Play It Again, Sam

I just love retrospectives. There was a PBS special about the Best of Broadway on tonight. Not nearly long enough, but what a show. It repeated excerpts from some of the greats of Broadway doing their famous show-stopping numbers with the Boston Pops, under the batons of Arthur Fiedler, John Williams and Keith Lockhart.

There was Ray Bolger, looking and sounding old and a bit shaky at rehearsal, but young and vibrant performing his classic "Once in Love with Amy" from Where's Charlie?

Tears in my eyes watching John Riatt doing "Hey There" from Pajama Game with daughter Bonnie. Ben Vereen at his prime, Sammy Davis Jr., Pearl Baily doing "Hello Dolly," Elaine Page as Evita, Tyne Daly doing "Trouble" from Music Man and Carol King, who could sing the phone book and be riveting.

Carol Channing, of course, doing "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend."

The newer greats of broadway -- Audra MacDonald singing "When I Marry Mr. Snow" from Oklahoma and Kristin Chenowith doing "Glitter and Be Gay" from Candide. Both women are now doing TV shows ("Private Practice" for MacDonald and "Pushing Up Daisies" for Chenowith). I'd forgotten how glorious both voices were, though I listen to Chenowith all the time on my album of Wicked.

And of course there was Bernadette Peters, who not only performed , but was also a co-host of the show.

The show ended with The Big Voice herself, Ethel Merman, doing a medley of many of the songs she introduced on Broadway which have gone on to become classics.

I was so grateful that we live in an age where performances like this have been recorded and stored so that future generations can watch them and see what all the fuss was about.

The age of videotape, of course, is not quite so friendly to Politics as it has been to show business.

There is a new McCain doubletalk video over on my "Look at these Videos." McCain's problem is that he apparently never heard of YouTube or web videos. Otherwise why would he blatantly contradict himself over and over and over again? The best thing about these videos is that they are simply video clips of statements he has made, on both sides of just about every issue. Check it out....and if you haven't seen the earlier one, which I titled "McCain--Hoist on His own Petard," scroll down and check that one too.

There is another video you should watch. It's on this web site and I'd embed it, but you should read the description that goes along with it. This was taken by a woman who videotaped a group of "Yes on 8" demonstrators. The video is pretty bad, but for a group of loving folks who just want to preserve the sanctity of marriage.... well... watch the video.

I'm wondering what the children are learning about this election. The lies continue to pour forth, mostly unchecked by the people spewing them. The Yes on Prop 8 ads are hitting hard that if it doesn't pass, "gay marriage" is going to be taught in the public schools. First of all, I'm wondering what that means exactly. Does it mean that children will learn that the law allows people of the same gender to marry? Well...the law does. Are they supposed to lie? And even if Prop 8 should pass (please, dear God no!), the airwaves have been flooded with these ads of cute little kids talking about how boys can marry boys and little girls can marry princesses. The "Yes" people have spreaad that lesson far more thoroughly than schools ever would!

But the No on Prop 8 folks have now come out with an ad featuring the state Superintendent of Schools who calls the Yes ad a blatant lie and says that the proposition says nothing about "teaching gay marriage" in schools and that schools are not required to "teach marriage" at all.

Thanks goodness, good or bad, it will all be over in less than two weeks.

And just to totally confuse the tagging of this entry, may I introduce Terra.

Terra is about a year old and on about the 4th of October she was attacked by some bigger dogs and hurt pretty badly. She was taken to the vet and stitched up but the wound is still pretty nasty looking (though Ashley tells me it's MUCH better than it used to be.

She's going to be here for a bit and is settling in right now. We've agreed to keep the cone on her head until the wound heals a bit more (though I haven't figured out how to keep her from scratching it with her hind foot when I'm not watching her--Ashley is going to try to find her a sweater or t-shirt that will cover it up).

A new adventure in fostering begins. She's a sweet little thing who is trying to figure out all the changes in her life and decide who are the good guys and who are the bad guys.