Friday, April 3, 2009

Friday Evening

Some are saying that the way the process works in Iowa, the soonest that the voters there could possibly outlaw same-sex marriage is 2012. That means three years of gays getting married and three years of those marriages not undermining the very structure of society and destroying conventional marriage.

Perhaps a majority of Iowans today would like to see same-sex wedlock outlawed. Will they in '12? After all those couples have been happily married for years? After other states have legalized gays getting hitched? After mixed-sex marriage has been in no way damaged and after The Lord has not shown his wrath by smiting the state of Iowa with locusts and plagues? I wonder...

I've long held that the folks fighting gay marriage may not know it but they're not working to abolish it...only to delay it. Nate Silver crunches the numbers and shows how things are moving in that direction.

• Posted at 9:39 PM · LINK

Today's Bonus Video Link

This is the kind of thing for which we love Stephen Colbert...

• Posted at 3:33 PM · LINK

Whistle While You Don't Work

Disney is laying off people left and right at its theme parks. Several Dwarfs have been let go and believe me, they're not Happy.

I know the economic news is not all bad but the part that is bad is bad enough to drown out the good. Still, I would like to suggest that today's dire Disney news may not be wholly the fault of the usual villains — the deregulation nuts who let Wall Street go Ponzi. Yeah, they crashed the Dow but one reason Disney revenues are down is because in times like these, people can't afford to pay Disney prices. Las Vegas is dropping its prices sharply since they figured out how tight recreational moola was becoming. Disneyland is just Vegas with mouse ears and bad food. They need to learn the same thing.

• Posted at 3:21 PM · LINK

Later Friday Morning

Vince Waldron sets my mind a little at ease on the Spector verdict. Deliberations were suspended this week due to an ill juror. There have also been some court holidays in there...so they've only spent one full day and two half-days arguing over Spector's culpability. I would think it could all be decided in about the time it takes to make popcorn...but at least they haven't been in there for a whole week..

• Posted at 11:42 AM · LINK

Attention, Gay Couples in San Francisco!

If you want to get married, all you have to do is move to that hotbed of homosexual activity...Iowa.

• Posted at 10:19 AM · LINK

Friday Morning

It's worrying me that the Phil Spector jury is deliberating this long.

• Posted at 10:16 AM · LINK

Really Big Shoe

Greg Ehrbar alerts me to another one of those great BBC radio programs (uh, programmes) that you might want to hear. It's an hour documentary on The Ed Sullivan Show and it features, among other interviewees, Joan Rivers, Shecky Greene, Jackie Mason and the Amazing Carl Ballantine. I haven't listened to it yet but I'm not going to wait to tell you about it. It will only be online for a few more days. Thanks, Greg.

• Posted at 10:00 AM · LINK

Set the TiVo!

Here's a Head's Up. Saturday evening, Turner Classic Movies is running Real Life, a 1979 comedy starring Albert Brooks and directed by him. You ever see it? If not, you ought to. Brooks plays himself, a young filmmaker out to make a documentary about a typical American family, following them around and capturing their lives. PBS had actually done a TV series along these lines and that's what Brooks was spoofing. But the film is even more relevant with reference to the kind of "reality" shows we've had in recent years.

Brooks's film was not particularly successful. Possibly, its sense of humor sailed over a lot of moviegoers' skulls. Possibly, the dislikability of Albert and an uncomfy ending kept audiences away. I don't love it but I admire the hell out of it...and there are some wonderful moments, mainly in the first half hour. Charles Grodin is also quite wonderful as the head of the family whose lives are disrupted by the intrusion of Brooks and his cameras.

Catch it if you haven't seen it. Once again, it's this Saturday. It's on at 6:30 PM on my satellite dish but it may be some other time where you are. You can see the trailer over here and it's pretty funny but it has almost nothing to do with the movie.

And while you're setting your TiVo (or if you insist, VCR) for that, you might be interested in this. Early Saturday, TCM is running Zenobia, the 1939 movie that Oliver Hardy made without Stan Laurel but with Harry Langdon. Here's a little piece I wrote about this oddment. Also, Saturday evening after Real Life, they're running Best in Show, followed by This is Spinal Tap but you've seen both of those.

• Posted at 1:55 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

There's a wonderful exhibit of vintage comic book art and memorabilia up at the Skirball Cultural Center, here in Los Angeles. It's there through August 9 and if you're at all interested in the subject matter, you'll want to get up there at least once and immerse yourself in the material.

The exhibit was assembled by one of the folks whose artwork is nicely represented in it...Golden Age Legend Jerry Robinson. The video player below will show you a brief conversation with Jerry, though you may have to sit through a briefer commercial to see it...

• Posted at 1:17 AM · LINK