Sigh

Click here for the latest Sarah Palin stupidity. The esteemed republican candidate for Vice President of the United States is now on record as saying that she is afraid that a robust media that asks questions and challenges the veracity of her insane claims is a threat to the First Amendment. Yup. A free press is a threat to the amendment that...guarantees a free press.

Saved by iPod

I was feeling cranky this morning, and after I started my elliptical run off on "Rehab" (my ritual because I like singing "No, no, no" aloud; it's my daily denial instead of a daily affirmation), I didn't know what to listen to. My iPod chose two songs that made me feel so much better this morning through my melodramatic karaoke stylings, I had to share them in case you too are feeling the cranky Mondays. First, classic Madonna:



Second, classic Buffy. And she's feeling sorry for herself in this ballad, which fit my grumpy mood this morning. Plus, this YouTube video of it even has the lyrics light up underneath it (just in case you forget):



Hope you have some sing-a-long Monday fun.

Feeling seasonal

With Halloween coming up this week, I thought I would post two Halloween related pictures from recent adventures in our homestead. First, Nelle as Bat Dog (her Halloween costume):


and second, my angry Jack-o'-lantern. (He was supposed to be surprised but turned out a little enraged.)

Who Knew?

Apparently, my beautiful, happy, and staunchly feminist wife only hates Sarah Palin because Palin is attractive and happy. Phew! I thought it might have something to do with Palin's stunning incompetence, frightening hardcore conservatism, and proud ignorance. I'm glad Bill Bennett and McCain's campaign manager could clear up my confusion.

Sigh.

David Sedaris on undecided voters

Paul and I went to see a David Sedaris reading a couple of weekends ago in Charlotte, and we loved his show. I was tempted to post then but realized quickly that I would have to spoil this new New Yorker article in order to do so. So I will let Sedaris speak for himself now that the essay is available online. Plus, I will post a picture of him with a monkey. I have no idea what or when this photo is from, but it made me smile when I found it after running a Google Image search. (Sorry, Nadine! I know you are creeped out by monkeys.)

I like Michelle Obama

I was just sorting through my mail and the half a dozen appeals from the Democrats and Obama's campaigns that my small donations have prompted. (I may sound cranky about this, but it's only thanks to the business of sorting, not the business of soliciting. I'm glad that my party is going to the mattresses over this election and hope we will be doing so until the 11th hour! Into the 12th hour even.)

I read the Michelle Obama letter, and I will here shamefacedly admit that I did not watch the speeches during the Democratic National Convention this year. So I was not aware until reading this letter (or potentially had forgotten) that her father had Multiple Sclerosis. This letter talks about Election Day and canvassing:

"When I was a kid, my dad volunteered as a precinct captain for the Democratic Party in our neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago. Some of my earliest memories are of tagging along as he went door to door during the campaign season. He registered people to vote. if our neighbors needed absentee ballows, he arranged it. He helped them figure out how they'd get to the voting booth on Election Day. It wasn't always easy. Dad was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in his early thirties. But even as it got harder for him to walk, he never let up because he believed in the value of each person's voice in the political process. In you, I see the same commitment and determination that my father showed me on those fall afternoons on the South Side of Chicago."

I'm a soft touch and was very affected by that personal appeal even though
A) I'm part of the base for them; they've appealed to me long ago
B) I'm so frustrated by the insistence in contemporary American politics on sentimentalism and "personal" anecdotes. (See Joan Didion's scathing article "Election by Sound Bite" and her discussion of the misleading and reductive emphasis on candidates' "stories.") It's all politics, deliberately presented as theatre, and the need for pseudo emotional transparency bugs me.

That being said, emotional appeals can be tremendously effective. Which is why they are so central in this election year--appealing to base emotions or to noble ones.

And my empathy for Michelle Obama reminded me of my admiration for her, especially in this cool, calm, and collected interview on the Daily Show. I improvise in the classroom all the time, attempting to make jokes, sometimes blurting things I regret (or at least doubt the wisdom of) later. I would definitely not have been able to sit there with Jon Stewart and resist the desire to try to seem funny, no matter how flat my punchlines might fall. (McCain fails to resist this impulse all the time, much to his detriment.) After the shitstorm she faced about her truthful and even moving words that this is the first time she's been proud of her country, Michelle Obama has learned even further restraint and verbal judiciousness the hard way. But this has not diminished her eloquence, poise, and erudition.

That is one thing I am so proud of in the Obama campaign: that all the accusations of professorial rhetoric (perish the thought!) and "eloquence" as a crime (McCain's sneers throughout Tuesday's debate) have fallen at the feet of Barack and Michelle's determination to run this campaign with dignity, intelligence, and complex thought.

Anyway, this whole post is just to praise Michelle Obama and also to link to this New York Times profile of her from back in June.

Stay Classy, Republicans

Recently taken down from the official Sacramento County California Republican party's website:

Forgetting the Election . . . I mean, Sarah Marshall

I'd like to preface this frivolous post by with an embarrassed disclaimer about the whimsy of my posts here: I do feel strongly about this election even though I never seem to post political thoughts on our blog. I have the Audacity to Hope fever and the boogie-woogie flu (and a McCain administration would take away my work-based health insurance, so they might be incurable), and McCain reminds me more of Mr. Burns or the Emperor from Star Wars every day.

But perhaps because times have been pretty intense recently, it made it all the more lovely to finish watching the Jason Segel penned Forgetting Sarah Marshall last night and to discover that the second hour is funnier and more delightfully idiosyncratic and random than the first half. There seems to be a boilerplate romantic comedy in the Adam Sandler or Judd Apatow vein that involves lots of quippiness in the beginning, slapstick farce and raunchy jokes-between-the-dudes, a contrived separation between two winning leads, and then the reunion. All of these things exist in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but it is a more interesting movie than that as well because at moments it actually really brings humor out of daily situations and tensions, even if it transplants those situations to gorgeous Hawaii to make it more blockbuster movie friendly.

And then sometimes it's just outrageous. Make sure you watch the alternate lines special feature if you rent this DVD.

There are three scenes to look for at the end of this movie: the lots of wine scene, competing screams scene, and finally . . . . The Dracula puppet musical scene. I did not make this up, and I actually feel guilty mentioning it because Paul's and my level of surprise made this scene even more delightful. Jim Henson's creature shop, baby, and Avenue Q gone Gothic!

Surprisingly droll movie and fabulous performances all round, especially the British rocker dude who Sarah Marshall starts dating when she breaks off with our lovable hero.

Also I am increasingly infatuated with Jason Segel, screenwriter of the film, singer of Dracula musical songs, goofy hubby to Alyson Hannigan's character in How I Met Your Mother, and contracted screenwriter for the next Muppet movie (!!!!). I like this picture because I can imagine me as the blonde in the background.
If he were a little more Mediterranean looking, I could cast him as Paul in the movie of my life. There were several things about this character (including the fact that, as Sarah Marshall says, he is a really great guy) that reminded me of my honey.

"Welcome to the jungle -- we've got fun and games"

Paul obtained a jungle gym for our kitties yesterday, and they are big fans as the above picture will attest.