Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Sign Language

The other day, I stopped in at a small shopping center and made a few purchases at an Office Depot. On my way out, I witnessed a curious scene: A couple in their thirties (I'm guessing) walked up to the door and looked puzzled, like they were not expecting to find an Office Depot there. They looked around, then they asked an employee near the entrance where the Chinese restaurant was. The employee said there was no Chinese restaurant in the shopping center. The couple was even more puzzled but they staggered away and headed back for their car.

I didn't think much of it until earlier today when I was driving by that same shopping center. I chanced to notice that the way the buildings were configured, one of them cast a thick, black shadow across the large Office Depot sign, which was not lit. With a large part of that sign in darkness, it looked roughly like this...

And I thought: I wonder if that couple thought they'd spotted a new restaurant called the Rice Pot.

• Posted at 9:46 PM · LINK

Tech Troubles

A number of folks — and I think they're all on Macs — have written to tell me they've been having trouble accessing this page for the last day or three. I haven't changed a thing so I'm guessing it has something to do with the embedded video links. I've just taken a few of them out to see if it makes a difference. If you're a person who was having trouble getting to this page lately and now you can, drop me a note and let me know. And tell me what kind of computer and browser you're using and whether you're having trouble accessing Cartoon Brew. Thanks.

• Posted at 8:12 PM · LINK

Online Audio Goodies

Bob Thompson was one of the great composers and arrangers of fifties pop music and also of commercial jingles. In the sixties, he wrote the music for a fun little record album called That Agency Thing, which was kind of an audio musical about the ad agency business. I gather it was mainly intended as a showpiece for the writing of Alan Alch, who wrote the sketches and lyrics. Mr. Alch was also a noted writer of jingles and TV themes (he composed the theme song for the Chuck Connors show, Branded). Together, they produced this catchy record that utilized the vocal skills of some top voice actors of the sixties — Byron Kane, June Foray, Paul Frees, Howie Morris and Herschel Bernardi. And yes, the mention of Mr. Bernardi in the previous item is what reminded me that I wanted to link to this.

I'm generally against the downloading of record albums on the Internet but since Mr. Thompson's company has put That Agency Thing on his website, I guess it's okay. You can listen to it or download it here.

Also, Bob Bergen (the current voice of Porky Pig) calls my attention to this page where one can listen to many an episode of The Mel Blanc Show, a radio program that Mel did in 1946 and 1947. As Bob notes, it's fascinating to hear so much of Mel flexing his comedy and vocal skills.

Mr. Bergen, by the way, will be a panelist on one of the Cartoon Voice panels I'm hosting at the Comic-Con International in San Diego. We have a good crop of actors who will be demonstrating how they do what they do. If you've never attended one of these, you've missed some of the best panels at the convention. Don't continue to make that mistake.

• Posted at 1:28 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

Here's a classic TV commercial from the late sixties...a spot selling Tootsie Roll Pops. It was originally a minute long but some time in the seventies, the Tootsie Roll people decided it was a darn good commercial and trimmed it from sixty seconds to thirty, which is the version here. I don't know who did the voices of the kid or the turtle but the owl was played by Paul Winchell and the announcer at the end is Herschel Bernardi.

• Posted at 12:13 AM · LINK