I admit I have not watched "Saturday Night Live" consistently in years. In contrast, as a child, I would secretly hide myself away to a closet TV to watch the 'glory days' of the show...the genius that was John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, "Mr. Bill", my beloved favourite Gilda Radner, et al...but after awhile the newer incarnations just could never hold a candle to the former standard-bearers. (Clips above from the NBC Video Library site.) Somewhere in there I even drifted over to the short-lived but equally good (when the cast was relatively sober, anyway) ABC competitor, "Fridays". (I loved Melanie Chartoff). In my slightly-older years, my new comic love was the daring "In Living Color"...a show and collection of skits that I still can watch and belly laugh at as well as the classic "SNL". (Because of his "Fire Marshall Bill" character, I will always give Jim Carrey's projects a better-than-fair opportunity to be seen...sometimes I've been disappointed, sometimes I've been wowed, but the guy always gets a 'get out of acting jail for free' card I don't extend to most others. Clip links to YouTube, by the way.) Unfortunately, though, after the implosion of "ILC" back ages ago, I have had little in the way of comedy skit shows to get excited about. (And American sitcoms are absolutely dreadful...I guess there's a stupid union rule about having a laugh-track for everything that might have a glimmer of potential...so I haven't watched them really in years, either. American drama, yes; American comedy as it were, no. If I want comedy, I'll switch on BBC-America and see the original shows we're going to rip off in five years' time.) In a country full of promise to take so many jokes on ourselves, it's a resource we've only developed in very awkward, and haphazard, spurts...at least on major network television.
However, in the first time in God knows how long, I made an exception to my 'no-"SNL" rule last night, and I am thankful that I did. Amy Poehler's dead-on impersonation of Hillary Clinton has been a highlight of recent months that I've snuck views of from other blogs, YouTube, and the like. The beauty of the internet now is that you can find just those bits you want and spare yourself the agony of having to watch a potentially horrible show (anybody else who watched Eddie Murphy in his prime wish we'd had that option in the 1980s?) But last night I plopped myself down in front of the telly and eagerly awaited to be surprised...like times of old, but this time I was holding a bottle of beer instead of a class of milk. The verdict? Not too bad all told...they've definitely improved since I last attempted this...but nothing could touch the opening skit. And that opening was the best I've seen or heard about from them in years.
Last night, former regular Tina Fey came back for a cameo appearance to team with Poehler in a soon-to-be-classic: Fey as Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin and Poehler again as Hillary Clinton, in a speech about sexism in media coverage. This is the kind of stuff that channels the very best of Radner and Company, written and performed by true pros.
There just may be hope for televised comedy in these final Presidential election days, especially if Fey and Poehler can keep contributing. Makes one sad, though, that in some weird world that these two women...Palin and Clinton , or better yet Fey and Poehler performing as Pallin and Clinton...can't be joined at the hip for some sort of future political project (er, comedic roast). Thank of the 'cultural' memories that could so easily come from that union. Until then, I think I shall have to give "SNL" another try...and I genuinely hope it's not a short-lived run again. In a Presidential campaign that is so surreal and chock full of 'what the fuck' moments as this one is and has been so far, it truly is too bad that Senators Obama and McCain are so very, very dull in comparison.
A very quick post, as I'm already running late for work...
Tonight, over in downtown Raleigh at Tir Na Nog, Friends of Blog and great musicians extraordinaire Hercules Mulligan will be doing their usual lively set. Wonderful night is forecast for this evening...clouds to move out later today and sunshine in for tomorrow...so come out and join us for a late summer treat. The show starts at 7 pm.
Tomorrow, over at the Dorton Arena at the State Fairgrounds also in Raleigh, the Carolina Rollergirls (our local womens' flat track roller derby team) takes on the Tucson Saddletramps (which sounds suspiciously like a new team to the league, but I did miss a couple of games from last year, too). A truly fun and lively night of action, as the CRG team is always competitive and draws an enthusiastic crowd. If you've not been, it's time to finally come see what you've been missing. If you've been and haven't made plans already for tomorrow, come out and cheer to the rafters again. The doors open at 5pm (plenty of free parking around the Arena, too, by the way), and the bout starts at 6pm.
Seven long years of laughter, joy, tears, exhaustion, and pain.
Seven long years of wondering the 'what ifs' of what happened then, and sometimes forgetting the 'why nots' of today.
Seven long years of missing those we cannot physically connect with right now, all the while ignoring those we cannot mentally compromise with any more. Honestly now, what's worse?
Seven long years of looking worriedly over our shoulders and seeing our own reflection. And then be completely scared of turning around again.
And seven long years without answers, and also really without resolution.
Please join me in honouring those many men, women, and children that were lost on September 11, 2001, and in many parts and many weeks afterwards, throughout this world. It was a horrible day in history...a day that we shall never forget.
For more on my particular personal history with this day and those that were lost, I refer you to my post two years ago on this blog. Again, I also extend my prayers to the brave crew and passengers of AA Flight 11 especially. Words cannot describe the bravery and courage they displayed that day.
I also would like to sadly add that the "John" phone representative in that 2006 post...a man whom I knew and worked with, who just happened to get the call from AA 11 Flight Attendant Betty Ong on that fateful day...is now no longer with us as well. He died this past fall, forever a deeply, deeply changed man. If it's true that the real number of casualties from the September 11 attacks may never be truly known, it's also true that my former co-worker "John" became yet another victim of that hell. Maybe, at last, in death "John" can have the peace he so desperately needed ever since trying to help out Flight 11. My heart and condolences go out to all the friends and family of those who are still suffering, and I will never forget.
Okay, I will admit I'm a bit slow on a lot of the more technical things in life. The finer intersection of architecture and engineering, as just one example of many. Instead of getting into the 'whys' of things, in exact detail, I have just settled into looking on at the final product in a state of amazement, awe, or complete disdain. If I do go researching, analyzing, and digging into every component that really captures my attention about a 'thing', daily annoyances and responsibilities like the job gets ignored, my treasured friends and family go unnoticed, the too-many bills go unpaid...and I frequently give up in frustration most of the time anyways. Those that have had the (dis)pleasure of traveling with me throughout the world know all too well that I can easily spend hours and hours taking photos of porticoes, domed ceilings, hand-crafted Georgian style columns, and a million other small and large building details in between. (Kathy, I again apologize for practically abandoning you in Rome, really.) And don't even get me around the actual building materials like brick, tile, wood or countless other things as I'll forever be putting one thing against the other, creating some mental version of an architectural Nirvana all my own. For better or for worse, I was quite the child honors graduate of Lincoln Logs®. And that's just for the building fetish I have...there are, unfortunately, many more I follow.
Some simple things...learned the hard way either through experience, hard knocks, or through reading countless books to properly identify things I've captured either on film or digitally...I can explain to you and perhaps at even to an exhausting length if I've really sunk my fangs in. The more technical things, especially those involving higher science or mathematics...I absolutely haven't a clue. In many ways, that 'higher technical learning' represents a door that is very tightly locked to me, and I have never even seen, let alone been able to try, its key. Instead of banging myself against said door, though, I will refer you to books or museums or specific writers for your answers (and maybe even to the Web if I'm feeling lazy). Knowledge may be power, but so with it also comes freedom. So, yes, I am a woman seeking both influence and liberty.
I don't have to know the methods of the exact construction of the Pantheon in Rome to understand its immense beauty and accomplishment. I don't have to adore the final product of Cubist paintings to stare in wonder at their compositions and colours. I don't have to be able to diagram the output of an internal combustible engine to devotedly follow and understand all the hubbub about the performance cars tested on "Top Gear" (hell, I can't even parallel park well). Some things are not mutually exclusive; instead, some things just 'are'. As they damn well should be.
I wish I knew all these finer definitions, and in fact I wish I could learn about so many more of these things that intrigue me so, but I'm slowly beginning to accept my limitations and move on despite them. The list of unknowns is long...architecture, ancient languages, pharmacology, geography, how to make a decent animated film, the appeal of Vegemite to Aussies...but I'm hopeful I may just stumble across the answers by dumb luck if I can't get them through a proper self-education. That's the reason why I adore all things Leonardo da Vinci-related, and not so much because he was a genius...arguably The Genius of All Time...but instead because he never gave up learning. Never stopped, even when the knowledge had no foreseen nor immediate applicability to him...but instead he just kept learning for his own sake. How many of us can say that nowadays? I have a hard enough time remembering to stop at the grocery, let alone learn anything new just for the hell of it all.
So, to that end and without any actual benefit to me at all other than just being a curious citizen of the world, I have been strangely and intensely intrigued with the new 'Big Bang' experiment that is scheduled to fully engage sometime tomorrow (September 10). One hundred meters under the French and Swiss Alps, in a very complex circular tube that is 17 or so miles in circumference, scientists of all stripes (but namely a lot of physicists who understand all that 'cool' science stuff from all the "Star Trek"® series) are going to try and recreate The Big Bang with the LHC (large hadron collider), which (depending on your religious views) may or may not have been when the universe as we know it now began. It's an ambitious project to put it mildly and it has cost billions of dollars and decades of time to even get the LHC this far. (You can even take a virtual tour of the Experiment from their website here.)
Now this is where research on the Internet (should I be thanking Al Gore? lol) gets extremely entertaining, albeit also a bit bewildering: from one point of view, there's a chance the scientists will find something called 'the God particle' and we'll all learn what makes up matter and anti-matter. (Questions? Follow your own research on why that's important from here, as I never did comprehend even the easiest of physics lessons.) Then another view posits there's a chance nothing of significance will come from it and it will all be a great loss of money now and for many years to come (and the French will want an additional week of vacation by the time this all concludes). Then, from the rather glass-half-empty group, there's also the chance that a black hole could open up tomorrow (yep, just like that "Star Trek"® episode, but without the pesky Borg firing torpedoes at us...maybe) and the world as we know it will come to an end.
To their credit, the good people at the BBC News have tried to explain it all for the rest of dimwits, although they don't seem to be reporting on the 'end is near' angle so much, which is probably good since, if that bleak theory holds true, that means our hours remaining are very limited indeed. Cheers!
And to think all of this time...while these calculator-proficient, higher-thinking, endearing egghead types have been deep in the heart of Europe, possibly creating both the greatest and worst moment of discovery in our world...I've been worrying about what Dubya and his legacy has done to the global landscape. Or the elections even. Or even how much the cost of food has gone up since the first of the year. Talk about missing the memo...sheesh. And is it just me, or does this LHC collider look like a cousin of 'The Machine' from the movie "Contact" with Jodie Foster??
Cuing the greatest song about time travel gone a bit problematic..."'39" by Queen. (Video...well, audio anyway...from YouTube, as always with me.)
Slight sidebar: My favourite song ever from Queen (and I'm quite the Queen fanatic), and it's a damn nice one to celebrate with and/or go out on. Lyrics to "'39" can be found here. (Bet you didn't know Queen's lead guitarist, Brian May, is now Dr. Brian May, astrophysicist, did you?? Bless the Great Bri, he actually understands all of this stuff, and he even addressed this whole LHC 'switch-on' in his "Bri's Soapbox" column today. It wasn't only Freddie who wanted to reach for the stars, folks...Brian's journey has just been a bit more of a scientifically-grounded one.)
I personally like to think positive: the world as we all know and sometimes love it will not end, a separate universe will not be created (or, if it does, I'm sure all the "Dr. Who" fans, Bless them, will gladly sign up to populate that one), I will still make it out to see the Carolina Rollergirls play their opener this weekend, and maybe I will someday take that long-dreamt after trip to Tuscany and the countryside of Italy.
But, on the off chance something does go haywire on Wednesday and we all find ourselves hopelessly adrift somewhere 'else', let me quote the wonderful Truman Burbank from the equally brilliant "The Truman Show":
"Good morning, and in case I don't see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night!"
It's been 6 months' today since I started on the 'eating change' (read: not diet) plan, and I am happy to report I have lost 32 pounds so far. I'm normally not one given to bragging (or at least I try not to be), but I'm happy. Especially so since I haven't been starving myself or (Heaven forbid) been exercising much, either. Honestly, just a helluva lot less junk food and far less carbs. Tracking my daily consumption over at The Daily Plate has been helpful, too, and is actually less cumbersome than you'd most likely imagine.
And, (forgive me while this sounds like an awards acceptance speech) I'd like to thank all of my dear friends and family who have been supportive to me while I've been doing this. I know talking me into eating salads when I was really wanting potatoes has not been an easy job...even though I asked you to...and I know I sometimes have been very defensive about my weight. And let's not even get started about how many old clothes I now need to toss and/or donate...that's still a work in progress. But at least I have a reason to...and thanks to all around. Even the haters.
Thirty-two down, with ideally about another 20-25 to go.
Two notes, one good and one bad, and then I'm off to bed...
The bad news is...that I will need to reload my posts and pictures from the nine or so entries that went 'poof' from August. Apparently what I was seeing as published here was not the same as what y'all were not seeing published there. Moral to the story: always double-check the final product. I'm still at a loss as to what happened and when, but some re-creation will be necessary. I'm waving the white flag on this one and will just have to re-post what's been lost.
The good news is...that the progressive rock festival from this weekend is finally over and we have the environs surrounding the site back to its normal tranquility. Which means I can now sleep again without headphones, or read without headphones, or prepare meals without headphones. It was bad enough that the road had its parking moments and that the trash bins are more than overflowing and scattered about. But it was that the bass sounds (which I am sure were much improved if one was close to the stage to actually hear the music) that were so reverberating at times that it echoed not only around the structures, but actually also through them, too. Moral to the story: over-amplified music festivals, open pastures, and partially subterranean structures generally do not mix. Nor does my patience for having to wait out some of the performances for my sanity.
But, for now anyway, calm has been restored to the Kingdom. And I'll restart all of this again tomorrow.
