December 26, 2022
This be the entry for the final Sunday Morning episode of 2022.
(Arrr, a pirate be I, says I.)
I suppose the end of the year can be a time for reflection, which is where the whole idea of New Year's resolutions come from - what can I do better in 2022? As a Catholic, I'm already supposed to be pondering that for Lent, Advent, and, you know, pretty much any time I'm awake.
I don't really believe in New Year's resolutions. The times I've wanted to make a change in my life, I just made them. I've been most successful at getting active and losing weight. Of course, what has helped the most with that is finding a network of friends that encouraged such pursuits. Sort of a chicken or egg thing though, because I found said friend group primarily because I was trying to get into biking in the first place. The group of friends definitely helped it stick though.
Other things I tried to change or improve about myself have been more hit or miss.
There's nothing all that significant about trying to enact those changes to coincide the new year, an arbitrary point in a calendar, which is itself arbitrarily constructed by Roman emperors, for whom it was a vanity project.
The time it takes for a single rotation of the Earth or to travel a complete revolution around the sun is not arbitrary - it's physics. But to mete days out in groups of 7 or 30 is extremely arbitrary. Perhaps we should have just let the Hindus or Arabs figure out time since they seem to have figured out this whole number system thing anyway.
But as with everything, the Catholic Church stepped in and formalized the calendar which I'm sure made it heretical to use groups other than 7 or 30. But as for when the calendar begins, it's just a day. I tend to not give it much significance. (The same goes for birthdays.)
I will now completely contradict myself by making some New Year's resolutions:
- These recaps will be shorter.
- I will attempt to pursue other writing projects.
- I would like to read more books.
- I'd like to clean and organize my home and maybe kind of keep it that way.
However, I'd trade them all for this: I'd like to achieve some kind of balance where I do not feel overwhelmed, anxiety, or guilt for failing to live up to such self imposed edicts. Essentially, New Year's resolutions are stupid, unless they make you feel better about something. If they make you feel worse, let them float away down stream and forget about it.
Anyway, I still have 2 more missing power rankings to fill in so that I can start off next week's entry with some Sunday Morning STATS!
For starts let's go ahead and get this week's...
The CBS SUNDAY MORNING POWER RANKINGS
All things consider this was a tough, tough week for the committee. I really felt that any of the top seven candidates had a legitimate case to made for the top spot.
1) Lee Cowan
By shear volume, it's hard not to give Lee's 2021 retrospecticus the top spot. Clocking in at nearly 20 minutes long, I do always sort of enjoy ending the year with the "Hail and Farewell" segment - a chronicle those of a certain cultural import whom have passed away over the past year. Kind of like the what they do at the Oscar's or Emmy's each year, but better. Most had already been acknowledged by a Sunday Passage at the very least. Stephen Sondheim had nearly 20 minutes dedicated just to him not more than a month ago.
Anyway, I can't rundown "Hail and Farewell" in full, but if you'd like to reflect on the year that's gone by, I'd encourage to watch it.
Here's the top 5 mini-obits Lee delivered:
- Jessica Walter: They used the right clip.
- Christopher Plummer: My favorite Canadian actor (not sure the qualifier is necessary...) and best Star Trek Klingon, I would have used the following clip, but Sunday Morning wisely did not consult me.
- DMX: You should watch DMX's "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" video every Christmas. It warms the heart and soul and reinforces that Christmas cheer is for everyone. DMX knows the lyrics to Rudolph.
- Hank Aaron: He retired before I was alive, but he was probably my favorite player from baseball eras that predate my fandom.
- Michael K. Williams: This was the "Oh yeah, I forgot about that. That's still really sad." obit. Also, they used the right clip.
2) Leslie Stahl
Peter Dinklage has dwarfism. It's probably the first thing everyone notices about him. Perhaps he's intensely private because he doesn't want to talk about it. He can say that he rejects the trappings of celebrity because he does want his personal life conflated with his art, but speaking as an armchair psychologist, it's probably awkward to have people recognize him.
Leslie brings this up in the interview essentially asking then why did he become an actor. It pretty much boils down to as an actor he now controls how people see him.
He won't take roles that have no depth to them beyond the character's physical attributes. His appearance does play a part in many of the roles he takes, but not all. Like I said it's hard to get around. Allegedly, his wife did not write Cyrano with him in mind, and yet he really wanted to play the role. Much like how it's addressed and dismissed in Cyrano (I haven't seen it but want to very much.) that's out of the way.
I think Peter Dinklage is brilliant. Would that anyone could EGOT, let it be him. I'm not sure about his musical ability, but he does sing in Cyrano. He does have a wonderful, powerful baritone speaking voice. A lot of celebrities win for random spoken word stuff so someone just give him that award, and he'll take care of the rest. Would that I could listen to him do a book on tape.
I loved him as Tyrion in GoT (who didn't) but there really need to be more comedies with Peter Dinklage. The first movie I ever saw him in was Michael Showalter's film The Baxter. The movie is sort of a lightweight romantic comedy, but Dinklage, who is not in many scenes, completely steals the movie. I next saw him in Death at a Funeral. From the moment he shows up in the movie, it just goes to another level. It got remade a few years later with a Black cast instead of British (or Black Death at a Funeral as I like to delineate it.) Peter Dinklage so owned the role, that it was pointless to recast him so he just reprised the role in the remake. I'm not sure a higher compliment can be paid.
If you've never seen Peter Dinklage do comedy (using my James Lipton voice) go... do... it... now.
GoT did have it's comedic moments from time to time and most them involved Tyrion. In the end Tyrion did help Bran king in the mostly unsatisfactory finale, but we'll forgive him that and just assume that despite the fact that George R. R. Martin may never finish the books, they hopefully have an different ending from the show.
Like any celebrity, he's cashed a few paychecks along the way, meaning he's taken rolls in less artistic popcorn fare, but true to his word, none of the clunkers exploited his physicality. I only sort of remember his roll in Three Billboards, but it was very supporting and that is a hard movie to watch.
I want to see Cyrano and I want to see more Peter Dinklage projects, specifically if he could find his way back into a smart comedy because I maintain that no one quite does smart comedy like Peter Dinklage.
3) Jane Pauley
Jane had to do a little more heavy lifting than usual this week, what with having to recap the year's events throughout the show. Has Jane handled the "Hail and Farewell" segment in year's past? I got curious and checked - Lee's done it since 2019 at the very least. Just wanted to make sure Jane wasn't losing screen time. But it's her call - she can do as much or as little as she wants as far as I'm concerned.
Who am I kidding, I'll always want more Jane Pauley.
I know it's the day after Christmas so 'twas to be expected, but I do enjoy seeing the Christmas bedecked set for a second week.
In 2009, I had to drive to Virgina.
I was in no hurry to get there so I planned a route via the back roads. I left from Cincinnati and followed US 52 along the Ohio river until I hit West Virginia. Then I had to take a highway until I hit Charleston, but then again hopped onto back roads again to make my way through the mountains into Virginia. I've often been tempted to attempt to recreate the road trip because there's a certain place in West Virginia where you come around the bend in the road and there is a river with a small waterfall to your right and a small town (actually no more than a few buildings) above you to your right and surrounding all this is just trees and forest. It seemed like I had driven into a postcard. If I had to do it again, I would have just stopped there and ignored my prior engagements in Virginia. Maybe I would have resurfaced and maybe I wouldn't of. Which is to say, to outsiders, including me, West Virginia may seem run down or even backwards, but if it's your home, I get it. It's the most beautiful place on Earth.
That's what I think of when I hear John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads." I've never lived in a place that had such natural beauty that it calls out to you to return. The Cincinnati tri-state area is pretty meh.
The song also brings to mind mortality because everyone wants the song played at their funeral. (The segment only mentions weddings.) Even if I really loved the song, I'm not sure I'd let it play at my funeral, because I just can't abide a cliche. It also brings mortality to mind because John Denver famously died in a plane crash.
In less sentimental times, the song (or any reference to John Denver) also brings the following to mind:
5) Minnesota on the shore of Lake Superior
Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. (If anyone actually reads through my overly verbose and confessional recaps, this is where you nod your head.)
6) Mo Rocca
I wish I could love classical music the way I love certain pop music. It soothes, it uplifts, it transports. But it does not grab my attention. It's hard to appreciate things that don't come easily to you, the things you have to work at. There are some classical pieces I do love. Debussey's "Clair de lune" is probably my favorite, but I also enjoy several songs from Gustav Holst's The Planets and Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker and "Song of India" from Sadko (Rimsky-Korsakov) and some Prokofiev (I guess I like Russian composers) and several other pieces whose names and composers escape me because I only absorbed them through osmosis from when my sister was a serious pianist.
Most of these pieces I know from pop culture because they were used in movies or TV. Anyway, I've probably been to maybe a half dozen classical concerts in my life and there is something special about hearing the music divorces from any context and just appreciating it as music. An orchestra can be a powerful thing.
Beethoven's 9th symphony, specifically the "Ode to Joy" does not need the context of any accompanying visual medium. The music smacks you in the face. There isn't a person alive that could possibly hear it and not understand the meaning. In fact, using it in a film score (unless the film is actually about the music itself) is almost banal as its selection is also almost a too obvious choice. It's an awesome accomplishment.
To remember that Beethoven was deaf and could only hear it in his minds ear... well, I certainly hope his mind's ear could hear what the world has heard for the last two centuries a simple, propulsive, exultant melody that explodes into a raucous chorus. Interestingly, the lyrics were a defiant political statement - an anthem for the revolutionary period intended, essentially, to stick it to the powers that be. So one argue it is also the greatest protest song ever written.
7) Seth Doane
There are some seminal events where you will always remember where you were and what you were doing when they happened. 9/11 is the most obvious example. January 6th will probably always be second - I left work early and when I could no longer stand watching the coverage on TV, I watched an episode of Nature about squirrels on PBS.
Along the same vein I will always know where I was and what I was doing when Notre Dame caught fire. It was just slightly bizarre.
I was visiting a customer to do some on site support on behalf of the company I work for - essentially I was giving a few people a tutorial on how to use the hardware and software we make. At some point in the afternoon, one of the customers I was working with, who left to make a call, walked back over to where we were discussing things and in a slightly hushed voice (he was a bit of a low talker anyway) said, apropos of nothing, "Gentleman, Notre Dame is burning." His statement was met by silence. I had no idea what he meant by this. I thought someone else might. Was it code? Had someone accidentally said something that was classified? After a pregnant pause of unknown significance, he continued, "The cathedral in Paris. It's on fire."
It kind of explained things and it kind of didn't. Had he intended for the initial statement to sound so dramatic? Anyway, I think he got his phone out and brought up some live video. Not being French, I didn't feel the full tragedy of it, but my heart sank a little. Soon we returned to the task at hand and that was that, but the phrase, "Notre Dame is burning," is seared into my memory. If that phrase is ever used in a future literary work, I probably wrote it.
On Notre Dame: I've been to Notre Dame. It's fine. There are a bunch of old churches in Paris, Notre Dame certainly attracts the most attention. The French seem to hold it in high esteem despite the country's modern irrelegiosity. I just remember it being crowded. I couldn't really just wander around or have a quiet moment of awe because getting in is like waiting in line for an amusement park ride and you sort of had to just shuffle through in line. I do remember the stone steps wearing down in the middle after centuries of use. Sacré-Coeur is also impressive and is up on a hill that provides the best vista possible of the city below. The interior of Sainte-Chapelle, which almost seems made entirely out of stained glass, is far more breath-taking than the somewhat dreary interior of Notre Dame. Sacré-Coeur is far newer than both and Notre Dame is far larger and iconic than Sainte-Chapelle. It is also older if you date it from when construction started, rather then when it was completed. What I'm saying is that Notre Dame could beat up Sainte-Chapelle in fight. There are a lot of other old, and even older, churches in and around Paris. If it were every possible to visit Notre Dame when it was empty or nearly empty, maybe it would top my Parisian church power rankings, but it couldn't happen 10 years ago and it can't happen 10 years from now because it will still be just as crowed if not more so once the restoration is done.
On the restoration: Is it worth spending a billion dollars to restore the medieval cathedral? It's priceless and a landmark. Nothing lasts forever so at some point if we wanted it to stick around, there would have had to have been some kind of renovation/restoration. I am reminded a little of the biblical passage where Judas objects to Jesus being anointed with expensive perfume because it could have been sold and the proceeds used to feed the poor. Jesus replies something along the lines of, there will always be poor, but you will not have me for much longer so let this nice thing be done for me. I'll admit, I never quite got the passage because I do think that the money would be better used for the poor. But the world also needs art and beauty. Otherwise, we're sort of just animals.
8) Faith Salie
I really like Faith's word of the year commentary. It was simple and to the point, yet had some depth. She even dropped the Catholic grade school religion class knowledge: Grace is favor from God that is spontaneous and undeserved. (I guess I should have figured someone named Faith can break that out whenever she wants.) Also can we get a full segment on Faith's great-aunt, you know the one who collected bourbon and frogs? There's a story there and I want to know it.
The only thing missing was the right clip:
Normally, an obituary does not get it's own place within the power rankings and must share a spot with the nature segment, but with a lighter load of segments to recap, Archbishop Desmond Tutu gets his own spot.
10) Martha Teichner
Martha didn't appear in episode that closed out 2021. But as always, she was there in spirit. Since the episode only had 7 full length segments, no one was got removed (or Teichnerized as we like to say) to make room for Martha's traditional place in the rankings. That is, her traditional place when she isn't actually on the show.
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