Category Archives: Uncategorized

Wanna get a lot of e-mail? Just make a vaguely disparaging comment on your weblog about Macs. You should see what I'm getting…and some of them are reacting like I made a vicious racial slur about them and their mothers.

There's nothing wrong with owning a Mac. Just as there was nothing wrong with owning a Betamax until, of course, they stopped making them. In the technological age though, we commit to formats and accept their limitations. You stay with videotapes and you can't get certain films because they're only available on DVD. You buy a car with a stick-shift, you have to put up with valets and car wash attendants who can't drive a stick. My friends who own Macs are all pretty happy with them except when they see a great Windows program with no Mac equivalent.

This is why there are new Macs that run dual-format and software to run Windows programs on Macs. They're probably great machines but I'm not ready to junk my three PCs and plunge into a new system just because I don't like one piece of Windows-based virus protection software.

I'm on a deadline this weekend so I can't respond individually to you all. But most of you are reading a lot more into that comment than was there.

I've just about had it with Norton Anti-Virus. I've been a Norton customer since…well, somewhere here I still have a 5" floppy of The Norton Utilities with a photo of Peter Norton printed on it. That's how long. I don't think Mr. Norton has anything to do with the current software products that bear his name, which may be part of the problem.

Norton Anti-Virus probably does a decent job of protecting me from dread computer viruses…although it's failed me a few times, once because I contracted a virus so new that no one in the anti-virus community had heard of it yet. If I'd gotten it a week later, I would have been fine…but some things are beyond our control. My big problems have to do with the fact that it doesn't play well with other programs. Four times now on my three computers, I've installed or uninstalled something else and Norton A-V has gone kablooey. Each time, the solution has been the same. I wait 15-20 minutes for someone I'm pretty sure is not on this continent to come online for a "live chat" and they tell me to do a complete uninstall, including running a program to cleanse my system of all Norton and Symantec products, and then do a reinstall. This takes around an hour each time…and I can think of so many other things I could do with that hour. For instance, I could wait on hold for the people who handle tech support for Microsoft Money. I think they have two guys and they each work an hour a month.

My computer guru Bill Goldstein recommends that I try AVG instead, and I intend to give it a try. I'm also instituting a new policy. I can't do anything about Microsoft products but otherwise, I ain't installing anything that has a fee-based Tech Support phone number. I never called the one for Norton but every time I saw they had one, it made me think they're not all that unhappy when their product doesn't work properly. In any case, the next uninstall I do of Norton shall be my last.

(And don't write me and tell me I should buy a Mac. People who have Macs remind me of myself when I had Beta and I kept seeing movies I wanted to own come out on VHS only.)

Preston Blair was one of the great animators. He was responsible for the Red Hot Riding Hood animation in several Tex Avery cartoons, for the hippos and other memorable characters in Fantasia, and many more classic examples of making drawings move. But his most lasting contribution to the art may rest with a couple of books he authored for the Walter Foster art book series. They were repackaged a few times under different names — Cartoon Animation, Advanced Animation, How to Animate Film Cartoons, Animation: Learn How to Draw Animated Cartoons and others.

It is difficult to overestimate the importance of the Blair books to animation. Darn near every kid who ever thought it might be neat to learn how to do that started to learn how to do that from these volumes. Many who took expensive courses in art schools reported that it was more educational just to page through the Preston Blair books and copy his work. (And speaking of copying: Blair's drawings have been ripped-off countless times for advertising and other purposes. I believe this current edition contains all or most of both volumes and if you buy it, you'll recognize a lot of duck and pig drawings.)

What many did not know until recently was that Blair had to redo his first book after its initial publication in 1947. He'd used drawings he'd done for MGM and a few from Disney, which caused legal problems. That edition was redrawn and he refashioned all the images of Tom & Jerry and Screwy Squirrel and Droopy and other established characters into generic versions. The drawing below shows how one rabbit received a makeover.

Copies of the first version are rare and prized. My pal Jerry Beck scored one from another great animator, Dave Tendlar, and now you can experience it. ASIFA-Hollywood is archiving and sharing rare treasures of animation and they've scanned Jerry's copy and posted it here and here. This is a valuable resource for wanna-be animators, and I'm sure seasoned professionals can learn from it, as well. A lot of those who do cannot teach but Blair was that rare talent who could so something and explain clearly how he did it.

This sounds like something the writers of MAD Magazine would come up with: O.J. Simpson is doing a pay-per-view hidden camera show called Juiced. In one segment, he tries to sell his infamous white Ford Bronco, touting it as a good getaway vehicle. (Don't believe me? Read this.)

I'm trying to think of a TV show I am less likely to ever watch and I can't. I don't like hidden camera shows at all and I think Simpson belongs in a small room with bars on the windows and door. I've never even sprung for pay-per-view on anything, and I ain't starting with this.

The only thing that interests me here — though not enough to watch and try to figure it out — is this: Is Simpson doing this program because he thinks it will rehabilitate his image…and if so, why does he think that? Or has he given up all hope of widespread public acceptance and is just doing it because he figures it doesn't matter what he does? I suppose there's a third possibility, which is that he figures that if he goes around doing hidden camera stunts, he just might catch The Real Killers on tape. But that seems like an outside possibility…

Some time ago here, I hooked you all up with a video of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello performing their famous "Who's on First?" routine on some fifties TV show. Today, we have a clip of them performing it on radio in the early forties when it was a little fresher for them and for audiences. It's interesting to compare the two performances. I like the radio one better even though — for obvious reasons — it isn't as physical and based around Costello's facial reactions. But the timing's better and there's more sense of the two guys playing off each other.

Also note that on radio, Lou made a conscious attempt to keep his voice higher so it would be easier to differentiate him from Bud and that when they did this routine during the war, the Shortstop's name changed from I Don't Give a Darn to I Don't Give a Damn. The logic, as I understand it, was that these shows were being broadcast to Our Boys Overseas and those who were offended stateside would have to accept that our fighting men deserved a little earthier entertainment. Frankly, I think the soldiers would have preferred a couple of strippers but they had to settle for the naughtiness of Lou Costello saying "damn" instead of "darn."

This clip runs three minutes. It goes way outta-sync near the end and when it does, you might want to just listen and not look.

You know, when George W. Bush told us he'd be "a uniter, not a divider," I didn't realize he meant he'd unite us by convincing everyone in America he's a terrible president.

And this poll was taken before the latest revelation of massive phone surveillance. That oughta get him down to 28.

The bed owned by the parents of Lee Harvey Oswald. The seller is advertising it by saying, "Oswald was conceived in this bed."

I was going to write a sarcastic comment but sometimes, it's just not worth the trouble.

Odds are good that I won't get back there to see it but the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut is staging a big, splashy revival (with some revisions) of the Li'l Abner musical. That show is a frequent topic of this website so I should mention that I'm hearing good things about it. Here's one review and here's another. From the former, we learn that though the show is set in the fifties, its Washington scenes include references to Jack Abramoff and John McCain, and that the gent who plays the evil General Bullmoose looks not unlike Dick Cheney. I have no idea how I feel about this. Back when I was briefly in talks to revise/update the book for a possible Broadway resurrection, the idea was to remove obscure references (like the line about Drew Pearson) but to avoid all anachronisms. I'm not saying that's the only way to do it, nor would I criticize their show without seeing it. Then again, in the show, Bullmoose does claim that "Progress is the Root of All Evil."

The Goodspeed website offers some goodies: A two-and-a-half minute video clip of scenes from the show, a five minute chat with director Scott Schwartz and a nice article on the property. You can also listen to two numbers from the original Broadway production.

Thanks to Mark J. Roy for reminding me about this. Wish I could get back there before July 2 to catch a performance. (I'd also love to get back to New York to see Billy Connolly's one-man show. If anyone who reads this site goes, send in a report.)

Among our many and varied interests is the history of the city some call Los Angeles. We especially like to track how certain areas evolve and how one building can morph from a restaurant to a church and then become a hardware store and then a florist shop, all before becoming — as every structure eventually has or will — a Starbucks.

I can't embed it here but you might enjoy this video of around eight minutes of footage shot on the Sunset Strip in the sixties. Near the beginning, they give you a quick pan of a strip joint called the Classic Cat. That was located at the corner of Sunset and Larrabee, and before it was a strip joint, it was a restaurant owned by Jerry Lewis (bearing his name and caricature on the outside) and then it was an eatery fronted by L.A. radio personality Dick Whittinghill. Today, it's Tower Video. I also like that in the video, they show the rioting that occurred on the Strip around 1967 and in the midst of it, they have some brief shots of the Bullwinkle statue outside Jay Ward's office.

I can, however, embed this. A website called 1947project is attempting to document the city's history, amassing whatever info and pics they can find. They've assembled a 23 (!) minute video of still shots of old Los Angeles set to music. They also, on this page of their site, have a high-resolution version of the video below but they caution it'll only play on the latest versions of Windows. If you can play the high-res version, do. Some of the photos are quite wonderful.

HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson now says that the story he told at that speech — the one about how he killed someone's contract because the guy said he didn't like George W. Bush — falls under the category of "anecdotal remarks." I think he thinks that's another way of saying the whole thing was a fib — in which case someone needs to buy this man a dictionary. The one I keep near my computer gives the following as synonyms for "anecdotal"…

designating, identifying, definitive, graphic, describing, narrative, expository, interpretive, anecdotal, characterizing, illuminating, illuminative, expressive, clear, true to life, illustrative, lifelike, vivid, portraitive, picturesque, circumstantial, eloquent, detailed, pictorial, photographic, classificatory, representative, indicative, revealing

Nothing in there about "not true." An anecdotal account can be casual or unverified but it can also be absolutely accurate.

It also seems to me this statement completely misses one of the main charges. Okay, maybe the story was apocryphal. But Jackson still told it to an auditorium full of folks who wanted government contracts from his department. The tale was a clear warning that if you wanted the deals, you'd better not get caught speaking against George W. Bush. That's disgraceful.

I just ran this test on the speed of my Internet cable connection. It showed a rate of 4.2 megabits per second.

I thought, "That's amazing" and I ran it again. This time, I got 3.2 megabits a second."

So I ran it one more time. A pitiful 2.8 megabits a second.

This is like Deal or No Deal. I should've quit while I was ahead.

On tonight's Daily Show, Jon Stewart discusses a minor dust-up with the folks who run a TV station in Terre Haute. This article in the Terre Haute Tribune-Star covers the argument which stems from Stewart mocking some TV spots a station did promoting its weather forecasters. I don't think it's humanly possible to win an argument with a comedian who's ridiculing your commercials. Maybe if he was making fun of your wife's appearance, you could convince people he was rude and unfunny. But if there was ever a category that's wide open for ridicule in this world, it's commercials.

Our friends at Fantagraphics are already putting out a fine reprint set of Mr. Schulz's Peanuts and it's about to be joined by one of Elzie Segar's Thimble Theatre, the strip more commonly known as Popeye. These have been reprinted before but the new series — six hardcovers, Sundays in color, one volume every six months commencing this September — promises to be must-purchase even for those of us who bought the earlier collections.

And if you didn't…well, you may be in for a delightful surprise, especially if you think of Popeye only from his animated appearances. In Segar's newspaper strips, the sailor did a lot more than take six minutes to haul out his spinach and then thrash Bluto. There was a wonderful mix of silliness and solid adventure there, along with some truly memorable (and occasionally, downright odd) characters.

Some history. Elzie Crisler Segar began drawing Thimble Theatre in 1919, featuring a large cast of players but especially a guy named Castor Oyl and his pal, Ham Gravy. They encountered many weird characters and in 1929, one of 'em — a squinty sailor — just plain stayed around a while. In fact, he eventually kicked Castor Oyl out of his own strip and began romancing the guy's sister, Olive.

Segar drew the strip until his death in 1938 producing superb work that has been too often overlooked. When scholars start rattling off the names of the all-time great newspaper comics, they tend to skip over the ones that were continued, even quite ably, by others…so Thimble Theatre gets forgotten. Glad that Fantagraphics has remembered and will be favoring us with some nice "keeper" volumes. You can advanced order the first one here if you're eager.

The other day, it was reported that the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Alphonso Jackson, had told an audience of minority real estate entrepreneurs that he had cancelled a contract to one firm because its owner said he didn't like George W. Bush. Many folks are objecting to this and rightfully so.

So what's the latest? Well, his official spokesperson confirmed that Jackson had indeed yanked someone's contract because they said they didn't like George W. Bush. Then his official spokesperson said he hadn't and that the whole story was just "anecdotal" and made up. Now, his official spokesperson has gone on a "scheduled leave."

So either Jackson told an audience a bogus story to try and scare them into not criticizing Bush…or he told them a true story for that purpose. You get the feeling Mr. Jackson may wind up going on an unscheduled leave?

My buddy Lee Goldberg links to the piece on memorable final episodes of TV shows and makes the point that a lot of these are unnecessary stunts. Not every show's continuity cries out for some sort of lasting resolution. Maybe the network's need for ratings in a sweeps period do but the nature of the series often does not. Sometimes, I suspect, viewers would be happier to think that their favorite characters were still doing what they did when we enjoyed watching them.

Meanwhile, Johnny Achziger writes…

I watched The Fugitive when it originally ran, and anxiously awaited the finale. But when I watched it, it really outraged me and I thought the whole thing was stupid (and I was maybe 12 years old). I haven't seen it since, but this is what I remember. Dr. Kimble returned to his home town (I believe) and somehow confronted his brother-in-law (I think the one armed man was there at the time), and it turned out that said brother-in-law was present and watching while Mrs. Kimble (his sister) was being murdered, but did nothing because he was too afraid. So he saw the one-armed man, but not only did he not report the facts (out of fear his cowardice would become known), but he let Dr. Kimble take the rap.

I've never seen it since, and like I said, I was about 12 then, and it came across to me as a really lame ending. Maybe it was more dramatic to adults, but it me it was really disappointing.

The way I recall it, there was a neighbor (not the brother-in-law) who witnessed the murder but who kept silent because he was being blackmailed by the one-armed man, Fred Johnson. When the neighbor and Johnson meet at an amusement park, Richard Kimble confronts him, chases him up a water tower and then, just when it looks like Johnson will kill Kimble, Police Lieutenant Gerard shoots and kills Johnson. By this point, because of what he's overheard, Gerard fully believes Kimble is innocent…and since the neighbor is no longer being blackmailed, he can testify to that effect. So Dr. Richard Kimble is a free man.

I thought that was a satisfying ending. In fact, I suspect regular viewers would have felt cheated if it had turned out almost any other way. Kimble had to be proven right about the one-armed man; that it was that guy who'd killed Mrs. Kimble. There was speculation before the episode aired that it might turn out that the one-armed man was actually a witness who could finger the guy (not Kimble) who'd killed the wife. Naw. That would mean our hero was not completely right all those seasons he went around saying a one-armed man had offed his wife. Audiences also craved to see the bad guy pay for his crime…and not after a long trial where Johnson could argue his innocence. We don't like lingering questions or non-immediate gratification in our TV justice. That's why when Perry Mason would figure out who the real killer was, the real killer always confessed, thereby dispensing with any doubt.

So that's why the one-armed man had to confess, then die, plus there had to be someone around who could swear that Kimble was innocent…say, a heretofore-undisclosed eyewitness to the crime. Plus, we wouldn't necessarily like Kimble if he'd been the one to kill the one-armed gent…and he'd have been foolish to do so since it would just have clouded his legal situation at a time when we were aching to see him become a free man. By having Gerard kill him, that kept Kimble's hands clean and it also redeemed Gerard. He'd spent years pursuing an innocent man and now he'd saved that innocent man's life. All very neat and tidy.

But here's what I wonder about. The finale of The Fugitive got one of the highest ratings ever recorded for a TV show. Still, when the shows went into syndicated reruns soon after, they didn't do so well. Was it because the show had had that real, finite ending? Was the problem that America now considered the matter of Dr. Richard Kimble a closed book and there was no point in reopening it? We'll never know but it wouldn't surprise me. It also wouldn't surprise me if on some shows since, when it's proposed they do a "last episode," someone at the studio says to someone else, "Hold on. Don't we want to make money in syndication with these shows? Remember what happened with The Fugitive."