Particularly in recent years, I love looking at clips of the Daily Show (or watching the whole thing, if I can). He puts a funny spin on what are essentially (because I will admit a liberal/democratic bias) the facts. And when you're laughing, you're not crying or thinking "oh my God, the country is going to pot." And it's nice to not feel that way sometimes.
Whenever Stewart goes on FOX news shows, he always is perfectly clear that he is a comedian first and a journalist/political activist second. He maintains that he's looking for the laugh. Or as my mom likes to say "finding the funny." Also known as my family's major coping mechanism. But if so many people go to his show for legitimate news, is it really still just a comedy show? Or does the line blur somewhere, creating this hybrid form of I don't know what.
Stewart has also said that it's sad that people are getting their news from a show on Comedy Central, and that a vast number of people seem to think that the Daily Show makes more sense than any other news channel. But is it? I know that I understand humor better than straight talking; as an optimistic person (deep, deep down inside), I tend to shut down and am unable to focus when assaulted with a barrage of doom and gloom (or as my grandparents call the news, "murder and mayhem").
My sister and I absolutely love this movie, and it's been a Christmas staple in our house for years and years. I love the music, and of course the amazing landscape and set production (New England "country" style is the best thing that came out of transcendentalism, in my opinion!). As a history person, I always wish for a Christmas like this one . . . minus the scarlet fever.
I read Dashiell Hammett's Maltese Falcon at the beginning of the summer, both because I love his other novel Thin Man (and its film adaptation) and because I wanted to see the film. Well, I'm finally getting around to it right now. It's a story that lends itself to the moving pictures and particularly the film noir genre. Spade & Archer are a pair of private eyes in San Francisco. Spade is having an affair with Archer's wife and wouldn't have respected Archer very much even if he wasn't. But when Archer gets murdered while following a lead for a (female) client, Spade still wants to get to the bottom of it.
Humphrey Bogart (who, naturally, plays Spade) seems so much younger than he is in Casablanca, even though it was made only a year after Falcon. His Spade is spot-on--a man who always keeps his composure, is hardly ever startled (or hardly ever let's you see him startled). He's a man that can punch your lights out without losing the ash off the end of his cigarette. I've never been a huge Humphrey Bogart person, myself, but I like him alot more now that I've seen him smile. He'd always seemed rather forbidding (my mom just said "I think he's creepy, myself. Even creepier when he smiles." No, she doesn't know what I'm writing), and his smile has a fantastically sinister edge to it.
But the film, beyond the fantastic plot (fantastic because it follows the film to a T), is just a fantastic example of old film-making. The minimal (i.e. realistic) set design, the play of shadows and light that is best executed in black and white, the clothes, all prove with a wonderful concreteness that flashier isn't better. It's so odd (and odd that it's odd) that the actors look like people. They have wrinkles, they aren't perfect physical specimens (or all the same body type if they're not), and their faces tell distinct stories. Their hair moves, which is refreshing. I suppose, it was a different time.
So, I don't have anything in particular to review--no more concerts until next weekend, and no new albums to review. At work today, in a down moment, I started thinking about the music I grew up listening to. My parents, as I've said before, are music fiends with excellent taste. They raised me to be able to identify the Beatles, U2, Rolling Stones, etc, in the first seconds of music. But what is my favorite song from each of these bands? It seems nearly impossible, from the outset, to choose a favorite from the music that you grew up with, particular my generation, whose parents listen to the epically amazing music from the late 60s-early 70s. So I went through my iPod and chose several bands that I deemed the most influential on my childhood, and then chose my favorite song from each. I then asked my parents to contribute their favorite songs from each of the bands. Though I thought this would be a fairly simple thing, my parents both needed a good hour to go through each band's catalog for their favorite. It turned out to be really cool, and I was introduced to a lot of songs that I didn't actually know, and in that brief period of time, some of my favorites change. It's also interesting how much you learn about people when you start discussing your favorite songs. And I'll leave it at that before I wax more lyrical than I already have . . .
Beatles: "Norwegian Wood" (Mom and me) My Dad can't choose a favorite Beatles' song.
Little Feat: "Easy to Slip" (Mama Historian) "Fat Man in the Bathtub" (Me)
