Errol and Ronnie. On the Santa fe Trail.

Dear reader, recently Cecil had the good fortune to accompany a refined Lady on an anthropologically inclined tour of North America. Somewhere we are led to believe in the vicinity of Santa Fe. Our understanding of Santa Fe is limited, but what we can offer you is the insight gained by none other than our patron Errol Flynn when he starred in the stirring 1940 ‘Santa Fe Trail’ with the redoubtable Ronald Reagan. Apparently Ronald and Errol didn’t get on all that well. There was friction, unsurprisingly as they were bound for the B grade acting list and Ronald was determined to get there before Errol did. And of course fairly soon thereafter  Errol died, whilst Ronnie went on for the biggest gig in his acting career*.

Let’s hope Cecil wont die, because we’ll be killing ourselves to hear from him, and trust with fingers crossed and at twenty paces he’ll make a showdown, ride the bronco buck , and find a sunset to rid off into..   Perhaps you may gain an insight into the American upper echelons. (insert wealthy). Perhaps it will just confirm, your prejudice. Either way the ‘good ol’ is heading for a Trump Presidency. And I’m glad, because life without Tony is pretty dull.

Here now is news from Cecil, in his own hand.

‘Good god, I didn’t realise what I’d let myself in for.

This is a seriously luxury tour.  Accommodation is first rate (and expensive – so I’m pleased to experience it without having to pay).  The others on the tour are lovely, but tending towards neo-conservatism, the males particularly.  So Gina is good, Alan Bond bad – because he failed and was a crook anyway.  The head of Tata in India is a self made man who obviously achieved all he has through hard work, just like Gina.

The tour of Georgia O’Keeffe’s home, garden and studio was so rushed as to be almost offensive.  They’ve had the best summer rains in decades so the vegetation is lush, not desert like at all.  We’ve just had a magnificent champagne lunch in the countryside, some are now walking the galleries (i.e. expensive art for sale), I’m back to the museum quite the equal of the one in St Louis.  I said this to the attendant who told me their director had recently taken the position as director at St Louis!  Lots of information about the overlays – the direct Spanish descendants claim superiority over Mexicans, and both look down on the English who came so late.  Indians are treated in a similar way to the way we treat indigenous in Australia – show absolutely no respect for their heritage, stories or knowledge.  Nor for the fact that it was their land.

There are three American women on the tour, sisters ranging in age from beautiful to drop dead gorgeous – and not a straight tooth amongst them!!!  One worked in DC for the republican party –  I mentioned that the group had conservative tendencies.

She is in despair regarding the future of democracy, a despair I share, so we’ve had good talks.  I was reading how Bush snr congratulated Clinton when he came to office and wished him all the best and in fact helped him during his presidency.  The fear now is that the office of president is becoming debased, with the blame being on the intransigence of the Tea Party members of Republican congress.  Interestingly the Tea Party got its start as opposition and disgust at the bank bailouts after the GFC.  Strangely (or perhaps not), banks and Wall Street are now the major financial sponsors of the Tea Party!

I was chatting about this  with one of the Australians on the tour and happened to mention that the ongoing ‘birther‘ rubbish being another factor devaluing the presidency and he poo-hoo’d this saying Obama had brought it on himself, which of course brought me back to thinking of Adam Goodes and the reactionary suggestion that he has brought the booing of him on himself.  Of course he and Obama are both black and have ideas above their station.

Sorry to be so serious

Cheers’

Editor: What will happen to Cecil??. Will he make the conversion, will he be irradiated by perfect teeth, will he survive the perils of ol Santa Fe, catch up for more and less as Cecil and GT Beauregard report from ‘good ol’ New Orleans in our next thrilling installment.

* Footnote from an expert on the Santa fe Trail ( 1940)

John Brown and his gang of evil abolitionists terrorize Kansas in the 1850′s, but Errol Flynn and Ronald Reagan come to the rescue. The overall message is that reasonable people may disagree about slavery, but only fanatics are strongly opposed to it, and it’s a shame that Northern abolitionists caused a civil war over such a minor issue. In one surreal scene, one of the bad guys, acting all shifty and evil, tries to smuggle runaway slaves on the train. In another, slaves freed by Brown welcome their recapture by the army, because they miss their owners. Watched it all, mostly because I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I’m not sure what fascinates me more: The real history of John Brown, (who arguably was a terrorist), or the fact that a pro-slavery telling of his story stars major actors and a future president – and was one of the top movies of the year. IMDB reviewers say Santa Fe Trail is an inaccurate but honest look at the origins of the Civil War, which is fucking stupid.