quietly passionate

john muriello is a dear old friend and also a long time iowa city, iowa resident ("i teach voice at the u of iowa. been here ten years. it's a nice place to live, believe it or not.")

shortly before the iowa caucuses, i asked john for a few impressions of the presidential race.

TC: what's your take on the caucus process.
JM: the caucuses are a great idea and process because they're as grass roots as you can get - people gathering in a room, talking ideas, issues, duking it out, then choosing a candidate. the democratic process involves more of that than does the republican, which is more like a secret ballot thing after only some brief stump speeches by candidate representatives. but the people that show up for the caucuses are generally fired up about politics. as fired up as an iowan can get.

TC: will you participate? have you before?
JM: i couldn't go this year, because I was at a rehearsal (crap), but i did the last two. the 2004 caucus was really good, by the way, exciting, empowering. all about defeating the current moron in office, in spite of the dismally disappointing outcome.

TC: are the caucuses a big deal in your world?
JM: it is a big deal among my friends and colleagues. people are quietly passionate about the process, and understandably passionate about change in our government.

TC: have you been to hear any of the candidates speak?
JM: i didn't hear any candidates speak, which is sort of damning on my part, since they seemed to come through iowa city a lot. a lot. in the past several months.

TC: what's your view of the "momentum" heading out of iowa?
JM: momentum. who knows. iowa is a sort of island, and the country is diverse enough that at least the democratic candidate is up for grabs, and will be for a while. i have to say i like obama a lot, and i like his upbeat message of change - how that will pan out in details remains to be seen. hillary would be both a formidable and viscious opponent to whatever republican they come up with, and potentially a divisive figure on the whole political front, since the republicans hate her so much.

cau-kiss pt. ll

awwww! if you read any of this post, you'll wanna see this video. i mean really, what could be more adorable than chris matthews blushing?! (still, i'm sure he wishes the embrace had been from obama.)

UPDATE / 11:36 pm -- here's the video:

edward in washington

that's my friend wallace acton in an enormous production of christopher marlowe's "edward ll" at washington d.c's shakespeare theater. the production closed today, but we were lucky enough to see his performance last night, and hang out after with wally and his partner, my good pal ben (who has his own skit coming up.)

"...i must be hopeful."

"i'm a black guy running for president named barack obama.
i must be hopeful."

if you didn't see it, watch this. take the time to watch the whole thing.
(it's about 14 minutes.)

it's worth it.

cau-kiss

this brilliant tidbit moments ago, from msnbc's chris matthews (referring to his msnbc cohort david gregory) -- "he's been there, he's seen it, he knows it, he's part of it!"

puke.

matthews is so excited that barack obama has won the iowa caucuses (or is he more excited that hillary clinton didn't win?) that it's a good thing obama is not in the same room with him or there might just be some smoochin' goin' on.

UPDATE / 10:13 pm -- so, i haven't turned it off yet. and matthews is practically foaming at the mouth now, claiming hillary's upcoming address in iowa will be the clinton machine at it's best. "i've been there, i know it, i've seen it..."

wait.

UPDATE / 1:08 pm -- i'm not the only one to notice the drool from matthews.

UPDATE / 01.04.08 -- YIKES! matthews salivation-fest continues tonight, on hardball (about obama's great line this morning: "this feels good. this feels like i imagined when i was talking to my kindergarten teacher.") said matthews: "that's jack kennedy stuff! great sarcasm!" ohh barraaack!? mmmmmwaaaahhh!

best of 2007...

the end of the year means lots of lists.

the best, the biggest, the top selling, the longest running,
the loudest, the highest priced, the lowest priced, the favorite, the worst.

no list here (at least not this year.)

some of my favorite music of 2007 has not been released in the u.s. it's from a uk band called the hoosiers (i found them by nosing around on the uk itunes site -- the brits taste in music is often more to my liking than what's popular here).

the last i heard about a u.s release of their #1 u.k. album the trick to life was "soon - hold tight my man - spread the love".

i'm spreadin' the love. here's one of my favorite songs from last year:

happy tuber new year!

the united nations has declared 2008 the year of the starchy tuberous crop from the perennial plant solanum tuberosom of the solanaceae family.

UPDATE / 01.02.08 --
who knew? besides the tuber designation, 2008 is also the chinese year of the rat, and has been declared the year of the reef, the year of the micro, and finally, the year of the frog (a good omen for me, i hope.)