Category Archives: Uncategorized

Fred Kaplan discusses some of the things that went wrong in Iraq.

Greg Preston is a photographer and comics enthusiast I met several years ago. He was then travelling the country and taking photos of cartoonists, comic book illustrators and animators for a proposed book project which, I am happy to say, is finally happening. This summer, Dark Horse will release The Artist Within, a hardcover collection of Greg's photos, which are very, very good at capturing the personality of the subjects. In most cases, the subjects were photographed in their natural habitats — their studios — and the backgrounds themselves are full of fascinating details.

Amazon is taking advance orders for the book, which they say will be out at the end of August. I hear it'll be out in time for the Comic-Con International in July. Whenever it comes out, you'll want a copy of it.

This has been around the Internet for a while and I may even have linked to it long ago…but hey, there's gotta be someone visiting this site who hasn't seen it. I'm not a big fan of trained animal acts but sometimes, the animal seems to be enjoying it so much that that alone makes it fun to watch. The lady is named Carolyn Scott, the Golden Retriever is named Rookie and the clip runs a bit over two minutes…

I discussed this in the Las Vegas Guide section of this site which I've recently removed. Increasingly, shows in that there city are being done on a "four-wall" basis where the producer (or performer) rents the showroom from the casino. The Los Angeles Times has an article about this practice. I think you'll have to register to read it but so what?

Think Progress, a Liberal website, offers a rundown of significant events (and embarrassing quotes from the Bush administration) from the three years of the Iraq War.

I'd like to link to a more Conservative overview of the same period. Can someone suggest one?

It's long (12 minutes) and it has a lot of naughty words in it, and I've already embedded one video link here today. So I won't embed but will recommend this link to "Truth in Advertising," a very funny and incisive Canadian film about what goes on in your basic advertising agency. Much of it also goes on in television studios and movie companies, and some of it reminds me more of people I've dealt with at TV networks than in ad offices. And yes, that's Colin Mochrie of Whose Line Is It Anyway? among the cast members.

By the way — and by the way, have you noticed how often I say "by the way" on this website? — this might interest some of you. The video links I've been embedding in this weblog (meaning they play right on this page) so far are all from either Google Video or YouTube. They play here and on those sites via a player that employs Macromedia Flash to load and play a video file.

If you would like to capture any of these video files to your own harddisk, this can be done. Go to KeepVid and enter the direct URL (webpage address) in the appropriate place and it will decode the internecine links and format the file for your downloading pleasure — and it also works for many other websites that offer video clips. In some cases, what is saved to your computer will be an "FLV" file. That's a flash video format and in order to play it, you'll need to install a flash video player like this one. (MAC users: There are several out there that will work on your computers but I don't know which one is the best.)

Capturing online video clips is sometimes a good idea because you'll have them even after the link goes away. But you may also want to do it because clips will generally play smoother and without downloading pauses that way.

If you want to know what's going on with the issue of warrantless searches, you need to read this article in U.S. News and World Report. Basically, we have an executive branch that thinks "9/11 changed everything" with regard to any limits whatsoever on what the president can do if he says it's "national security." This, I believe, is known as The Nixon Doctrine.

The great thing about having a weblog like this is that if you ask a question, you get an answer. Of course, you get a lot of wrong answers but somewhere in there may be the correct one.

Last night before bed, I asked here if anyone could identify the background music being played when John Leader is introduced in the video to which I'd linked. This morning, my e-mailbox contains fourteen different answers from 31 people, including eight messages from folks who think it was the James Bond theme. (No, the video starts with that music. I was asking about the piece being played as John Leader is introduced.) Two people also thought the correct answer was "New York, New York" and three said it was the main theme from Chariots of Fire.

Eliminating the obvious wrongos, I went to the Amazon site, looked up the CDs of the other suggested answers, played a little of each and now I know. It's from the 1993 movie, Rudy, scored by Jerry Goldsmith. Thanks to Jim McClain, who was the only one of the thirty-one to send me that information.

Congratulations, Jim…and for the rest of you, we have lovely parting gifts and our thanks for playing Name That Background Music.

I linked to this once before but it's worth another peek. It's a trailer featuring five men who do voiceovers for movie trailers. They are Don LaFontaine, John Leader, Nick Tate, Mark Elliot and Al Chalk. (Oh — and there's a sixth trailer guy in this video…a brief phone call from Hal Douglas, who starred in our video link for yesterday.)

So enjoy it. And can someone identify for me the music heard in the background as John Leader is introduced? It's one of those "I know that tune but cannot place it" things.

Here's a piece by Donald Rumsfeld on the current state of things in Iraq. Boy, would I like to believe this is all true.

If you've recently sent me the kind of e-mail that warrants a reply, you probably haven't received one. This is because I suddenly got deluged and busy at the same time. It's not because I'm snubbing you. I simply got a couple hundred messages in the last week and I'm not able to answer 'em as fast as they're arriving. I'll do what I can to get through the folder but I also have some deadlines to meet so some of your messages will languish a bit longer. Sorry.

It's about time I posted another one of those…and this time, it's harder. Many of you were able to pick out the phony website when it was one out of five choices. How will you do if you have nine real websites and only one spurious one? Well, let's see. You have to pick six of them before you get an offer from The Banker to buy your case and…oh, wait. That's a different game. This is There's No Such Website!

[NOTE: The links below to the real websites point to real websites. A site may be down or it may be so flooded with hits because of my linkage that you can't get to it. That does not mean it's the phony website. The link below to the phony website goes to a page on my site that tells you you've selected the phony website.]

• The Museum of Coathangers – They hold your clothes. They mate in the closet when you're not looking. If you lock your keys in your car, you may even use one to get in. They're coathangers and someone has compiled a collection of their history.
• Egg-Coddlers.com – They hold your eggs for coddling purposes. They…well, they don't really do anything else but if you need to have an egg coddled, they're indispensable. Here's a website devoted to them.
• The Airsickness Bag Virtual Museum – Here's a collection that will make you sick. It's a gallery of those lovely bags they put in front of every seat in an airplane to remind you that it may not be a smooth ride.
• Things My Girl Friend and I Have Argued About – Mil Millington and his companion Margaret sure argue about a lot of interesting things. One wonders if they argue about him putting these topics on a website and in a book.
• Modern Mummification – You have nothing better to do today. Why not have yourself or a loved one mummified? It's one of those things you'll have forever.
• I Hate Clowns – Do you hate clowns? Do you have nightmares about being surrounded by clowns? Then here's a website where you'll find people who feel the way you do. Includes online games where you get to punch and slap clowns.
• I Hate Mimes – Do you hate mimes? Do you have nightmares about being surrounded by mimes? Then here's a website where you'll find people who feel the way you do. Includes online games where you get to punch and slap mimes.
• AsnerCam – Two years ago, actor Ed Asner walked into a luggage repair shop in Culver City, California operated by Phil Willson. He never picked up the suitcase he left there and ever since, Phil's had a web camera trained on the door awaiting the return of Lou Grant.
• Celebrities Yawning – Do celebrities bore you? Cause you to yawn? Well, here's a gallery of photos of famous people yawning. [CAUTION: Looking at this website may cause you to yawn.]
• Watch Me Eat a Hot Dog – Want to watch people eating hot dogs? Then this is the site for you. [CAUTION: Looking at this website may cause you to want to eat a hot dog.]

This time around, thank Tony Isabella, Mike Dow, Bill Stiteler and Edward Douglas for all the suggestions of fake-sounding websites that aren't fake.

Back in this post, I reported that the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas had stopped accepting reservations for after April 15 and that a prominent demolition company had told a reporter that it was studying how to blow up the place. Things seem to have changed. The company that owns it was just acquired by another company, and they're now saying they need more time to plan what they're going to do. Reservations are now being taken for the rest of the year. What do you want to bet they keep it open until just after next year's Super Bowl? And that not a lot of money is spent on upkeep between now and then?

We all love voiceover actors, especially the select group of men (and one or two women) who have "trailer voices." These are the announcers who deliver a certain sound that is considered desirable for movie trailers. At the moment, the two most recognizable ones probably belong to Don LaFontaine and Hal Douglas. Don is based in Los Angeles and Hal is in New York, though they both do work for clients on both coasts. If you don't know what they sound like, here's a link to an MP3 demo recording of Don LaFontaine…

And here's a link to an MP3 demo of the work of Hal Douglas…

Tomorrow, I'll link to a video with Don and some other announcers in it. For now, here's a trailer that was done a couple years ago for the Jerry Seinfeld feature, Comedian. It contains not one second of the movie. Instead, it shows a voiceover guy (played by Hal Douglas) trying to record the trailer for the movie…

Tomorrow night (actually, Sunday morning) GSN's Black and White Overnight bloc will run two color episodes of What's My Line? One is from 1969, the other is from 1974 and on both, the Mystery Guest is Maureen Stapleton, who passed away a few days ago.

Then later Sunday, the channel is running a salute to the late Peter Tomarken. It consists of eighteen consecutive episodes of Press Your Luck, the first of which originally aired January 3, 1985. The marathon runs on GSN from 9 AM (Eastern time) to 6 PM.