Au audience of hysterics.

Stephen Colbert is a brilliant comedian. And, during his show, he has a lot of important and trenchant things to say. But the excessive and continuous hyping of his audience is becoming ridiculous. Is his ego so weak that any comment he makes has to be greeted with applause, screaming, hoots and wild expressions of approval? This kind of absurdly exaggerated enthusiasm just weakens the intelligence of the show's content. Especially when we, the audiences, know that some toadie is holding up signs that say "applaud", "scream", "whistle". So as much as I like and admire Stephen Colbert, I have to give up watching this show because the absurdly overwrought audience reactions give me a headache.

Hallmark

This commercial was brought to my attention by a good friend. That's fitting since it's about good friends. What I like about this spot is that it very sincere and real without going into saccharine territory which Hallmark is capable of doing. It also reminds us of the many times we had to get everybody's name on a greeting card. A wonderful little story in two touching minutes.

Talk about embarrassing spots.

Commercials are 30 seconds. It seems to me if you're any kind of a writer, you could make half-a-minute of copy understandable. That doesn't seem to be the case here. When her sister says, "You didn't have to come over." what is she talking about? Come over for what? To acknowledge the spots on my glasses? To greet the bizarre counselor? This commercial, like her glass, is very unclear.

REALLY, REALLY STUPID!

Not even considering that this is yet another of the dozens of commercials in which the woman is smart and the man is a moron,  I don't get this commercial. What is the point of the all caps comment, and the idiot (who never should have been hired) suggesting getting a drink later? And why would a good manager bring up such a subject in front of the entire staff. He wouldn't.  How does the art director-copywriter team talk major companies into backing idiotic spots like this? All this talent (meaning the actors) and all that money for a huge media buy, but NO REAL IDEA.

Henry, Sweet Henry.

I was listening to a CD of a musical today. It occurred to me that most people might not know the musical, nor recognize the name of its super talented composer and lyricist, which is a shame because he was a giant in the entertainment world. The musical was Carnival, the genius behind it Bob Merrill, who was born Henry Robert Merrill Levan in Atlantic City in 1921. And while Mr. Merrill wrote songs as light as "How Much is That Doggie in the Window", he also wrote outstanding musicals including the already mentioned Carnival, New Girl in Town, Take Me Along and Henry, Sweet Henry as well as the lyrics to such famous songs as "People" (m. Jule Styne). I was also surprised to learn that he wrote several songs for Jerry Herman's Hello Dolly, including my favorite "Elegance". Sadly Bob Merrill died on February 17, 1998, and, considering his many successes,  it's unfortunate that his name isn't as renowned as many other Broadway composers. Bob also had another talent that many composers sadly do not have: He could sing. Beautifully as it happens. And one of the most touching recordings I can think of is Bob Merrill singing his own song, "Love Makes the World Go 'Round."

Note: I found it oddly difficult to find a photo of Bob Merrill. This is the best I could come up with, and it's surprisingly somber for a musician that gave us so many, many joyous songs.

Ally Bank commercials, Waring thin.

Ally used to do some of the best commercials on tv when they pitted that arrogant guy in the grey suit with innocent children. Now they do some of the stupidest ads, this being one of them. Comparing putting a blender into a retail establishment with the abilities of an ATM is about as dumb as can be. There's no parallel. There's no logic. It's not even amusing or whimsical. It's just a waste of time and money. I don't know who does their advertising now, but they should have changed agencies back with the "minding the money" commercial, which was also idiotic.

Friend or foe?

Why am I the only person I know who can easily imagine America being invaded by the Chinese, Pearl Harbor style? They're big. They're powerful. They're secretive. They have nuclear weapons. They need more living space and they practically own us anyway. Recently there have been reports of them hacking into our utility grids and communications systems. Why couldn't they just deprive us of power and fly right in?  Okay, it's paranoid, it's a highly dramatic conspiracy theory. Or is it? I just hope our spy programs are keeping an eye on whatever they're building.