Sunday, March 15, 2009

Recommended Reading

Clay Shirky, an NYU Prof who specializes in the economic effects of the Internet, offers a theory as to why newspapers are going bye-bye on us.

• Posted at 8:26 PM · LINK

Sunday Evening

You get the feeling Dick Cheney is daring us to prosecute him for war crimes?

• Posted at 7:48 PM · LINK

Recommended Reading

Alan Wolfe on why it's ridiculous to call Obama a socialist. I sure get the feeling that the prominent folks suggesting he is one know darn well it's nonsense but think a certain part of their constituency is dumb enough to believe it.

• Posted at 10:27 AM · LINK

Set the TiVo!

Monday on The Colbert Report, my friend Neil Gaiman is the guest. It'll be a lot like Jim Cramer on The Daily Show but with a British accent and more financial know-how.

• Posted at 10:12 AM · LINK

Today's Bonus Video Link

I haven't mentioned it in a long while here but for year or two, I've been working on a new Garfield cartoon show that's being produced in France for the world market. We did 26 half-hours and they've started airing in select parts of the world...to sufficient success that we're starting on 26 more. The Cartoon Network folks have the rights to air them in America (the show is produced in English) and they say they're going to debut it some time in '09...and you now know as much about that as I do.

Frank Welker supplies the voice of Garfield, which you won't hear in the clip below. Nor will you hear Gregg Berger, the longtime voice of Odie and other supporting characters, but he's in the cast, too. So are Wally Wingert and Jason Marsden, who are now performing the roles of Jon and Nermal, respectively. The animation is CGI and it's under the supervision of a masterful director named Philippe Vidal, whose work makes me very happy. I dunno when anyone's going to get to see the show in this country but when they do, it'll look something like this...

• Posted at 7:39 AM · LINK

Soup Sales

Okay, I know what you've all been waiting for: Mark's report on the Creamy Tomato Soup at Souplantation. I had a disappointing bowl of the stuff last Monday but vowed to try, try again. On Thursday, I lunched there with my pals Vince Waldron and Dan Castellaneta and the soup was much better. Then last evening, Carolyn and I went there for dinner and it was terrific. So I'm writing Monday's soup off as an aberration...and will be back many times before March is over.

• Posted at 12:53 AM · LINK

Recommended Reading

Frank Rich on the end of the Culture Wars. Key sentence: "Americans have less and less patience for the intrusive and divisive moral scolds who thrived in the bubbles of the Clinton and Bush years. Culture wars are a luxury the country — the G.O.P. included — can no longer afford."

• Posted at 12:47 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

Here's a very odd musical number from a special that Bea Arthur did for CBS in 1980. The song is from the Broadway show, I Love My Wife (lyrics by Michael Stewart, music by Cy Coleman) and no, your senses are not deceiving you. This really is Ms. Arthur and Rock Hudson in formal attire, singing the praises of recreational drug use.

• Posted at 12:29 AM · LINK