Retrospecticus: 2008

As the calender year draws to a close, the tendency is to try and evaluate the past 12 months, quantifying them against unconscious expectations for the next dataset of dates to check off. Ok, that was a bit wordy. Pretty much, I'm trying to do some posts that will act as representations of the year for me, and since I've only been writing the blog since August, it's necessary to add some retroactive content over the upcoming days.

So here it goes:

Entry 1:

The Death of a Hero

The photo above was taken the morning of June 23, shortly after I heard that George Carlin was dead. I was really upset.

George Carlin represents a lot of things for me: standing up to authority, the usefulness of wit and sillyness in combination, and the importance of freedom of speech. Carlin managed to inject politics into his comedy without being strictly a political comedian, and managed to get his points across through the use of hyperbole and exaggeration better than any spoken word performer, ever.

He's been called the "comedian's comedian." Its hard to find a successful comedy writer or standup who is unable to recite the seven deadly words or can't produce minutes-long renditions of classic Carlin bits. His style and attention to detail and brilliantly preserved in all of his comedy albums and HBO specials, each of which have at least a few moments that would overcome anyone with raucous, uncontrollable laughter.

I was introduced to Geroge Carlin at the tender age of 8 and I think my mother has regretted it ever since. I was a bit a repeater when I was a kid: my parents learned quickly that most of the crazy-sounding things coming out of my mouth were either from the Simpsons or George Carlin, and that I wasn't actually possessed. They tended to take for granted the amount of tv I watched. I had taped all of the Carlin specials on HBO when they had a marathon of them once and had nearly worn out the tapes by the time I was out of high school. I have fond memories of doing Trigonometry & Algebra 2 homework every night to a rotating selection of different HBO specials. I prefered the ones from the late 70s and early 80s because he was a bit more laid back then and the humor was at it most goofy point. For some reason it was only way I ever managed to get math homework done. I've managed to collect a fair bit of Carlin ephemera which I intend to preserve and increase.

It's really sad to see a great artist die, but I have solace in the fact that he had such a long and celebrated career, sticking to his guns and doing his own thing for its entirety. Here are some links to get you started, if you're not already in the know.