Happy Little Trees

I love Bob Ross. I know that he's embraced by a subculture of hipsters who ironically praise his sing-songy voice and hippy afro. I'd like to think my fondness for Bob, however, has more to do with his quaintly-honest sincerity. There is no mocking in my admiration.

In a half-hour, Bob Ross turned a blank canvas into a serene woodland tableau. Watching him do it is like watching a magic trick you've seen before. You know what's going to happen, you know how it's done. But it's amazing every time.

The paintings themselves are, of course, amusingly pedestrian; they're the sort of works you can find at the Starving Artist's Expo at the hotel out by airport. You're far more likely to find me getting lost in a Rothko or one of Gerhard Richter's Ice paintings. But as much as I dislike Bob's product, I do have respect for his process.

The real pleasure is Bob himself. The narration is not so much a lesson in painting as it is Bob's stream-of-consciousness ramblings. Listening to his soothing voice hypnotizes me into a mellowness so profound I want nothing more than to lay my head on his beautiful nimbus of hair and zen out for the rest of the afternoon.

Logorama

Did you see the short film Logorama? No, of course you didn't because God only knows where they show short films.

Hey, I know where you can see short films. The internets! It's like the whole place is designed especially for showing short films! Perfect!

Except, you can't see Logorama there either because Autour de Minuit Productions has removed it from sites that have posted the whole movie. You can see about 45 seconds of it on their website.

So, congrats, Autour de Minuit. You have utterly failed to distribute an Oscar winning film. It's really a shame, because the film is delightful. I know because I watched it online.

Don't ask, don't tell

On Monday, I wore out the batteries in my remote control by flipping between the morning shows to catch all the Oscar coverage. It's always hard for me to let go of award season after the Oscars.

On the Today Show, Meredith Vieira and Al Roker interviewed some of the makers of The Hurt Locker. At the end of the interview, she alluded to a embrace co-stars Anthony Mackie and Jeremy Renner shared on the set of the Today Show the morning the nominations were announced. The day after the awards were handed out she asked “You hugged him pretty tight, I must say, in the moment. There was a lot of man lovin’ goin’ on last night. Do I have reason to be worried?”

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Kudos to Al Roker for his incredulous reply “Why would you say that?!” Indeed, Meredith, why would you say that? What exactly is it that you are “worried” about?

Well, today, GLAAD posted a statement from Vieira in which she sincerely apologizes: 

During an interview with the cast of the hurt locker on Monday, I turned to actor Anthony Mackie and made a joke about “man hugging” in reference to a hug he and fellow actor Jeremy Renner had shared a few weeks earlier on our air. It was meant to be lighthearted, but some were offended by what they believed to be a homophobic comment. That was never my intent, but that doesn’t matter. Words are extremely powerful and should never be chosen lightly, even in a lighthearted moment. I apologize to any and all that I offended. My support of the gay and lesbian community is longstanding and well documented. It has not and will never waver.

It's a nice statement – none of the usual “I'm sorry if you were offended” bullshit you usually see from celebrities. I accept her at her word; I really don't believe that Meredith Vieira is prejudiced.

Unfortunately, she's not the real problem here. That question wasn't asked as a spur-of-the-moment time-filler. The producers had the original clip all cued up and ready to roll. It wasn't a lighthearted moment; it had been decided ahead of time that Meredith would ask the question. The problem is that while Meredith isn't prejudiced, the producers believe that their audience is. They think that people care about Anthony Mackie's sex-life. They believe that titillating questions about Jeremy Renner's sexual orientation will boost their ratings. And it's entirely possible that they're correct – after all, you should never underestimate the stupidity of the American public.

In any case, I'm glad I wasn't the only person who was offended by the comment and I'm glad Meredith apologized. And I'm very glad that award season is over so I can go back to not watching morning shows.