I’ve just run-up a post in which some denizens of Silicon Valley lose sleep worrying that the AI Apocalypse is advancing on us. And it is doing so through their own efforts. Is this Prospero and Caliban, Morbius and the Monster from the Id? I’ve written about that as well. Then there’s the infamous Oscar’s slap – a consequence of Independence Day, or MIB 1-2-3? You see what is happening, don’t you?
Or don’t you? I don’t, not yet. What of this, Lady Gaga and Liza Minelli?
The moment recalled another interaction, just a week earlier, at the Academy Awards. That entire evening has been overshadowed by a single event, but even when that gossip was fresh, some attention still lingered on a surprise appearance by Liza Minnelli, who presented the award for Best Picture alongside Lady Gaga. They, too, simply materialized at the side of the stage. Minnelli was using a wheelchair, and as their own standing ovation ebbed, Gaga said: “You see that? The public, they love you.”
“Oh, yes, but what am I — I don’t understand,” Minnelli responded brightly, her hands trembling as she shuffled through the cards she was meant to read. “I got it,” Gaga said. She took Minnelli’s hand, lauding her as “a true show business legend” and recognizing the 50th anniversary of “Cabaret,” for which Minnelli won Best Actress. When it was time for Minnelli to speak again, she seemed to falter at the task of introducing nominees. Again, Gaga leaned over: “I got you,” she whispered, her voice audible over the telecast even as the camera cut away. “I know,” Minnelli responded.
Then we have the war in Ukraine, unfolding day by day, before the world. It’s the weirdest war I’ve seen in my lifetime. I was alive during the “police action” in Korea, but I was too young to remember it, though I experienced a refracted version years later through M*A*S*H. Wasn’t Don Draper a Korean War vet? Didn’t he end up on a hill with a smile on his face?
Perhaps he was listening to Charlie Haden’s bass solo in “Ramblin’” (it starts at about 4:07):
I had a dream last night. Someone gave me a check for $1732. I woke up before I was able to deposit it.
Tell me a story.
Sing me a song.
All night,
All night long.
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