"What's your tool?" the motivational speaker in HBO's new show, Hung, asks a group of disenfranchised Detroiters searching for ways to make money. One older man says he offers advice, maybe he could charge for it. Another woman who has lost her Poet in the Schools job says she wants to make bread with poems in it -- lyric loaves. Our protagonist, a washed out baseball player and teacher at the high school he attended, thinks about it and realizes the only thing he has that is exceptional is his big, umm, appendage. I have a friend who calls motivational tapes/seminars/etc. sunshine enemas. I have to laugh because his characterization is correct. He and my sister listen to The Secret audio cds for laughs. The voice and accompanying massage spa music is perfect grounding for such bon mots as "Avert your eyes when you see an obese person. Do not look at that you do not wish to become." Jeez, and I thought it was all those twinkies I was stuffing in my mouth. My mistake.
At any rate, Hung's pilot is funny. The poet finds lyric loaves not to be the money-making endeavor she'd hoped so she agrees to pimp out our protagonist whose first attempt at selling himself is an ad in the Detroit Examiner (a stand-in for the Metro Times)that offers women endless enjoyment with "Big Donnie." He could use a wordsmith and she could use the money. There's an ex-wife, twin children, and a new husband who makes a lot of money, a fire. It seems like the kind of show about lowered expectations and sadness that I enjoy. I've always liked the line we're all in the gutter/ looking at the stars (Oscar Wilde/Chrissy Hynde -- take your pick of source), but I often find myself in the gutter, looking closely at the gutter. There's a lot to be said at being where you are, not where you wish to be. After all, the stars are reflected everywhere, even in the most unlikely places.
Michelle's Spell of the Day
"I can make love disappear/ For my next trick I'll need a volunteer." Warren Zevon
Cocktail Hour
Drinking television show suggestion: Hung
Benedictions and Maledictions
Happy Wednesday!
6 comments:
"What's your tool?" and the show is called Hung?
I won't touch that with a ten-foot pole!
Michelle,
I've heard about this show...sounds funny. I don't have HBO, so I'll have to miss out, just like I did on the Sopranos...oh, well.
Hope your week has been good...take care, Darlin'! :)
It's probably good that the show is not a reality based Detroit show. We may be voiceless but we certainly know how to get some money.
"Hey John, why do you rob banks?"
"Because that's where the money is."
Have you seen that Showtime series with Edie Falco?
http://www.sho.com/site/nursejackie/home.do
I think you'd enjoy it very much.
I'd like to make a Detroit based motivational tape.
"So what do you do when the world is pissing in your eye?"
"fuck 'em"
Hi Doll, saw the pilot and I must say, it was creative. And WM nails it with the industrious ability of a Detroiter. And that guy in the show is a smokin' HOT dude. xoxo
I just got HBO I'll have to check out Hung.
I saw ads for that show and it looked it might be kind of funny. Like Scott, I don't get HBO though.
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