More holiday cheer
Christopher Guest and Company have really skewed my view of the world. How so, you ask? In the span of two days, I came across two television events that I just couldn’t take seriously due to my prior viewing of Christopher Guest’s clever little movies.
Day One: Following the Thanksgiving Day Parade, NBC aired a dog show. (Which one I couldn’t tell ya from memory). I guess I’ve seen dog shows before, but “Best in Show” has changed everything. Now as I watched the handlers trot around with their leashes held high, leading their overly proud and done-up canines, I saw John Michael Higgins and his Shih Tzu prancing along. And it didn’t help that John O’Hurley (aka Mr. Peterman) was the announcer. Who can take him seriously? He gave Fred Willard a run for his money.
Day Two: What better to do on a Saturday night? Channel surf and land on PBS’ “This Land Is Your Land: The Folk Years II.” Which wouldn’t have been that bad had it not followed so closely on the heels of “A Mighty Wind”. When The Serendipity Singers launched into their music, I just couldn’t contain my amazement at how corny (sorry folkies, I’m not meaning to offend) these groups are in real life. I mean, one guy actually “knocked” on another guy’s head when the lyrics called for it, and there was a deep-voiced guy who did the special sound effects. The Mighty Wind team nailed this stuff. Scary.
I’ll never look at dog shows or folk music quite the same way.