The Sound of the Crowd

So I watched this tribute to Richard Pryor Comedy Central’s running, “I Ain’t Dead Yet, &(%^#$$&#&#$!”. There can be no question that Pryor is a genuine American classic, as important in his time as Bob Hope was in his. I always thought Jon Stewart summed it up nicely in a George Carlin special when he identified Carlin as one of the comedians’ “Holy Trinity. Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, George Carlin. The rest of us are just congregation.” Feeling the way i do, I’m always happy when one of Pryor’s concert films turns up on pay cable, and always a little grateful that they exist, that we have that record of Pryor in his prime. He deserves tribute or no comedian does. But to pay that tribute by intercutting censored clips from his films (concerts mostly, plus Stir Crazy) with younger comedians parroting his act? Would you pay tribute to Aretha Franklin by cutting out every other beat of “Respect” and splicing it to an R. Kelly performance? The very act of censoring Richard Pryor out of his rhythms is more obscene than any shit, fuck or motherfucker.

Speaking of censorship, I also caught some of the last hour of the Reagans miniseries on Showtime. I’d want to see more of it to say for sure, but it sure looks like another one of those cases where knee-jerk censorship puts more of a spotlight on a thing or person than it actually warrants. If all those friends of Ronnie and Nancy who found this film so impossible to tolerate had shut the fuck up it would have aired, probably to lousy reviews and only slightly better ratings, and been forgotten by next week’s Queer Eye. Instead they showed us something about themselves they’d probably rather not have revealed and drew attention to the very things they wished to cover up.

Which in my experience is the way it is with censorship and repression from the White House to the message board of your choice: Respectful disagreement or, at worst, ignoring someone if you don’t like what they’re saying or how they’re saying it makes fires–and flamewars–go out. Censorship or supression fuels them.

I’ve said this before, but Mark Evanier’s is one of my favorite blogs and something of an inspiration for this one. I knew from reading it that he’s a Lewis Black fan, so I sent him a link to an interview with the comedian (the same one as below). I thought he might want to link it himself, and he did…but I never expected this.

So this is a shout goin’ out…makes me feel good. Or as Junior Senior would say, everybody, move your feet and feel united…

Lewis Black

Dan Savage

…Is it me, or is this your basic nonstory? We have some five different parties saying that Wesley Clark was not involved in any signifigant way with the Waco debacle and two separate investigations supporting this. So why are the words “Clark” and “Waco” now linked on Yahoo! news, when the story itself effectively proves there is no such link?

Call me paranoid, call my eyes blurred because I think Clark might be the one to beat Bush. But every time something “bad” about him is leaked–especially something as insubstatial as this appears to be–I’m inclined to suspect one of two groups:

The Bush Republicans who are scared I’m right about that Bush-beating thing, and

Kucinich-watchers who think he has a snowball’s chance in hell and who don’t like Clark because he’s not “Democratic” enough for them. And who have a knee-jerk distrust for and resentment of the military.

For Heaven’s sake, Wesley Clark was not responsible for Waco–Janet Reno was.

the last resort of the anti-social

In no particular order:

Joe Jackson
Aaron Sorkin
Libraries
Kirsty MacColl
My pal Corey Klemow
Mark Evanier’s web pages
My friend Stefon–the artist formerly known as George–is getting married
This blog
Ted Casablanca
Stars (the band not the natural phenomena…not that they’re not nice too)
Four good years of The West Wing and the first year on DVD
Classic radio shows
Three and a half good years (give or take) of Angel
The Mermen’s Amazing California Health and Happiness Road Show CD
Naked Eyes’ Everything and More CD
StellaStarr*’s single “Coco”
Dub Pistols’ single “Problem Is.”
Five good years of Buffy
Colin Hay’s Going Somewhere CD
Seeing an audience like characters I created and laugh at jokes I wrote
Nick Cooper, the man with a heart as big as all outdoors
Human League’s “Secrets” CD
Spaced (Sitcom on British television)
Clay Jenkinson
Thomas Jefferson
Clay Jenkinson on Thomas Jefferson
Eric Idle’s tour diary
Monty Python
My buddy Moya
Bond (call me a sucker for a violin player who looks like Cindy Crawford…)
Cannonball Jane
Walter Shapiro’s One Car Caravan book, which leads me to:
John Edwards and Wes Clark–FWIW currently the two potential Democratic nominees I like most
Bhob Stewart’s Against The Grain book about artist Wallace Wood
Queer Eye For The Straight Guy

Filmforce has an interview with Scottish comic/actor Billy Connelly that’s a lot of fun, especially if you know Connelly’s voice and can hear it in your head as you read.

I don’t agree with everything he says, especially about Jon Stewart, but there’s a bit on this page about a missed opportunity on the part of Worldwide Pants, David Letterman’s production company. Then if you want to you can skip back and read the rest of it.

Funny, ‘cos it was on Letterman’s NBC show that I first saw Connelly…you’d think they’d know…

What kind of a sick person casts Jennifer Tilly in a film and then only uses her head?

Clever fellow.

Regarding Michael…

“So troubled are his finances, his advisers tried to limit his spending to $1 million a month this summer”

$1 million a month? How do they expect a man to live? $1 million a month won’t even keep him in 12 year old boys…

Regarding Natalie…

“There’s an old Texas expression. If you don’t have anything nice to say, go to London and say it in front of 2,000 people.”

My favorite country group of whom I can’t sing or even hum one song…