I guess I post too often on this site. Lately, whenever there's an eight hour gap between items that is not explainable by the occasional need to sleep, I get e-mails asking if I'm all right and if my mother is all right. We're both fine, thank you. I took her out this morning to do marketing, in fact. Then I went up to speak at The Afternoon of Remembrance, which is an annual event sponsored jointly by The Animation Guild and A.S.I.F.A., honoring everyone in the animation community who's passed away in the previous year. Then I came home and plunged back into a manuscript that needed (and still needs) a lot of my time.
Sporadic postings may be the norm for a while. I appreciate your concern, my friends, but please don't assume anything from a lack of material up here. It could mean I'm in a crisis situation but it more likely means I'm just plain busy, possibly even with something I like doing. That has been known to happen.
Yes, there is video of Julie Andrews making an appearance the other night in the Broadway show, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Go here to view it.
The Netflix site has quietly added a new option..."Watch Now." For certain movies, none of which appear to be recent releases, you can click on a button that will stream the film to you over the Internet. You need Windows XP or above (nope, no Mac service at this time) and you need to download their special viewer. You also, of course, need a speedy Internet connection, and the Netflix site will test yours and tell you how it qualifies. The quality of what you receive is way better than YouTube but a bit below watching a real DVD on your computer.
I'm not sure if this is available yet for all subscribers. If it's available to you, you need to go to the "Your Account" page and enable the feature. Right now, this is done by clicking a link that asks, "How can I watch movies instantly on my PC?" From there on, it's pretty simple, though it may upgrade your Windows Media Player in the process and also acquire a new digital license or two. A "watch now" option will then be added to the listings for movies that can be streamed this way, or you can browse the listings of just those films.
When you select a movie for viewing, the Netflix site begins sending it and in most cases, there will be a delay to give the stream a little "head start." I just tried having them send me The Bank Dick with W.C. Fields and as I'm typing this, the viewer is telling me the feature will start in seven minutes. I have a pretty fast Internet connection so you may experience an even greater delay. You can pause the playback but I don't believe you can just shut down, go back later and start where you left off. History suggests it won't be long before someone will be selling a piece of software that will enable you to capture the stream to your harddisk and keep the movie but right now, you can't do that.
The future of home video involves services like this, though it may be a while before a lot of people begin using them. Internet connections will need to be faster and the available films will have to be newer. Both these things will happen, plus it may soon be possible to have the film sent not to your computer but to your TiVo or other comparable device and with DVD quality. (Many cable companies are already offering something comparable.) Right now, the appeal seems as limited as the selections. I suppose if you were in a hotel room with a good Internet connection and you couldn't find anything you wanted to watch on TV, it would be ideal. Certainly, if no X-rated film company has started such a service for porn, there'll be one up and running within the hour.
If you're a Netflix subscriber, you might want to watch at least one movie this way now. You may not enjoy the film but you'll be able to experience the method of delivery that will probably soon lead to the worst strike in the history of the motion picture industry.
The video on this one is a little washed-out but it's watchable. This is a commercial for Funny Face instant drink mixes, which were introduced into the market in 1964, knocking Kool-Aid out of first place in the category of Unhealthy Things A Busy Mom Could Give Her Kids To Drink. I remember swigging the stuff down occasionally at friends' homes but not caring too much for it. Seemed like an awful thing to do to perfectly good water. I also remember one friend practically living off the stuff and being put into utter despair in '69 when the F.D.A. banned cyclamates (a form of artificial sweetener) and therefore, the Funny Face drinks made with it. Funny Face returned to shelves soon after with a different formula but it was never, my friend said, quite the same. Still, somehow, the product lived on into the early eighties.
I don't know when this commercial was done but it was after 1965. The first two years that Funny Face was out, the orange flavor was called Injun Orange and the cherry was Chinese Cherry, both depicted with racially insensitive caricatures. In '66, the orange became Jolly Olly Orange and the cherry became Choo Choo Cherry, and racial harmony was achieved, at least in the fruit community.
At least half of the voices of the characters in this commercial were done by Paul Frees. I think the grocer you see at the end is played by Grady Sutton, a doughfaced character actor who appeared in so many movies of the thirties, forties and fifties. Matter of fact, he was in The Bank Dick with W.C. Fields, which I'm going to mention in the next posting. Here he is in this spot, probably ignoring advice he received from Mr. Fields about never working with children...
February 2, 2007
