Monday, April 20, 2009

(Closed) Street of Dreams

This is for those of you who venture near the Hollywood area — Hollywood Boulevard, Sunset, Vine, etc. The next month or three, you might want to be prepared. The local Chamber of Commerce has gotten more cooperative with producers and other entrepreneurs who want to block off streets. Over the next few weeks, there will be many long stretches — whole days, even — when boulevards will be blocked off to accommodate filmings, tapings, premieres and even (this Thursday) a free Depeche Mode concert.

The workaround, should you need to travel in or through that area, is to consult Navigate Hollywood, a website via which you can plan your travel and be up to date on what throughways ain't going through. But don't put total faith in it. Whoever configured the site thinks the Magic Castle is at Franklin and Vine. It isn't. It's at Franklin and Orange, which is a little less than a mile away. I just sent them a note about this. Let's see how long it takes them to fix it.

• Posted at 11:09 PM · LINK

Punch-Up

I just realized I can make the joke better...

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has announced that he's going to lead a drive to block the legalization of same-sex wedlock in New York. Giuliani said that he believes marriage is the sacred union of one occasional cross-dresser and a different woman every few years.

And maybe I can get something in there about him marrying his cousin.

Really. There are things I still admire about Mr. Giuliani but him lecturing people about proper relationships is like Newt Gingrinch lecturing people about proper relationships. Oh, wait. He's doing it, too.

• Posted at 7:19 PM · LINK

Rudy Alert

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has announced that he's going to lead a drive to block the legalization of same-sex wedlock in New York. Giuliani said that he believes marriage is the sacred union of one man and a different woman every few years.

• Posted at 5:51 PM · LINK

Monday Afternoon

U.S. agents waterboarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed 183 times in one month. Why so many? Did he not tell them anything the first 182 times and they thought, "Ah...the 183rd time! That's when they all crack!"? Or did he keep giving them useful info each time and they couldn't resist going back over and over to see if he had any more in him? I've never been waterboarded but I have the feeling that if I had anything I could say that would get them to stop doing it to me, you'd get it out of me by, oh, maybe the second time. Maybe halfway through the first.

If they kept doing it, I'd tell them everything and if that wasn't enough, I'd just start making up stuff. You wouldn't believe the crap I'd come up with by my fourth or fifth waterboarding. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed confessed to masterminding the 9/11 attacks, plus roles in the Richard Reid shoe bombing attempt, the Bali nightclub bombing in Indonesia, the murder of Daniel Pearl, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and various other attacks. Waterboard me six times and I'd plead guilty to all that, plus shooting J.F.K. from the grassy knoll while banging Marilyn Monroe and hiding O.J.'s knife.

• Posted at 5:15 PM · LINK

Hollywood Labor News

The board of directors of the Screen Actors Guild has voted — barely — to recommend that its membership accept the contract that its negotiators brought back. The tally was close — 53.4% to 46.6% — which is probably closer than most folks expected. It opens the door wide to a bloody pro/con battle over ratification and that we shall see. A large part of SAG feels they've come too far to take essentially the same thing the other guilds did in "new media." Moreover, in some ways those terms are worse when they're applied to actors.

Ballots will go out around May 1 and are due back at the end of the month. Between now and the due date, we're going to see a lot of yelling and demonstrations and rallies and web campaigns. My guess though is that in the end, the contract will pass by a wider margin with the membership than it did at the board level. It's not so much that the members will like it any more but that they're worn down, worried about a permanent rupture in their guild, and don't see a leader able to carry them into battle.

• Posted at 1:46 AM · LINK

Len Wein Project Update

For years now, I've been making jokes about how cheap comic fans are. I'm going to have to give that up.

A few days ago, we announced The "Let's Restore Len Wein's Comic Book Collection" Project. The goal, of course, is to replace Len's collection of comic books he wrote...a collection that was lost, along with many other things, in a recent house fire. The response has been terrific. I just uploaded an amended list of what we need. If you take a look at it, you'll be amazed and impressed by how much we don't need — how many comics have been "pledged" by Len's friends and fans. Go on. Take a look at the list I just uploaded.

There are, as you can see, still a lot more we do have to locate...but I'm sure impressed at what's been offered so far.

A few other points...

• Please don't mail us anything until we tell you. A couple of folks have already shipped us books that I know are already in the mail from someone else.
• Folks are writing to ask if condition matters. Well, sort of. If you have a beat-up copy of a book we need, I may ask you to hold onto it for a bit and see if someone else comes up with a better copy.
• Folks are also offering Len copies of comics that he once autographed to them. The gesture is appreciated but he'd rather you held onto those, thanks.
• No, we are not asking for money. I'm going to stand the cost of a Public Storage Locker for the year or so it's going to take Len to get his office back. The locker will be necessary because not only are so many of you sending copies of comics that Len wrote but several publishers are sending crates of books that Len didn't write but lost in the fire. Imagine that! Generous, compassionate publishers!
• Our list does not include most comics Len edited but did not write. Frankly, I thought that we'd be doing well just to get the comics he wrote...but people are also offering books he edited. I don't have a list ready of them but if you have some of those you'd like him to have, we'll take 'em! Send me a note (the address is on our special webpage for the cause) and let me know what you've got.
• We will have folks at upcoming comic conventions who are deputized to accept donations for the cause. If you have something on our "wanted" list, you can give it to them and they'll get it to us. First up is Sunday, April 26 — the MCBA MicroCon Comic Book Party in St. Paul, Minnesota. If you're there and you have something for Len, seek out Melissa Kaercher or Christopher Jones, both of whom will have tables there. They'll gladly accept your funnybooks and send them on. Thanks, Melissa and Christopher!
• I will be appearing next weekend (April 25-26) at the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo. Methinks someone there might have comics they'd like to have go to Len but I'm going to be travelling light. Is there someone who'll be there who'd be willing to take home whatever comics people there wish to donate and then ship them to me?
• Lastly for now: I'm swamped with deadlines and such at the moment so it may be a few days, maybe even a week or more before I respond to some offers and inquiries. It's not that we don't appreciate your offers. It's just that some days, I'm juggling a few too many cats here. If you write, you will hear back...eventually.

That's about it for now. Thanks to everyone for helping Len and doing your part to destroy my long-held belief that comic fans are cheap.

• Posted at 12:27 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

My pal Aaron Barnhart found this online so I thought I'd embed it, as well. It's the entirety of Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project, the Emmy-winning documentary by John Landis. I raved about it here and now you can watch it here — all ninety-some-odd minutes of it...with "limited commercial interruption." I'm so thrilled, I might drop my pants and fire a rocket.

• Posted at 12:26 AM · LINK