progressive politics and regressive entertainment. like peanut and butter.
May 27, 2013 Leave a comment
Donald Trump continues to prove that you don’t have to be smart to be wealthy. Apparently he just spent over a million dollars to determine that he hasn’t got a chance of being elected president. I would have gladly told him the same thing for $15.27.
January 13, 2013 2 Comments
The Hall of Fame’s failure to elect anyone from the unusually long list of talented players on this year’s ballot has prompted a lot of complaints, so it gives me a chance to complain about the Hall, too. Why are the voters focused so exclusively on career numbers? Just as it isn’t the Hall of Virtue, it also isn’t the Hall of Accounting. Honoring only those who compiled big stats prevents the Hall from acknowledging some of the greatest contributions to the game. Here are a few of the players whose short-term accomplishments should qualify them for Cooperstown.
January 4, 2013 4 Comments
One of the reasons I haven’t been posting lately is because I’ve been in rehearsal. Today, one of the actors mentioned this compilation of Claire Danes crying. Her chin quiver is particularly impressive. And it reminds me that I should really check out Homeland once I get more free time.
December 25, 2012 Leave a comment
A dentist acted legally when he fired an assistant that he found attractive simply because he and his wife viewed the woman as a threat to their marriage, the all-male Iowa Supreme Court ruled Friday. The court ruled 7-0 that bosses can fire employees they see as an “irresistible attraction,” even if the employees have not engaged in flirtatious behavior or otherwise done anything wrong.
Irresistible
(to the tune of “Unforgettable,” by Irving Gordon,
popularized by Nat King Cole)
(Dentist James Knight)
Irresistible, you’re truly grand,
Irresistible. So, doll, you’re canned.
Female charms are unignorable.
Here’s the ax, ’cause you’re adorable,
You have to go because you are so
Irresistible in every way,
Irresistible, if you should stay.
That is why I stand here stating you
Get this pink slip, terminating you,
‘Cause I dream of fornicating with you.
(All-male Iowa Supreme Court)
Irresistible we found his case
Irresistible. She has no place
In his office looking glamorous.
It’s her fault that he is amorous.
So he wants to wham-bam-ma’am her? Us, too.
December 24, 2012 2 Comments
‘nuf said.
December 17, 2012 Leave a comment
It’s the kids’ chorus that makes this one extra fun.
December 12, 2012 2 Comments
Went to a new hair stylist recently and was impressed by his taste. He recommended a 1930s comedy duo I’d never heard of, a treatise on dirty jokes that had also escaped my attention, a small bookstore on Post Street in San Francisco — and the music playing in his salon was Bettye LaVette. Here she is singing “Let Me Down Easy.”
December 11, 2012 1 Comment
It’s been a couple weeks since I skipped out on life on a Monday afternoon and went to watch Skyfall at 11:40 am with a half dozen other people in the theater and a tub of popcorn all for myself.
Other than the buttery goodness, what I remember most of the latest James Bond film is how aware it was of itself as a James Bond film. That’s somewhat true of all Bond films. Sean Connery may have kept a straight face while calling Honor Blackman “Pussy Galore” in 1964′s Goldfinger, but the film was definitely winking at the audience.
December 10, 2012 Leave a comment
I’m a big-time Dan Savage fan. He has his critics on the left, but he’s so often been out there on the forefront of gay rights and sex positivity. I also remember how, when I was an undergraduate at the University of Massachusetts, Savage’s print column in the local alternative weekly was the only aggressive voice I knew speaking regularly on behalf of minority voices in the sex community. Now that we’re both older, I treasure the diversity and thoughtfulness of his podcast. And now that Washington State finally legalized same sex marriage, Dan and his already-husband-in-Canada Terry Miller got themselves wed in Washington!
From Terry’s Instagram page…
December 9, 2012 3 Comments
I haven’t seen Robert Weide’s Woody Allen: A Documentary, but I’m interested. Watching the following unusual questions posed to Allen, I was struck at how much of an old man Allen is. Sure, he’s long looked old and even creepy, but more than the answers, I was struck by his slowed-down demeanor. Presumably it’s partially just due to him not playing the frantic version of himself he places on the big screen, but sitting down to answer questions one-on-one.
December 9, 2012 Leave a comment
Commuting by bike is enjoyable and healthy, and bike commuters do their part to reduce pollution and traffic congestion. So why does American pop culture depict bike commuters as weirdos?
For the most part, those who use bikes for transportation are invisible in pop culture. I’m disconnected enough from recent pop culture that I may have missed an example or two, but I’d be surprised if bike commuters have become familiar figures.
This rumination began when I realized, on traveling home one afternoon on my bike with its basket in the front, that I bore some superficial resemblance to Miss Gulch, the dog-hating neighbor in The Wizard of Oz, associated in Dorothy’s mind with the Wicked Witch of the West.
Cropped screenshot of Judy Garland (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
