20160128 (cultural relevance)

Fred Newman (sound effects), Tim Russell, Sue Scott, and Garrison Keillor. GK is retiring shortly
having become "culturally irrelevant" to the "18-45 demographic. It's like a practice death for me.

Garrison Keillor explained his

Decision to retire as based on

His failing to keep up with the

Factor of “cultural relevance” 

As determined by authorities

Of NPR. He may be exercising

His gift for irony in that or he

May be perfectly right. I don’t

Encounter many young people

Who recognize the name and

Encounter many who give me

Odd looks when I tell them

Who he is and what he’s done.

That may be my problem of

Limited survey choices. Still

I raise the topic because I feel

The same. Were you to consider

My interests and those of the 

Eighteen to forty-five demographic

The picture would be something

Very like those cartoons of a

May-December union of a perky

Twenty-something sitting at an

Elegant breakfast table with an

Accomplished eighty-year-old

Commercial wizard who asks

Her deferentially, “What would

You like this morning, my dear, 

Women’s pages, comics, or

The ‘Teen Beat’ I saw you reading

Last night?” I sense this fault in

The generational landscape every

Time I ask the clerks at the 

Supermarket to tell me what

Group was singing on the PA.

First they remove their ear buds,

Ask me, “Wha?” and when I 

Restate the query they shake

Their head replying, “Don’

Know, man, before my time.”

Dave’s plays a mix of oldies

But goodies and more recent

Music. Apparently the “more

Recent” is what they mean by

“Before my time,” so I figure

Anytime soon the Johnny Cash

And Conway Twitty will cease

To feature and be replaced by

Other stuff I overlooked in the ‘80s.

I felt so out of it during the 

Mourning of David Bowie 

Recently when I realized that

The song I only knew as “Major

Tom” is actually titled “Space

Oddity” and I was pressed to

Name another Bowie classic.

Press all I might, my command

Of pop music titles was as bereft

Of content as an empty pimple.

“Got to stay current,” I vowed

To no one in particular. I’ll have

To make it on charm. All my buzz

Has long since faded to silence

And I still haven’t read all of

Shakespeare’s plays.

c. J.S.Manista, 2016