RONNIE DWARFED RAY

1. . . . That's what happened last week when Ray Charles died. It was All Reagan, All Week. I don't think Ray got his own due in the media; some of his coverage got wrapped up in Reagan's by showing Brother Ray performing at the former president's inauguration or something.
2. . . . I mean, do you know how BIG Ray Charles is/was?
3. Have you bought a piece of Bazooka bubble gum lately? It's microscopic, for crissakes.
4. Pardon me while I use my portable nebulizer. What's that?
5. NBC is working on a 12 hour - yes, 12 hour - series on Motown, the music empire that Berry Gordy built in the 60s. Suzanne de Passe is developing the project. Expected to air in the 2005-06 season, reports the Associated Press (AP).
6. One piece of good television reporting of the Reagan funeral came from NBC's Brian Williams. When he was talking about moments of silence observed at the New York Stock Exchange and the U.N., he actually stopped talking and let the quiet explain the moment. It was dramatic to see everything stop. Jabber wasn't needed. Enough said … or unsaid.
7. Carol Channing looked like she had anorexic legs on the Tony Awards telecast. She was there as a presenter along with LL Cool J, of all people. They did an Old School Meets Hip-Hop rap schtick and it went well. But Carol's legs ... dangling toothpicks.
8. USA Today reported that Jennifer Lopez wore a "white off-the-shoulder ruffled dress at her wedding to Marc Anthony." Should she still wear white?
9. A picture on the front page of The New York Times last Wednesday showed various people from all over the world viewing Venus, the planet, pass across the sun. They were all holding up 3-D glasses-type things to protect their eyes. The man from Pretoria, South Africa, a "traditional healer," looked like George Clinton of Funkadelic.
10. The Olympics are "only on the networks of NBC." That's what the promos say. Let's see, they've got NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, Telemundo. Any others? What more could they own?
11. A couple weeks back on CBS's Academy of Country Music special, Martina McBride was given the Home Depot Humanitarian Award. How much do you think Home Depot knows about country music? These commercial latch-ons to established institutions are getting ridiculous. Now everything's the Something Something.
12. It's been reported that rock singer Lenny Kravitz has a hoop piercing you-know-where and Rolling Stone magazine has a quote from him about how effective it is in certain situations. Is this true, I wonder? I know someone we could ask.
13. "I won't see you here tomorrow night." Is that what Tom Brokaw will say in his signoff when he stops doing the Nightly News in December? Just wondering.
14. Next season, 60 Minutes II will not have the II. I guess they graduated.
15. Meredith Viera is now doing commercials for Bayer aspirin. She's believable.
16. Reagan was buried seven feet under - not six - in an underground crypt and it includes space for Nancy.
17. The ads for Celine Dion's new CD show her with long hair again. That's good. That short crop didn't do anything for her. Took away the glamour. A New Day ... Live in Las Vegas comes out June 15. I wonder if she still pounds her heart these days for emotional effect.
18. VIN DIESEL. I could give a good you know what about him and his new flick, The Chronicles of Riddick. And I don't care if it did do good box office. He's a big nothing who got opportunity.
19. THE STEPFORD WIVES. It's somewhat funny in parts and well done in a spoofy way. Definitely not in the horror genre like the original. The cast is good. But I came away wanting more. Minor film.
20. The ads for Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 show a picture of him and George Bush holding hands on the south lawn of the White House (How'd they do that?) with a photo caption that asks, Controversy ... What Controversy?
21. I overheard Mr. Highfalutin make a mistake in a conversation. He said Reagan had a "self-depreciating" sense of humor instead of self-deprecating and he was corrected. Well, I guess even he can make mistakes. For me, I was glad to see him get knocked down a few notches.
22. George Bush, the father and not the son, had 5,200 people at his 80th birthday party in Texas. Who picked up that tab?
23. Dan Rather interviews Bill Clinton Sunday on a "Special Edition of 60 Minutes," plugged Lesley Stahl "You don't have to wait for the book," she said. I wonder what Bill and his publishers (Knopf) would have to say about that?
24. DOUBLE TAKE. I took one when I saw a picture of Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, in the paper this morning. He's the well-dressed one who always wears those hats. But the hat he had on in this particular picture made him look like he had a mohawk haircut instead. It looked like it was growing up out of his scalp. I don't think he'd like that.
25. NBC weekend anchorman John Seigenthaler's hair's lighter. Knew it would happen. But it's a good color job.
26. The previews for The Manchurian Candidate look good.
27. GAZING A CRITICAL EYE. A friend of mine said Nancy Reagan looked like Mr. Magoo with those big glasses on. "Has she been to the eye doctor in the last 30 years?" he asked. And he went on to say this about the president's son, "And young Ron Reagan . ... those shoulder pads in his suit went out 20 years ago." Not kind.
28. Sean Callebs of CNN described the funeral as "a long goodbye." This was true.
29. Margaret Thatcher was dressed to the nines and looked really proper with the hat and everything. She did, however, look better in the video she made for her eulogy. (It was recorded months ago and Reagan himself asked her to speak at his own funeral ten years ago when he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.) Hers was an excellent remembrance. I like the way she talks. Always did. She can tell me bedtime stories anytime. (Aw)
30. . . . She's now a baroness. So she's properly called Lady Thatcher.
31. Patti Davis, Reagan's daughter, reminded me of Rapunzel with all that hair but her talk about her father made up for it. She sounds smart.
32. NANCY REAGAN: She walked and walked and walked and walked.
33. I wondered how much sleep Lou Cannon, the Reagan biographer, got last week? He was everywhere all the time. In my next life, remind me to be an expert on something.
34. MARGARET THATCHER WAS NOT DEAD. A lot of people thought she was before they saw her at the funeral ceremonies and they were surprised to see the Iron Lady was still kicking.
35. Actress Morgan Fairchild was at the funeral in Simi Valley. She must've taken a break from those Old Navy commercials.
36. "The caissons go rolling along ..." I couldn't get that song out of my head all last week.
37. LOWERING THE KEY. That's what a man is trying to do to The Star Spangled Banner. He claims it'll be easier to sing. He's right.
38. Ron Reagan has been a reporter. I wondered if he wanted to be covering his father's funeral.
39. TOO UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL . . . The camera on Nancy and the children in the end when she bade farewell to the coffin and was heard saying, "I love you." Much too intrusive. The shot didn't have to be that tight and it was uncomfortable to watch. It would have been more respectful to be on a wider shot.
40. Garfield the cat in the movie looks too fake.
41. Matt Lauer's lucky Marc Anthony didn't sock him one when Lauer grabbed the singer's left hand to show a wedding ring last week. The Today show host kept asking him about his weekend wedding and marriage to Jennifer Lopez. Anthony refused to say anything "about my personal life." Lauer didn't get anything out of him. Good.
42. Hanalie, dog in the neighborhood, barks up a storm when she hears Brother Raymond, the gardener, come through the gate at 6:30 in the morning. But she does like him and vice versa. And when the gardener calls to her, he says, "Come here, little boy." Oh well, she's fixed.
43. I wanna see The Story of the Weeping Camel, a movie about a baby camel rejected by its mother after a difficult birth and its life thereafter. It sounds Disney-ish but they say it's not. It's done documentary style with no narration. Sounds like a winner to me.
44. UH . . . Willow Weep for Me - Chad & Jeremy, on World Artists. 1964.

rocci@roccifisch.com

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