Sunday, June 22, 2003

Shameless Appeal for Loot

We interrupt this weblog for a commercial...

As you may notice, I have little buttons over in the margin which you can click on and make a financial contribution to this website. You can go to Amazon.Com via our link and we then receive a small percentage of whatever you spend over there. Or you can just donate cash to us via PayPal. Since I first set this up, a lot of you have shown your generosity and sent some very nice amounts my way.

Not one cent of this money, I assure you, has gone for anything serious. I use it to pay for toys and books and silly stuff I purchase on eBay. And I spend a chunk of it making donations to other websites that I visit. I am a big believer in the philosophy that you get a better Internet with more enjoyable content if you tip well.

That was the wind-up. Here comes the pitch...

I am about to make a large purchase not on eBay but on a similar service. For reasons too complex to explain, I would like to finance as much of it as possible through donations to this site...so I'm asking for money. A lot of websites have been doing this lately, saying that the proprietor may not be able to continue supplying free content if the site doesn't bring in some cash. I'm not saying that. I'll keep doing this, either way. I just want to see if all the hours I spend doing this can get me a piece of high-tech hardware I want to purchase.

So please donate via PayPal. Or at least click on our Amazon link and go there and make a big purchase. Thanks!

• Posted at 11:06 PM · LINK

Doonesbury Bleeped

It's been way too long since some hysterical newspaper decided to not run a Doonesbury strip or made some sort of editorial "correction." We hear that The Westchester/Rockland NY Journal News deleted Bill Bennett's name (and therefore, the entire point) from today's installment. Knowing Bennett, he probably bet they'd run it intact.

• Posted at 10:17 PM · LINK

Another One of These...

Here's a news item I just came across. In case you don't want to click and read the thing (you don't have to), here's the first paragraph...

An anti-pornography campaigner, who heads France’s broadcasting authority, has been accused of attending sadomasochistic orgies and conniving in the murder of a transvestite prostitute who threatened to expose him and other pillars of the establishment in the city of Toulouse.

Of course, I have no idea if this guy is guilty or is being framed or what. But doesn't this kind of thing come out about an amazing percentage of anti-pornography crusaders? Must be all that research.

• Posted at 10:10 PM · LINK

Correction

In an earlier post, I gave Don Giller all the credit for organizing a field trip of Letterman fans. Don writes...

I didn't organize the get-together; that was handled by two women named Traci and Renee. They've been doing this for four years now, and all credit should go to them.

So all credit (and my apology) to Traci and Renee. Everything else I said about Don is true.

• Posted at 10:00 PM · LINK

Budget Stuff

Political weblogs spend a lot of time arguing over which political party is more responsible with regard to how they handle our money. Avedon Carol has prepared a summary of some of this information and some of the erroneous claims. Here it is.

• Posted at 9:57 PM · LINK

Al Honored

Tomorrow afternoon, the Martin Beck Theater in New York will officially be renamed The Al Hirschfeld Theater.

This was decided last year but they decided to wait until his 100th birthday to make the changeover. They figured, "He'll be there. After all, he's only 99 years old. Not much chance of him dying and not being around to see it."

But at least he knew it was going to happen. I think it would be nice if some graffiti artist would sneak over there when no one's looking and spray-paint NINAs all over the walls.

• Posted at 9:34 PM · LINK

A Frank Critique

Barney Frank ventures his opinion of the new Nathan Lane sitcom, which is about an openly gay congressman.

• Posted at 8:38 PM · LINK

Comic Artist Website of the Day

When the strip Bloom County first appeared, I tried to not like it. Honest, I did. It looked like an inept rip-off of Doonesbury which (then) wasn't all that well drawn in the first place. Worse, the first Bloom County gag I read was a switch on a joke I recognized from Doonesbury. But eventually, Berkeley Breathed developed his own, distinct characters and won me over with his cleverness. So I avidly collected his books and am proud to direct you to his website.

• Posted at 8:29 PM · LINK

Nudie Site

Despite his name, James Nudie had nothing to do with naked people. Quite the opposite. He was a tailor who founded a clothing store featuring the best in flamboyant western wear and who managed to become a local celebrity of Southern California. Mr. Nudie himself passed away in 1984 but the business lives on, and there's a lot about his life and celebrity at the website for Nudies Rodeo Tailors. Check out the various online "museums" — especially the gallery of photos of Nudie with celebrities, most of whose names are spelled wrong.

• Posted at 6:14 PM · LINK

Comedy Store Memories

UPDATE: Earlier today, I posted a long message in this space with memories of The Comedy Store, and going to see folks like Sam Kinison and Eddie Murphy perform there. It got to be too long for the format of this weblog so I've moved it over to our NOTES from me section. If you click this link, you'll be whisked over there...to a page that contains the full text of the post which used to be in this spot. Thank you.

• Posted at 2:47 PM · LINK

Seeing Dave

Over in the alt.fan.letterman newsgroup, there's a dedicated group of Dave fans and a Letterman authority named Don Giller. Someone really ought to throw some money at this guy to compile the definitive Letterman reference book. For example, after Tom Arnold and Tom Green guest-hosted The Late Show recently, someone innocently asked how many other "Toms" had guested with Dave and were therefore possible as guest hosts if the pattern were to continue. About four seconds later, "Donz" (that's Giller's handle) had responded with: Tom Agna, Tom Arnold, Tom Amberry, Tom Boleen, Tom Brokaw, Tom Cavanaugh, Tom Cruise, Tom Dolan, Tom Dreesen, Tom Gates, Tom Green, Tom Hanks, Tom Harkin, Tom Jones, Tom Papa, Tom Ryan, Tom Scott, Tom Snyder, Tom Waits and Tom Wolfe.

Recently, DonZ organized a group-outing, arranging for a couple dozen folks — Letterman fans who found one another, mostly via that newsgroup, to convene in New York, attend a taping, get a backstage tour, visit with folks who work on the show, etc. A very nice gesture on his part. One of those who attended was a lady who I think is named Shirlee but who goes under the newsgroup name of "Foxyscribe." She had an interesting day that day, and she posted this account of it on the Letterman newsgroup. I thought it was such a nice little story — especially the end part — that I thought I'd call everyone's attention to it. I'm a sucker for reading about selfless acts — Don's little gift to folks he met via the Internet as well as the heroes in Foxyscribe's tale.

• Posted at 1:57 PM · LINK

Not Too Funny

Sad article about the state of the Comedy Store and its proprietor, Mitzi Shore. Both seem to have passed their prime and this piece probably won't help.

For a couple of years, I was around the Comedy Store a few nights a month, usually just to hang out with comedians I knew, since I never found it very comfortable as a paying attendee. There was always a Tourist Trap feel to the place, and parking has always been a pain. But there were occasional periods when the line-up of comics was so strong, you almost didn't mind. (The parking at local comedy clubs has always been rough. I always felt that if someone were to open a place with an actual self-park lot, they'd own the business.)

With new comics being showcased on Comedy Central and other venues, I doubt the Store can ever again be what it once was. But if the campaign to save the place brings in some of the top people to perform, it might well be worth hassling the parking again. Maybe.

• Posted at 1:46 AM · LINK

By the Numbers...

So...how many artifacts were looted from Iraq's National Museum of Antiquities? Well, it depends not on which newspaper you read but on when you read it...

Looters at Iraq's National Museum of Antiquities pillaged and, perhaps, destroyed an archive of more than 100,000 cuneiform clay tablets — a unique and priceless trove of ancient Mesopotamian writings that included the "Sippar Library," the oldest library ever found intact on its original shelves. — Washington Post, April 18

Despite scattered rumors of artifacts turning up from Tehran to Paris, not a single one of the 90,000 or 120,000 or 170,000 plundered artifacts — no one knows for sure how many — is known to have been offered for sale anywhere in the world. — Washington Post, April 23

The museum was indeed heavily looted, but its Iraqi directors confirmed today that the losses at the institute did not number 170,000 artifacts as originally reported in news accounts. Actually, about 33 priceless vases, statues and jewels were missing. — Washington Post, June 9

U.S. and Iraqi officials have confirmed the theft of at least 6,000 artifacts from Iraq's National Museum of Antiquities during a prolonged looting spree as U.S. forces entered Baghdad two months ago, a leading archaeologist said yesterday. — Washington Post, June 21

Across the Internet, the actual amount of looting is being debated as proving something about the war effort. The anti-Bush folks have seized upon the higher numbers as evidence of incompetence or neglect or something of the sort. The pro-Bush people have decided that the 33 number must be the truth and are calling the anti-Bushies liars and all sorts of names for believing the earlier reports which almost everyone believed. And of course, neither group has any way of knowing which accounts (if any) are correct. Everyone's just grabbing for whichever news story serves their purpose and using it to bludgeon the other guy. And they'll believe what they believe as long as they live.

• Posted at 1:19 AM · LINK