VA gubernatorial race… zzzzzzzz

A story last Sunday in my local paper (that would be The Washington Post) describes the milquetoast campaigns put forth by the two major-party candidates for governor of Virginia this year.

No mud slinging, no name calling, no bizarre clips on TMZ.

Just, you know, the issues, and like, you know, snoozefest.

How disappointing.

Vietnam, as told by Ken Burns

Last night PBS aired the first episode of Ken Burns’s new documentary: The Vietnam War. I’ve been looking forward to this series for several years. As I’ve said many times before, no Republican likes the films of Ken Burns more than I do.

Obviously Ken is taking on a challenging subject with Vietnam. Spoiler alert: the Vietnam war is controversial. There are people around today with very strong feelings about the war on both sides. It’s not as though there are many people around today pushing Prohibition or keeping Jackie Robinson out of baseball, subjects of Ken’s more recent works. Vietnam though? It’s going to be tough to keep bias out of this one.

Minutes into the film we see it’s not just a historic retelling. I don’t think there’s any question we’re going to look like the bad guys through much of the film. Interestingly, too, Ken’s approach this time around is a bit different as well. He’s taken to interspersing “current” clips (from the ’60s) with the historical info and the iconic “Ken Burns effect” style of filmmaking. The period covered in Episode One is 1858-1961 (mostly a history of French settlement and subjugation), though again there are cuts to action from the late ’60s, the period one usually imagines with any mention of the war.

This was the first war Americans saw every night on television.

And 50 years later, we get to see it again. Every night this week. Check your local listings.

Littles doing little things

Twice in the past week and a half my music has been featured on the Tony Kornheiser Show podcast, a feat for which I have received much adulation and praise. I’ve done many things in life, but really I am most proud of two… the above mentioned, of course, and my 2000 triumph in an online trivia contest sponsored by Turner Classic Movies, subject: Frank Sinatra.

I’ve never been more happy or complimented more extravagantly over two more insignificant achievements.

#itsthelittlethings

Pennant races are still on!


Don’t look now, but even with the slight setback last night my hometown Washington Nationals are only four and a half games behind the reeling LA Dodgers for the best record in baseball… and homefield in the playoffs!

The Nats host LA for three games this weekend, by the end of which we could very well be speaking of a standings flop between those two teams.

Of course the Cleveland Indians will never lose another game so I guess it’s all sort of a moot point.

Yeah, so football’s back

Football’s back, but I didn’t really have much to cheer about this weekend.

The few glimmers of sunshine I allowed Notre Dame to fool me into thinking they could actually win Saturday night?

Or the fleeting moments in which I thought my hometown NFL team (the Washington you-know-whos) would actually improve over last season and move from average to good among the pro set?

Well, it was one weekend. And at least there is baseball, sweet baseball, where my hometown MLB team (that would be the Washington Nationals) are in to the postseason with yet another division crown.

This really is the best time of the sports year, no?

Football’s back

Oh NFL, sweet NFL. I forget how tired you make me each fall. You now own three schoolnights a week, you know.

Well, it’s all worth it, I suppose, and somehow you never seem to disappoint.

Kudos, again, to those who bring me things to watch on TV.

The Reagan Show

Monday night I watched one of CNN’s new original programs called The Reagan Show. Yup, CNN doing a special on Ronald Reagan. I wasn’t exactly expecting it to be complimentary, but jeez Louise, could they have tried to make Reagan look any more silly? “Hit piece” is about the way I’d describe it.

Trouble is, for CNN, it just didn’t come off. Try to make Ronald Reagan look silly and the spell gets reversed back upon you. Ronald Reagan does not look silly. He’s the James Bond of presidents. He could be riding a moon buggy in Las Vegas (watch Diamonds Are Forever) and would still look cool doing it.

Nice try, CNN. You just made me like Ronald Reagan that much more.

Labor Day

Happy most ironically named holiday, everyone!

I have the day off today, as most people do. Of course many people do not, including my beloved New York Yankees, who have to turn around from a marathon win against the Boston Red Sox last night to play a day game today… in Baltimore!

Labor indeed.

September is here

Thirty days hath September,

Pennant races we remember,

Some fondly, some…

Not so well.

So begins another September, and my favorite American League team and favorite National League team are in line for postseason berths. The Yankees could do themselves a big favor this weekend, of course, with another couple wins against the Sox, and as long as the Nationals don’t implode I think they’ll be okay in the NL East.

So with such a comfortable lead, what do we think about here in Washington? The slumping Dodgers (read: human) have but a 10 1/2 game advantage over said Nationals for the best record in baseball, totally surmountable with a month to go in the season.

Hey, we’ve got to fret about something, right?

Hurricane Harvey

For the past several days, of course, our news media has been saturated with coverage of Hurricane Harvey. Pretty steep price to keep Trump off the headlines, and I think we all look forward to the day when the man and his haircut are again our most interesting new story.

Obviously I’m grateful I live in a part of the country completely unaffected by the storm. Actually, that’s been the pattern my whole life, even when disasters have hit close to home for me, my home has always been spared. Just lucky, I guess.

I read today that the number of people killed by this storm had reached 22. That’s an unimaginable tragedy for the families of those 22 people. But it wasn’t that long ago that literally thousands of people would have been killed by a storm such as this. Even today, in less-developed parts of the world, unthinkable numbers of people are wiped out by hurricanes and floods and tsunamis. With the forecasting we have today, the ability to move out of the way of danger, and the capacity of our engineers and builders, even Biblical storms are manageable, and for that we should all be thankful every day.

Thought you could use some good news today.