Remember that silly article by Journalism Prof Michael Skube in which he said that bloggers don't do anything that approaches real reporting? Well, here's Jay Rosen to take that argument apart, piece by piece.
Since I'm seen briefly in an interview on it, I keep getting wonderful compliments on the new DVD collection of early Popeye cartoons. I'm happy to accept all accolades even though I couldn't have had much less to do with the project. Many folks, some of whose names are unknown to me, all worked with the common goal of showing the world how this kind of DVD should be done.
It starts, of course, with superior material...and the Popeye cartoons produced by the Max Fleischer Studio were about as good as any cartoons ever produced anywhere. Later Popeye cartoons by others make it easy to forget this, but there was a creative energy in that studio that is still amazing: Gags piled on gags piled on gags. I find a lot of the non-Popeye Fleischer shorts to be a bit on the hollow side — everything moves and everything's funny but all that action is a bit spineless, hung on premises and characters that don't quite deserve it. But the squint-eyed sailor (and later, when the Fleischers got hold of him, Superman) was more than up to carrying a story...at last, a star worthy of all that animation.
Also making it easy to overlook the Fleischer Popeyes has been a general unavailability...and when you do come across them, you usually see chopped-up, washed-out prints. One of the stunning things about this new DVD set is the sheer quality of the imagery. I'm not sure if these cartoons looked this good when they were originally shown in theaters but I know they've never looked this good on TV or previous home video releases. "Restored" doesn't begin to describe what has been done to these cartoons. I can't recall another home video release that has more delighted animation buffs.
So, uh, anyone know how it's selling? I haven't heard and I'm worried. Popeye hasn't been as visible lately as some cartoon characters...and like I suggested above, even the folks who know him are more familiar with his lesser adventures. They just plain don't know how good a good Popeye cartoon can be...and if this thing doesn't sell decently, we all lose out. There are a lot of us who lobby home video companies to unlock the treasures of their film vaults, to present those treasures in a complete offering, to spend the time and money to restore the material to the best-possible condition, and to create commentary tracks and other extras. If this Popeye DVD doesn't yield a significant profit, we're going to hear that it can't be done for other material because "that Popeye DVD didn't do well." That won't be the reason but it'll be the excuse to not bring other home video releases of classic animation up to this standard.
If you're like to order the best animation package ever put out on DVD, click here.
I dunno about you but I'm getting pretty weary of folks who go to Iraq for 48 hours, most of which is spent taking a well-guarded tour that has been carefully planned by their hosts...and then they come back and claim expertise on how the situation in Iraq is going. To me, that's like having a condo salesman show you the model unit and then deciding you're an expert on how the whole building was constructed.
This applies to folks who come back saying the war is going great and the soldiers there are all behind it just as much as it applies to those who report that it's a total disaster and every person in a uniform told them so. It's anecdotal reporting that has everything to do with where they went, what they were shown, who they spoke with, etc. I'm much more interested in the views of people who've been there for some length of time and went, not as tourists to be shown around but as working grunts, be they troops or reporters.
This op-ed in The New York Times is by seven infantrymen and noncommissioned officers who are completing 15-month tours of duty over there. They don't think much of the war effort or the optimism that its supporters are touting in the press...and while their views are hardly inarguable, I think they're a lot more significant than the likes of Joe Lieberman, reporting how well things are going after he spends a day or two over there, being shown areas that will enable him to come back and say it's a trip to the Westfield Mall. So read that piece and then read what my man Fred Kaplan has to say about it.
Here's Tom Lehrer — he's appearing here all week, don't forget to tip your waiters — with his "Pollution" song. There's a line change from the version on his album. In the original record, which I believe was recorded in San Francisco, he sang "The breakfast garbage that you throw into the bay / They drink at lunch in San Jose." When Mr. Lehrer performed the number in other cities, he would always adjust the geography to correspond. In this film, he does a more generic version.
Several folks, starting with Nat Gertler, have sent me the credits on the new Marvel stamps. I think one or two are still wrong but most of them have been corrected as per the information posted here. This is a good thing and those of you who helped with the identifications have reason to be proud.
August 23, 2007
