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Best in Show

The amazing Jane Lynch got her big break in the movie Best in Show.   Last week she spoke with Terry Gross on Fresh Air, and it’s a delightful interview.  Who knew Terry snorts a little when she laughs? Adorable! We get to hear it because Lynch is so damn funny and sends Terry into a couple of giggle fits. I laughed out loud on the bus a couple of times myself. Lynch is promoting her new show Glee, which speaking of delights … if you’re not a fan already, tune in Wednesdays on Fox.

Best in Show was a fabulous movie.  Lynch and Jennifer Coolidge are an amazing comedic pair; they are perfectly ridiculous together.

And speaking of perfectly ridiculous, you simply must check this out.  I have never heard of “Creative Grooming” shows before, but unless this is a giant hoax, these poor Poodles are all dolled up and ready to take top prize.  These are just two of my favorite photos by Ren Netherland who, according to the article, “travels thousands of miles each year to attend each competition.”  Remember: these are Poodles.

Props to JV for sending this my way.  Which ones are your faves?

Don’t Cry for me Sarah Palin

When I saw the title of Eugene Robinson’s Washington Post article about Sarah Palin, “Our Evita,” I winced.  I love Eva Peron. Obviously one of the more controversial figures in history, but fascinating.  And that hair!

Sure, Evita did some crazy shit, but compare her to Sarah Palin?!?  Okay, maaaayyyyybbbbeeeee if you mean a diva but, otherwise, I don’t see it.

But Robinson’s article is nonetheless worth a read.  He writes, in part:

“So what if she displayed no real grasp of the issues in interviews during last year’s campaign? Those reporters were being beastly, trying to show her up. So what if the inside-the-Beltway crowd thinks she’s an airhead? The state of mind called “Washington” is the problem, and she’s the solution. So what if she quit as governor of Alaska with a year and a half left in her term? “Only dead fish go with the flow,” she explained, demonstrating once more her sassy roguishness.

Palin’s knack for being cleverly transgressive is almost like performance art. Her doppelganger, Tina Fey, did a hysterically prescient bit, right before Election Day, in which Palin vowed that she was never going away. Fey’s “Palin” predicted that she’d become either president or “a white Oprah.” So on whose show does Palin launch her book? Oprah’s, of course — adding to the long list of Palin lore that you simply couldn’t make up.”

For more about the wack-job who ghost wrote Palin’s new book, check this out.

And lastly, a little throw back just for fun: The SNL debut from the fall of 2008 when Tina Fey and Amy Poehler played Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton.  Seriously, some of the best comedy I’ve seen.

Inside the NFL — it’s as gay as it sounds*

[*Warning: this post contains strong sexual innuendo courtesy of the NFL.]

I never knew I liked watching football until a couple of years ago.  I was living in Boston when the Patriots began their string of Super Bowl wins, and began tuning in on weekend afternoons after I met a couple of friends who were really into it. And I must say, watching football with gay people is a really fun thing to do.

There are a few reasons for this.

1) Growing up, the rules of football were not something you learned, but something you knew.  For instance, I would never have asked why something happened, what a call meant, why a player did this or that, or what all the pretty lines were for.  Never.  It’s not because I actually feared being ridiculed or injured, but I just never thought of it.  It simply wasn’t done.  Watching with gay people, however, in an environment where and among friends with whom I felt perfectly comfortable, I started asking questions.  And oh my god, suddenly things started making sense.  It’s amazing how even the vaguest understanding of rules and strategy turns a football game into something, dare I say it, exciting! (And I’m talking pro ball here; I never got into the college stuff.  I think there may be some residual baggage from having grown up in an Ole Miss Rebels household and unknowingly decorating my bedroom with Confederate flag paraphernalia.)

2) Some of the players are really hot, and it’s fun to be able to talk about that.

3) Calling uniforms “outfits” is not frowned upon and won’t get you hurt.

But most importantly …

4) The commentary.

Bless their hearts.  The guys who narrate football games simply cannot have any idea how gay they sound.

I say this because in such a hyper-hetero industry, you’d think if they knew they wouldn’t do it any more, but I keep tuning in week after week … and I am never disappointed.  Put on your listening ears next time you’re watching a football game and see if you can’t identify some of these jewels.

• He’s big, he’s smooth, and he’s always relaxed.
• He goes down in the arms of Mitchell.

• Those two have been getting it on all afternoon.

• He grabbed the ball with one hand while getting a face full of Jeff Saturday.

• He has been on his back a lot.
• They were able to open a hole and he came right into it.
• That was a great big sack.

• Those guys hooked up 17 times during the regular season.

And what must be the all time greatest commentary from any game ever (thanks JB!): When that guy’s coming right in his face, it’s a whole different story for the quarterback.

Asshole at Purdue

I saw this story last week out of Purdue University and, oh my, what a blow hard.

It calls into question several things for me: freedom of speech (he’s got every right to think, say, and write what he wants); tenure (a process that should be reevaluated, in general); and the tragic fact that bigotry against gay people is still widely accepted (and deemed acceptable).  I love this Purdue sophomore’s response, however:

“One sophomore wrote to The Purdue Exponent, the student newspaper: ‘That’s right. I’ll call for his job. As a student, as a lesbian, as a human being, I believe with every fiber of my being that Purdue University in no way should affiliate itself with the hateful, bigoted opinions of Professor Chapman. It would serve Professor Chapman well to know that there are quite a few ’sexually deviant’ students on this campus and they just happen to pay his salary…. Imagine that Professor Chapman’s blog had been titled, ‘An Economic Case Against Interracial Marriage’ or ‘An Economic Case Against the Disabled.’ How would the Purdue administration react if they knew a professor was convinced racial segregation should still be in place or that the disabled should just stay home because building a ramp to a library would cost too much money?’”

Keep the fight, sister.  Your words have power.

Vancouver or Bust (read: Indulge Me Please)

I’m a fan of figure skating, but old school.  Meaning: I didn’t really follow the Olympics in Torino and don’t have a clue who plans to compete in Vancouver, but I was obsessed with the Battle of both the Carmens and the Brians in Calgary in 1988 and went just about over the moon when the IOC changed the rules and I got two winter Olympics in two years:  1992 and 1994.  There was Kristi and eventually Nancy.  And perhaps my favorite of all, Michelle.   But before any of these women, there was Katarina.  I started thinking about her last week with all the talk of the end of the Cold War, the wall coming down, and reunification.

Katarina Witt is a figure skater who represented East Germany throughout most of her skating career.  She stole my heart in 1988 when she went head to head with Debi Thomas in the ladies figure skating championship in Calgary.  She won with this performance, which still gives me goose bumps.  But it’s another performance that still has the ability to make me cry. Witt is only one of two women who ever successfully defended her Olympic title (1984 and 1988; the other is Sonja Henie).  She did not compete in the 1992 games, but due to a change in the rules professional skaters were allowed to compete in 1994.  Without any realistic expectations of winning a medal, she instead created a routine that she dedicated to the people of Sarajevo.  She won her first gold medal at the winter Olympic games in Sarajevo in 1984, so when she returned to the 1994 games in Lillehammer she skated her long program as a tribute to the people of Sarajevo, who were in the midst of a raging war following the collapse of the Yugoslav federation.   She skated to a version of Pete Seeger’s Where Have All the Flowers Gone.  While this isn’t the Olympic performance, it’s the same program and better quality:

In 1994 I also got to know Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, an ice dancing pair who also won their first gold medal at the 1984 winter games in Sarajevo.  Their long program, which they skated to Ravel’s Bolero, stunned audiences and judges alike — they were the first skaters ever to receive the perfect score of 6.0 from every single judge in the artistic impression category.   Due to the same change in rules that brought Katarina Witt to Lillehammer, Torvill and Dean also came back in 1994.  They were robbed of the gold that year (imho), but here’s the routine from ‘84 that, for many, revolutionized the sport of ice dancing.

And then came Michelle.  I barely know where to begin.  (My friend Michelle might encourage me to start by telling you about the belt that I once purchased because it was the same beautiful ice blue color of the dress that Michelle Kwan wore during her long program at the Nagano Olympics when she, too, was robbed of the gold medal … but I might be too embarrassed to mention it.)  I love Michelle Kwan.  I was devastated when thatbitchtaralipinski was awarded the gold medal in 1998.  I’m sure Michelle has reconciled herself to that travesty in Olympic history, but I haven’t!  Anyway, onward to Salk Lake City in 2002, which we all thought was Michelle’s year.  Turns out it was, though not quite like any of us imagined.

Due to all sorts of fishy ice skating rules and things, not to mention a few mistakes during her performance (details details), she won the bronze medal.  However, it was during the post-competition Olympic gala that I saw her Fields of Gold program for the first time.  Seriously, waterworks.  What a triumph it was to watch her, in a season during which everyone favored her for the gold, put her best foot forward and skate so beautifully to a song with such an ironic title. (As a side note, Kwan’s routine helped pluck the singer Eva Cassidy from relative obscurity and, though posthumously, her album Songbird went on to receive gold certification; Cassidy’s parents went to see Kwan perform this routine in Baltimore and presented her with a copy of the gold record.)   It seems quaint now, but I recorded the performance using my trusty VCR and would watch it every now and then until one day, gasp, I accidentally recorded an episode of ER on top of it.  Thus, I must take this opportunity to thank you, Internet, for giving me my Michelle back.

Finally, who in the world knew that the name “Figure Skating” actually came from the compulsory figures (or school figures) that played a significant role in the overall scores during competitions?  Didja?!  Clearly I never thought this through (and I call myself a fan) but, wow, what a discovery.  While doing some reading for this post I found multiple references to people receiving marks for “compulsory figures,” which under the former skating rules was a score that awarded points for carving specific figures into the ice that were then scrutinized by judges to make sure they were uniform in size, didn’t wobble or have flat edges, etc.  Compulsory figures actually gave the sport its name!  And they were the sport for a long time, counting for more than half an athlete’s total score.  Eventually the short program was added and compulsories counted for less of the total, but were still combined with the short and long programs to determine the winner of a particular competition. Their weight in competition changed over time, and they were eventually eliminated altogether in 1990.  Seriously, I may be the last person to figure this out (heh), but blow me down.  Things make much more sense now.

Dolly! Dolly! Dolly!

I just love anyone who manages to rhyme a’courtin’ with ought’n, which makes me predisposed to adore Dolly Parton.  The Queen of one-liners is the focus of an NPR Music tribute in honor of her release of, well, Dolly – a new 99 song box set. Like Madge before, NPR took this festive occasion to get some of its staffers to highlight some of their favorite songs and albums.

Trey Graham writes, “Behind the big wigs and the rhinestone dazzle, beyond the big-screen successes and the unmistakable entrepreneurial savvy, Parton is one of the greatest singer-songwriters country music — and maybe the country — has ever produced. Over a five-decade career, she’s proved equally adept as a spinner of delicate old-school bluegrass tunes and Nashville-savvy chart-bait. If there’s a purer, cleaner, more heartbreaking high-lonesome voice still singing at her age (not that we’d mention it), Parton has probably written a deeply moving story-song for the person who owns it.”

Even though nobody bothered to review anything off White Limozeen, at least Islands in the Stream got a shout out for being the greatest karaoke duet ever!

Now you try it!

Today’s a Holiday?

Suck it, Maine.

And now a word from America’s Best Christian:

Remembering The Wall

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.  The Wikipedia article indicates that “On November 9, 2009, Berlin will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall with a `Festival of Freedom’, during which over 1,000 foam domino tiles over 8 feet tall will be stacked along the former route of the wall in the city center and toppled.”  Intrigued, I did a little digging and found this pretty amazing video of what I’m guessing is a dry run:



If you read German, there’s more here.

I was twelve when the wall fell, but growing up in a household in which we never talked politics or world events, I had no idea what was really happening, much less what it meant.  I was in Europe on the 10th anniversary, and arguably paying even less attention.

All over the world there are ceremonies and symposia and vigils being scheduled to commemorate the 20th anniversary of these events.  Last Wednesday I attended a panel discussion about the construction and collapse of the wall, and tonight I’m planning to attend a screening of the documentary, When the Wall Came Tumbling Down: 50 Hours that Changed the World.

Anything going on where you are?  How will you remember?

Update: fascinating ‘89-’09 photos via the NYT here.