We've all heard the pitch during those persistent PBS calls for money. With a congregational chorus of solicitors in the background, chirpy hosts remind us of the value to our local PBS stations. And they're right. Only not always for the reasons they report....!
If you're looking for top quality news journalism, children's programming and culinary excursions, this is the place. Possibly the only place left in the great and growing cultural wasteland that is television. However, upon closer examination, PBS's greatest contribution may be the way it has learned to master the minutes and miles of our lives. The minutes of lost time, and the miles of other lands. They do it with music.
Take the musical ways they allow us to transcend time. I'm thinking of those remember-when concerts with the singers and singing groups from the 50s, 60s and 70s. In other ages, folks had to recall the songs-of-their-youth in the privacy of their nostalgia. Nothing wrong with that, but now PBS brings all this back to life. Right there in front of graying audiences who cheer to the sights and sounds of their old favorites.
Okay, their favorites look their age as they try to hit the high notes of their old Hit Parade best-sellers. But the audiences are just as old, and just as happy to be re-living their youth with the singers they once danced and fell in love to. When some of us at home watch these 2-hour trips through the labyrinths of young love, we tingle with a few long forgotten tingles. And perhaps we pick up the phone and make that pledge the hosts are chirping about.
Along with the minutes are the miles.
I'm thinking those recurring musical concerts PBS offers from far-off lands. International singing stars from European cathedrals, Tuscany mountainside, Irish music halls, Swiss and Bavarian castles. Your network and cable stations aren't taking their cameras there anytime soon. Instead, they fill out their schedules with more pop music award shows than -- well, then there is good pop music! One wonders how can 20-30 award shows a year X two hours each find enough really award-worthy singers? The answer is, they can't So they just keep trotting out many of the same over-and-over-again favorites padded with a few never-to-be-heard-again bummers.
To be sure, the law of hypocrisy demands that someone like me put up or shut up. So I pledge. Not a lot, but just enough to help PBS keep mastering the minutes and miles of my little life. And whattayaknow -- you get a PBS sticker to show for it!
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In other ages, folks had to recall the songs-of-their-youth in the privacy of their nostalgia. Nothing wrong with that, but now PBS brings all this back to life.
ReplyDeleteThis is my favorite part of PBS! I find myself taking that trip down memory lane...especially with the concerts. I travel many "miles" with these shows! I guess the only down side is when I see some of the performers as they look TODAY, I think, what happened?...they were just 21 yesterday....and so was I!
Now there's the wisdom that is nostalgia....! Too many folks consider PBS nostalgia self-indulgent sentimentality. Personally, like you, I find the trips not only touch my heart but teach my head. About youth... aging...life lived...and life not lived. Some viewers turn these concerts off as GUSH. But sometime gush is good!
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