Friday, September 19, 2008

Quick Question...

I haven't seen the news at all today. Any more banks fail?

• Posted at 11:21 PM · LINK

Where I Am

First things first: Yes, the seven thousand stray cats I feed at my back door are being fed while I'm away. Carolyn is there to feed them. (It's not really seven thousand. It's more like five with an occasional guest star. But when I look at what I'm spending on Friskies, it seems like seven thousand.)

Sergio Aragonés picked me up this morning, we motored to the airport and now we (and our collaborators on Groo, Stan Sakai and Tom Luth) are in Kansas City, MO. Tomorrow and Sunday, we will be doing the Guest of Honor bit at the Mo-Kan Comics Conspiracy, a convention of some import. If you're around, we'll be around.

So far, we're getting the Kansas City Royal Treatment. Our hosts took us on a tour of the Liberty Memorial, a place to remember World War I for those inclined to forget such things. Then it was over to Union Station, a building of impressive architecture and the scene of a famous crimeland massacre. A few years ago, writer Ande Parks (a local) penned an acclaimed graphic novel about the crime and tonight, Ande was nice enough to give us a personally guided tour of where it all happened. Then a whole group of us steaked it up at the Hereford House, a popular venue in which to devour dead cow. Tomorrow, we commence the much-awaited taste test of K.C. barbecue emporiums. It won't be much of a test since we'll only get to two BBQ places, three tops. But we'll call 'em as we eat 'em.

That's about it, diary-wise. Don't expect a lot of postings until I'm back in my own area code...but we'll try to keep you entertained enough to not un-bookmark this site.

• Posted at 10:17 PM · LINK

Recommended Reading

I don't blame Phil Gramm wholly for the reckless deregulation that has led to the recent financial crash-and-burns. (There's sane deregulation and reckless deregulation and I don't think a lot of our leaders know the difference.) An awful lot of people of both parties went along with this movement, including Joe Biden who I hope will have the decency to admit he voted wrong. But Gramm was one of the main architects of it all, if not the auteur. Here's a piece about him by David Corn.

• Posted at 3:03 AM · LINK

A Few Minutes Ago...

A few minutes ago, I stopped in at a Long's Drug Store to pick up something. The store is undergoing major renovation and they have all the shelves moved out of their old locations but not yet into their new places. There did not seem to be the slightest logic to what was where.

I walked up to the cashier on duty and before I could say anything, he said, "Don't ask me where anything is. We have no idea."

• Posted at 12:38 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

Shrimpenstein was a very hip and funny kids' show that ran in Los Angeles back in the sixties. I've written about it before on this blog, most notably in this post which also included a video embed of almost seven minutes from an episode. You might want to go watch it before you click on today's link...because today's link is the next nine and half minutes from that episode.

That's Gene Moss as Dr. Von Shtick and his partner Jim Thurman supplying the voices of Shrimpy and Klaus. This excerpt also includes a number by The Tijuana Bats, who were two puppets worked by Thurman who mimed to sped-up records. (The speaking voices of the bats leading into the song were pre-taped so Moss could play one of them.) This hunk should give you some idea why my friends and I all found this show very hard to resist and were saddened when it was cancelled.

• Posted at 12:33 AM · LINK