Post by Deleted on Jun 29, 2014 13:40:39 GMT -5
Just press the button!
<<< Rewind
It's just a small, kind act.
It's not important if you do and it's not important if you don't but it doesn't take much effort and they ask you nice enough.
It's gone now, that's for sure. The progression in our world has erased the need to be kind...and rewind. Who'd miss it? The quality is better now, smaller format, bigger screens, 1's and 0's, lazers, the future, A mountain of black plastic piled to the clouds, seconds saved and virtually nothing was missed. In a few years no one will remember the old rental store meme.
In the intricate patterns of chaos, the loss of this little chore couldn't affect that much, right? So insignificant that the path of humanity can't be changed by the disappearance of one little button, right? In the other infinite chasms of the world, this one little stitch of a repetition could hardly be considered a compelling force within life and death...right?
<<<Rewind
I, John Gable have a plan. It is just a small idea but plant the seed deep and it will grow in and around the structures, stealing the energy and forever engulfing the system. It will be the new mantra to the lost masses who beg for an answer. The very many who need to believe that someone knows the secrets to life. Motivational Speakers, Cult Leaders, Preachers, Philosophers, and Revolutionaries all messiahs to anyone asking. I got a crowd waiting for me in fact.
I have my slick navy blue suit because that tells them success. Not touching my hair to let them know in my success; I get to be me. I also am going to have a mic on the stand instead of a traditional ear piece because I feel it goes along better with the 'feel'.
The trick was to establish the idea that I was JUST out of reach so they could believe that success was at their finger tips and when they ask that question that everyone must ask at least once in their lives to be connected spiritually with the rest of the suffering world, “What's the answer?”...I will walk from behind a black curtain to a roaring applause because they will bother to be nice for an undisclosed amount of time for 'the answer'...Well, of course I advertised it as a WCF surprise event but that does not change who they are and how for they will go before realizing they have been bamboozled but hopefully by then they will be too wrapped up in the point where they will forgive this clever little ruse because even on the poster I promised them an 'answer'.
The stage was a straight black with a small titantron hanging over it that said a simple, three word phrase "Be Kind, Rewind”. The audience sat in typical fold out chairs because they needed to stay uncomfortable to stay open minded. The rows stretched out into the darkness. I remain collected as I approached the microphone. I noticed as I walked closer to the mic, the applauding slowly died. It was a different feeling having people waiting to hear what you had to say. I eventually reached the microphone as the final claps died out leaving me in total silence. I stared out to the crowd, waiting a moment before speaking. Step one: Recognize their fear...
John Gable:...The world is a scary place. Feels like it is getting worse everyday and that there is no hope in sight. Everyone you trusted are gone or turned against you, no love from the top floor and no respect from the bottom. You think you are on the edge of collapse but no one seems to care and you think almost everyone hates you.
I could spy a few nods from the crowds as they listened close, the others still silently wait. I must dig deeper...
John Gable: You try and try but you feel it is going nowhere and that it must be a conspiracy, that the sequences of events you have faced in your life had to be orchestrated by people behind the scenes and that there is no way you could possibly live in a world that cruel. People are hostile and you feel you get spat at everywhere you go and at the end of the day you are so tired and worn out that you look up to the sky and ask God...Why? Why is everything so broken and why does no one seem to care? Why does everything seem to pile on me and why does terrible things happen to the ones I love...And you wait in silence hoping God will respond but he doesn't. You scream up “Just tell me the answer! If you are real, I want to know. I don't feel like playing this stupid game, spare me the dramatics and let me live!”...But my friends, God is never going to reply because he simply does not exist. The reason life is so shitty is because of a long long chain of events that cause many other chains of terrible terrible events.
I paused for a moment to let my words sink in. I could see the rest the crowd begin to nod or ponder waiting for it, waiting for what actually might be the answer to their problems...So it would seem. I pulled the mic of the stand and moved the stand to the side of the stage before returning to the center so I could have the freedom to move around a bit. Because that is what they want to see, someone who is free to move. I gaze out for a moment, admiring the size of the crowd. I love my job...
John Gable: All through out history there has been the asshole and for most of my history I have been a part of this pathetically prestigious group as they pillaged and raped through time like one big glob of “Fuck you!” thinking that the world and everyone in it is disposable. From the Rapists around the street corner to the war criminals in Africa creating children assassins for his control over a bomb-able sized land. And also to include the creators of said bomb, shame on you no matter who you think you are. Albert Einstein is an asshole!
Slightly out of character to swear in such a setting but again, gotta drive home the fact that this was my stage and that no decency police were going to come after me or them.
John Gable: Not only just those people but fuck the shit stirrers, fuck the attention hoggers, fuck the ego strokers and fuck everyone who thinks they matter more than someone else because at the end of the day we all must die.
The crowd let out a small collection of gasps as I finished the last line with a little more force than I was hoping but I smiled kindly and tried to correct the addressing of the fear in a more humorous manner.
John Gable: Could you imagine if they found a cure for death? What more reason do you need to be an asshole than that?
I laughed so the audience laughed with me. Laughter was always a good sign that you had some control within the people that they are willing to chuckle at something that isn't all that funny. But that is where the humor ended. You have to stay on top of people and keep them thinking more than laughing if you are going to convince them you are serious.
John Gable: You'd have nothing to worry about because you'd live forever and so your one and only inevitable fear about life was taken away. The beauty in life would cease having meaning and everything would suddenly become mechanical. But that is where we are aiming, right? We are trying to move towards a world of convenience, to make everything much shorter and less frustrating even in the most minute areas. The regular human being prefers a life with as few disruptions as possible. We want to get to the meat of it as soon as possible. We are not obliged to do even the littlest bit of work to get there and I fear that is the problem...
Always pause before 'the answer'. Force them to see the edge of the cliff and fear that the last bit may never come to stop them from falling. Force them onto the edge of their seats! Then continue but don't reach the point quite yet, still needs a little more set up. Get them away from the cliff for a bit and remind them about the other times people have told them they had these false answers.
John Gable: Anyone remember the clever little idea, Pay it forward?
The audience remained silent, trying not to affirm what they did or didn't know.
John Gable: It was a nice idea based on the structure of a meme. An idea that spreads like a disease basically. What it tried to do was make people do good things by using the guidance of a good thing happening to them. It is a very nice gesture that is subtle enough to get inside someone's head but the problem is no one is obliged to follow it. It bases off the hope that people in a show of good faith will want to spread what they feel but no one is asked to persay and when certain people don't have to then that is where the chain dies.
I placed a hand over my heart and bowed my head with a shake, it was a tragedy in the grand scheme of the private sector of 'improvement'...But after a short silence, I lift my chin high and get a little more movement going as the people remained in their uncomfortable steel chairs.
John Gable: But it's not bad that it happened. Now we know where we need to improve. People need to feel obliged a little before they do that incredible act. People have to actively think outside the instant response of “I don't want to do it” and replace it with “I should do it”. You have to reach in and pull them out of their caves of “just me”. With our society of instantaneous arrival, we have lost patience and obligation. It use to be that people had to pump their own water and it use to take time, it use to be that we had to adjust the antennas on a television set to get just a few channels and that took tedious concentration...it use to be if you rented a tape, that there would be a sticker on it that said a simple phrase...Be kind, rewind.
The titantron above began flashing that simple phrase and the audience felt compelled to applaud once again, further proving I had control like a true performer. I raised my hands so that the applause would die down and I could continue speaking.
John Gable: Be kind, rewind. What it asks of you is not terribly difficult or strenuous. You just have to take the little extra step to be considerate and just press the button. It would save everyone else time and they have already asked. I am not saying lets go back to days of VHS and black and white televisions. I am just saying now we don't have the care for things that we use to. We don't have the energy or the motivation to reach beyond ourselves. We have weakened our minds to short cuts and to thinking we deserve things, but we deserve nothing we aren't willing to work towards ourselves. Society has gone done hill so far because we don't want to remain self-efficient. I am not talking about abandoning the poor or questioning support from others. I am saying that we depend on too much to do things for us that we sit back and let the work be done for us. Maybe I am asking for a quixotic solution here but only because chivalry is what we are missing. The feeling that we should do something overcoming the scam of “it is easier if we did this...”. My Grandpa use to say, “I should be able to leave a hundred dollar bill on my lawn and no one should touch it” but even I know that is being idealistic.
The crowd laughed again as I smiled, letting them return to a less tense state of mind so they are more allowing when I return to the point...I took another gaze out to the audience with the microphone by my side. I used the microphone to prove the point that I could easily have an ear piece with a small mic leading down to my mouth but I wanted to have it in my hands, to use that little but of more trouble to work harder into my justification.
John Gable: What I am saying is that we need to go out of our way to do the right thing nowadays because our laziness and our short cuts will beget and beget and beget until everyone only believes these are the ways you have to go. Recreate and be better and let people know you try harder because if you try harder then they will feel the shame of being lesser and they will try harder.
The words on the titantron fade and is replaced with a picture of Chase Michaels.
John Gable: Take my opponent for example...Supposedly I am the bad guy in all this and I should be booed every time I come out even though I have done nothing wrong! Everything that has happened to Chase on my behalf was in my own ability to do so. Chase likes to give this old school vibe of being a real man and that he is tough nosed and hard working but he is the bastardization of chivalry. He is the kind of person that takes it ans aims it outwards towards everyone else and thinks he is the shining knight in armor but he is the one composing sneak attacks on me, getting himself thrown out of the building and arrested. He is the one hanging with such questionable people when I am the one trying to better myself and join the ranks of more respectable company. Chase is the man who would take the cure from death and leave everyone else on the outside if he could. Chase, you could live forever and that could be a claim to fame but it doesn't mean you are worth anymore than you were...if such a thing were possible...for I know the truth about eternal life.
The audience, quite familiar with the story I am telling since they were indeed WCF fans that I gathered (know your audience), were on the edge of their seats waiting for another truth...
John Gable: Karma doesn't die either for then you will sit in your empty kingdom on your dirty thrown because everyone you loved was driven away and everyone you ruled died off from your cancerous breath. You will be left with a burning Earth because you were too short sighted to see that your lighting of a flame has spread to every brain in every home because idiocy bears idiocy and even in a world with a cure for death; there is no cure for poison that corrodes the soul.
The tension was high now. It was time to prove what I was made of and hook the people once and for all.
John Gable: But another point of “Be kind, rewind” is to actively work at forgiving others. Place the clock back and acknowledge the effort and ignore the reaction to explode. Make the world you want to live in. I will be the better man...I forgive you, Mr. Michaels. You are just a simple human and I know that so I will reach out for you instead of hoping for the other way around. You might be the scum of the earth in my opinion and everything wrong with WCF, hell you seem to only be here for the money, you hang out with terrible people and you do terrible things, your girlfriends a bitch and you probably have herpes...
I shake myself out of this train of thought before I lose myself and the crowd loses me...
John Gable: But, I forgive you. I will press the button and be kind and rewind. I will be the first to better the world and I will hold no shame to you because that would not promote my message or credibility. I am not trying to shame or rage at anyone anymore but I still find myself in the same spot I started, hated, tired, angry and opposed to the evils. I will not give anyone the chance to tear me down but I will not lift my hands to block the punches because if I block one then I know two more will come after me. I will not let someone diminish my value but I will not stop them from spitting on me because if I dodge, they will say to me, “you scared of a little spit”...I am not, so I will not move. I will not let them erase the work of good people but I will not stop them from putting up monuments to the evil because there is no way to stop the men that build them or hide the stones that make them or drain the cement that holds them.
There was a few woos and yelps of agreement from the crowd but there was still an overtone of silence as I commanded the stage with a booming presence.
John Gable: Because the important part to remember is that we are human and we get angry and that we do dumb things but everyone does dumb things so no one is different in that respect, that is why I am here. I am done trying to destroy the evil in men because it is just as necessary as the good in them. Their sins only quantify if I do not let out the exaltation in me. I am exhausted from trying to stop trains that go no where and I am tired of putting out the fires that burn everything so I will stop getting in the way of disgusting people and instead use my energy and effort to push further the few good there is in us all. And maybe with enough effort and passion, we will be able, even if only for a short time (for that is all we would need to prove we can do it), to get ahead of the dark shadows of historical giants and prove that life is not shit but it is people who are and people can be changed. I want you to sing a little song with me that I want you to remember in hard times when you feel like just saying “be kind, rewind” just won't help...
Life is cruel
But man is crueler,
He steals the face
of someone cooler
he hangs with all the groovers
so we'll be blinded
by the shakers and movers...
So, just keep dancing 'til we're off stage
just keep dancing 'til we're all the rage.
Or they'll tear us the fuck apart
They'll break us down...before we start.
The crowd sang back timidly at first but then rose to the occasion as endorphins filled my body. It was a little song by Amanda Sonet. One of my favorites and I have devoted myself to help her memory stay alive long after her.
John Gable: What keeps people from being good is the fact that people don't expect them to be. We let our expectations go down so far that it is virtually impossible to raise them again, though that might just be the foot of a bastard god as he spies out of the corner of his eye what we are trying to do, much like Chase Michaels. But in all truth all we would need to do is pull because no foot is cemented to the ground and there is no body that can't be overpowered. It might seem too difficult but that is just because your muscles are in atrophy, it might seem useless but that is because you lack perspective and it might seem utopian to hope for something like this but in all honesty if we are not hoping for a better world then it is not a world I want to live in and the only reason it is ever considered wrong because we are cheated by all the Chase Michaels of the world and are given the belief it is no use being good. I will not stand by and let MY world be ran by all the Michaels I don't trust. I will not let people tear down others because they are too weak, because it is the weak that make up the reasons to live. I will not let the bastard god keep his foot on the progress because I am just as godly and just as determined as any bastard on this planet and if you really want a fight with me then I will die swinging because either way I win, I either fix wrongs or I will be dead and away from the sickness.
I coughed to denote the last line for it wouldn't have seemed appropriate to leave a pause there.
John Gable: Now, I will be injured and I will be hated by many and they will make me out to be crazy but it is that pain that beauty is created from and it is when we fall that we learn to continue climbing. Make the effort and the world has no choice but to notice. Make the plan and the world will be shocked. You are not measured by the size of your screen or the quality of your picture. You are judged by the distance you continue wrong after you want to stop and by the love you give. All I need to do is ask and you will feel obliged...So please, when you have the chance to do so and maybe it starts out a little thing which I hope in the end will grow to be a bigger deal, I ask you, I am the sticker on the VHS tape that reminds you, think about it, reach out to the button and “Be kind, rewind”...
I placed the mic on the stand again and walked out passed the black curtain as they stood and applauded as they forgot why they were here and that they hated me so...the success of a salesman.
<<<Rewind
I was still devastated about the loss of Amanda but I decided sitting around and sulking about it was the worst possible thing. I had been reading “Slaughterhouse-Five” by Kurt Vonnegut again and it struck me hard when he mentioned how even if they are dead in the end, they were still alive in all the other moments in life...Something I think Amanda would approve off. I helped pay the funeral cost but did not stay long. I waited for the preacher to begin talking before walking out because even though her mother was a nice sensible catholic, I knew the truth of Amanda's belief and mine. There was no room for such things so I would be the first to truly honor her memory and start enjoying life as soon as possible.
Though with the costs of the funeral, I found myself short what I owed Tom Hardy and the day had come where I had to face dooms day and admit he owned my little film and that in that he owned me and my future.
I was inside the editing suite that an editor friend had set up for himself a part of a whole independent studio building with my phone off when I was interrupted in the middle of my work by a knock on the door. I gritted my teeth as I stood up from my seat. My concentration had been interrupted and it would take me forever to get back into the zone when time was most definitely the factor. I opened the door to see and intern shaking in his shoes as he timidly alerted me there was a call on line two from Mr. Brad Pitt.
John Gable: You couldn't have told him I was out?! I was working on something very important and I was hoping to get it done sometime in this life! What good are you as an intern if you can't even follow simple unspoken protocol in Hollywood when someone is busy, you piece of monkey shit!!! God, I swear all your interns are the most useless people alive.
I slammed the door in his face and made my way over to the silly land line phone then held in the button for line two as I lifted it off the receiver.
John Gable: Hello?
There was silence before I heard Brad Pitt start in on a cackling...
Brad Pitt: haha...hahahaha...HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
And so on...I hear this laughs in my nightmares now on the rare occasion when I do fall asleep. I was caught by the Hollywood monster and I was moments from being swallowed. When did life get so hard? It use to be so much easier to maneuver around everything but now I am stuck in this shitty instance. I wish I could get unstuck in time and view the better points of my life right now much like the tralfamadorians would suggest. Sometimes I wish I could just press a button...
<<<Rewind...[ ] Stop!
<<< Rewind
It's just a small, kind act.
It's not important if you do and it's not important if you don't but it doesn't take much effort and they ask you nice enough.
It's gone now, that's for sure. The progression in our world has erased the need to be kind...and rewind. Who'd miss it? The quality is better now, smaller format, bigger screens, 1's and 0's, lazers, the future, A mountain of black plastic piled to the clouds, seconds saved and virtually nothing was missed. In a few years no one will remember the old rental store meme.
In the intricate patterns of chaos, the loss of this little chore couldn't affect that much, right? So insignificant that the path of humanity can't be changed by the disappearance of one little button, right? In the other infinite chasms of the world, this one little stitch of a repetition could hardly be considered a compelling force within life and death...right?
<<<Rewind
I, John Gable have a plan. It is just a small idea but plant the seed deep and it will grow in and around the structures, stealing the energy and forever engulfing the system. It will be the new mantra to the lost masses who beg for an answer. The very many who need to believe that someone knows the secrets to life. Motivational Speakers, Cult Leaders, Preachers, Philosophers, and Revolutionaries all messiahs to anyone asking. I got a crowd waiting for me in fact.
I have my slick navy blue suit because that tells them success. Not touching my hair to let them know in my success; I get to be me. I also am going to have a mic on the stand instead of a traditional ear piece because I feel it goes along better with the 'feel'.
The trick was to establish the idea that I was JUST out of reach so they could believe that success was at their finger tips and when they ask that question that everyone must ask at least once in their lives to be connected spiritually with the rest of the suffering world, “What's the answer?”...I will walk from behind a black curtain to a roaring applause because they will bother to be nice for an undisclosed amount of time for 'the answer'...Well, of course I advertised it as a WCF surprise event but that does not change who they are and how for they will go before realizing they have been bamboozled but hopefully by then they will be too wrapped up in the point where they will forgive this clever little ruse because even on the poster I promised them an 'answer'.
The stage was a straight black with a small titantron hanging over it that said a simple, three word phrase "Be Kind, Rewind”. The audience sat in typical fold out chairs because they needed to stay uncomfortable to stay open minded. The rows stretched out into the darkness. I remain collected as I approached the microphone. I noticed as I walked closer to the mic, the applauding slowly died. It was a different feeling having people waiting to hear what you had to say. I eventually reached the microphone as the final claps died out leaving me in total silence. I stared out to the crowd, waiting a moment before speaking. Step one: Recognize their fear...
John Gable:...The world is a scary place. Feels like it is getting worse everyday and that there is no hope in sight. Everyone you trusted are gone or turned against you, no love from the top floor and no respect from the bottom. You think you are on the edge of collapse but no one seems to care and you think almost everyone hates you.
I could spy a few nods from the crowds as they listened close, the others still silently wait. I must dig deeper...
John Gable: You try and try but you feel it is going nowhere and that it must be a conspiracy, that the sequences of events you have faced in your life had to be orchestrated by people behind the scenes and that there is no way you could possibly live in a world that cruel. People are hostile and you feel you get spat at everywhere you go and at the end of the day you are so tired and worn out that you look up to the sky and ask God...Why? Why is everything so broken and why does no one seem to care? Why does everything seem to pile on me and why does terrible things happen to the ones I love...And you wait in silence hoping God will respond but he doesn't. You scream up “Just tell me the answer! If you are real, I want to know. I don't feel like playing this stupid game, spare me the dramatics and let me live!”...But my friends, God is never going to reply because he simply does not exist. The reason life is so shitty is because of a long long chain of events that cause many other chains of terrible terrible events.
I paused for a moment to let my words sink in. I could see the rest the crowd begin to nod or ponder waiting for it, waiting for what actually might be the answer to their problems...So it would seem. I pulled the mic of the stand and moved the stand to the side of the stage before returning to the center so I could have the freedom to move around a bit. Because that is what they want to see, someone who is free to move. I gaze out for a moment, admiring the size of the crowd. I love my job...
John Gable: All through out history there has been the asshole and for most of my history I have been a part of this pathetically prestigious group as they pillaged and raped through time like one big glob of “Fuck you!” thinking that the world and everyone in it is disposable. From the Rapists around the street corner to the war criminals in Africa creating children assassins for his control over a bomb-able sized land. And also to include the creators of said bomb, shame on you no matter who you think you are. Albert Einstein is an asshole!
Slightly out of character to swear in such a setting but again, gotta drive home the fact that this was my stage and that no decency police were going to come after me or them.
John Gable: Not only just those people but fuck the shit stirrers, fuck the attention hoggers, fuck the ego strokers and fuck everyone who thinks they matter more than someone else because at the end of the day we all must die.
The crowd let out a small collection of gasps as I finished the last line with a little more force than I was hoping but I smiled kindly and tried to correct the addressing of the fear in a more humorous manner.
John Gable: Could you imagine if they found a cure for death? What more reason do you need to be an asshole than that?
I laughed so the audience laughed with me. Laughter was always a good sign that you had some control within the people that they are willing to chuckle at something that isn't all that funny. But that is where the humor ended. You have to stay on top of people and keep them thinking more than laughing if you are going to convince them you are serious.
John Gable: You'd have nothing to worry about because you'd live forever and so your one and only inevitable fear about life was taken away. The beauty in life would cease having meaning and everything would suddenly become mechanical. But that is where we are aiming, right? We are trying to move towards a world of convenience, to make everything much shorter and less frustrating even in the most minute areas. The regular human being prefers a life with as few disruptions as possible. We want to get to the meat of it as soon as possible. We are not obliged to do even the littlest bit of work to get there and I fear that is the problem...
Always pause before 'the answer'. Force them to see the edge of the cliff and fear that the last bit may never come to stop them from falling. Force them onto the edge of their seats! Then continue but don't reach the point quite yet, still needs a little more set up. Get them away from the cliff for a bit and remind them about the other times people have told them they had these false answers.
John Gable: Anyone remember the clever little idea, Pay it forward?
The audience remained silent, trying not to affirm what they did or didn't know.
John Gable: It was a nice idea based on the structure of a meme. An idea that spreads like a disease basically. What it tried to do was make people do good things by using the guidance of a good thing happening to them. It is a very nice gesture that is subtle enough to get inside someone's head but the problem is no one is obliged to follow it. It bases off the hope that people in a show of good faith will want to spread what they feel but no one is asked to persay and when certain people don't have to then that is where the chain dies.
I placed a hand over my heart and bowed my head with a shake, it was a tragedy in the grand scheme of the private sector of 'improvement'...But after a short silence, I lift my chin high and get a little more movement going as the people remained in their uncomfortable steel chairs.
John Gable: But it's not bad that it happened. Now we know where we need to improve. People need to feel obliged a little before they do that incredible act. People have to actively think outside the instant response of “I don't want to do it” and replace it with “I should do it”. You have to reach in and pull them out of their caves of “just me”. With our society of instantaneous arrival, we have lost patience and obligation. It use to be that people had to pump their own water and it use to take time, it use to be that we had to adjust the antennas on a television set to get just a few channels and that took tedious concentration...it use to be if you rented a tape, that there would be a sticker on it that said a simple phrase...Be kind, rewind.
The titantron above began flashing that simple phrase and the audience felt compelled to applaud once again, further proving I had control like a true performer. I raised my hands so that the applause would die down and I could continue speaking.
John Gable: Be kind, rewind. What it asks of you is not terribly difficult or strenuous. You just have to take the little extra step to be considerate and just press the button. It would save everyone else time and they have already asked. I am not saying lets go back to days of VHS and black and white televisions. I am just saying now we don't have the care for things that we use to. We don't have the energy or the motivation to reach beyond ourselves. We have weakened our minds to short cuts and to thinking we deserve things, but we deserve nothing we aren't willing to work towards ourselves. Society has gone done hill so far because we don't want to remain self-efficient. I am not talking about abandoning the poor or questioning support from others. I am saying that we depend on too much to do things for us that we sit back and let the work be done for us. Maybe I am asking for a quixotic solution here but only because chivalry is what we are missing. The feeling that we should do something overcoming the scam of “it is easier if we did this...”. My Grandpa use to say, “I should be able to leave a hundred dollar bill on my lawn and no one should touch it” but even I know that is being idealistic.
The crowd laughed again as I smiled, letting them return to a less tense state of mind so they are more allowing when I return to the point...I took another gaze out to the audience with the microphone by my side. I used the microphone to prove the point that I could easily have an ear piece with a small mic leading down to my mouth but I wanted to have it in my hands, to use that little but of more trouble to work harder into my justification.
John Gable: What I am saying is that we need to go out of our way to do the right thing nowadays because our laziness and our short cuts will beget and beget and beget until everyone only believes these are the ways you have to go. Recreate and be better and let people know you try harder because if you try harder then they will feel the shame of being lesser and they will try harder.
The words on the titantron fade and is replaced with a picture of Chase Michaels.
John Gable: Take my opponent for example...Supposedly I am the bad guy in all this and I should be booed every time I come out even though I have done nothing wrong! Everything that has happened to Chase on my behalf was in my own ability to do so. Chase likes to give this old school vibe of being a real man and that he is tough nosed and hard working but he is the bastardization of chivalry. He is the kind of person that takes it ans aims it outwards towards everyone else and thinks he is the shining knight in armor but he is the one composing sneak attacks on me, getting himself thrown out of the building and arrested. He is the one hanging with such questionable people when I am the one trying to better myself and join the ranks of more respectable company. Chase is the man who would take the cure from death and leave everyone else on the outside if he could. Chase, you could live forever and that could be a claim to fame but it doesn't mean you are worth anymore than you were...if such a thing were possible...for I know the truth about eternal life.
The audience, quite familiar with the story I am telling since they were indeed WCF fans that I gathered (know your audience), were on the edge of their seats waiting for another truth...
John Gable: Karma doesn't die either for then you will sit in your empty kingdom on your dirty thrown because everyone you loved was driven away and everyone you ruled died off from your cancerous breath. You will be left with a burning Earth because you were too short sighted to see that your lighting of a flame has spread to every brain in every home because idiocy bears idiocy and even in a world with a cure for death; there is no cure for poison that corrodes the soul.
The tension was high now. It was time to prove what I was made of and hook the people once and for all.
John Gable: But another point of “Be kind, rewind” is to actively work at forgiving others. Place the clock back and acknowledge the effort and ignore the reaction to explode. Make the world you want to live in. I will be the better man...I forgive you, Mr. Michaels. You are just a simple human and I know that so I will reach out for you instead of hoping for the other way around. You might be the scum of the earth in my opinion and everything wrong with WCF, hell you seem to only be here for the money, you hang out with terrible people and you do terrible things, your girlfriends a bitch and you probably have herpes...
I shake myself out of this train of thought before I lose myself and the crowd loses me...
John Gable: But, I forgive you. I will press the button and be kind and rewind. I will be the first to better the world and I will hold no shame to you because that would not promote my message or credibility. I am not trying to shame or rage at anyone anymore but I still find myself in the same spot I started, hated, tired, angry and opposed to the evils. I will not give anyone the chance to tear me down but I will not lift my hands to block the punches because if I block one then I know two more will come after me. I will not let someone diminish my value but I will not stop them from spitting on me because if I dodge, they will say to me, “you scared of a little spit”...I am not, so I will not move. I will not let them erase the work of good people but I will not stop them from putting up monuments to the evil because there is no way to stop the men that build them or hide the stones that make them or drain the cement that holds them.
There was a few woos and yelps of agreement from the crowd but there was still an overtone of silence as I commanded the stage with a booming presence.
John Gable: Because the important part to remember is that we are human and we get angry and that we do dumb things but everyone does dumb things so no one is different in that respect, that is why I am here. I am done trying to destroy the evil in men because it is just as necessary as the good in them. Their sins only quantify if I do not let out the exaltation in me. I am exhausted from trying to stop trains that go no where and I am tired of putting out the fires that burn everything so I will stop getting in the way of disgusting people and instead use my energy and effort to push further the few good there is in us all. And maybe with enough effort and passion, we will be able, even if only for a short time (for that is all we would need to prove we can do it), to get ahead of the dark shadows of historical giants and prove that life is not shit but it is people who are and people can be changed. I want you to sing a little song with me that I want you to remember in hard times when you feel like just saying “be kind, rewind” just won't help...
Life is cruel
But man is crueler,
He steals the face
of someone cooler
he hangs with all the groovers
so we'll be blinded
by the shakers and movers...
So, just keep dancing 'til we're off stage
just keep dancing 'til we're all the rage.
Or they'll tear us the fuck apart
They'll break us down...before we start.
The crowd sang back timidly at first but then rose to the occasion as endorphins filled my body. It was a little song by Amanda Sonet. One of my favorites and I have devoted myself to help her memory stay alive long after her.
John Gable: What keeps people from being good is the fact that people don't expect them to be. We let our expectations go down so far that it is virtually impossible to raise them again, though that might just be the foot of a bastard god as he spies out of the corner of his eye what we are trying to do, much like Chase Michaels. But in all truth all we would need to do is pull because no foot is cemented to the ground and there is no body that can't be overpowered. It might seem too difficult but that is just because your muscles are in atrophy, it might seem useless but that is because you lack perspective and it might seem utopian to hope for something like this but in all honesty if we are not hoping for a better world then it is not a world I want to live in and the only reason it is ever considered wrong because we are cheated by all the Chase Michaels of the world and are given the belief it is no use being good. I will not stand by and let MY world be ran by all the Michaels I don't trust. I will not let people tear down others because they are too weak, because it is the weak that make up the reasons to live. I will not let the bastard god keep his foot on the progress because I am just as godly and just as determined as any bastard on this planet and if you really want a fight with me then I will die swinging because either way I win, I either fix wrongs or I will be dead and away from the sickness.
I coughed to denote the last line for it wouldn't have seemed appropriate to leave a pause there.
John Gable: Now, I will be injured and I will be hated by many and they will make me out to be crazy but it is that pain that beauty is created from and it is when we fall that we learn to continue climbing. Make the effort and the world has no choice but to notice. Make the plan and the world will be shocked. You are not measured by the size of your screen or the quality of your picture. You are judged by the distance you continue wrong after you want to stop and by the love you give. All I need to do is ask and you will feel obliged...So please, when you have the chance to do so and maybe it starts out a little thing which I hope in the end will grow to be a bigger deal, I ask you, I am the sticker on the VHS tape that reminds you, think about it, reach out to the button and “Be kind, rewind”...
I placed the mic on the stand again and walked out passed the black curtain as they stood and applauded as they forgot why they were here and that they hated me so...the success of a salesman.
<<<Rewind
I was still devastated about the loss of Amanda but I decided sitting around and sulking about it was the worst possible thing. I had been reading “Slaughterhouse-Five” by Kurt Vonnegut again and it struck me hard when he mentioned how even if they are dead in the end, they were still alive in all the other moments in life...Something I think Amanda would approve off. I helped pay the funeral cost but did not stay long. I waited for the preacher to begin talking before walking out because even though her mother was a nice sensible catholic, I knew the truth of Amanda's belief and mine. There was no room for such things so I would be the first to truly honor her memory and start enjoying life as soon as possible.
Though with the costs of the funeral, I found myself short what I owed Tom Hardy and the day had come where I had to face dooms day and admit he owned my little film and that in that he owned me and my future.
I was inside the editing suite that an editor friend had set up for himself a part of a whole independent studio building with my phone off when I was interrupted in the middle of my work by a knock on the door. I gritted my teeth as I stood up from my seat. My concentration had been interrupted and it would take me forever to get back into the zone when time was most definitely the factor. I opened the door to see and intern shaking in his shoes as he timidly alerted me there was a call on line two from Mr. Brad Pitt.
John Gable: You couldn't have told him I was out?! I was working on something very important and I was hoping to get it done sometime in this life! What good are you as an intern if you can't even follow simple unspoken protocol in Hollywood when someone is busy, you piece of monkey shit!!! God, I swear all your interns are the most useless people alive.
I slammed the door in his face and made my way over to the silly land line phone then held in the button for line two as I lifted it off the receiver.
John Gable: Hello?
There was silence before I heard Brad Pitt start in on a cackling...
Brad Pitt: haha...hahahaha...HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
And so on...I hear this laughs in my nightmares now on the rare occasion when I do fall asleep. I was caught by the Hollywood monster and I was moments from being swallowed. When did life get so hard? It use to be so much easier to maneuver around everything but now I am stuck in this shitty instance. I wish I could get unstuck in time and view the better points of my life right now much like the tralfamadorians would suggest. Sometimes I wish I could just press a button...
<<<Rewind...[ ] Stop!
