Open Thread: Send In the Clowns
Because I couldn’t find a clip of Collins singing
You can’t win, and you can’t break even
You can’t get out of the game;
You shouldn’t stay, but you ain’t leaving
‘Cause your luck… could change again…
You can’t get out of the game;
You shouldn’t stay, but you ain’t leaving
‘Cause your luck… could change again…
And besides, who doesn’t love Muppets?
Speaking of which, I am not quite the target demographic for Elizabeth Stevens’ Weekend At Kermie’s: The Muppets’ Strange Life After Death (too old for Sesame Street; but Muppets in Space and Muppet Xmas Carol are among my favorite movies) but I found it both informative and enjoyable nonetheless…
July 31, 2011 10:19 pm
Posted in: All we want is life beyond the thunderdome, Movies, Music, Open Thread
44 Comments
44 Responses
JPL - July 31, 2011 | 10:24 pm · Link
Thanks for the open thread. I was ready to post a comment asking about the Steelers and Tunch because that might cause some reaction with the boss man.
scav - July 31, 2011 | 10:24 pm · Link
Alternative odd video, also with clown (not in starring role) but still somehow generally apt.
Doctor!
tesslibrarian - July 31, 2011 | 10:30 pm · Link
I can’t hear that song anymore without thinking of this version by Stephen Colbert.
You just can’t trust clowns…
That’s why they’re called clowns
(ETA: it’s near the end of the interview w/Sondheim)
efgoldman - July 31, 2011 | 10:31 pm · Link
You are never ever ever too old for Muppetts
Never. (I’m 66 – I actually remember a time before Sesame Street.)
That much art, and that much humor, and that much cleverness, and that much invention, all in one place.
The best. Period.
Oh, and I saw Judy Collins at Saratoga the summer that the Performing Arts Center opened – ‘66, I think. Seats inside, very worth it when the skies opened up.
ETA: And this evening, with all the angst in the last three threads, there are many, very worse, things yo can do than go to YouTube and just pick Muppetts clips at random.
JPL - July 31, 2011 | 10:31 pm · Link
Where did all the posters come from on Kay’s thread below? They are similar to one disturbing a yellow jacket nest in the way they attack from all sides. Is there a blog that says let’s go to Cole’s and sting or what?
efgoldman - July 31, 2011 | 10:36 pm · Link
@JPL:
You’re kidding, right?
Key word #1 = “Dog”
Key word #2 = “Cat”
Most of the posters’ names are familiar, but not all at the same time/place, usually. The rare “Cats, Dogs & Politics Together™” post is what done it.
burnspbesq - July 31, 2011 | 10:39 pm · Link
Crazy deja vu: five nights until the New York Cosmos come back from the dead, providing the opposition in the Paul Scholes testimonial match at Old Trafford.
I was at Pele’s first match for the Cosmos, and the match on Fathers’ Day in 1977 when they planned for 25,000 attendance and 77,000 showed up at Giants Stadium.
I don’t think I will go back to being a Cosmos supporter if, as is possible, they become the 20th team in MLS in 2013; fifteen years as a Galaxy supporter precludes that. But the Cosmos brand is an important part of the heritage of football in this country, and it will be cool to see that green kit again. Not to mention the indescribable coolness of seeing Eric Cantona managing against Sir Alex.
lamh34 - July 31, 2011 | 10:42 pm · Link
I have nothing to say about the debt ceiling per se, but as for politics in general, I’m about ready to take a vacation from political discussions in general over the intertubes at this point. Mentally, I think I’ve already checked out, but I find that I enjoy reading the various post and blogs that I frequent, but I’ll tell ya the truth, I’m a little tired of all the drama. I’ll be honest, I did not become dialed into politics until 2008. I’ve always tried to pay attention to the “issues of the day” and what not, and I’ve always voted Dem since I turned 18, but I did not really pay attention to the underbelly of politics until now. Is it a new thing that everything is a crisis, or is that some new phenomenon? Not being dialed in before then, I don’t know if it is normally so neurotic.
I hate this much drama and neurosis in my own personal interactions with people, forget about trying to do it over the anonymity that is the internet where I can’t at least have eye contact or physical interaction and context available to read and react the way I would like to situations
This debt fight and all the other fights has really opened my eyes to the other side and I hate to say it, but I can honestly understand why most people just decide to tune all politics out and just go to the booth and vote
Am I making sense…probably not. That’s probably my cue to go to bed now. I’m babbling…lol
BTW, I love the Muppets and can’t wait for the movie Muppets Movie Trailer. I would have probably seen this movie anyway since the Muppets are in it, but Jason Seagal is the icing on the cake…lol
Jane2 - July 31, 2011 | 10:44 pm · Link
When Canada’s national Conservative newspaper has http://fullcomment.nationalpos....." rel="nofollow"an opinion piece called “Tea Partiers Demand an Unworkable Law for Their Fantasy World”, it’s obvious that the clown car is amok in Congress.
Comrade Luke - July 31, 2011 | 10:45 pm · Link
Between the 24/7 “news” networks and the internet, things have gotten much, much worse in the last decade or so. The signal-to-noise ratio is out of control.
Violet - July 31, 2011 | 10:47 pm · Link
I’ve been out enjoying myself all day and have returned to see there seems to be some kind of resolution to this debt mess. Is that right? Is there any guarantee that if the Senate passes it, the House will also pass it? Or are the Teabaggers going to hold it hostage?
Anyone know?
Jewish Steel - July 31, 2011 | 10:47 pm · Link
The best Muppet Show song evah.
Jane2 - July 31, 2011 | 10:49 pm · Link
Apologies for the mess above…I could blame #@$#$$ HTML or the fact the *(&(& system won’t let me edit it. Anyway, the article is at http://tinyurl.com/3pxve8k .
Mumbles.
burnspbesq - July 31, 2011 | 10:49 pm · Link
@Jane2:
McFarland is way too reasonable. She’d be tarred and feathered by the Tea Party.
http://fullcomment.nationalpos.....asy-world/
JPL - July 31, 2011 | 10:51 pm · Link
@lamh34: I’ve always followed politics and until the last 5 or 6 years, I have never voted straight party line except while living in LA in 74/76. In LA during that time, there was only one party, the democrats. If you didn’t vote in the primary, you lost your voice.
At this point in time, I can’t imagine ever voting for another republican.
btw..The muppets rule.
hhex65 - July 31, 2011 | 10:52 pm · Link
Wow, Disney owns the Muppets now…I did not know that. Do they own Sondheim?
burnspbesq - July 31, 2011 | 10:55 pm · Link
@Violet:
Nobody knows anything.
What I’d like to see:
(1) Pelosi signals that Boehner has to pass it with only Republican votes.
(2) Boehner tries and fails.
(3) Pelosi asks that it be brought up for a second vote, and persuades just enough Democrats to vote for it that it passes but still bears the Republican brand.
Violet - July 31, 2011 | 10:58 pm · Link
@burnspbesq:
Thanks for replying. I really have been out having a great day and made a point of not looking at news at all after a quick check this morning. I’ve been wine tasting and am happily tipsy.
Anyway, why would Boehner do that? It would make him look even less competent than he looks now, which is pretty bad. I don’t think he’d go for it.
efgoldman - July 31, 2011 | 10:59 pm · Link
@Jewish Steel:
Go back to your parallel fifths, junior!
You wanna’ start one of those arguments at almost 1100 on Sunday nite, you gotta’ deal with ME!
[Oh, and BTW, I’m taking a vacation day tomorrow, so I don’t have to limp off to bed just yet.]
Buddy Rich+Animal!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDU-ZyBQRnQ
Swedish Chef vs Lobster (followed by all the rest of the Swedish Chef!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWGh1YYT4vI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTwq1_9VH68
and this one, which my daughter and son-in-law chose for their first dance at the wedding :::sniff:::
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSFLZ-MzIhM
burnspbesq - July 31, 2011 | 10:59 pm · Link
@Violet:
No harm in trying.
lamh34 - July 31, 2011 | 10:59 pm · Link
@JPL: I have never voted Republican. I honestly don’t think I ever will, unless the GOP all of a sudden becomes more acclimated to AA and minorities, so that’s not really an option. I also don’t think I could vote 3rd party just because maybe it’s just a Black thing, but I don’t ever want to feel I “wasted” my vote so I don’t think I could
Still, like I said, I just understand now why people prefer to just not even deal with politics and just go into the booth and vote. No blog reading, no crazy editorials, no stupid and purposely aggravating, rude and ridiculous commentary. Just tell me the election date and point me to the polling stations and that’s it.
Violet - July 31, 2011 | 10:59 pm · Link
Oh, I forgot to add, I love the Muppets. Never too old for Muppets.
efgoldman - July 31, 2011 | 11:03 pm · Link
@efgoldman:
How the hell does a post about muppets go to moderation.
Ohh. Too many links. now I get it.
Well tool damned bad. It will get unmoderated eventually, unless all the mods have gone abed…
burnspbesq - July 31, 2011 | 11:04 pm · Link
@lamh34:
I voted for Marge Roukema for Congress three times, in 1980, 1982, and 1984. She was way saner than the Democratic opposition, plus I knew her personally (her kid was a year behind me in high school). Other than that, no Republicans for me, thank you very much.
Mnemosyne - July 31, 2011 | 11:05 pm · Link
@efgoldman:
I still have a strange affection for the work of Paul Williams. If you ever see DePalma’s Phantom of the Paradise, you can see that Williams’ range was actually pretty broad (and he wasn’t a bad actor, either—he’s actually pretty fucking scary as Swan).
Yutsano - July 31, 2011 | 11:05 pm · Link
The whining about the Henson/Whitmire voice change is an old stupid argument. What she ignores is that indeed Kermit is the first Muppet. To simply move on without him would create an inexplainable hole. And Henson simply died too young.
I haven’t looked since dinner arrived: is the teef gnashing still going on below?
Splitting Image - July 31, 2011 | 11:07 pm · Link
I’m totally the demographic Stevens is talking about. I spent two weeks in the hospital in ‘88 with the same bug that killed Jim Henson. I can’t hear the man’s voice without tearing up, and I miss him horribly in anything Muppet-related that he isn’t in.
Such a wonderful and talented man. The older I get, the more flabbergasted I am that he, Frank Oz, Dave Goelz, and the rest of the gang actually strong-armed a Hollywood studio into making a movie about puppets.
Here is a video of the Muppet crew appearing on the Tonight Show in 1965:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOvfXvQygrk
MikeJ - July 31, 2011 | 11:12 pm · Link
@Splitting Image:
Wiggling dolls? I seem to recall Fozzie was not impressed by Edgar Bergen’s wiggling of dolls.
efgoldman - July 31, 2011 | 11:15 pm · Link
@JPL:
@burnspbesq:
Now see, I’m old enough that I actually voted for Republicans, on purpose and with good intent.
Not Nixon, nor Saint Ronnie, not ever ever ever.
But Leverett Saltonstall, and Ed Brooke, and John Volpe, and Frank Sargent? Absolutely.
Of course, where they were, then, was way, way to the left of pretty much anyone now, except possibly Bernie Sanders and Al Franken, and a couple of real, old-time liberals in the House.
Valdivia - July 31, 2011 | 11:17 pm · Link
Love The Muppets. And like Violet I was trying most of the day to enjoy myself without paying attention to the news. I’ll probably do that for a few more days, too much drama!
lol chikinburd - July 31, 2011 | 11:19 pm · Link
Play this at my funeral.
efgoldman - July 31, 2011 | 11:21 pm · Link
@lol chikinburd:
I have already told my progeny: I want The Parrot Sketch and the full, original Who’s on First.
John Weiss - July 31, 2011 | 11:24 pm · Link
I don’t love muppets. Never did. But my kid did, so Sesame Street was on every morning.
Kids.
He and I, however, hate clowns. And mimes. Go figure.
JW
Jewish Steel - July 31, 2011 | 11:25 pm · Link
@efgoldman: Goldman! Curses!
All right, you’ve won this round. (grumbles)
I was was young enough to be 100% enchanted with the Muppet Show when it first aired. The pure craftsmanship of it all just blows me away now. Such attention to detail, it would’ve been entertaining even it wasn’t so cleverly written and funny.
scav - July 31, 2011 | 11:27 pm · Link
The Swedish Chef! Although he may be edged slightly by Beaker for me some days. His Ode to Joy as it seems apt the thread.
There are days we should just put up a big “Biohazard” sign on the entire web and go somewhere else. Certainly got me through today although who turned the temp up again? Stop that.
Redshift - July 31, 2011 | 11:29 pm · Link
@Yutsano: Yeah, I found the ideas about some of the things that made the Muppets special interesting, but the whole “it’s not the real Kermit” line was just idiotic. I love Kermit (though I’m a Gonzo guy first), but he’s a character, he’s not your mother, and sometimes characters get portrayed by different people. You may like one or another’s portrayal better, but that doesn’t make change impossible.
I like Jason Segal, and I’m willing to give his attempt a chance.
burnspbesq - July 31, 2011 | 11:31 pm · Link
@efgoldman:
I would have had no qualms about voting for Clifford Case for the Senate in 1972 if I had been eligible. He lost in the Republican primary in 1978, and voting for Bill Bradley against Jeffrey Bell was a no-brainer.
Jewish Steel - July 31, 2011 | 11:32 pm · Link
@Yutsano:
cleek is slapping a few chumps around in the 280s in an entertaining fashion.
efgoldman - July 31, 2011 | 11:33 pm · Link
@Jewish Steel:
Oh, yes! I’ve seen it from the back, and I still don’t believe it.
There are adults out there who can’t understand how Kermit could “ride a bicycle.”
No CGI, either. old-fashioned props and camera angles.
If I had .01% of Henson’s creativity, I might have been able to write music for a living.
@scav:
I wish I could tear myself away, but I have been transfixed since I got high-speed internet in 2001. I first used it to read tons of national press on line. Now comes blogs. Gad.
ETA: That’s why stuff like easy access to hours of Muppets clips is so valuable, also too.
LarsThorwald - July 31, 2011 | 11:35 pm · Link
In 2000 I took a vow never to watch cable news again, and except for 9/11 and Katrina, and a couple of election night returns, I haven’t. I’ll bet I have not watched more than 20 hours total of cable news in the last decade. And it has made me a saner person.
I am thinking I am getting near that time with some websites (not this one). I left DKOS a while ago, because it has become an ideological battle, like that Goya painting of the two guiys, hipdeep in silt unable to move themselves, unable to move each other, but destined to fight nevertheless.
I am disappointed that Obama couldn’t do something to overtly advance progressive principles. But I also appreciate and understand that against the avalanche of absolute, pure, unalloyed insanity coming from Congress, he is just trying to save the base camp from destruction. There are more parallels to Lincoln with Obama than progressives would like to hear.
We are rapidly nearing a point where something’s got to give. I don’t know what, and I don’t know how, but the next 5 years are going to be interesting. We are either on the cusp of a new 1968 or a new 1860. Hell, who knows.
All I know is it appears my Gubmint job is safe (although I distinctly doubt I will see a meaningful pay increase for the next three years), and I have vacation lined up in a week, and I cannot wait to leave this fucking miserable, humid, intransigent, ideologically-skewed, douche-ridden hellhole of a city for a while.
Jewish Steel - July 31, 2011 | 11:42 pm · Link
Amen to that.
Yutsano - July 31, 2011 | 11:52 pm · Link
@Jewish Steel: I just peeked. Then I got bored. Faked terrible Supreme Court justices tend to do that.
@efgoldman: When I learned the story of how the bicycle scene was done, I was flabbergasted. And it still amazes me now because it took a TON of patience to get right. From what I understand it took the longest to do in that whole movie.
skippy - August 1, 2011 | 1:39 am · Link
too old for sesame street? no such thing.
i was in college when it came on, watched it, loved it, and i still check in occassionally. aside from bert & ernie, big bird, the count (one litltle piggie! two little piggies! ah ha haaaa!) and oscar the grouch, there are inumerable instaces of famous people joining in for songs and dances. nora jones sang “don’t know y” and smokey robinson sang “u really got a hold on me” as the letters y and u, respectively, danced the sketch. who could ever forget the beetles singing “letter b”? (my mother whipsers b words, letter b…)
not only are/were the muppets spectacular on it, i still have fond memories as early street days as one of the last places to hear original tom lehrer songs:
who can turn a can
into a cane?
who can turn a man
into a mane?
it’s elementary
it’s silent ‘e’!
nobody is ever too old to watch sesame street…only too busy, alas.
skippy - August 1, 2011 | 1:50 am · Link
ps, @efgoldman:
aside from the occasional ed sullivan appearaces, i remember enjoying rowlf the dog as a semi-regular on the jimmy dean show.
@mnemosyne:
ditto on phantom, a movie that still holds up today. i was luckily enough to meet paul williams in my agent’s lobby, shake his hand and personally thank him for phantom.