Hello Bloggonians! Howdy y'all as we often say in my native North Carolina. Just a little birthday edition, (I turned the big 42 on the 20th), to entertain and inform you this fine morning. Peyton Manning is officially a Denver Bronco now, I suppose. At least if the Broncos beat my Steelers in the playoffs again, we won't get "Tebowed"! The NCAA tournament is down to the Sweet 16, and my beloved Tarheels are still in it, although two of our starting lineup are a bit banged up with wrist injuries. "The Hunger Games" will be opening in theaters on the 23rd also, me and my family have been anxiously awaiting this movie every since we heard they were making it. We've read the three books, and they are outstanding. I literally had to pry myself away from them, I wanted to sit and read them all in one sitting, but alas sometimes I do have to work, or eat, or shower...seriously they are very well written books that keep you on your toes the whole series. Luckily I read all three of them recently in succession, because I don't think I would've been able to wait on the next ones to be written, they're that good.
Enough of the fluff and stuff. I have been debating over a couple of different things I wanted to rant on today, and it came down to why I think "Gone With the Wind" is the best movie EVER, or how unhinged I become sometimes with the way movies and television, (and the majority of the world at large), portray Southern people. Although I can make a very good case for the first, I think I'll go with the latter.
I especially despise fake Southern accents that some actors use, the over-emphasized twang and way too long drawn out drawl is like nails on a chalk board to me. I often wonder if some of the actors/actresses have ever even been to the South or done any kind of research on dialects and what-not. I usually automatically assume it's going to be a crappy, low-budget movie if they can't even afford to hire a true Southern actor/actress for the role. It's not like there's not plenty of them out there; Sandra Bullock, Matthew McConaughey, Julia Roberts, Reese Witherspoon, Luke and Owen Wilson, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Billy Bob Thorton, Kim Basinger, Dakota Fanning, and Zach Galiafinakis (who hails from my native Wilkes County, North Carolina), just to name a few.The South has produced a multitude of respectable, intelligent actors/actresses over the years.
Which brings me to the next item, intelligence. It seems that a great deal of the rest of the world automatically deducts 100 IQ points when someone is from the South, especially if you're a rural Southerner like I was raised. Country people may live simpler and at a slower pace, but let me assure you they are just as sharp as anyone else, and a whole lot sharper than a lot of non-Southerners I can think of. Many of the products and services we enjoy were invented, or perfected by Southern men and/or women. Herman Lay and the Frito Lay Company, Pleasant Hanes and the Hanes Corporation, Caleb Bradham and Pepsi Cola, and T.W. Garner and Texas Pete were all just from my home state of North Carolina alone!
The most disturbing to me and the one that infuriates me to no end is the stereotype of Southerners as uneducated hillbillies, hicks, racists, and poor barefoot, ridge running, collard green eating, rednecks. This doesn't even represent 1/1000th of true Southerners. The rural Southerners I grew up around were hard working, confident, Faith based people who looked after one another for the most part and helped out neighbors and people in the community in times of need. I know that there are elements of Southerners that do fall under some of the negative stereotypes, but to say we're all that way is like saying everyone who lives in L.A. is in a street gang, or that all Italian people are in the Mafia, it's just simply not true. Maybe I'll start a Southern Cultural Outreach Program to enlighten all the poor misguided souls as to our lifestyles and heritage. I chuckle...
On a parting note, I'll leave you with some of the Southerners who've given us some great music over the years. So many people say "Southern Rock" when they refer to so many bands from the South, but the fact is that Rock and Roll was born in the south, the bastard child of Jazz, Blues with a touch of Country. I believe it was Greg Allman who said that calling it Southern Rock was redundant like saying Rock, Rock. Besides the obvious "Southern Rock" bands like ZZ Top, Lynerd Skynerd, Allman Brothers, and the Marshall Tucker Band there are also the likes of REM, and the B-52's, and heavy hitters like the metal band Pantera, just to name a few. In the last decade the Southern Rap scene has exploded with the likes of Goodie Mobb, Outkast, Ludacris, Lil' Wayne, and too many others to name.
Here's a nice thick slab of Southern Goodness, Allman Brothers "Whipping Post", one of my personal favorites. Dig those 70's duds and hair styles also, good stuff. I chuckle again...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6up076lSH8
Until next time "Y'all come back now, here?", sorry, I couldn't resist!
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