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Actually, we have a couple of new Rainbows. Well...I think we have two that are new. But we have them both for two reasons. To start, though, here's the latest song parody from Randy Rainbow. It's not among my favorites of his work. but it does have some things in it that I appreciate. His videos now have commercials embedded within them, so if you want to jump past this one, it starts at about the 1:15 mark and ends around 2:40. Which brings us to the reason for the second video -- and the reasons for it. The first reason is that I can't quite remember if I posted this from a month ago. That's when I was preparing my trip to Chicago, and it could have slipped through the cracks. Some of it seems familiar -- but enough doesn't. So, rather than risk letting it slide by, which I don't want to do because it's very good -- funny and a terrific production. And the second reason is that because I wasn't crazy about the newest song, I thought it only made sense to post a better one, especially since I can't recall if I posted it or not. And if you want to jump past his commercial, it starts around the :50 mark and ends at about 2:10.
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If you didn't see Jon Stewart's Monday hosting of The Daily Show, his Main Story was about...well, let's just say it starts with the Trump administration massive mishandling of the mistaken deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia -- and them morphs into how poorly the Trump administration has mishandled almost everything, not even giving his supporters what they thought they were voting for. His blistering, wonderful and somehow he and the show are able to make it very funny, as you seethe through clenched teeth. If you didn’t see Last Week Tonight with Jon Oliver last night, the Main Story was on the tariffs that Trump and enabling MAGOPs are imposing on the world. As you might imagine, the show has a field day with it. They cover it from most of the important angles and why, in detail, it's so horrific -- as is the MAGOP support. But it also is just perfect prime for scathing ridicule. I posted this last year, but it's appropriate to mark the day with the good people once more. And further, this may be among their least-known, most improbable, and yet still funny material. Probably in the late-1950s, as their comedy career was booming, Mike Nichols and Elaine May took on a major challenge – make funny Public Service Announcements on behalf of national CPA Associations to remind people to file their taxes on time. In honor of Tax Day today, here are three of them. Hey, they took on death, in their classic and hilarious $65 funeral sketch here, so why not taxes?! If you didn't see Jon Stewart's Monday hosting of The Daily Show, his Main Story was about the disastrous rollout of Trump's tariff policy, along with its impact on the stock market plummet. As you might imagine, the report was blunt, scathing, and extremely funny. Among its many fine attributes, April is National Poetry Month. If you haven't gone to any poetry festivals yet, not to worry, there is is still time. Around 2005, there was a news story out here in California that overlapped with that gala holiday, and it prompted my great interest so much so that a few years later I eventually got around to writing about it for the Huffington Post, on how I had dived in to do my part. I thought this would be a most-appropriate time to repost that article. (There's an addendum of sorts to this all. My friend Rich Capparela was the long-time host of the morning show on the classical music radio station in Los Angeles, KUSC-FM. He's still on the air there, though wise enough to no longer have to get up before the sun starts to break. Anyway, at the time, he saw my piece, no doubt thought that it fit the fine arts culture of the station, and read the first verse on the air. I will note that there were many other verses -- we poets highly prize the epic form -- but being a music show, I understood that some things must give way, even in the exalted name of poetry) My Application to be Poet Laureate
April 10, 2008 April, as you no doubt are well-aware (and have likely been waiting all year for), is National Poetry Month. First, the start of the baseball season, and now this! I’m reminded that I submitted my application when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the California Arts Council announced they had begun accepting nominations for the position of state poet laureate and ambassador for the literary arts. I feel pretty confident at getting the job because a spokesman for the governor, Terri Carbaugh suggested that candidates who choose to turn down the already-small stipend would be given added consideration in the decision. "As you know, this is a very tight fiscal year," Ms. Carbaugh said. "Quite possibly, a poet laureate may step up to the plate and volunteer their time. Wouldn't that be wonderful?" It would! It would be so wonderful (or rather, ‘o wondrous,’ as we aspiring poet laureates prefer to say.) And given that I’m willing to starve for my art and bring beauty to the state and ultimately the world, I figure that my plate will be a bounty. Besides, being called “Mr. Ambassador” never hurts, especially with the ladies. Though it’s been a few years and I haven’t heard yet, I expect that’s because they’re busy with other matters. After all, a job that you don’t want to pay anything for has got to be fairly low down on the priority ladder. So, I haven’t lost hope and am expecting a response any day. But I’m confident of getting the non-paying position. After all, not only did I say on my application that I’d do the job for free, the main requirement, but I included the following poem without charge to seal the deal. Here’s hoping! Metaphors be with me. I'm applying to be poet laureate Though I'm not sure what the job's faureate. My rhymes aren't deep But they're fast and they're cheap! Which is why I've not been shown the daureate. I so hope I become poet laureate. I've got poems you shouldn't ignaureate. Sure, the job pays no stipend, But I swear I won’t gripe and I’ll only give thanks I’m not paureate. O if I become poet laureate The surprises that you have instaureate. I'll fill poems by the barrel To be read at one’s peril. And I promise I won't be a haureate. I'd be a real good poet laureate. This writing stuff isn't a chaureate. I’ll do sonnet or haiku Or whatever you like, you Just tell me if you need some maureate. So, please let me be poet laureate!! There are worlds o’ rhymes left to explaureate. And for better or worse What you get with free verse Is something you may not adaureate. |
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. 
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