Ramblin' with Roger

The next day, we went to visit Fred, Lynn and Julie. Well, we tried. How does Dutchess County have two such oddly named streets, with one a Road and the other a Drive? Anyway we eventually got there, talked, and ate and swam. Fred and I blathered about obscure television shows and even more obscure music. He played for me a great cover of the entire Revolver album that he had gotten from MOJO magazine, performed by various artists that were unfamiliar to me.

Self-portrait of Julie, stolen from her father’s blog of August 25, 2005

Julie goes through music phases; currently, she is listening to Elton John and especially David Bowie. The most notable thing about Julie’s language is her use of language. She has a near-constant use of “emo”, as in “that’s so emo.” Emo I know what that is, but don’t quite understand it in context. I managed to have totally missed the term 420, but Julie assured me it, at least with her and her friends, does not refer to drugs, even though the original meaning did, but rather something that’s sort of funny. I do recognize that the language is fluid.
Julie did a very good caricature of me, which I should scan one of these days.
Anyway, it’s Julie’s 16th birthday today. Happy birthday; it was great to see you. Oh, and your parents, too. Glad we didn’t get to see the bat.
***
I was playing The Best of Elvis Costello this week, in honor of his 52nd birthday today, and I was thinking:
*I wonder how Diana Krall, one of my wife’s favorite singers, is feeling these days?
*Some days, the last line in the chorus of Oliver’s Army reflects how I feel about work.
*Lots of his early songs could be done in different styles and would work. For a long time, I have thought (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding could/should be done as a doowop song. Really.

Outstanding Comedy Series

Arrested Development, Fox
Curb Your Enthusiasm, HBO
The Office, NBC
Scrubs, NBC
Two and a Half Men, CBS

I watch The Office and Scrubs and watched Arrested Development. Will they give another award to a now-deceased show? Maybe, but I hope not.
WANT: Scrubs. Or The Office.
WILL: Curb Your Enthusiasm

Outstanding Drama Series
Grey’s Anatomy, ABC
House, Fox
The Sopranos, HBO
24, Fox
The West Wing, NBC

With its lead actors not nominated, I think the Sopranos are a mortal lock.
WANT: 24, which really shocked from the first episode this season. I know this despite the fact that I didn’t actually WATCH it, except for about 24 minutes, but did read about it regularly.
WILL: the Sopranos

Outstanding Reality-Competition Program
The Amazing Race, CBS
American Idol, Fox
Dancing with the Stars, ABC
Project Runway, Bravo
Survivor, CBS
Don’t much care.
WANT: Amazing Race, since the Browns like it.
WILL: American Idol, more popular than ever.

Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series
The Colbert Report, Comedy Central
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Comedy Central
Late Night with Conan O’Brien, NBC
Late Show with David Letterman, CBS
Real Time with Bill Maher, HBO
The Presidential roast really lifted Colbert’s visibility.
WANT: Colbert
WILL: Colbert

Outstanding Miniseries
Bleak House, PBS
Elizabeth I, HBO
Into the West, TNT
Sleeper Cell, Showtime
I saw none of them.
WANT: ?
WILL: When in doubt, guess HBO.

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series
Larry David, Curb Your Enthusiasm
Kevin James, The King of Queens
Tony Shalhoub, Monk
Steve Carell, The Office
Charlie Sheen, Two and a Half Men
Since my pick, John Dorian, is not here, let’s go with
WANT: Steve Carell
WILL: Steve Carell

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series
Christopher Meloni, Law and Order: SVU
Denis Leary, Rescue Me
Peter Krause, Six Feet Under
Kiefer Sutherland, 24
Martin Sheen, The West Wing
Will there be one last send off, for West Wing, or the dying character from Six Feet Under?
WANT: Kiefer Sutherland
WILL: The pity vote splits, and it’s Sutherland

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series
Lisa Kudrow, The Comeback
Jane Kaczmarek, Malcolm in the Middle
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, The New Adventures of Old Christine
Stockard Channing, Out of Practice
Debra Messing, Will & Grace
I stopped watching Old Christine after a few episodes, Out of Practice after the pilot, two others years ago, and never saw Kudrow.
WANT: Lisa Kudrow
WILL: Debra Messing

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series
Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer
Geena Davis, Commander in Chief
Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: SVU
Frances Conroy, Six Feet Under
Allison Janney, The West Wing
Please let it not be Alison Janney AGAIN.
WANT: Kyra Sedgwick
WILL: Mariska Hargitay

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
Will Arnett, Arrested Development
Jeremy Piven, Entourage
Bryan Cranston, Malcolm in the Middle
Jon Cryer, Two and a Half Men
Sean Hayes, Will & Grace
Oh, throw A.D. a bone.
WANT: Will Arnett
WILL: Jeremy Piven

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
William Shatner, Boston Legal
Oliver Platt, Huff
Michael Imperioli, The Sopranos
Gregory Itzin, 24
Alan Alda, The West Wing
WANT: Gregory Itzin, pretty much out of pity. I read a TV Guide article how he goes golfing with Dennis Haysbert who played assassinated President Palmer on the show. They LIKE Palmer, but not Itzin’s character.
WILL: Imperioli, to give an acting award to the Sopranos.

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
Cheryl Hines, Curb Your Enthusiasm
Alfre Woodard, Desperate Housewives
Jaime Pressly, My Name is Earl
Elizabeth Perkins, Weeds
Megan Mullally, Will & Grace
DON’T Want: a swan song award for Mullally
WANT: Jaime Pressly, the Earl’s ex, who became better defined as the season progressed from a one-note schemer to a much richer character
WILL: Pressly or Hines

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
Candice Bergen, Boston Legal
Sandra Oh, Grey’s Anatomy
Chandra Wilson, Grey’s Anatomy
Blythe Danner, Huff
Jean Smart, 24
While Wilson’s supervisor of interns is a great character, I’m leaning towards Smart’s portrayal of the Martha Mitchellesque portrayal of the First Lady. In the last episode, she gave a LOOK after her husband was taken into custody that told volumes.
WANT: Smart or Wilson.
WILL: Smart

What are YOUR thoughts on these or any of the other categories?
***
CBS Sunday Morning did a story this past week on the new Lassie movie coming out this month

“Lassie Comes Home: Lassie is the quintessential screen heroine: strong, courageous and devoted. Now, like so many great stars, Lassie is making a comeback. Producers are hoping modern moviegoers will sit — and stay. CBS News’ Cynthia Bowers reports.”
For More Information: The original, unabridged, edition of Eric Knight’s “Lassie Come-Home” is available through amazon.com, as are many of the Lassie movies & TV shows.
Jon Provost
Canine Companions for Independence
Joan Neidhardt & Cathy Schmidt’s Lassie Fan Club
Dr. Jeff Werber
The official Lassie movie
It also showed this parody clip which I found on YouTube, which you may have seen. (I hadn’t.) Since I’ve never done one of these before, I may be doing this a bit redundantly.

I’m surprised I missed David Crosby’s 65th birthday ten days ago.

I’m surprised that David Crosby REACHED his 65th birthday. Apparently, so is David Crosby. In a Cox news article in anticipation of the CSNY concert this past weekend in Saratoga Springs, Crosby is quoted as saying,”I didn’t think I was gonna live past 30. Gotta remember, I was a junkie – junkies don’t live. They just wait around until they die. So I had no expectation of being this age.”

Anyway, I’ve been playing his music of late, as is my habit with birthdays of performers, and I almost always forget one: the 1999 Live at the Wiltern by CPR. (The Amazon listing is here.) This is a somewhat jazzy disc by a group consisting of Crosby, Jeff Pevar, and James Raymond, a biological son of Crosby that David didn’t know about until a few years ago. Here is a review of the 11/10/1998 concert, which also featured percussionist Steve di Stanislaw and bassist Andrew Ford.

Most of the reviews of the 2-CD set fall into two categories. Fans of CPR really like the first disc, which is primarily tunes from the first CPR studio album, but don’t really enjoy the second disc. Fans of Crosby’s older music tend to find the first disc unfocused and a little boring, but are intrigued by the remakes on disc two of tunes such as Almost Cut My Hair, Eight Miles High and Ohio. I find myself in the latter camp.

Ice Breakers

We’ve all been there. Those gatherings where you don’t seem to know anyone well. You’re trying to make small talk and that usually means questions. What do you ask? How do you answer?

1. How do you respond when asked “So, what do you do?”

I say “I’m a business librarian at at quasi-governmental agency.” Anything to work the prefix quasi- into the conversation.

2. What about the classic “Where are you from?”

I used to have a rude reply to this, but now I just say “from Binghamton, NY.” If they’re from NYS or nearby, this means something, but if they’re from south of the Mason-Dixon line or west of the Mississippi River, they hear New York, and invariably think “New York City”, which is about 200 miles away.

3. What other questions are you frequently asked at parties and other gatherings and how do you answer them?

“Is that REALLY your daughter?” “Yes.”
If someone at the party knows I was on JEOPARDY!, that person will almost invariably tell the new person that I was on the show, which leads to:
“Were you REALLY on?” “Yes.”
“What’s Alex Trebek really like?” “He did the rabbit-ears things with his fingers behind my back. I saw him on a monitor.”
“How did you do?” “I won one game, and came in second the second day.”
Considering this happened almost eight years ago, this conversation happens at least a half dozen times a year, and I never initiate it.

4. Are there any questions or topics that make you cringe?

No, but there are topics, usually home improvement, where, once the conversation is launched, someone in the midst of renovation, e.g., will tell a detailed 15-minute blow-by-blow; I’ve faded out by minute four.

5. What is your strategy for breaking the ice?