Jessica Biel is going to fulfill every fanboy's fantasy this Saturday by hosting the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Scientific and Technical Awards; aka "the Nerd Oscars." If you actually know who is nominated for best special effects in a short feature, this broadcast is for you. If not, and who could blame you, just check out Jessica here.
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THE DAILY GRINDER: Musing on Power
After two years of preaching about "tough choices," and promising not to hire lobbyists, flacks and partisan insiders, Obama's first two weeks have been a bummer. Mostly we've watched him hiring lobbyists, flacks and partisan insiders. But we're willing to cut the guy some slack, because anyone can have screw-ups during the appointment process. The Clintons sure did. Besides, you can't run Washington DC with a team of nuns and Boy Scouts, lobbyists, flacks and partisan insiders are the only ones who know how to get things done. Anyway, it was refreshing to hear a President freely admit he made a mistake nominating Tom Daschle.
Obama's real first test, his "you only get once chance to make first impression" moment, is what he does on the economic stimulus package. The bill, as the House wrote it, it is a disaster, a license to print money for four years with more pork than a state fair. If Obama signs a bill even remotely approaching that monstrosity drawn by the House, he will dash, in one fell swoop, the two years of faith he built with the vital center which swept him to office. If he passes a better bill, he's a hero. Never being ones to dismiss a good conspiracy theory, we are growing more convinced each day that Obama actually wanted a bad stimulus bill, so he could get the glory for fixing it.
Not to get super-wonky on you, but Politico.com reported that Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN), one of the only House Democrats to vote against the stimulus package, said he got "some quiet encouragement from the Obama folks for what I’m doing." In other words, Obama wants to ride in and save the day. Give up a few things he doesn't care about to get most of what he does and using his unwitting "allies" in Congress to do it.
Whatever you think of Obama's policies, there's no question he understand the machinations of politics. A guy doesn't show up in Chicago knowing nobody and get to the White House without knowing how to pull the levers of power.
On the subject of an auspicious rise to power, how weird was it to see Sarah Palin before the Super Bowl? A remarkable creature, Palin. Even more remarkable is how the inflamed passions of the election season have faded, at least they have for the self-described feminists that we watched the game with.
During the election, these same ladies had called Palin an anti-abortion extremist, creationist homophobe who makes rape victims pay for their own medical exams and wants Alaska to secede from the Union. Sunday their only reaction to seeing the governor was saying that she looked good with her hair down.
We love Sarah Palin because she stirs so much passion, for and against. The wildly differing reactions to Palin expose the front lines of America's kulturkamph. Palin is a rebuke to the NPR/New York Times/CBS News brand of heterodoxy that defines liberalism in American as not only a set of political positions, but an array of lifestyle choices, cultural reference points. Just ask Ashley Judd. Palin is the product of an America in which self-reliance and backwoods prowess are still seen as virtues; where instinct and life experiences are more important than "book learning," and where Harvard degrees inspire mistrust along with admiration.
She may be inarticulate, the way TV defines it. She ultimately couldn't give America a reason to vote for McCain -- though that was really the Senator's job. But she is not the embodiment of evil her detractors pretend, and she certainly isn't stupid . Nobody goes from runner-up in a beauty pageant to governor of a state by being dumb.
Also, her hair looks good down.
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JOCKSNIFFINGWe are getting tremendous satisfaction watching the kerfluffle over NBC sideline reporter Alex Flanagan quoting F. Scott Fitzgerald before the Super Bowl. Flanigan, to her eternal shame, hauled out the old Fitzgerald line about "no second acts in American lives" in reference to the career of Kurt Warner. The next day, two sportswriters, Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union and Ted Cox of the Chicago Daily Herald, slammed Flanagan. She was subsequently defended by Keith Olbermann.
Dougherty and Cox were right to criticize Flanigan, of course, but they did it for the wrong reasons. The problem isn't that Flanigan was being pretentious by quoting Fitzgerald, but that the "no second acts" line is the lamest way to start a story in all of journalism. Not only is the lead breathlessly trite, but it's flat-out wrong to quote in that context.
Fitzgerald wasn't saying there is no such thing as a comeback in America and all American lives are one-act plays. He was saying that American lives skip from the first act to the third. In theater, the first act of a play introduces the main conflict, the second act exacerbates it, and the third act is for climax and resolution. Fitzgerald was saying that American lives skip from the first to third act; from conflict to resolution -- a sentiment which might be expressed more bluntly as "cut to the chase." It's a shock that Olbermann, who is nothing if not a intellectual snob, doesn't realize that.
With the NBA nearing the midway point of the interminable regular season, it is almost time for the causal fan to start paying attention to the league. Almost. So here's is our little breakdown on the season so far: The Celtics are good and will get better if the Knicks let Stephon Marbury go to Boston. The Lakers are the class of the Western Conference. They looked like a lock to get back to the Finals before they lost Andrew Bynum for two (or three) months. Now they will be challenged in the West by… Um… Well, maybe the Lakers still look like a lock to get back to the Finals. There's no way San Antonio has another run left. Dirk Nowitski will never get a ring because David Stern hates Mark Cuban. In Denver Chauincey Billups and Kenyon Martin and banged up. What else? Let's see, the Pistons and Spurs are too old, the Cavs are too young, Dwight Howard will be the MVP and the Seattle Sonics went to Oklahoma to die. The only really exciting news is that the NBA added a H-O-R-S-E competition to the All-Star Weekend, to go with the three-pointer and dunk contests.
Citigroup's $400 million deal for naming rights to the Mets' new stadium has become a massive PR problem ever since Citi got money in the first round of bailouts. Since basically, the American people now own naming rights to the new stadium, we should be the ones to name it. Type your suggestions in the comment boxes. All we can come up with so far is "Taxpayer Stadium," "Bailout Field" and the "Henry J. Paulson Memorial Ballpark & Soup Kitchen."
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THE DAILY TUNE: "Bad Reputation" by Thin LizzyThe mighty, mighty Thin Lizzy, is best known for the classic rock radio staple "The Boys Are Back in Town." Formed in Dublin in 1969 by bassist, singer and songwriter Phil Lynott, Thin Lizzy included members from both sides of the Irish border, Catholic and Protestant, and Lynott himself was a rarity, being a successful black man in hard rock. This video above is "Bad Reputation" the title track of the band's eighth studio album and it shows Lynott's sandpaper-perfect rock voice in all it's whiskey and heroin-soaked glory.
Today we are going to be self-indulgent and throw two tunes at you. Thin Lizzy could do ballads too, kids. Listen to the first 30 seconds of the video below; 1981's "Renegade," and how it anticipates the beat and textures of what would define 80's music.
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LOL: Don't Follow MeA police officer was staking out a popular bar district, scouting for DUI violations. Around last call, the cop saw a guy stumble out of a bar, trip on the curb and almost fall again getting into his car. The cop watched the man sit in his front seat, fumbling with his keys and smoking while all the other patrons drove away.
Finally, the man started his engine. As soon as he pulled onto the street, the police officer pulled him over, read him his rights and administered a breathalyzer test to see how plastered the guy was. The reading came back 0.0. The man was totally sober.
The officer demanded to know how that could be.
The suddenly lucid driver replied, "Tonight, I'm the designated decoy."
