" ghetto macho thingie simultaneously. That one makes me grin big time.

I am grateful that among the kazillion things that went into the build of my daughter is a very odd man. A man who synthesized a lot of the pop culture of the 1950's and 1960's, the stuff that went into the build of me, and then tipped it on its head.

A man who refused to talk down to children, who produced a show that was so densely layered visually and verbally that it appealed to both adults and children.

I *heart* Pee Wee Herman.

I know, I know, it doesn't get much dorkier than this.

--Marn

Old Drivel - New Drivel


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Want to delve into my sordid past?
She's mellllllllllllllting - Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2012 - Back off, Buble - Monday, Dec. 19, 2011 - Dispersed - Monday, Nov. 28, 2011 - Nothing comes for free - Monday, Nov. 21, 2011 - None of her business - Friday, Nov. 04, 2011 -


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This template is a riff on a design by the truly talented Quinn. Because I'm a html 'tard, I got alot of pity coding to modify it from Ms. Kittay, a woman who can make html roll over, beg, and bring her her slippers. The logo goodness comes from the God of Graphics, the Fuhrer of Fonts, the one, the only El Presidente. I smooch you all. The background image is part of a painting called Higher Calling by Carter Goodrich which graced the cover of the Aug. 3, 1998 issue of The New Yorker Magazine.

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�2000, 2001, 2002 Marn. This is me, dagnabbit. You be you.