so, i was in salt lake city when i heard that paul newman had died-and i was fucking bummed. i get an endless kick out of the comedic genius that al pacino has turned into ever since 'scarface'/i think it's damn near impossible to beat the kinetic DANGER of early deniro/and nobody can do righteous indignation like jimmy stewart--but i gotta say->my favorite actor has to be paul newman. i've never once seen him turn in a performance that didn't feel 100% true. he just couldn't be false. and i'm not even talking about 'cool hand luke'. or 'slapshot'-although we could-but i love him in 'mr. and mrs. bridge'. and i love love LOVE him in 'nobody's fool'. he was just so fucking great-how could anyone dispute it? so it was with that in mind that i kind of got righteously indignant myself when i was talking about his death to the girl who shuttled me from the hotel to the show--and she goes, 'you mean the salad dressing guy?' and i was like, what the fuck? (and to answer your question:she was 29-so it's no excuse) but the next day i started to think about it. what she said is totally valid:maybe 'newman's own' really is his true legacy. i mean, you can't put a price tag on the joy and inspiration his movies have brought to people--but when it comes down to it->all that spaghetti sauce (sockarooni!) is what has made the real-concrete-ACTUAL difference. the kind of difference that you CAN put a price tag on-what? something like 200 fucking million dollars? all for charity....kind of amazing. and this in the face of all those lying, venal wall street fucks that have sold us down the river-not to mention those lying, venal fucks in washington who not only let this happen but facilitated it. see-i want to live in paul newman's america. the one where people give a shit. and i'm starting to feel like other people want to as well. lately, i've been hearing a lot of people talking about how they're gonna move to europe if mccain wins-and i'm not necessarily down with that-but i really don't think they're gonna have to. people are fucking fed up-and not just the liberal pinkos that live in my city-i'm starting to see it everywhere. the guy who drove me back to my hotel after the show in salt lake-he had just gotten back from iraq about a year ago. he was in the first wave AND he's re-enlisting because he got bad grades and now has to pay his loan BACK to the army (jesus-what is he? playing football?)-even this guy is gonna vote for obama. this is the kind of guy that mccain's always talking about; the kind of guy who he's running for->white kid, iraq war vet, lives in salt lake city--should be a slam dunk. nu-uh, motherfucker. he knows the war is fucked-and he's not even afraid of it (he's fucking re-enLISTING!) but he still knows it's over-he knows it's gotta stop. or take my dad-he was in the army, he's about 5 years younger than mccain, he lives up in the middle of deerhunter/from/my/cold/dead/hands/middle/of/fucking/nowhere upper wisconsin--his words? 'things have gotta change'. apparently not all white males are afraid to vote for a black man (oh-and by the way-my mom? not so enamored with ms. palin). these are the middle american, salt of the earth types that the republican party is always pretending to speak for. the non-elitists. but that shit just doesn't seem to be flying anymore-and it makes me so proud that i could fucking cry. so, put away your passports all you leftys-you ain't going anywhere--i don't think EVERYone in middle america is on board the straight talk express. and when i'm cracking a cold one on thursday and sitting down to watch biden rip palin to shreds-i'm gonna be thinking one thing->godDAMN! i wish paul newman had made beer.



scott