Reply To: How many shows?
JoAnn, I kind of agree with you about “A Talk With George,” but for different reasons. I don’t think it’s boring, I just think it’s kind of tone-deaf. Not musically, but culturally, if that makes sense. I’m just not that interested in the antics of people who were extraordinary privileged, living out lives of… extraordinary privilege. Actually Coulton and Hodgman both come from pretty privileged backgrounds, so that may sound hypocritical, but I’m not that interested in their lifestyles, I’m interested in their work and their skills, and learning how to do some of what they do, if that makes sense.
The “lessons” the ghost-Plimpton teaches the narrator of the song ring kind of hollow to me; someone with a personal fortune and Rolodex full of the movers and shakers can very easily “show a little grace if [s/he] should fall.” His actual achievements seem mostly to be as a writer and editor, which aren’t really what the song is about; it is about his high-profile stunts and brushes with famous people, which I don’t think had much to do with any great wisdom or virtue on his part. I shouldn’t speak ill of the dead; I don’t really have anything against Plimpton per se, I’m just not sure he deserves to be the hero of this song. (I can personally identify a lot more with the protagonist for “You Could Be Her.”)
Although I do love to throw parties and I am fond of cocktails…