Can we talk? About something else for a minute?

There doesn't seem to be much oxygen left in the public chamber to support discussion of anything besides McChrystal's self-immolation (blame it on his moronic one meal a day diet maybe).  Or Team USA's truly thrilling extra time goal against Algeria.  So I'll just take a little gulp and offer the following double endorsement.

The documentary "Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work" is an extremely worthwhile piece of storytelling.  Actually, aside from "Exit Through The Gift Shop" (which I'm increasingly convinced was actually an elaborate ruse on Banksy's part) this is the best documentary I've seen this year.  My rating - a solid B-plus.  I'm not just now jumping on the bandwagon of loving Joan Rivers.  As someone who listened to comedy albums on cassette over and over and over again in my childhood, I grew up with an early appreciation of her timing (always just a beat too quick for the punchline to add to the shock of her subjects).  But seeing her work both on stage and off in this documentary is fascinating.  See this movie.  If for no other reason than to see how she handles what could have been a disastrous confrontation while performing at an Indian casino in Northern Wisconsin, of all places.  

I don't speak of it much, but I really do love video games.  Once again, that goes way back to childhood.  Don't play 'em much these days.  Don't like a ton of them.  But the game "Red Dead Redemption" by the folks who brought us "Grand Theft Auto" is the most layered, engaging, well-conceived world.  It's set in the not-so-old West.  The gameplaying is great.  Yet the interstitial stuff (a temperance "moving picture" show you can pay a few bucks to enter amidst all the other delightful distractions was a favorite I came across a few days ago)...well, there's more fun to be found on this platform than in anything I've seen on TV in ages.  My rating - an upwardly mobile A-minus, only because I'm just part way into the game.  If you are anything of a gamer, buy it.  Now.

Hope your own distractions are worthy, yet far from insubordinate today.  Rock on.

Suggested retort #273 - Apply lipstick judiciously if you intend to actually speak to others.

Last night we had a neighborhood block party. Nice folks, typically well-informed (this is Seattle, after all), armed with all manner of kids and smiles and interesting retorts. I guess I'm just an elitist since I believe that whenever I get into a head-shaking conversation about politics out here the discussion of "tactics" and "spin" becomes a lament that could be equally shared over the beer keg back in my childhood home in Northern Wisconsin. When the out of context attacks come out in a campaign of this magnitude, all bets are off. So I offer a new level of outrage today when it comes to how the McCain campaign is trying to swift boat Barack Obama. "Lipstick on a pig" is now sexist? Not when McCain said the same thing about front-running Hillary Clinton in October (!) of last year, or the times since? The wheels are coming off this thing. Time for the gloves to do so, too.

Sarah Palin has the ultimate glass jaw. She won't take questions. Attacks work and that's all we're getting from McCain's brain trust for the foreseeable future. If the egocentric journalists that pride themselves on access do nothing to bemoan how Palin is barricaded from questioning with less than two months until the election...well, they are abject failures that discredit their profession. Pressure obviously needs to come from somewhere else. Herein is the best argument for a grassroots movement I've seen in my lifetime. Cut the crap. Answer some questions. Period.

Hope your own attack ads are at least as much fun as something for Grand Theft Auto today. Rock on.