With a misty eye we say goodbye to summer 2009, or as we say in this bizarre year weather wise in the Northeast "The Summer That Never Really Was" because of its rain, coolness, and brevity. And as I usually do when I have a lot to say about a lot of things, or nothing to say but have a "stream of consciousness" thing going.... I revert to "QUICK HITS"
(1) The EMMY AWARDS- I didn't watch them. There was no way I was pulling myself away from the Giants -Cowboys game that the G-men won 33-31 on Lawrence Tynes FG as the game expired. But a shout-out to Glenn Close for her EMMY win for her role in
Damages as the diabolical attorney Patty Huse, my favorite TV villain. Imagine an attorney with enough self control to contain and subdue a personality as volatile as Joe Pesci's Tommy in GOODFELLAS when she needed to, and then unexpectedly unleash absolute fury. You were never sure just how Patty would react to any situation, and that makes Close's portrayal positively electrifying. Though I was disappointed by the final episode of Season Two of DAMAGES (you mean I spent the last 12 weeks of watching this every week for THAT kind of "resolution"?), Glenn Close always delivered. Its amazing how such a nice lady can specialize in and effectively own the roles of such nasty female antagonists, like Alex in FATAL ATTRACTION and Cruella DiVil.
(2) Also, it was great to see
Mad Men to win the Best Dramatic Series EMMY. This is the best series on TV. Alan Sepinwall, the critic from the
Star-Ledger, compares the shows quality and writing to THE SOPRANOS without the violence and the cursing. To the uninitiated,
Mad Men is the saga of Madison Avenue ad men in the 1960's. What makes it interesting is that none of the main characters are quite what they appear to be to the rest of the world. The main character, Don Draper (played by Jon Hamm) rose to the top of his profession after assuming the identity of a comrade killed in the Korean War, and ditching a shamed and troubled childhood and life. The story has taken us-to this point- July 4, 1963. A British firm has bought Don's company, and there are shadows gathering of the storm that is about to hit not just the United States, but most of the Western world. In months, President Kennedy would be shot in Dallas. A few weeks later the Beatles invaded America, and pop culture was changed forever. And within the next year there would be the murders of three Civil rights workers in Mississippi and the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. You see, the Fifties really died with Kennedy on that November day in 1963....and Don Draper and company are going to be catapulted into a New World quite different from the one in they are inhabiting in July, 1963.
Mad Men is a show about changes and how the characters react to them. Some, like Don's partner Roger, are already anachronisms (he wore blackface at an uppercrust party in the Hamptons with Old Moneyed friends, for example). And in the interest of full disclosure....no, I didn't watch it last night (see above), but did catch it over breakfast ON DEMAND (thanks COMCAST!).
(3) College football- I just saw that quarterback Matt Grothe of the South Florida Bulls blew out his ACL, and is done for the year, and perhaps for his career. He suffered the injury during USF's 59-0 win over Charleston Southern. A sad way to end a career that saw the guy become the Big East's career leader in total offense (10,875), and was pretty much the face of the South Florida program. Sad to see his career end this way, but two years ago I remarked that he was one hit away from disaster. USF ran too many plays through him, in my opinion, and an athlete can take only so many hits. They needed a big time running back to take the load from Grothe. And now with Grothe's loss that need for a running back becomes an absolute MUST HAVE for new QB BJ Daniels. Hopefully for the Bulls that big time RB is Moise Plancher, and every indication says he is.
(4)Rutgers is a three point favorite over Maryland at College Park. They have to play better. The defense bailed RU out last week in a game against FIU they should have won by double digits instead of a 23-15 tally.
(5) Joba Chamberlain and the Joba Rules...I'm tired of the rules, and tired of Joba's excuses- and I'm a big Joba fan. Take the training wheels off, once and for all, and let him grow up without the kid gloves already!
(6) Giants and Jets win....and all is good in the Big Apple. What are the fans on talk radio going to complain about? Hey...they're fans. They'll think of something.
(7) I was watching AMERICAN MORNING on CNN, and Carol Costello did a piece about the anger in America. She went to a small town and Pennsylvania and asked people what they feared. Most said they felt a loss of control over their own lives. One lady said she wanted to go back to the way things were forty years ago. That would be 1969. Let's see- Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy were assassinated the previous year, and the summer of '68 had the rioting at the Democratic Convention in Chicago. The war in Vietnam was going on, and going badly, and the incidents at Kent State and Jackson State that followed the American invasion of Cambodia were about a year away. Charles Manson's followers slaughtered actress Sharon Tate and friends plus an elderly couple in Los Angeles. Jimi, Janis, and Morrison were in the last years of their collective lives, and college campuses rocked with anti war protests. Racial tensions boiled over unto city streets, killing and injuring scores of our citizens and causing many millions of dollars in property damage.
Oh...I never even mentioned a botched burglary in DC that led to the ruination of a presidency and a divide in the country it expanded, and is still felt to this day, now did I?
Yep, 1969....them wuz da good ole days!
(8) I wonder if Barack is going to do the "Top Ten List" on Letterman tonight?
(9) The Decider was such a good luck charm for the Cowboys last night against the Giants...NOT! I wonder if Jerry Jones will ever invite him back?
(10) And in closing....the beautiful Jenna Elfman
(above) returns to network TV tonight (Monday Sept. 21) at 9:00PM Eastern. She's been a favorite since the days of
Dharma and Greg and its great to have her back, this time in a sitcom called
Accidentally On Purpose......well come on you guys. If you've been to this site before you know QUCK HITS always has to include at least one reference (and picture) of a gorgeous, alluring, and younger (than me) woman....or two.
That's it...I told you this was..."Quick Hits". Or at least, "Semi Quick Hits" And I'm outta here!
