2016 - Good Night Gracie
Okay everyone, I think we can all agree that 2016 was a difficult year (it sucked). We lost Prince, Bowie and Cohen. All the ice is melting and the weather is going crazy. Animals are vanishing at an alarming rate. The news is all fake… or is it? We seem as a country to have accepted that Russia should arbitrate our elections and the half of congress that kept saying Obama was weak on Russia now seems to think that the Putin is the best thing since the invention of the dumpling. It all makes my brain hurt, yet, even with all that, life seems to be going on. So let us look back at the year that gave us so much heartburn.
Well first, Westworld. Pretty damn good. I admit I don’t seem to have the intellect to follow all the time changes and I’m not always sure exactly what is happening on all these multiple story lines, and who is human and who isn’t, but I love the acting. You have to be thankful that old craggy men can still get a job in Hollywood because there is old wrinkled up Ed Harris getting to be the lead when there isn’t a single woman in the show over 30, not even an old shop owner. So sexism is alive and well in 2016 even if 2016 is a fake world set in the 1800s. So there is that. Also, as I keep warning everyone, the robots will soon take over and kill us all, so take heed in Westworld. You can always go back and watch Battlestar Galactica for reenforcement.
The 7th game of the world series was phantasmagorical. A nail biting tie in the 9th. A 10th inning win. It was Epic. That game was everything that a baseball game should be. I’ll admit that I still hate the Cubs but I’m glad they won.
I kept thinking about when I was a kid and the Mets won the ’69 world series. I was so excited. It is the best(est) memory of my childhood. It must have been hellish to grow up a Cubs fan waiting for over 100 years for them to win. It had to be hard to be raised in a town that never had a winner, except for every other sports team in the city, and Oprah. Excruciating, I would imagine, year after year to see everyone else win. Like that year, what year was it again? Oh yeah. I believe it was 1969, when the Mets trailed the Cubs the whole season but then in September the Mets surprised everyone and landed up winning the World Series. They were the “Amazin’ Mets” that year. I still love thinking about it, so screw the Cubs. I always hated them. Did I mention that?
There is a new Star Wars movie. I don’t care. Much more excited about the next Guardians of the Galaxy .
There was the Rio Olympics. That was pretty much a snoozer. All that talk about the sewage in the bay. Yuck! And speaking of bad smells, I prefer my Olympics Matt Lauer free. Others would wish for a Bob Costas free Olympics. This Olympic was just too full of Matt Lauer. I’d trade Matt Lauer for one good vaulting event, or even a below average badminton match. To be clear, I am a believer in reduced Matt Lauer WHENEVER possible.
On a personal note, I did a TEDTalk and that was especially exciting. I was feeling like a really big deal during the 4 day event. I had a name tag with the word “speaker” right on it, and I met some of the most creative and forward thinking people you’d ever hope to meet, all doing amazing things. Then, the first night I was home, my cat, The PowerCat, chose to make his comment on my quasi-celebrity status by peeing on me and my bed at 4:30am. He might have been annoyed that I was gone or he might have just been saying, “TED, SCHMED. You are still just a guy that cleans my litter box so get up and get to work”.
We had an election of some sorts but I can’t seem to comprehend the results so I’ve decided to poke my eyes out rather than read the news everyday. You might be saying to yourself, “Ted, don’t you need eyes to make art?” To that I say, “Only if you are selling art”. So make your own conclusions on all that.
I did a Lecture in Oxford and as with all travel to England I feel a level of success just to have not gotten killed crossing the street. Two years ago Anna and I went to London and though I never got hit by a car I did almost get killed because it didn’t occur to me that the bike paths also went in the opposite direction. If you ever wondered how a guy with an english accent sounds while yelling at you for being a mindless jerk after you've stepped into the oncoming bike path, I can assure you that it sounds damn more sophisticated than getting yelled at by a guy with the same script from the Bronx.
Mick Jagger had his 8th kid in 2016 with a 32 year old. He is 73. Just let that sink in. Just visualize it for a second. He then left that (old) 32 year old mother of this new kid for the new younger woman, a 27 year old dancer. So about the visualization, just imagine a 27 year old with a 73 year old Mick. Really visualize it, in all circumstances. I know, it is Mick so it is easier to understand than with most anyone else on Earth, but still, I need to puke just a little.
And while I am on the Mick train, Mick’s ex wife Jerry Hall married Rupert Murdoch this year. How the hell does that happen? How do you go from Mick Jagger to Rupert Murdoch? Love might be blind but money is apparently 20/20.
I was part of a big show in NYC this year at St. John the Divine Cathedral. I grew up in NY and never once went to St. John’s and it’s sitting right there only about 20 mile from where I grew up. St. John is twice as large at Notre Dame and I’ve been there at least 20 times so I figure that I could have saved about $30,000 on airfare over the years by just going to St. Johns. I would have seen twice as much church for a lot less cash. As Jethro Bodine used to say, “Ciphering is hard”, but I think those numbers pencil out. I’ve also never been to the Cloisters. I know I should go and finally see it, and the fact that I didn’t, yet I went to MOMA two times this year points out what a crappy ex New Yorker I am at heart. I guess that is why I live in Los Angeles.
Ghostbusters was pretty darn good and funny so suck it all you sexist movie critics. The new Ghostbustermobile however was not nearly as good as the original. Nothing beats a ’59 caddy.
I also had a show in DC this year and got to meet a lot of veterans and active military folks. I spoke at the USO, Walter Reed and other military locations. You might not know this but army personnel walk around Walter Reed Hospital in camouflage that is almost the same color as the paint on the hospital walls so they blend into the hospital environment. It just seems odd. It isn’t like the plague will miss them because they are in camouflage. Maybe they should dress up like giant macrophages to distract all the germs.
There were a few other highlights to 2016. Black Mirror, My show at Muzeumm, Anna and I purchased an old building that we are still fixing up, Adel singing in a car, and that little purple octopus that looks like a baby elephant that was all over the internet, that was a very good thing.
Well first, Westworld. Pretty damn good. I admit I don’t seem to have the intellect to follow all the time changes and I’m not always sure exactly what is happening on all these multiple story lines, and who is human and who isn’t, but I love the acting. You have to be thankful that old craggy men can still get a job in Hollywood because there is old wrinkled up Ed Harris getting to be the lead when there isn’t a single woman in the show over 30, not even an old shop owner. So sexism is alive and well in 2016 even if 2016 is a fake world set in the 1800s. So there is that. Also, as I keep warning everyone, the robots will soon take over and kill us all, so take heed in Westworld. You can always go back and watch Battlestar Galactica for reenforcement.
The 7th game of the world series was phantasmagorical. A nail biting tie in the 9th. A 10th inning win. It was Epic. That game was everything that a baseball game should be. I’ll admit that I still hate the Cubs but I’m glad they won.
I kept thinking about when I was a kid and the Mets won the ’69 world series. I was so excited. It is the best(est) memory of my childhood. It must have been hellish to grow up a Cubs fan waiting for over 100 years for them to win. It had to be hard to be raised in a town that never had a winner, except for every other sports team in the city, and Oprah. Excruciating, I would imagine, year after year to see everyone else win. Like that year, what year was it again? Oh yeah. I believe it was 1969, when the Mets trailed the Cubs the whole season but then in September the Mets surprised everyone and landed up winning the World Series. They were the “Amazin’ Mets” that year. I still love thinking about it, so screw the Cubs. I always hated them. Did I mention that?
There is a new Star Wars movie. I don’t care. Much more excited about the next Guardians of the Galaxy .
There was the Rio Olympics. That was pretty much a snoozer. All that talk about the sewage in the bay. Yuck! And speaking of bad smells, I prefer my Olympics Matt Lauer free. Others would wish for a Bob Costas free Olympics. This Olympic was just too full of Matt Lauer. I’d trade Matt Lauer for one good vaulting event, or even a below average badminton match. To be clear, I am a believer in reduced Matt Lauer WHENEVER possible.
On a personal note, I did a TEDTalk and that was especially exciting. I was feeling like a really big deal during the 4 day event. I had a name tag with the word “speaker” right on it, and I met some of the most creative and forward thinking people you’d ever hope to meet, all doing amazing things. Then, the first night I was home, my cat, The PowerCat, chose to make his comment on my quasi-celebrity status by peeing on me and my bed at 4:30am. He might have been annoyed that I was gone or he might have just been saying, “TED, SCHMED. You are still just a guy that cleans my litter box so get up and get to work”.
We had an election of some sorts but I can’t seem to comprehend the results so I’ve decided to poke my eyes out rather than read the news everyday. You might be saying to yourself, “Ted, don’t you need eyes to make art?” To that I say, “Only if you are selling art”. So make your own conclusions on all that.
I did a Lecture in Oxford and as with all travel to England I feel a level of success just to have not gotten killed crossing the street. Two years ago Anna and I went to London and though I never got hit by a car I did almost get killed because it didn’t occur to me that the bike paths also went in the opposite direction. If you ever wondered how a guy with an english accent sounds while yelling at you for being a mindless jerk after you've stepped into the oncoming bike path, I can assure you that it sounds damn more sophisticated than getting yelled at by a guy with the same script from the Bronx.
Mick Jagger had his 8th kid in 2016 with a 32 year old. He is 73. Just let that sink in. Just visualize it for a second. He then left that (old) 32 year old mother of this new kid for the new younger woman, a 27 year old dancer. So about the visualization, just imagine a 27 year old with a 73 year old Mick. Really visualize it, in all circumstances. I know, it is Mick so it is easier to understand than with most anyone else on Earth, but still, I need to puke just a little.
And while I am on the Mick train, Mick’s ex wife Jerry Hall married Rupert Murdoch this year. How the hell does that happen? How do you go from Mick Jagger to Rupert Murdoch? Love might be blind but money is apparently 20/20.
I was part of a big show in NYC this year at St. John the Divine Cathedral. I grew up in NY and never once went to St. John’s and it’s sitting right there only about 20 mile from where I grew up. St. John is twice as large at Notre Dame and I’ve been there at least 20 times so I figure that I could have saved about $30,000 on airfare over the years by just going to St. Johns. I would have seen twice as much church for a lot less cash. As Jethro Bodine used to say, “Ciphering is hard”, but I think those numbers pencil out. I’ve also never been to the Cloisters. I know I should go and finally see it, and the fact that I didn’t, yet I went to MOMA two times this year points out what a crappy ex New Yorker I am at heart. I guess that is why I live in Los Angeles.
Ghostbusters was pretty darn good and funny so suck it all you sexist movie critics. The new Ghostbustermobile however was not nearly as good as the original. Nothing beats a ’59 caddy.
I also had a show in DC this year and got to meet a lot of veterans and active military folks. I spoke at the USO, Walter Reed and other military locations. You might not know this but army personnel walk around Walter Reed Hospital in camouflage that is almost the same color as the paint on the hospital walls so they blend into the hospital environment. It just seems odd. It isn’t like the plague will miss them because they are in camouflage. Maybe they should dress up like giant macrophages to distract all the germs.
There were a few other highlights to 2016. Black Mirror, My show at Muzeumm, Anna and I purchased an old building that we are still fixing up, Adel singing in a car, and that little purple octopus that looks like a baby elephant that was all over the internet, that was a very good thing.