The Opposite Vision

"I was just 34 years old and I was still wandering in a haze

I was wondering why everyone I met seemed like they were lost in a maze"

Pete Townshend-from Slit Skirts

I've been thinking this weekend about something that is very strange. What happens when someone you admire and respect does something you think went too far. On top of that , it is something most journalists really praised him for. OK what I'm talking about is Jon Stewart skewering Jim Cramer on his show. It is very PC to just think what Stewart did was fine. But, he really turned Cramer into a fall guy for all of CNBC and the money mess. I wound up admiring Cramer for letting himself be skewered like that. I mean he had to know that was going to happen to him. Yet he came on anyway. One of my all time pet peeves is people who can't say there wrong, when they are. Society actually encourages people not to take responsibility for screwing up. What I think is a virtue in someone else, is seen as a weakness especially in my business, entertainment.

So now I admire Cramer for having guts to take a public flogging. I always found his show obnoxious and The Daily Show amazing, especially this year. It's a strange world indeed sometimes.

On a musical subject I'm listening to Elvis Costello's "Kojak Variety". It's a CD I never really paid attention to when it came out. But, anything with James Burton on it is amazing. He's got to be one of the most overlooked guitar players ever, well him and Ry Cooder. I've never heard anything those guys have done that isn't really good. Very rare to say that about anyone or any group.

Anyway "Kojak" is something I appreciate a lot more now than when it came out. Elvis has such great taste for covers. I think the key for me to this CD if I really think about it, is seeing Elvis's appreciation for this kind of stuff on "Spectacle". It's just funny how we miss stuff from time to time. Maybe it's all just timing. Like poor Jim Cramer on The Daily Show.