it's over. move to somnia.

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The California Quarter

The 20 semi-finalists for the official California Quarter have been selected and, accoring to the State Librarian (of course we have one; who do you think shows the Board of Equalization where the tax code is shelved?), the Governor wants our input! Us! The people of California! OK, the people of California and anyone else who happens to navigate over to www.ca.gov.

What are the big themes? The usual: gold, miners (well, panners, to be accurate), poppies, redwoods, the Golden Gate Bridge (in the lead with 10 depictions), agriculture, Athena, missions, Yosemite, grizzly bears, and...Hollywood. Um, no.

I may find it a little weird to shoulder in depictions of biotech and aerospace. I may not be a big fan of the design that looks like Microsoft clip-art. And I may be repulsed by the inclusion of ugly-ass fonts. But under no circumstances am I going to back the rolling film strip.

It's not just a cliche.* It's an affront. I don't want my home to be known as The Tacky State, or The Exploitative State, or The State That's Responsible for Giving the Rest of the World the Idea That Everyone Here Is Rich and Shallow (Except the Black People, Who Are Loud and Bad). Hollywood is synonymous in the public mind with falsehood and artistic compromise and cynicism and objectification. Unfortunately, it just might be seen as apt: what better symbol to put on legal tender than that of the industry that appeals to the bottom line (and the lowest common denominator), with nothing so much as pure profit in mind.

California is a large and diverse state; we amuse ourselves with trivia about the state's economy being larger than that of all but four of the world's nations.** Entertainment is an important part of the economy, and should not in itself be dismissable as unworthy of pride. But let's give America something a little less obvious: How many people know that California is the largest state in terms of agricultural production? Why not present a thing of beauty, or of intelligence? Why mar our representation with something so crass and problematic?

To my fellow natives and residents of the Golden State: Say no to Hollywood! Vote for any other design, but please leave the film out of it. Vote early and vote often! And tell your friends! Together, we can ensure that this unimportant non-issue becomes something we can all bitch about. Peace.


*(And an incorrect one at that: the movie industry doesn't even operate out of Hollywood anymore.)

**Those would be the rest of the US, Japan, Germany, and the UK. We've recently surpassed Italy and France.
peachy as always, Mike at 10:06 PM