CULTURE SHOCK or SHOCKING CULTURE?

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CULTURE SHOCK or SHOCKING CULTURE? (2007)

When life becomes too difficult at times, I reach for "Balance – A Guide to Life’s Forgotten Pleasures," something that I picked up a long time ago at the Eddie Bauer store while waiting for a receipt.
Each chapter gives you an idea of how to cope in a certain situation or simply how to unwind. I like the one, "How to unplug the phone." Assess whether the ringing in the ears is real or imaginary. Resist the strong desire to rip the cord from the wall. Gently remove plug. (Make lemonade.)
This is what I do next; I challenge my memory, I go back in time…
Patricia Kaas sold millions of records. "She is the most successful artist abroad." She travels around the world; she’s blonde, slim and gorgeous. She traveled to Poland several times already. She’s such a huge star, but we will never have a chance to see her in a sold out concert.
My grandma is crazy about Garou. But I won’t see him either unless I travel overseas. Although he may be popular in Canada...
Back then I daydreamed to the tunes of Sasha Distel or Joe Dassin’s "L’Été Indien"(Indian Summer). I had a crush on Guy Bonardot. I always wanted to have a haircut like Mirelle Mathieu. I thought Mirelle Darc was a Goddess. Mom used to lip synch to Adriano Celentano’s "Azzurro." Her taste in men evolved around Ives Montand and Jean-Paul Belmondo. I thought they were old and wrinkled. Well, I was young…
On Sundays I watched a show Zecchino D’oro, group of multicolored Italian kids who sang catchy tunes and couldn’t stand still. Germany gave us Nena’s "99 Luft Balloons" and Falco. I thought Hungarian Zsu Zsa Koncz was prettier than her native Kati Kovacz.
Sounds very unfamiliar? Such a mix of artists, an exchange of cultures was quite a normal occurrence in Poland, and I believed it to be more so in the West. An import from Sweden was ABBA. Later I paid my tribute by naming my dog after the band. I laughed at French movies with comedian Luis Defunes. I loved Russian fairy tales and yes, Russian propaganda war movies. Russians are great filmmakers, and my favorite was "Syberiada." Add some Czech TV series "Szpital Na Peryferiach," French criminal stories "Arsen Lupin" or mysterious sounding "Tiger’s Brigades." Japan gave us the "Oshin" saga, a soap opera about a slave who was sold for a sack of rice and later became a successful entrepreneur.
A main character of a Brazilian soap opera was also a slave, and her name was Isaura. A few Poles actually named their daughters after this character. Australians introduced a series about a beautiful model that was thrown into a swamp with hungry crocodiles. Miraculously she survived and after plastic surgery, she returned to haunt her ex-lover who (literally) dumped her.
Another character of the slave-drama was Kunta Kinte. I never missed an episode of "Roots." My grandma and I admired Rudi from "Pogoda dla Bogaczy" ("Weather for Riches" which in US was known as "Rich Man Poor Man") while my mom went for troubled Tommy. I remember being preoccupied with drawings of princesses. They were not just any queens or princesses. They reflected my love for costume dramas that started with "King Henry VIII"’s 6 wives. I spent hours drawing them all in the right order, with my favorite Anne Boleyn before of course she became a headless corpse to make room for the next wife, Jane Seymour. No, not the Hollywood actress, but the real queen of England.
My very first encounter with American TV was The Price is Right and a Chevrolet commercial. A man wearing make-up and people running around guessing the price of a can of soup. That day, I learned that Chevrolet is the heartbeat of America! I watched every show there was, film, and commercial just to catch up on all the good things we Europeans were missing. It took me some time to realize that all the shows are... English speaking, American made and none are foreign. I thought that was odd. The most cultural and diverse nation had no foreign film or show on the airwaves.
Do our media moguls fear that allowing the public to view foreign programs, films, inviting non-English singing entertainers, may, God forbid, ignite a desire to learn about other cultures? We may not only start to lip synch to some catchy foreign tune, we may even learn another tongue! We may not only start drawing pictures of princesses that REALLY existed; we could actually learn some history here.
I asked around why there are no other than American shows on TV or other than English music on radio, someone answered that "How would you know what they are singing about?"
You are right, how would I know? You may think that a man is singing about woman’s beautiful bedroom eyes and sensual lips but he may actually be... insulting her. Yeah, that makes sense. Better not to know. Who knows what those dirty French men sing about…
But, a small "but", if it does not bother Germans or Spaniards to have Garou serenade in French or Italian Eros Ramazzotti can charm German ladies with his sexy voice (love knows no boundaries or language barrier), why should it bother us? We are the same people as everybody else. Media moguls think otherwise and insult our intellect. Or is it all about money? Why let others make a buck if we can keep all of it to ourselves, and people won’t know anyway. Just make Europeans look bad and stupid.
Once again let’s switch to the old Polish TV guide; mornings were reserved for educational programs for schools. In the late afternoons, Flintstones were on Mondays, and my stepfather never missed one, and the Muppet Show was on Saturdays. As I’m known to be a morning person, I sometimes watched early programs on Sunday which was "W Domu i Zagrodzie" (At home and in ...cattle pen) a program meant for …yes, farmers. Although I wasn’t one nor lived on a farm, it was very interesting and educational.
An hour later, Adam Slodowy showed us how to make something out of nothing. Not exactly. See, you still needed some old coffee can, a paper clip, a piece of cardboard or some wire. Or whatever he could find in his drawer. Slodowy produced about 500 episodes, and made way to a national craze of making a (running) Yogi Bear. Everyone had to have one!
Other American made series "Kojak," "Charlie’s Angeles" or "Colombo" ran on Thursday nights. Serious drama theatre (Polish or British) ran on Mondays, and you have the Polish TV Digest from the 70s and 80s.
But there was also Henry Fonda’s performance in "Twelve Angry Men" and "Grapes of Wrath," "The Magnificent Seven," "Breakfast at Tiffany’s," or the genius of Harper Lee and her only book "To Kill the Mockingbird," Ray Charles, Gene Kelly and Natalie Wood, the most feminine and sexual actress on the planet.
I hate to say it but back then, Communists had good taste in television programs.
All 2 channels of it.