![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The above is not, I should mention, the actual title of the GA weblog piece. Tragically, I got alternatively inspired after I posted. (You wuz warned. Run away now. This time, we got word pictures!)
grim amusements / January 29, 2009 / so long, gov. greathair:
I do wonder about the overwhelming "ends justifies the means" issues apparent. That really doesn't seem like a particularly good precedent to set for a pseudo-legal proceeding with an all too legal result. I'm not sure what else they could have done, though.
Well, then.
Imagine, if you will, say, House prosecutor David Ellis or someone similar, declaiming on the Senate floor. With, perhaps, Mr Justice whoever it was and the prosecutor and defense ... well, there wasn't a defense, was there? Just imagine a few extra senators standing behind him. Senatorettes, if you will. Stylishly stout men in bad suits, pants legs rolled up to show a little skin because one must have a sense of style about such things.
Mr Prosecutor begins his closing statement at the podium, Senatorettes ranged behind him...
Mr Prosecutor now addresses Gov Greathair directly, for dramatic effect!
(Senatorettes come up behind the singer and throw a cape over him, as he starts offstage, apparently sobbing. Then he throws off the cape and comes back to the stand, full of fire and pomade!)
(The lights drop and a spotlight shines on his earnest and passionate face as he declaims:)
(Senatorettes and Mr Prosecutor skip merrily and inappropriately out of the Statehouse to rousing and inappropriate cheers as the 59-0 vote total flashes behind them, Las Vegas casino style. Exeunt Omnes. Curtain.)
And, just for the musical reference (the song starts at about the 3:54 mark, but the one that comes before it is pretty cool, and mildly scandalous for its day):
If you like, you can imagine that just as Mr Prosecutor stands to deliver his closing argument, the lights drop, plunging the Assembly chamber into complete darkness! And then when they come back up, he's wearing that stunning evening gown! (But without the white neck thing.) For a more straightforward version of the song, you can hear audio only over here; I just happen to like that song with a bit more pace on it. And, I confess, I grafted the end of the Commitments' version at the end, purely for the extra drama of it all. (You may imagine someone throwing underwear at Mr Prosecutor, if you must; I couldn't possibly.)
I did at first think very briefly about using the Marilyn Monroe song from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, but that one started to turn out really vicious, even for me. Mr Prosecutor started smiling about Gov Greathair going off to jail, and it just went from there. Also, I couldn't quite make the choreography work.
grim amusements / January 29, 2009 / so long, gov. greathair:
...impeachment only requires the procedure and the verdict; it does not in fact require actual evidence of guilt.
I confess, I am rather baffled as to how his plan to import low cost drugs from Canada could possibly have been used against him in this trial. It was only ever a plan, and it got shot down by the federal government, and then it was done. It was also very very public; it wasn't as though it was a stealth import plan. I'm also rather confused as to what the bird flu vaccine had to do with anything. Money gets misspent in government all the time; if we impeached everyone responsible, there'd be nobody left. (Say, there's an idea...) The federal allegations were used against him, despite the fact that the federal government refused to allow the Assembly access to most of the evidence and witnesses in that case, so that there was no proof, only more allegations. (Seriously, have a look at the audio and transcripts the feds allowed to be used against him. There's no there there. Not even a tiny little bit of thereness. Not even a scrap of thereness. It aspires to be evidence, but it completely misses.) I do think it was overall a rather shameful misuse of the process ... but also probably a necessary misuse....
I do wonder about the overwhelming "ends justifies the means" issues apparent. That really doesn't seem like a particularly good precedent to set for a pseudo-legal proceeding with an all too legal result. I'm not sure what else they could have done, though.
Well, then.
Imagine, if you will, say, House prosecutor David Ellis or someone similar, declaiming on the Senate floor. With, perhaps, Mr Justice whoever it was and the prosecutor and defense ... well, there wasn't a defense, was there? Just imagine a few extra senators standing behind him. Senatorettes, if you will. Stylishly stout men in bad suits, pants legs rolled up to show a little skin because one must have a sense of style about such things.
Mr Prosecutor begins his closing statement at the podium, Senatorettes ranged behind him...
Well...
You know he took our hearts
And broke them apart
Why did this trial, Blago
Have to ever start
You know he took our state,
and threw it away
He won't deserve
Your votes today
Well a bye bye, Blago
(bye bye bye)
Mr Prosecutor now addresses Gov Greathair directly, for dramatic effect!
Well, we thought your love
Was oh so true
All you wanted was more favors
And more graft for you
You know you took our state,
and threw it away
Don't care if you want
Our votes today
Well a bye bye, Blago
(bye bye bye)
Well, your seat was
More costly
than we knew
Too late now
to beg us, wow
We tell you right now, you're through!
Well, you said that you
loved us more that day
And you'd work so hard
we'd love you that way
But you took our state,
and threw it away
You'll never get
Our votes today
Well a bye bye, Blago
(bye bye bye)
Your love was
More costly
than we knew
You cursed and
then you took
We tell you right now, we're through!
Well you said that you
loved us more that day
And you'd work so hard, Hot Rod
we'd love you that way
But then you tried to sell,
that Senate seat
And now the law
You'll have to greet
Well a bye bye, Blago
(bye bye bye)
(Senatorettes come up behind the singer and throw a cape over him, as he starts offstage, apparently sobbing. Then he throws off the cape and comes back to the stand, full of fire and pomade!)
Well, a-bye-bye, Blago
Oh, bye-bye, Blago
No, we don't want you no more
Don't need your love
No, we don't want you, Blago
(The lights drop and a spotlight shines on his earnest and passionate face as he declaims:)
Well, a-goooood
Bye
Blago
Bay-ay-ay-ay-beeeeeee!
(Senatorettes and Mr Prosecutor skip merrily and inappropriately out of the Statehouse to rousing and inappropriate cheers as the 59-0 vote total flashes behind them, Las Vegas casino style. Exeunt Omnes. Curtain.)
And, just for the musical reference (the song starts at about the 3:54 mark, but the one that comes before it is pretty cool, and mildly scandalous for its day):
If you like, you can imagine that just as Mr Prosecutor stands to deliver his closing argument, the lights drop, plunging the Assembly chamber into complete darkness! And then when they come back up, he's wearing that stunning evening gown! (But without the white neck thing.) For a more straightforward version of the song, you can hear audio only over here; I just happen to like that song with a bit more pace on it. And, I confess, I grafted the end of the Commitments' version at the end, purely for the extra drama of it all. (You may imagine someone throwing underwear at Mr Prosecutor, if you must; I couldn't possibly.)
I did at first think very briefly about using the Marilyn Monroe song from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, but that one started to turn out really vicious, even for me. Mr Prosecutor started smiling about Gov Greathair going off to jail, and it just went from there. Also, I couldn't quite make the choreography work.
Tags:
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
Ah, but you should have seen my magnum opurt. The very first song parody (or parodies) I ever did. "Diana: An operetta in three acts". Based largely on press coverage of the Royals, which was, for some reason, annoying the snot out of me that summer; I was also writing a lot more generally than I do now. A musical pastiche of Evita, Kiss of the Spiderwoman, and Phantom of the Opera, with interpolations from elsewhere as needed. (Fergie's wedding march was "Hello, Dolly", of course. She was actually by far the most fun to write.) Did the whole thing in a week. And then Diana died two days after I was done, so the whole thing never saw the light of day. I may be juvenile and tasteless, but I'm only rarely relentlessly insensitive. (I will admit the eternal funeral coverage very nearly brought out the worst in me, though.)
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
As a small example of tone: the Phantom of the Opera title song became "The Evil Queen of Windsor", sung by Fergie with the princes as background singers as Mumsy The Queen cut up all Fergie's credit cards in front of her. That one was prompted by the nonstop coverage of the Queen actually taking away Fergie's credit cards because she was spending something like 30,000 pounds a month on them. (To be honest, I kept imagining more Carol Burnett as the Queen (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-cnBGMMmCI) rather than the actual Queen.) Mumsy kept saying, "Scream, spendthrift Fergie! Scream!" in that squeaky yet plummy voice and ... well. You get the idea.