Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Recommended Reading

I missed this article by Michael Kinsley a few weeks ago but it's still well worth reading...perhaps more so in light of Hillary Clinton's recent comments about not trusting economists.

• Posted at 4:21 PM · LINK

Hi, Bob!

Time to introduce you to another one of my zillions of weird and/or talented friends. Bob Claster is a writer and historian and producer and behind-the-scenes guy on many TV shows. When I first met him, he was hosting a great radio series called Bob Claster's Funny Stuff on which he interviewed everyone who was anyone in the field of comedy. He has now set up his own website and on it, he favors us with some downloadable (or listenable-online) episodes of that program. Go listen as Bob chats with comedy icons the likes of John Cleese, Stan Freberg and Mort Sahl.

Bob and I also share a love for Vito's Pizza, a hole-in-the-wall pizzeria in West Hollywood. Years ago, we used to drive across town to Vito's old location. I'm not one of those people who think all pizza in New York is great and all pizza everywhere else is unfit for human consumption...but even folks who feel that way think Vito's is up to the Manhattan Standard.

After a few years of serving great pizza, Vito closed his shop and left town, whereupon Bob went into mourning. A year or so ago, I made him very, very happy when I informed him that not only was Vito reopening in L.A. but that his new digs were within walking distance of the Claster home. Bob is now a regular and when I drop by there for pie, I often run into him. On his site, he has a video clip wherein you can meet our friend Vito, the best pizza-maker in town.

As some of you may know, I'm currently co-writing Will Eisner's The Spirit for DC Comics. In some issues, you'll see reference made to a place called Vito's Pizza. There are also such references in the new Garfield cartoon series I'm currently writing. Vito's pizza is going to make him famous but I'm doing my part, as well.

• Posted at 10:34 AM · LINK

Kirby Kopy Kontest

The New Yorker has an ongoing contest to write a caption to a cartoon. The current cartoon in need of a caption is by Harry Bliss and it's a riff on a comic book cover/page by Jack Kirby. Let's keep an eye on this one...and I may even enter some captions that mention Jack. Feel free to do likewise.

• Posted at 8:13 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

Here's an amazing nine minutes from The Phantom President, a 1932 movie starring Jimmy Durante and George M. Cohan. That's right: George M. Cohan, the real James Cagney. Cohan was a great song writer ("Over There," "Give My Regards to Broadway," et al) and a popular entertainer and from all accounts, a pretty unpleasant guy to work around. Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers, who did the songs for the movie, sure felt that way. The film was supposed to launch Cohan into a movie stardom that would supplant his then-fading stage career but audiences did not warm to him on the screen.

The film stands as our best chance to get a look at the legendary George M. and here we see him singing and dancing a number about how we should all wave the flag and celebrate the fact that we're all free men. And just to drive the point home, he performs the number in blackface. Take a look and thank Shelly Goldstein for telling me about it...

• Posted at 12:26 AM · LINK