I voted for Obama, but the brash leftward tilt of CNN's New Year's telecast is a bit nauseating. It's not just the usual fawning over Bill Clinton (whom I also helped elect once). It's the juxtaposition of that, with a barrage of Sarah Palin potshots passing for good natured humor. Election's over, guys.
And then there's Anderson Cooper's longstanding woody, fixed on Key West's crossdressing Sushi - descending as he/she/it does every December, in what is by now a giant red cliche. I guess outdoors New Year's celebrations are raucous youthful rites, and my wife says kids are just having 
fun, but beyond the commercialization (which isn't new, just more relentless), there's something else demoralizing about CNN's nationally televised bash.
Years ago, when Sushi first wriggled (Live!), from the plummeting pump, coast to coast, I laughed it off as an oddball - and quintessentially American - sideshow, sequestered as it was on a sandy spit thankfully removed from our precious bedrock mainland. But have we now, as a nation, descended lower than offshore Sushi itself? To a point where CNN annually elevates this local drag queen, primping for hard core Key West misfits, into some nationally recognized, time-honored New Year's Day fixture?
It took thirty years, but New Year's has gone from a musical, straight Guy, to innocuous Dick, to talentless, primping Gay - and corporate glorification of fetishy excess.
fun, but beyond the commercialization (which isn't new, just more relentless), there's something else demoralizing about CNN's nationally televised bash.Years ago, when Sushi first wriggled (Live!), from the plummeting pump, coast to coast, I laughed it off as an oddball - and quintessentially American - sideshow, sequestered as it was on a sandy spit thankfully removed from our precious bedrock mainland. But have we now, as a nation, descended lower than offshore Sushi itself? To a point where CNN annually elevates this local drag queen, primping for hard core Key West misfits, into some nationally recognized, time-honored New Year's Day fixture?
It took thirty years, but New Year's has gone from a musical, straight Guy, to innocuous Dick, to talentless, primping Gay - and corporate glorification of fetishy excess.
The ball isnt the only thing descending.
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Song of the Day - Go West (Pet Shop Boys)
5 comments:
Sarah Palin's a pinata, Matt; she brought about 75% of this stuff on herself and I for one would equate letting her go without a fight as to what's going to happen if Jeff Moorad grabs Paul DePodesta by the scruff of his neck with one hand and the elastic waistband of his tighty whiteys with the other and flings him, his laptop and his blog out of Petco to go into "non-baseball related" business because no one will hire him. There's great comedy to be mined in the ashes of such historic failures.
I agree Palin s/b derided, and her nose for the camera makes her fair game, BUT, there's a time and place for everything and I have a problem when CNN takes what is - and should be - an ideologically neutral American celebration, and turns it into a Clinton genuflecting, Palin bashing, political commercial.
Kathy Griffin, like Sushi, can be funny, and I dont want to deny either a living - I just think their in-your-face agendas are inappropriate as emcees or fixtures for this kind of national event.
talentless, primping Gay
Did someone get a subscription to The Advocate?
It's not secret that Anderson is on that team... but like Ricky Martin, his fan base relies on his ambiguity... or obvious lack thereof.
I'm not a huge Kathy Griffin fan, but I have to admit she does crack me up from time to time when she's not actively trying to hurt someone's feelings.
I would never subscribe(as a customer or metaphorically) to a rag like The Advocate, however I once saw one "glued" to a bathroom floor in my travels and, try as I might, couldnt look away ;-)
And kindly take back what you said about Mr Martin. Ricky's as normal as pumpkin pie!
Say, anyone else think my pasty faced splitscreen of Little Boy Vanderbilt & Katie D-List is pretty creepy? They look like they just ate a small child.
That small child was going to grow up to be an Evangelical Republican someday... it had to be done ;-)
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