Monday, February 2, 2004

Recommended Reading

Paul Krugman notes that two years ago, the Bush administration projected the 2004 deficit would be $14 billion and now they're projecting $521 billion. Which probably means it'll be even higher than that.

• Posted at 8:04 PM · LINK

Groundhog Day

Here, written by Timothy Noah, is a clever piece about the holiday we're celebrating today.

• Posted at 6:25 PM · LINK

Comic Artist Website of the Day

Yeah, I'm starting this up again. Ed Hannigan's name may not be familiar to you but if you read DC or Marvel comics for a few decades there, you saw some pretty snappy covers that were designed by him. He usually didn't do the finished art but he did a rough sketch. And there were times when they should have thrown out the finished cover and printed Ed's rough. It's not fully stocked yet but he has a website where you can see some of what he does and did.

• Posted at 4:56 PM · LINK

Aged Sherry

In 1967, the musical Sherry! opened at the Alvin Theater in New York to withering reviews. The show limped along for 65 performances then closed and has not been seen since. Like many fabled flops, it prompted much Broadway talk: Was it as bad as they said? Could the source material have possibly yielded a great show? The source material was The Man Who Came to Dinner by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, one of the most successful non-musical plays ever. There were those who said that what Kaufman and Hart wrote was so perfectly self-contained that any alteration, even the addition of songs, could not help but diminish it. Others said that the play had a sound structure so songs could have enchanced it, had they been the right songs. It's not the kind of debate that could possibly have a right or wrong answer. Adding songs turned Pygmalion into My Fair Lady but there have also been plenty of great plays that were turned into rotten musicals. In any case, once Sherry had faded from memory and was unavailable for viewing, the debates about its merits died down.

They may start anew since Sherry! is about to have its first-ever cast recording...and what a cast it is! Nathan Lane, who was so wonderful playing Sheridan Whiteside in the recent Broadway revival of the play (available on DVD) again plays Sheridan Whiteside. Other roles are filled by Bernadette Peters, Carol Burnett, Tommy Tune, Tom Wopat, Phyllis Newman, Mike Myers and others equally talented. This of course is a studio recording, never performed on any stage, only in a recording studio. But if the songs of Sherry! have any merit at all, it ought to be evident with that crew.

Why is this show being recorded now? And with so many top stars? It probably has to do with the fact that the author of the book and lyrics for Sherry! was James Lipton. That's right: The same James Lipton who hosts Inside the Actors Studio and who gets burlesqued from time to time on Saturday Night Live. His newfound stardom seems to have gotten this project off the ground, and I believe most of the principles have been interviewed on his Bravo series. (Lipton also takes a role in the recording, that of the Doctor.) Anyway, I'm eager to hear it. If you are, you can advance order a copy of the CD from Amazon by clicking right about...here.

• Posted at 4:34 PM · LINK

Selective Outrage

F.C.C. Commissioner Michael Powell says, "I am outraged at what I saw during the halftime show of the Super Bowl. Like millions of Americans, my family and I gathered around the television for a celebration. Instead, that celebration was tainted by a classless, crass and deplorable stunt. Our nation's children, parents and citizens deserve better."

I gather he's talking about the fleeting shot of one of Janet Jackson's breasts but he could have been talking about the endless procession of ads for pills that induce erections.

However, the chances of Michael Powell taking umbrage or action against a pharmaceutical company are about the same as the chances of me playing in next year's Super Bowl. And winning.

• Posted at 3:59 PM · LINK

Recommended Reading

Here's Eric Alterman making the case that George W. Bush was AWOL from the National Guard.

I must admit that I am uneasy about this kind of thing. It kind of creeps me out that so much of presidential politics is about digging into a candidate's past and finding things to charge him with, long after the charge can be proven or disproven, and sometimes long after it should matter. On the the other hand, politics is a game and that's the way the game is played. I never thought "draft dodging" quite fit what Bill Clinton did to avoid military service but his opponents hammered away on that theme. It must be irresistible for Democratic leaders to now throw this "AWOL" business in the face of the same opponents, especially since they know we're going to see all sorts of things dredged up from their nominee's past.

It all raises the old question of whether it's ignoble to throw mud back at the person who's throwing mud at you. You'd like to think your candidate would be above that kind of thing. But then again, you'd also like to see your candidate win.

• Posted at 3:07 PM · LINK

Sid Couchey on Radio

You know who Sid Couchey is? Not surprising. He was one of the anonymous artists who drew comics for Harvey like Richie Rich and Little Dot. He did thousands of pages of some of the most beloved funnybooks of all time and I don't think he ever got his name on any of them. You can hear an interview with him over at the NPR website on this page. Also note there are several other comic-related interviews there. And if you don't feel like listening to Sid, here's a newspaper article on the man. We love it when guys like that get a little recognition.

• Posted at 12:09 PM · LINK