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The Man is Funny, and He's (certainly) Not the Messiah

Posted by Virginia Daddy on Friday, July 25, 2008 10:37:25 AM
Perhaps you expect me to be talking about Barrack Obama, or perhaps John McCain.  Maybe Harry Reid or Robert Novak or Stephen Colbert.  While all of these men have their moments, some more so than others and all in their own way, the man I speak of is indeed a true comic.  Eric Idle is just a funny man.
 
Last night, in my attempts to stay sane, I met sme friends at Wolf Trap National Park outside McLean, VA to see "He's Not the Messiah, He's a Very Naughty Boy".  The show was performed by the National Symphony Orchestra, the Master Chorale of Washington, Shannon Mercer, Jean Stilwell, William Ferguson, Theodore Baerg, Eric himself.  The little oratorio was a great show.  The audience loved it, and I loved it.
 
Basically, it is a sophisticated adaptation of Monty Python's other movie, the Life of Brian.  Not the same scale as Spamalot (though I have never seen it), the show featured the four (five) soloists, inlcuding Idle himself, narrating and singing their way through the plot of the movie.  Brian, born of a Jewish mother impregnated by a Roman Soldier, and Brian joins the People's Front of Judea, is thought to be the messiah, and ends up singing "The Bright Side of Life" on a cross.
 
The music was whimsical and varied, featutring seemingly virtually every style, including a Bob Dylan impression by Idle.  It attempts to follow Handel's Messiah, using Idle's "silly" humor.  Scottish bagpipers make several random appearances, and so does a shephard and his singing sheep, who help sing the song, "We Love Sheep."  And no Idle performance can be complete without some reference to lumberjacks...
 
All in all, a great show and enjoyable evening.
 
But after this mini-review, I have to say that I think Eric Idle is just one of those funny men.  He makes you laugh, no matter what.  His style, his timing and delivery, are fantastic.  He, along with the other Monty Python Troop like John Cleese, have helped define humor for the last half decade.  Their approach is off the wall, full of inuendo and in your face.  It keeps you off guard, waiting, looking for the next joke because all too often they are right in front of you just waiting to be discovered.
 
Personally, I think Idle may be the funniest man on the planet, though Cleese gives him a run for it.  I am struggling to find another comic that gets there.  Some American comics come close, but don't quite reach his level of "funniness".  Mike Myers is one, as was his colleage on SNL Dana Carvey.  Robin Williams, no.  Steve Martin is close, too.  The late George Carlin is not there.  Will Farrell, Adam Sandler, and some others aren't even close to the originality that Idle brings to the stage, and has brought for decades.
 
Anyway, if you get a chance to see this, see it.  You'll probably enjoy even though you might not expect to.
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And They're Off...

Posted by Virginia Daddy on Tuesday, July 22, 2008 8:16:03 AM
Yesterday the movers came and took all our stuff.  About an hour later, my wife and boys, along with her dad, left, too.  They are heading out west to our new home in Laramie.  While it is very exciting to be moving and beginning new adventures and creating new memories, but man, it will be tough to leave our current home.  I am staying behind to clean the townhome to get it ready for sale and to finish off work. 
 
It was very hard to watch them leave yesterday, and enter an empty home.  I quickly learned not to spend lots of time in certain rooms.  There are too many memories and too much pride in them to linger.  I found that out the hard way. 
 
The hardest is the nursery or Gus's room, most recently.  I painted it before James was born in green and yellow (since we did not know if we were having a boy or a girl, of course) with green on bottom and yellow on top.  The border between the colors is a whimsical zig-zag.  The ceiling is a cloudy sky.  I love that room, because it was where we brought home our two babies and was created with such pride and excitement.  It was decorated with an animal and alphabet pattern window shams and a hanging quilt, and in the far corner was the crib.  On the wall to right as you walk in was the changing table, and on the other side was a green and yellow bookcase I made for them.  In the remaining corner was the green chair, where we spent countless nights calming our boys.  We removed the sliding closet door to put up a baby blue curtain, hung open by connector toys.  Also on the walls were a picture of a heart, green and yellow, of course, a picture of Noah's Ark, and we spelled out the boys' names on the wall with wooden letters. 
 
I can't go in there without tearing up.  I truly love that room.  I also love James' old room, painted in a darker but very boyish blue.  Our theme there was pirates, so we had pirate bedding, and the red curtain was held by a rod that looked like Captain Hook's hook.  The hardware on doors and furniture we made of toy coins, and beneath James's wooden letters (now moved to his room) we had a hanging parrot.  Its hard to in there, too, because James loved his room.  He loved his name, and he loved the parrot, and he loved his bed and crib and his frog night light (I know, not necessarilly pirate, but the green frog came the from Gus's room).  I loved the room, too.
 
I can't not talk about the living room downstairs.  Amy and I painted it when we were dating (she actually bought it just before we met).  We painted it a soft yellow, and I had so much fun doing that with her then.  It was a big moment when I knew she was the one.  Its where we had Christmas, entertained, and watched the boys play and grow. 
 
And now its all empty, furniture-less, decoration-less, and more important, empty of the people who made them what they were.  Last night I made our bedroom my enclave.  For some reason, despite its emptiness, it seemed the most fitting to stay there.  The room Amy painted on here own, and was so proud of that, and the room where we spent years together is where I'll spend most of my time, and probably miss the most when all is said and done.
 
It'll be hard to come home tonight to the empty house, as it will for the next few days.  But it is exciting to know what awaits me after.  We have a new house, single family with a wonderful yard for the boys to play in.  They will share a room there, which will be an adventure in and of itself.  We will create new memories there, and new achievements will be won.  What we are leaving behind is difficult, and we are not the first to feel this way, life is ahead of us, and it is wonderful.
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Vive La Resistance

Posted by Virginia Daddy on Monday, July 07, 2008 3:19:17 PM
After reading BrianR's last post over at the Island, I got to thinking about likely scenarios coming out of this election.  Nothing necessarilly new: Obama wins, the GOP gets energized; a McCain win, GOP sits back. 
But is a scenario with the GOP getting energized a good thing?  Not necessarilly.  With expected losses in Congress, I am not convinced any sort of energy will be direction in the Right direction, rather in the Left direction.  Further, with a socialist as POTUS, and a socialist leading in both houses, the stakes are likely a huge expansion in government will come from, in large part, a weakened resistance from their opponents. 
 
Some would argue the energy created by a McCain defeat would be to go to the Right.  I hope they are correct, but I am not so quick to say this would happen.  Many in the GOP think they are correct being in the middle, and I think they would go more to the middle to compensate (ie, to the Left).  Certainly, there will be some who will fight hard and loud, but a liberal government with a liberal media gives little room for optimism for conservatives.  Their voices will be shunned as either "radical" or ignored completely.
 
The result will be a further deterioration of a conservative GOP.  While I am not sure a McCain victory would do much to push the party Right, I think the scenario I outline is very possible.  And if the Left is able to put into effect many of their ideas, there is little evidence of trends moving to smaller government and conservative values returning-- in government.  In other words, it will be very difficult to reverse what an Obama presidency may put into action without effective resistance.
 
What then, are we, who truly are on the Right, to do?  Well, we are to fight, and be loud, and be reasonable.  That last one there is the kicker.  I do not mean to work with the Left, or expect the unexpected, rather I mean we are to be intelligient and persuasive.  We cannot be silent, and we cannot allow the Left do what it wills.  Best case is for a viable third party to emerge, or to find a strong and energetic conservative icon (aside from Reagan-- one in the present) to carry the torch.  Without something or someone to inspire, or without some form of organized resistance effort, we will see the Left's wrath on what made this a great nation. 
 
Will this be any different with a McCain victory?  Probably not.  We'll still need the same voices and the same things to emerge.  The bottom line is this: Vive La Conservative Resistance!
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