Had a nice evening at Vince Waldron's monthly "Totally Looped" show up in Hollywood. Here's how this works: Vince, who is an award-winning writer-director-producer, assembles a troupe of talented actors skilled in improvisational comedy. Then he shows film clips that these folks have not seen. Then they have to do live dubbing, ad-libbing dialogue for […]
Last year, I purchased (online) a couple of Vornado portable heaters from Costco. Today, I received an e-mail from Costco telling me that the models I'd received were the subject of a recall — something about them having a tendency to burst into flames or some other technicality like that. The message told me how […]
My buddy Bruce Reznick sends me this link to a conversation with Richard Pryor. A bunch of stand-up comics ask him questions, one of which is pretty stupid. […]
Alan Keyes sings a chorus of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" for news cameras. Somehow, I think it's going to take more than that for him to get the gay vote. […]
Paul "Mousie" Garner, who died last Sunday at age 95, was a veteran performer, starting back in the halcyon days of vaudeville. He was never much of a star but he was a nice man who loved to talk about the business and especially about his affiliation with the Three Stooges. Back when it was […]
My pal Earl Kress and I have been playing around with video editing on our respective PCs and I think I need to solicit some counsel here. As I said, we have Windows-based PCs and we're looking for the perfect piece of software. We have some DVDs full of clips (not copy-protected) and we want […]
Like (I sure hope) most Americans, I think the "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" is a bunch of Republican stooges who are out to smear John Kerry with claims that are, at best, questionable. A friend of mine who went to Vietnam says a lot of guys who received medals there might not have literally […]
Ben Fritz, one of the authors of All the President's Spin and a co-conspirator in Spinsanity, did an article last week for Variety and it's now available online. It's about "geek chic" at the Comic-Con, and I'm linking to it because it's a good piece, not because it quotes me. To be honest, I'll link […]
In the category of "I thought he was already dead," we have the passing of Robert Bootzin, a fixture of sixties' talk shows as the frenetic Gypsy Boots. I remember him mainly from his visits to Steve Allen's various talk shows. Gypsy, as everyone calls him, was sometimes described as "the first hippie." He would […]
We've managed to dig up the info that Joe Sinnott (artist supreme) needed. Both stories appeared in Kid Colt, Outlaw #90 but were miscredited. They're listed everywhere as having been drawn wholly by Jack Keller but in fact, Keller pencilled and Sinnott inked. Thanks to all who helped solve this important question. […]
I like the whole idea of stem-cell research. I think the negatives about it are silly posturings by groups who are opposed to abortion rights and have wrongly decided that stem-cell research is vaguely in the same arena. On the other hand, this article by William Saletan actually caused me to slightly modify my thinking […]
Matthew Yglesias points out that — and here's a shocker — that some of what George W. Bush is saying about his and John Kerry's tax plans might not be accurate. […]
This message is just for folks who have a ton of old Marvel comic books… I got a call today from Joe Sinnott…and if you have a ton of old Marvel comic books, you sure know who that is. Joe is trying to clean up his record book which lists everything he's done and when […]
My pal Aaron Barnhart thinks the Trio cable channel is not long for this world. I hope he's wrong but he probably isn't. […]
I'm watching a rerun of The Flip Wilson Show that TiVo (we love TiVo) snagged for me this morn from TV Land. In the sketch, Dennis Weaver is playing a Justice of the Peace and Flip is in wedding dress drag as Geraldine, who's waiting for her never-seen boy friend, "Killer," to show up and […]