Sunday, November 16, 2008

Still In Manhattan

I'm still without a working Internet connection in our room and you wouldn't imagine the machinations I go through to get these deathless postings up onto ye olde website. But you're worth it.

I had a very good time at The National, which is the giant, economy-size version of New York's popular Big Apple Comic Conventions. I did two panels, starting with a war comics panel (with emphasis on Sgt. Rock) featuring Russ Heath, Dick Ayers, Billy Tucci and Mark Sparacio. Billy's responsible for a new Rock mini-series from DC Comics that's just coming out (with Mark assisting on covers) and if they're all as good as the first one, they'll have a real winner there.

The other panel was — and I know you'll find this hard to believe — a Jack Kirby Tribute Panel. This one featured Roy Thomas, Joe Sinnott and Stan Goldberg, answering questions about the legendary comic creator. One thing I learned is that when Joe inked a page of Jack's, and I suppose he did this with everyone's pencil art, he'd ink the bottom panels on a page first, then work his way upward. This is because if he started at the top, his hand might smear the pencil work below it. I've known Joe for close to forty years and interviewed him thirty times and this was the first time I heard that. Makes sense.

A few other folks I saw: Herb Trimpe, Ken Gale, Richard Howell, Irwin Hasen, Neal Adams, Chris Claremont, J. David Spurlock, Steve Saffel, Jim Salicrup, Danny Fingeroth, Bob Smith, Larry Hama, Elayne and Robin Riggs, Dan Gheno and I forget who else. I ran into Richard Bensam. Richard was the first person to offer 364 in our contest to guess Barack Obama's final electoral total. We do not yet have a winner. Obama is currently at 365, which no one guessed, and Missouri is still out. They say it'll report by Tuesday. (This'll make someone mad: A lot of us arrived at our guesses by figuring out which states might go black and not go back, and how many electoral votes each represented. Richard may have beaten us all by, he says, picking a number that just sounded about right.)

Speaking of political stuff: I spent a fascinating hour-or-more with Fred Kaplan and his lovely wife, Brooke Gladstone. Those who listen to NPR know Brooke from her program on that fine network. Those who read this weblog know Fred because I'm forever hectoring you to go read his articles on Slate, which have been concise and pragmatic insights into what's going on in our government, particularly with regard to matters of nation defense and Iraq. Fred actually understands things like military budgets, even if no one at the current White House or press corps seems to. Other reporters let our leaders get away with promising to send soldiers we don't or won't have but Kaplan has accurately predicted much that has happened, just by being aware of how many troops we had and when their tours were up.

He has other good insights...so it was a pleasure to meet the man and get to know him a little. People ask me why I go to the time and trouble of this weblog. There are a lot of answers to that but one is that because of it, I get to meet people I respect and can maybe learn from.

That's about everything I have to report about the con. Saturday evening, Carolyn and I went to see Gypsy and I'll post a review in a little while. More to come from New York in a day or so.

• Posted at 10:22 PM · LINK

Safe at Home

Well, I'm not at home but the house sitter assures me all is well...and yes, the cats are being fed.

But every time there are big brush fires in Southern California, as they've seen the last few days, I get a number of concerned e-mails asking if my home and I are in any danger. Answer: Never. I'm in an urban area. A fire up in Malibu would have to burn down all of West Los Angeles and Beverly Hills to get to me. The ones in Sylmar would need to take a couple of freeways. I appreciate your concern, dear correspondents, but you fret for naught.

• Posted at 10:19 PM · LINK

Today's Video Link

Neil Gaiman writes, "There's been a worrying lack of baby panda videos on your blog recently, Mark..." Neil is always right and he helpfully sends along a link to a new baby panda video which I can't embed but which you can watch here.

As you watch, try not to be too depressed by the realization that while you may be very cute, you'll never be as cute as a baby panda. I've come to terms with that and so should you.

• Posted at 1:21 PM · LINK

Some Very Enchanted Evening

Over at the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center, they have this revival of South Pacific that's been playing to sell-out crowds since it opened. There's a reason. It's really a stunning, emotional and memorable production. The thing runs a good three hours and all three hours are good.

South Pacific debuted on Broadway in 1949. Josh Logan directed, Oscar Hammerstein wrote the lyrics, Richard Rodgers wrote the music and Logan and Hammerstein collaborated on the book. It was an enormous hit...one that changed the American musical theater, some said, with the way it crossed over from musical comedy to, at times, musical drama. Logan directed the movie version with the odd color scheme...and I must admit it had never meant much to me. I may need to see it again now.

The Lincoln Center version restores (they say) every word and note of what originally appeared on Broadway, including the orchestrations. Throughout the show's long life in regional and community theater, that has rarely been done and many companies temper the portions of the book that have to do with the mixing of races. In New York in '49, it must have been a pretty powerful condemnation of bigotry...and I'm even guessing it caught some theatergoers by surprise. A show called South Pacific somehow sounds a bit frothier than what you get. I say that because from some of the energy I felt in the theater at Lincoln Center, I gather a lot of attendees either didn't know it was coming or had forgotten. Many also seemed unprepared for some of the more wrenching emotional moments of the two love stories in the narrative.

Still, everyone loved it. Everyone. I may never go see this show again because I doubt I'm ever going to see it done this well.

• Posted at 1:20 PM · LINK