VL-IV (15) Tubal Nuances, pages 355/356, 370/371, 377/378

[Robin Landseadel]

So much of what happens in the last chapter of Vineland depends on the  
kinds of scripts we followed on the Tube. The author at the same time  
is ramrodding us with some of the most outrageous parodies of the re- 
framing of history offered up by the Tube.

	. . .Rumors filtered back from the cabin that the air controllers
	down there sounded like they used to in Vietnam, none of the
	usual civilians were on the job, and there was heavy traffic on
	all the military frequencies. . .

Ghosts of Vietnam—the Thanatoids? Is this a set up, or is this really  
a movie?* Fletcher wants to know. Jason, better schooled at tubal  
nuances, already knows—real or not a movie is going on, production  
funds are flowing:

	"Think that fuckin' Hector set us up?" it had occurred to Flash.
	"Maybe not. Check this out." There he was, and a full film crew
	too, lights, a Panaflex, and some hand-held Arris. He sauntered
	on up to Flash, Frenesi, and Justin and escorted them out of
	line and through the terminal, ignoring stenciled directions
	taped to doors and columns, waving his badge and a newly
	acquired Business smile at any security they met, and soon had
	them all checked in at the Vineland Palace, courtesy of Triglyph
	Productions, Inc., for the duration of the shoot.. . .

	. . . "Don't worry about him, Mom," Justin told her, "he's the real
	thing, all right."

	"How do you know that?"

	"Can tell by the way he watches television."

I'd gather that Justin has his own way of watching television, one  
passed down from Sasha & Frenesi. There is all throughout Vineland a  
two-sides-of-the-camera perspective

This whole chapter is filled with "tubal nuance", explicitly in the  
next passage and just a little further down the road in multiple  
fictional made for TV movies & programs:

	The two of them had gone off to watch Twi-Nite Theatre, which
	tonight featured John Ritter in The Bryant Gumbel Story, and
	soon they were deep into a discussion of Tubal nuances that
	could have gone on all night. . .
	VL, 355,356

	. . .the Eight O'Clock Movie, Pee-wee Herman in
	The Robert Musil Story. It was mostly Pee-wee talking in a
	foreign accent, or sitting around in front of some pieces of paper
	with some weird-looking marker pen, and the kids' attention
	kept wandering to each other. "There's the Movie at Nine,"
	Justin said, looking in the listings, "Magnificent Disaster, TV
	movie about the '83-'84 NBA playoffs—wasn't that just back in
	the summer? Pretty quick movie."
	VL, 370, 371

Wonderful little parodies, very much in the vein of Matt Groening &  
Jon Stewart. They are dropped into the story and interleave with "real  
life" scenes that work out much like their televisual inspirations.

	The Movie at Nine, more than the usual basketball epic, was a
	story of transcendent courage on the part of the gallant but
	doomed L.A. Lakers, as they struggled under hellish and
	subhuman conditions at Boston garden against an
	unscrupulous foe, hostile referees, and fans whose behavior
	might have shamed their mothers had their mothers not been
	right there, screaming epithets, ruining Laker free throws,
	sloshing beer on their children in moments of high emotion,
	already. To be fair, the producers had tried their best to make
	the Celtics look good. Besides Sidney Poitier as K. C. Jones,
	there was Paul McCartney, in his first acting role, as Kevin
	McHale, with Sean Penn as Larry Bird. On the Laker side were
	Lou Gossett, Jr., as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Douglas as
	Pat Riley, and Jack Nicholson as himself. Vato and Blood, who
	were watching this down at the garage in Vineland, being both
	passionate Laker fans, had to find something else to bicker
	about. "Say Blood," Blood remarked, aggressively, "some
	righteous-looking shades Jack's wearing tonight."
	Vato snorted. "You wear them for work¨ªn on mufflers, Vato,
	lookit 'em, they ain' even big enough to cover his eyeballs."
	"What's that you're wearing on your own face, Blood? What do
	you use them for, messin' with Contras? ¡ªWhoo!" both of them
	distracted for a minute as Lou Gossett, Jr., appeared to execute
	a perfect skyhook.
	VL, 377, 378

Vato & Blood might as well be Cheech & Chong, they have the same sound  
& M.O. So here, at a dramatic climax, we have another movie—Cheech &  
Chong vs. "Mad Dog" Vond. The interleaving of the Tubal events with  
the re-writing of history going on in "The Robert Musil Story" &  
"Magnificent Disaster" pays off in a made for TV happy ending for the  
story—a bit different than what really happened, but close enough for  
rock & roll. Meanwhile, a number of plots and subplots resolve,  
perhaps more Rossini than Mark VII productions.

I have to close this episode with "Say Jim":

	Justin found his father and Zoyd in the back of a pickup,
	watching "Say, Jim," a half-hour sitcom based on "Star Trek," in
	which all the actors were black except for the Communications
	Officer, a freckled white redhead named Lieutenant O'Hara.
	Whenever Spock came on the bridge, everybody made Vulcan
	hand salutes and went around high-threeing.
	VL, 370, 371

* "This is real! The last reel of this vintage motion picture classic,  
"High School Madness" lot #. . ."