Monthly Archives: June 2006

Las Vegas will soon have more Cirque du Soleil shows than it does cheap shrimp cocktails. Opening today in previews at the Mirage, is Love, a dance/acrobatic experience based around the music of The Beatles. I have no idea how it'll be but as you can see from the video preview called "B Roll" on this page, it settles the old question of whether "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" is a reference to LSD or to a child's drawing. Apparently, it's neither. Apparently, Lucy is a trapeze artist.

I've been enjoying my several-times-a-week drop-bys at Craig Yoe's arflovers, a weblog for lovers of both good and odd comics. If you are one, go visit. Craig is a clever writer/designer/artist who does some pretty good (and odd) comic stuff himself…but he also collects and appreciates work by others. And best of all, he shares.

Here's a minute and a half of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Nothing better. Except, of course, for longer segments of Laurel and Hardy.

Quite a few members of Congress of both parties are howling about the FBI raid of the office of Congressman William Jefferson on May 20. I don't know if I agree with their position or not. Haven't made my mind up on that one.

However, I have to note that many of these Congressfolks have been defending the wiretapping of American citizens and insisting, "If you're not doing anything illegal, you shouldn't have a problem with the government checking on you." Wouldn't that be a good argument in favor of letting the FBI search their offices?

I'm bailing on Gameshow Marathon, a sad attempt by CBS to create a multi-week event. The premise must have sounded great in the meeting: Revive a batch of old, classic game shows and bring in celebrities to play them, the winners of each show advancing to later rounds. At the end, the finalists play a big game for the championship and they win…well, I'm not sure what they win. It was explained but I'm afraid there's a bit of disconnect between the prizes and the contestants' interest in winning them.

At the moment, I'm watching (though not for long) tonight's episode and I see Leslie Nielsen as a contestant on Let's Make a Deal. If there was an appeal to the original Monty Hall version of Deal — and obviously, there was; it was on forever — it was that winning meant so much to the contestants. Going home with a new car seemed like a life-changing event to one of them and that moment on the show was perhaps the high point in his or her life, perhaps the only time the person would ever be, albeit briefly, a TV star. Great…but Leslie Nielsen used to make a couple million dollars a year to star in TV shows and movies. Winning two motorcycles means zip to him and if he doesn't care, why should I?

Later this week, George Foreman is playing. Do you know how much money George Foreman has made off those grills? It's something like a hundred million dollars. I'm sure America is going to be eager to see if George wins a new refrigerator. (Yeah, he'll be playing for a charity and maybe a home viewer but they're barely mentioning that and anyway, that makes the winner even more remote.)

So there's one of the problems with Gameshow Marathon. Another is that the celebrities aren't, for the most part, people we care much about, either — not even Mr. Nielsen who, at age eighty, is sadly showing his age. Yet another is that though hostess Ricki Lake is working hard, she's in an impossible situation. Most of the shows being re-created here — which include The Price is Right, Match Game and Family Feud — had a nice feeling of "family." We tuned in to see people play the game but we also tuned in to see host Monty Hall and model Carol Merrill and announcer Jay Stewart. Gameshow Marathon won't be around long enough for any of that to establish itself.

The audience had been stoked up to an excitement level that seems phony. The show has also been heavily edited. Segments where the game didn't seem that entertaining have obviously been dumped. Edits in a game show may seem like a way to keep things moving but you sense them and they create the feeling that you're not watching reality.

So I'm giving up on the marathon. The first night didn't do all that well in the overnight ratings and I'm betting that after tonight, we'll discover I'm not alone. People wonder why game shows died out in this country and needed million dollar prizes to generate any interest. I think it has a lot to do with a loss of personality among the hosts and celebrities, and that with the fancy effects and editing, any interesting people and/or reality got lost. Let's see if the audience for Gameshow Marathon doesn't get lost, too.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. makes the case that the 2004 presidential election was rigged in favor of Bush and especially in Ohio.

I am not big on conspiracy theories and have linked here to well less than 1% of the ones people have e-mailed me and urged me to promote. This one, at the very least, should be taken seriously…if not as proof that Kerry really won, then as appalling evidence of how sloppy our election process is. Even if no cheating went on, there should not be these many reported anomalies, these many questions.

I lost a good friend after the 2000 election. The fact that he was happy Bush won (or, more accurately, that Gore lost) was not the problem. I have plenty of good friends who felt that way, many who still do. But when I suggested that we ought to clean up the process — standardize ballots and provide paper trails and clarify, for example, how to handle military absentee ballots that arrive late — my comrade got hysterical. To him, any such efforts were a slimy attempt to cast doubts on an election that pleased him greatly. When I said, "But wouldn't you have been happier if Bush had won without all these questions about chads and butterfly ballots and qualified voters who weren't allowed to vote?", his reply was, "No, because there are no questions. Bush won and that's that." And then he got so personally insulting on the topic that…well, I never thought I'd be accused of subverting democracy for suggesting that after the ballots were counted, everyone ought to be satisfied that the vote was honest.

I am not saying that I believe that a calculated plot to suppress and miscount the vote is why John Kerry ain't in the White House. But I sure believe our elections could be a lot cleaner and more accurate. And just for reminding us of that, I think Kennedy's article is important.

Maybe once a week, I read some news story that just makes my jaw carom off the linoleum. This one may hold the trophy for some time. Here's part of it…

New York has no national monuments or icons, according to the Department of Homeland Security form obtained by ABC News.

That was a key factor used to determine that New York City should have its anti-terror funds slashed by 40 percent — from $207.5 million in 2005 to $124.4 million in 2006. The formula did not consider as landmarks or icons: The Empire State Building, The United Nations, The Statue of Liberty and others found on several terror target hit lists. It also left off notable landmarks, such as the New York Public Library, Times Square, City Hall and at least three of the nation's most renowned museums: The Guggenheim, The Metropolitan and The Museum of Natural History.

Yeah, there's not much chance terrorists would ever want to strike at New York City. Let's put the money where it may do some good: In Sacramento.

A month and a half ago, I linked to a commercial that Sony did for their Bravia TV line. If you don't remember the spot, here's a link to my link and you might want to go back and refresh your memory.

Then you might want to view this parody of it done by the makers of the Tango fruit drink line. And you might want to read this page allegedly from the folks of the community where the spoof was staged.