When Howie Met Jenny

What a shame. 

Last night was the final night of the Democratic National Convention and I...
 

Missed it.

I didn't miss all of it, but I freely admit that I missed 'most of it'. 

Why?

Two main reasons, I guess.  Neither one is more important than the other:

REASON 1:  Thursday night is laundry night

REASON 2:  I had two weeks of 'White Collar' to catch up on - 'On Demand' 

The third reason is once I've already read the book, I don't need to watch the film.  The book is ALMOST always better than the film because reading is a much more personal experience than watching someone else act out the role written for them.
 

When Reading a book:

YOU decide what the characters look like.

YOU provide the imagination to fill in the blanks which the author either can not, or chooses not to.

YOU are an active participant in the story; viewing events as they unfold and then guessing what comes next.

YOU are involved in the story on a very personal level...  (i.e.:  YOU live it.) 

And, finally, YOU finish the story at your leisure, according to your schedule, because YOU want to.  Conversely, if a story 'is poorly written', you may decide to put the book down and to never pick it up again.  YOU have that option.

Yes, I prefer books to film. 

But hey, that's just me. 


However, I do believe that there are instances where film can capture moments of great historical significance like no other medium can. 

Examples:

Neil Armstrong's Walk

The Zapruder Film

9/11



Then again, there are moments like the two which follow.  Moments which shall live in infamy long after my fingers cease their movement across this keyboard...  Not because of their greatness, but rather, well, you'll see.

These moments captured digitally and posted on (Al Gore's) Internet will haunt the speakers, the participants, and the Democratic Party for generations to come. 

These are a few of my favorite things...  (Hum the song with me now as we go back to Thursday evening and the DNC crowd 'lathers up')

Meet Jennifer Granholm, courtesy of the DNC!
(Please pay particular attention to members of the audience as they experience the collective Obama 'Rapture' during this speech.  You'll know them when they come along...  Can you spot them?  Yes.  Yes you can...)

"Something about her seemed familiar.  I could swear I'd seen her face before.  But she said you must be mistaken..." 
(I stole these lines from Harry Chapin's 'Taxi'.  I'm not proud of it, but I will 'fess up to it...  Why?  Because stealing anything, even words, is WRONG!)


It wasn't long after watching the above footage that my mind made the leap to where I had seen the 'face', heard the 'words', the witnessed the 'lunacy' before.  It was from another Democratic event in the not-so-distant past. 


It was, of course, Howard Dean's 'scream'...

As referenced above, I didn't need to watch President Obama's Exceptance speech. 

The word 'Exceptance' is used above on purpose, as in:

"I would have fixed the economy 'except' it was worse than I thought it could have possibly imagined it to be."  (All while telling American voters in 2007 - 2008 that the economy was the 'Worst it's been since the Great Depression'.  Still, it came as a surprise to the Boy King to find out that the economy did, actually, 'stink up the place'...) 

"I would have focused on helping businesses create jobs 'except' I was fixing Health Care in America."

"The 23 MILLION Americans are still out of work would almost all have jobs today, except for the Economy the previous Administration left me with..."

"No, I don't believe that it's ironic that I want legal and illegal voters to vote for me WITHOUT Identification, but if you're buying a DNC-sponsored 'Birth Certificate' coffee cup YOU have to show ID because...  It's a political donation.  Well, maybe this is ironic except, um, well..." 


I didn't need to SEE the President's Speech last night. I've been fully-engaged in the reality of this President's economic strategies and social-engineering for the past four years...  Listen to the speech?  Sheesh, I could have written it.

It is time to pick up a new book and put the 'Book of Obama' down without finishing it. 

(SPOILER ALERT:  The Book of Obama (The Sequel) ends with four more years of miscellaneous turkeys and a side-order of 'Malaise'.  )

That 'book' isn't going anywhere that it hasn't already been.  And with a campaign slogan such as, "Forward" you can only expect the plot line of the sequel to continue in the same direction as it has in the past four years.

Have a nice weekend folks.