January 2, 2022
I'm sick.
That is not a metaphor, or slang, or a reference to my mental health. Most likely, I have a sinus infection. I don't have a fever, but I have a cough, congestion, and a sore throat caused by mucus drainage dripping from the back of my sinuses down into my upper throat. There's also a persistent headache and malaise. I'm pretty sure it's not COVID, but the doctor I went to didn't want to test for it... Why not just do it to be sure? I don't know... if I had to guess, it's to keep costs down at the clinic, but whatever.
2022 is off to an inauspicious start.
I felt well enough to get some cleaning done around the house, but not well enough to complete the missing recaps. Since I think my first ever recap was for the January 17, I can rationalize it by saying that I still have two weeks to get it in before the one year anniversary deadline.
Since I have been feeling a little crummy, I didn't something I haven't done in years. I watched most of an NFL football game. The Bengals won a dubiously officiated game against Kansas City. It clinched the division and the playoffs. I don't really care about football anymore, but the Bengals head coach, Zac Taylor, has proven me wrong. Still, why hasn't anyone hired Eric Bieniemy as a head coach.
I also have a rule when I'm watching football, college or pro. If I see someone suffer a traumatic brain injury, I'm going to turn to something else. Amazingly, even though I just casually tune to a game on occasion, I've seen this happen three times this season. It's especially scary when I see the arms seize up and then go limp, which is what happened to Utah's quarterback in the Rose Bowl yesterday. A modest proposal: why isn't everyone wearing the Mark Lesko Bubble Helmet? Aesthetics be damned...
Anyway, after I turned off the Rose Bowl on New Years Day, I watched pandemic lockdown movie Together starring, James McAvoy and Sharon Horgan. I wished it was funnier. They are both talented, likeable actors that shine when they lean into humor. I guess Together is a dramedy, but as Shakespeare knew so well, a little comic relief never hurts even when there is tragedy all around.
The CBS SUNDAY MORNING POWER RANKINGS
Happy New Year to the non-convalescent out there. Sunday Morning welcomed in the New Year by adding a little CGI confetti to Wynton Marsalis's rendition of "Abassen".
1) Jane Pauley
Like the great catcher Ted Radcliffe, Jane pulled double duty this week - host and segment correspondent. Without an extraordinary segment to consider, that makes the committee's selection for the top spot pretty easy. Jane interviewed star of action films and Broadway musicals, Hugh Jackman. I could write about his career, my favorite movies of his, or even about The Music Man, with which I have a passing familiarity from the 1962 film version. But instead I'm going to talk about X-Men.
The X-Men film franchise is, at best, slightly disappointing. That's nothing against, Jackman or his portrayal of Logan/Wolverine. There was even some far-fetched talk of an Oscar for his final entry in the series, Logan, which was a good movie.
90's era Saturday morning cartoons had two superior "serious" shows. The best was, without a doubt, Batman: The Animated Series. (My 7th grade pre-algebra teacher encouraged us to watch Batman and then do our homework when we got home from school.) The second best was X-Men. They most exciting television event of my childhood was the week long "Phoenix Saga", which debuted a few weeks before I turned 11.
My favorite characters were Gambit and Rogue, questionable accents be damned. They had they coolest outfits. What can I say, I like a good jacket.
It may sound weird, but my first TV crush was probably Rogue. I'm pretty sure it was the red hair with the white streak down the middle.
Or maybe that's not weird. I bet a lot of people were secretly or not so secretly attracted to animated characters:
Anyway, Gambit was only ever had a very small bit part in the movies (Disappointing, but truthfully, I only remember a single Gambit-centric episode from the series.)
Anna Paquin played Rogue in the movies and was positioned as a primary character in the first movie, but after that she took more of a background roll as Jean Grey came to the fore for the cinematic version of the Phoenix/Dark Phoenix sagas.
Not that I didn't like Wolverine, but almost every episode felt like a Wolverine episode and it just felt like too much sometimes. It also felt like a competition between Cyclops and Wolverine to see who could yell "Jean" more often. But Wolverine could do it with far more pathos - which I suppose comes with the territory of being nigh immortal. I never got why Jean got all the attention. Her superpowers were always a bit nebulous and she was only ever interesting as the Phoenix/Dark Phoenix - i.e. when possessed by an alien entity. Why couldn't anyone throw some desperate pining towards Rogue? Maybe that's also part of the reason I like Gambit. His unrelenting advances towards Rogue bordered on sexual harassment, but the fact that he couldn't actually touch her never deterred him.
The other meme-able part of the show, besides the two male leads constantly shouting "Jean!" was Bishop's catch phrase each time he returned to the past, "Nothing's changed!" I tried to find a YouTube video of that as well, but alas, could not. If anyone wants to post a clip of that, let me know where to find it.
As for the interview itself, it was a joy to watch Hugh try to get Jane to dance. Also I've come to notice that Jane is no slouch when it comes to the facial expressions game. More understated than a Pogue or Miller, but sneaky entertaining.
Shout out to Sutton Foster whom we should all remember fondly as Coco, Bret's short lived love interest on Flight of the Conchords.
Teichner on art is usually a de facto a strong candidate for #1, but this week she ran up against Jane "Double Duty" Pauley. #2 ain't nothing to sneeze as far as I'm concerned.
The first thing that came to mind during the segment was which name came first - Robert Indiana or Judy Chicago? I'm pretty sure Robert got there first, but I couldn't find dates on the name changes so apologies if I've inadvertently diminished a trailblazer.
The second thing that came to mind when "The Dinner Party" came on screen was, "Those plates look like vaginas." And then Martha said, "Considered shocking and provocative when it was first shown in 1979, it was eviscerated by the critics (most of them male). One called it 'vaginas on plates.'" And then I laughed because we were all thinking it. In defense of Judy Chicago, any review so facile as to merely point out the obvious is hardly a review.
The third thing that came to mind is the most stridently feminist person I know is a graphic designer. Her favorite color is black. Her least favorite color is pink. I think at least part of her disdain for pink is the gendered expectation that pink equals girl. Not female but girl. Can a color really be a means of female infantilization? Her second least favorite color is pink's close cousin, purple, Judy Chicago's favorite color. There are all kinds of feminists, I suppose.
3) Seth Doane
Seth crossed back over the Atlantic to visit his parents on Cape Cod over the Holidays. Nominally, the story is about oysters. And then you remember that Seth is based in Italy. And then you wonder if this is the first time since, well, you know when... that Seth has spent time with his parents in person. And then your heart melts a little. And then you see over the shoulder shots of Seth interviewing his Dad on a muddy oyster filled beach in Wellfleet. And the resemblance is striking - they have the same nose.
And your heart melts a little more. Merry Christmas everyone!
4) Mo Rocca
If I've said it once, I've said it a million times. Mo Rocca is obsessed with three things.
- Presidential History
- Television of the 1960's through 1980's
- Obituaries
I know I'm supposed to talk about nature, but I'm stoked for whenever The Venture Bros. finale/movie.
Sorry, I get distracted whenever monarch butterflies are mentioned.
6) Major Garrett (and Steve Anderson)
Sunday marked the beginning of a week long rehash of the events of January 6, 2021. It's not like we really need them rehashed since in the past year, rarely has a day gone by without it being part of the news cycle one way or another. This may be petty, but one the most annoying parts of Trumpism was turning the governance into reality TV. We all had to pick our heroes and villains and then breathless stay tuned to the news to make sure we haven't missed the latest crazy (stuff) that was going down. Some of it was necessary, because when crazy and/or corrupt people are in charge, we all share a little bit of responsibility to make sure that institutions don't come crumbling down. On the flip side, I miss feeling like it's ok to tune out and not take things so seriously.
Continuing the reality TV analogy, the true hero of Survivor Season 1 was Greg. He may not have been in it to win it, or there for "the right reasons", but he understood it was just entertainment and it need not be taken seriously. Conversely, governance is not a TV show no matter how much fodder it provides for infotainment outlets out there. While it should be taken seriously, we can't be serious about everything all the time. We all need to be Greg, and have a little Greg in our lives every now and then.
When he got voted out, I sort of checked out on reality TV. So yeah, I made it through a half season of reality TV until Project Runway Season 2 came along.
Which is to say, I understand the journalistic importance of separating the truth from the lies about what happened, but I'm not sure how much of it I can take. I am also painfully aware that we're sort of shouting into the voice as nearly 1/3 of our country has checked out on the idea of objective reality being a useful construct.
I do like the cut of Steve Anderson's jib though, although I know that that 1/3 of the population previously referenced will take his plea to keep politics and extremism out of the military as an extreme political position. Fun times.
7) Tracy Smith
Lil Nas X's debut song was "Old Town Road." At the time there was much wringing of hands because Mr. Nas X maintained he wanted the song to be on country music charts as a hip-hop/country crossover. And to that end, the king of novelty songs, Billy Ray Cyrus got recruited to lend the country music bona fides.
In retrospect, Mr. Nas X's stance was probably largely performative. Lil Nas X is a provocateur, the Gen Z reincarnation of Gen X's Madonna. We'll know for sure if he starts going through a hippy/acoustic phase in a bout fifteen years.
I kind of like "Old Town Road." Intentional or not the song comes off something like a Lonely Island parody, which isn't a bad thing. Lonely Island's brand of parody was usually rooted in a deep affection for that which they sent up. So perhaps Lil Nas X's professed love of country was genuine. That might not be enough to make "Old Town Road" a country song. However, as far I'm concerned, after Big & Rich, anyone that wants to self identify as country music should feel free because the words have lost all meaning. Just put a banjo on it and you're fine.
8) Rita Braver
To get the address the elephant in the room, yes, Jamie Raskin has weird hair. But I'm not here to mock or tease. I got a bad haircut about a month ago. It happens. Luckily, I don't have to go on TV and talk to people.
If you want to accuse Sunday Morning of a liberal bias you could. Profiles of Democratic politicians are more numerous and often more flattering than their Republican counterparts. I'd say Braver's political segments skew liberal, but not aggressively so.
I'd argue part of this bias is that they just don't want to give air space to the crazy folk who seem to be at the forefront of the modern "conservative" movement. They tend to be much more flattering when covering "establishment" Republicans - McCain, Dole, Powell, Bush, Boehner... only the last two are still alive.
The death of a loved one is a personal and private thing as is the choice to talk about it publicly. I am probably a bad person for feeling skepticism that discussing it can feel like a PR decision. It felt that when Cheryl Sandberg talked about her husbands death, but chances are that I'm projecting my dislike of Facebook and the criticisms of Lean In I've picked up through osmosis.
If your political inclination is to view Jamie Raskin's interview as a political PR move that exploits the suicide of his son, I can understand the inclination, but, empathy first, you know. I'm willing to give anyone a chance if they are willing to give me, and anyone else, a fair shake prior to a judgement basis on a narrow classification of a person. We're all just trying to do what we can to get by. You. Me. Jamie Raskin.
9) Jim Gaffigan
Occasional featured player in Gaffigan family pandemic videos, Gaffigan's eldest child, a feminine child, is graduating from high school in June. Hopefully that means the NYC apartment gets a little less crowded in 2022.
The punchline - "Wait, are we living in a movie? I bet I play the fat guy … who's sexy!" - did elicit a hearty chuckle.
10) Steve Hartman
As always, Steve Hartman is here to remind us that there are good people in the world. Hopefully all over this world.
I'm not a parent. Being a parent seems like the scariest/hardest thing in the world to me. Although I am bad with kids, I do enjoy observed kids doing kid stuff like getting super excited by penguins. The loss of a baby is an awful thing to go through. It is something that has affected people within my orbit. As one moves on, I find it courageous to take such an experience and, I don't want to say turn it into a positive per se because it's such an awful thing, but to come out of it searching for the light instead of the darkness speaks to a special kind of person.
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