Look, I’ve never been pregnant (although I’ve been bigger than Amy Poehler), but I can’t imagine how worn out she was after this. So, so, so great. I can see Sarah Palin hosting SNL some time this winter, with Tina Fey guest starring. One of the skits is their moose hunt.
A few days ago, my middle son asked me if I see a glass as half empty or half full. I’m not exactly sure where he picked that up, but I give him my standard answer: I see the glass as three-quarters empty and plan accordingly. I don’t feel that I’m a pessimist, but I am fairly good at understanding worst-case scenarios then working hard to avert outcomes that would be negative.
It is easy to expel a big, collective “Whew!” after last week’s market, which followed last month’s financial meltdown, which followed last year’s housing crash. I tend to think we’re experiencing a seismic shift and need to be working hard on what we do next at the individual, household level.
Personally, I’m working hard to increase my own productivity and work rate. It won’t be easy, as I’m prone to time wasting. I hope the past few months have engrained more of a knock-it-out mentality for these coming weeks and months.
Salon has a graphic video and article of a friendly fire incident from December 2006. It is graphic, so please do not watch if you have issues with that.
This is troubling on a few fronts to me, not the least being how a video like this could become public. I assume friendly fire incidents are going to happen in any armed conflict, and it is obviously the responsibility of our Military to investigate these, communicate them and work to prevent them in the future. Call me a moron, but I trust the Armed Forces to do that, even if this video and subsequent research proves that it did not happen.
Having said all that, the video points to the challenges of our Military faces, the difficulty in creating an excellent unit in this guerilla warfare/peacekeeping/nation-building situation we are in. Ambiguous missions, long periods of not much happening then bursts of fierce, intense action.
We went to see “Body of Lies” this weekend, Ridley Scott’s new movie with Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe. Reviews have been mixed, but I came away with a stark image of the dire environment in these places called Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the West Bank, and on and on and on. I don’t know how realistic Scott’s depiction of these places are, but these are rough places.
Back to the grindstone.
Thanks for all the kind words as I’ve stepped away for a bit. So very, very much to put down here, and I’ll get to it next week. The election, Sarah Palin, my 17th Anniversary, on and on. Today, I’ve decided to chat about homosexuality.
The incident that brings this reflection is the closing of “Rent” on Broadway this weekend.
As many of you may know, I grew up in a small town in Mississippi. Homosexuality, gay, and lesbians hadn’t been invented yet. We had things like sissies, fags, tom-boys. There was no coming out of the closet then, and being picked on and ostracized was the least of the worries of these deformed people. These sinners would lose jobs, have businesses closed, or be physically abused if they were found out. I had mentors, friends, and classmates who were in this hidden group. I vigorously defended the most influential man in my youth (besides my father), getting into a heated argument with a friend of mine who accused this community leader of being seen in Las Vegas with his boyfriend.
Fast forward to college, and a strange plague was creeping into the consciousness of America: AIDS. We didn’t really have diseases with cute names like this, and this particular disease was neatly focused on this evil, ostracized group of homosexual men. I have a degree in Biology, and I was stunned by the minimal amount of understanding of how AIDS was transmitted and how it could be prevented. It was a death sentence to anyone who contracted it, and the victims literally wasted away before our eyes. I remember making a particularly horrible first impression at the Corporate HQ of my first employer during a management orientation, as I explained to some executive that I felt the company could start an outreach program communicating information about this disease and its prevention to the communities of Upstate South Carolina. Needless to say, I left a lasting impression on those folks (not good, I might add).
AIDS quickly spread from San Francisco and New York to all parts of America and the world. It spread beyond this secret community to heterosexuals, hemophiliacs, health workers, children, blood transfusion recipients. Two ambitious projects were instrumental in shifting our view of this disease and, ultimately, much of our view of gays and lesbians. One was the movie “Philadelphia,” the story of lawyer Andre Beckett’s battle with AIDS. Tom Hanks won his first Oscar for the role, Denzel Washington was masterful, Antonio Benderas provided eye candy. Hanks moved from one extreme to another, winning the our hearts in “Sleepless in Seattle” then taking on the role of a gay man in Philadelphia. The move brought homosexuality out in the open, although it was fairly tame by our graphic standards today.
The second project was “Rent,” a musical originally inspired by a desire to merge theater with the music of the MTV generation. It was a labor of love for Jonathan Larson, the composer who worked seven years on the project. It was a stunning twist when he suddenly and tragically died from an aortic aneurysm the morning before its off-Broadway premier. Here is a fascinating photo collage and audio about that last dress rehearsal from the NY Times.
With that is a fascinating video from the 1996 Democratic National Convention, a performance from the Original Broadway Cast of “Seasons of Love.”
And from the NY Times, the original review of “Rent.” The final curtain falls on its run Sunday, and a video version of last night’s Final Show will be available soon after. It is a different America today, and Rent was at least one of the catalysts for our transformation. Rest in peace, Mr. Larson. RIP, Rent.
Just in case you youngsters needed any evidence…
This is Amy Winehouse’s first concerts since her stint in rehab, part of a Lisbon (Portugal) music festival. Not exactly a stellar performance, to say the least.
Sharon Stone, I believe, is now available to be the spokesperson for the “New Orleans Had It Coming Because of The Decadence of Bourbon Street Society” and “Eight Belles Euthanized Due To Bucking Off Little Girl Club.” At least, that only seems logical after she announced that the earthquakes in China were caused by bad karma from China’s treatment of Tibet. Here’s a nice response from a media source in China. The actual quotes (made in Cannes, reported on SFGate.com):
She said, “All these earthquakes and stuff happened and I thought, ‘Is that karma?’ When you are not nice, bad things happen to you.
“I’m not happy about how the Chinese are treating the Tibetans, I don’t think anyone should be unkind to anyone else.
“They’re not being very nice to the Dali Lama, who’s a good friend of mine.”
Two champs were crowned yesterday, with the culmination of the Champions League in Moscow and American Idol in LA. Two worthy yet unexpected winners in Manchester United and David Cook.
As always, you can get the best commentary about American Idol from Michael Slezak at EW.com. Included in EW’s coverage are the first Q&A’s with winner David Cook and runner-up David Archuleta (where you can almost feel his wrist swelling from the allergic reaction he’s having to the bracelet he’s wearing as he answers the questions). We fast forwarded through as much of the finale as we could, watching it after Top Chef was done (and if you’re not watching Top Chef, you’re missing some great food for anyone who loves great food!).
We pushed through all of the medleys and ridiculousness of these finales when I had to stop at Syesha and Seal. She set the tone for the show’s performances, looking almost giddy at times to be singing with Seal in front of America.
The other highlights of the night were Carly Smithson’s duet with Michael Johns, Brooke White singing barefoot with Graham Nash, David Cook with ZZ Top (you knew he just kept shaking his head that he and his little stubble were next to those beards), and even David Archuleta with One Republic. It was the first time in about ten weeks that I liked Ahchuleta, and maybe the first time I could see him doing something other than joining Up with People.
If I’m going to honest with you, I have to say that I was expecting to see Men Without Hats, Milli Vanilli, Ray Parker Jr, or Billy Ocean after George Michael pimped his upcoming Wham tour. The Jonas Brothers (who I’d never seen) added some here and now to the parade of acts, and AI should head in that direction as much as possible.
Then David Cook took it all. Cook could have turned his nose up at American Idol throughout the season, as it seemed AI needed him alot more than the reverse. He’s been humble and gracious throughout, and did so until the very end last night. America, surprisingly, got it right. I’m still an American Idol junkie, but they need to revamp all the fluff in the show if they want to see the ratings head north. They won’t get rid of Paula and Randy unfortunately, which would help as well.
Earlier in the day, Manchester United bested Chelsea in penalty kicks to take the Champions League final. There was really no reason that the game was as good as it turned out to be. It could have been a slugfest, as in more like a slug or snail, as in a defensive war of attrition. What materialized wasn’t necessarily the beautiful game of Brazil, but it was tense and entertaining throughout.
When Christiano Ronaldo headed Man U into the lead, I felt like we were really going to see a great game. The Red Devils had a bunch of chances to extend the lead to 2-0 and 3-0, but Tevez last whiff opened the door for Frankie Lampard’s equalizer at the end of the first half.
Chelsea had the better of the second half but could not push the winning goal through. Didier Drogba and Lampard both hit the woodwork It was really two teams evenly matched, and then a situation only found in soccer set the stage for the penalty kicks drama. I actually haven’t seen the blow-by-blow analysis of exactly what happened, but here is my best guess after watching it once.
With Chelsea players cramping due to the field conditions (torrential rain on a turf which had replaced the existing turf when it was determined the latter wasn’t good enough), their keeper Petr Cech kicked the ball out of bounds to allow for players to be taken care of (standard soccer practice when there is an injury as there are no time outs or stoppages of play). Play gets read to be resumed, and Man U’s Carlos Tevez (who was a workhorse throughout the game) kicks the throw-in out of bounds on the side, deep in Chelsea territory, then motions to his teammates to hustle down to defend the throw-in from Chelsea. Well, in the unwritted etiquette of soccer, this is viewed as extremely bad form (he was supposed to have kicked the ball through the end line so Cech could have a goal kick again). Chelsea’s Michael Ballack runs to Tevez and then half of all hell ensues (without any real swings or blows that you would find in a similar NBA or MLB situation). Everyone is pushing and yelling, then Drogba slaps Man U’s Nemanja Vidic (probably a 5 on the 10-point slap scale). As one commentary stated, everyone knew “…this referee wore tight pants.” After he settled everyone down, he issued a direct red card to Drogba then a yellow to Tevez, as captain John Terry whispered sweet nothings to Tevez through his collar pulled to up to his lips.
Drogba would have taken one of the penalty kicks, which may or may not have changed the outcome. Penalty kicks are frustrating way to decide a winner, but there it was. Having said that, you can’t ask for more drama than what followed (below).
Congrats to Cook and Manchester United on becoming worthy title holders. Cook could joining Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson as the best this show has produced. Manchester United should be more stable in the coming off season, with Chelsea ridding themselves of several players while overpaying for more. For the soccer junkies out there, James and the Giant Blog has a great video collection of the top goals from all the top leagues this year.
Sometimes, I’m ahead of the game when it comes to music. This time, I’m behind the curve. I’ve looked at the Colbie Caillat CD “Coco” for the several months it’s been near the top of iTunes Top 100 album list. “Lucky” from Jason Mraz with Colbie Caillat pushed me to get that song then “Realize” from Caillat.
Great interview with her on MTV as a nice introduction to this Californian, whose father Ken co-produced albums for Fleetwood Mac. She built an audience through her MySpace page (Rhymes with ballet).
A couple nice live videos below.
She’s touring with John Mayer this summer, if you need to find some nice gift to score for that special someone in your life.
So I’m glancing at style.com’s pictorial from Cannes when lo and behold, there is Woody Allen and Soon-Yi Previn as they search for the Best Dressed @ Cannes. I’m fairly indifferent/ambivalent/meh about these two, but that sent me on a quest.
Time interview (circa August, 1992)
CNN article about documentary (1998)
They have two adopted children and have been married now 15 or 16 years. Bizarre or romantic?
I’m feeling a need to get much more structured about how I start my day online. Here are the sites that I visit to start my day, and I’d be interested in how that differs from your Top Ten.
Imperfect husband, father, executive, and consultant capturing the struggles of personal, daily choices.
