Monthly Archives: July 2012

Here's one of those stories that none of us like for basic, human reasons: A man named Caleb Medley who was seriously injured in the Aurora shootings, has a pregnant spouse and is without health insurance. For those who oppose the Affordable Health Care Act (aka "Obamacare"), such stories present a political problem, as well. What are we as a supposedly-compassionate nation going to do for such people?

To say that private charity can help them is one of those "Let them eat cake" moments. If it does, it will be because of the sensational nature of this story. If instead of a crazed shooter in a movie theater the exact same injuries had been sustained in an auto accident, there would not be much of an outpouring.

And to say that Republicans will "repeal and replace" is to count on what won't be a viable option for many years, too many to help those now suffering. That is, if it ever happens. Right now, Republicans don't seem to have much interest in crafting a real alternative plan for the "replace" part. I suspect that's because if they ever did propose one that might work, it would have too much in common with what they'd be replacing and are presently condemning.

Anyway, the link is to a sad story but there's one happy note: The then-pregnant mother, Katie Medley, has delivered a healthy son. If you would like to donate to help this family, this webpage seems to be the place to go. I sent some bucks. If you've been thinking of donating to support this site, please send it there instead.

Just fixed a funny typo in the previous item. I wrote "…as with many programs of my mouth" instead of "…as with many programs of my youth." Dunno how that happened. The "m" key isn't that near the "y" key.

The other day I embedded an episode of the Yancy Derringer TV show. I remember this show quite fondly…though as with many programs of my youth, my memory recalls something with a much bigger budget and higher production values. As you may know, I'm convinced someone went out and refilmed all the old Man from U.N.C.L.E. shows to make them look cheap and tacky. They couldn't have looked that way when we first saw them.

I also recall some elaborate fight scenes and stunts on Yancy Derringer. Publicity for the series sometimes asserted that its star, Jock Mahoney, did all his own stunts. He had a background in that area and I seem to recall him (or allegedly him) doing a few that you might not want your star doing if you had more episodes to film. But mostly, the show had a lot of talk…and sometimes when it looked like things were heading for a knockdown-drag out brawl, Yancy's faithful companion Pahoo would step in with a well-pointed knife and scare the potential brawlers into keeping their hands off Mr. Derringer and his nice white suit.

Our pal Bob Elisberg noted some interesting names in the credits. The story was co-written by the co-creator of the series, Mary Loos. As Bob notes to me in an e-mail, "She was the niece of Anita Loos, who wrote (among many things), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

Also, the recurring character of Madame Francine was played by Frances Bergen, wife of Edgar Bergen and mother of Candice. Meanwhile, the lass from Ireland was Maggie Mahoney — wife of series star, Jock. By a previous husband, she was the mother of Sally Field!

And as many have told me but I didn't know when I embedded, the complete Yancy Derringer is coming out in October on DVD. It's a four-disc set with all 34 episodes and you can advance order it (as I just did) for $31.44 at this link. As there seems to be a dearth of decent Yancy Derringer photos on the web, I stole the above image from the box cover.

I'm eager to see which theme song will be on this DVD or if both will be represented. There were two — the classy instrumental that you heard on the video I embedded and a thing called "The Ballad of Yancy Derringer" that I gather was cobbled up by someone who noticed how much money "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" had earned and how much it had benefited that TV series. You can hear the Derringer song here and it's quite awful. [Caution: That site may start playing it the instant you get there.]

I seem to remember it popping up on the second of the show's two seasons and maybe just in the reruns. But at some point, I think whoever was syndicating the show edited it into the end credits of every episode…or maybe they just stuck it on one set of end titles and aired that one on every off-network rerun, making all but one episode's end credits wrong. I hope the DVD set has them all correct because as Elisberg noted, they can be quite interesting.

It's always a treat to see any film footage of my two favorite performers…and "behind the scenes" film is especially rare. This is six and a half minutes of unedited, silent home movie footage shot on the set of Should Married Men Go Home?, a silent film that Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy made in March of 1928. Even though there are no words, it speaks for itself…

My posts about illegible book designing continue to bring me messages like this one from a gent who asked that I withhold his name…

Regarding your recent posting about book design and illegible type, let me just say that, as a graphic designer myself, the key driver of this trend is the fact that most of my graphic designer peers and colleagues simply do not read. This is purely anecdotal on my part, but I've been in the field for 15 years and I'm personally appalled at the number of graphic designers who not only don't read for pleasure, but they usually don't even read the text which they are laying out. For most of them it's just a textural element whose sole purpose is to add visual interest to a layout.

The biggest offender of this is one of the former superstars of the field named David Carson who was really famous in the 1990s (at least, as famous as most graphic designers are likely to get). He used to work for surfing, skateboarding, and music magazines, and he was chiefly responsible for ushering the grunge type fad that defined much of that decade. I once saw him speak at an AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) event and he spoke of a story that he was once tasked with laying out for one of the magazines he was working for. He didn't like that particular story so he decided to set the type in a "dingbat" font (essentially a decorative pictograms font made up of stars, check marks, boxes, and a variety of other decorative elements). His view (and he was proud of this) was that since he didn't like the story and since he held it in contempt, he was going to make sure no one else could read it either.

This is obviously an extreme example, but the lack of respect that most designers have for the written word in general is very, very real.

On the phone to me the other day, a colleague said that as far as he was concerned, the worst thing that ever happened to book design — and I think he was talking about books relating to comic books — was the success of Chip Kidd. I said I thought Chip's designs were very imaginative and wonderful. The colleague said, "So do I. The trouble is that his success convinced a lot of designers without his skill that they needed to make themselves more important than the book."

I wouldn't blame Kidd but I think that's part of the problem there. On a TV show I worked on, we once had a costume designer who didn't want to read the script or hear what anyone else thought of how the characters should look. She told us she was just going to design whatever she thought looked good — never mind if it fit the story — because all she cared about was winning an Emmy and all the Emmy judges cared about (she insisted) was how the clothes looked, regardless of context.

This coming Sunday, I'm teaching a class in how to do voiceover work for animation.  It's a function of Women In Animation, a non-profit organization established in 1994 to promote the advancement of women working in the art and industry of animation. The class will more or less be in three parts. Part One will be a discussion of the business and we'll talk about demos and agents and getting work and most of all, how to arrive at a realistic view of what's possible and what ain't. I have this theory that the secret to success in any field is to find that sweet spot between Idealism and Pragmatism. Tip too much in either direction and you're in trouble. So we'll talk about how things really work instead of how you want them to work and that'll be the first part of the class.

Then Act Two will be reading scripts and discussing how to shape a character and how to work the material for all it's worth. Sometimes, you have to work it for more than it's worth, too.

For the grand finale, we'll have a little reception and maybe some Q-and-A with the person who is certainly the most important female voiceover artist in history and one of the most important in animation in any capacity…June Foray. We'll celebrate her recent win of her first Emmy Award and I'll try to get her to replicate the look on her face when they opened the envelope.

I have no idea how many have signed up for the class yet. Hopefully, somebody. But they haven't told me it's full so if you're in Los Angeles and interested, Click here for more details.

Someone sent me a disc filled with photos of old Las Vegas and while many images on it intrigue me, I find myself looking mainly at Who's Playing. This is from around 1964 (it says) and at the Sahara Hotel, you could go see Johnny Carson in the main room. This was back when he took week-long vacations from The Tonight Show and played Vegas. His act, they said, was quite unlike his Tonight Show monologues in that he went in for long stories and even closed with a sketch as "Deputy John," a kid show host who shows up for a live broadcast drunk one afternoon and ready to tell the kids some things they didn't expect to hear. His opening act, January Jones, is no kin (I assume) to the actress current on Mad Man. This January was a popular singer of the day who often played Vegas and was known for her sexy outfits and for the rather spectacular physique with which she filled them.

Before or after you saw Johnny, you could enjoy the $2.95 buffet (one of the higher-priced ones in town) or go catch insult comic Don Rickles in the lounge where he did four shows a night, ending about three in the morning.  And if you didn't like Johnny or Don, just wait around.  Pat Boone would be along in a week or so.  Wish I could have gone to Vegas then…although since I would have been 12 years old, I don't imagine they'd have let me in.

One of my favorite TV shows when I was a kid was Yancy Derringer. Mr. Derringer, played by Jock Mahoney, was a gentleman in New Orleans in 1868, shortly after the end of the Civil War. To maintain peace in town, he worked as an unpaid special agent of the City Administrator, handling delicate matters and criminal investigations. Accompanied by his silent Indian companion, Pahoo-Ka-Ta-Wah, Yancy had a knack for running into folks with problems and solving those problems before the half-hour was up. The show ran on CBS for two seasons, 1958-1959, but I think I discovered it in syndicated reruns right after it left the network. Here, in case you have a half-hour to spare, is an episode…

I mentioned here the other day that physicist Richard Muller, once the darling of those who insist Global Warming is bogus, now says it's real and that human activity is its main cause. Kevin Drum makes a good point…

…as near as I can tell, climate skeptics, including those who said they'd trust Muller's results no matter what they showed, haven't budged an inch since he published his initial papers last year. I doubt his new paper will change their minds either. That's no surprise, since this has long since ceased being a scientific controversy. Climate skeptics are skeptics because they don't like the idea of global warming, not because there's truly any evidence that it doesn't exist. It's politically inconvenient, economically inconvenient, and personally inconvenient, so they don't want to hear about it.

I think that's it. This is not about science. It's a battle between reality and denial. One friend of mine will never admit Climate Change might (might) be happening because that would mean Al Gore was right and we can't have that. As near as I can tell, the only basis my friend has for disbelieving Climate Change is Gore's advocacy. If Gore became a vocal crusader against man-on-dog sex, my friend would probably marry a cocker spaniel.

As you probably know if you care, I think the drive to block Gay Marriage (and full civil rights for anyone of any sexual persuasion) is a shameful exercise in fear and bigotry — fear, mostly. I also think it's being driven to a great extent by people who really don't care if folks with the same genitalia wed but find it a useful — and to a great extent, lucrative — crusade to promote. Does anyone think Mitt Romney really cares if gay people marry? Of course not. But there are votes and campaign contributions to be harvested there so he says what he says.

So maybe I should rush to join the boycott of Chick-Fil-A, the fast food chain whose owners donate beaucoup bucks to anti-gay causes and who serve tasty chicken sandwiches with a subtle undertext of Bible Thumping. But no. First off, one cannot boycott that which one does not patronize. Haven't set foot in a Chick-Fil-A in at least five years. I liked the few I visited in other cities enough but when they finally opened one in my neck of the woods — Sunset and Highland, to be exact — I decided I didn't like their food enough to brave the parking situation up there. So I drive by all the time with no yearning to stop in for a bite. Looks like it'll stay that way.

Also, I'm not big on boycotts and I usually feel they hurt the innocent bystanders — like in this case, minimum-wage Chick-Fil-A employees who didn't set these policies — more than they bring the bosses to their knees. Or they penalize suppliers or other businesses that became involved with Chick-Fil-A when this was not an issue. I guess I also don't like that folks are going to look at Chick-Fil-A reported sales the next few months and try to parse that data as some sort of valid referendum on Gay Marriage, which it won't be.

In an odd way, I like that the Chick-Fil-A people are at least open about their views. I'm sure a lot of the profits realized by my purchases at other business establishments find their way to causes I do not champion. Supposing I did have business with Chick-Fil-A and in protest, I took it away and started spending that money at Arby's. How do I know that Mr. Arby doesn't tithe 10% of the chain's profits to a group that wants to lower the age of consent to three? It's possible. I mean, we know they're not spending all their proceeds on meat.

So I'm against boycotting Chick-Fil-A and I'm really against the levers of government being used to prevent them from opening someplace just because of their owners' political views. I think people are wrong to oppose Gay Marriage but they have every right to oppose Gay Marriage. On the other hand, if they try to open a Carls Jr on my street, that should be blocked…not because its management supports right-wing causes but because their food is really, really awful. The last time I was in one, I asked if a certain sandwich on their menu could be made without the cheese. The kid at the counter said, "Oh, but the cheese is the only edible part of that one."

Many years ago, I was strolling down The Strip in Las Vegas around 3:45 in the afternoon and I was passing a grungy little casino called the Westward Ho, which was next door to the Stardust. As a point of reference, neither the 'Ho nor the Stardust are there anymore.  There are Ho's in Vegas but not the Westward kind.

Outside the smaller casino, there was a man imploring passers-by to come in and see the 4:00 show they had there. As another point of reference, there are no good shows that perform at four in the afternoon. I don't mean just in Las Vegas. I mean anywhere.

The one in question was "A Tribute to Wayne Newton." In Vegas, the way you pay tribute to someone is to do their act. They had a guy who kinda looked like Wayne Newton and he probably sounded a little like Wayne Newton. That, by the way, is pretty much the popular description of Wayne Newton these days.

Anyway, the barker (I guess you'd call him) outside stopped me and told me what a wonderful time I'd have if only I'd plunk down the bucks to come in and hear this guy performing all of The Midnight Idol's hits. He closed his sales pitch with "So, how about it, Sport? Show starts in ten minutes. There are some good seats available." I had the feeling all seats were available including some in the band and maybe "Wayne's" but I didn't have the time or the interest.

Plus there was this: Standing there in front of the Westward Ho, I could turn my eyes about 20 degrees and see the Stardust next door. And on the huge Stardust sign, it proclaimed the name of the superstar then appearing in the showroom there: Wayne Newton. Presumably, the real one.

In this world, there are some questions you just have to ask. I knew I was not the first person to ask this question or the second or the five hundredth…but I had to ask it because I knew the man had to have an answer for it and I wanted to hear what it would be. I asked the barker, "Why should I pay to see your Wayne Newton when I can walk across that parking lot and buy a ticket to see the real Wayne Newton?"

He said, "Our Wayne Newton is $14.95 and includes a buffet, Sport."

And I thought: You know, that's a pretty good answer.

I mean, the buffet was usually $5.95. The real Wayne was getting $49.95 per ticket. With tip, we'll call it fifty bucks. Now, let's say the imitation Wayne was only 20% as good as the genuine article. I don't think it would be that hard to be 20% as good as Wayne Newton. I can't sing at all and I'm at around 14%. If he's one-fifth as good as Wayne, you're getting $10.00 worth of Wayne Newton plus a $5.95 buffet — a $15.95 value — for $14.95. That's a better return on your money than Keno.

But that's only if you want to see Wayne Newton and I didn't. Didn't want to see the real one and didn't want to see a reasonable facsimile. I also wanted him to stop calling me "Sport" so I needed a way out. My eyes scanned a photo of the Newton doppelgänger and on it, his image was surrounded by the names of some of Wayne's big hits like "Daddy, Don't You Walk So Fast," "Red Roses for a Blue Lady" and "Shangri-La." I turned to the salesman and said, "I'm sorry but I can't go see a Wayne Newton impersonator who doesn't sing 'Danke Schoen.' That's, like, malpractice."

The barker looked around to make sure no one could hear him. No one could. Then he whispered to me, "He does 'Danke Schoen' as his surprise encore!"

I was telling this story to someone the other day and I wasn't sure if I'd told it here or not…but if I have, it's been a while. And it prompted me to try and figure out who that Wayne Newton impersonator was. I did a little Internet sleuthing and it might have been Rusty Davis, who still performs in casinos and other venues around the country. Here's a sample of Mr. Davis. I think he's more than 20% as good as Wayne Newton was then…and probably better than him these days…