Some thoughts about the Macy's
Thanksgiving Day Parade 2014 and the commercials in the broadcast:
Savanna Guthrie (or her scriptwriter)
does not know the difference between a “slash” and a “backslash.”
The baton/rifle/flag twirler who is
just a little off the pace always draws your eye.
Christopher Walken as Captain Hook just
shows how much casting decisions are made based on actor popularity.
This is not to say that some of these actors don't do a great job
(James Franco in “Tristan & Isolde” and Walter Matthau in
Roman Polanski's “Pirates” are two examples), but really,
Christopher Walken as Captain Hook?
American Authors were totally busted
for missing their entrance in the lip-synch.
Has rock and roll gone so far away from
the electric guitar that Gibson has to have a country band on their
electric guitar float? And does this country band really have to be
the most contemporary, countrypolitan, non-country band in the
universe, that doesn't even feature an electric guitar in their song?
I love the Harlem Globetrotters,and I
am glad they have a woman on their team again. Did you know there was
a “Harlem Globetrotters” movie made in 1951 with Dorothy
Dandridge? It was actually on TV this week, on MeTV, one of those
new, digital-TV “extra” channels that plays movies all the
time.
At first it sounded like Kiss was singing live, but maybe they just recorded themselves recently, because the camera caught a couple of them totally missing the lip-synch.
At first it sounded like Kiss was singing live, but maybe they just recorded themselves recently, because the camera caught a couple of them totally missing the lip-synch.
Queen sounds awesome done in big
marching band style.
It was perfectly appropriate to have
“Annie” on the Build-A-Bear float. I don't care if the actress
who plays the lead is black, and even that her hair isn't orange, but
if that was her, I was a little disappointed that she was the
least-animated performer in the number. And I am sure Jamie Foxx will
make a fine Daddy Warbucks (casting for popularity again?) but Daddy
Warbucks should be bald.
The cool jazz version of “Walking in
a Winter Wonderland” by Renee Flemming was absolutely perfect on
the “Central Park in wintertime” float. I don't even care if it
was lip-synched.
The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is a
big, corny, cheese-fest, a uniquely American celebration of American
show-business, commercialism, mainstream pop culture, and marching
bands. It's one of those things that make NYC hat it is that is so
damn popular and crowded no one can get to see it, except the
thousands and thousands of people who do, jamming up the streets for
miles along the route. The bet view of it, of course, is on
television, and it is thus planned and choreographed to give the
cameras the best view.
It is a completely useless exercise if
overkill and waste that serves absolutely no purpose but to display
the latest Broadway musicals, pop stars, youth-targeted movies and TV
shows, toys, and tourist attractions, and no doubt draws tourists
from all over the world who fill our hotels, flood our streets, and
jam up our subways (they should have a subway turnstile in every
hotel in NC so tourists can practice using their new Metrocards
before they get in the subway) and make it impossible for real New
Yorkers to enjoy all the wonderful things that NY has to offer that
tourists know about.
Human beings are living on this planet
on borrowed time. Fossil fuels are a limited resource, global
woarming will challenge the habitability of the planet, and there
will soon be too many people for the biosphere to handle. We could
all live spartan lives, grow self-sustaining gardens for our
solar-powered micro-homes for our three-person family units while
doing Canadian Air Force exercises, and that would certainly sustain
the life of the planet and the Human Race, but what would be the
point of that? It's these cheesy, overblown spectacles that are part
of national traditions that, much like the seasons, give us things to
look forward to, and like any form of entertainment, give us a thrill
and make us happy are alive and can see and hear.
Now if only we could focus that much of
our energy and resources on ending war, posvery, injustice, and
saving the planet...
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