Monday, October 6, 2008

Today's Reason Not To Vote For John McCain

This election, I'm as interested in the candidates' health plans as I am in anything they have to offer. A big reason I'm for Obama is that he has one and while I don't think it's perfect, it would make things better and lead us in the right direction. McCain's, on the other hand, seems like it'll make things worse. Laura Meckler explains how McCain figures to pay for his health plan. It involves slashing Medicare and Medicaid by $1.3 trillion.

• Posted at 11:40 PM · LINK

Home

Back in my computer chair and all unpacked. I'll write more about the trip later...or maybe tomorrow.

• Posted at 8:08 PM · LINK

No Longer Flying Home...

Now, I'm blogging while waiting at the Baggage Claim at LAX. I'm not sure why I'm doing this, either.

• Posted at 5:55 PM · LINK

Still Flying Home...

And this message is being posted from the food court in Midway Airport in Chicago where we're changing planes.

• Posted at 10:39 AM · LINK

Flying Home...

This message is being posted from a Chili's Too restaurant in Columbus International Airport.

• Posted at 7:50 AM · LINK

Benny's from Heaven

That's not a photo of Jack Benny. That's a photo of Eddie Carroll. I've mentioned Eddie before here. He's the actor-writer who does a superb impression and re-creation of the legendary comedian. I am generally not a huge fan of extended impressions but there are exceptions. One, which I've mentioned many times here, is Frank Ferrante, who tours in a show that replicates Groucho Marx. Equally astounding and entertaining is Eddie Carroll's one-man Benny fest...a whole evening of "Jack" telling his life story, performing some of his best material and even, God help us, playing the violin.

Eddie does his show all over America and for years now, I and other friends have nagged him to do it close enough to Los Angeles so that we could go see it without spending more for gas than Mr. Benny ever would. Well, we have our chance but for one night only.

October 19, he's doing two shows at the Scherr Forum in Thousand Oaks. Originally, it was just going to be one matinee performance but tickets sold so briskly (there are only a few left) that an evening performance has been added. Since it hasn't been well publicized yet, there are good seats available for the evening show but they will almost certainly sell out. In fact, I just bought a large block of them for a bunch of my friends and me...so you'd better act quickly. Go to this page at Ticketmaster — where, by the way, they also have seats for one show he's doing in San Diego on December 7. And check out Eddie's schedule to see when he'll be Bennying in your town or hamlet.

Almost every time Frank Ferrante does his Groucho show in some city, I get an e-mail or two from someone thanking me for recommending a visit. Well, this is the same kind of recommendation. If you love Jack Benny, you won't want to miss it. And if you don't love Jack Benny, then...oh, forget it. There isn't anyone who doesn't love Jack Benny.

• Posted at 6:19 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

I haven't stuck in one of my Garfield cartoons in a long time. This is "Day of Doom" from I-forget-what-season. Garfield is voiced by the late, great Lorenzo Music. Jon and the theater owner are Thom Huge. The newsman and the wishing well are Gregg Berger. And all the female voices are the magnificent Ms. June Foray.

That leaves only the narrator to tell you about. I cast a wonderful character actor named Charles Aidman in what turned out to be, I think, the only cartoon job he ever did in his long, illustrious career. Mr. Aidman, who passed away not long after we did this, was one of the most prolific actors to ever work in television and sometimes in movies. Here's a link to his Internet Movie Database listing which itemizes 168 TV and motion picture credits...and is, I'm sure, missing a few hundred more. You may also recognize his voice from hundreds of commercials and from narrating the 1985 Twilight Zone revival. (They picked him for his obvious dramatic qualities and also because he'd been in several episodes of the original show.)

Charles was a little puzzled why we wanted him for a cartoon. He showed up and said, "I only have this one voice and I don't think I could sound like a squirrel or a bunny rabbit." We told him to forget it was a cartoon and just read the copy like a dramatic show, which he did. A real pro.

• Posted at 6:18 AM · LINK