Thursday, October 9, 2008

High Overhead

During the debate the other night, you heard Senator McCain claim that Senator Obama had tried to slip an earmark into a bill that would have meant three million dollars for an "overhead projector." That was misleading. You know what the "overhead projector" was he was talking about? It was this.

• Posted at 4:50 PM · LINK

Doo Good

Scott Innes is a popular Louisiana disc jockey who also does cartoon voices. Since Don Messick passed away, he's been one of the main voices of Scooby Doo and sometimes, his pal Shaggy, as well. (Shaggy's original voice, Casey Kasem, is still happily with us but sometimes chooses to let others handle the role.)

The job was a dream come true for Scott and he's written and recorded an autobiographical country-western song about it. In fact, it's called "Follow Your Dream" and there's a music video that goes along with it. You can view it over at the website for WYNK, the radio station where he works when he isn't going "Ruh ro" for a cartoon. Search for Scott Innes there and you can watch the video, hear the song and get to know a talented guy.

• Posted at 3:49 PM · LINK

Recommended Reading

Here's a very concise explanation of why John McCain's health care plan would be a disaster for most Americans but a windfall for insurance companies.

• Posted at 12:15 PM · LINK

On the Ballot

You may not be aware of this but Ralph Nader is still running for President. I can't imagine any way his candidacy could be making things better for the nation, him or his many causes, but he's still in there. On Monday, he spoke at Dartmouth College. Guess how many people turned out to hear him. I'll give you a hint: I've had bigger crowds at comic book conventions for panels about lettering techniques.

• Posted at 11:35 AM · LINK

Thursday Morning

I know no one cares about the Bush administration anymore...or about anything other than their bank accounts. But a new report says that people who have nothing to do with terrorism or crimes are having their phone conversations monitored. When they said they had to have this power, we were assured they'd never do just what they've done.

Bush's approval rating is, depending on which poll you consult, somewhere between 19% and 27%, which is about where you'd be if you were caught slapping nuns. Where do we think it'll be in the last month of his term when he starts pardoning everyone around him for anything they've done, including war profiteering and war crimes?

• Posted at 10:39 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

And now we have a better sample of what Lloyd Thaxton did on his fabled dance party TV show. This is the first five minutes of a 1966 episode with Lloyd lip-syncing a then-popular record. He did a lot of that on his show, figuring out ways to make it more interesting to play records and have kids dance to them...and it was all done on a microscopic budget. Once or twice a show, they'd just select a teenager from that day's dancers and get him or her up to lip-sync a popular record, reading the lyrics off cue cards. Or Thaxton would do this thing where he took a record album cover that had the singer's photo more or less lifesize and he'd cut out the lips and put his own through the hole to lip sync the song that way. Very weird but always entertaining.

I remember one other Thaxton moment that stuck me as very funny and gutsy. He was on KCOP, Channel 13, from 5 PM to 6 PM. For a brief time, a local disc jockey named Sam Riddle was hosting a very similar show that was done live on KHJ, Channel 9, from 6 PM 'til 7 PM. My memory on this may be a bit off but I recall at the end of one show, Thaxton announced that it was Sam Riddle's birthday and to honor it, he was going to go over and hit Sam in the face with a pie. I think he may have even shown the pie.

It was enormous sportsmanship because, of course, everyone watching Lloyd's show turned over to the competition to see if it would happen. And sure enough, about fifteen minutes into Sam Riddle's show — fifteen minutes being about the time it would take to drive from KCOP to KHJ — Lloyd Thaxton walked out onto Sam Riddle's show and, as promised, hit him with a pie.

Here's a little more of Lloyd Thaxton. Don't thank me for this. Thank Barry Mitchell.

• Posted at 12:03 AM · LINK