What's Tony Thinking

At the Weekend: February 8

Linda and I have been getting a “culture-fix” of late and I have a couple of recommendations to pass along.

“Sing Sing” is a 2023 movie about the RTA (Rehabilitative Theater Arts) program at the Sing Sing Prison in New York. Wow! So, so powerful. So moving. Starring Colman Domingo, who is nominated for “Best Actor,” and surely deserves it. Most of the other characters in the film are men who were incarcerated at Sing Sing, and participants in the RTA ,who play themselves. Colman Domingo, who recently appeared in the Netflix series “Madness,” has the most expressive face.

Trouble is finding “Sing Sing,” the movie that is. We saw it as part of the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) at the downtown Cinerama theater (which is a show in and unto itself — don’t miss the chocolate popcorn). “Sing Sing” doesn’t seem to be showing in commercial theaters. Not sure why. Anyhow, wherever you are, watch for it. And drop everything to see it.

“Lewis and Tolkien” is a play by Dean Batali that is currently in production at Seattle’s Taproot Theater on 85th N.W., Greenwood neighborhood. It runs through March 8. C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, original members of “The Inklings” reconvene after many years at their old favorite pub. A very powerful story of friendship, betrayal, loss and reconciliation. If you are anywhere near Seattle, don’t miss it.

What else is on my mind or plate?

I have voted for the Democratic Party candidate for President ever since I could vote, starting with George McGovern in 1972 and through Kamala Harris in 2024. I probably thought of myself as a “Democrat,” until recent years when it began to seem to me that the Dem’s were out of touch.

Oddly, that really started when I spent two weeks in Ohio in the fall of 2016 working for Hillary’s campaign. The paid campaign staffers kept telling us, “No worries, just get our voters to turn out and we win. Don’t bother  knocking on the doors of anyone but known Democratic Party voters (we had a list) reminding them to vote and vote early. Don’t bother with R’s, Trumpers or undecideds.” “Do this and it’s in the bag.” Sorry, but they were just so sure of themselves and so smug.

I was only a private in that army but it seemed to me a dumb strategy.

So I was interested when the newly elected DNC Chair, Ken Martin of Minnesota, said last weekend, “We’ve got the right message. What we need to do is connect it back with the voters.”

Hold on, really? You’re sure you’ve got the right message? All you need is better communication, a better marketing strategy? Really? I, for one, have no clear idea what the Democratic Party “message” was in 2024, apart from “Trump is a very bad and very dangerous man.”

Martin’s comment reminded me of the remarks often made by John Dorhauer, the immediate past-President of my church, the United Church of Christ. John was fond of saying that the UCC is, “the world’s best kept secret.” Meaning: “If only people knew about us they will be flocking to our doors.” Alas, we are a denomination/ church that is bleeding out and not, I think, because we need better marketing. We actually had great marketing for a while with the “God Is Still Speaking” initiative, but we dropped that (long story).

I get that people in Martin’s and Dorhauer’s positions are expected to be cheerleaders who pump up the faithful. But is there some point when you begin to poke at, if not puncture, the denial? Some point at which you face and tell the truth, that whatever your message is, folks ain’t buying it? The popularity of the Democratic Party is at its lowest ebb since 1968. Sorry, but I don’t think the problem of the Dem’s (or the UCC) will be solved simply by better marketing strategies.

I kind of think the problem is that liberals (political and religious) don’t get that we are no longer, to use the phrase of the immortal baseball announcer, Red Barber, “In the catbird seat.” We have for so long been sure of our superiority, and of our entitled position in the culture, that we haven’t noticed that our sell-by date passed a while back.

But, hey, Happy Weekend! And if football is your thing, enjoy the Super Bowl. But if that isn’t, I suggest, to round out my culture notes, any novel by the Irish writer, Tana French. I am currently enjoying The Hunter.