Annotated
I wonder when I’ll need a footnote,
when my points will not be clear,
when my references could none other be
something from my life obscure.
I wonder of the power I write
of the first line that is noted,
will the line carry weight in idea alone
or like Jericho1, in post mortem?
Jericho, a 2006 TV Series, was hosted on CBS from 2006 to 2008 and ran for 1.5 seasons with a total of 29 episodes. I viewed these episodes from my first apartment, a half basement flat with windows like a bunker. The plot of Jericho focuses on a post-apocalyptic landscape and the residents of Jericho, Kansas living in the aftermath of a nuclear attack. In 2013, not in Jericho, not in Kansas, I watched all 29 episodes in the living room of my flat, shared with an Adam, another Adam, and a Bryan. A projector cast each episode wall sized across from a gross couch where at night we would catch silverfish crawling between the cushions. Near the middle of season one, beer cans sitting in the windowsills, Adam came into the living room, stood briefly, and outloud inquired “how could anyone ever watch this show?” (15.4 million viewers across both seasons). Despite the criticism, I continued binging, finished the seasons, and the silverfish died off from the cold. Adam, still today in remembrance, still reminds me of my wasted life time spent watching Jericho. After season 1, upon the cancellation of the show, fans of the show produced “the largest campaign the network had seen to protest the cancellation of a show” including sending 20 tons of nuts to the CBS headquarters. I was not around at the end to mail out nuts. I could only shut the blinds, let the projector warm up, and live in whatever aftermath exists in Kansas.