For this, I am thankful
IN THE NEWSI'm a day late with my Thanksgiving post. So sue me. Americans are often too much in a rush to end holidays.
(If only the Christmas season started later, and lasted longer...
)
Anyway, I'm getting off the subject at hand, which is something for which I am thankful. Since this blog isn't about me, I'll skip the many things that make me feel like a lucky man this holiday season. Instead, I'll focus on something that, as a citizen, I feel grateful for having.
We've gone through some dark years recently, and the midterm elections are not a silver bullet. The shift in power in Washington, DC, is only a catalyst for change. If the other elements were inert, the catalyst would be meaningless.
These other elements include the members of the national security bureaucracy, many of whom have been toiling under extremely unfortunate conditions. So..
.
- To every US Army or Marine officer who used less force than the rules of engagement allowed, but enough to get the mission done.
- To every intelligence professional who continued provide honest, not preferred, answers.
- To every FBI agent who didn't leap at the chance to make a cheap arrest, just to make headlines.
- To every CIA agent who argued against holding prisoners who were guilty of nothing more than being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
- To every diplomat who continued to work with America's allies, in spite of the frat boy catcalling coming from American elected officials.
- To every federal prosecutor who argued against the use of warrantless wiretaps, on both legal and practical grounds.
I pray that you will have the chance now to do your job right.
IN THE NEWS
Aside from being a great show for other reasons, has turned into a wicked satire of current events. I finally got to see the first episode of the new season, during which a governing committee of cyborg occupiers debate their occupation of the last human refuge.
Says one of the Cylons: It's not as if we expected them to welcome us with...
Oh, never mind.
It's too bad that the producers decided to associate this series with its earlier namesake. It's nothing like the goofy Seventies-era Star Wars knock-off.
When I recommend BSG, I usually get a reaction like, What, that old show with the robot dog? Sigh.
IN THE NEWS
Before I hit the sheets, I had to share a few more masterpieces of musical oddity, courtesy of .
Tomorrow, I'll screw my serious face back on and continue posting about national security. But before I say good night, I give you..
.
David Bowie and Iggy Pop on the Dinah Shore show! With Rosemary Clooney!
And let's give a big hand to this tribute to the Beatles, courtesy of the singing trio Cher, Tina Turner, and Kate Smith! (Love the hip eyewear, Kate!)
And no musical extravaganza would be complete without William Shatner's rendition of Rocket Man !
I have a background story about Shatner. Back when I was a youth, I was a big Star Trek fan. At the time, it was the only thing that resembled real science fiction on TV.
I watched the repeats so many times that, to this day, I can't watch the original series. I hear a strange reverse-echo, the foreknowledge of lines the actors are about to say, that makes it difficult for me to watch any of the old episodes.
Anyway, back to Shatner.
Since I lived in Southern California, I had the chance to meet the Star Trek cast. Everyone but Shatner was at the opening of the Star Trek exhibit in the outlandishly creepy Movieland Wax Museum--which meant that I was there, too. (Seriously, who can enjoy Movieland Wax Museum, seeing deceased actors appear somewhat lifelike, and currently living actors appear somewhat dead?
Brrrr.) Shatner himself appeared at the local opening of a Miller's Outpost, a now-defunct clothing franchise--and I was there to get his autograph. (Needless to say, it was probably the nadir of Shatner's odd career, long before he performed the amazing jiu-jitsu reversal of his image, from Incredibly Bad Actor to Startling Self-Parody.
)
Has my incredibly geeky childhood frightened you yet? As might say, Ooooh, scary, kids!
What snapped me out of this slavish devotion to the original Star Trek was the Rocket Man incident.
The staggering popularity of Star Wars apparently made Hollywood executives think, Hmmmm, there must be something to this science fiction thing, so they put together an awards show to honor the five or six science fiction TV shows and movies aired that year. Shatner, probably eager to capitalize on the opportunity to resurrect his career, hosted the show. Obviously, I would not have missed it for all the in the world.
And then Shatner did Rocket Man. You can't say that he sang it. He, er, did the song.
Or did something to it.
The sequence started with an unintentionally sad but funny introduction. Bernie Taupin, who wrote the lyrics, mumbled how he couldn't imagine anyone doing his creation justice the way William Shatner could.
That's the sort of justice you can't find outside of Devil's Island. Poor Bernie--did he dare watch what followed?
Mercifully (for Taupin, not the rest of us), the camera cut away to Shatner.
As started into his bit, I started to question why on earth I was wasting my time watching it. As Shatner continued, more questions broke into my childish consciousness. Why did he think a Rocket Man would dress and talk like a member of the Rat Pack?
Why, for God's sake, did he split into three Shatners? And why was one of them dancing?
I remember watching this sequence when it was first broadcast, the full weight of Shatner's perverse genius for bad acting finally striking me.
My God, all that time, Star Trek starred a man who grabbed the camera and never let go for all the time we was grimacing, leering, and stammering through his lines. And that might mean some other aspects of the show weren't all that great, either!
For years afterwards, I would tell people, Sure, you've heard Shatner's version of 'Mr.
Tambourine Man,' but that's nothing compared to the 'Rocket Man' abomination. Too bad you'll never see it.
Fortunately, the Internet proved me wrong.
For every great book that is now available through , there are a hundred popular culture atrocities like Shatner's Rocket Man that are just a click away.
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