Friday, June 15, 2007

Friday Evening

Some time ago here, I advocated the view here that people who drive under the influence of alcohol should be tossed behind bars with a lot more frequency than they are. I still believe that, though I must admit the whole Paris Hilton matter has given me a bit of pause. The other day, the Head Sheriff (or whatever his title is) said that she wound up in the hoosegow because of her "celebrity status," not in spite of it; that a "nobody" caught doing what she did would not have had to settle in behind bars. This article in the L.A. Times would seem to bear that out.

Which causes me to refine my attitude a bit, not so much about drunk drivers but about her. I think anyone caught behind the wheel with serious alcohol in their system should be in jail and I don't buy the idea that we can't do that because of overcrowded jails and courts. Stop locking up people for possession of marijuana or similar substances and make room for the drunk drivers. Let out all the folks who have been shown via DNA testing to not have committed the crimes for which they were convicted. Between those two moves, you oughta clear out a lot of cells. Then treat everyone, famous or not, the same way.

The same part of me that feels unease when people cheer a Death Penalty execution in this country is uneasy at all the schadenfreude out there about Paris Hilton's pain. Both may be necessary for society to function but I don't think someone's death or pain is ever a good reason to party, and I'm really uncomfortable about the slipshod court system. I also wonder how many people cheering Ms. Hilton's ordeal know or even care why she's in the slammer. If the 'net and cable news channels are extracting a representative sampling, most people seem to believe she was convicted on three counts of being a rich, stuck-up bitch, two counts of being stupid and five counts of getting to be more famous than she deserved.

Which is a shame. The one positive thing that might come out of all this is if people realize that if you get caught driving while intoxicated and then you lose your license and persist in operating a motor vehicle, that could happen to you. I don't see anyone making that connection. They're too busy savoring the fact that someone who is richer than they are, more famous than they are and probably more attractive than they are is in agony.

• Posted at 11:38 PM · LINK

Today's Bonus Video Link

Let's sing along with the theme song from Magilla Gorilla! And make sure you sing the product placement reference to Ideal Toys good and loud...

UPDATE, THE NEXT DAY: I've taken the video out. Go here to read why and to get a direct link to it.

• Posted at 7:19 PM · LINK

Recommended Reading

A Conservative friend of mine sent me this link to Michael Kinsley's latest column and added, "I don't know why you haven't linked to any of his pieces lately but I think he's absolutely right. I don't like that he's absolutely right but I think he is."

What he thinks Kinsley is absolutely right about is his view that America is coming around — faster than anyone would have once imagined — to accepting gay folks into our society as equal, unshunned participants. Just in my odd, diverse circle of friends, I see a lot of people who I never thought would do anything but cringe at the whole notion of homosexuality decide it's no big deal for them. (I mean, it's no big deal for them if others are gay; not that any of them are eager to try it.)

One of the interesting things Kinsley sometimes does is to read the platforms of our major political parties. I'm not sure anyone else does, including — and I am not kidding about this — the candidates who take an oath to run on those platforms and uphold them. George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Bob Dole, and at least a few others I'd imagine (probably Kerry, too) all took positions contrary to the platforms they had pledged to uphold...and no one really noticed. The platform reflects the hardcore wing of the party and you can't win elections by siding with them.

• Posted at 1:29 PM · LINK

Bye Bye, Bob!

This morning, CBS aired the last episode of The Price is Right hosted by Mr. Barker and I believe it repeats this evening. There was a time when I kinda liked that show. It moved quickly, it had a nice sense of "family" about it, the prize models were sexy and Barker's self-adoration was right on the edge, as was his condecending attitude towards the contestants. He probably meant it for real but you could take it as self-satire and it didn't get in the way. Slowly but certainly, most of those things began to change, especially the last one. It also harmed my enjoyment of the proceedings that I began to hear all these tales of Mr. Barker not being the nicest man in the world.

Hosting a show as long as he has is amazing achievement; no doubt about that. But I can't help but compare it to the other great endurance record in Monday-Friday network television: Johnny Carson's 30+ years of The Tonight Show...and like Barker, Carson hosted another successful show (a game show) before that. It's quite a contrast. Johnny kept his marathon going for so long by continually freshening his act. Perhaps he didn't do that as often or as thoroughly as he should have but he did approach every broadcast like it was opening night, sweating over a new monologue and comedy spot, fighting for the hot guests. Bob, on the other hand, has stayed on the tube for so long by finding a formula and slavishly replicating it, day in and day out. Yet another reason I stopped watching The Price is Right was the sheer, stultifying repetitiveness of it all. I never felt that way with Johnny.

CBS still hasn't announced who'll take over for Bob Barker once the summer reruns are over. It sounds to me like an impossible mission. The audience for The Price is Right has devolved to a pool of viewers who want to see ol' Bob do the same thing, over and over. If the new guy does the same show, it'll just point out how stale the whole format has gotten. If they freshen the show and reinvent it for a new host, people will feel a beloved tradition has been despoiled. If I were in charge, I'd look into constructing a CGI Bob Barker and letting it host the program. That's almost what they've had for the last twenty years.

• Posted at 12:02 PM · LINK

Today's Video Link

I was thinking of linking today to a clip from the Broadway puppet show, Avenue Q. And then I changed my mind and decided to link to a clip from the recent production of Fiddler on the Roof. And then I changed my mind and decided to link to a clip of the two shows combined. Thanks to Steve Montal for suggesting this one. It's from the 2004 Easter Bonnet Celebration, which is a show put on each year to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. It runs a little over eight minutes and should probably carry a Parental Advisory Warning due to language. Parents should always be advised when there is language.

• Posted at 1:15 AM · LINK

Go Read It

A short story by some guy named Woody Allen.

• Posted at 1:13 AM · LINK