August 1, 2021
We're back for part deux and more cash!
Being on vacation last weekend, I didn't even watch the August 1st episode of Sunday Morning until midweek. The sacrifices we all make. I know, right? So what we have in store for this week is a two-fer!
I know I rarely take heed of the words "Brevity is the soul of wit," but I will try to be brief. Although, and I'm sure you already know this, that particular Shakespearean turn of phrase is one of many that is misunderstood. It's part of a joke. The words were spoken by Polonious, a ponderous old gasbag who is anything but brief. Here's the line in the full context:
My liege, and madam, to expostulate
What majesty should be, what duty is,
What day is day, night night, and time is time,
Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time;
Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
I will be brief. Your noble son is mad …
Anyway, I did leave something out in première partie sur deux that I wanted to mention about my trip to Washington D.C. I wanted take the controversial stance that Washington D.C. is just a cool place. You can walk to a lot places (and you might just run into Rafael Nadal, while doing so). Buildings aren't allowed to be taller than the Capitol Building, so you can always see the sky which keeps it from feeling claustrophobic as big cities often do. And there are rules about signage that makes it so that even fast foot places tend to just blend into neighborhoods. With all the embassies and whatnot, you can find good food of almost any cuisine you like and often at a reasonable price. You can go see sports - I took in some baseball and tennis myself - or go to museums, and even a show or two. You think Central Park is neat? Try getting lost in Rock Creek Park. Every building just seems important as you walk or drive or ride by it.
I didn't think I was going to go down to the national mall and check out the monuments, but I decided I had to. I had seen them before, at least twice. I went down early so it was not very crowded and I could enjoy the cool of mild summer morning. There are many places you can go in the natural world and be with a sense of awe and wonder. And I would contend very few places constructed by humans. I guess the seven wonders qualify: The Great Wall of China, the Pyramids (of Egypt or Mexico), the Acropolis, etc. but I have been to none and would be lucky to see a couple or even one of them in my lifetime. But I can always go to D.C. And as I milled around with maybe five other people atop the Lincoln memorial and read the inscribed words of and Lincoln's second inaugural speech (underrated) and the Gettysburg Address (properly rated... speaking of brevity being the soul of wit, it's a callback!) I was filled with a sense of awe and wonder that made me thankful for the people that did their best to bring this imperfect country of ours a little bit closer to the ideal they believed it could and should be. Sure we could quibble with the lack of representation of people of color and/or women down at the national, but as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. eloquently quoted a prior someone, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." Words inscribed on his deserved memorial. We could argue as to whether or not this is a sound philosophy to live by, but let's move on and try to keep everything on the positive for the rest of this week.
It just sucks that in order to live there, you become disenfranchised. (I couldn't even last one sentence.)
The CBS SUNDAY MORNING POWER RANKINGS
In a first, a commentary segment takes #1.
We here at the committee will never judge you, Serena. If anything, judge me for not discovering Prince until my third decade on this planet.
I was channel surfing one evening and came upon Purple Rain on MTV's cousin, VH1. "This will be good for some ironic entertainment," I naively thought. Two hours later, I hadn't turned it off. You can't look away once Prince starts to play. There's no such thing as a bad Prince YouTube video, but I think this one is my favorite. I may have watched five or six times the day after he died:
Anyway, I love music videos. I did not have cable growing up, but a local low power broadcast station, Channel 25, did somehow air Much Music (Canadian MTV equivalent) from 5-7 weekdays for awhile and it was glorious. I got to be with it from the ages 13-16. I was shattered when the station unceremoniously dumped Canadian music television for syndicated reruns of Touched By An Angel.
Knock MTV if you want, but dismiss it at your own peril. MTV was important. Maybe I'll sound like a cranky old man by putting that in past tense, but once upon a time it was a truly weird cultural milieu where Run DMC, Van Halen, and The Talking Heads might all wander past all within the same hour. I may be looking at this with rose colored glasses, but while the internet has created room for artists that wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity to flourish, it has also created disconnected subcultures which have been algorithmically siloed off from each other. There is something about the old monoculture that seems more egalitarian (at least on the consumer side) that has been lost. You don't have to be "in" on something. You can just go to the video store, turn on the radio, or put on some MTV.
I also do not judge you for the 90's fashion Serena. My style is to not have one, so it's not my place to judge someone who does. Bravo for owning the early years. I would likely not be so brave.
2) Luke Burbank
Luke Burbank brought all things "Big Sky" the last two weeks as he sweeps his way through the American West. As Captain Vasili Borodin says in The Hunt for Red October, "I would like to have seen Montanta." Luckily, there is still time for me and maybe I'll check out Butte.
I think I first learned what a Superfund site was from the film First Reformed, a hard movie to watch, but Ethan Hawke should have gotten an Oscar nomination for it. I think there were maybe issues with the awards campaign around the movie, but it was not a strong year in the best actor category. My opinion doesn't matter, but I would have put Hawke above anyone else that was nominated for best actor that year.
I'm off topic once again. It gives a little hope that an environmental disaster can actually be cleaned up. And also kudos to anyone that was featured in a Daily Show field piece and lived to tell the tale like Joe Sesso.
3) Chip Reid
How many times has Lonnie Bunch III appeared on Sunday Morning? I feel like it's a lot, but I may just assume that every time I seem him on TV, I assume it's an episode of Sunday morning.
As I mentioned, I was in D.C. last week. If I had stayed another day, I would have gone to some of the Smithsonian buildings. Most are closed on Monday and Tuesday - is that a pandemic thing or has it usually been like that. Having said that, I would have had to really extend my visit to stick around long enough for the Smithsonian Arts and Industries building to reopen, which is a shame. The building, like most everything in D.C. looks amazing from the outside:
Also, that "Futures" exhibition sneak preview looked pretty cool.
4) Weijia Jiang
I shouldn't have to say that anti-Asian hate crimes are bad. It's hard to make this story positive in any way. Watching security camera footage of attacks against Asian people is sickening. Watching the story, we are told this is nothing new to America. I started to type, "we learn", but do we really?
Anyway, as a tennis fan, I'll spin this positive by pointing out that Brandon Nakashima has just cracked the top 100. He's easily got top 50 talent. Maybe even to 20 potential and if he can make it there, who knows? Not saying he'll win a major... 2nd week at the US Open? Maybe he can get into the Cincy draw next week.
Also, shout to proud Asian American tennis writer Courtney Nguyen. Maybe the best tennis twitter follow. Nothing against Ben Rothenberg, but every time an episode of No Challenges Remaining comes out and Courtney is too busy to join, I'm just the slightest bit disappointed. I really should give them some of my money, but so many people keep asking for it.
5) Prairie Dogs, Ron Popeil (tie)
Find an obit of Ron Popeil and read it. Here's an excerpt from the New York Times:
He described his relationship with his father, who died in 1984, as all business. In 1974, Samuel’s second wife, Eloise, was convicted of attempting to hire two men to murder him. After serving 19 months of her sentence, the couple later remarried.
Prairie Dogs are cute. Somehow they seem unfazed by a wolf just kind of wandering through. And 'cuz this is the internet:
6) David Martin
*Deep breath* Thinking postive thoughts... *Deep breath*
I'd like to thank the Vindman twins for their service.
On their father Semyon Vindman: Would that we could all have an old Ukranian man in our lives to help keep things in perspective.
Kelefa filled in for Tracy, who was off painting whales, as the celebrity interviewer for the week.
Jennifer Hudson was always going to play Aretha Franklin in a biopic. It's basically an immutable law of physics. Jennifer Hudson has had sort of crazy life herself, which begs the question, who will play her when her biopic gets made?
I actually saw Dreamgirls in the theater. I wanted to see it because of Eddie Murphy mostly. I went with a group and I was not like the rest of the group. I thought it was good, but the nagging feeling that I was not supposed to be there hindered my enjoyment.
Speaking of biopics, I really hope that movie with Will Smith as Richard Williams end up being good.
Anyone who doesn't like The Blues Brothers can go away:
8) Lee Cowan
I knew this smug kid in high school who seriously subscribed the theory of Social Darwinism. He probably read Atlas Shrugged and immediately assumed he was the smarted kid in school. Objectivism and Libertarianism sound high minded but are often used as moral justification to "Do what you feel."
It's the same logic train that leads people to claim they got to the mountain top of wealth/fame/success by being smarter/working harder than everyone else.
Rebuttal: No.
All people are created equal, but their obstacles are not. Here's a children's book about trains to teach that lesson.
So, who wants to cancel this children's book for being woke?
Just so we're clear, there's a few spoon fulls of irony there. I had the word cancel and I hate the word woke and I am generally predisposed to dislike people that use these terms unironically.
9) Jane Pauley
I haven't been paying that close attention, but Jane Pauley wear the same white jacket every week, or does wardrobe have a different white jacket for every weekend between Memorial Day and Labor Day?
I don't have a white jacket, but I do have a green one made from alpaca. It's more of a fall item. It used to smell like cigarettes and maybe a little bit of weed because I used to wear it to concerts. I bought it for $4 and a thrift store in 2002. It's probably my favorite article of clothing. Alas, The Village closed down a long time ago.
10) Tracy Smith
No one gets Teichnerized, but every week Teichner doesn't appear is just another week closer to her next appearance. Whenever Teichner decides to hang it up, the committee may need some time to gather itself.
We don't get Teichner on art, but we get do get Tracy on art. I think Wyland's giant marine murals do something cool and it is an impressive skill to be able to fill a canvas that is several hundred square feet in size, but I'm about to say something that might be viewed as kind of mean and I don't want it seem that way.
Is it really art?
His paintings kind of remind of stuff that was on the covers of novelty notebooks that I might have seen in grade school. Not that there's anything wrong with that per se. The artistic statement that "Whales are cool," probably has more positive impact on the world, and resonates with more people than a toilet in an art gallery.
Mass appeal isn't bad, but I do like it when something makes me think a deep thought now and then.
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