Spring 1970

[Michael Bailey]

 David Meyer <davidmeyer81 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Doc's gotta play the everyman if only occasionally as part of his
> profession. The everyman in LA roots for the Lakers.
>
> -d
>

sport keeps people from becoming religious or political fanatics,
by making them sports fanatics...

I've never had the sports bug to any great degree,
but I have to admire that.
It's all that lip service to sportsmanship, probably.
And the physicality, and the idea of doing goal-directed stuff that
isn't strictly capitalist (although certainly has been tinged by capitalism
quite heavily).  I mean, there are liberating aspects to sport...
it's not directly antagonistic to imperialism/fascism/capitalism,
but it diverges significantly from it, upholds a standard of excellence
that isn't solely about accumulation or ability to oppress.

relevant to IV, maybe, is that Doc takes time out from his cases
to appreciate the series of games, places money on them.

It wouldn't take an ungodly amount of semiotic torsion to stretch the meaning
of LA (Hollywood and Hollywood endings and beautiful people and
the culmination of the Turner thesis and tolerance - nay, cultivation -
of alternate sexual customs) losing to Boston (the place where they ban things,
the place where flinty-hearted bankers ran the slave and whaling trade from)
 - just as Mickey Wolfmann's King-Canute-like
directions to the monetary tide lost to the machinations of the lawyers...

Although it's not explicit, Bridge over Troubled Water does seem relevant
to the story.  Thanks for adding that to the discussion.
I loved BOTW back in the day, it was right up there with "Whiter Shade
of Pale" as a good song to whistle when smokin' in the boys' room.





-- "the problem with the deployment of frictionless surfaces is
that they're not getting traction."