Wednesday, February 20, 2008

The Moon and the Wannabe Stars

I learned a very special lesson tonight. There has been talk, you may have noticed, about a lunar eclipse this evening. This talk had indicated that the event would probably reach its climactic state of "no moon" around 8:30. The windows in my living room afforded a good view of the rapidly waning Moon when I checked on it at around 8:00. I don't know; for something that was supposed to be all red-tinted and disappearing before my eyes, it just looked like a bunch of white Moon in the sky.

So I watched some American Idol. And okay, I'll admit it: I totally agree with Simon most of the time. I mean, the contestants this year have been very cruise-shippy, and--wait, wasn't I doing something else? What was it? Anyway, this competition is about star quality, and when you're talking about--wait. Star quality. Stars...stars...moon....Moon! Holy crap! I forgot to check on the Moon.

It was 8:45, and as I shuffled quickly to the front of my apartment, I had the odd experience of hoping the Moon, that old dependable rock in the sky, wouldn't be there when I got to the living room window. I looked up, and...nothing, just black sky.

"Hey," I said to myself, "lunar eclipse."

But then I realized that I just had a bad angle. I had to take one more step forward to make my eye line clear the building next door.

I took my step, and... "Nope, there it is." Stupid Moon.

Sure, it was a little smokier than it usually appears, but, well, I could see it, and that's sort of the way it usually is with me and the Moon; nothing particularly special about this Wednesday night.

I think Simon would say the Moon's performance tonight was forgettable. It was pretty much what you'd expect of the Moon, and American audiences are looking for something with more of a modern edge, something exciting and new. And maybe he'd be right. But you know what? I learned something from my experience. There's probably an element of the downfall of modern society, you know, where reality TV and over-orchestrated multimedia platforms for quasi-stardom trump the act of gazing at real stars. Whatever. Here's the more specific lesson and what I'll really take away from my Wednesday night: if you approach a living room window expecting to see a lunar eclipse, you might just mistake an empty part of the sky for a celestial event.

4 comments:

Tejas said...

I don't know what is worse: that you watch American Idol or that I also watch American Idol (sometimes).

Jaybird said...

It's definitely worse that you sometimes watch American Idol. It must be much more difficult for you to do sometimes in the Netherlands than for me to do occasionally in America, where, you'll have to agree, things are pretty much stacked in favor of the casual American TV watcher happening upon the show, oh, say, on a lazy Wednesday evening when the Moon is taking FOREVER to eclipse.

Anonymous said...

Uh, Jess... The totality of the eclipse was at 9:30. And it doesn't actually disappear. It goes black until it is almost gone and then turns a rusty color. I thought it was pretty cool.

Jaybird said...

Yeah, I kind of figured there was more to it...but, you know, I fell asleep after American Idol. :)