danajohnhill.org | Hard Times Come Again No More

8:17 PM – I don’t know who this guy is, and I cannot identify him because my stupid TV puts a big line across his face.  But he did mention that John McCain ad that says “America is worse off today than four years ago”.  When I first heard that ad, what instantly came to mind was: “But John McCain supported the reelection of George W. Bush; he’s partly responsible for why we are worse off!”

8:20 PM – Ah, it was the house majority leader.

8:21 PM – Right now is a lady, Pauline Beck, who is a home health nurse in Oakland.  Apparently Barack Obama joined her on a day of work caring for an infirm old man.  I know that that is hard, thankless work that pays next to nothing, and I am sure this is a fine lady.  But she’s just reading her speech off a prompter, and it seems much less heartfelt, even if they are her own words.  They should have just filmed her in a casual setting and showed the tape.  Again, I am not blaming her–it’s probably the first time she’s ever had to speak in public–but the people running this show need to get a clue.

8:26 PM – This woman from the Service Workers International Union is shrill and annoying as all get-out.  The Democrats are never going to convince any of the undecided voters with these screechy, whiny people.

8:28 PM – Apparently people from Arizona are Arizonans.  That’s a weird word.  So is “Idahoans”.

10:31 PM – If Hillary Clinton doesn’t start speaking right away everyone in America is going to go to bed and sleep through it.

10:42 PM – This had better wow me, or all the hype was just that.

10:56 PM – Aha! Some meat!  “Were you in it just for me?”  That’s is the question!

11:03 PM – “…Twin Cities…hard to tell apart”.  There’s the big soundbite of the night.

11:07 PM – Well, Hillary Clinton was never my idea of the ideal candidate, but that was an excellent speech and it did what it needed to do.

Filed under: Current Events, Politics on August 26th, 2008 | No Comments »

8:24 PM – Nancy Pelosi is the least inspiring public speaker in the country.  Maybe her prompter was broken, but she fumbled her words, and even when she could get them out, she spoke them without conviction.  Even if she is a brilliant Speaker of the House behind the scenes–and I don’t think she is–whenever I see her on camera I instantly feel that she is part of the reason that Democratic Party is held in such disregard by so many people.  She seems feckless and artificial.

8:32 PM – Jimmy Carter is a great American, and the living president I most wish I could meet in person.

8:40 PM – Barack Obama’s sister doesn’t share his gift for inspiring rhetoric.

8:44 PM – Jesse Jackson, Jr. is a good speaker, and probably less crazy than his father.

9:30 PM – Ken Burns’ movie about Senator Kennedy was great.  It’s also good to see the senator feeling up to speechmaking.

9:35 PM – Kennedy is a titan.

10:50 PM – Mrs. Obama seems pretty freakin’ smart.

Filed under: Current Events, Politics on August 25th, 2008 | No Comments »

Today is the first day of the Fall 2008 semester, and already I am met with a surprise.  It seems that my lofty goal of getting a head start on my reading for a course I’m taking about the Eighteenth Century novel has been thwarted.  I had been reading Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, but I now find we will instead read that author’s Roxana.  Such is life.

An observation: of the thirty-one students in class this morning, only ten were male.

Filed under: Literature and Books, School on August 25th, 2008 | No Comments »

So, the games of the 29th Olympiad are finished, and, were it not for my broken TV they’d have been the best I’ve ever seen.  The extent of NBC’s coverage was astonishing, and though I might quibble a bit about what they chose to promote in prime time, and what was on TV and what wasn’t, the generous online coverage almost renders that point moot.  There is almost no event I really wanted to see that I couldn’t, and this is the first Olympic games that that has been the case.

The last event I watched was rhythmic gymnastics, which I love, but which some people refuse to call a sport.  Suit yourself.  My only disappointment with the event this year was the absence of the ball (each Olympics features four of the five possible apparatus, and this year ball was out, and ball is my favorite, rope my least favorite).

The biggest story may have been Michael Phelps’ gold rush, and May and Walsh’s victory in beach volleyball was expected, but there were also surprises, like the American athlete who won the decathlon, and the American team losing softball, plus the wrestler rejecting his bronze medal, and the martial artist kicking the judge in the head.

All in all, it was a great Olympics.  I can’t wait until Winter 2010!

Filed under: Current Events, Sports, Television on August 25th, 2008 | No Comments »

At last: rhythmic gymnastics on TV right now!

Filed under: Sports, Television on August 23rd, 2008 | No Comments »