Mister Cellophane

Mister Cellophane

I finally got rid of my 17year old stereo Receiver/Amp and installed a new 7.1 Super Duper Audio/Video Receive/Amp in its place. This new thing is capable of pumping out 735 watts of window busting, pulsating noise that can rival a fully loaded 747 taking off. A cynical and knowledgeable expert suggested that this new 7.1 hunk of technology has as much computing power that all of NASA had during the 1970s. Oh, by the way, it (the A/V Receiver/Amp) was not developed, designed or manufactured in the USA, but it was promoted, marketed and sold in the USA. But I digress. So after I got everything tested, adjusted and calibrated, we considered what would be an appropriate way to test this new civilian entertainment manifestation of the space age. What we came up with was the gritty and visceral Bob Fosse movie masterpiece, Chicago. The DVD movie was presented in full magnificent widescreen that was never realized on my old 21inch color TV and in spectacular Digital Dolby and DTS 5.1 surround sound that was never realized by my old 17year old stereo amp for that matter. However, with my 7 carefully located and compensated speakers, aided and abetted by 2 massive self-powered subwoofers and a 55inch high definition TV, Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere and Queen Latifah were brought strutting, singing and dancing right into my living room with such clarity and bigger-than–life sound, I nearly forgot what all of this stuff cost. The home theater experience and sound was so overwhelming the effervescence was knocked right out of my cold brewski before I could even dispose of it (the beer) properly. When the movie progressed to the point where the hapless and sappy husband movie character Amos Hart finally sang his song, Mister Cellophane, I could not help but notice the similarity of the character John C. Reilly was singing about and that of the hard working, “play-by-the-rules”, American Citizen. The similarity was made all the more persuasive by the blatant co-opting of Emmett Kelly’s “Weary Willy” Tramp Clown routine of sweeping the spotlight thing by dressing in the Weary Willy costume, right down to the oversized shoes and all. The very last verse of the Mister Cellophane song goes like this:
Mister Cellophane
‘cause you can look right through me
Walk right by me
And never know I’m there
Never even know I’m there.
During this “Bailout” and “stimulate the economy” frenzy and orgy, if there was ever was a Cellophane Person, it’s surely the tax paying, hard working, play by the rules sap, the American Citizen. Maybe you are more perceptive than me, but it seems to me that those who are formulating this bailout/save-the-economy policy doesn't know that the American Citizen is even standing there, i.e., they look right through him and only see the fat cats that caused the problem in the first place. You know the more this goes on the more angry we all should become because they keep on punishing people who had nothing to do the current mess and keep on rewarding those who did. How much longer can this country endure when they keep on punishing citizens that do the right thing while rewarding those who contribute little and are irresponsible to say the least? Mister Cellophane? Yeah, that’s about right.