Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Sometimes a Fantasy

I finished fourth, it turned out, in fantasy baseball this year-which is not bad, out of 20, and the highest I've ever finished. But I'm not sure if it was worth the $40 or so in books or magazines I bought to help me prepare.

I am 2-3 in fantasy football, but there's not too much I can do about that. I traded away Vernon Davis in the preseason to my brother, but other than that, I have just stayed with the hand I've been dealt. I don't care nearly as much about fantasy football as I do fantasy baseball, though, and I feel similarly about real baseball and real football.

The Red Sox play Friday, of course, in Game One of the American League Championship Series. It's hard to get over how odd that final inning was-the blown squeeze and then the ground rule double and the single and the headlong dive into the plate.

Jedders!

I watched an episode and a half of The West Wing. I used to love this show, but I kind of fell away from it, and I've been catching up, somewhat, on Bravo. Bravo is an interesting network for me-sometimes their programming is right in my wheelhouse(JFK, The West Wing, The American President, Law and Order). Other times, it is something I would rather undergo dental surgery than watch(The Real Wives of Whatever, and The Rachel Zoe Project(which I don't believe is related to the Alan Parsons Project, but I can't be sure), and Project Runway, and Top Chef, and virtually everything else they broadcast.

They sure promote the holy heck out if that Rachel Zoe Project, though. I don't know who she is, but she appears to be a woman who wears high heels and evening gowns and complains a lot. That doesn't seem to be a basis for a television program.

But anyway, back to the West Wing. I forgot how much I absolutely love that show. Even dropped midway into a season, it isn't hard to pick up on the storylines and get right into it. For those who have never seen it, Martin Sheen is the President of the United States, and basically is a highly idealized version of Bill Clinton. They wrote in elements from real life, of course, fictionalizing them, and it is a television program-but it's hard not to ache with the knowledge that it IS a TV show, and that you can't vote for him.

That brings me back to the election. My son told me that his best friend that his family are McCain supporters, but he didn't appear to be upset about that fact. My son asks a lot of questions, as if he isn't sure how he's supposed to feel about things.

Watching the West Wing, first, made me wish Jeb Bartlett was running for president, but second, makes me think about why I support Obama. I guess to sum everything up in a single factor, that would have to be judgement. Palin is a joke, of course, the grinning parakeet parroting lies in fashionable shoes. But McCain himself, based on his actions and the opinions of others, is rash and thoughtless. I don't know what he thinks, first of all, because he has turned his back on his beliefs from the 2000 campaign, and second of all, he doesn't appear to deliberate about things. I don't like his attitude, and I question his judgement, and I disagree with his policies.

Obama seems the opposite-calm, rational, thoughtful, deliberative. Statesmanlike.

I support Obama because, inserted into any situation, I trust his judgement, whatever he decides.

7 comments:

  1. Bartlett as Clinton without the crime, sexual harassment and scandal. Sounds good. I am sure Bartlett knew what the meaning of is was. But only in Hollywood. I saw one or two episodes, with Jimmy Smits and John Goodman. I like the actors, but the show did not seem that great.

    I did, however, love the president show with Geena Davis. It hardly lasted at all.

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  2. There was some scandal, actually-there was a government shutdown, and there was a long plotline involving an assassination wherein it was revealed that Bartlett is concealing the fact that he has MS from the public.

    And, of course, there is a 9/11 plotline of sorts-there are White House lockdowns due to terrorism and biohazard alerts, and there is one entire episode where a tour group is herded into the White House basement because of an alert of some sort, whereas they have a long talk about the nature of terrorism with the citizens.

    That show with Davis was good, too, wasn't it! I think TV executives forget the lessons of Seinfeld sometimes-just because a show isn't gangbusters out of the gate, you can't always cut it off.

    I know it's not real, but I just adore the thoughtfulness of it all. There is that Sorkin speechifying, but there is an underlay of realism too.

    Very sympathetic conservatives, too-they don't make them into caricatures, but let them make their case.

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  3. "I think TV executives forget the lessons of Seinfeld sometimes-just because a show isn't gangbusters out of the gate, you can't always cut it off."

    Generally, it seems that the Fox network is the only one that will give a show a chance like this. Even if it is lame (Ned and Stacy).

    Ever see the movie "The Contender" ?

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  4. I didn't.

    It is true that Fox used to give wierd, wonderful programs a shot. I'm not sure that they still do that.

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  5. I strongly recommend "The Contender". Gary Oldman, Joan Allne, Jeff Bridges.

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  6. Is that the one where Joan Allen plays the Vice President or the President's Wife and got an Oscar nomination? I think I remember that.

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  7. I never saw it, but I remember the ad, I think.

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