Saturday, June 21, 2008

Attention, Floridians!

This is for those of you who live in Florida, particularly around Coral Springs...

Go see my friend Jim Brochu in his one-man show, Zero Hour, which is at the Stage Door Theatre through July 27. The one man in this case is Zero Mostel, who gets brought back to life for two hours via Jim's masterful portrayal. I've written about this show before (here, for instance) and it has my highest recommendation. For whatever that's worth.

• Posted at 8:52 PM · LINK

me on the radio

Hey, I made it onto a right-wing talk radio station! A few weeks ago, I was interviewed for a show called By the Book with Matthew Worley, which runs on SuperTalk WFHG in Bristol, Virginia — a station whose main lineup features the likes of Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, Bill Bennett, etc. The subject was, of course, my book on Jack Kirby and they're broadcasting the chat this weekend.

The show airs Saturday with an encore performance on Sunday, and you've already missed Saturday. The Sunday broadcast is at 1 PM Eastern Time so you can figure out when that is for you. What you might not be able to figure out is how to listen live through the links on the station's website. I think this is the streaming link but I can't get it to work for more than a few minutes at a time. If you can, let me know.

• Posted at 4:51 PM · LINK

Before Bedtime

As you might deduce from the time stamps here, I'm pulling a near all-nighter to get a script finished. I'll resume work in the morning. Don't expect a lot of postings here this weekend. Good night, Internet.

• Posted at 5:29 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

We have a piece of film history here: The screen debut of George Burns and Gracie Allen, doing a hunk of their vaudeville act as an 8-minute Vitaphone short called Lambchops. This came out in October of 1929...and just to save you doing the research and the math, Mr. Burns was 33 years old at the time, and he and Gracie had been married since January of '26.

Gracie's age is a little more difficult to peg. When asked her birthdate, she gave a wide array of answers, including "None of your business." When she died in 1964, George told reporters she'd been born in 1902. Historians have since concluded that 1895 is more likely...but not proven. If she was born in 1895, she was a year older than George.

This short did not catapult the team of Burns and Allen to movie stardom. They made a few more like this one and it boosted interest in their act. But it wasn't until they got into radio that they became famous. Here's a great artifact of the days of vaudeville...

• Posted at 4:33 AM · LINK

Bell Book (no Candle)

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times has a review of Blake Bell's new book, Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko. I got to page through a copy at the Book Expo a couple weeks ago and what I saw and read looked pretty good to me. If you wanna pre-order one, here's an Amazon link that will help you...and also net me a tiny commission.

• Posted at 3:28 AM · LINK

Go Read It!

Over in the New York Times, Michael Cieply has a nice piece on the promotional aspects of the Comic-Con International in San Diego. And I don't say it's a nice piece just because he interviewed me for it.

• Posted at 3:21 AM · LINK