Wedneday Musical Tribute and Movie Review Combined

Saturday Harrogate saw Elizabethtown for the first time. Once again, he found himself wanting to throw things at the television for the way that Hollywood continues to exploit the dangerous Town versus Country narrative in ways that A)posit them as fundamentally alien to one another (as opposed to the more reasonable proposition that they are in some ways (but not all ways!) unfamiliar and awkward in relation to one another), and that B)invariably celebrates the communal and familial integrity of country at the expense of vacuous, mendacious town. Oh how Harrogate hates the binary.

Still, the movie impressed Harrogate on a number of levels. The quiet unobtrusiveness of the directing, a willingness to let scenes play out on their own strength that almost reminds one of the Coen brothers. The high profile actors who have overacted at times in other movies, but who bring a light touch in this movie. But most of all, the surrealistic blend of mournfulness and cheer with which Elizabethtown engages the great problem of Death.

The below clip shows much of what Harrogate describes. And what a kickass use of "Freebird," in Harrogate's estimation rivalling even the song's appearance in Forrest Gump.

Wherein Harrogate Expresses Disgust for Perez Hilton, Keith Olbermann, and Others

This whole flap over Carrie Prejean is so stupid. Here are some observations:

1)Perez Hilton is a paparazzi imbecile. The Rhetorical Situation is that he was judging a Donald Trump event. First of all. And so that's where his ethos starts.

2)Perez Hilton has been all over cable television and video blogging about how Prejean shouldn't have injected politics and religion into the pageant. BUT HE ASKED THE FUCKING QUESTION. What was she supposed to do, lie? This is like the worst caricature of liberal academic "political correctness" come to light. David Horowitz must be so pleased.

3)What assholes Olbermann and this other callow, snippity paparazzi hound look like in the clip below. Can you believe that Olbermann said that the flap makes Perez Hilton look like an "intellectual titan"????? Fucking seriously.



4)Anyone who would object that Prejean is taking advantage of her newfound Rightist celebrity by touring the pundit circuit, all Harrogate can say is, so what? It was "liberal" pundits that fired the first shots, and went out of their way to demonize her for answering the question.

5)Anyone who would object that idiot rightist pundits like Hannity and Limbaugh have turned her into a hero, once again showing the banality of the Right: Harrogate acknowledges that there is some truth to this inasmuch as Prejean is clearly no political theorist.

At the same time however, again, let's remember that it was the ridiculousness of Perez Hilton that threw this into the blaring media lights. Let's also remember this:

6)Barack Obama is on record opposing gay marriage. So these people can beat up on Prejean and other opponents of gay marriage all they want. But until Olbermann and his idiot contributors are willing to speak of Obama in the same way they spoke of Prejean, Harrogate's advice for them is to grow the fuck up.

7)Harrogate is in favor of gay marriage but has long been annoyed with the desire of some to turn this into a revisitation of the 1960s civil rights struggle. It is in fact in no way like that.

I Heart Ben Affleck (and Keith Olberman)

"As you know, throughout this campaign, I have repeatedly called for Senator McCain's arrest." Awesome.

What It Means to Be an Elitist, Explained by Ben Shapiro; or, Assy McGee Award® for 10/21

For today's Assy McGee Award® Harrogate throws a link out to Ben Shapiro's probing analysis of what it means to be an elitist. Shapiro's Column, entitled "You Know You're An Elitist If....", lists off a wealth of markers whereby we can see if we are, indeed, elitists.

Verily, his rubric couldn't be more helpful in our current Rhetorical climate. Because you know, we haven't had nearly enough talk yet about Real Americans®, Real Virginians®, Real Patriots®, and the like.

Readers, what are YOUR favorites among the items Shapiro enumerates? There are so many to choose from, but Harrogate is gonna have to opt for the one that Paperweight will likely find most amusing:

You’re an elitist if you know what arugula is but don’t know who Jimmie Johnson is.