Here's a little treasure…one of the lavishly-produced kids' records done by Capitol Records. It's Mickey Mouse's Birthday Party and it came with a full-color booklet that you followed along as you played the record. The cast is rather amazing, especially when you find out who it is doing the voice of Mickey. It's Stan Freberg. […]
A couple of folks have written me about what I wrote about Comic-Con International here recently. Some seemed to think I said that everything that has changed about it has changed for the better. No, I didn't say that nor do I think that. I just think that there's much to enjoy within the new […]
Our pal Chuck McCann has a nice honor. He's going to be the Grand Marshal of the annual Doo Dah Parade, which is scheduled for April 14 this year in Ocean City, New Jersey. People love Chuck everywhere but those who grew up where they could watch his kids' show on New York TV in […]
Last evening, a bunch of us went up to Hollywood to see the first of six presentations of the Oddball Comics Show by my longtime buddy Scott Shaw! Scott has amassed a great collection of comic books that cause you to stare and wonder, "What the hell were they thinking?" Some are hilarious even without […]
Number two hundred and one in a series… […]
Read More… from Great Photos of Stan Laurel and/or Oliver Hardy
Al Franken, whose name I don't believe I've read anywhere in the news for months now, has a funny fund-raising letter out. That's great, Al, but what are you doing to advance all those worthy goals we've heard from you? […]
Once upon a time, the May Company was the sacred place to shop in Los Angeles — especially the formidable outlet at the corner of Wilshire and Fairfax. It marked the west end of a strip of Wilshire full of department stores and that strip was known as the Miracle Mile. It's still called the […]
Two funny friends of mine, Bill Kirchenbauer and Brad Slaight, are giving voice to The Diabetes Duo, Captain Glucose and Meter Boy. Together, the two super-heroes promote Diabetes Awareness…a good and important thing. (The three of us share a mutual friend who lost his feet and later his life because he was Diabetic and didn't […]
Someone who signs his name "G.E." and is presumably not General Electric, writes about Craig Ferguson getting a bigger studio… I agree the larger space never made a TV show better. But I think it's to prep him for taking over at 11:30 when Dave retires in 2014 (he'll be 67). So if network TV […]
That's a photo of my mother taking a photo of me taking that photo of her. It was shot outside the Paris hotel in Las Vegas, the last time I took her there, which was more than a decade ago. Carolyn and I took turns pushing her around the town in a borrowed wheelchair and […]
Number two hundred in a series. And yes, that's Orson Welles… […]
Read More… from Great Photos of Stan Laurel and/or Oliver Hardy
Relevant to the previous item: Jonathan Chait writes about how politicians love to gin up phony outrage about non-issues. We're in for a lot of this between now and November and I, for one, am outraged about it. […]
We've long since reached the point where if Barack Obama drinks a root beer, some prominent Republican or right-wing pundit has to express outrage and tell us why it's shameful for the Leader of the Free World to drink a root beer…never mind that the last six Republican presidents, the exalted Reagan included, drank root […]
Daniel Larison notes the problem with Mitt Romney's (indeed, many Republicans') view of foreign policy: They view everything as "them or us" and think it's a sign of weakness to talk to "them." […]
From 1983: A syndicated TV show visits the offices of MAD magazine, complete with a visit to the office of longtime (he's still working for them!!!) writer, Dick DeBartolo… […]