If you celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope yours was a nice one yesterday. Gina and I hadn't watched any part of the Macy's Parade in NYC for a long time--it was kind of goofy in an orderly way.
Even though the event was basically lip-synched--with the exception of the marching bands--it was cool to see Gladys Knight and Broadway legend Betty Buckley perform on TV. Every float or musical act got a big plug from the hosts, which wasn't so apparent to me as in previous years. It was said that Buckley's new album is produced by Betty's "longtime friend" T Bone Burnett. How is that possible? She's from Fort Worth, just like T Bone, that's how. When does that guy sleep?
There was a young television idol performing, and I forgot her name within five minutes. But in the midst of this peppy pop song she was miming, I heard the lyrics, "I hate your attention deficit!" No disorder mentioned.
I've had some dreary days in my all-too-long stretch of unemployment. It hurts. But
being in this sobering situation does help one appreciate the little things.
Our very kind landlords sent over a plumber today to fix a few problems at our rented house. Number one was the kitchen sink, which had a damaged faucet. Anyway, for the last year, Gina did a great job of putting rubber bands around the thing to keep us from getting sprayed in the face with water. But it would still happen.
Her work was way better than what I could have done--I'm all thumbs with that kind of stuff. (I was the kid who came home crying from school one day because I somehow thought that I had to join the Boy Scouts. My school was just giving us the option, of course.)
Gina and I bought a new faucet/spout thing months ago but didn't know how to install it.
Now it's in. Sure feels good feelin' good again, as Elvin Bishop would say.
Not a bad return for "Conan" (as in O'Brien) last night on TBS, although the pre-taped stuff was the best. And I liked Jack White saying that since Conan stayed at his house this past summer, "we've changed the (door locks) code."
The (George) "Lopez Tonight" show followed, and since Lopez is sometimes rated as a grade B or lower host, I thought I'd watch a little just to see how accurate that assessment is. Maybe so, but there was one dazzling joke in Lopez's monologue: "We turned back our clocks an hour earlier this week due to the end of Daylight Savings Time. Since election night, with the Republicans taking over the House, I just set my clock back fifty years."
My wife Gina and I watched that most moving PBS documentary last night on the 33 Chilean miners who were rescued in October after 69 days of being trapped under hard rock. Incredible.
And today, I got to see clips of miner Edison Pena on the David Letterman show (yes, there's a tilde above the 'n' in 'Pena' but my computer keyboard was possibly made in Arizona and doesn't have one). Just put CBS or Pena or Letterman in your search engine and I'm sure you'll get it--the air date was November 1.
Mr. Pena's face was so expressive and joyous--and the fact that he needed an interpreter actually added to the merriment. He didn't speak English until Letterman mentioned that Pena likes Elvis Presley, which nudged him into singing "Suspicious Minds." Kind of a funny coincidence that the lyrics ("we're caught in a trap/I can't walk out") were perfectly suited to the miners' predicament. And there's Elvis, who's been dead now for longer than he was alive,* transcending cultural barriers once again. EP (both Pena and Presley) lives! It's quite a wonderful segment, so don't miss it.
(*) Ouch! See the comments page because I didn't do the math (correctly) on how long Elvis has been gone.
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