July 11, 2018
So this will probably be a short post. I don't know why I didn't get around to a recap last week. Here is a short list of possible reason:
- I am lazy.
- I needed a break.
- I was busy.
- The episode wasn't the most compelling.
- Sports. I.e. preoccupied with tennis (Wimbledon), baseball (All Star game), and basketball (NBA Finals).
- The power rankings committee was tardy in tabulating and submitting the results.
- Some combination of the above.
Anyway, the finals are over, the Reds are losing again and nothing important happens in tennis until next week, and even then I'm more interested in the prospect of seeing some live tennis than I am in watching a spectatorless Olympic tourney where only about half the top players are attending. How far has American Men's tennis fallen when I have to Google one of the 4 entrants into the singles draw because I've never heard of them?
(Apologies to Marcos Giron, who is apparently #64 in the world.)
The CBS SUNDAY MORNING POWER RANKINGS
1) Nancy Giles
I'm not saying this as a way of disparaging this segment or the episode in general, but Giles sort of slides in #1 by default by pulling the art segment. I do love the art segments, but I can't remember the last time I went to a museum and can't think if I've ever gone to an art gallery. What does it take to be a gallery person? If you have any idea, drop me a line, because I'd like to find out.
Faith Ringgold's art is visually arresting. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think it falls into the primitive art category. Primitive sounds like a pejorative way to describe art. It implies that it doesn't require talent or lacks the sophistication of "high" art, when in fact it is just a description of a particular style. I'm sure Faith's style rubbed some people the wrong way... well, you should watch and listen to her talk about what it was like being a black woman in the art world. Decidedly outsider.
It's a little bit subversive. Going through her website, a lot of her work overt - you don't have to put a lot of thought into figuring out the meaning or interpreting it. Sometimes you have to shout the important things.
The painting below is a bit more playful. You don't usually think of a painting as being funny, but I did laugh when I saw this. However, there is more to it than just the visual gag of Van Gogh in the background.
The California Condor is the largest flying land bird in North America. I have to admit that I actually though they were extinct because of Jurassic Park:
Let's hope the conservationists continue to have success.
As always, this CBS Sunday Morning segment about birds is brought to you, as always, by Florida Audubon. I realize that Florida is not California. It's a running gag. If you are confused, drop me a line and I'll be glad to bring you up to speed.
The rankings committee has never put Makiewicz this high before. What is it about Jimmy Caan that warrants it? Is it just that I like to call him Jimmy?
You kind of have to be a fan of Schwarzenegger action flicks to follow me down this rabbit hole. The best Schwarzenegger flicks are just cool action movies (Predator), others are knowingly over the top silliness (Commando). Let's not pretend they push cinema forward, but we're trying to make a movie here, not a film*. For now just roll with the idea that to an adolescent boy/adolescent adult man, they are usually harmless, ridiculous, fun.
*If you can name the movie I pulled that quote from, drop me a line. Maybe you'll win a prize!
Anyway, one semi-overlooked Schwarzenegger gem is Eraser. James Caan plays "the bad guy". I vividly remember watching the movie with my cousin when I was a kid. There is a scene where a lesser baddie backhand's Vanessa Williams's character in the presence of James Caan. Caan's brilliant reaction is to raise a single eyebrow. We burst out laughing simultaneously. Thus the James Caan face was born:
Over time, the face developed it's own backstory about a man who is immensely constipated (gross). At a high school improv competition, I broke out the backstory. My partner and I had two minutes to create a scene based on the premise of an atheist, the constipated man, meeting a priest, who for some reason always carried a laxative. The sketch ended with the laxative leading to a conversion (double gross).
We won prize for that sketch! Thanks James Caan!
4) Jane Pauley
I dig the pockets AND the scarf. But mostly the pockets:
Again, some day, when I have the time there will be a power ranking of Kuralt, Osgood, and Pauley even though it is so hard to choose. Did you know Kuralt had a secret family in Montana?
Sunday Passage was half about Robert Downey Sr. I guess if there is a junior there must be a senior, but I did not know anything about him. Putney Swope seems like a wild movie - "Your father was a horse's ass." I'd say I should watch it, but there are so many other cultural touchstones I need to catch up on. Just last night was I chastised for having never having seen The Shining all the way through. If I had really wanted too, it's showing at a driving in in about an hour, but I've already missed Twister (double feature). Drop me a line if you think I'm missing out because I haven't seen The Shining.
I have actually seen the TV miniseries staring Steven Weber as Jack Torrance. I know Stephen King did not like Kubrick's adaptation, but I have let my thoughts on Stephen King be made known previously. I will not go to bat for the miniseries.
5) Lassen Volcanic National Park
Hot springs are water that is boiled with heat directly coming from our planet's molten core making it's way up through fissures in the crust. One day, I'm going to take like 2-3 months off at once and visit Yellowstone, Zion, the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Sequoia, etc. and just, you know, commune with nature.
Also, I remember an episode of a TV show a couple decided to take a dip in a hot spring and then one got boiled alive or something. I was trying to remember what show it was. I thought it was an X-Files, but a quick search came up empty. If this rings a bell for anyone, shoot me a message so that this doesn't become a thing.
My last "thing" was what was the name of that 80's song with the Saxophone riff? It was Baker Street and it's actually from 1978.
6) Lee Cowan
It's Lee Cowan, but it's also a medical story, so every time I get a twitchy muscle from now on, I'll worry about ALS.
The story's pretty heartbreaking. It's hard to balance the point at which quality of life deteriorates to the point that trying an untested and potentially dangerous treatment should happen. I'm all for rigorous science and safety, but the disease is terminal.
Stephen Hawking lived with ALS for about 55 years. For most people the prognosis maybe a few years at most. Hopefully more with newly developed treatment. Is it just a mystery why his was slow progressing? If you know drop me a line.
It seems like a neat building. I wonder how true it is that you can see a show there for 5 quid. Every city has neat old building with ghosts and history. Cincinnati's Music Hall is nothing to sneeze at, but it also doesn't have that pop music pedigree that the Albert Hall does. It mostly sticks to classical music:
The Royal Albert Hall: Where the classics meet pop
8) Jim Axelrod
I know Anthony Bourdain meant a lot to a lot people. But I was never too familiar with him or his TV shows. I guess I always assumed he was a chef who left restauranteuring behind to pursue travel TV. But I guess the story was that he was just a middling cook who got famous for writing Kitchen Confidential. And then managed to transcend that by traveling and filming it. Anyway if he brought joy to people, or bridged divides by bringing unfamiliar cultures into peoples homes and hearts, then it makes it suicide all the more tragic.
I've never met a WWII vet Hartman didn't want to put on TV. All the better. By the end of the decade it's likely we won't have any left.
Everyone looks better in a good uniform.
10) David Pogue
Pogue rises and falls more than other Sunday Morning contributor. I work in tech, but I usually find too dry a topic to find interesting. The fact that I have a PhD in physics honestly just seems like a mistake at this point. Which is to say I like you David, but I don't care too much about NFTs, crytocurrency, or the blockchain. I get how it works but I just don't care. Kudos for pointing out how much of an environmental disaster they have become though. If someone can solve that problem with blockchain technology, then maybe, just maybe it'll pique my interest, but I sort of have to boycott it on environmental principles. Also, I'd like to buy a reasonably priced GPU sometime and this isn't helping.
In a magnanimous gesture, the committee decided not to Teichnerize anyone for July 11.
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