Sunday, February 11, 2007

Recommended Reading

Retired General William E. Odom offers about as pessimistic an assessment of the Iraq situation as you're going to find. Pay special attention to this paragraph in which he addresses the argument, "We must continue the war to prevent the terrible aftermath that will occur if our forces are withdrawn soon."

Reflect on the double-think of this formulation. We are now fighting to prevent what our invasion made inevitable! Undoubtedly we will leave a mess — the mess we created, which has become worse each year we have remained. Lawmakers gravely proclaim their opposition to the war, but in the next breath express fear that quitting it will leave a blood bath, a civil war, a terrorist haven, a "failed state," or some other horror. But this "aftermath" is already upon us; a prolonged U.S. occupation cannot prevent what already exists.

This is the Bush administration. They create a situation where no course of action will make things better, then lambaste their opponents for not putting forth a plan that will solve matters. Odom's piece, by the way, is entitled "Victory Is Not an Option."

• Posted at 5:22 PM · LINK

More on Chaz Chase

Regarding the Chaz Chase short that was this morning's video link: Jerry Beck confirms my hunch that the musical track on it is not an original from 1928. For one thing, "Merrily We Roll Along" wasn't written until 1934 or thereabouts, and "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" wasn't written until 1937. Jerry sez the track on the Chase short we watched was lifted from a 1946 short, and he knows this stuff.

But that was basically Chaz Chase's act: He came out and ate things, including his own clothes. In his full act as I remember seeing it, he ate a whole pack of lit cigarettes and matches, then belched smoke for about five minutes. I have no idea how he did this.

I remember that Johnny Carson had him on at least once and a quick search of the incomplete database of Carson guests shows that Chaz Chase was on The Tonight Show on May 17, 1974. The other guests that night were Vincent Price, Bert Convy and Joan Rivers. I recall Mr. Carson being quite thrilled to have him on and making some remarks about how even Chaz wouldn't eat at the NBC Commissary.

• Posted at 11:31 AM · LINK

This Just In...

Christopher Cook informs me that the show I asked about — Hanna-Barbera's Alice In Wonderland (or What's A Nice Kid Like You Doing In A Place Like This?) — will be on Boomerang on Sunday afternoon, February 25. I'll try and remind you when we get closer to the date in case you want to watch it, too. I haven't seen it since it first aired in 1966 but I remember thinking it was pretty good. It'll be interesting to see if I still think that because I don't with everything I liked back then.

• Posted at 3:17 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

Time for another unusual vaudeville act. This is Chaz Chase in a film from 1928 with what may be the original soundtrack. It sounds too clean to be the original but this was an early "talkie" and its soundtrack was recently restored. If it's the real thing, it's especially intresting because both songs that were later used as the themes for Warner Brothers cartoons — "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" and "Merrily We Roll Along" — turn up in it, one right after the other.

Mr. Chase did this act his entire life, right up until he died in 1983. A year before, he had been performing it on Broadway in the musical revue, Sugar Babies. He first did it on Broadway in The Ziegfeld Follies of 1925. The act did not change much over the years.

So what's unusual about Chaz Chase's act? You'll see. This runs four minutes.

• Posted at 1:36 AM · LINK

Recommended Reading

Dahlia Lithwick says that support for the Death Penalty is ebbing away across America...but not necessarily in the Supreme Court.

• Posted at 1:35 AM · LINK

Recommended Reading

Steve Martin and the 72 virgins.

• Posted at 12:40 AM · LINK