Greater Boston; Bush And Black Ministers, Holiday Books And Movies, Chuck Kraemer Ode To Christmas

Good evening, tonight, we'll talk to the Reverend Eugene Rivers just back from a meeting with President -elect George W. Bush. But we've also got some holiday treats in store with a look at some of our favorite holiday books and movies, including classics. And then we're pleased to say we've got Chuck Kramer's annual ode to Christmas. So you'll want to set your VCRs. First, the Reverend Eugene Rivers and other religious leaders from around the country met with President -elect Bush for about an hour yesterday. Bush is proposing what he calls a faith -based initiative, a program designed to help religious groups set up programs to help the poor and disadvantaged with federal money. In George W. Bush's latest attempt to bridge the great political and racial divides, the President -elect met with more than two dozen African -American ministers and leaders yesterday at the first Baptist Church in Austin. While light on specifics, the President -elect wants to open the door for churches and charities to use taxpayer money to

operate welfare programs. Having lost the black vote to Vice President Al Gore, nine to one, Bush admits he needs to improve his standing among blacks. Just today, as he resigned as governor of Texas, he reiterated the advantages of diversity. In Texas, I have seen how diversity makes it stronger. Stronger in the White House, too, as seen in his recent appointments, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Mel Martinez, and Alberto Gonzales. Appointments aside, the President -elect still has some bridges to mend. Noticably absent from the meeting in Austin yesterday was the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who just last week called the Bush presidency illegitimate. The win by discount, rather than the count, leaves the winner illegitimate. All right, and joining me now is the Reverend Eugene Rivers of the National Ken Point Leadership Foundation. All right, first, we all want to know.

What is the man really like? What's it like sitting with him? How is he? How does he interact with people? He's a funny dude. He's a funny dude. Genuinely, is it? No, no, no, no. Genuinely funny. Always got a twinkle in the eye, and there's that smirk, which is sort of irresistible, right? You sort of get the sense if you lean over and say, oh, George, right? And you wink a little bit, he'll sort of hit you, yeah, guy. He's, you know, the caricature of him is kind of guy's guy who's not interested in deep philosophical discussions or policy minutia is true. That's the sense one gets. What is also true is that there is a genuine sense in which the label of racist stings him, right? There may be any number of things that he is, but he doesn't sit up late at night thinking about how to jack up black and brown. Right? So that's the other piece of it. Look, we had a rough fight. It was a knock

down dragout, typically American election that was hotly contested. At the end of the day, I understand that some folk feel disenfranchised, but clansman, I am not. Well, he must have thought about this because he pulled this little group together pretty quickly. And what did you think, though, when you did you feel like it was perfunctory and necessary for him to do that? You know, he had to have this coalition, most of them already, or did you feel like there was some substance there? And by the way, are you concerned at all about this federal involvement in the face -based? Number one, he had to do it. So I don't think it could be perfunctory because you can do a perfunctory thing that's not necessary. This was necessary. And my sense is that this is the first of a series of discussions. He's going to meet with the members of the black congressional caucus. He's going to meet with a whole range of leadership in the black community. He chose to meet with the group of individuals that were invited to begin a conversation which did not end yesterday. So I think it's fair. I mean,

he recognizes, and the Republicans recognize, that their political hemophilia acts on race, as it relates to the black community, because in Texas, 95 percent of the black folk who voted against their governor. And why? Why do only one in nine blacks vote for George Bush? What is this idea that somehow the Republican Party is... Well, the political reality is that for 40 years, the Republicans have pretty much written off the black vote. It was the old silent majority strategy of Kevin Phillips in 1968, which got Nixon elected. So the Republicans calculate, and this is, you know, realistic to cynical calculus, right, that we don't get much bang for the butt buck. And the other point is that black people have not voted strategically. 95 percent of our eggs were put in one basket. That basket got knocked off the table, and now we're sitting in the outhouse, mad. But when you see the appointments that he's made, Colin Powell, you know, it's right, something

that... Does black America say, yeah, he's doing the right thing, he's supporting me? No, smart black America recognizes. Here's an opportunity. I mean, you don't. You don't. You don't appoint a black guy from the South Bronx, the Secretary of State, you know, three or four people from, three or four heartbeats from the presidency, as a symbolic affirmative action gesture. That kind of leads to rice. She actually is a policy wall. She's not there simply because she's called it. Bush has done something very significant that the smarter black political leadership will take advantage of. There is actually some reason now to have new conversation at one point I want to add. One of the questions that I asked Bush was, what will a compassionately conservative foreign policy in Africa look like? I don't want you to answer the question now, President -elect. Think about it. He grabbed the dice and said, I'll answer that question right now. I'm going to put Africa with Colin Powell and Converley Sirice as a high priority in my administration. Now, mind you. It's a Republican saying that because that wasn't the case for Clinton who gave you lots of symbolism and no substance. Well, tell me more about what what

what the meeting about the faith -based religious part of this was because I know you have to express some concern as to whether, first of all, that they may be cutting some federal programs that could help the poor in the disadvantage and then putting it all in the hands of the churches and then are we a little concerned? No, no, no, no, no. Good question. We said consistently it is Medicaid and ministry, not Medicaid versus ministry. So we rejected the idea that charities could be a substitute for federal government. The religious right and the... Because you'd start getting competition. That's crazy. No, no, no, no, no. At the end of the day, what's really being proposed is that faith -based institutions as agencies close to the problem can do the job. It happens that they're religious and props for that reason they're close to the problem because they serve the poor. This is not a federal federally funded program to underwrite, prostitizing, and evangelization of Muslims, mosques, churches, and synagogues. Yeah, but be specific. Would they have you running certain programs and like what? For example,

churches get host literacy programs as we do in Dorchester, where faith -based institution gets funding to run a literacy program where kids are sentenced to the program as a condition of probation. Now, we're not trying to insist that they love Jesus or say a prayer, right? What we say to the kids is that this institution is close to a problem and we are going... And we would like assistance in helping address this need because as a subsidiary institution, we're best equipped institutions to execute the program. Okay, but church can have to be literally applying for these federal grants or they're going to be hand selected. And how's that going to work? My sense is that you could apply for them. As is the case now. You see, a lot of this is not terribly new. In other words, Catholic charities is the largest, you know, social service agency with federal funding next to the federal government. And they've been able to maintain a fairly clear line because everybody and their mom is watching them, right? So that Catholic charities, in fact, frankly, is one of the best examples in the country and if the black churches were smarter,

we would emulate what the Catholic boys do because they're on top of the game. By the way, did he know who you were? Yeah, he did. He did some homework on it, but any of you had been featured in it. That's why you got briefing. That's why you got Andy Carter, right? Andy Carter certainly knows who you were. Exactly. So the deal was, I mean, I ran into Andy. We had a great time talking. It's good to know that we have access to Andy because we've got a hometown guy who's El Hacho. All right, we sound like I'm going to give him a chance. Oh, absolutely. You're not the only one. All right. Thank you, Reverend Eugene Rivers. Thank you very much. All right, and when we continue, holiday movies and books, even of the classic variety. This time of year, you can usually find a number of end -of -the -season movies to catch, but the pickings are a little slim this year. Not to worry, we have some suggestions. If you feel you really must venture out to the local 18 Plex for some holiday cheer this weekend, you have a couple of choices.

There's Jim Carey in the live -action Grinch. And I've said, there's also the latest screw gin carnation, Nicholas Cage, who wakes up to the life that could have been in the family man. But if you really want to treat yourself this weekend, we say sit back on the couch and have yourself a merry little home video holiday. Greater Boston style. Cheers only once again, sir. It's a good excuse for picking a man's pocket every 25th of December. What's Christmas without a little Ebenezer's screw gin? There are at least 50 movie versions of the Dickens classic, a Christmas Carol, but we suggest the 1951 British version starring Alistair Sim. I am here. And the shadows of things that would be can

still be dispel. And they will be. I know they will be. I know. I don't know what to do. I'm just like just a fellow. Our own John Carroll goes even further back for his favorite holiday. In this classic, Kerry Grant plays a regular guy who's engaged to marry a society gal. Until Catherine Hepburn makes him realize he's hitching his wagon to the wrong sister. You better run on down now, don't you think? No, right away. I'm afraid I will not entertain you. I've done all my stuff. I don't need entertaining. You wouldn't care to step into a wall since the old year dies, would you, Mr. Case? Yes, I would. I'd love it. If you're looking to deck the halls with a little testosterone, Greta Boston's resident movie buff Jared Bowen says, how about Bruce Willis in Die Hard,

where a group of terrorists take over an LA office building on Christmas Eve? Now I have a machine gun. If that doesn't appeal to you and you're looking for a little levity, Jared Bowen also recommends Nick Snuts, a dark quirky comedy starring Steve Martin and the late Madeline Khan as suicide hotline operators working on Christmas Eve under threat of a serial killer. And I know it's corny, but my personal favorite is it's a wonderful life. For some reason I get a big kick out of this scene where Mr. Potter is offering George Billy the

chance to merge banks. Then of course there's this classic line. Look daddy, keep your sense every time you're fairing, I mean you'll get to win. I know it's corny, I do love it. All right, and with me now, our Esquire writer at large Charlie Pierce, Luke Salisbury, a Bunker Hill community college, Clint Kavanaugh of Brookline Booksmith and Jay Kaiser, a professor emeritus at MIT, who happens to be a movie nut. And we're sitting here with a lot of books we're going to get to books in a minute, but first of all, Luke or anybody, have you seen a movie this out right now that's worth it? Yes, Spike Lee's Bamboozle is terrific. I mean that's necessarily a Spike Lee fan, but it is about being white, black, blacker, stereotypes, stereotypes and images. We've been seeing these things since DW Griffith Hollywood has a terrible record. Everyone should go see this movie. It's still playing at the Nickelodeon. And I'd like to recommend a smaller film that's playing at

smaller houses, called You Can Count On Me, which is a character study of a woman and her near -to -well brother. I don't think I'm going in. The two of them are just wonderful. The younger, the near -to -well brother is played by an actor named Mark Ruffalo, who's going to be an enormous star. And another reason I like it, a lot of references to Worcester, where I grew up. The only previous one that had a lot of references to Worcester was Roger Ebert beyond the Valley of the Dolls, but that's not specifically a Christmas movie. So we'll leave that one alone. Jay? Well, just to pick up on that, I really agree with you about You Can Count On Me, great film. What surprised me was that the last two films that Ken Lonegan worked on was Analyze This and the Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle. Well, I think I heard before we started that Charlie didn't like almost famous. So I'm going to say that I liked it, but I do that the trepidation. A couple of other films that I like very much, I liked High Fidelity. And I thought that Jack Black

in the character of Barry, who was this, the guy who worked was just incredible. He could sing. And how did you feel about him? We could really sing. That was one of the great twists. Absolutely. How did you feel about 101 Dalmatians? Well, I think that was like, I would call that a chicken run with spots. I liked it because what I really liked is, you know, you go to see Glenn Close. And she was, I think in one of the reviews, somebody said it was a combination of Nora, a Norman Desmond and the bride of Frankenstein. But she just is over the top. She's over the top and she just looks wonderful in those black and white. So I recommend adults, especially that. Have a classic, Clint. Do you have any favorites? Classics. Well, Christmas girl that you showed. If you fill a Dalphy's story and bringing up baby, those are good. I almost really quit it. No, Christmas, Christmas in Connecticut. Which one? Not the other one. What's the next version? The earlier one. I didn't know there was another one. It was a major TV one. A really? No. But the 51 Alistair Sim, Christmas

Carol is my beautiful foundation to everyone. The key in any Christmas Carol is how well does he do the scene where he wakes up? And Alistair Sim does it better than everyone. That woman that was on there is an old British stage actress named Catherine Harrison. And it's wonderful to watch these two people who have been British stage actors and serious productions just kind of get their teeth into this wonderfully happy transformation scene. It's also interesting, I think, that at Christmas time, because of a Christmas Carol, anything Dickens does gets run, including a tale of two cities, which has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas. But as long as you can get people in frot coats and top hats. That's very Dickens. Well, you said you liked a wonderful life too. And I just saw a family man a preview to it the other night. And that is not only a Christmas Carol, but it's also, it's that combined with a wonderful life with the kind of... Did you see that? Yeah, I saw a preview of it. It went as bad as you'd think it might be. No, it looks awful. Yeah, it looks pretty bad. I think we should... I mean, if you really stuck, put a little Christmas tree on top of the TV and watch the Wizard of Oz. Or watch the Grinch, the

original Grinch, the cartoon Grinch. Oh, that was amazing. It was fantastic. I was watching the season. You must have some classics. Christmas now, we're talking. Well, I don't know. I live in Chelsea, and my wife likes to say, Chelsea's as if George did jump off the bridge. I have to, you know, original going isn't bad. It's screwing either in another one of the Christmas Carol. Yeah, but now let's just send it to NASA. It has the insipid entire Lockhart family, though, in that movie, which I don't like. Including Little June, as one of the authors. Yes. Later, it'd be Lassie's mom. Now, they've gotten a hold of this wonderful life. And now, I think they used to be on every 10 minutes, everywhere. And I'd like that. You could catch a little bit here in a minute, because it was two hours plus, I think. But now, what's NBC has the right still to it? Is that right now? Not only do they have it, but they've turned it into a commercialized mess. I mean, they come back and you can log on and win prizes and win cash money. Oh, yeah. It's, I mean, it's still it's a wonderful life, but it's like the showing it in Potter'sville. They did the same thing with white Christmas, too. They only show that once now. And so you can't kind of get artists and bits in pieces. I've never seen that. I love that. That's the one with the Bing Crosby and

Danny K. And that was very clingy. And, and the woman's name who I always thought was, was, um, Mitsy Gainer. And it's, yeah, the chapter. She's a mix of the title. It's like, she is the best dancer I've ever seen in my life. And it's not Mitsy Gainer. I just saw that movie a couple weeks ago. I think that's one where they do sisters. Sisters, yeah, that's a great thing. And Bing and Danny do. All right, how about Miracle and 34th Street? Luke, you, God, I can never go see the movies with you. I don't think you. No, terrible. It's just not one of my favorites. The original song said that Natalie Woods' performance was the best child performance in the history of film. Oh, really? So he's with you. Wow. I like it. Hey, man, I also recommend, if you, if you want to really stretch the whole thing, meet me in St. Louis just so you can watch Judy Garland sing, have yourself a very little Christmas, which is, by the way, the original version of the song with will have to muddle through somehow and not the wimpy, hang a shining star upon the highest bow, which you've been frank, sometimes, or fell for. We're going to move on to talk about books here for a minute. These aren't necessarily books about Christmas, but the things that you're with the bookline booksmiths and these are things that are hot or interesting. So what do you like

here? Well, if you want to stick with the movies a little bit, there is Right Up Front Chocolat, which is Juliet Bonneuch and Johnny Depp and Judy Denton. It's Right Up Front, and I saw a preview of that. It's really, really good. What is it that God had built as a comedy? It's about a, a Juliet Bonneuch is a widow who moves to this little town in France. It's really conservative and prissy, and she opens a chocolate factory right before Lent starts and starts tempting people, and they're all miserable, and it really, she opens up the town. It's fun. It's really a good movie, and I've never liked her much until this movie. So there's that. And also on the movie front, there is the one right up there, which is the Border Trilogy, but all the Pretty Horses, which comes out, I guess Christmas Day, with Matt Damon. Oh, yeah, that'll be a big, Billy Bob Thornton. That's a book you can still watch. Produced it directly, yeah. So that looks fun, but as far as the rest of them go, big dig. It's huge. You know, I had this fellow on last night, the Stan McNickel, and then last night I went out to a bookstore and said, you know, I've got to get that book for a couple of people. You

can't. It's so loud. And now I'm sorry that I had this one signed by him, because I would have wrapped it and given it to someone, but another one. But yeah, I mean, I want to say that they said that everybody is blind and it isn't. It's a wonderful, both a picture book and a story. They made a mistake on that one. They could have, the person I said, yeah, everybody's coming and asking for it, but you can't kind of, or another picture one is Red Sox Century, which seems like we have a couple of them. Yeah, yeah. I have, actually, Luke and I both contributed to Red Sox Century. And then there's, of course, your book. That's still a little hard to forget. And in January, if I may, a collection of my sports writing called Sports Guy is being published by DeGapo. All right, go for it. I'll finish it. If I can recommend somebody else besides my own, I would recommend a novel by my favorite novelist, the gentleman named TR Pearson. The novel's called Blue Ridge, which is, he's kind of like a very kind of half -falker, half -marked, twain -southern guy, but he's ranging in sentences a little bit, and it's a mystery story, and it's just a beautiful, short novel. You guys have any recommendations on books? Well, I'm reading The Poison Wood Bible. It's been out of wild, but Barbara Consulverin's really terrific.

And I'm sort of reading African books now. For example, with John McCarrough. Just got back. The John McCarrough, he has given to somebody as a gift, because it's taking place in Kenya. Been in Kenya. In fact, I was in Nairobi, and I took a picture of the American Embassy that had, you know, was blown up. And when we did it, we didn't know that it was illegal. And the car behind us were done the same thing. They, the police stopped them and the rest of them. So we got out fast, you know, we were lucky. But that's, apparently, his recreation of Kenya is supposed to be terrific. Right, it's supposed to be a great book. What have you got, Luke? Well, I've actually been reading The Charter House of Parma, but I'm probably the people in person who've lost in doing it. I would recommend Red Sox entry, which I'm trying to get contributed to. It has a picture of Trist speaker sitting on an alligator in it, which I don't think you can find anywhere else. I just can't let the dig old I would have mentioned this, because Bologna Riley is an old friend of mine and in Charlie Pierce's aunt. This thing is a phenomenon. It's now the number one bestseller for what, 14 weeks, something like that.

I mean, he is a character. And he says some things that are quite funny. And now, you know, people are really tuning into the show and he's been hawking the book on the show. But it's still interesting. This is observations about how to be successful. Simple things like, I know who does the hiring in America. And I'll tell you right now, they don't like nose rings. I mean, there's kinds of declarations in it. It's kind of, you know Larry King's column, and you're saying today, it's sort of like down on steroids. It's helped me out. And of course, I would put a plug in for my dance book, My War, which is in its second run. But the reprint is what they call it. Yeah, yeah, it's like in print. It's also something, well, yeah, yeah, it's good to see that. Anybody else have some pitches here? Come on. I'm interested in the shame of Sandy Volume. I was going to say this is like a beautiful walk. Yeah, it's his daughter actually, or not his daughter's wife, his wife Marie. Yeah, it's Irish myths and legends. And it's beautiful. Beautiful, really. Yeah, the well -illustrations are gorgeous. And that's a children's book. It is a children's book, but it's kind of anything. It's right with what's in it again. It's

the names of the heart. The heart. All right, looks really pretty. All right, gentlemen and ladies, thank you so much for your observations about the movies in the books. And when we continue, that traditional ode to Christmas, don't miss it. And finally tonight, we continue a 25 -year holiday tradition on local television. Chuck Cramer's ode to Christmas, slightly revised as always, to capture the tenor of the current retail season. Here then, ode number 26 for the year 2000. Lord and Taylor. And Taylor and then Hope and Klein, Calvin, Klein, Quizanart, Kudak, Cotton, Polyester, budget stretcher, storewidehalfoff .com. Joy, stick, rain, check, ash, Cosh, high, death, hands -free, toll -free, goose -down, smack, down,

rug, rat. Big berthab, Hugo Boy, Game Boy, Mr. Coffee, Fry Daddy, dirt, devil, Dolby, Furby, Barbie, Fuji, khaki, karaoke, yacht, sea, sorry. Here, buds, ab, toner, footlocker, famous maker, tomb raider, subwoofer, tweeter, starter, razor, rustle, stover, eddy, bower, parry, L .S. Harry, potter, Ricky, Martin, Sam, Goodie, Laura, Ashley, Fanny, Farmer, Scooby -Doo. Behold, in the east, a star, bucks, brushed aluminum, travel mug, a divine, Miss M, mini CD, Kenny, GMVP, JVC, CVS, DVD, G -EG, I -Jo, I -J Fox. TJ Maxx, Pentax, FedEx, MX Gore -Tex, Memrex, Reeboks, BubbleJet, Pikachu, Jean -Too, Jena -Tay, Cache, Faber -Jay. J Crew, and Sink, I, Zod, E, Bay, I -View. Prof. Norelco, Polo, Lego, El Motoro, Asco Speedo, Casio, Hasbro, Tico, Tonka, Duracelle, Duraflame, London Fogs, Swiss Army, Canadian Club Scotch, Tape Irish, Missed English Leather, British Sterling, Sterling Silver, Lady Shik, Shik, Shure, Stick, Non -Stick, Waterpick, Shrieve, Crump, Low, Wat, Croc, Pot. One touch, U -2, MP3, Pentium, 4, 5 by 7, 9, Vult, 10 speed, 12 cup, Building, 19, 1, 800 kg,

Megagiga, Terra, Bike, White, Sale, Infrared, Walgreens, Black and Decker. What the heck, deck the halls with? I attach em, Mitsubishi, San Sui, Sony, Psycho, Sanio, Panasonic, Instamatic, Automatic, Anti -Static, Alkaline, 9 to 9, Kelvin, Klein, Ann, Klein, Ann, and Hopen. Taylor, Lord, and Taylor, Good, Lord. What have we done to Christmas? We're thrilled to have that here now. All right, people always ask how many tries does it take before he gets it right? Well, this year? Four. By the way, this year's ode to Christmas is also on the WGBH webpage, at WGBH .org. And that's it for Greater Boston. Tomorrow night, it's our annual Beep the Press year in review. We look at the strange bedfellows of the press and politicians, the made by the media shooting stars, the year's media copas, and all the lost causes. All that tomorrow at 7 on Emily Rooney, good night.