This is always my favorite part of the National Memorial Day Concert held in Washington, D.C., each year and broadcast on PBS. It's the National Symphony Orchestra playing the Armed Forces Salute medley, with honor guards of each service participating. This particular version is for 2019, with Joe Mantegna as announcer.
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From the archives. This week's contestant is Richard Baum from Houston, Texas. On the positive side, I was able to get the composer style. On the other side of the coin, I had trouble with the hidden song, and I think most people will. However, I'm almost ready to give myself a win on it, or at the very least bonus points. I guessed the composer of the hidden song, and even had a strong feeling of its source (and was right) -- and though I couldn't think of the song's proper name, my thought was, "It sort of sounds like that song whose title is something like..." And that's what it was.
It's not a totally unknown song -- and its composer is renowned, and so is the encompassing work. But this isn't one of the better-known tunes. I’ve been posting podcasts that Jon Stewart has done in conjunction with his Apple TV+ series, The Problem with Jon Stewart. They’re on hiatus now, preparing for Season 2, but periodically he’s doing podcasts in the interim. Since this one is video, I suppose that makes it more a videocast than podcast, but whatever you want to call it, this is Jon Stewart and Judd Apatow mostly talking about George Carlin and Apatow’s documentary, and then veers into other topics about comedy. It’s quite wonderful. And smart and thoughtful. Helping, too, is that a bunch of clips of Carlin are included. And they’re beyond wonderful. At one point, Stewart talks about how hard it is just to make a career as a comedian. And then how even rarer it is to have Your Moment. But, as he then continues with utter awe about George Carlin, “The fact that you’re relevant for 50 f*cking years…and after you die, you’re still relevant – I don’t know what to make of this.” My favorite line of Carlin’s, which they reference here, is that he said his goal was to cross the line…and have the audience glad that they crossed it with you. And, as Stewart adds, that last part is what’s so hard and the work of an artist.
On this week’s Al Franken podcast, his guest is the NYT’s Jeremy Peters who talks about, as Al puts it, how the GOP went batshit crazy. To which he adds: “HINT: They always were.”
A few weeks back, I posted a video of Emma Stone here when she played 'Sally Bowles' on Broadway in Cabaret. I missed one, but my friend John Kander (nephew of the other fellow who wrote the show) was more on top of things, as well he should be, and pointed me toward this. It's "Don't Tell Mama." (She screws up one line near the end. It's supposed to be “You can tell my sister…” suits me fine/ Just yesterday she joined the line. And instead sings “brother,” which is what comes next. And she does sing it next properly, just a second time.) All introduced by Alan Cumming as the Emcee. My sense is that Republicans would have done less damage to themselves by just sending "Thoughts & prayers" (tm) and wringing their hands, as empty as that would be, and leaving it at that, rather than blaming doors, video games, mental illness, church attendance, wokeness and everything they can think of but guns, especially assault rifles.
The former shows fake sympathy, the latter shows you know the problem and are avoiding it. |
AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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