Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Today's Video Link

A few weeks ago here — here, in fact — we were talking here about how the Monty Python TV series made its way onto American television. Here's a relevant relic: A videotape from a pledge break on the PBS station in Dallas. It's from 1975 and it's not complete but it's a rare interview from that era with Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam, Michael Palin and Graham Chapman. As you'll see, it ends abruptly as Terry Jones is about to explain about "Owl Stretching Time," which was an early but rejected name for the series but you might enjoy what comes before...

• Posted at 10:30 PM · LINK

Update

The appearance of Neal Adams on Coast to Coast appears to have been moved to tomorrow night.

• Posted at 6:15 PM · LINK

Neal on the Radio

Ever listen to George Noory's radio program, Coast to Coast? That's the one that always seems to have someone on who's convinced that robots are stealing their luggage or that shifting glaciers will soon be running us all down on the freeways. On tonight's broadcast, a featured guest will be comic book legend Neal Adams, who will (I assume) be discussing his theories about the construction of our universe. You can see some of them presented with impressive graphics at Neal's website.

I've got to run out to a recording session of my own (they're doing commentary tracks and special features for the forthcoming release of the Dungeons and Dragons cartoons on DVD) so I haven't the time to research this better. But I think you can either listen live to the radio show at this website or hear it archived there after the fact. You can also probably turn on your radio but that's the low-tech way to do it. Thanks to Todd Bowland for the Head's Up on this.

• Posted at 9:15 AM · LINK

Stacks of Wax

Ladies...are you tired of cleaning corners? Or being cornered by some lecherous acquaintance? Then maybe you need to live in a round building.

And soon, that may be possible. The historic Capitol Records building, located not far from Hollywood and Vine in Hollywood, California is up for sale and the interested parties are all talking Condo Conversion. Designed by Wilson Becket and built in 1956 as the home of the most powerful record company on the west coast, it was intended to resemble a stack of records...reportedly, a suggestion made by Nat King Cole, who recorded for the label. For a long time there, you either recorded for Capitol or you just quite weren't in the music business.

The 13-story building always kind of said "Hollywood." In fact, there's a red light atop the building that blinks on and off all night, spelling out "Hollywood" in Morse Code — a fact known only to any very old telegraph operators who happen to wander by. It's a structure that has been much photographed and of course, whenever anyone makes a movie about a disaster in Los Angeles, it's one of the first things we see destroyed.

I guess I'm glad no one is proposing its implosion. There are precious few things in Hollywood worth snapping a picture of, and tourists are always disappointed that the physical area is so lacking in glamorous sights. I don't think I ever walked through the intersection of Hollywood and Vine without noticing some outta-towners with cameras standing there and muttering, "This is it?" I used to think the Chamber of Commerce should hire a good Marilyn Monroe impersonator and have her stand there over a grate with air blowing up her skirt...just to give shutterbugs something to shoot. But at least the Capitol Records building was just up the street, and it looks like it'll remain that way. So the tourists will have something to take pictures of, and all they'll have to do is explain to their children what a "record" was.

• Posted at 9:02 AM · LINK