Little Note / Long Remember

             

Seven score and ten years ago Abraham Lincoln gave what is arguably his most famous, arguably the United States most famous, and perhaps arguably the World’s most famous speech, providing you’re prepared to do a lot of arguing.  The Gettysburg Address was delivered those 150 years ago, in under two minutes after the first speaker of the day went on for two hours.

            Ken Burns, the documentarian who made an unequalled Civil War documentary along with an East Coast biased baseball documentary, has started a website called learntheaddress.org where anyone can upload of video of themselves reciting the famous speech.

            People are doing it from couches and classrooms, from the offices of politicians and the studios of pundits, from California to the New York Islands, on cell phone videos and classroom audio/video equipment to major network studio cameras, and from modest homes to the halls of power.

            There are literally hundreds of videos and no real search function so you have to either peruse by most recent, by state, or alphabetical.  I watched dozens of them and have compiled my list of those that I thought merited some attention.  Remember these are from the ones I actually watched.

Worst performance by a professional is actress Alyssa Milano who didn’t bother to memorize it.

Ken Burns himself delivers it like a lecture; ticking off each point as if he were going down a list.

President George Bush recites it like a student in an elementary school classroom, likely garnering him a solid B.

President Carter starts out strong but seems to tire near the end of his minute and a half rendition.  But he is pushing ninety.

Bill Clinton delivers it like most of his speeches while President, with practiced sincerity for something written by someone else.

Barry Obama sounds like he’s a preacher delivering it from a pulpit, like most of his speeches.

Although I wasn’t a fan, I would have liked to have seen Ronald Reagan’s take.  He could speechify. 

While I like most of Louis C. K.’s humor, his delivery of the speech comes across like a shadow of President Bush’s; classroom recital, but he’d likely be lucky to get a C.

TV news host Rachel Maddow gives a good reading.  Too bad it sounds like someone is announcing bus arrivals in the background.

Most mysterious video is Red Sox / World Series hero Shane Victorino who shows up in a compilation but not as an individual clip.

Best headgear goes to Jon Jarvis, Director of the National Park Service for his Smokey Bear hat.

Best amateur “performance” goes to Tip Scarry for his updated presentation and prolog.  He gets a second mention for coolest name.

Worst video is the one that just came up with some text that said “404 Error.  Content not found.”  Of course that might have more to do with my Internet connection.

Best Background goes to Lily Ward of Ohio who did it in front of a Lord of the Rings movie poster for some reason.  Maybe she thought it was originally a speech by Aragorn to rally troops before the gates of Mordor.

But the best and most professional performance, in my opinion, was Conan O’Brien.  His reading sounds like he knows exactly what each sentence, each word, means and he gives what feels like the correct emphasis on the correct word in each one of those sentences.  It’s such a quality reading, again in my opinion, that you can forgive him for mispronouncing the third “cannot.”

Consecrate.