January 5, 2007

SOUL GUY, GOOD GUY, BAD GUY

1. . . . Things come in threes: James Brown died on Christmas day; Gerald Ford died the day after Christmas and Saddam Hussein was executed the day before New Year's Eve. Needless to say there was a lot of news over the holiday.
2. . . . Ford's funeral was beautiful and tasteful; Saddam's was plain and simple and Mr. Brown's was movin' and groovin', "you know, like a, like a Sex Machine, man."
3. . . . But Ford's funeral had to be the longest there ever was.
4. Donald Rumsfeld spoke (delivered a eulogy) at Gerald Ford's funeral ceremony in Grand Rapids, Mich. Has-been. I guess he didn't rate to speak at the National Cathedral ceremony.
5. . . . How many ceremonies did they have for "a simple man"? I felt sorry for Betty Ford --that woman deserves a drink. (Uh oh, did I say that?) -- and the rest of the family too, being dragged around three cities in the country and having to attend all those pomp and circumstances. I mean, how much do we have to do it up? They're martyrs all.
6. . . . And do me a favor: Let Fidel Castro live a bit longer. We're not ready for another public figure to kick the bucket so soon.
7. Kelly Ripa said on Live with Regis and Kelly one day last week that her New Year's resolution was not to make resolutions. Isn't that clever?
8. . . . And on that day she said it, it looked like she was wearing a night gown -- white, thin and practically see-thru. What was she thinking?
9. I bought a copy of the now shrunken Wall Street Journal. The new size seems odd. There is more color now and graphics, however, and with its size not so big it's easier to read on a busy commuter train which is, perhaps, a godsend for my fellow passengers.
10. . . . Mr. Big Stuff now calls it the Small Street Journal.
11. It's only Wednesday and already my bottom jaw is jutting out stiffly because of frustration and stress. Think I need a break?
12. Mariah Carey attended the opening of Oprah Winfrey's school for girls in Henly-on-Klip, South Africa and was dressed, I guess, somewhat conservatively - for her. She had on a tiger print long, tight-fitting, short-sleeved dress that clung to her like a mermaid outfit and up top she was, as usual, popping out of it. A strand of pearls added class(?)
13. . . . Is that what those young girls want to aspire to?
14. Someone complained in an online discussion on washingtonpost.com that he/she was "appalled at what the public was wearing to President Ford's viewing at the Capitol - sweatpants!" The "poster" went on to say that even tourists with limited travel clothes can do better than sweatpants.
15. . . . Point well taken. Do somebody a favor and get dressed up when you attend such events, ya buncha slobs.
16. Have you taken down your Christmas tree yet or will it sit there in the living room until spring?
17. A coworker friend of mine just returned from a trip to - of all places - Antarctica. He accompanied his mother on a research visit. Took two hours by ship from Argentina to get there. Cold, naturally, but some people were, incredibly, sitting outside soaking up the sun. Always daytime there, didn't get dark.
18. . . . And the penguins he saw were not as big as the ones in that March of the Penguins movie but they were "terrific, comical little creatures."
19. . . . Oh, and there was poop all over the place, messy.
20. FAKE DEMONSTRATION? When they balance a glass of wine on one of those Tempur-Pedic Swedish mattresses and some guy jumps up and down and it doesn't budge. That true? Is it worth me getting one so I don't bother anyone I'm sleeping with?
21. Tom Brokaw spoke at President Ford's funeral at the Washington National Cathedral. That man's everywhere, no retiring for him. If he's not on TV he's at some public event. Is he a national treasure?
22. . . . Nancy Reagan looked fashionable at the funeral. She made the other former first ladies look old-hat with her stylish 'do and big sunglasses. She's Hollywood.
23. . . . And Chelsea Clinton was there and looked grown up and sophisticated.
24. SOMEWHAT CRUDE OPENING SENTENCE. From The New York Times's, no less, in its lead story of Saddam Hussein's execution: "Saddam Hussein never bowed his head, until his neck snapped." Hmm ... Sounds tabloid to me.
25. The cherry blossoms in Washington are all confused. They're blooming. And so is some of the forsythia. It's so ... Uncold.
26. . Global Warming, people are saying. Al Gore's right. He should be president.
27. DREAMGIRLS. Good, overall entertaining movie of the 1981 Broadway play. Beyonce (Knowles) , Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy, Danny Glover and newcomer and former American Idol non-winner Jennifer Hudson star in the fast moving film directed by Bill Condon, telling the story of a three-girl singing group from Detroit on their way to the big time, nurtured by a manager (Curtis Taylor played by Jamie Foxx) who molds them into the image he wants. Patterned after the rise to fame of the real-life Supremes, the movie depicts the restructuring of the group after one member is replaced and another steps out in front, i.e., Diana Ross , and has many more similarities to the real-life group that was nurtured and promoted by the real-life Berry Gordy, founder of Motown Records
28. . . . If I were Gordy, I'd sue. So much of Dreamgirls copies off what Gordy and his record company did; it's blatant. I don't know how the filmmakers got away with it.
29. . . . And yes, Hudson (Effie) does that And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going tour de force song and it's pretty socko but ...
30. . . . I still have to say that the original Dreamgirl, Jennifer Holliday, does it better. Get that Broadway soundtrack album and compare.
31. . . . But I had a good time in the flick: fun, rousing and applause-worthy.
32. MEN ARE KNITTING. Boise State Bronco running back Ian Johnson does it, crochets knit caps and beanies. And there was a man in a deli I go to who was sitting in the eating area the other day knitting what looked like a sweater that was half finished.
33. . . . So what do you have to say about that?
34. Justin Timberlake looks good/acts good in the preview to that new movie he's in: Alpha Dog, about a Hollywood drug dealer who became one the youngest people ever to appear on the FBI's Most Wanted list. Bruce Willis stars. Opens Jan. 12.
35. THE UNDERSTAKER SHOULD BE FIRED. The one who did James Brown should. Mr. Brown would have a fit if he saw the job that was done on his face. He looked too young, Michael Jackson-ish, with his face pull, pull, pulled taut like a bad facelift, looking nothing like himself. Brown was always very picky and fastidious about his appearance. It's a shame.
36. Carson Daly, Mr. Fitness Weight Loss Guy, hosted NBC's New Year's Eve coverage from Times Square. Boy, what a bore. All the other nets and cables were much more exciting. What the network sees in him, I'll never know.
37. MATTRESSES: There are twin sizes, full sizes, queens and kings and now, California Kings. What size is that one and how big of a door does it need to go through, for crissakes?
38. The Rosie O'Donnell/Donald Trump name-calling feud goes back and forth. But mostly, right now, it's just one way via Mr. Trump. Rosie's on vacation so he's keeping it going by giving interviews to the media and making entertainment headlines, probably because his Apprentice TV show is about to come on and he's drumming up interest and publicity.
39. . . . In the heat of it all my mother said Rosie O'Donnell needed somebody to knock her down and "I'd like to be the one to do it." (Settle down mom)
40. . . . Is Rosie O'Donnell this generation's Ralph Cramden (Honeymooners)? Sometimes when he got into trouble he used to yell, "I've got a BIG mouth." Apropos.
41. Husband executive producer David Arquette had this to say about wifey Courteney Cox's new FX TV show, Dirt, in which she plays a tabloid editor: "I'm so proud of her as an actress, this amazing character she's developing. She's taking all these risks." He further explained that it's such a departure from her role as Monica on Friends.
42. . . . Risks ... Actors ... Oh don't they live dangerously. Get a Life!
43. Another CNN-er has gone over to CBS. This time it's Daniel Sieberg who joins that network as technology correspondent, which is pretty much what he did over at CNN. (He's young and in his early days of on-air reporting at CNN his hair was spikey and filled with "product;" now the coif is more mainstreamed.) One of his first reports for CBS was on on hi-tech holiday toys last week. He's good, CNN's loss.
44. POSTER BOY. John Edwards announced his candidacy for president last week in New Orleans. He had been doing a lot of shoveling down there, helping people with cleanup and construction after Hurricane Katrina. In the video I saw he had on a khaki shirt with his blue jeans (relaxed fit, loose fit, easy fit?) while he construction-worked but he changed into a dark blue shirt for his formal announcement, hair slightly lightened. He looked like an ad for Polo.
45. Mr. Highfalutin was snobbin' it up at a swanky holiday party in fashionable Kalorama in Washington, D.C. and got a surprise buss on the cheek from none other than the outgoing first lady of the District, Diane Williams, wife of Mayor Anthony Williams. High's sidekick, the Blonde Bombshell, got her own surprise at a twin party across the street when the bow tie wearin' former mayor kissed her. So they've got connections, I guess.
46. Vice President Dick Cheney is everywhere now. He's come out of the closet and there really is a Dick Cheney. He was at Ford's funerals and currently as I write he's swearing in members of the Senate up on Capitol Hill and smiling and milling around the new 110th Congress, seemingly happy that he has something to do. So everything seems nice now and one big happy family.
47. . . . And new Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's got a baby in her arms, carrying it oddly, unnaturally, real low. Maybe it's just a prop.
48. "NOTES ON A SCANDAL." The Judi Dench/Cate Blanchett movie is a treat for fans of these excellent actors.actresses. Both play teachers in a British school. Newly arrived Sheba Hart (Blanchett) enters into an affair with one of her students and Barbara Covett (Dench) learns of it and holds it over her head, using it as a bargaining tool for her own amorous intentions. Bill Nighy plays Blanchett's hub and he's good. Dench has some catty, bitter lines and is heard in amusing voiceover narration while she writes notes in her diary. Worth seeing.
49. In his younger days, Gerald Ford looked something like Tab Hunter, that former Hollywood teen idol actor/singer hunk from the '50s.
50. UH . . . Young Love - Tab Hunter on Dot, 1957.

rocci@roccifisch.com