Tuesday, February 05, 2019

State Of The Union - The Musical!
"Shall We Dance!" Edition

Donald Trump Nancy Pelosi Shall we dance

Welcome to the Dividist's annual coverage of the Presidential Address to Congress - aka State of the Union - The Musical!


In 2007, as a blogging toddler, the Dividist despaired at finding a unique approach to writing about the SOTU when so many other bloggers would be traversing the same ground. The answer came from Bob Woodward. In an on-line Washington Post forum the Dividist asked whether the SOTU had any real relevance. Woodward responded by saying it was "mostly theater."

Bobb Woodward on SOTU
Genius. That was the answer. What better way to frame SOTU social media reactions than within the lyrics of a Broadway show tune?

The game is to start with a Broadway song and then find blog posts, news stories, tweets, essays and commentary that can be vaguely referenced in the song and link them to the lyrics. It keeps the Dividist awake and blogging throughout the speech without distracting too much from the mandatory drinking games.

The program so far...

2007 - "Comedy Tonight" 
2008 - "Georgy Girl Boy"
2009 - "Razzle Dazzle" from "Chicago" 
2010 - "The Wizard of Oz" 
2011 - Intermission 
2012 - "Do you hear the people sing?" from Les Miserables" 
2013 - "I don't know how to love him" from "President Obama Superstar" 
2014 - "How to Succeed as President Without Really Trying" 
2015 - "Let It Go" from "Frozen"  
2016 - "Bye Bye Barry"
2017 - Skipped - I couldn't deal with it.
          2018 - "Springtime For Donald and America" from "The Producers" 

And now, for 2019, our 13th year of singing and dancing our way through the State of the Union, and after a midterm where the American voting public emphatically restored divided government, we find the only appropriate musical entry for the emerging Donald Trump & Nancy Pelosi pas de deux to be  the Gershwin's "Shall We Dance."

Our brand spanking new divided government is only a about a month old. So far we've had: the longest government shutdown in the history of the Republic; another shutdown looming a few weeks away;  and the President threatening to declare a National Emergency to fund a southern border wall that he couldn't be bothered to fund with a Unified Republican Government over the previous two years. Most entertaining in the prelude to the big show was the coy on-again off-again / will-she won't-she / boy meets girl - boy loses girl - boy wins girl (sort of) flirtation over the scheduling of the speech.  

But the show must go on. Tonight's featured song from Shall We Dance is "Let's call the whole thing off".  We'll post the lyrics now, update with links to live-bloggers, pundits, twitteratti, analysts and reporters before, during and after the speech. It'll be over when we get tired of the speech or too drunk to type.

The Dividist welcomes any and all suggested links, in comments or twitter, for any and all lines anywhere in the lyrics, from any who accidentally stumble across this post, at any time.

To help get into the spirit. Music up... Raise the Curtain...


Songwriters: Ira Gershwin / George Gershwin






Let's call the whole thing off

You say laughter and I say larfter
You say after and I say arfter
Let's call the whole thing off

Let's call the whole thing off

But, oh, if we call the whole thing off, then we must part
And, oh, if we ever part, then that might break my heart

For we know we need each other so we
Better call the calling off off
Let's call the whole thing off

I say father, and you say pater
Pater, mater, uncle, auntie
Let's call the whole thing off

I like bananas and you like banahnahs
I say Havana and I get Havahnah

So if I go for scallops and you go for lobsters
So, all right, no contest, we'll order lobsters
For we know we need each other so we
Better call the calling off off
Let's call the whole thing off


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