Yearly Archives: 2003

Over in Slate, there's another article that argues — persuasively — that the whole Space Shuttle project is just a lot of showing-off for no good purpose.  I would love to see a persuasive argument (I'm assuming there is one) as to why it should continue.  I mean, I understand about the national character, and how Americans never give up, and "Where would we be if Columbus had given up?" and all that, and I'm not saying none of that matters.  But has anyone seen a good article explaining why it advances technology and improves the quality of life on this planet to keep sending human beings up there?  This is one of those cases where I'm quite willing to be convinced, but I'm not yet.  And since it will doubtlessly continue, I'd kinda like to be.

• No Action by Christopher Caldwell, New York Press
• When It Comes to Disarming Hussein, Even the Hawks Are Split by Paul Brownstein, Los Angeles Times
• The Inoperative by David Greenberg, Boston Globe
• Threats, Promises and Lies by Paul Krugman, New York Times
• Paris in the Spring by William F. Buckley Jr., National Review
• There Is No Such Thing As Permanent Tax-Cuts by Bruce Bartlett, Town Hall
• Finding Trouble in U.S. by Jimmy Breslin, Newsday

The best internet comment I saw about the Space Shuttle disaster — and I'm being at least half-serious — was from Eric Alterman…

Nothing about the space shuttle blowing up from me; what the hell do I know about why space shuttles blow up?  And since I don't work for a network or cable news network, I don't have to pretend.

Neither do I.  But I do know that the seven astronauts are no more or less dead than the four U.S. soldiers killed last week in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan, or the Coast Guard soldier killed in an auto accident in Qatar.  Somehow, the non-astronauts did not merit the same kind of grief, flags at half-staff, talks of enduring tributes, etc.  We seem to be very selective with the mourning of those who die in service of our nation, and I think that's a shame.  If we're going to be sending more men and women off to war, we'd better shake the notion that some deaths are more tragic than others.

And I think I also agree with this Paul Krugman column.  It says, basically, that almost everything good that comes out of the space program can be done better and cheaper by machines, and that we send human beings out there mainly for show.  It's a pretty dangerous show but Americans will never buy the notion that it should be curtailed.  We all want to believe Star Trek is just over the horizon.

Who is the woman?  I got this photo of a lady with great legs and figure off the back cover of a recently-released DVD of a classic motion picture — one that you've probably seen if you're the kind of person who'd be likely to come to this website.  Actually, forget who the woman is.  I don't even know.  Your mission is just to identify the movie in which she's so prominent that they put this photo on the back cover of the DVD.  I'll post the answer here in a day or so.

My friend, TV critic Aaron Barnhart, reviewed the first week of Jimmy Kimmel Live!  Aaron and I don't always agree but we agree on this.

A jury recently found a man named Ed Rosenthal guilty of growing marijuana.  Right after the trial, the jury learned some facts about the case that had been withheld from them in court, and several members of that jury immediately decided their verdict was wrong.  For a frightening portrait of how the law works in John Ashcroft's America, read this news account.  And this New York Times editorial properly expresses the outrage this kind of thing warrants.

I still don't understand the Amazon sales rankings but I see that my new book, Mad Art, has jumped way up in them.  Last Saturday, they finally changed its status to "Usually ships in 24 hours."  On Sunday, it jumped from #34,735 to #4,211, then down to #4,971 on Monday, which I guess is still good.

The sequel to my other book, Comic Books and Other Necessities of Life is on the way.  It will be another batch of old funnybook-oriented columns plus some new ones, and it'll be out in time for this year's Comic-Con International in San Diego.  So start saving up those bucks for…

I still have nothing but the obvious to say about the Shuttle Disaster, except that — after 9/11 — I wonder if we aren't getting numb to this kind of thing.  Or maybe (better) we're more conscious of our own resiliency and so are less inclined to see catastrophes through that "nothing will ever be the same again" mindset.

We've been pushing the Time-Life videos of The Dick Van Dyke Show on this site.  Five volumes are presently available on DVD or VHS, each containing four of the best episodes of the show, plus a number of special features.  The DVDs have great picture quality and the shows are well-chosen, and the only negative, as I noted earlier, was that some of us would really like the complete run of the show in chronological order.  That, alas, is not currently available.  But it may be in the not-too-distant future, to those of us who have $800 to spend.  The place to visit, if you're interested, is www.dickvandykeshow.com, an enterprise run by Doug Denoff, son of Sam Denoff.

Sam, of course, was one of the show's key writer-producers.  As detailed over there, they are prepping but have been delayed in offering "The Ottoman Edition," which will be the complete run of The Dick Van Dyke Show, in sequence, and with some different special features included.  There's no release date yet, and Denoff doesn't expect us to wait for it.  So I bought (and will continue to purchase) the Time-Life releases until his comes along.  This is one of the things on video I don't mind buying twice.

At long last, Amazon has Mad Art available with 24 hour shipping.  Availability seems to be helping its sales, which is a relief.  I was expecting a massive drop in orders once people found out they could actually get it.

Interview with comic book legend Joe Kubert.  Right here.

The ratings for Jimmy Kimmel Live! got screwed-up last night somehow.  Once they're all straightened out, ABC should have something they can spin as demonstrating night-to-night growth, though he seems to have gotten a pretty consistent 6-7 share every night.  If that doesn't drop when he's up against new Letterman episodes — as opposed to reruns the past week — Jimmy might stick around long enough to develop into a first-rate host, and find something to do on his show that every talk show in history hasn't run into the ground.  I thought the last few nights were much, much better, at least in terms of him looking like he wasn't embarrassed by his own program.  They are, however, resorting to the stock talk show staples — a cooking demo, an audience quiz where the audience member can't possibly know any of the answers, pre-tapes that send someone to an inappropriate place (Snoop Dogg to a garage sale, Jimmy's uncle to a Def Jam party), etc.  And I love "Super" Dave Osborne but his appearance the other night, doing the exact same bit that Leno and Letterman long since stopped wanting from him, confirmed reports that the Kimmel show is pretty desperate for guests.

Not much to say about this morn's Space Shuttle explosion that isn't being said more eloquently by others.  I especially identified with the simple sentiments expressed here by Joshua Micah Marshall.

About all I can add is that around 10:00 AM, when I sat down at my computer and saw the awful news, I made a quick tour of major news sites, and then of some of the political message boards and weblogs.  I was pleased to see that the latter were not filled with attempts to spin the tragedy as a failing of George W. Bush or William J. Clinton, or of either of their parties, or of a particular political philosophy.  Everyone I saw had risen above trying to exploit this tragedy to advance their personal causes.

About 90 minutes later, I surfed through all those sites again, and it was starting.

I'm a big fan of the works of Betty Comden, Adolph Green, and Cy Coleman but somehow, their 1978 musical On The Twentieth Century had slipped under my radar.  Fortunately, Los Angeles has the Reprise! series, which resurrects classic musicals and stages them for limited runs of scaled-down productions.  Actually, the only skimping for this show is in the sets.  The costumes are grand, and the orchestra is at full strength because some anonymous donor kicked in to pay for extra musicians.  The cast, even with minimal rehearsal, could scarcely be better.

The story takes place on the famous Chicago-to-New York train known as The Twentieth Century.  As it makes that 17-hour journey, a failed Broadway producer (played brilliantly by Bob Gunton) attempts to salvage his life and career.  Also aboard the liner is an actress (played likewise by Carolee Carmello) who was once his discovery and paramour, but who left him for stardom in Hollywood.  The producer and his two aides (Dan Butler and Robert Picardo) try to get her to sign on for their next show while her leading man (Damon Kirsche) tries to keep her in the movies and a religious fanatic (Mimi Hines) roams the train.  I'd single out more outstanding performances but this is one of those rare shows where everyone is terrific.  The dialogue is rapid-fire and very clever, and the actors handle every wisecrack with style and aplomb.

The show's there 'til Sunday so the odds are you won't get to see it.  But I came home so impressed that I had to write about it.  We theatergoers go to a lot of poor shows waiting for an evening like this.

Recently, I mentioned the DC Comics Message Board.  I should have mentioned that those of you who are interested in DC's splendid Archive series may want to check out the section of the board devoted to those books.  The crowd there discusses what's coming up and what they'd like to see come up, and every so often Bob Greenberger pops in and addresses their queries.  Bob is the Senior Editor of such publications up at DC Comics and they couldn't have a better, nicer guy in that position.  I was thoughtless in not mentioning him by name in the earlier item so I wanted to make up for it.

I always think people take "10 best" or "100 best" lists way too seriously.  Too often, instead of treating the list as just the opinions of one person or one group, it's like, "How dare someone compile a list that would differ from mine?"  When folks begin debating those lists, they not only seem to act like there's only one possible set of right answers, but that everyone is applying the same criteria.  That's not usually the case, either.  (I keep stumbling across lists that purport to itemize "the ten most influential comic artists" and it's obvious that no two people have the same definition of "influential," or even of "comic artists." )

With all that in mind, I direct your attention to this list of someone's "Hundred Favorite Moments in Television."  I'm not sure what definition of "favorite" leads to these selections but it's an interesting list.  It'll remind you of some of your favorite moments, no matter how you define "favorite."

As you can see, I have posted a picture of a can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup.  This is the traditional Internet symbol indicating that the proprietor of the weblog is too busy with pressing deadlines to update his site.  Whenever you see it, you know that though he's swamped, he'll be back in a day or three — or sooner, if events warrant — and that he'll resume posting, just as soon as he gets his work schedule under control.  And come to think of it, wouldn't a hot, steaming bowl of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup just hit the spot right about now?  Mmm, good.

It's National Gorilla Suit Day and I just have a few moments before I have to start going door-to-door in my gorilla suit.  (Yeah, I know.  You've all been out in yours for hours.  Well, I overslept.)  Anyway, I felt I should mention that I thought last night's Jimmy Kimmel Live! showed a solid glimmer of progress.  He still doesn't look like a talk show host to me but at least he doesn't look like a deer caught in someone's headlights.  If they can get some decent guests, and a co-host with something to say, this crate might fly.  Ratings were up a bit last night, too.  I'll bet ABC's wishing they'd hired Kimmel while Politically Incorrect was still on, and let him get the bugs out in the time slot following Bill Maher.

The Rockies have crumbled, Gibraltar just tumbled (They're only made of clay) and Amazon.Com now lists Mad Art as more-or-less in stock.  It usually ships in "2-3 days," they say, which is a big step up from not coming out until some time in the distant past.  So rush over and order hundreds of copies.

By the way, I had a great time last night chatting and plugging said book with Garry Lee Wright on WGN radio out of Chicago.  Thanks, Garry!

An awful lot of Stan Freberg fans visit this site, and here's something they'll like.  The above photo is from November 2, 1960.  It was taken at the East Los Angeles Junior College football stadium.  The 22,000 seat arena was jammed, and another 15,000 people were turned away from the event as a bevy of Hollywood stars rallied support for Democratic nominee John F. Kennedy.  From left to right, the celebrities are actress Janet Leigh, singer Jo Stafford, musician Louis Prima, comedian Milton Berle, and Freberg.

The other day on the phone, I asked Stan what he remembered of that evening.  He recalled Berle repeatedly trying to get his cigar lit as Senator Kennedy was speaking.  After a few tries, Uncle Miltie announced — just loud enough for all to hear — "This lighter won't work.  It's just like my brother-in-law."  J.F.K. gave him a quick glance, then returned to his speech.

That's right.  Berle was trying to upstage the man who, six days later, would be elected the 35th President of the United States.