Monday, November 23, 2009

Recommended Reading

Fred Kaplan on what Barack Obama ought do in Afghanistan. Me, I think we oughta go over and open about fifty Five Guys burger joints there. Then at least if our soldiers do get bogged down there for years, they'll have great french fries.

• Posted at 9:17 PM · LINK

Curtains for Scrooge

We've been tracking the saga here of a touring stage production of A Christmas Carol, which was to have starred F. Murray Abraham, George Wendt, Wayne Knight and James Garner. It was announced by the same folks who mounted the infamous production of the same play last Christmas at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles. That version — which starred Christopher Lloyd, John Goodman and a couple of folks who filled in for advertised stars who didn't appear — was the one I described as "a live Bloopers show."

For this year, the same producer-director announced a touring company that was to play Chicago, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Boston and Baltimore. It was to feature Mssrs. Abraham, Wendt, Knight and Garner plus, in the original announcement, Stockard Channing and Timothy Hutton. Then Channing and Hutton pulled out or were never signed, depending on which account one believes. Then various cities dropped off the touring plan...and now, it's been announced that Chicago is off and the tour is not happening at all. Anyone surprised?

• Posted at 9:10 PM · LINK

Set the TiVo!

Lewis Black has a new special on the History Channel (of all places) and it begins airing tonight. It's called Surviving the Holidays with Lewis Black. I have no idea if it's any good but hey, it's Lewis Black. Here's the schedule on when it airs.

• Posted at 11:51 AM · LINK

Recommended Reading

Matt Taibbi on the way the media treats Sarah Palin...and also the way Sarah Palin treats the media. I don't disagree with anything he writes but I think he's not giving enough weight to this: Most people who aren't smitten with her approach her every media appearance with an attitude of "Well, let's see what stupid thing she's going to say this time." That's not a Democratic/Republican thing. An awful lot of folks do that with Joe Biden, too. It's just that in the past, the gaffes have been the story. And the part that wasn't about her clumsiness with facts was all about her tabloidesque family problems. She hasn't given the media much of anything else to write about.

• Posted at 9:24 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

Here's a comedy classic. Red Skelton with the short version of the "Guzzler's Gin" routine that made him famous. This is from the 1945 movie, The Ziegfeld Follies and boy, is it smoooooth...

• Posted at 12:08 AM · LINK

Go Read It!

A brief interview with Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks. Several friends of mine who know one or both say they will soon head into a recording studio somewhere to do another 2000 Year Old Man album. (By now, the 2000 Year Old Man will be more like 2050, though he doesn't look a day over 2000.)

• Posted at 12:07 AM · LINK