Y​es, it's that time again.  I posted this last year -- and have, in fact, posted it annually, here and on the Huffington Post, where it initially appeared in 2007, for the past 18 years.  I almost didn't post it last year, though, because no TV network would broadcast the Golden Globes due to a major racism scandal in the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.  

The HFPA basically said, oops, my bad, we'll fix that, for sure, really, honest -- never mind all the other scandals and emptiness and problems and utter meaningless of the Golden Globes and its parent organization -- and NBC, the network that brought you Donald Trump on The Apprentice pedestal, figured, okay that sounds good enough for us, and decided to bring it back, just because.

 So, with the Golden Globes broadcast set for tomorrow night, here we go again.

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                     The PreCurse of the Golden Globes Rides Again

'Tis the season for awards - and that means on Sunday it was time to read and hear (repeatedly) how the Golden Globes matter because they are "precursors to the Oscars," remarkable for their mystical ability to predict the Academy Awards. Of course, if you repeat any mantra enough, people will believe almost anything But then reality rears its pesky head and gets in the way.

Indeed, the dirty little secret about the Golden Globes is that they're the biggest flim-flam scam on the American public today. Okay, other than "Mitt Romney is a far-right conservative."

(And one of the main reasons that keeps it such a "secret" is because most people don't have the slightest clue who in the world the Hollywood Foreign Press is that gives these awards. That's a little sending a congratulations gift to someone who was named "Man of the Year" and not realizing that the honor was given by an online website that sends out the certificates for $18.)

I have absolutely no idea who "won" what last night. Alas, the depth of human caring simply doesn't stretch that low. Mind you, it's not because they're just awards - hey, awards are entertainment, and can be as fun as anything. It's because the Golden Globes are to awards what a Black Hole is to French toast. There's no connection, but at least with French toast you can pour on syrup and not have human existence sucked out of the universe.

When someone said, "The show must go on," clearly the Golden Globes hadn't been invented yet.

Four years ago, I wrote about the Golden Globes, and because they keep coming back unrelentingly like a crazed zombie, I updated and edited it a year later. And now it's become a bit of an annual tradition, the same as one calls in a gardener to stop the crab grass from spreading any further. Because the foolish hype gets more out of control each year - and since if I saw someone crossing the street into an oncoming truck I'd always yell to stop - I figure it's worth revisiting that piece.

​There was a significant story yesterday, and it got next to no attention because – well, Trump is in office so “significant stories” get understandably pushed to the side when you’re dealing with debacles like attacking another country and claiming you’re in charge, the Epstein files, 20 million Americans on the verge of losing their healthcare, arresting legal Americans to deport them without due process and so much more.  But still, this is a significant story and deserves important notice.  Hopefully, the media will make some time to do so.
 
Until then, we shall jump in here.
 
Yesterday, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced that after 58 years it was shutting down, due to Trump’s relentless attacks and the MAGOP Congress vote to defund it.
 
That’s how massive all the other current Trump debacles are.  A story this meaningful, most especially in light of Trump's attacks against the media in his attempts to control it, barely squeaked in the news.  I only read about the announcement in Daily Variety and subsequently saw an article in the New York Times.  Nothing thus far on TV.

If there is anything even remotely “positive” in the news about the CPB, it’s that this
isn’t because of lack of all funding and being out of money -- the Corporation still has money and continues to do private fundraising, though of course the lack of government funding was a massively powerful blow.  However, the action to pull all federal funding put the CPB into a position which its board found untenable.
 
In a statement from the organization, president/CEO Patricia Harrison explained the board's reasoning:
 
“When the Administration and Congress rescinded federal funding, our Board faced a profound responsibility: CPB’s final act would be to protect the integrity of the public media system and the democratic values by dissolving, rather than allowing the organization to remain defunded and vulnerable to additional attacks.”  As such, she explained, its board of directors voted to close the organization after 58 years, rather than continue and put the CPB at ongoing risk of “future political manipulation or misuse.” 
 
In some ways, that’s an uncommon and surprising decision, though somewhat understandable (kind of) in a way that makes a very loud, important and high-profile public statement.
 
The Corporation of Public Broadcasting was created by Congress in 1967 to support the federal government’s investment in public broadcasting.  As Ms. Harrison noted, “For more than half a century, CPB existed to ensure that all Americans—regardless of geography, income, or background—had access to trusted news, educational programming, and local storytelling.”  In recent years, however, the CPB has come under particularly harsh attack from the right, outraged whenever that balanced and trusted news coverage and programming -- which covered all spectrums (not only praising but criticizing any side when deserved) -- wasn’t always aligned solely with it's conservative views, and therefore painted public broadcasting as supposedly "biased."

How this will affect current programming and PBS stations across the country (some of which are critical in rural areas) is uncertain.  Private individual and corporate funding will likely allow much to go on as before, but "much" is an extremely flexible term.
 
There was though, one other positive note in Patricia Harrison’s statement from the CPB.
 
 “I am convinced,” she said, “that public media will survive, and that a new Congress will address public media’s role in our country because it is critical to our children’s education, our history, culture and democracy to do so.” 
 
If the CPB can, in fact, be reformulated easily in three years by a new administration, that’s encouraging – since the way public approval polls and Special Election results have been going -- there will be a new administration.  Whether it can be reformulated “easily,” I have no idea.  But if the Corporation of Public Broadcasting thinks that this is a very real likelihood, then they know a whole lot more about it than I do.
 
As such, as sad, pathetic and dismal as this story is, I do like that the CPB appear to be making a loud public statement with this decision, and are not going quiet into that good night.  The shutting down of the Corporation of Public Broadcasting won’t be a campaign issue – but it would seem to be another brick that will add to Trump’s low approval.
 
Hopefully the media will pick up on the story and report it.  Ultimately, though, it’s absence will be noticed.  And, I feel very certain, missed.

At least, for the next three years, 'til we meet again.
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​His hand ballets were little vignettes that didn't use any puppets at all, but merely Tillstrom's bare hands, using them alone to evoke some story in the news he wanted to get across.  It was done with great artistry, often movingly.  And one of them so artistic and moving that it won him an Emmy Award.

In 1963, two years after the Berlin Wall had been erected, a very brief concession was made.  The Wall would open for the Christmas holiday and allow those in the West to travel into East Berlin and visit family and loved ones, needing to return a few days later.

This is what Burr Tillstrom did a hand ballet about shortly after.  And --

-- I found the video of it!  It is one of the favorite videos I've been able to find.  I'm thrilled.

The quality of the video is a little rough, especially at the beginning, but it's fine.  And ultimately, as you watch -- one brilliant artist using only his hands -- the quality of the video won't matter one whit.  

And if anyone ever wonders where the humanity of Kukla, Fran and Ollie came from, to bring such life into puppets, now you'll know.

When I posted this one year, I got a perturbed note from a reader who found nothing worthwhile about the video, and took me to task for wasting his time.  In the spirit of the season, I will again refrain from anything ad hominen in return.  I will just say that I feel completely comfortable in recognizing the legend of this piece, and anything else is an understandable matter of personal taste.  Wherever that may lie.  I say this knowing that it's not just my opinion on this, but also the opinion of the members of the Television Academy who voted Tillstrom the Emmy Award.

But to be fair, I guess I should add a disclaimer.  If anyone doesn't like old black-and-white video or just looking at hands for three minutes, or politics and history, or quiet, thoughtful, emotional storytelling with the sparsest of action or jokes, centered instead on pure artistry, I get it, and so by all means avoid this.

For everyone else, here it is.  The video calls it "Burr Tillstrom's 'Berlin Wall.'"  For me, I think of it as "The Burr-lin Wall".
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