RIP Pete Seeger, The Sherman Thing, Award Failure

 "The View From the Phlipside" is a media commentary program airing on WRFA-LP, Jamestown NY.  It can be heard Monday through Friday just after 8 AM and 5 PM.  The following are scripts which may not exactly match the aired version of the program.  Mostly because the host may suddenly choose to add or subtract words at a moments notice.  WRFA-LP is not responsible for any such silliness or the opinions expressed.  You can listen to a live stream of WRFA or find a podcast of this program at wrfalp.com.  Copyright 2013-14 by Jay Phillippi.  All Rights Reserved.  You like what you see?  Drop me a line and we can talk.

Program scripts from week of January 27, 2014


My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, radio, the movies and more.  I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View from the Phlipside. 

The Sherman Thing                                                                                            

Can I just say that I really wanted to avoid this topic?  It’s been beaten to just about death and I am seriously tired of it.  The problem is that while a lot of time and energy has been spent on the surface issues there are some underlying ones that I think are getting missed.

So let’s talk about Seattle Seahawk defensive back Richard Sherman.

Yeah, I know how you feel.

Sherman has been the center of a firestorm after remarks he made to Fox Sports sideline reporter Erin Andrews about 49ers wide receiver Michael Crabtree after Seattle beat San Francisco in the playoffs.  To be honest the comments themself aren’t worth worrying about.  It’s trash talk which is a constant in football.  Sherman made himself look immature and classless but that’s really the worst of it.

Some folks took to calling Sherman a “thug”.  Listen to the comments then take a look at Richard Sherman.  Then tell me if that comes more from his smack talk rant or the fact that he’s a black man.  I know which side I come down on.

For the Sherman defenders who claim that the comments were made in the heat of battle I would recommend they look at the timeline a little closer.  Plus I would note that Sherman said the same things two days before the game in conversations with the broadcast team AND said them almost word for word just a minute before the Fox interview when he spoke with a reporter for a Spanish language network.

So where does this really lead us?

For me it’s that not only do people in the spotlight need to be aware of what comes out of their mouths but that we the media consumers need to be careful about what we think we hear.

  Being spontaneous and energetic is fine just as long as you don’t mind being treated as a sideshow.  Sherman, who is better spoken than a great many of his professional colleagues, has been showing his thoughtful off field persona in a lot of interviews since.

In the end I think he’s going to be fine.  The lesson for the rest of us is to avoid melting down quite so quickly.


Award Failure                                                                                                    

I stopped watching any of the awards shows about 15 years ago.  Too often they are bloated, overly scripted snore fests.  It’s just easier to wait till the next morning, read the winners list and check to see if someone did something idiotic (fairly sure bet) or something really great (far less likely).  The worst are the ones where the celebrity presenters are so obviously and painfully reading the jokes prior to doing the only thing we really care about.  Announcing the winners.

Then you get the post award show sturm und drang of criticism.  The host/hosts are often at the center of this along with timing of the show or acceptance speeches.  I think the most recent Golden Globes may have reached a new low in this category when hosts Amy Poehler and Tina Fey were criticized in some circles because...they’re girls.  Yeah, some critics were upset at the lack of an X-chromosome up there cracking wise.  Spare me.

Worst of all for me though is that most of the awards shows have forgotten why they exist.  At least the traditional understanding.  They’re supposed to be about the medium, about the art form.  The Tony awards are to celebrate “excellence in Broadway theatre”.  Oscars are about the movies, television gets the Emmy, music the Grammy.  So why do the shows seem to be about so much other than that?  

It’s sketch comedy, monologues, pointless production numbers and acceptance speeches   And the acceptance speeches usually make me crazy.  I know not everyone, even actors, are actually good thinking on their feet in front of people.  So what’s wrong with just saying “I’m honored to be considered with all these great artists.  Thank you” and walking off?  Or even better, grab the trophy look out at the audience, hoist it high and yell “Yeeeeaaahhh!”.
What you end up with is this year’s Grammy show where a pre-planned two song encore featuring Trent Reznor, Dave Grohl, Lindsey Buckingham and the group Queens of the Stone Age not only got cut off they ran the credits over the top of them while an announcer talked.  Reznor felt like the music got disrespected and I agree with him.

Of course by then a handful of big name artists had already left the building.  Presumably they had what they’d come for and that wasn’t the music either.

I think I’ll keep catching the highlights on YouTube.

RIP Pete Seeger                                                                                                                       

Do you have a “bucket list”?  That’s the list of things you want to do before you “kick the bucket”.  Those great trips, exciting challenges or things to do you want to be able to say you’ve done, just once in your life.  When I woke up on Tuesday morning I discovered that an item had been removed from my personal bucket list.  Not because I’d done it in my sleep but because it was no longer possible to do.

I always wanted to meet folk singer Pete Seeger.

Sadly Pete died on Monday.

If you love music I bet you can remember the very first song you ever owned.  For my generation, that very first record.  You remember it, don’t you?  For me it was the album “Children’s Concert at Town Hall”.  I grew up in a family where folk music was what we listened to.  My dad played some on the guitar, there were Peter, Paul and Mary, the Mamas and the Papas and the Kingston Trio albums that we listened to.  And I remember that at Kindergarten age I got this Pete Seeger album as a present.  Of all the songs on that record there are a few that have been part of my life.  “Michael Row the Boat Ashore”, “Fifteen Miles on the Erie Canal”.  But there was one song that I would still sing bits of when my daughter was little and she always wanted to hear it all.  That was a silly story song called “Abi Yoyo”.  If you ever wonder how people like me end up doing the performance things we do this is it.  The first time I ever stood up in front of an audience and performed was when I acted out the story of Abi Yoyo for my kindergarten class.

Pete Seeger has held a central place in my love of music ever since.  When I grew up I discovered his real place as a pioneer in the folk music movement of the 1950’s, a member of the singing group the Weavers, who were eventually blackballed.  He wrote or co-wrote several of my favorite songs “Where Have All the Flowers Gone”, “If I Had a Hammer”, and “Turn, Turn, Turn”.  He re-emerged in the ‘60s as part of the protest movement.  To the end of his days he was an activist for environmental protection with special love for the Hudson River Valley.

There are few artists that can stand next to him for dedication, influence and breadth of accomplishment.

There are none who can take his place in my heart.

Pete Seeger was 94 years old.

Call that the View From the Phlipside