Tag: television

BLOGGING BOOMERS #93 AND I’M HOST. ELECTION POSTS AND LOTS MORE

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From here in Washington, DC, nerve center of exhausted political junkies and traumatized McCain supporters comes this week’s Blogging Boomers Blog Carnival.


Those two Fabulous After 40 gals (who are fabulous) remind us that if we think we might be shrinking "You’re right.  Starting at 40 we lost half an inch in height every decade."


What’s a boomer gal to do, other than wear high heels? Check out
Fabulous after 40 for fashion advice on How to dress to look taller.

John at SoBabyBoomer has found a new study has found that women have a
greater variety of bacteria on their hands than men do.  So, he wonders,  "Should guys worry about holding hands with
women?  Find out at SoBabyBoomer.com

Maybe those germy women would feel better if they knew how to manage in today’s economy?  If, so this week’s Vaboomers is for them.  They’re sponsoring a free seminar: How to Manifest What You Need in Difficult Times" for women coping with the current economy.
 

The Midlife Crisis Queen has something different on her mind: 

We
make all kinds of mistaken assumptions about the opposite sex when it comes to
sex.  Here’s some wrong assumptions made by men  and here’s some made by women.   

Boston’s own Rhea Becker, like most of us, still had the election on her mind.  As she says "History was made this week.  A baby boomer was elected president of the United States.  Learn more at The Boomer Chronicles.

Also with elections on her mind, Janet at Gen Plus shares her reaction to Obama’s acceptance speech.  And, like any of you, yes….she wept.

Meanwhile, over at LifeTwo, we’re getting some exciting ideas:  The key to happiness, according to university researcher Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, is the concept of "flow."  Flow are those activities in which you are so deeply involved that you feel outside reality. 

As usual, I Remember JFK has a great social memory to offer:  TV Trays.  "The living room of the 1960’s was a warm, friendly place.  True, times had changed since our parents might have first purchased our modest homes fifteen or twenty years prior.   Most living rooms in the US had a new center of attention: the television set.  That one-eyed monster changed the purpose of the home’s central location from a place of casual conversation, or possible listening to the radio, to the spot where our parents unwound after a long day at work, accompanied by a cocktail, Walter Cronkite and a TV dinner.

Thankful for new leadership in the land, Dina at This Marriage Thing challenges us all to bring that same feeling home with the Gratitude Project.  I’ve actually been there – it’s pretty cool.

Oh and if you can stand one more election post, here’s mine.  It’s about having been in Grant Park during the 1968 Democratic Convention riots, and watching Obama accept the presidency on that very spot.

 


PROBABLY THE WORST CAMPAIGN (OR ANY OTHER) INTERVIEW I’VE EVER SEEN!

Myrna the Minx of Reno and Its Discontents found this.  It’s a mortifying, cringe-inducing and heartbreaking example of what has happened to much of local news.  How do we ever put the genie who creates this kind of television back in the bottle?  I dare you to watch it to the end without raising your blood pressure.

SO LONG TIM. ALL THE NICE THINGS WE’VE BEEN SAYING ABOUT YOU WERE TRUE – AND IT’S NOT FAIR – NOT AT ALL

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I worked at NBC News, at the TODAY SHOW for nine years, and for much of that time, I was lucky enough to work with Tim Russert.  The picture on the left was one of the few I could find that showed that great, mischievous expression that meant we were going to have fun so even if it’s not a DC kind of photo, it’s the one I like best.

I first met Tim when he still worked with Mario Cuomo., on the Democratic Convention floor in 1984 when Cuomo electrified the crowd and I chased Tim, whom I’d never met, half way out to the parking lot to get a promise that the Governor would be on the show the next day.  He was psyched, hyped and way too busy but he was also adorable and very sweet as we worked to get  things organized.

So when he came to NBC and went to work on getting the Vatican to let us come and do a week of shows in Rome, including time with the Pope, I watched Tim play it out.  He worked with Cardinal Kroll in Philadelphia and with one of his colleagues who worked in the Vatican and somehow we got our on-the-air mass with Pope John Paul II and a Philadelphia Catholic school boys choir sang on the TODAY SHOW.  Who but Tim would have made that happen?

There’s not much I can say that hasn’t been said; I couldn’t write sooner because my kids were visiting for the weekend and I wasn’t being very bloggy.  But as the news broke, my younger son called from the airport. He was really sad.  I’d forgotten how lovely Tim was to Dan, who was around 6 when they met.  Treated him like a cool guy, gave him an NBC baseball cap that I think he still has, teased him guy to guy.  When I went over to deliver our bassinet after Luke arrived Dan came along and this new daddy still had time for a bit of a conversation with a six year old. AND to show us a tape of Willard Scott announcing Luke’s birth on the show.

All week people have been talking about Tim’s love of politics.  That was true; and he mined every subtle message and decision for meaning and impact. But he had another quality that was even more valuable in a journalist: a contagious enthusiasm for living that made each story part of a grand adventure.  He brought everyone in his orbit along with him — sharing energy and laughter, competition that was fierce but never mean and a real belief in both the fun and the importance of journalism in a democracy.

I moved to LA and we mostly lost touch – although he did send a Meet the Press baseball cap in response to a note I sent him.  It made me feel remembered – as it was meant to.  It was the kind of gesture that’s been in the stories people have been telling all week — it’s just that this one’s mine.  And since I’m not one of the rock stars who have been telling these stories all week, just someone he worked with, I’m hoping it will demonstrate the genuine niceness of this guy.  Really.

There’s a wake tomorrow and I’m going to try to go.  I’m betting that there will be a mob scene there but I’d just like to show respect for a moment or two.   I’ve seen so many of us writing about this very sad thing; I’ll say a bit of a goodbye for all of us.

BLOGGING BOOMERS BLOG CARNIVAL – JUNE 2: VACATIONS, GAS PRICES, MOMS AND HEALTH

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Blogging Boomers are back at I Remember JFK this week.  You can read about everything from saving gas by figuring out the "walkability" of your next apartment, to child-free vacations to prostate cancer.  All it smart, unique and useful.  Stop on by.

CHARMED, AGAIN. AND PROBABLY NOT FOR THE LAST TIME

Charmed_may_2008NOTICE:  YOU MAY NEED INSULIN TO READ THIS – IT IS REALLY SAPPY — CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED

Right now, I’m crying.  Not just teary, crying.  Right now, the third time I’ve been to this moment.  It’s so embarrassing that until I complete this post I don’t even know if I’ll ever let you see it.  Why such emotion on a sunny day so close to my birthday?  Over a television show?  The final epsiode of one that went off the air in 2006.  One that’s about witches?

If, like me, you never paid much attention to CHARMED, appearing on the now-defunct and youth-oriented WB – about three sisters who are witches and who have witchy powers including, when acting together with the “power of three”, to best Ultimate Evil (I know, I know), let me tell you a bit about them.  I’ve written about them before – when I first found them two years ago and again almost a year ago, after a wedding whose ritual reminded me of theirs, even though in theirs families gather from across the divide between living and dead.  As I wrote then:

On my favorite guilty pleasure, Charmed, rituals of birth and marriage are attended not only by those who share the lives and loves of the Halliwell sisters (yeah they’re witches and their story spent 8 TV seasons enchanting us all) but also by those who came before. They summon, “through space and time”  all members of “the Halliwell line.”  Surrounded by these translucent figures of past
generations, today’s Halliwells celebrate marriages and new arrivals. Those fully and those ephemerally present conclude together “blessed be.”

What does this have to do with Jewish weddings — or any other terrestrial weddings for that matter?  A lot.  Eight years on the air, the longest running show with female leads, it dealt often with travel through time and space and dominions never imagined.  But when really important events arose, all the magic was supplanted by a single, simple spell that basically –well — brought the family together.

I just looked the show up on Wikipedia and discovered that it went off the air on my 60th birthday – having run from October 7, 1998 to May 21, 2006.  My
husband, when he’s in psychiatrist mode, talks about “anniversary reactions” – when we experience deep feelings but can’t quite figure out where they come from.  Sometimes, they have to do with the occurrence of anniversaries we haven’t even noticed have arrived.  In this case, though, I didn’t know the year the show ended, much less the date.  In fact, I was in Paris with my family to celebrate this 60th birthday landmark on that day and didn’t even notice the demise of the long-running  series.  In fact, I first discovered it, in re-runs, airing as I worked in my office.  I used it to keep me company (believe it or not, it’s on four hours a day – two in the morning and two in the afternoon.)  Didn’t know a thing about the show or its success.

I got an earful from one of my sons when I asked though, who claimed that the show caused plenty of  fights with his (then) girlfriend.  Apparently, it was on at the same time as the Simpsons and every week was a negotiation.

But for me it’s somehow more than that.  These three sisters, and their powers, are deeply moving.  Their battles and solidarity, their humor and courage, their conviction that they could literally save the world from evil (p.s., they did) all resonated in a very weird way.  Still do.

Hence the tears.  The final episode, as the post-show future unfolds, feels like my own life.  Endings.  Loving farewells.  The (hopefully) gratification of recognizing a life at least partially well-lived.  The kids and their kids and an idyllic togetherness among sisters and their husbands and their children and their destiny.  A lot to hope for and, I guess, as my own life moves forward, something to cry about.

 

NEW FRIENDS ON MY OLD TURF: MOMMY BLOGGERS VISIT KATIE AT CBS NEWS

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What are the odds?  I spent what would have been my prime mommy-blogging years, before the Interweb was anyone’s darling, working at CBS News at 524 West 57th St.  Now, some of my sweet, funny mommy blogging friends went through the same door I used every day for 7 years to meet with Katie Couric.  Here’s what happened:

Pretty cool, huh?  My 9 years at TODAY never crossed with Katie and clearly my CBS years were the "Place to Be" years, well before hers but it sure was fun to see the girlfriends sashay on in and charm her to pieces.  But then, that’s what they do.

Blogger roll call for The Visit – drawn from original host SV(Silicon Valley) Moms:

THE PLACE TO BE: ROGER MUDD’S NEW BOOK AND SO MANY MEMORIES

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In 1968, when I was working in the McCarthy Campaign against the Vietnam War, one of the producers traveling with the campaign asked me to come work with her at the CBS News Washington Bureau when the campaign ended.  I was thrilled.  I had, however, no idea how thrilled I really should be. Imagine a 21-year-old, just out of college and the trauma of the riots in Chicago and McCarthy’s loss of the Democratic nomination (yes, we knew it would happen, but not in our hearts), walking through the door of 2020 M St. NW – the august CBS News Washington Bureau — (Walter Cronkite‘s Washington Bureau!) because I had a job there.

Working there when I showed up: Bruce Morton, Bob Schieffer, George Herman, Daniel Schorr, Eric Sevareid, Dan Rather, Marvin Kalb and his brother Bernie... and my mentor and friend Roger Mudd.  They were, really, giants (yes, I know they were all men.  Marya McLaughlin died a long time ago; Leslie Stahl arrived a couple of years later).  CBS News ruled the Hill and the White House and everywhere else inside the beltway.  And we did it with enormous scruples; I was trained to be a journalist by these guys, as well as Bureau Chief Bill Small and Face the Nation Producer Sylvia Westerman.  And have been grateful the rest of my life for the privilege.

Roger wrote a book about those years — it’s called The Place to Be because, really, that’s what the bureau was in those days.  And last night, on publication day, there was a party. It was better than a class reunion.  Everyone from the teen-aged desk assistant (now I think in his 40s) to the Washington director  to the octogenarian make-up lady, to those guys we’ve all heard of, were there.  All having a blast remembering those remarkable years.

I’ve been out of the daily news business for some time, and in a way the party reminded me why.  The classy, funny, unpretentious, smart, great people who taught me how to listen and pay attention, ask questions and check my sources, feed the crew first and never leave a person without getting their phone number… I hate to sound like an old fogey but there really aren’t so many like that any more.  For me, Roger is the dean of all of them, not only because I know him best but also because of his deep sense of honor and love of history, humor, curiosity and devotion to his family, and his unfailing kindness and generosity to me.  It was wonderful to hear everyone so happy and proud for him, glad he’d finally written down some of the historic understanding and institutional memory we all treasure. 

I suppose it’s the same when anyone we love finds special success – a promotion, a graduation, a painting or a no-hitter, for that matter.  But because of what’s become of the news business, because it’s now so much more business than news, because of the great joy and pride we felt and how hard we worked to earn the right to feel it, I felt a special warmth and longing last night: grateful for the opportunity I had to share what is universally regarded as a golden moment in journalism – those years in the Washington Bureau — and so very sorry that it’s so hard to find that gold – any gold — anymore.

KUNG PAO COMEDY SAN FRANCISCO STYLE: CHRISTMAS WITH SHELLEY BERMAN

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Of course there’s only one way to celebrate Christmas in San Francisco if you’re Jewish – tear over to the New Asia Restaurant for a little Kung Pao Kosher Comedy.  Now in its fifteenth year, this nutty evening is a great way to spend Christmas night – even if you’re not Jewish. Founder Lisa Geduldig invented King Pao for lonely and/or bored San Francisco Jews with nothing to do on Christmas and it’s now a beloved tradition and sells out 8 shows, filling a huge Chinese banquet hall and dispensing audience members to 10-person tables with names like Matzo Brei and Joan Rivers.  You can see how big it is just below.

Kung_pao_crowd_blur1_2Beyond all this, there’s also a full balcony.  The crowd is interesting – kids from Berkeley Hillel, families, couples, groups of pals and random strays.  Unfortunately, this "kosher comedy" night isn’t kosher so we went to the "cocktail" show and didn’t eat but it was really fun.  The other three acts were good, but really amazing was to see Shelley Berman, celebrating his 50th year in comedy so close to where he began at The Hungry i all those years ago. 

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He now, in addition to his comedy appearances, plays Larry David’s father on Curb Your Enthusiasm and a judge on Boston Legal so he’s not exactly unknown, but last night was an introduction for many clearly enchanted young people in the audience.  And he does it all with a gentle humor devoid of cruelty or crassness.  It’s interesting to me what we can forget about what’s possible not only between one another but also between a performer and an audience when there is high regard — real respect — going both directions.

Berman_blur_tight_4What that meant was that, amid the hilarity, I, as usual, landed in a philosophical and somewhat political frame of mind.  How have we come to a place where this sort of performance is so rare?  Surely we can’t be without excellent, respectful performers.  Clearly, in this hip, modern audience, there was no sense that this style was antiquated or tired.  But it’s a long way between evenings like this.  I guess a live Springsteen show is another true exchange between performer and audience.  But in entertainment, and sadly, in politics, there sure isn’t much that leaves everyone knowing they’re valuable, worthy people who’ve shared laughter and even moments of emotional connection with those in a position to "address" them.  And yeah I know this is pretty much to stand on the shoulders of a stand-up comic but I’m kind of following my head this morning and that’s where it took me.

Oh – one more thing.  Just before the show started my son pointed across the room and found one of his brother’s oldest friends – also a friend of his – a musician who’s been living across the country in Stockbridge MA, waving at us.  Each delighted – and impressed — at the other’s presence, we were very glad to see one another but, despite differences in age, geography and lifestyle, not at all surprised that each would choose to be there.

HOW WE LOOK TO THE ARAB WORLD: CONTROL ROOM AND AL JAZEERA

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OK so I’m three years late.  Thursday morning I watched CONTROL ROOM, the 2004 documentary about the Al Jazeera news network.  Only it’s not really about Al Jazeera, it’s about perceptions of the United States.  About the early days of the Iraq war and how they looked through the eyes of the most watched network in the Arab world.  And it’s pretty disturbing.  As the New York Times said "Whatever your opinions about the war, the conduct of the journalists
who covered it and the role of Al Jazeera in that coverage, you are
likely to emerge from ”Control Room” touched, exhilarated and a
little off-balance, with your certainties scrambled and your
assumptions shaken."

Precisely.  Many Al Jazeera staffers speak English.  They’re articulate and thoughtful — and angry.  Think about it this way:  remember how it felt to see American soldiers dragged through the streets of Mogadishu or to follow the captivity of Jessica Lynch and her fellow war prisoners?  Listening to interviews with reporters and translators from Al Jazeera is like listening to American journalists who had to film that horrible day; they are deeply in pain, angry and scornful of the declared mission.

Control_room_2_us_soldier Dominant within the film are likeable American spokespeople who just don’t have the words or perceptions to get past that rage.  Nobody really looks like a villain – just naive.  One in particular:
Lt. Josh Rushing, a young Texas Marine serving as a liaison officer.  He became a "star" in reviews of the film, was then forbidden by the service to speak about the war, and left the Marine Corps to work for — Al Jazeera English.  You can see the relationships growing, and the struggle of this basically decent young man to represent his country and be truthful and honorable.

The toughest part of the film for me, after all my years as a journalist, was the death of one of the Al Jazeera journalists hit by an American rocket.  The tears in the eyes of the staff and crew brought back memories of lost reporters during Vietnam, and a camera crew lost in a helicopter crash when I worked at CBS.  We’d met the dead journalist earlier, joking about how hard it would be to work in a flak jacket and helmet.  There was sadness for him, and an awareness that events like this would only raise the level of hostility within much of the network’s staff.

As I watched, charmed and provoked by the comments of what essentially felt like my peers and colleagues, yet with a perspective I did not share, I was as unsettled as that Times review promised.  These people speak to the entire Arab world and there are some real haters there and yes they run the statements of Bin Laden and more, but there are issues past that.  In addition to their power and reach, many share great portions of our values and ideas.  One wants to come to the US and move his kids from "the Arab nightmare" to "the American Dream."  Another rages at the looting in the streets of Baghdad – predicting that zealots will push all moderates out – that "people like me" will have no place in the Arab world.

In other words, beyond the basic fact that Al Jazeera broadcasts much that is contrary to the best interests of our country and probably to my well-being as Jewish person, there lies another set of facts.  All that we feel and shout to one another in newsrooms and control rooms here in the US, our assumptions and common ground – there’s another huge universe out there that we need to understand – who don’t automatically share our values – at least not all of them.  And if we don’t learn how to deal with them, their assumptions and anger and dreams, we face a journey that will make our days in Iraq seem simple indeed.   Here’s a preview: