RTP-area local music and culture

[Kevin Darbro <kdarbro AT nc.rr.com>]

I remember the last time "Song of the South" showed in Indianapolis. It was
in the early Eighties, and the reason I remember it playing is A) I saw it,
and B) It was listed in the paper and on the marquee as rated 'R'. No
kidding.

Being the precocious young teen I was, I called Lowes Theater on Georgetown
Rd. by Lafayette Square Mall to let them know.

I asked them if the theme song had been changed to "Unzippedy-doo-dah" and
hence the 'R' rating.

Well, I thought it was funny at the time.

I have no idea if they intentionally were trying to make a statement with
the 'R', but in the following weeks, it changed to 'G' in both places.

- Kevin


On 5/13/06 4:34 PM, "Bryk" <chscene AT bryk.com> wrote:

> So this whole zipadeedoodah thang got the best of my curiosity:
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_of_the_South
> 
> 
> Wow! I had no idea that Disney has not released Song of the South on
> video in the U.S. (although I swear I watched a 16mm afterschool
> print in the school gym around 1979. Mind you, this was suburban
> Toronto.)
> 
> Disney has clearly internally debated over releasing it as a bottom-
> line-versus-potential controversy issue, and no doubt there will be
> much gnashing of teeth over how racist it is, or on the backlash
> right whether or not it even _is_ racist.
> 
> I suspect young American kids today would see right through it to
> what it is--smug, anachronistic nonsense, albeit with a bunch of
> enduringly great tunes. (Does anyone care to debate the intractable
> damage our generation is doing by parking kids in front of the TV to
> watch DVDisneytainment on auto-repeat until they can recite Ariel
> like Shakespearean soliloquy?)
> 
> I guess what I find most awesome about all of this is realizing that
> Song of the South has remained in video circulation in Asia and
> Europe all this time!
> 
> So, while Americans engage in asinine culture warfare as to whether
> or not it's a racist film, EVERYWHERE ELSE we've pretty much
> internalized the glaring fact that America was and remains a racist
> culture. Even though it's no longer as blatantly offensive as in the
> Jim Crow era (ie. when the leading actor of this film did not attend
> the premiere since he couldn't rent a room anywhere near the
> theatre), America was and is built on fundamental economic inequities
> that are self-perpetuating, whether or not those are set to a
> complicitly racist soundtrack (and I find the Gangsta/MTV Cribs world
> to be a transparent minstrelsy, cf. "Bamboozled")
> 
> Therefore we foreigners can smugly enjoy the movie on its own dubious
> merits.  Pass the popcorn!
> 
> dB
> 
> -- ch-scene: the list that mirrors alt.music.chapel-hill --
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ch-scene