Turning over a new Leaf

On Friday afternoon, Rob sent me the YouTube video clip of Joaquin Phoenix on Letterman, and if you haven't seen it by now, you must check it out. I warn you, though, you will be uncomfortable. After 10 seconds of watching it at work, I raced into our sales department, announcing that I could not see this alone and someone had to join me so we could cringe together.

It seems Joaquin is giving up his acting career to become a hip hop artist, but he is also giving up his interview career to become a hostile vegetable. All over the web and probably the world, people are trying to figure out whether this is a stunt or if the man who was once Leaf Phoenix has just gone mental.

But what I'm wondering is, if it is a stunt or a joke, what's the punch line? There's not really anything funny about branching into a music career--though if you've also seen the clip of Joaquin performing his music at a Vegas club (and falling off the stage), you will admit that there was something comical about the hopping and the hand flapping. Perhaps we will discover that he's making a comment about people who think that rapping is easy and that anyone can do it. Or that he's simply preparing for an upcoming role.

So there it is, your options are a) joke--and who's going to be laughing? b) stunt--and he does have our attention c) new career path, complete with attitude--and possibly drug--problem

We'll see what happens, but Joaquin, if you're serious, you just might want to lighten up a little about it.

By the way, guess who else thinks he could have a career as a rapper? My father. Yes, Joe often brings up the fact that it doesn't take much skill to rap and speculates that, given a chance, he'd be pretty good at it. Because he can breathe and talk.