Well, the highly anticipated Veep debate came off… adequate, I thought. Not really a game changer. I didn’t expect Sarah Palin to do badly (as opposed to how she did with her interview with Katie Couric) – she did fine – but, nothing spectacular, avoided really answering moderator Gwen Ifill’s questions, and spouting off folksy things like “Gosh darn it” and “maverick” and “Alaska!” lots of times. Joe Biden was okay – he was being a slightly more boring Joe – less of the usual passion, but still a moment of poignant Joe. Good on substance at least. Kind of wished he took more of an attack mode, but at least he avoided seeming to be sexist or patronizing. That’s really the best we can ask for.
Time.com’s Mark Halperin gave B grades to both Palin and Biden.
Time’s James Poniewozik, Karen Tumulty, and Michael Grunwald with a great tag-team live-blogging on the veep debate – some priceless lines! Ex., Tumulty on Palin’s remark: “[Palin’s saying that] John McCain ‘knows how to win a war.’ Has anyone told her he was in Vietnam?” — that was kind of my reaction too; when Palin said that, I snapped to the tv, “But, we didn’t exactly win the war that McCain was actually in, so how does he know how to win a war?”
I don’t quite understand the so-called bailout (or what I prefer to think of as “Save the Economy!”) plan, but apparently, once he has that $700 billion, it won’t hurt for the Treasury Secretary to think like Warren Buffett and actually get some money out of this for America. Somehow. Maybe?
A very unrelated matter to the election or economy (well, probably economy related, since the city’s budget’s going to make libraries’ funding harder): Brooklyn Public Library’s doing a book drive to raise money, at Central Library, this Saturday, 10am-3pm. I’m going to try to make it! Brooklyn rules!
A Happy Anniversary to Triscribe, as we get all excited about an exciting future. Or, at least, notwithstanding the unfortunate state of the economy, we’re living in some interesting times…
I’m not a Yankee fan, but I’ll give them respect; what a sad thing to say goodbye to Yankee Stadium and reflecting on the history and legacy.
At least the Yankees won their last home game. The Mets… oh, those Mets. A sad farewell to Shea Stadium, as the Mets lost to the Marlins in a nail-biter loss. Ending the 2008 season much like the 2007 season is just sad.
Congress – the House, anyway – rejected the so-called bailout plan (or whatever you really want to call it; calling it a “bailout” plan apparently turned a lot of people off). Goodbye, plan; back to the drawing board to find something to save the economy from collapsing.
And, but not least: the passing of Paul Newman – salute to an American icon (even if he never saw himself as one, he touched people with his acting, his philanthropy, and his passions).
The tv people have to make up for last season’s strike reduced season. So, I’ve had some viewings and there was the big premiere (or as Time’s tv critic James Poniewozik puts it: “the best tv show of the fall”): the first of the Presidential debates!!!
I’ll leave it to the professional pundits and talking heads and critics to say what they will and we’ll all see the polls’ results. But, my impressions… well, Jim Lehrer was trying to stay on top of things pretty well, starting off with gusto. Confession: I stuck with PBS for the coverage, more or less. It’s Lehrer’s home; so, why not?
Not a bloodbath by any stretch of the imagination on either side. Neither really impressed me on the economics portion of the debate – Lehrer couldn’t pin them down on specifics (when this economics mess is still evolving, I don’t really expect the candidates to be too specific; but it was as if Lehrer wanted them present a solution Right Now).
I thought McCain did very well with the foreign policy portion, as expected; well, McCain was being McCain. Obama kept it steady; a bit too wordy, but he was okay. How he persuades the Average Voter viewing the debate, I don’t know; I’m not exactly the target audience (I know who I’m voting for; I’m just watching ’cause this is gripping stuff and it’s living history).
Other debate impressions: no silly sound bites; focusing on the issues. Pretty good, actually – they both came off mature – a matter of agree to disagree (and agree where you do agree). I think they came off even. That may bore the easily bored, but hey, this is how our democracy works. You have to take it seriously.
I missed the David Letterman tirade about McCain’s bailing on his show on Sept. 24:
But, I did see the Sept. 25 episode – and he was still on his tirade! Best quote: “Here’s how it works: you don’t come to see me? You don’t come to see me? Well, we might not see you on Inauguration Day,” Letterman said. Hehehe…
And, thanks to YouTube, I found this fantastic, funny, and on point monologue by Craig Ferguson: “If you don’t vote, you’re a moron!”
I watched most of the series premiere of FOX’s “Fringe” – brought to by J.J. Abrams and Friends, it feels an awful lot like “Alias” meets “X-Files” with a touch of “Lost” (well, when you have a Big Evil(?) Corporation, it’s hard to avoid the “Lost” correlation; and when you’ve the FBI, well, really, what did people think “X-Files” involved? Anyway, don’t be surprised by the “Alias” and “Lost” feelings – this is a J.J. Abrams project after all).
You’d think I’d learn and stop watching the shows that end up sucking me in. But, no, I think I’m a little intrigued. The cast is a bit more amusing than I expected. FBI Agent Olivia Dunham has the toughness and vulnerability of a Sydney Bristow (like our “Alias” heroine, Olivia loses her boyfriend in the first episode, and deals with the implications of that loss); Dr. Walter Bishop, the scientist, is a weirdo who’s funny and deeply troubled (“Let’s make LSD!” he said in the series premiere, when Olivia agreed to undergo the experimental LSD-involved technique to get info out of her comatose boyfriend; it was priceless in the delivery of the line); and his son, Peter, is smart and… well, as Walter says, there’s his medical history to wonder about. A decent summary up on Television Without Pity. The second episode felt even more X-Files-ish, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
And, really – Pacey from Dawson’s Creek as Peter Bishop! Joshua Jackson came off all right as a decent guy who doesn’t want to be a hero or a son or anything, but is still something of a decent guy (in the good sense, that is). Better to be Pacey than That Kid from Mighty Ducks, right? Anyway, there’s potential, even if the show’s awfully derivative. The casting’s impressive, to say the least, as EW’s Gillian Flynn noted.
The Emmy Awards on Sept. 21 — well, the show wasn’t nearly as great as I’d like; in fact, I wasn’t excited at all. Neil Patrick Harris got passed over for Jeremy Piven for Supporting Actor? Nuts! Josh Groban did a medley of tv show theme songs that was actually quite impressive, even though it was so irrelevant and ate up time that I would have preferred for winners’ speeches. Still – Groban was versatile and fun!
This past Monday was the return of “How I Met Your Mother” and “Heroes.” I’m scared to get excited again over “Heroes” – there seems to be possibilities of improvement. I have to catch up and watch the premiere episodes, but from what I watched, this season’s latest “Save the World!” hasn’t grabbed me yet.
HIMYM was a fun episode – Ted has to deal with fiancee Stella’s not being a fan of Star Wars (gasp! No! How can you not like Luke, Han, Leia and Chewbacca?). Marshall’s grappling with being an unemployed lawyer (honestly, if Marshall, a Columbia Law grad, is unemployed this summer, the economy really is going to tank! but, they didn’t make that joke, so…). Lily figures out that Barney is in love with Robin. Barney wants to be in denial, or at least he recognizes that he’s in love with a Robin who won’t be in love with him (oh, geez, a poignant unrequited love! aww! Neil Patrick Harris had to balance Bad Barney / Lovelorn Barney – and did it well). Robin is getting sick of being Tabloid Anchor on the HIMYM universe’s version of a lame NY1 channel; she accepts Barney’s honest encouragement to apply for a big shot job. Setting up for interesting plotlines for this season!
The season premiere of “House” was pretty strong. The House-Wilson relationship’s on the rocks. Last season, I kind of thought that House was going to use Foreman, Cameron, and – even more likely, Chase – as his substitute Wilson (particularly Chase or Cameron as the conscience or moral agents; there has been less on Foreman’s Housian behavior). The second episode introduced the new character – House’s private investigator, who’s not exactly doing that great a job helping House patch things up with Wilson.
I want more ensemble work from the House cast. Really, I do. Plus, more Robert Sean Leonard!
As a final thing to note from what I’ve found on YouTube, that excellent time waster: an odd video, even if I did kind of like Emma Bunton’s cover of the song “Downtown” — Bunton (ex-Spice Girl) had something of an odd narrative going on in her video.
NY Times’ David W. Dunlap on memory and imagery, and the Tower of Lights’ dress rehearsal. Even as I’m never quite sure where I stand on the re-building process, I’m of the view that the Tower of Lights are the best kind of tribute.
Season opener of Sarah Connor Chronicles – AWESOME! Usual EW major spoilers here. Fantastic Terminator action in this first episode, where Camaron turns on John. Wrecked more vehicles in one episode than they do in most movies. And the first appearance of a T-1001 – look out!
Primary results: Daniel Squadron defeats incumbant Martin Connor. For someone who has been in office since the ’70’s, and is actually my state senator, I have almost zero knowledge about Connor. I’ve never met him in person or seen him at public events or anything, and I have met or seen most of my other elected officials at one point or another. But for crying out loud, Squadron’s clipboarding posse was really annoying. They were worse than the canvassers described in the recent issue of the Village Voice. They even had people come up to my apartment twice to ask if I was voting, and that kind of turned me off. But at least he’s trying. The clincher is that Squadron had Chinese on his banners, and Connor didn’t. That might seem to be a small thing, but it’s often the small things that count.
So, Tropical Storm Hannah went up the eastern sea board. We had humidity. And, rain. Lots of rain.
More people watched the RNC than the DNC on tv? Ok, fine, you had the curiosity factor going, since people were still going, “Sarah Who?” about the Palin as VP choice and maybe people were still in Olympics withdrawal with the DNC on tv (but only on PBS and C-Span with much more coverage – I’m not going to wonder how much the FOX/CNN/MSNBC folks really put in it). But, it’s not really cheering me up that more watched the RNC.
Yeah, I’m really excited to find my missing socks. Not so excited about the end of the world due to black holes or uncontrolled singularities; pretty unsure if I really want o know how the world began (not if it means causing the world to end – as seen in an episode of “Eureka” – where the experiment to recreate the start of the universe rendered the smart people stupid and almost destroys the universe. oops.)
On Sept. 14, 2008, it’s going to be the Brooklyn Book Festival! I’m going to miss it this year due to my vacation in Chicago, maybe someone else can go and let me know how it goes?
Politics… I ought to stay away from politics. But… I can’t.
In this linked article, “Whatever Happened to Family Values?”, Slate’s Jacob Weisberg raises the excellent point that this isn’t Dan Quayle’s GOP anymore; the party that criticized tv’s Murphy Brown for choosing to be a single mom would now praise her for being… pro-life (ironically, Murphy Brown made a choice – presumably, she had one). Down with absolutism, I say; Weisberg’s right that absolutism ended up tossing all those other so-called values – which supposedly were pretty important too.
I don’t consider myself a liberal, but in this column of NY Times’ Bob Herbert, he highlights why liberals should be proud – they made great contributions to American history; they made history. (considering that the whole point of being progressive or liberal is to take action, should we be surprised? Conservatives are about status quo – not necessarily about action, at least not usually).
RIP Don LaFontaine. Discipline, commitment, excellence. If I had a choice to be known as the American President or unknown as the movie voice of God Himself “in a world where both of our cars are underwater”, I know who I’d want to be.
Interesting article on theRoot.com about “From Piyush to Bobby,” as a look at Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, and what Indian-Americans (Asian Americans overall) are struggling with their identity and getting their place on the table of American politics. Just in time for the Republican National Convention and Hurricane Gustav! (ok, sure, no coincidence).
So, yeah, I watched the RNC. It was more unappetizing to watch than I realized. I so disagreed with a lot that was said; perhaps I am reaching my own political evolution in my thinking. At the least, I had to hear out the thinking of the opposition, even if I disagreed with it.
Slate has an FAQ on Governor Sarah Palin (R-Alaska), since we ought to know just a bit more about her. Factually, that is. I can’t really swallow silly gossip.
Her speech had good delivery; low expectations – and so a nice surprise for the Republicans, I suppose. Then again, I disagreed with a lot that was said.
John McCain’s speech — well, I suppose it was riveting in terms of biographical aspects; he’s not an orator; but good enough for him. Then again, I disagreed with a lot that was said.
The woman who made this complaint about big government taking your money is the governor of Alaska. Please take a moment to look at this U.S. Census chart showing federal-government expenditures, per capita, in the 50 states. You will observe that Alaska receives about $14,000 per citizen from the federal government. That’s more than any other state except Virginia, Maryland, New Mexico, and North Dakota. The chart is from the Census Bureau’s Consolidated Federal Funds Report for Fiscal Year 2005. I skipped over the 2006 report, the most recent one available, because Hurricane Katrina put Louisiana and Mississippi ahead of Alaska that year. But that’s an anomaly. Alaska held the per-capita record for sucking on the federal teat in 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, and 2000. According to the nonprofit Tax Foundation, Alaska gets back $1.84 for every dollar it pays into the U.S. Treasury—even though Alaska enjoys a higher per-capita income than 34 of the 50 states. This is a state that preaches right-wing libertarianism while it practices middle-class socialism.
NY Times’ Bob Herbert raises an important point: that the Democrats be very careful and don’t get distracted. His last line in the column was great: “[FDR’s] words echo across the decades because they resonate with the very meaning of America, a meaning that is so much deeper than what our politics have become. ‘We are fighting,’ he told his audience, ‘to save a great and precious form of government, for ourselves and for the world.’”
The passing of Bill Melendez, animator – especially known for the Snoopy and Peanuts cartoons – see LA Times obit. I didn’t know he was also the voice of Snoopy! God bless Charles Schulz and Bill Melendez for making these characters come to life for us.
Spent Labor Day weekend in Washington, D.C. with the siblings – We saw a Nationals v. Braves game on Saturday night; otherwise much sightseeing. Weather was nice and the sights were amazing.
The World War II Memorial – quite a memorial! I liked it for giving quite the feeling of the American contribution – the 50 states and the territories.
Walked toward the Lincoln Memorial. The Reflecting Pool seemed to have a lot of duck crap along the way… hmm…
Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial was interesting, but not my cup of tea – yes, seeing FDR’s words etched on walls were quite powerful but seeing the statue of him straight out of the old photos of the Yalta summit and sitting by his little dog Fala — well, I can’t say that I felt impressed. The Wikipedia entry has some nice photos of the memorial.
I kind of thought that D.C.’s Metro was impressive – more or less clean; fast; plus electronic signage that tells you the next train’s ETA. It did look a lot like PATH, in my mind; but PATH’s trains looks more like something out of the 1970’s – so you can’t have everything.
Watching some of the Republican convention, mostly out of trying to get context and to watch history in the making; I can’t say that I agreed with much of what was said on Tuesday night. Hmm. Anyway, I credit PBS for airing the full Joe Lieberman speech; ABC cut it off to get to local news; come on, networks – you’re doing people a disservice!