John Avlon surveys the huge library out there of hysterical anti-Obama books. Wanna know why our civil discourse in this country is so uncivil? That's it right there: There's money in writing that Obama is a Socialist Muslim who will leave America looking like something out of The Omega Man. And I'm just cynical enough to suspect that many of the people writing those books don't even believe deep down what they're writing…
…or that they do mainly because it's a lucrative belief. Years ago, a noted professional wrestler told me of an odd thing that happened in his line of work. The scenario-writers in what was then the W.W.F. decided that his ring character should be mortal enemies with a certain other wrestler. So the two men, who had been casual friends off-stage, went out and tried to kill each other in the ring and in the pre- and post-match interviews and other public appearances. The wrestler told me — and this isn't a direct quote but it's close…
Night after night, I'd go out and tell the audiences and the camera of my loathing for this guy. Then I'd get in the ring and try to bash his brains in…and it made me very popular. The whole routine got my contract renewed at a higher price so I was making money off it and everyone was cheering me for beating up on this guy. Beating him up and hating him was good for my career so I started to really hate him. It was just easier than feeling like a big hypocrite and it made my act better.
And what is politics these days if not Wrestlemania with more clothing?
This is two of my favorite people yakkin' for a very funny hour, one that is well worth seventy minutes of your life. Rob Paulsen is an Emmy-winning actor for cartoons, best known as Pinky of Pinky and the Brain. He was also one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and is now another of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He does an almost-weekly podcast called Talkin Toons where each week, he chats with one of his peers. One such talented guest is Fred Tatasciore, the current voice of The Hulk and many other characters. I've worked a lot with both of these men and they're walking, talking proof of my belief that the best thing a Voice Director can do is hire good people, then get the hell outta their way. Listen in as Rob interviews Fred about his career and you'll get a good sense of why I love working with these guys. And why the stuff winds up sounding so good…
Conan O'Brien's show sent Triumph the Insult Comic Dog to the final presidential debate to make trouble. It's wonderful how because he has a hand puppet and a camera crew, Bob Smigel has access and a certain amount of credibility to be in that room. I wonder how much he'd be tolerated without the puppet.
Have to admit that I'd largely forgotten that Conan was still on the air. When he went on TBS, I had my TiVo take a season pass to his program but they piled up on it unwatched. The ones I did get around to viewing didn't interest me nor did his guest list most nights. I deleted about 40 episodes I never saw, canceled the season pass and that was it for me and Conan. There was a time back in his NBC days I never missed him.
In the clip below, he has a bad spray tan and his hair in cornrows. This was the payoff for a deal he made with viewers: Give enough money to the Autism Programs and I'll host the show that way one night…
The Rolling Stone interview of Barack Obama. His comments on Ayn Rand are of particular interest. I'm not surprised he feels that way; just that he said it that way.
Jonathan Chait on the damage that would be done by the Paul Ryan budget. And I'm surprised we don't hear more quoting of the line from economist Robert Greenstein; that Ryan's plan will "produce the largest redistribution of income from the bottom to the top in modern U.S. history." Is it that the non-rich folks who back Romney-Ryan…
…are completely unaware of the assertion that Ryan's budget would do this?
…are aware but don't believe that assertion is accurate?
…believe it would do that and believe this kind of "redistribution" is a good thing? Or…
…just want to get rid of Obama so badly they'll allow this kind of thing to happen?
I suspect it's a combination of the first two with maybe a smidgen of the last one.
As mentioned, I spent last weekend down at the San Diego Comic Fest and had a very good time. Mike Towry and his crew promised a small, low-key convention and they delivered. I don't think any attendees were disappointed; not unless they walked in and expected an exact replica of one of those great cons of the seventies at the El Cortez Hotel. The El Cortez has since gone condo and so has the comic book field.
So this wasn't that, nor could it have been. The major difference? Those Great Old Cons were mainly about comics and this con was mainly about Those Great Old Cons. I told more stories about Shel Dorf than about Jack Kirby and there's nothing wrong with that. The crowds did not crowd and they were mostly older. In the video below, note how empty the place feels and how many people you see walking with canes.
A number of attendees told me they felt more of a sense of belonging at this con than they get at The Big One. I long ago realized that the following is true of the annual Comic-Con International: No one matters much. That's not a criticism of it…just simple reality when you're dealing with something of that magnitude. The thing is just too damned huge for anyone to matter much. When people say to me, "Oh, you do four thousand panels…they can't have Comic-Con without you," I think these folks are being nice but utterly wrong. Put me on a list with a hundred other industry professionals and program participants. If none of us showed up, the con would still be every bit as crowded and for most attendees, the exact same experience. Biggest difference? It might take the con an entire half-hour to sell out instead of twenty minutes.
I accept that and I enjoy myself in spite of it. I just carve out a little place for myself and love the con on those terms. It's like going to Disneyland. You can't matter. You can't even feel particularly in control of your environment. You can just use some of what's there to construct a very good time for yourself.
The San Diego Comic Fest offered us something Comic-Con hasn't offered San Diego con-goers for a long time: The chance to be at least a medium-sized fish in a small pond. Depending on what you want to get out of a convention, that may or may not satisfy you but it satisfied me. If you wanted to buy lots of old comics and new books, that wasn't really there. If you wanted to get work, that wasn't there. If you wanted to fraternize with folks who create comics…well, I was there and Murphy Anderson was there and Scott Shaw! and Stan Sakai and George Gladir and Don Glut and Bill Morrison and Batton Lash and Jim Hudnall and just a few others. I personally wouldn't feel insulted if you felt we were insufficient.
A few weeks before, considering the failing health of my mother, I was wondering if I shouldn't cancel or maybe limit my presence to driving down one morning and driving back the same evening. Not that I'm glad in any way to have lost her but the timing worked out for me. I needed the vacation just then. And being behind on my work, I needed a con where I could go up to the room now and then, gain some yardage on my laptop and then just hang out with friends. So for me, it was the right convention at the right time. There's much to be said for small conventions, starting with the fact that they're less about the business than they are about the people.
This CNN video may give you a better idea of what it was all about…
Correspondent Mo Rocca will be doing a segment on the CBS Sunday Morning Show this Sunday. It's about the 60th anniversary of MAD magazine. That's right: Sixty years. Scary.
Neil Steinberg on folks like Richard Mourdock, that Senate candidate in Indiana who believes it's God's will that women who get pregnant by rape have to carry the child to term. Personally, I think it's God's will that Richard Mourdock not get elected.
By the way, you can probably guess what I think of Mr. Mourdock as a human being but I think people are being unfair to him when they suggest he said, "It's sometimes God's will that a woman be raped." Seems to me that however awkwardly he phrased it, what he was trying to say that if there is a rape, a pregnancy that results is God's will. That's still kinda ugly but not quite as bad.
One thing that really annoys me in politics these days is that almost deliberate misunderstanding you sometimes see. Your opponent says something something you can perhaps exploit and you try to sell the worst-possible interpretation of it, not the one he most likely intended. Republicans do that a lot, as witness Obama's "you didn't build that" stripquote. I would respect the hell out of any politico who made an effort to correct his side when they do this. But you don't see that often.
I for the most part like Barack Obama and Jay Leno…and I wish the latter would stop having on guests like the former. The president's visit last night to The Tonight Show was entertaining enough, I suppose, and that's the problem with it for me. It's the same problem I have when Jay welcomes Mitt Romney or either candidate's spouse or before that, John McCain or Arnold or anyone who's there to harvest votes. "Gives good panel on talk show" is not a good reason to vote for anyone and these appearances all seem to me like managed deceptions. Questions are prearranged to some extent. So are funny responses. This kind of program is not as spontaneous as it appears.
None of them are these days except maybe Craig Ferguson's where, one might note, people running for office do not appear. Letterman is a bit better than Leno in that Dave will ask a hard question or two…though I felt he came off as a bit of a political boob the other night when he had Rachel Maddow on. I understand playing the ninny to get laughs but it's almost like admitting you're not qualified, at least on screen, to be having the conversation you're having.
It's bad enough when this kind of thing — making the guest look good via good preparation — is done to promote movies or concerts. I just don't think political candidates should have this free ride to promote themselves as witty and the kind o' guy you'd like to have a Schlitz with. (Do they still make Schlitz? I just Googled and apparently they do. I know nothing about beer except which ones have the funny names. Schlitz is the funniest followed closely by Blatz.)
To be clear: I don't fault any candidate for going on and participating in this practice. If I were running for something, I would. And if I were running a talk show, I'd sure want the numbers and attention derived from welcoming someone who is or might soon be The Leader of the Free World. But I hope I'd either bypass that ratings opportunity…or ask the candidate some real questions.
Kevin Drum runs down the 11 ballot propositions on the California ballot and gives his recommendation on each. My ballot is already marked and sent so this can't help me decide…but as it happens, we agree on ten of the eleven. The one on which we part company is Proposition 37 which says that genetically-modified foods must be properly labelled as such. Kevin says, "I'm not convinced that GM foods pose enough of a genuine hazard to rate detailed labeling laws." I am…or at least, I think the evidence is strong enough that some might. In any case, I'm in favor of consumers having as much info as possible about what they consume.
Other than that, listen to Kevin. He's totally right about 32 being worthy of overwhelming defeat. It's yet another attempt by corporations who are sometimes opposed by labor to cripple the power of labor to oppose them. Not a good idea.
The first of June 2010, my friend Earl Kress and I went out to the TV Academy for a special event honoring Bob Newhart for 50 years in show business. We had tickets, we got there on time and my friend Jack Riley, who was on the panel, had arranged for us to get seats in the area where they seated people who were guests of the folks onstage. Somehow, we didn't get in. The event was mobbed with Very Important People (i.e., more important to someone than Earl and me) who had shown up without tickets and…well, we didn't get in.
Here's a video of what we didn't get in to see. It runs two hours and gets a bit tedious at times but there's enough wonderful material in there to make it worth the journey…
About a dozen of you have written me to say you scored a copy of the Al Jaffee book when it was $14.24. When I bought mine, they said they only had 15 copies in stock with "more on the way." So I'm guessing readers of this site quickly grabbed up the 13 copies that were left after I ordered my two…then selling-out (for now) somehow triggered the Amazon computers to reprice and the cost shot up to $78.75. I cannot begin to theorize why the price has since come down a big seven cents to $78.68, which is what it is at this moment.
The Barnes & Noble website currently has it at $91.91 on their main page there but they also have a "marketplace" area that sells what are apparently new copies for $62.50. Powell's City of Books, which is a pretty large operation in Portland, Oregon is offering it for the full retail price of $125.00 and I am always curious about this. Are there people who actually buy it for that? And if so, is it because they don't want to take the twenty seconds required to search Amazon?
Lloyd Grove writes of the laughingstock that is Donald Trump. But I'm not sure Trump should be as embarrassed as the media forces that persist in treating him with importance and who go for every Attention-Getting Device. It's like that latest Ann Coulter quote making the rounds where she called Obama a "retard." That kind of thing is the only thing Ann Coulter says or does that makes the rounds and reminds the Rabid Right that she has books out they can buy and is available for speaking engagements.
Years ago I was at a comic book convention where longtime starlet Edy Williams was at a table selling photos of herself, It was twenty bucks for nude and ten for clothed, despite the convention's insistence that she not sell the naked ones at all. She'd stow them away until someone asked, then out they'd come. The same was true of her breasts. Whenever no one was gathering around to buy, she'd flash her nipples at someone and she'd have customers. Why? Because it worked and she didn't have any other tricks in her repertoire. Neither do Trump, Coulter or way too many people who turn up on cable news and on current events websites.
See that man? That's Al Jaffee, the beloved cartoonist responsible for the MAD Fold-In, featured in almost every issue of MAD since Lyndon B. Johnson was elected President. See that boxed set of books? That's The MAD Fold-In Collection: 1964-2010, a recently-released collection of Al's silly-but-brilliant, brilliant-but-silly feature that reprints 410 of them…and you don't even have to fold the page to view them folded because this set shows them to you unfolded and then folded.
Upon release, this set sold for $125.00 and folks were glad to have it at that price. Amazon will sell you one for $14.24 plus postage, which will probably run you another four bucks.
UPDATE AT 10 AM: Okay, now the price is $78.75. I dunno what happened but it was $14.24 an hour ago when I ordered two copies. I'll let you know if I get them for that.
