My friend Bob Elisberg makes a very good point about Hollywood and press coverage of the business end of things. There's a tendency to quickly type a new movie as a smash or a flop...and that characterization often doesn't change no matter how much the film grosses. Studios have made an awful lot of money off alleged flops.
If, like me, you're fascinated with the birth of the new baby panda at the San Diego Zoo, here's where you want to be. This weblog is updated by the zoo staff to report on what's going on around the facility and there are many postings about the little black-eyed new arrival. The zoo has many webcams around to satiate your voyeuristic tendencies and on this page, you can usually see a panda taking a nap or eating. Most often — since this her den is where the news is — it's Bai Yun, mother of the new kid. Supposedly, one can catch occasional glimpses of the baby. My mother had the same kind of set-up when I was born but since there was no Internet in 1952, no one watched.
We've been following (with great sadness) the story of one-time SCTV and Saturday Night Live cast member Tony Rosato. Here's the latest with our thanks to William Sinkins for letting us know.
Happy day of birth to America's greatest satirist, Stan Freberg, who is mumble-mumble years old today. In addition to creating brilliantly funny records and radio shows, Stan is an actor, an author, a cartoon voice specialist, an advertising genius and a personal hero. He is seen above with his lovely wife Hunter, who has been taking care of this wonderful force of nature for several years now and has done a superb job of, as the hillbillies say, youthening her man.
I've said many things elsewhere on this site (here, for example) about what Stan and his work have meant to me. And it isn't just me. Every time I've been with him, at least one person approaches the guy and gushes. One time, we were dining in Matteo's and the waiter brought over a note written on a napkin. It said, approximately, "Mr. Freberg, I don't want to interrupt your meal but I wanted you to know what an inspiration you have been to me as a performer..."
I didn't recognize the name that was signed and neither did Stan. But the point is that Stan gets this kind of reaction wherever he goes and with good reason.
Another time, Stan and I were standing in a parking lot at a recording studio where I had just — ahem! — "directed" him in something. (How To Direct Freberg: Hire Freberg, hand him the script, let him do whatever he wants.) A shiny sportscar was racing through the back alley doing about 80 MPH. It passed us and twenty yards down, it braked to an abrupt stop, then backed up, also doing around eighty. When it got back near us, the guy in the car yelled out, "You Stan Freberg?"
"I am," said Stan Freberg.
"You're a frriggin' genius," the driver yelled. Then he zoomed off doing about ninety to make up for lost time and I thought, "Well put."
Sez here that the New York Times is giving up on TimeSelect, their subscription section that charged people fifty bucks a year to read Maureen Dowd and a few other op-ed columnists. Also sez they had less than a quarter-million subscribers, which doesn't sound like a lot for a paper of that scope and importance. I'm wondering how many of those subscribers were libraries or companies that just ritually pay for a lot of online info services without paying a lot of attention to what they're getting for their moola.
In the case of TimeSelect, one of the things that obviously did them in was how much of their content was freely bootlegged and posted on free sites. I just did a quick search and without a lot of trouble, found Frank Rich's most recent column on twenty sites. A lot of the material behind the subscription firewall is also simply not worth paying for. I mean, it's not like there's a shortage of free stuff to read on the Internet.
The 24th Congressional District covers a lot of Ventura County and Santa Barbara County in California. Since 1987, it's been represented in the House by a Republican named Elton Gallegly, who votes a pretty consistent G.O.P. line: Against stem cell research, against abortion rights, against gay rights, against Medical Marijuana, etc. On Iraq, he's been right there with the Bush Administration. This probably does not put him in accord with most of the voters he ostensibly represents, and some observers say his seat in Congress may be ripe for Democratic takeover.
Who's the Democrat who can take it over? Well, some of us are hoping it'll be Elliott Maggin. Some of you may know that name because you're comic book readers, and Elliott was a pretty prominent comic book writer back in the seventies and eighties, primarily on Superman and the many books featuring The Man of Steel. (He was credited then as "Elliott S! Maggin," with the exclamation point after the middle initial.) Elliott's a friend of mine and a darn smart guy. We've had some long and interesting discussions about government and society, and though we didn't always agree on everything, I've certainly respected his views, and I think he'd make a dandy Congressperson.
He ran once before...in the 1984 race for a seat in New Hampshire. He didn't win but that was then, this is now...and I'd like to think '08 will be his year. Here's a statement from Elliott to his "pop culture brethren," which I guess means "comic book readers." We'll be monitoring this race and though I don't live where I can vote for the guy, I'm going to do what I can to help out.
Fifty years ago today, the world lost Oliver Norvell Hardy, one half of the greatest comedy act of all time (imho) and maybe our greatest comic actor. Unless you've seen as many old comedy movies as I have, you may not realize how revolutionary and special he was. He was darn near the first film actor to be funny moving in human rhythms. Hardy's mannerisms and movements in silent film were overflowing with delight and personality. It was funny and fascinating just to watch him ring a doorbell or pick up a pen. Before him, a comic either played it deadpan like Keaton, frantic like Chaplin or had no visible style to his humor. It's impossible to imitate the gestures of Harold Lloyd or Snub Pollard or Ben Turpin...but everyone can "do" Hardy. He was a big reason the cameramen at his studio stopped undercranking the cameras and began filming at normal or near-normal speeds. Hardy's timing was so delicious that it needed no enhancement.
His partner, Mr. Laurel, matched his pace and they became a seamless whole. When talkies came in, the switch was effortless for the men. They both had stage backgrounds so they knew how to speak. More importantly, sound meant that motion pictures could no longer be undercranked and the change didn't affect Laurel and Hardy. Their comedy was already moving at real speed.
Let's watch a couple minutes of The Boys. This is the scene from The Flying Deuces where Hardy, jilted in a love affair, decides to do away with himself and further decides that his partner has to join him. The clip ends a bit abruptly but it's Laurel and Hardy so it's good.
August 8, 2007
