a/v geeks: how to be a proud american (again)

January 29 movie: A/V Geeks: How to Be a Proud American (Again). We celebrated my birthday tonight at A/V Geeks, and I won a dvd! I had an advantage: the show included the amazing psychadelic animated film 200. Which I had seen at a show of his before, and I remembered that he asked a really hard trivia question about it: "what objects come out of the cornucopia?" Well I watched for the cornucopia and I payed close attention and lucky me, he asked the same question. After the show one of the regulars said she thought I had cheated, which I think was totally uncalled for. It's not like I went through Skip's things to find out the question. I was just lucky enough to have seen and remembered that show in Hillsborough a couple of years ago. She has the consolation that he'll probably never ask that question again; it was really obvious that I was ready for it. My hand shot up as soon as he said "cornucopia" and when he gave me the dvd he said, "I didn't ask that question before, did I?" To which I had to reply "Yes you did!"

200 is freaky and trippy and well worth watching. Sorry for the heavily pixelated video, it was all I could find:

So the theme of the show was "How to Be a Proud American (Again)" and the movies were all about patriotism and civics. There was a WWII era short of simple sing-alongs of patriotic songs. It included this crazy song that we heard on satellite radio last Christmas, "He's My Uncle Sam." It goes "I'm his nephew, he's my uncle, I'm as proud as I can be! And my sisters and my brothers and my cousins by the dozens, share that pride with me." I have to track that song down before my 4th of July show this year.

I didn't sing along with that first one, but I did sing along with the Schoolhouse Rock cartoon that does the preamble to the Constitution in song. I remember that cartoon so fondly. It's the only reason I know the preamble to the Constitution, in fact.

Then there were several shorts for kids, telling them how to be good citizens. For the most part that means following the rules and being considerate of others. I was impressed with a movie from 1951 -- from that time period I expected the message to be all about conformity. But several times the film encouraged kids to play on their own, think about their own ideas and their own way to do things. I don't think they used the word "innovation" but they were clearly suggesting that was the benefit of exploring new ideas.

Also there was a thoughtful short about a family in the 1950s who aren't poor, but don't have enough money for a Thanksgiving turkey. Instead of moping about Thanksgiving being ruined, they all think about the things they have to be thankful for. It was nice, especially the father who thinks about his freedom to vote, to express his opinions and not to be afraid when someone knocks at the door. That seemed like a jab at the Soviet Union.