Wasted money. Wasted lives.

It amuses me that the Republican party and all their shadow donators are running constant ads complaining about the amount of money Obama is spending and has spent. Trying to portray him as a capricious spendthrift just doesn't work. Especially when you consider how much the was spent on the fake Republican war that was foisted on America by Bush, Cheney and their gang of ass-kissing yes men and woman. As of June 1, 2010,  the Iraq War had an estimated cost of 725 billion dollars. The number is based on US Congress appropriations and does not include "future medical care for soldiers and veterans wounded in the war". 

"Please, sir, I want some more."

Every day I get some kind of e-mail from various Democrats requesting another contribution. Since I already give a monthly amount and periodically send in other checks, I can't respond to these pleas. Yes, the Democrats are being outspent. But does our entire future really rely on who produces and broadcasts the most commercials? Are the majority of Americans so ignorant that they are swayed by these combative ads instead of paying attention to the news, checking facts and using their own judgement in choosing the next president? If so, what difference does it make how much I give?  If Americans can't see that Romney is a spoiled millionaire and total liar and he receives the majority of votes, I'm not sure any amount of money for promoting Obama is going to help. Every day Republicans are on the news shows saying untruthfully what a horrible job Obama has done, completely ignoring the many contributions he has made during his presidency despite the inheritance of a hideous economy and an unpatriotic barrage of petulant Republican resistance. In addition, unlike Romney, Obama has charm, superior intelligence, sophistication and a standard of honesty that Willard completely lacks. The Republicans have made it very clear that they are out to defend the rich and super rich. Many of their members have made it obvious that their party is crawling with liars, racists,  and misogynists.. All these things should be evident to average Americans, especially women,who are poor or middle class and, of course, going through hard times thanks to the previous administration. Under Obama, the economy has improved, however slightly, every month. This  after being devastated by a moronic Republican president and his bellicose puppeteer.  If Americans elect Romney believing that this mendacious doofus will make their lives better then it will mean we have already sunk so deep into ignorance that no amount of campaign money will make any difference.

Metamorphosis.

This a is a somewhat of an  example of my rant below. Rita Hayworth, one of our greatest screen goddesses, was born Margarita Cansino and trained as a dancer by her Spanish dancer father. While she landed a Fox contract at 16, she was dropped after five small roles. It was only because her first husband Edward Judson got her a new contract at Columbia that the shy, black-haired dancer with the far too low hairline got a new name, electrolysis treatment and became the red-haired Rita Hayworth. She could just as easily have been one of the great talents that didn't get recognized, that Fate didn't smile on, and Margarita Cansino might have remained a quiet, unassuming dancer in small clubs in California. If that happened, we would never have been gifted with someone as incredibly beautiful and astonishingly talented as Rita Hayworth.

The great lie.

"If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mousetrap than his neighbor, though he builds his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door." 
Ralph Waldo Emerson

This statement has been oft-quoted in many different ways and attributed to many different people and it's all a lie. My friend Jody is a great actor and singer with a powerful voice and no producer has beaten a path to his door. My friend Sharon is a fantastic artist and the creator of highly imaginative children's books. But no gallery or publisher has beaten a path to her door.
My friend and collaborator John Dusenberry is an immensely talented composer and musician, but nobody has beaten a path to his door (or mine for that matter).  I know many creative and talented people who have built better mousetraps and nobody has beaten a path to any of their doors and they don't even live in the woods. It's not that they don't make efforts to be recognized. They do. But it is no longer enough to be creative, one must also be a networker and aggressive self-promoter.  This mousetrap lie  may have been true once, but not any more. Not in the day of networking, celebrity publications (notably children's books) and the added hurdle of dealing with naifs hired to be editors and executives. Every day someone dies, leaving behind in storage that brilliant novel that was never published, that superb song never recorded, that Tony-worthy play never produced, that inspired painting never galleried. Or, in some cases it is the person themselves, who could have been a heralded star if those in power weren't unable to recognize what audiences would have seen.

Black in the White House.

It just occurred to me that the best way to repair America, no matter who is in office is to provide a free suite in the White House for Lewis Black. Nobody in the world cuts through bullshit as brilliantly as he does. If he lived in the White House, and was given free reign, he could stop the president in the hall. march right into the Oval Office, or wake him out of a sound sleep, and say, "That statement you made today was so fucking stupid I can't believe it." Or, "Do you have any idea of what an ass you made of yourself today?" In no time at all, the president would be so afraid of Black's trenchant ridicule, he would give more careful thought to everything he did, everything he said.  Black keeping watch would make all the difference in the world. This would be especially important if, by some horrible fate, Romney is elected. If however, Fortune smiles on America and Obama wins a second term, it would be better to build a suite for Lewis Black in the Capitol.

"My, what a quick little learner."

Today one of the minor news stories was that on reality TV Bristol Palin's son Tripp called his aunt Willow a faggot. This makes one wonder where a 3-year-old would pick up such a word which he seems to know is used in derision. One can only assume at home, suggesting that the Palins are what I have always assumed they were: narrow minded bourgeois bigots.  Being such, they were of course filled with giggly glee at the child's outburst rather than ashamed at how directly it pointed to his Archie Bunker upbringing. I'm sure he has learned all kinds of racial and personal slurs from mother, auntie, and grandma. After all it was ignorant Aunt Willow who called a fellow classmate a faggot on the Internet. Imagine if we had been cursed with the mad matriach of this mud-slinging menagerie, Sarah Palin,  as Vice President. It makes one shudder.

A plethora of...

Recently I started to get some orange mold in the bathroom shower. At the supermarket, there were lots of products that promised to destroy mold. I chose one called X-14. Just about an hour ago I sprayed the affected areas. Now the entire house smells of this strong chemical in the same way that it reeked with the strong smell of Clorox, which I tried last week. I hate using these chemicals.  I find it hard to believe that this powerful and unpleasant odor doesn't carry with it something more perilous, you know like lung damage or burnt eyeballs, or some future disease. We Americans are really too quick to use deadly products to solve all our cleaning, pest and other problems without considering what harm they are doing to us. I had a friend who died of lung cancer. She was convinced that, working in an art studio, it was caused by her frequent use of Spray Mount. I think she was right. I have got to seek out cleaning agents that are natural and safe and don't leave the house reeking of fumes that you feel are out to get you. By the way, X-14 didn't remove the mold.

Get a babysitter.

The Aurora, Colorado, shooting was horrific, tragic, every possible adjective for nightmarish. And since that hideous event, there have been many, many interviews from victims, relatives of the dead, the police, doctors, and emergency medical workers. Most of them are inspiring or disturbing, but there is one that I find annoying. It seem that Jamie Rohrs and his fiancee, Patrica Legarreta, were among the survivors. This makes them ideal for interviews especially since they attended with Legarreta's 4-year-old daughter, Azariah, and her infant son, Ethan. While the reporters during their many interviews ooh and ah over their dramatic retelling of the horrid event, and express intense sympathy when Patricia bursts into tears, not one of them asks a very important question. Why the hell would you bring a small child and an infant to an after-midnight showing of an ultra-violent movie? In addition, the sound level of these films could damage a young child's hearing for life. Instead they act as if this is a perfectly normal thing to do. This is another example of completely stupid people getting rewarded with  far more than their fifteen minutes of fame when they should be chastised for their completely irresponsible behavior. I wonder what the media would be say if those children were among the victims who died.

Note: Since I wrote this I learned that the youngest person to die in the massacre was a six-year-old girl whose mother is still clinging to life in an Aurora hospital.  Yes, it's sad. But it still would have been avoided if the mother had acted in a reasonable manner rather than taking a child to the midnight show of a violent movie. 

I love this spot.

In case you think I hate everything, here's a commercial I really like.Why?  Because it's quiet, very well acted, and makes its point beautifully. I particularly love the way the actor says, "He's upset." Nice to find a commercial you never get tired of seeing.

Huh?

Doesn't anybody know what literally means?  It means literally. It's annoying enough when people use it incorrectly in everyday conversation, but for someone as large as Ford to spend a fortune on a commercial and make this blunder is amazing.

I don't get it.

Right now, today, July 20th, there is wall-to-wall coverage of the slaughter at a theater in Aurora, Colorado,  during the midnight showing of the new Batman movie. Why? Do people really want to hear all the gruesome details of how 12 people were killed and dozens of others injured? And why? Why would you want to know how this cold-blooded maniac, James Eagan Holmes, was dressed? Why would you want to hear eye-witness testimony from persons who were terrified and may even suffer post-traumatic stress syndrome?  Why would you want to see interviews with grieving friends and relatives? Why would you want to see smiling photos of vibrant young people, now dead? I don't understand. Does the average person experience a special kind of pleasure in hearing about the hell that others went through?  Do they feel safer knowing somebody else was brutally murdered somewhere else, not them? This isn't to say I don't do the same thing. I do. Though not in this case. I try to avoid coverage of this event because this is too horrible, too real. That's why I am so mystified. Is wishing to view the intense misery of others some primitive instinct we all have—the caveman who feels less vulnerable now that the tiger has eaten the children from the cave next door and won't be hungry for awhile? A horrible, horrible incident happened last night and people who were loved died in absolute terror and panic, leaving hundreds of grieving friends and family and we're all watching it as entertainment. Why?

Even the garbage gets gold.

I hate awards shows. Especially the Emmys. It seems to me to be a program designed to honor both quality programming and absolute shit. They just announced the nominees this morning. With their usual class, two giddy and interchangeable spokesmodels, a man and woman, read the nominees to an unseen audience of what sounded like twelve. The unseens gave special applause to persons of whom I have never heard, but remained silent when such talented stars as Alec Baldwin, Tina Fey and Nicole Kidman were mentioned. As much as I like Julia Louis-Dreyfus, I found both her show Veep and her in it unworthy of any award. Again as much as I like Louis C.K., his nominated show Louie is just a mishmash of super vulgar jokes. (Unless you find penis transplants hilarious.) Saturday Night Live is high-school comedy skits at their worst. Modern Family, which everyone seems to love, I find a series of unrealistic couples, gay stereotypes, cliche situations, and punchlines you can see from fifty feet away. Are there shows I love? Yes, some. Boardwalk Empire, Mad Men, The Big Bang Theory, and Sherlock. And with these and other shows we get to see great actors like Jim Parsons, Alec Baldwin, Steve Buscemi, Maggie Smith, and Ashley Judd. But why should I even bother to praise or denigrate any of these programs or actors? For the most part, television sucks and one of the most pathetic shows—in my cranky opinion— is the Emmys.

Find a new agency.

I find this expression so illogical and annoying. How do you find your curiosity? Curiosity is something you already have or don't have. You can't go looking for curiosity. Why not say "satisfy your curiosity"? Or "Search for something you have always wanted to see, or taste or experience."? But saying "Find your curiosity" is like saying find your modesty or find your loneliness. Expedia's agency, like so many today, has less-than-creative creative teams who rely on a series of attractive photos designed to reinforce a weak or cliched theme.

Who waters this man?

Am I only the only person who finds these Dow commercials creepy. Regardless of what they are trying to convey, this tree man is a freak, or a geek as circuses called them. It isn't whimsical or a very good allegory for nature, it's weird . Especially so since there are actually people that suffer from a rare disease which causes tree-like growths all over their bodies. I am sure there are those who think these spots are clever and imaginative. Frankly, I find them bizarre and the message not very clear.

Still my most hated commercials..

There are a lot of commercials I hate. But there is only one series that I find so repulsive, so detestable, so unwatchable, so unendurable that I practically leap for the remote so that I don't even have to listen to a single moment of its repulsive song or catch a single glimpse of its even more repulsive singer. I don't know who this hack performer is, but suspect that the only place he would be invited to sing are these cornball restaurants.

Quicken Loans - Competitive Rates and Fees

These Quicken Loan commercials are probably very  effective and more than likely popular. But I really dislike them. I am no amused by nasty, greedy, duplicitous or cold-hearted people. So all of this jokes are wasted on me. I  actually don't even know what Quicken Loan is, but I suspect it's some kind of usury company, which would be reason enough to hate anything they produced.

Ally Bank | "Machines" Commercial

Ally Bank once had excellent commercials. No more. This one is particularly stupid. A blender sitting in a store is in no way comparable to an ATM, which I assume is the bank machine they are referring to. I can't imagine  the mental gymnastics the creative team went through to come up with something this idiotic, but it must be very odd. This can't possibly be the same ad agency that did the commercials with the children being  emotionally abused by the man in the grey suit. Those were great.

Ally Bank | "Machines" Commercial

N.B.C. atttempts new live Do, Re, Mi.

NBC plans on airing a live version of The Sound of Music. Call me negative but this smells of disaster. Yes, Mr. Rodger's tunes are beautiful and Mr. Hammerstein's lyrics are wonderful, though dated by today's cynical standards. But the film was a huge success because of the cast, the scenery, the direction by Robert Wise. I can see it being a local success of musical theater because it's always fun to Maria going from being a governness to the love interest. But what can NBC possibly do to attract an audience of millions, especially if they plan to have commercials?  When I was at the museum of Broadcasting in New York ( I forget what they call it now) I saw original TV productions of Bloomer Girl, Brigadoon, Kiss Me Kate, Evening Primrose,  Damn Yankees, Wonderful Town and The Adventures of Marco Polo. All excellent. All with major stars of the time in the leads. And all shown when America was still in love with melodies and romance and old-fashioned Broadway shows. But times have changed. And while people still love the movie, I'm not sure they'll embrace a live tv version of The Sound of Music. Stay tuned. I will either say, "Boy was I wrong."or, "I told you so".