Elephant joke

May 26, 2008

Watched “Recount” on HBO last night. It was brilliant, and geeky, as I expected. Tom Wilkinson was outstanding as James Baker-the resemblance was uncanny. Coming off of Ben Franklin, I am starting to think Tom Wilkinson could play anybody-man, woman, child, Alien Swamp Thing, whatever.

Kevin Spacey was excellent, Laura Dern was scary good, and Denis Leary was excellent. An outstanding drama, though a maddening one. The sheer arrogance of the Bush team afterwards, talking about eradicating the “stain” of the Clinton and returning “honor and dignity” to the White House set my teeth on edge. That sort of talk was everywhere back then, so that seems a very reasonable guess on the filmmaker’s part. Where are those people now? How do they feel about the “honor and dignity” argument now?

Terrific film, though, even if it left me in ill humor.

I am listening to an excellent “Baseball Confidential” podcast from XM, a discussion between Jim Lonborg and Rico Petrocelli, with Curt Smith, who I met once, narrating.
This is the kind of brilliant, innovative programming that XM can do so well. This kind of thing has an audience, despite what idiotic TV executives say. I dropped my XM because it was so inconvenient to listen to it, not because of any inadequacies of the programs. When the technology improves, it will be a winner, I think.

Finally drained the Podcast Lake, now on to music for the rest of the day:

Greatest kiss off song ever: Jimmy Buffett, “The Weather Is Here, I Wish You Were Beautiful.” I’ve never needed one. I’ve been in love with everyone I’ve ever dated.

Irrefutable proof Ray Charles was a genius: “Hallelujah, I Love Her So”

Iron clad proof that “Chess” was a misunderstood masterpiece that is begging to be made into a movie musical: “Where I Want To Be”

Proof that Steely Dan could rock when they put their mind to it: “Bodhisattiva” (Live) from “Alive In America”

Proof that old guys can still bring it: “Gallows Pole,”(Live) from “No Quarter”

Best song about Pattie Boyd, pre-1970: “Something”, The Beatles

Best song about Pattie Boyd, post-1970: (tie) Aerosmith, “Dream On”
Eric Clapton, “Wonderful Tonight”

Proof John Bonham’s death was a real tragedy: “We’re Gonna Groove” Led Zeppelin had more music in them, no doubt.


“What better place than here, what better time than now?”-Rage Against The Machine

I turned off the music and started listening to my free Audible book, “Plato and a platypus walk into a bar”. It’s okay. I started listening to it some time ago. It’s basically an introduction to philosophy told through the medium of jokes. For example, “Why are elephants big, gray, and wrinkled? Because if they were small, round, and white, they’d be aspirin.”

Stupid, I know, but I giggled.