Thursday, February 14, 2008

When You Get A Moment...

• Posted at 9:50 PM · LINK

Set the TiVo!

I haven't seen either of these shows but I have my TiVo set for them...

On Monday, The History Channel debuts History of the Joke, a two hour special about comedy hosted by Lewis Black and featuring a whole mess of funny people including George Carlin, Robert Klein, Penn & Teller, Kathy Griffin, Shelley Berman and Dave Attell. Consult whatever you consult for the correct time.

Then on Wednesday, most PBS channels will be debuting the Great Performances presentation of Company, the musical by George Furth and Stephen Sondheim. They videotaped the recent Broadway revival and you can see a video preview — most of the opening number, in fact — over on this page.

• Posted at 3:14 PM · LINK

Today's Political Thought

Congress should not pass a bill granting the telephone companies retroactive immunity for FISA-related surveillance on Americans. In fact, we should never forgive the phone companies for anything. I'm especially against granting them retroactive immunity for their repair guys not showing up when they're supposed to.

• Posted at 1:21 PM · LINK

Typo Blood

The other day here, I noted my observation that when an author receives his or her first printed copy, that author will always open to a random page...and find a typographical error. My pal Neil Gaiman just sent me a message with the subject line "Great minds" and directed me to this post from his weblog of April 15, 2005. Here...I'll quote the relevant passages and save you a click...

My copy of MirrorMask the script-and-storyboards book was waiting in the mail when I got home -- it's huge and heavy and, really rather wonderful. (Gaiman's law of picking up your first copy of a book you wrote held true: if there's one typo, it will be on the page that your new book falls open to the first time you pick it up. It never fails. It used to make me sad or frustrated. Now I half-expect it.)

Neil is an optimist compared to me on this. I absolutely expect it. The part I haven't figured out yet is whether some cosmic force compels you to open the book to a page with a pre-existing typo...or if the typo just magically appears on whatever page you first open to. If I get my book and decide to open it to page 47, was the typo there on page 47 before I opened to it? An interesting philosophical question.

And I just realized what I should have done when I got my copy of the book. I should have opened to the foreword...which was written by Neil Gaiman. I would much rather that typo was on one of his pages.

• Posted at 2:18 AM · LINK

Briefly Noted...

Gerber makes the New York Times obituary page. He'll be in the Los Angeles Times tomorrow most likely.

• Posted at 1:59 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

Speaking of the Reprise! shows: One of the best I've seen was their version on On the Twentieth Century, which I raved about way back in this posting in 2003. A highlight of that show is our video link for today. It's the wondrous Mimi Hines singing "Repent!" Lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, tune by Cy Coleman.

• Posted at 12:18 AM · LINK

Yokumberry Tonic

I post here often about the Reprise! series that stages musicals up at Macgowan Hall at U.C.L.A. They do very fine shows there, as witness their current production of Li'l Abner, which I sturdily recommend. It runs through the 17th and seats are still available. I'm not sure if it still works but a few days ago, if you went to Ticketmaster and entered the word DAISY in the coupon space, you got a nice discount. Maybe you still can.

On Saturdays, the 2 PM matinee is preceded — from Noon 'til 1 PM — by an educational program on the history of the show at hand. Last Saturday, my pal Miles Kreuger hosted a great panel discussion with Charlotte Rae (who was in the original Broadway show), Stella Stevens (who was in the movie based on it) and Julie Newmar and Hope Holiday (who were both in both). Over on this page, they will soon be posting an audio podcast of this conversation. As of this moment, it's not operative.

Also on that same page, you can make reservations for this Saturday's program, which will be a lecture on the history of the Li'l Abner comic strip, Broadway show and movie, delivered by that great Li'l Abner expert, me. It's priced right. It's free.

• Posted at 12:15 AM · LINK

February 15, 2008 • Current • February 13, 2008