Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Tuesday Evening

The news anchors did a good job this afternoon making us all glad we weren't in Washington for the inauguration. They told of jammed commuter trains, road closures, folks with tickets being turned away, and mile-long lines to use a porta-potty. I suppose it would have been wonderful and inspiring if you could have gotten into the first thirty rows but the way they made it sound, it's a miracle Barack and Michelle made it in. Right now, most of the same news folks are covering the inaugural balls and telling us why we should all be glad we're not at an inaugural ball.

In between, they said a lot of stuff that pretty much came down to variations on "I never thought I'd see this day." Over on MSNBC, Chris Matthews kept saying, "Barack Obama is the President of the United States" as if the oath of office wasn't valid until that sentence had been repeated five hundred times. I heard way too much about what the new President and First Lady were wearing, and there was about a half-hour there where the networks seemed ready to roll the always-on-hand obituary tape on Ted Kennedy.

All in all, it was inspiring but uneventful. I set the TiVo to record three hours of coverage and I figured I'd burn it to a DVD and save it to watch again years from now. But I think a twenty minute clip of the oath and address would be just as good.

By the way: Yes, I know (now) that George W. Bush made that comment about spending political capital after his second inauguration, not his first. But I think the point still applies. One of the first things that soured me on the Bush regime — above and beyond the fact that its primary agenda seemed to be to do anything, including harming the lower and middle class to benefit the wealthy — was this "winner take all" mentality. The Bush definition of bi-partisan cooperation always seemed to be the Democrats in Congress giving him everything he wanted. And of course, what soured me on the Democrats in Congress was that they usually did.

I don't get that Obama is all about that. At least, the first eight hours of his presidency and the run-up to it haven't been like that. He has political capital to spend — probably more than Bush ever had. But so far, there's a nice sense of outreach, as far as he can go without compromising certain key campaign planks. His enemies are going to have a tough time demonizing this guy. I'm not saying they won't be able to do it...but it's going to take a lot of effort.

I'm going to watch Jon Stewart now and see what he has to say about it...

• Posted at 7:59 PM · LINK

me on the radio

Moving on to more important matters than the total realignment of the United States of America...

Above, we see two great cartoon voice actors. Gary Owens was the voice of Space Ghost and Roger Ramjet. Janet Waldo was the voice of Judy Jetson and Penelope Pitstop.

I get a lot of e-mails here asking me how one can get a career doing voices for cartoons. I send those folks to pages I have here like this one but tomorrow, they have a chance to get even better advice. Tomorrow afternoon, Stu Shostak is devoting his Internet radio program, Stu's Show, to the topic. I will be a guest. My pal, writer-actor Earl Kress will be a guest. Gary Owens and Janet Waldo will be guests. And as a last minute bonus, actor-producer Frank Buxton will be a guest. Frank was the voice of Batfink, among many other roles.

Stu is devoting all his broadcasts this month to animation (next week is Jerry Beck) and they're really good shows. I expect tomorrow will be exceptional, not because of me but because he has three smart, successful performers there to talk candidly about their line of work. I get a lot of messages thanking me for turning people on to Stu's Show.

This is not, please note, a podcast. You can't download it and listen to it whenever you want. You have to "tune in" when it's on...which in this case is from 4 PM to 6 PM Pacific Time, 7 PM to 9 PM Eastern. Stu's Show is done live on Wednesday and that's the best time to listen because, among other reasons, you can call in and ask questions. You can hear the show on your own computer by going to the website of Shokus Internet Radio at the appointed hour and clicking where you're told to click. (The show reruns on other days, usually in the same time slot. Check out the site for a full schedule...and while you're there, take note of some of the other fine, free programming.) End of plug.

• Posted at 2:44 PM · LINK

Today's Bonus Video Link

Here's ten smartly-edited minutes of Election Night, 2008. Just to remind us all what happened that evening...

• Posted at 1:28 PM · LINK

Obama's Speech

Not bad for a guy who was unelectable. I have a feeling my friend Roger still thinks that. At least though Roger seems to be turning loose of the certainty that Obama is a socialist who "hangs around with terrorists" (plural, though Roger was unable to name more than one, and not even a recent one). John McCain sure doesn't seem to believe that claptrap that he and his supporters spread around during the election.

A couple of readers of this site argued my remark the other day that my country seemed happy. They aren't happy, I guess, and all insisted that those who voted for McCain aren't happy. I don't think that's true. Every poll suggests that a lot of McCain voters are rooting for Obama...and I suspect that a lot of them, getting a clean look at Obama in a non-election context, are finding more to like about him.

In 2000, there was a quick disappointment in Bush that I expect/trust will not be repeated here. Bush seemed to think that since he'd won, even by a technicality or a questionable Supreme Court vote, he was entitled to all the marbles. Remember that famous remark about spending political capital? It was like Pat Buchanan's memo to Nixon about how it was fine to break the country in two as long as you held onto the bigger piece. Obama seems more likely to include the minority party than to trample over them. At some point, it will probably all come to shove but for the time being, we may have the civil interaction of learned men and women leading us, as opposed to the appeasement of the Talk Radio mob.

• Posted at 1:27 PM · LINK

Watching the Coverage

Apparently, this is a historic day.

• Posted at 12:22 PM · LINK

Good Morning

Nothing to say that a billion other blogs aren't saying. I don't think this changes everything but it changes an awful lot that needs to be changed. I was going to write a long post but that would have meant acknowledging all the things that could go wrong. And I think I'd like to just enjoy the optimism for a while longer...

• Posted at 10:57 AM · LINK

Today's Video Audio Link

Lately, I've seen an awful lot of rude people at live shows...especially people who snap photos and video with their little digital cameras and cameraphones, despite announcements that this is prohibited. I suppose there's always been a certain amount of rudeness this way but in the high-tech era, everyone seems to have some sort of recording device on their person and I guess the temptation to use them is too great.

This is actually an audio link. It's a recording from one of the last performances that Patti LuPone gave as Mama Rose in Gypsy. Someone was snapping pics during the big show-stopping number, "Rose's Turn," so Patti stopped the show and scolded the photo-taker, refusing to continue until the person was ejected. Once that was done, she started the number again from the top...and I'll bet the audience loved it. I also bet none of those people are going to take pictures in a theater for a lonnnng time.

Of course, there's a certain irony here because whoever recorded this audio and posted it to YouTube was violating the same rule just as blatantly as the clown with the camera. I guess they wanted to spread the warning that you should stick to the less obvious methods of rule-breaking. (By the way: The rule against taking photos is not just a matter of the producers wanting to preserve intellectual property. Performers on stage can be momentarily blinded by a flash in the darkness and can stumble or fall. At the very least, they can be distracted and it can harm the show for everyone.)

The audio's a little weak in spots so you might want to crank up your speakers for this. It runs a little over three minutes and the outburst occurs about 45 seconds in...

• Posted at 12:21 AM · LINK

Bag Buyout

Here's the answer to the question I asked the other day here...

U.S. Airways has sent $5,000 checks to each of the 150 passengers on Flight 1549 to compensate them for lost luggage and other belongings.

That was the flight that crash-landed in the Hudson River last week after losing power simultaneously in both engines shortly after takeoff. All 155 people aboard survived.

In a letter sent to passengers, an airline executive said she was "truly sorry." The letter also explained that passengers' belongings left in the plane could be stuck with investigators for months.

The airline also said it would reimburse passengers for their ticket costs.

That sounds very fair to me...and not that they did it for this reason, it's good public relations. I hope they aren't letting themselves in for every passenger on any flight whose luggage is lost demanding five grand.

• Posted at 12:16 AM · LINK