September 2010 - Page 6 of 6 - Ramblin' with Roger

30-Day Challenge: Day 23- Favorite Music Video

Let’s face it: JRC’s Hurt is a bit of a downer.

Another difficult question. Probably from Year 2 through year Six, I watched MTV a LOT. Watched the video countdown almost every week, then not so much. I should note that, for the body of video work, I’d probably pick Billy Joel.

There are probably only three post-1995 videos I both saw and liked enough to even consider. Hey Ya by Outkast (and here’s a longer, though not better version) and I Am A Man of Constant Sorrow by the Foggy Mountain Boys are two of them.

Plenty of good picks in this list of best videos and in this one, although many of the actual videos have been disabled. Two on those lists that I was quite fond of were Once In a Lifetime by the Talking Heads and Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel. I was an irrationally big fan of Weird Al Yankovic’s Smells Like Nirvana.

If I had to pick one video, it would probably be Hurt by John R. Cash, which I watched over and over. But let’s face it, it’s a bit of a downer. So I don’t know that it’s my favorite, but one I watched a great deal in the day: Would I Lie to You by Eurythmics; I’m especially fond of the ferocity of Annie Lennox and the brass.

“Vast Wasteland” QUESTION

My niece will be on TV next week, on a show I would otherwise not watch.

There must be a law: for articles about television in non-entertainment publications, at least fifty percent must indicate that “All (or most) TV is crap” or some equivalent. And almost inevitably, it will 1) note that it was also called that a long time ago, but 2) fail to indicate just who said it. For the record, it was Newton Minnow, head of the FCC, in 1961, who called television a “vast wasteland.” It’s an interesting read.

I was just listening to Springsteen’s 57 Channels and Nothing On. But even in the vast wasteland of summer programming, I did watch a couple of things:

The Closer – liberated somewhat from the formula of the first two seasons, it’s been infused by the fact that Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick) is up for Chief of the LAPD against her mentor Chief Pope (JK Simmons).

Aftermath with William Shatner. The concept is to take an event that was once prominent in the news and revisit it, which I think is inherently worthwhile. I actually missed the first episode of this, an interview with Lee Malvo, the young DC sniper, when it was on A&E a few weeks ago. But I’ve seen the rest on Biography, or BIO, as it’s now called.

Bernie Goetz was the subway vigilante who shot four young men in 1984, and was a hero to many; I think Shatner subtlely showed Goetz’s self-justification of his actions to be perhaps a bit sociopathic. Shatner was a sympathetic interviewer to three of the DC sniper victims, and to Jessica Lynch, who he called brave for outing the military’s PR campaign re: her actions in Iraq. I must say that my least favorite episode was his with Mary Kay Letourneau and her now-husband Vili Fualaau, who she started sleeping with when he was 13, and she was his former teacher; Shatner wanted more licentious details of the love story. But the best episode thus far was the most recent one, about the bizarre shootout in Ruby Ridge, ID, between federal authorities and the Randy Weaver family; Sara Weaver, Randy’s daughter, talks about the death of her brother, and her mother being shot dead before her in wrenching detail.

The last episode will be about the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and will feature David Kaczynski, now head of New Yorkers for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, who I have heard speak a few times, who had to turn in his brother to authorities. This will air Monday, September 6 at 10 pm EDT on BIO, followed by a repeat of the Ruby Ridge episode.

There will be one other program I will watch this week, and unfortunately, it’s Wipeout. It’s an obstacle course show designed for people to fail, and for the audience to laugh at the annoying running commentary of the instant replay disasters; I’ve seen it for ten minutes and REALLY hate it. But I’m told that my niece Rebecca and her husband Rico will appear on this show Tuesday, September 7 at 8 pm EDT, and family wins out.

So what television did YOU watch this summer?

And what new shows will you watch this fall? I’ve vaguely interested in the Hawaii 5-0 reboot, though a TV Guide article comparing this iteration of Steve McGarrett to Jack Bauer of 24 was discomforting. There’s a new legal show called The Whole Truth with Maura Tierney that I might check out. Anything else I OUGHT to try?

30-Day Challenge: Day 22- Picture Of You On This Day

This week is extraordinarily convoluted.

OK, I don’t know how to take a picture of me on this day. I gave my wife a digital camera for Christmas, 2007. She doesn’t know how to use it either. I have actually taken pictures accidentally with my cell phone but haven’t figured out: 1) how I did it or 2) how to retrieve them.

Now, to be fair, neither of us have put much effort into it; always something more pressing. I suppose I could have asked someone else, but I am disinclined.

So this is a picture I took of myself with a one-use camera a couple of weeks ago. Yes, I intentionally wanted to look crazed; I’m not ALWAYS looking crazed, I don’t think. And the Miles Davis puffy cheeks were affectations as well.

Arthur, the AmeriNZ guy, talks about the peculiarity of saying one is busy when one is always busy. Well, I’m not, usually. But this week is extraordinarily convoluted.

Monday morning: Carol had meeting, brings daughter to my work for a couple of hours.
Monday afternoon: I get long-needed haircut, not so much for the hair on the top of my head as much as the stuff on the chin.
Wednesday morning: donate blood.
Thursday evening: choir party, while the wife and daughter go to wedding rehearsal.
Friday morning: closing on a home equity loan. Actually, it’s a refi, for about 2.5 percentage points lower than it was originally. Well worth it.
And this weekend is the aforementioned wedding, which is a two-day affair.
This plus, you know, actually trying to get work done, writing the blog, living the life. Haven’t read the paper since Sunday.

So that’s all I’ve got today.
***
Except for this story, which REALLY irritates me:
Los Angeles Times | Sept. 2, 2010 | 8:31 a.m.

State prosecutors have asked a judge to reverse her decision to overturn the murder conviction of a man who was set free last year after serving 26 years in prison.

Bruce Lisker, who was accused of killing his mother in 1985, should be sent back to prison because the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled in another case that inmates should not be allowed to file late petitions for release even if they can prove they are innocent, according to the attorney general’s motion filed late Wednesday.

Lisker had missed a federal deadline in which to file his petition but was allowed to pursue the constitutional claims in his case because he met an “actual innocence” exception, the judge had ruled.

Let’s not let a little thing like innocence get in the way of the process?
***
A Temptations song appropriate for the date.

My Life In ABCs

So why do some people call me George?

This seems like a suitable abecedarian follow-up to ABC Wednesday, which I did on Tuesday. Here is something from a Thursday Thunks from a few months ago, which I’m actually doing on a Thursday, which is unusual.

“This week is going to be easy… just one question. Ok, well maybe not so easy. Take each letter of the alphabet and describe something in your life… don’t skip any!”

A – Apples. I like them, especially McIntosh and Macoun, which is a cross between the McIntosh and Jersey Black; not as tart as the Mac.
B – Beatles. My wife got for me the Mono box for Christmas; it’s only in the later albums, Revolver and the white album in particular, where I really hear the difference between that and the standard recordings.
C – California: almost certainly the state I have flown to the most. When I visited my parents in North Carolina, I sometimes have gone by car or train. But seeing my sister in San Diego, it’s by air. Also flew to my niece’s graduation from Berkeley a few years back.
D- The Defenders. One of my favorite Marvel Comics (Dr. Strange, Sub-Mariner, the Hulk, and others) and one of my favorite TV shows (E.G. Marshall and a pre-Brady Bunch Robert Reed as father-and-son attorneys).
E – I like eggs poached, fried, scrambled, deviled, boiled, or in an omelet. The salmonella scare hasn’t reached New York state – yet.
F – French. the language I took in high school. By my third year, I was pretty bad, so my skills are rather rudimentary.
G – Green. Last name, also a favorite color.

When I’m giving my name, I say “Green, like the color,” and about 30% of the time, I’ll get the response, “Is that with an E?” which is really confusing, because it actually has two Es. What they mean is whether there is an E at the end. NO, it’s LIKE THE COLOR.
H – Hockey. I actually saw it played once live, in Albany. It was an exhibition between USA and Sweden, i think. It’s a much better sport in person than on TV.
I – Ice cream: strawberry is my favorite. I’ll generally pick vanilla over chocolate.
J – Jigsaw puzzles: I have an amazingly little patience for them.
K – I know way more Kellogg’s cereal commercials than anyone has a right to.
L – My father AND my sister are both named Leslie. This caused ME some difficulty. Since people knew my father had a child named Leslie, they would assume it was me, and folks at church called me Little Les, which irritated me greatly.
M – Mourning. I went to more funerals between September and November 2004, three, than I have in some whole years.
N – Night. I used to be a night person before I started going out with my now-wife; now 10:30 p.m. is really late. Can’t even make it to midnight on New Years Eve anymore.

O – Odetta is the late folk singer who, along with Harry Belafonte, Joan Baez, and Pete Seeger, had a large effect on my father’s music.
P – Paris. If I had a chance to go to one foreign city, it would be Paris.
Q – I usually did well on surprise quizzes in school as a kid, especially in math.
R – Roger. My name. So why do some people call me George? Just a couple of weeks ago, a colleague who’d known me for years asked for George Green. It must be the J sound, the common letters; oh, I don’t know. Also, even my grandfather spelled my name Rodger.
S – I have two sisters, no brothers. I used to wonder what it’d be like if I had had a brother, though not for a long time.
T – I like tea, but I don’t drink coffee. Actually, i don’t drink tea that much either unless it’s cold out.
U – There is this couple from my old church that returned to Mongolia, then came back to the United States. She works for the United Nations, maybe 160 miles away, but I haven’t had a chance to see them again.
V – “Villain” is one of those words I have to think about, lest I spell it incorrectly, as “villian”. “Nuptials” is another, which I want to spell “nuptuals”.
W – When people come up to me on Wednesday morning and tell me, “Well, the week’s half over, we’re over the hump, it’s almost the weekend,” I cringe inside. I’m more receptive on Thursday morning, though I do worry about people wishing their lives away.
X – I believe the first X-rays I ever got, aside from dental, were on my left knee in 1994 when I had torn my meniscus.
Y – I have no particular skills with the yo-yo, or for yodeling.
Z – The only zoos I recall going to were in my hometown of Binghamton (NY), the Bronx (NY), and San Diego (CA).

30-Day Challenge- Day 21 – Favorite Movie Quote

I used to BE a Census taker, so maybe I take it personally.

I love the movies, and I love movie quotes. When the American Film Institute presented its list of 100 Top Movie Quotes, you know I had to be watching. The Wizard of Oz is a particular yeasty source of quotes.

The one I may have actually used most often in real life is #27, from Midnight Cowboy: “I’m walking here! I’m walking here!” when Ratso Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman) almost gets run over by a cab. I hear Hoffman explain that he almost DID get run over by that cab, who was supposed to be blocked off while the crew filmed the scene.

The one that creeps me out the most: A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti; I used to BE a Census taker, so maybe I take it personally. That line’s from The Silence of the Lambs, which I never actually got all the way through, spoken by Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins).

Ultimately, though, the all-encompassing quote is what I need to go with: Davis (Steve Martin) saying in the movie Grand Canyon: “That’s part of your problem: you haven’t seen enough movies. All of life’s riddles are answered in the movies.” I’m not 100% sure that’s true. But it might be.