I adore David Sedaris — and listen to his audiobooks probably more than anyone — so I'd bought 2 tickets, for me and Meade. But when the rescheduled date finally came around, there was some new fine print: "All who enter building must wear a face mask and show proof of vaccination or negative COVID-19 test with a photo ID."
It's stuffy inside that mask, and it's harder to laugh out loud. Some of the laughing in an audience is social. You want to be seen to be laughing, enjoying yourself, but if your mouth isn't seen, you don't have to bother with that. You can just laugh in your head, the way you do when you're traipsing around the city, listening to David Sedaris through headphones.
But it was the second part of that fine print that was truly irksome, and that caused the seat next to me to be empty. I was willing to show my papers — photo ID and vaccination card — but Meade was not. We went up to the gate together. I thought we might both make it through, but the gatekeepers performed the duty imposed on them, and Meade stayed behind. We reunited after the show.
Sedaris did a Q&A with the audience at the end, but I didn't have the nerve to raise this issue with him. He did at one point talk about how he's been traveling since September and has seen 60 different American cities on this tour. Things are different in different places. Milwaukee, he said, was completely open. No masks. But he didn't say what he thought of the sea of masked faces he had to look at here in Madison. He did say — more generally about Covid — that 700,000 Americans had died, and — mournful pause — he didn't get to pick any of them.
About Madison, he said he'd walked along the shore of Lake Mendota and loved the sound of the ice clinking against the shoreline. Here's a video I made on December 20, 2014, recording that sound:
Posts
101 comments:
Good for Meade.
Requiring - at this late date - that people wear masks AND show proof of vaccination is totally and completely FUCKED.
But that’s his audience and they deserve it.
Well at least abstaining from voting in 2020 is not the worst decision you have made any more.
We've been told that if a woman doesn't want sex, her husband is supposed to respect that and not want sex either.
I believe that if a husband protests a performance because of the venue's performance, his wife should want to boycott it too.
Gahrie
That would be spouse abuse.
He did say — more generally about Covid — that 700,000 Americans had died
Leaving aside the snark implying that he wished he could have designated who was to die, with all the partisan handwringing we get from the media/Dems about this, it bears repeating that in the past two years in the U.S., over 5.6 MILLION people have died.
Those who will not accept the eucharist will not be admitted to the service.
Cooties.
Meade took one for team but in this case he should have put his mask on for his wife's sake. No doubt had he been in the audience Althouse would have enjoyed the talk better and the resulting conversation afterwards. The clip was nice, the sound is rather pleasant, good to go asleep with.
Good for Meade. This Coronavirus stuff will never end unless/until we take a stand.
When the trains are being loaded, he’ll avoid them. The Professor will be there to climb right on board I suspect. Of course by then it’s too late…
Don’t think I’m being overly dramatic or hyperbolic. Australia has already forced people into camps…
It’s how you boil a frog… slowly
I loved seeing the diminutive author alone on a stage
What with the desire to choose who was to die, the disdain for Christmas (music), the rejoicing at his father's death, he showed himself to be a small man indeed, a "very small man" dressed like a jester.
Oh, but it was all in fun. No it wasn't.
Imagine what you might need to do if you wanted to vote.
That tinkling of the ice in the waves on the shore is a pretty cool sound. I also like the booming of the shifting ice as the lake gets frozen over completely, which Thoreau described in Walden, I especially like that at night, it's like distant thunder. Or sometimes there are ricochet echoes in the ice, more highly pitched than the booms, and rapidly bouncing around against shores, repeating two or three times maybe as the echo comes in from different shores at different distances. I ascribe these ricochet echos to the affect of some ice fisherman's pickup truck driving out on the ice somewhere, maybe out of sight behind an island, creating hairline cracks in the foot thick ice, but I guess they could be from spontaneous cracks forming. I also like the hiss of falling snow on dried fallen leaves.
I gave a ride to two couples last night who sounded as though they got an early adult beverage start before the trip to a house get together in Buford. One guy said he thought of an idea for a T-shirt that would say, “please don’t talk to me about vaccines.” then they proceeded to talk about it for most of the 45 min trip. ☺️
Unlike Sedaris, I guess, I prefer other people to not die.
I've heard Mendota tinkling. It's magical.
"It's stuffy inside that mask, and it's harder to laugh out loud. Some of the laughing in an audience is social. You want to be seen to be laughing, enjoying yourself, but if your mouth isn't seen, you don't have to bother with that"
But hey, if we can force kids to eat lunch by themselves outside in the cold for no good reason, imposing pointless rules on old people that inhibit normal social life is a small price to pay for equity.
"But it was the second part of that fine print that was truly irksome, and that caused the seat next to me to be empty"
A man of principle. But of course principle loses to progressive power.
"He did at one point talk about how he's been traveling since September and has seen 60 different American cities on this tour. Things are different in different places. Milwaukee, he said, was completely open. No masks."
Some researcher could investigate whether any events have caused any deaths. They could even do a quasi-experimental comparative study. Hypothesis: masking in performance venues made and makes no damn difference, in particular among the vaccinated.
"He did say — more generally about Covid — that 700,000 Americans had died, and — mournful pause — he didn't get to pick any of them."
Charming. Wit! But anyway, can any of the 700K be attributed to performers performing? Did performers not performing save any lives at all? Hypothesis: persuading 10M Americans to lose 50 pounds will do more to limit Covid risk than all other measures taken together.
When the lake is booming at night like that, the locals say "She's making ice."
But he didn't say what he thought of the sea of masked faces he had to look at here in Madison.
As long as he gets his money, he probably could give two squats.
He did say — more generally about Covid — that 700,000 Americans had died, and — mournful pause — he didn't get to pick any of them.
A perfect illustration of why many people - including myself - who wouldn't walk across the street to hear his musings.
Props, Meade.
Sounds like everything worked out fine. The facility set (strict, but not unreasonable) rules and the ticket holders could choose to follow the rules or not attend. What's the problem?
Bravo Meade. It's important to stand up to the health Nazis, especially as their demands become more and more divorced from any scientific reality.
The venues is in CT are imposing the same specious requirements, so I am no longer buying tickets. Entertainment is for the sheep only, apparently. (BTW, I am vaccinated.)
"Meade took one for team but in this case he should have put his mask on for his wife's sake."
He was willing to wear the mask, just not to show his papers.
"That tinkling of the ice in the waves on the shore is a pretty cool sound. I also like the booming of the shifting ice as the lake gets frozen over completely, which Thoreau described in Walden, I especially like that at night, it's like distant thunder."
Yeah, I have a video with that too. Different time of year, of course. Click the "ice" tag and scroll. Eventually, you'll find it.
I share my medical information on my terms only. Typically that means my physician’s and dentist’s office and Red Cross. There is no show or restaurant worth bowing too when asked for any of my medical records. But that’s just me. I’ll suspend judgement on others’ choices. At least publicly. It’s been a difficult two years for everyone in every different way. Trump made some good decisions but looking back he should’ve done more to stand up against the fascism and Fauciism of the permanent state. Just like he should’ve done more to prevent the violence of January 6. But overall, things could’ve been far worse. As we are now getting to see. “Good and hard.”
I find Sedaris's appeal baffling. Like NPR's comedy shows, he's always seemed like he was playing to an audience who has heard about this thing called "humor" and decided to check it out. And I get that a lot of standup comes from a place of anger, but he's always seemed like someone who just lets out a lot of meanness and passive-aggression and calls it comedy.
I was glad to help him alleviate the lifelong pain, even if my smiling mouth could not be seen and my dear husband was stranded in the lobby.
So you enjoyed Sedaris abusing the memory of his dead father, while YOU stranded your "dear husband" in the lobby.
But I'm sure that you, and most women, would have been fine if Meade had gone in and left you stranded in the lobby.
No woman must be made to feel bad about, or responsible for, anything, ever.
I'm stealing that 'didn't get to choose' line.
"Sedaris came right out and said he was happy his father had died, and that — except for the last year of his life — his father was always mean."
Why do people feel that it is necessary to wash their dirty linen in public? He father may have been as bad as he portrayed him, but since no one in the audience is likely to have any knowledge of his father, all David Sedaris did is make himself seem small and mean.
Blogger jim5301 said...
Sounds like everything worked out fine. The facility set (strict, but not unreasonable) rules and the ticket holders could choose to follow the rules or not attend. What's the problem?
--
What woulds be unreasonable, then?
Anal swabbing in line?
Hey..as long as they're warned
Sedaris missed his chance to do a theater in the theater bit.
Big Brother wants your papers. Submit!
I like the photo I D.
That old clip was great - thanks. I miss Craig Ferguson. I don't watch late night tv - but he was good. Now all we get are corporate propagandist loyalist leftist douche-dudes.
He gave up jeans and dip - LOL. "one day at a time" .
Good for Meade, but Too bad Meade had already paid for the ticket.
i chose to not participate similarly just this last week, when a couple of my best friends and I planned to see a big annual Christmas Choir event. but the rules for attendance were posted online plain enough, so I didn't buy in, and got a full report from my buddies instead.
Sedaris came right out and said he was happy his father had died, and that — except for the last year of his life — his father was always mean. He endured his father's meanness, suffering inside for decades, but eventually got to the point where he found this big audience to laugh and confirm his perceptions of his father.
......................
He did say — more generally about Covid — that 700,000 Americans had died, and — mournful pause — he didn't get to pick any of them.
I like that you two have differing opinions on things and you give each other room. Nice.
If Sedaris was as smart as he thinks he is, he would email number one fan and famous blogger Ann Althouse and give her an exclusive interview.
But that rich self-centered lib will do no such thing.
and my dear husband was stranded in the lobby.
Meade should've brought a bucket.
I endorse Meade's comment in every respect.
What you had in Madison, we have in Illinois all the time.
We also go to West Michigan a lot. No masks in sight. No papers checked, although individual venues can set their own rules.
Sedrais is funny, I liked his books when I listen to them - in his voice -on audiobook, I can't read them.
His remarks about his father and Christmas = libtard loser. Maybe, he's never stopped being a small-town hick who thinks its "edgy" to mock Christmas or his parents. In any case, I'm sure his father was completely disappointed in him. Nobody wants a small, snarky, Gay son who jokes about being a wimp and being a bottom. That's probably the source of he meanness.
And I find it so absurd, masks AND vaccinations AND showing your papers. AND social distancing. Almost 2 years after the Pandemic. I guess everyone in Madison thinks they will live forever. Or maybe they're just too cowardly or too dumb to understand medical stats.
Good for meade. Did he forget his papers, or refuse to show them?
Meade said: "There is no show or restaurant worth bowing too when asked for any of my medical records. But that’s just me."
Me too.
"all David Sedaris did is make himself seem small and mean."
You just answered your own question.
If Meade was not told he needed to present his papers, he should have demanded a refund.
Weird Al is touring next year (I'm on his email list) and he's demanding the same thing.
I wrote back and said No can do (I can't go for that) and unsubscribed.
Pity. I enjoyed his two previous tours and this one promised a stripped-down presentation focusing on his original material.
The people who don't work in health care and don't see the ER waiting times and full ICUs keep saying there is little problem. They are children, protected from consequences by those who endure high risk and difficulty. Can you imagine someone refusing to go through the metal detector at the courthouse, insulted that everyone won't just take their word for it? No fires in my neighborhood for a year, so I can burn as I please in the back yard, whatever the fire department says, because I'm a free citizen and can make my own decisions about such things?
Debbie and I love to traipse around. And summertime Madison and Lake Mendota was wonderful traipse a few years back. Along the way we discovered Col Heg and a great American hamburger spot near his statue. In the winter we keep our traipsing to the Southern States though ice clinking against the shore sounds nice...
Debbie and I love to traipse around. And summertime Madison and Lake Mendota was wonderful traipse a few years back. Along the way we discovered Col Heg and a great American hamburger spot near his statue. In the winter we keep our traipsing to the Southern States though ice clinking against the shore sounds nice...
I hope Meade can get reimbursed. The “new fine print” indicates a change in contract not agreed to by the consumer.
We had similar requirements last Sunday for an Elvis impersonator show. Same environment, same rules. Wife didn't bring her photo ID (had her shot record). The gatekeeper let her pass. Charlottesville is more relaxed than Madison for sure.
Sedaris is a funny man, of that there is no doubt. But he is also an unhappy, somewhat mean person. I guess a result of things he went through as a child, perpetrated on him by his father among others. Still, no Christmas music for you! and being happy about your father's death and proclaiming it from both books and stage...are telling signs of a tortured soul.
His torture has been his muse for comedy and I have to confess that I find him hilarious. Still, not hilarious enough that I would have sat in an auditorium masked, and asked for my papers.
About 3 or so weeks ago I attended a hockey game in Tampa- 20,000 yelling, laughing, loud talking fans. Families, friends. All had a great time. No masks, no papers required. It is events like this, when held up against events like the Sedaris reading, that makes this entire thing seem like such a charade. The Emperor clearly has no clothes.
I'm sorry you had to sit alone, and muffle your laugh inside of your own mask. Feel glad that they didn't require 'jazz hands' to go along with it.
"I find Sedaris's appeal baffling. Like NPR's comedy shows, he's always seemed like he was playing to an audience who has heard about this thing called "humor" and decided to check it out. And I get that a lot of standup comes from a place of anger, but he's always seemed like someone who just lets out a lot of meanness and passive-aggression and calls it comedy."
He is not a standup comedian. He's written that he is not a comedian. He presents himself as a writer, not a performer (even though he is a genius at reading his own work aloud). He said last night that he hates even going on talk shows, and repeatedly pushes his sister Amy as a brilliant performer, a great comedian.
Asked to name his favorite writer or just who he's reading a lot these days, he named Jonathan Franzen's new book, "Crossroads." Then, thinking a bit more, he named Ann Patchett's book on essays "These Precious Days" and the collected letters of Patricia Highsmith.
He did say — more generally about Covid — that 700,000 Americans had died, and — mournful pause — he didn't get to pick any of them.
-----------
is he not lying by omission? wherever he lives he definitely voted for D who send people to their death in ill conceived treatment plans and locations!
Breezy, that is the position I took—I bought the ticket under terms they later changed without my agreement. I didn’t ask for a refund, I asked to be allowed to sit next to my wife and enjoy the show. I am vaccinated—twice—and I was masked. In fact I was double masked. That was not sufficient for Nick, the supervisor of security who told me “I can probably get you a refund.” He wanted me to know that he completely agreed with me and if in my boots he would be doing the very same thing. I said Nick, all I want you to do is to tell the higher ups about this. He said he would, we shook hands and I sat in the lobby and read, waiting for the show to let out. And yes, Bob, I would’ve liked having my own comfy bucket to sit on. Those marble slabs were cold and hard. Cold and hard like The Fascism of Biden et al.
You want to be seen to be laughing, enjoying yourself, but if your mouth isn't seen, you don't have to bother with that.
Think of them not as masks but muzzles.
Training muzzles, if you must.
America in 2021: You can sit unmasked in a huge club or restaurant, shoulder to shoulder with people you know and people you don't, but you have to put your mask on when you enter, leave, or walk over to use the restroom.
And I find it so absurd, masks AND vaccinations AND showing your papers. AND social distancing. Almost 2 years after the Pandemic.
------------
so what is the firecode capacity vs actual physical audience presence?
so do the people figure out enough math to realize end up paying for the /unsellable/ seats also?
I used to like David Sedaris and some of his stuff is hilarious (See "Front Row Center With Thaddeus Bristol"); however, he is a dark and nasty person.
Kevin said...
You want to be seen to be laughing, enjoying yourself, but if your mouth isn't seen, you don't have to bother with that.
Think of them not as masks but muzzles.
Training muzzles, if you must.
---------
and so we see REVEALED who may forego muzzling and BARE THEIR TEETH AND BITE
"Why do people feel that it is necessary to wash their dirty linen in public? He father may have been as bad as he portrayed him, but since no one in the audience is likely to have any knowledge of his father, all David Sedaris did is make himself seem small and mean."
You could hardly be more wrong. Those of us in the audience have read his books, and we've been following the details of Lou Sedaris for decades! We know tons about him. Unlikely to have any knowledge?! Totally wrong. You don't seem to have any idea how much David Sedaris is read and loved or what is in his books. They are almost entirely the story of his family. That's what he does! It's like you're saying why isn't David Sedaris just a completely different writer!
On the other hand...
To be fair, above I mentioned a hockey game in Tampa attended by 20,000 unmasked with unknown vaccination profiles. But an hour south in my own town of Sarasota, if I want to go see the Sarasota Orchestra I have to be masked and show our vaccination cards. This, here in Free Florida.
Actually, 'free' Florida means that businesses and organizations, and, individuals can make their own choices on how they operate. My wife and I love our Symphony and used to be subscribing members, but we've not yet gone this season. (though we are planning to). I did not want to go because I did not want to sit there masked. My wife did not want to go because of Fear of Covid. (we are different like so many of you). She's getting over her fear. I'm getting over my annoyance.
But the Orchestra members have to perform wearing masks, which must be very difficult, hot, and hard to breathe for two hours performing. Did David Sedaris have to wear a mask? And I think it's clear that the demographic for a hockey game in Tampa is different than that of a Symphony Orchestra in Sarasota. More of a senior crowd at the Symphony. They are the most vulnerable. (and you don't want to lose any more donors than you have to!).
They do make those clear plastic masks, if you want to be seen laughing.
But it would have been more fun if Sedaris had party masks to satiate the enforcers.
How many in audience were doing the "half-diaper"?
I worked a large event in Milwaukee where the setup day I inquired about event day entry requirements. I was told neg test within kinda vague period and that rapid tests would be available for those w/o test or jab.
I saw nothing that day.
"however, he is a dark and nasty person"
I feel so strongly — no matter how dark and misanthropic he gets — that he is a good and very loving person. I feel nothing but love for him and can't imagine anything he could say that would shake that sense of him that I have. He has a special privilege to go dark. I don't know how he constructed this privilege for himself, but it's rock solid for the millions of us who love him. If he's not your thing, fine, but know that you will never unsettle our love.
I hope Nick doesn't get canned for leveling with Meade.
Never heard of him, but reading what he talked about, I am THRILLED that I never have, and glad I am not stupid enough to hand over my hard earned money to somebody who hates America and want's to pick who he would like to die. WHY are progressives so hateful and violent??
As a beguiling Jewish sometime-lesbian, I am comfortable in my skin.
Sedaris always seems to me to be painfully uncomfortable in his.
His clothing decisions amplify that, resonating on the inescapable hum of Daddy Issues and barely-stifled tears.
The last boy I dated before my first lesbian experience was a lot like Sedaris: small, pained, somewhat feminine. I am not saying he made me a sometimes-lesbian, but maybe it wasn't coincidence, either.
However, the more he complained about his father's rigid masculinity the more I wondered if I should've been dating his father instead.
I realize that the age difference could've been an issue, but sometimes a young woman needs a fling with an older man to reaffirm her appreciation of the value of timely rigidity.
Unfortunately, most of the older men that were interested in me were my college professors. Indeed, several were quite besotted; one in particular seemed to go into an alcoholic spiral after my rejection of his advances. Evidently I was The Kind Of Girl that could drive a man to that.
I believe he thought his drinking was Faulkner-esue, or at least tinged with Fitzgerald, but it was mostly just embarrassing to watch; now, when I try to think of one of my drunken college professors who DIDN'T have Daddy Issues, I cannot think of one.
As for that Sedaris-like boy: I have no idea where life has brought him, but I still think of his father sometimes.
-Loren
He did say — more generally about Covid — that 700,000 Americans had died.
Did he say how many would have died had we just kept calm and carried on, instead of submitting to crippling mandates?
Meade said: "There is no show or restaurant worth bowing too when asked for any of my medical records. But that’s just me."
About a month ago I had a similar situation. Not only did they want to see my shot record and photo ID, they wanted to copy the info on it. On top of masking (I have COVID THEATER in large letters on mine). If it wasn't my brother's funeral, they'd have gotten the single digit salute. It was at a painfully progressive Unitarian Universalist church.
The people who don't work in health care and don't see the ER waiting times and full ICUs keep saying there is little problem."
No, *they* don't keep saying that.
Instead, they might say we shouldn't sacrifice our society to inadequate ER and ICU capacity.
Or, they might say that places like Florida, Texas and Idaho have long since proven all these mandates are completely worthless, and only those with overwhelming antibodies to evidence insist on continuing the charade.
David Sedaris was powerful enough to make a public mockery of his father's deathbed. I've been trying to figure out why that bothered me more than, say, memoirs like The Glass Castle, in which the author describes her parents' abuse and dysfunction.
I think I understand it now. Sedaris violated his father's sacred space between life and death -- while it was happening. He dragged his siblings into the spotlight, violating their privacy at that most intimate time, and he tried to drag them into his hardening anger, publicly, too.
Dying is sacred. It is when you stop hating. It is when you realize everyone has been your victim and you have been their victim. Everyone dies. And everyone can forgive, and it is the time to forgive. I hope he realizes that someday.
--- I adore David Sedaris
--- I feel so strongly — no matter how dark and misanthropic he gets — that he is a good and very loving person. I feel nothing but love for him
--- You don't seem to have any idea how much David Sedaris is read and loved
But you certainly don't idolize him, do you?
Imagine the scene if people started burning their vaccination cards in protest? All the bien pensant 1960s liberals who conform to the authoritarian left would be shocked.
(Also, you wouldn’t have to be a law professor to think that fine print that says face masks must be worn to enter the venue, without saying they had to remain on once inside has a large loophole.)
"The people who don't work in health care and don't see the ER waiting times and full ICUs ..." Link please? Otherwise, you're just some assistant village idiot asserting facts not in evidence. Did a quick search to check out what you claim here, and what do you know? The CDC hasn't updated this data since July 14, 2020.
CDC covid hospitalization data
"I adore ..."
Phrase to be used very sparingly ...
Ann, a good and loving person wouldn't insult the millions of people who lost loved ones to Covid. That's just sick.
And what better defines the sick hierarchy of leftist privilege than all these celebrities doing 60-stop tours now, each involving multiple interviews and appearances, while the little people are still prevented from, say, staying with loved ones dying in hospitals?
I'm with you Meade. I've "shown my papers" once - in order to attend a beloved cousin's wedding in Seattle a few weeks ago. But otherwise, I refuse to go anywhere it's required - especially now that Fauci is making noises about requiring the booster for safe passage.
Our county (King County in WA state) is the only county requiring papers - so those of us who live in the north or south end simply go a few miles further to eat out in peace.
Not taking sides in the argument, but here is a good link for hospital utilization. I only looked in Florida, and the colors of the icons are only for bed utilization. In Florida anyway, the ICU utilization is far lower than the icons would have you think.
https://data.commercialappeal.com/covid-19-hospital-capacity/florida/12/
'...that 700,000 Americans had died, and — mournful pause — he didn't get to pick any of them.'
Joe didn't get to pick more than half of them either.
Meade is a beast : )
'He was willing to wear the mask, just not to show his papers.'
Was the Obergruppenführer checking papers not gemütlich?
"He's written that he is not a comedian." His own website celebrates "the comedy for which he is renowned" and cites reviews calling him the funniest man alive. His whole reputation is as a humorist. And I freely concede that a lot of people see him that way. I just don't get it.
"I don't know how he constructed this privilege for himself, but it's rock solid for the millions of us who love him."
You may be reacting to what your perceive as vulnerability. Many of us who don't like him see him as an emotional bully, by contrast.
The last thing I care about when it comes to little gay writers, or other artists and performers trying to be funny, is whether they are good and loving persons.
The test is 'funny.' I know very little of Sedaris' work, but what I do know has almost always been . . . funny.
“Sincerity - if you can fake that, you've got it made.”
And lots of performers can fake being lovable. And its even easier when your write. I've always assumed Sedaris is giving us 50% truth, and the other part is exaggeration and lies to be entertaining. Who knows what his father was REALLY like. Does it really matter?
As for Covid, you'd think all these idiots with the masks/vaccines/social distancing would ever wonder why all the states/cities/events that don't require any of that are NOT, I repeat NOT, dying of CV-19.
Go look up the stats.
There's some weird libtard conformity going on. Maybe its suppposed to signal "I care".
that 700,000 Americans had died
Planned parent/hood, "fat is beautiful", #NoJudgment #NoLabels, denial and stigmatization of early, effective, safe treatment(s), masks that follow the cargo cult, and mandates with collateral damage.
Are we sure this post wasn't super-trolling vintage Shouting Thomas?
;)
I am a huge David Sedaris fan since I was introduced to his book, Me Talk Pretty One Day. I saw him in NYC a few years ago (pre-covid) and he was just as you describe. However, I think I was the only Conservative in the theater. The opening act was a female comic who proceeded to tell jokes exclusively about Trump.. Everyone in the audience seemed to think she was hilarious and all laughed like they were the cool kids in the lunch room who were in on the joke.. However, Trump had been in office for two years already so I found this material tired and the comic lazy to keep using this one note comedy act. I found the audience even more annoying than the comic. By the time David came on stage, I was so pissed off I could hardly enjoy his reading. But then he made a tasteless joke about abortion. If he had a boat he would name it “Row v. Wade”, which I thought was funny. But then he said and he would like to be doctor on that boat. That was the last straw for me. On the way to Grand Central I asked my daughter why she laughed and I told her that I did not see anything funny about abortion. Did she think his comment was funny? She looked embarrassed and said No. Oh, BTW, the show was a Mother’s Day Gift for me…..
"However, the more he complained about his father's rigid masculinity the more I wondered if I should've been dating his father instead."
Heh heh heh.
...but it's rock solid for the millions of us who love him. If he's not your thing, fine, but know that you will never unsettle our love.
See? Althouse understand MAGA country. 😉
He was willing to wear the mask, just not to show his papers.
To get gas in Australia. Link to video
If more people like Meade don't stand up to the repressive, over the top, coercive tactics, they are coming, they will be instituted here in the US by un-elected, unaccountable bureaucrats.
I used to listen to Sedaris on NPR most Sunday afternoons. He was a regular guest. NPR had their best shows on Sundays.
rcocean said:
As for Covid, you'd think all these idiots with the masks/vaccines/social distancing would ever wonder why all the states/cities/events that don't require any of that are NOT, I repeat NOT, dying of CV-19.
Go look up the stats.
This is one of the many aspects of this that puzzles me. I live in Alabama, where the state or city has not required masks since May and where fewer and fewer venues require them (one branch of the public library being one...while others don't. So strange.) U of Alabama and Auburn had mask mandates up until mid-November then dropped it, with no hint of returning. The only vaccine requirements have been the threats from the Universities for employees, but that is dropped now because of the courts. A few performers here and there have required vaxx evidence, but it's pretty rare. School's been in session. Months of SEC football with hundreds of thousands gathering every week, not just in open air stadiums but in dorms, apartments, bars and restaurants.
Less than 50% vaxxed w/2 doses, I'm guessing boostered is far lower.
Covid metrics are very low in the state.
I just don't understand how this kind of evidence is ignored in evaluating the situation.
And more to the point, one of my favorite pianists Yuja Wang, was scheduled to play at Emory University over in Atlanta in early November. I happily bought tix for me and my pianist son. Two weeks before the performance the venue - Emory U - announced that they'd be requiring attendees to be vaxxed and show their papers. Just not going to do that. I immediately called and there was no question about getting a refund.
Did Sedaris self-isolate for a proper quarantine period after performing before maskless audiences, some of whom must certainly have had COVID, just by the large numbers present?
Asking because reasons....
I believe I read Sedaris because of comments about him here. The books I read before he gave up were amusing. I want my money back for the one liner diary one. I think he was a fibber and a prick at the end of his father’s life and the Tump bit. I think he made it up. I hope his father died thinking his son was an irredeemable asshole.
Ha. Ha.
I had a work thing at a Bruins game and had to show my papers. Everyone including the people checking the papers thought it was a big joke. I was okay with it…
I avoided some of my favorite Boston dining spots because of the mandates. Nearly all of them have Caviar or Grubhub as an option…
…but I couldn’t wait to get back to a free state…
Ann Althouse You could hardly be more wrong. Those of us in the audience have read his books, and we've been following the details of Lou Sedaris for decades! We know tons about him. Unlikely to have any knowledge?! Totally wrong. You don't seem to have any idea how much David Sedaris is read and loved or what is in his books. They are almost entirely the story of his family. That's what he does! It's like you're saying why isn't David Sedaris just a completely different writer! 12/12/21, 11:50 AM
You know what he says about his father. You know nothing of the actual man his father is.
Ann Althouse I feel so strongly — no matter how dark and misanthropic he gets — that he is a good and very loving person. I feel nothing but love for him and can't imagine anything he could say that would shake that sense of him that I have. He has a special privilege to go dark. I don't know how he constructed this privilege for himself, but it's rock solid for the millions of us who love him. If he's not your thing, fine, but know that you will never unsettle our love. 12/12/21, 12:00 PM
You sound like a cult member.
They should have made you watch him outdoors, sitting on buckets 6ft apart.
For the children.
Well done, Meade. Always be a citizen, never a subject.
Tomorrow he's putting on the same act in Grand Rapids, Mi.
Tuesday in South Bend, In.
Wednesday in Carmel, In.
Thursday in Lexington, Ky.
"Load up the truck, Honey. We're going on the road!"
'The last thing I care about when it comes to little gay writers, or other artists and performers trying to be funny, is whether they are good and loving persons.'
I want them to be flamboyant and fabulous.
In the words of Homer Simpson, 'I like my beer cold, my TV loud, and my homosexuals flaming.'
. I don't know how he constructed this privilege for himself, but it's rock solid for the millions of us who love him. If he's not your thing, fine, but know that you will never unsettle our love
It's the gayness th with you, isn't it, Althouse? The gayness thing.
David Sedaris is a good writer IMO. Too liberal for my taste, but he can joke, in writing or in person, about covid deaths, his dislike of his father, or whatever. Bring it on. I encourage the folks here who are outraged to remember chacun à son goût. And those on team Sedaris, please don’t turn around and tell me Dave Chappelle, Let’s Go Brandon, etc. are that’s-not-funny.
"I like my beer cold, my TV loud, and my homosexuals flaming." (Also, "Sexy, sexy Flanders . . . rowwrr.")
Flambulous! Faboyant!
BTW, the show was a Mother’s Day Gift for me
Kind of like, after years of giving me other law and Supreme Court related gifts, my mom sent me a biography of Harry Blackmun for Christmas.
It was in the trash by the end of the day.
@ Mrs X - no, you just talk to the people you know who work front lines. I've got plenty of links - local, regional, national, international - and have put them forward at my own site - just google it - over the last 20 months. But you aren't likely to believe it until you are face to face with a person you actually care about. I've been at this persuasion game a long time. I could drop in ten links and you would have some other excuse.
I mean face to face, dammit. I dare you. You want research? Talk to the ICU nurses you know, the ER docs, the PCPs who are putting off hospitalisations. Oh, you don't actually know any such people? Color me shocked.
I have read all of his books. I remember a tale of when he was young and deliberately blocked up the toilet. It required his dad to unscrew it from the floor and reach into the drain pipe to clear it. When it happened again, his dad suspected something. On the third time, his father forced him to do the clearing.
David deserved that. And a beating IMHO. He has had mental issues.
Seen him solo and with his sister. He is stupid funny. As great a storyteller as we're capable of producing, whether on family tragedy or our human circus.
Post a Comment