So here’s what I envision:
It’s late. Al can’t sleep. He’s on the couch, sprawled out with his laptop overheating his lap, and to compensate for this, one bare leg is out of the bathrobe. He’s got some hard candy his mouth is working on, his glasses have slipped forward on his nose due to the slight sweat from the heat and he’s not so much typing as clicking while his eyes ricochet back and forth across his monitor.
It’s three thirty in the morning on a Tuesday and Al Pacino is googling himself because it’s slightly more interesting than counting sheep and he comes across our little blog.
This is a man who has … this is The Godfather. This is Scent of a Woman. This is Scarface. Was he apparently in Gigli (thanks, imdb)? Yes, but after his line up, he could have done anything, including Gigli, and still, his bio on imdb starts with “One of the greatest actors in all of film history…”
He’s untouchable and I’m mortified that he might read that we, because I am implicated by association, I fear, think he should retire.
And then consider, while attacking great artists who aren’t as monumentally prolific at the moment that this is the America of second chances. This is the America that rooted for Britney when she had a shaved head, covered with a pink wig, driving with her knee down the freeway with the top down while talking on her cell phone, chain smoking cigarette butts and drinking a vente frappachino with her unstrapped toddlers in the front seat. This is the America of “Rock of Love III” and other numerous washed up celebrity reality shows. We are dying for the troubled underdog to come out on top, we are rooting for the sitcom star from the early eighties to lose those pesky 135 pounds he’s put on since then. And if not, if they don’t come out on top, well then we laugh at them from our couches. It’s a win-win for the American viewer.
And so, amidst this gigantic load of garbage we’re supposed to swallow as entertainment, I’m supposed to pick three people who made contributions to society to retire and claim them no longer relevant?
I don’t feel up to the task tonight. I don’t think I’m riding high enough on my horse. And so I know it’s not the guidelines I was supposed to follow, but …
I think Jon, Kate, the nanny, the body guard and all of the eight should retire.
I think Lindsay Lohan should retire and not necessarily because her work is terrible, but because it’s clearly not a healthy environment for her. The girl needs some down time.
I think Perez Hilton should retire and take his minions with him to some deserted island.
I’m going to take this time to plug two friends of mine who are doing really great work and should most definitely not retire. Fellow Ephs (I think that’s the first time I’ve referred to myself as such), Matthew Swanson and Robbi Behr publish books that he writes and she illustrates. They are inspired and imaginative pieces of work and their creation and existence makes me happy. Check their work out here.
On that note, I’m going to retire for the night. See what I did there? Hahahaha.
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