SEASON 2, EPISODE 7: JIM RUNS THE MARATHON

SEASON 2, EPISODE 7: JIM RUNS THE MARATHON

by matt burns

I’m watching the Reality TV show

It’s about a family of celebrities who all run a restaurant

Their big brother Jim is running the Boston Marathon for charity

This is special to them because it’s one year after the bombings

They’re very proud of Jim

He trained hard

And he wants to do it for the city of Boston

He wants to show he has no fear

He’s going to run and not live in fear

The terrorists can kiss his ass

He’s not afraid

Jim runs the marathon

And he completes it in good time

And his family makes a medal for him

The medal says that they’re so proud

And this is basically what the episode is about:

Jim runs the marathon, trains hard for it

Completes it

And the family is very proud of him

They give him a medal

Pat him on the back

I sit there watching the episode of Reality TV

And I’m getting kind of drunk with beer

And I realize it’s the same old story

I see them in basically every show on TV

Especially Reality TV

The producers are desperate for show ideas

So they have the “character” go perform some empty act of charity

Or some empty act of bravery or heroism

Never mind if it means any damn thing

It looks good on TV

So go with it

I don’t know what running a marathon even says

It’s a great personal accomplishment

But that’s it

Go do it

And be proud of yourself for doing it

But don’t announce it on TV

With loud trumpets

Like what Jesus told us not to do in the Gospels

Matthew 6:2

To paraphrase

When you do a charity, don’t blast a trumpet announcing it

Because then you’re not doing it for the sake of doing it

You’re doing it to get your cock sucked by others

So many questions remain surrounding the bombings

So many weird and strange anomalies

But nobody asks the questions regarding what happened

They just run the marathon

And say look how great I am, I’m not afraid!

And everybody sucks each other’s cocks 

And pats each other’s backs

And there’s six hours of TV coverage devoted to sucking Boston’s big cock

But nobody takes any time to think

Nobody takes any time to ponder

Nobody takes any time to ask what happened

People just remain mindless zombies

Swallowing a narrative that they’re told happened

And assume what they’re told is true

And persecute people before proven guilty

Even though nobody saw what happened with their own eyes

And then they carry out empty acts of charity

Empty heroism

And empty bravery

Because that’s what the media tells them to do

That’s what Reality TV tells them to do

That’s what Jim Celebrity tells them to do

In short

That’s what the next page of life’s script tells them to do

I can honestly say tonight

That I’m embarrassed by Boston

And maybe I’m just drunk

And maybe I’ll get my ass kicked by the lynch mob

But Boston should BE STRONG and – not run marathons – but ask questions

Think

And not be weak and participate in the empty

Meaningless

Acts of charity

Bravery

And heroism

That don’t make a difference

But keep us numb

Dumb

And under a somnambulant spell

Will we ever know the truth behind the bombings?

Probably not

But that's not the tragedy here

The tragedy is our failure to think for ourselves

An we believe everything we're told

And we persecute people without witnessing what they did

That's our failure

This has nothing to do with terrorism

We must break the spell

And just think

Ask

And be a free fucking human being

Apart from the lynch mob

Thinking is the best charity one can offer

Also

I am not a conspiracy theorist

I am a human being

Somehow the former term

Got mixed up

And it stigmatized

The latter term

When did being a human being

Become a bad thing?

THE BULLSHIT REMAINS THE SAME

Here's a poem that was inspired by a recent Sunday night walking alone down a quiet, ghostly Lansdowne Street in Boston...

THE BULLSHIT REMAINS THE SAME

by matt burns

It’s just after dark on Sunday

I’m pretty buzzed

I’m walking down Lansdowne Street

No Red Sox game today

Pretty quiet

But that’s not why it sucks

Yes

Let’s face it

It SUCKS

There’s a House of Blues

A couple of sports bars

And a place called “Tequila Rain”

Which is a frequent hangout for the newly 21-year-olds

And also a magnet for the young professionals

Maybe they just got their first “real” job

And they have a little extra money

So they want to get drunk and laid

And then add all the Boston Strong bullshit into it

All of a sudden Boston’s cool because there was a terrorist attack here

So the city has attracted all the band-wagoners

The Boston Strongers

Ten years ago was much different on this street

There were dark

Seedy

Clubs

Like Axis

Avalon

Karma Club…

And there were punk shows

Every night

Well, not every night

But pretty often

I don’t like to be one of those old folks

Those people who say ‘when I was young’!

But seriously

What happened to the punk?

Is Boston Strong the new oi oi oi?!

What happened to all the talk about them taking away our social security

And the 21^st century digital toy talk

And the ‘our stage is your stage’ talk

And we are the children of the revolution

What are we waiting for?

Let’s change things

Oi Oi

Oi

I’m not being facetious

I miss that music

And I miss that attitude

But punk rock is nothing but a ghostly energy lingering on Lansdowne

The Oi Oi Oi’s have been replaced by BOSTON STRONG’S!

They don’t even know what they’re chanting

They’re just shouting BOSTON STRONG

But it was a slogan born out of a PR machine, not a free-thinker

Empty of any true meaning

And lacking any power to change one

Goddamn

Thing

Yes

Boston Strong

An empty slogan

That sounds cool

And it sounds like it means something

But it’s just words

Then again, so wasn’t Oi Oi Oi

Just words

And who really knew what it meant?

Maybe the punk scene was no different from the Boston Strong scene

Just a big show with Mohawks, spiked jackets and Oi Oi’s

The spiked jackets are gone but BOSTON STRONG T-shirts have replaced them

Stand together

Stand as one

Stand united

BOSTON STRONG

Maybe all that has changed is the slogan and the uniform

But beneath it all
The bullshit has remained the same