Saturday, January 9, 2010

Recommended Reading

My pal Robert Elisberg reports live from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Here's his first report and here's his second report. Do not click either unless you're prepared to read about something expensive you're going to want to buy.

• Posted at 4:11 PM · LINK

Today's Political Rant

As readers of this blog know, I think it's absurd and barbaric that same-sex couples don't have all the rights of boy/girl duos to wed. Still, I have a bad feeling about the court battle currently being waged against California's Proposition 8. A loss will set the movement back and I'm not so sure a victory won't, as well. It seems to me that my state was already well on track to legalizing Same-Sex Wedlock, as other states have, in some not-too-distant election. It's been on the ballot twice here. The first time it lost, it lost by 22 points. The second time, Prop 8 went down by a little less than 5 points. Notice which direction the momentum is going...and it isn't just in California. All but a very few outlier polls nationwide show the same trend...and some surveys in this state suggest 8 would be defeated if we voted on it today.

I have no idea if the lawyers behind the current effort (as described in this article) are right that they can get it overturned in court but wouldn't it be better if Gay Marriage was legalized by voters? Ultimately, it has to pass muster on more than just a statutory level. Those who now oppose it have to accept it as a basic fact of society, not as something arrived at by legal technicalities and slick lawyering...even if that strict lawyering is accomplishing what is right and proper.

The way this thing is going to play out is that eventually, there will be some widespread number of common gender weddings and enough time will have passed to assess their impact, which will be nil. Those who now fear such unions may notice that the world has not stop revolving and that "traditional marriage" has not crumbled as an institution. They'll find more threatening things to worry about, the way pretty much the same people have stopped worrying about flag-burning. Remember when that was the greatest danger to the American way of life?

We can get to that day through court decisions, true. But I think we'll get there sooner and with less bloodshed if it's the will of the people. Which, increasingly, it is.

• Posted at 1:50 PM · LINK

Art Clokey, R.I.P.

We must sadly note the passing of Art Clokey, the creator of Gumby. Art died yesterday at the age of 88. He was a jolly man and I had the pleasure of meeting him a few times at animation festivals and such. An awful lot of hours and dedication went into animating the stop-motion adventures of Art's concoction, and Art seemed genuinely thrilled to meet adults who'd grown up on his little chewable creation. There sure were a lot of us. Here's the obit in the L.A. Times.

• Posted at 2:57 AM · LINK

Things I Won't Be Doing

The tallest structure in Las Vegas is the Stratosphere Hotel and up on top, they have several thrill rides...as if just being atop that building wasn't thrill enough. They've just announced the newest one, which will open in April.

It's called Skyjump. They strap you into a special harnessed jump-suit and you jump off the building. A cable rig takes you to the ground — 855 feet below — at a speed of 40 MPH. The press release says nothing about landing safely but I assume that's implied.

Cost for this? A hundred bucks for what I'm guessing is...well, let's do the math on this. 40 miles per hour equals 58.6666(etc.) feet per second. So this is less than a fifteen second ride...and it sounds like to something Dick Cheney would want to do to young Muslim men. I can't believe anyone would want to undergo it, let alone pay a hundred dollars for the experience. Yet I know there are people reading this who are saying to themselves, "What? I have to wait until April?" Well, enjoy yourself. I won't be joining you.

• Posted at 2:44 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

Here's a semi-famous clip of Steve Allen on some TV show laughing his fool head off. One of the many assets that Mr. Allen had going for himself was that he was a great audience for the many great comedians who appeared on his programs...and as you can see in this, he was even a great audience for himself. Once in a while, you'd see Johnny Carson break up like this...and of course, Red Skelton would laugh if a fly got into the studio or Harvey Korman would lose it if the fly was Tim Conway. But for the most part, you don't see today's TV performers ever laughing much on the air. Just an observation.

• Posted at 12:07 AM · LINK