Thursday, November 18, 2004

Show Me a Rose

Hey, remember I mentioned that the magnificent voice of Norman Rose could be heard on a National Lampoon record called "Deteriorata"? Well, reader Dan Hayes informs me that it is possible to hear it online, right this very minute. For those of you too young or drugged-out to recall, this is a parody of "Desiderata," a record that enjoyed a brief, inexplicable success around 1971. It consisted of the ancient poem being read by one-time late night talk show host Les Crane, backed by haunting music. The NatLamp parody was written by Tony Hendra, who's probably best known as the manager in This is Spinal Tap and the music was by Christopher Guest, who's probably best known as one of the stars of This is Spinal Tap. I think but do not guarantee that the female back-up vocals were done primarily by Melissa Manchester.

Anyway, none of those folks is as important at the moment as the main voice, which was Norman Rose in all his glory. Wouldn't you like to sound like that? Could anyone possibly say no to you about anything if you sounded like that? Run a guy for president who has that voice and all the Diebold machines in the world couldn't deny him the White House. Here's the link to a Flash animation version of "Deteriorata."

By the way: Frank Buxton, who knows everything about show business, informs me that Mr. Rose's presence in the movie of The Front was especially significant. Rose, he says, was among the many actors blacklisted in the fifties, as depicted in said film. I knew a lot of the performers in The Front, like Zero Mostel and Herschel Bernardi, had been blacklisted. Didn't know that about Norman Rose.

• Posted at 8:27 PM · LINK

Stilled Voices

Sorry to have to report the passing of another great voice...and I wish I could find an audio of Norman Rose to link to, because a lot of you would go, "Oh, that guy!" Mr. Rose had one of the richest, most magnificent sounds of any actor who plied that trade. The obits — like this one [Los Angeles Times, registration required] are noting that he did the voiceovers in the Juan Valdez coffee commercials, and supplied the voice of God in Woody Allen's film, Love and Death. Actually, I think he spoke for God more often than Pat Robertson and I remember him from a couple of memorable jobs, on-camera and off.

One was the National Lampoon record, "Deteriorata," which parodied the treacly "Desiderata" poem/song. Another was his role as Woody Allen's lawyer in the closing scenes of The Front. I seem to also recall him doing a number of great voiceovers for commercial parodies on Saturday Night Live. I never met him but I always thought he did splendid work, and it's nice to think that right about now, God is telling him, "Thanks for making me sound good."

While we're at it: Though we told you here several days ago that the very funny Mr. Dayton Allen had passed away, it took 'til last night for this sad news to make it to the wire services and newspapers. Here's a report in The Los Angeles Times and here's one from The New York Times. One other great moment of Dayton's career I recall was the time Groucho Marx was the celebrity guest on the game show, I've Got A Secret. The panel was blindfolded and Groucho's "secret" was that he wasn't answering their questions. Dayton Allen, who did a great Groucho impersonation and who was also a first-rate ad-libber, was speaking for him.

It was a very funny spot. Maybe someone at Game Show Network will think to haul that one out and air it soon as a tribute to Mr. Allen. And I imagine Dr. Demento will be playing "Deteriorata" this weekend on his show that I can't seem to find on my radio dial.

• Posted at 1:31 PM · LINK

Briefly Noted...

Also here in the Washington Post, it says the founder of the Conservative watchdog group, Accuracy in Media, has died. Sounds like another typical left-wing lie to me.

• Posted at 10:38 AM · LINK

Today's Political Rant

According to this article [Washington Post, registration may be required], the Bush administration has a whole pile of plans to revamp the tax codes of this nation. One involves eliminating the deduction of state and local taxes on federal income tax returns.

Okay, would any of the Conservative readers of this site like to argue that this is not a tax hike? It certainly would be if a Democrat proposed it. In fact, it would be an example of how the individual making the proposal just loved raising taxes.

Another proposal would eliminate the business tax deduction for employer-provided health insurance. In other words, it will cost your employer more to insure you. That's not only a tax hike on business but a powerful incentive to cut back on providing health insurance. At the same time, other proposals would shield more and more investment income and dividends (i.e., money earned mostly by wealthier folks) from being taxed at all.

You wonder how much of Bush's "base" in middle-class America understood that this is what they were voting for.

• Posted at 10:32 AM · LINK

EC for Me, See?

Anyone with the slightest interest in EC Comics will want a copy of a new documentary produced and directed by Chip Selby. It's called, like that comic company's most famous horror title, Tales From the Crypt, and it features rare old documentary footage plus new interviews with the folks who created EC Comics, important filmmakers and authors who were inspired by them, and me. Yeah, I'm in there...but if you can stomach the story about the baseball game with human innards for equipment, you can watch a couple of talking head interviews with me. Chip's fine effort is airing on a couple of cable channels but the best way to experience it is to go to his website and order the DVD, which includes loads of extra footage. It's about time someone did something like this, and Chip sure did it right.

• Posted at 1:09 AM · LINK

Blast to the Past

The Save Disney website is full of news about that company, most of it spun to the POV of the ousted Roy Disney. His side makes a good point with this photo essay that compares the Tomorrowland section of Disneyland as it now stands to how it looked in Walt's day.

• Posted at 12:24 AM · LINK