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notes from the exotic South
Aug. 21st, 2006 10:49 amNot owning a TV myself, I am pleased to read the Atlanta Journal Constitution's summary of the new Fox TV series "Vanished," set in Atlanta. The Fox TV executive producer explains why they set the series in Atlanta instead of L.A. (where most of it will, of course, be filmed): "It's totally modern in the way most big cities are, and yet it's sitting on a base of all this mystery. ...There's something a little too bald and sunlit about L.A. It doesn't have the mystery of the South."
"Vanished" actor Gale Harold remarks that Northerners usually misconstrue Southern styles and habits: "It's a much more sophisticated and sensitive way of operating culturally than [the South] is given credit for. It's more European in that it's all more about signs and symbols and image."
Fox Entertainment president Peter Liguori says of the disappearance that begins the premiere episode, "As the case unfolds, a much bigger mystery unravels. It's basically a century-old conspiracy that's uncovered [that] can threaten the course of history."
The "century-old" adjective makes me wince; we in Atlanta are currently offering cultural reparations for the centenary of an Atlanta atrocity, the race riot of September 1906 that has long been remembered by the black community but forgotten as much as possible by the white. An exhibition at Eyedrum alternative art space,"What Color the Dawn," is a creative response to this too long neglected piece of history. (In 2002, it was brought into fresh prominence through a groundbreaking book by Mark Bauerlein, a professor of English at Emory University).
I wish the TV series could explore some less stereotype-reinforcing pieces of contemporary history. One might cite Charles Huntley Nelson's version of Afro-futurism recently showcased at Romo Gallery, or maybe Kevin Sipp will finally finish exhibiting his series on persecuted spiritual visionaries the world over; he is the only other person I know to have seen (independently of me) the parallels between West African practice, Taoist traditions, and Giordano Bruno's version of Renaissance Hermetism. And Sipp has made artwork about all of it, as well as about the shamanistic parallels in African-American music. Nelson, rising much more quickly to national prominence, has reworked such film standards as "Metropolis" and "The Invisible Man" to comment on other things that have been left out of history.
Throw in the North American seat of Drepung Loseling Monastery, and you have a mix of mystery that might even attract the Japanese anime maker spotlighted in Sunday's New York Times. (It is characteristic of the way my life operates that after I posted my essay referring to the symbolic fascinations of Europeans and Americans with Shambala circa 1930, I opened the newspaper to find that the latest episode of a Japanese series previously unknown to me features the dealings with that very topic by political forces that were all too real. Which I had quite forgotten, since Nicholas Roerich was regarded by Washington insiders as a dangerous Red traipsing through Central Asia on Department of Agriculture money.)
"Vanished" actor Gale Harold remarks that Northerners usually misconstrue Southern styles and habits: "It's a much more sophisticated and sensitive way of operating culturally than [the South] is given credit for. It's more European in that it's all more about signs and symbols and image."
Fox Entertainment president Peter Liguori says of the disappearance that begins the premiere episode, "As the case unfolds, a much bigger mystery unravels. It's basically a century-old conspiracy that's uncovered [that] can threaten the course of history."
The "century-old" adjective makes me wince; we in Atlanta are currently offering cultural reparations for the centenary of an Atlanta atrocity, the race riot of September 1906 that has long been remembered by the black community but forgotten as much as possible by the white. An exhibition at Eyedrum alternative art space,"What Color the Dawn," is a creative response to this too long neglected piece of history. (In 2002, it was brought into fresh prominence through a groundbreaking book by Mark Bauerlein, a professor of English at Emory University).
I wish the TV series could explore some less stereotype-reinforcing pieces of contemporary history. One might cite Charles Huntley Nelson's version of Afro-futurism recently showcased at Romo Gallery, or maybe Kevin Sipp will finally finish exhibiting his series on persecuted spiritual visionaries the world over; he is the only other person I know to have seen (independently of me) the parallels between West African practice, Taoist traditions, and Giordano Bruno's version of Renaissance Hermetism. And Sipp has made artwork about all of it, as well as about the shamanistic parallels in African-American music. Nelson, rising much more quickly to national prominence, has reworked such film standards as "Metropolis" and "The Invisible Man" to comment on other things that have been left out of history.
Throw in the North American seat of Drepung Loseling Monastery, and you have a mix of mystery that might even attract the Japanese anime maker spotlighted in Sunday's New York Times. (It is characteristic of the way my life operates that after I posted my essay referring to the symbolic fascinations of Europeans and Americans with Shambala circa 1930, I opened the newspaper to find that the latest episode of a Japanese series previously unknown to me features the dealings with that very topic by political forces that were all too real. Which I had quite forgotten, since Nicholas Roerich was regarded by Washington insiders as a dangerous Red traipsing through Central Asia on Department of Agriculture money.)
