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Home on the Range

This summer I bought 20 acres out in Central Washington. I'll admit I've had a pioneer fantasy for years. The idea of living away from the long reach of television news, wireless modems, and escalating urban insanity appeal to me. I was sure that out west the air was clean, the food was greasy, and everybody would wave hello as I drove my pickup past at an amiable speed.

Ok, well out West in the movies.

First thing my Mother did when I told her of my rural purchase was to urge one more shopping trip upon me.

One thousand miles away I could hear her suck on a cigarette, blow the smoke out for emphasis, and with her last bit of breath say in a low voice, "You've got to get a gun."

"Perfect, Mother. How about two? One for the cabin and one for the truck."

...more "Home on the Range"

Victoria's Real Secret
I am a deviant.

Or rather, I’ve been acting like one. Or feeling like one.

Maybe all three.

I’ve gotten myself a pair of men’s boxer brief underwear from Mervyns. To be in Mervyns, with its summer line full of polyester floral dresses in appalling pinks, oranges, and lime greens – the color made even more hideous by the fluorescent lights and the fact that it’s 2002 and not 1978 – to be there and go to the men’s underwear department and examine all the boxer briefs, makes me feel deviant and nervous. Like if I got caught they’d throw me out of the store. Or worse.

...more "Real Secret"

On the train with Kate

January 8, 2003
Today was the first day of train travel.

The deal is Judy drops me at the station closest to our house. As I was getting in the truck (in the dark, in the ice as we had lows in the 20's last night), my tea slid off the roof of the truck, landed on my sweater (soaking my left breast). As the blood pressure was already high this a.m., opted not to run back upstairs and change. Got to the station and JMS missed the turn in, necessitating her to stop traffic whilst I gathered my shit and got out. I was crying hard now, I think just because of all the changes, trying to figure this out, being in a compressed cube with absolutely no privacy (less than UpStart, there is nowhere to go to make a phone call), fluorescent lights, an early start time, insomnia -- well, you get the picture.

...more "On the train"

Police Line: Do Not Cross
My desk here is located in the main factory, in front of the seven biggest lines that run 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week. Luckily it's not located in the plastics department where it always smells like melting straws. Or the circuit board department where the smell of solder and melting copper wire gives me an instant headache. Or in dothead where they put you if you might not be smart enough for the other departments, as in, "You're going to dothead, pal."

This place is set up like a quintessential Japanese factory, with all the supervisors sitting behind desks located precisely at the head of the line. And I do mean precisely. All I can say is whoever discovered obsessive-compulsive disorder must have found it in here. These guys are psychotic! They measure out 3 ½ feet from the wall.

...more "Police Line"

Channel 2
Home on the Range
A documentary that looks at one woman's experience with automatic weapons. (Graphic Violence against innocent paper targets and Adult Language)

Channel 4
Victoria's Real Secret
A real-life drama of button fly jeans and deviant shopping. (Rated NC-17: Drag kings and Jungian therapists are not for children)

Channel 12
On the train with Kate
The latest in reality shows, with unmedicated commuting and serious career reflection. (Rated PG-13 for ncensored reflections on temporary work.)

Channel 13
Police Line: Do Not Cross
Tonight's drama focuses on the temporary employee and her refusal to submit to Japanese factory rule. (Rated PG: Camus-like themes and overt racism.)

Introduction
For years, I’ve been writing about TV - well really, media - and its effect on us, in particular, on my generation. I call us the Wedgies. I’m not the only one. We’re the real Generation X that Douglas Coupland wrote about in his book. Nobody calls us this. We are people 33-43 years old. We’re actually the tail-end of the Baby Boomers, but no one calls us that, either. We are wedged in between. A generation overlooked.

Wedgies are the first generation of people to be raised with television always there.

We are the first generation of people to be raised on processed foods.

We are the first generation of people to have our gall bladders removed during our 30’s.

...more

About Kate Carroll de Gutes
Portfolio
Program guide

I think that perhaps Generation Wedgie is more confused than others. We are influenced equally by Wordsworth -- "One impulse from a vernal wood may teach us more of man/Of moral evil and of good/Than all the sages can" -- and cable television -- "Buy more, get more, spend more!" We journey to find ourselves in a world that demands singleness of purpose and lauds achievement and yet, assaults equally with images of J. Crew weekends and Eddie Bauer camping trips. We are left to find our own center in the world, redefining our values system with each rising unemployment point, with each old-growth acre logged, with each mixed message the media sends. Like every American generation, we are journeying into the wilderness. But unlike other generations, the answers we find have as much to do with the wilderness itself as that which it represents.

...about Kate Carroll de Gutes

Back to the first part of the introduction
Portfolio
Program guide

Kate Carroll de Gutes
Kate is a writer.

No seriously. She writes. Words.

Sometimes she writes for money. Sometimes she writes what must be written.

She does other things too. For instance, she drives a car. She also buys groceries sometimes. Occasionally she sits and stares at the stars.

Just the other day she fell off a tree swing.

But all of that is just fodder for her true calling - writing. She. Is. A. Writer.

Any questions?

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All site content Copyright © 2000-2002 Kate Carroll de Gutes Site design and artwork Copyright © 2002 David Eames-Harlan