Tuesday, June 7, 2005

Semi-Recommended Reading

The prevailing theory about the Watergate break-in seems to be that Nixon and his men were paranoid/worried (pick one) about revelations involving Howard Hughes. Nixon had been embarrassed before about his connections with the eccentric billionaire, most notably in the 1962 California gubernatorial election. So, the assumption goes, the Watergate burglars were dispatched to wiretap the phones of Democratic honcho Larry O'Brien, who was a former Hughes aide and was therefore in a position to know a lot of Hughes-Nixon dirt.

I've never completely bought this bit of conventional wisdom. Maybe it's true but it seems to me that Richard Nixon didn't need a specific reason to spy on his enemies. The mere fact that they were his enemies was reason enough. In any case, one of the major articles on his relationship with Hughes and how it may have figured into Watergate ran in Playboy magazine in 1976 and it's available, probably for a limited time, on that publication's website. Here's the link and remember that if you click in the wrong place, you might catch a glimpse of a naked woman.

• Posted at 10:55 PM · LINK

Stupid TiVo Tricks

If you own a TiVo, this page may be of interest to you.

• Posted at 10:38 PM · LINK

Coming Soon...

It's five weeks until this year's Comic-Con International in San Diego. Remember how jammed everything was last year with 87,000+ people in attendance? Well, every year has had a bigger turnout than the year before...so what does that tell you?

I don't want to scare anyone but last year, the streets and parking lots and restaurants were jammed...and that was with nearby Petco Park standing empty. This year, the San Diego Padres are playing the Arizona Diamondbacks there Thursday evening, Friday evening, Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon, and I wouldn't count on a low turnout. Those two teams are currently neck-and-neck for the championship in the National League West. So if you're a Padres fan, that's the match-up you want to see.

If you're going to need a parking space at the con, I'd start looking now.

You're going to want to get there early so you can see all or most of the fifteen panels I'm moderating. (Fifteen panels? In four days? Is this man crazy?) I'll try to get the schedule up here soon but know that the Golden/Silver Age Panel will focus on DC Comics from 1940 to 1970 and will feature Gene Colan, Arnold Drake, Sy Barry, Ramona Fradon, Nick Cardy and Murphy Anderson. We'll have our annual Cartoon Voice Actor panel, including a number of folks who've never been there before — Charlie Adler and E.G. Daily, f'rinstance. There'll be a game of Quick Draw!, a couple of tributes to the late Will Eisner, a panel on Comic Book Weblogs, one-on-one interviews with a number of veteran comic creators, a 40th Anniversary look at A Charlie Brown Christmas, a Jack Kirby Tribute Panel that will make news, a spotlight on Gary Owens, and a number of other fun events. If you want to have the best possible time at the San Diego Con, just follow me around.

Do not ask me about procuring a hotel room in town during the convention. There may still be some but I don't know where.

I'll post some tips in the next few weeks. It's going to be terrific. Crowded but terrific.

• Posted at 10:33 PM · LINK

An Interesting Statistic

George W. Bush's approval rating is now a full twenty points lower than Bill Clinton's was on the day he was impeached.

• Posted at 9:54 PM · LINK

Tuesday Afternoon

A rushed day, running around to doctors with my mother...who's doing much better, thank you. Here are a few loose ends and updates...

Thanks to all those who sent donations after my little appeal the other day. When I get some time (ha!), I'm going to try and set up a little private "extra" area on this site for folks who've contributed to its upkeep, and all of you will be included.

I am told that Chita Rivera did cuss (the "s" word) on the Tony Awards when she accidentally killed John Kander. I assumed she hadn't because there was no audience reaction, but I guess Broadway audiences don't really care much. Also, several folks have written me that Nathan Lane's shaven dome was because of the recently-shot prison sequence for the end of the movie of The Producers. (And boy, I wish they wouldn't call it that. It'll just confuse people. I don't know how many times I've seen some home video ad or purchase that mixed up the non-musical version of Little Shop of Horrors and the musical one directed by Frank Oz. If I were the guy in charge, the movie version of the musical of The Producers would be called Springtime for Hitler with "The Producers" in a sub-title.

I have, alas, confirmed the death of comic book writer and cartoonist John Albano. I'll try to post a more formal obit later today.

And I'm sorry to hear of the passing of a very classy lady named Anne Bancroft. I can't say that I knew her well but the few times I was around her, she seemed just as delightful in person as you'd expect. And she and Mel sure made a fine, loving couple.

• Posted at 3:08 PM · LINK

My Reputation At Steak

For years, I've told my pal Earl Kress that the best steak house in America is Peter Luger's in Brooklyn. Don't think it isn't, just because it didn't make the list of The Original Great Steak Houses of North America or The Top 10 U.S.D.A. Prime Steakhouses or any of those other bogus surveys that they put together for the in-flight magazines. Every time I fly, I stow my laptop, buckle my seat belt and then immediately check the magazine to see if by some fluke of honesty, they've put Peter Luger's in its rightful position atop the lists. That it is nowhere in evidence proves that the lists are just advertising scams and that the listed eateries paid their way onto those rosters. The way I see it, Peter Luger's is so good, they don't have to pay to have someone say so.

Earl has heard me say this so often that on his current trip to New York (this week), he decided he had to try it for himself. For a moment there, I thought my bluff had been called and that I'd so oversold the place that it could only disappoint. I imagined Earl calling me in a fury, yelling that he'd shlepped all the way out to Brooklyn on my say-so and discovered that it was not a life-affirming, deeply-moving and multi-orgasmic experience; that it was just steak.

Last night, when he got back to the hotel, Earl phoned and said, "I've just had the best meal of my life." I feel as proud as if I'd picked out the Porterhouse and cooked the meat myself.

• Posted at 2:57 PM · LINK

Great Moments in TV Journalism

At this moment on Court TV, the discussion topic is if Michael Jackson goes to prison and if the rumors are true that a portion of his nose is a prosthetic piece, will he be allowed to have it in his cell or will they take his nose away?

• Posted at 2:37 PM · LINK