Category Archives: Uncategorized

Figured it out by myself.

I own a PC (actually, several) and I use Microsoft Outlook for my calendar and contacts but not for mail. I have an iPad and an iPhone and I have Mobile ME, which is also what I'm attempting to be here…a more mobile ME. I am trying to get all these things configured so that when I add or change a calendar or contact item in one of these three places, the change is automatically propagated to the other three.

I was able to get the PC to sync to the iPhone. Then I was able to get the iPad to sync to the PC but then neither would sync to the iPhone. At one point, I got the iPad and the iPhone to sync to each other but not to the PC. I know that what I'm trying to do is possible. I just don't know how to get there.

Is there someone reading this who really knows this stuff and is willing to talk me through it all? I'll pay for the phone call and do it at your convenience. Drop me an e-mail if you are such a person and are willing to help…and I also have one other request. I'd really like to not get a lot of those "Junk your piece-o'-crap PC and buy a MAC" comments I seem to get every time I ask a computer question here. Given the massive investment I have in multiple PCs, the software to run them, the zillions of bytes of data I have in files formatted for the PC, the hours I have invested in learning the PC and those programs, that really is not an option. It's kind of like if you were having a little trouble with a word in English and someone suggested you solve the problem by giving up that language and learning Mandarin.

Thanks in advance to any and all who respond.

The critics seem to all like the Reprise production of Kiss Me, Kate about as much as I did, which was a lot. Here's the L.A. Times, here's Broadway World and here's Variety. There are a few others but they all say the same thing; that Lesli Margherita is outstanding as Kate and that Tom Hewitt is about as good in role of Graham as a person could be. They all also note that Meg Gillentine is dazzling as Bianca, that Se

I haven't written much here lately about the Broadway show, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. If you care, you presumably know that it closed down for a while so that much of it could be changed by a mostly-new creative team. Our pal James H. Burns has a nice look at what led up to the show's hiatus over at CBS in New York.

Now, this next link may not be good for long but here it is. Back in December on the message board of another pal of mine, Tony Isabella, Jim wrote a long memo detailing with how (he felt) the original show's problems could be fixed. I'm hearing that many of them have been changed just the way Jim outlined, which is not to say the alterations were definitely because of what Jim wrote.

In any case, the two pieces provide an intriguing look at a version of the Spider-Man musical that will probably never be seen again. And we can all wait and see how much the new version will be seen in the future.

Each week on the TV series Extreme Makeover Home Edition, a crew of experts redesigns and rebuilds someone's living space. On Sunday night's episode, they do it for Patrick Sharrock, a young man with brittle bone disease. They not only build him a home that fits his specific needs, they do some of it in the style of something Patrick likes a lot…Marvel Comics. Artist Todd Nauck and you can see it on ABC or if you miss it there, on ABC.com for two weeks after. I'm told it's a lot of fun.

The 14th Annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor will be presented this year to Will Ferrell. For the benefit of you folks who occasionally see things on your computer screen and think, "It can't really say that. It must be a bug in the software," I shall repeat the preceding sentence:

The 14th Annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor will be presented this year to Will Ferrell.

I'm not a huge fan of Will Ferrell but in fairness, I haven't seen several of the movies that his fans seem to love…so maybe there's something happening there that I just haven't noticed. The following is less about him than about a growing trend out there to think "history" is anything in reruns and that a Lifetime Achievement Award can and should go to someone whose achievements were made during the lifetime of a housefly. The annual tributes at the Paley Center for Media used to be about the grand heritage of television and honoring work that had endured the test of time. Now, it's about what's hot at this moment on the networks. Shows are saluted not necessarily because of their lasting contributions but because they're successful this week.

They say this Mark Twain Prize — and I quote — "recognizes people who have had an impact on American society in ways similar to the distinguished 19th century novelist and essayist best known as Mark Twain. As a social commentator, satirist and creator of characters, Samuel Clemens was a fearless observer of society, who startled many while delighting and informing many more with his uncompromising perspective of social injustice and personal folly. He revealed the great truth of humor when he said 'against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.'" Okay, great. No argument there.

But when you read that, don't you think it's kind of about humor that has proven timeless enough to speak to more than just the audience at the time of its creation? Isn't there something in there about being quoted a lot and becoming a part of Americana? There are many comedians who will tell you that they were inspired to get into that field because of Bill Cosby and Jonathan Winters and Richard Pryor. Are there a lot of new comedians who have been motivated by the work of (as differentiated from the paycheck of) Will Ferrell? I'm just asking.

If ten or twenty years from now, there are a lot of humorists saying that and some of them have gone from that inspiration to create their own inspiring, influentual work then great. A Mark Twain Prize for Will Ferrell, absolutely. But they've never given one to — and this is just counting people who are currently alive — Sid Caesar, Stan Freberg, Shelley Berman, Don Rickles, Mort Sahl, Robert Klein, Carol Burnett, Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, David Letterman, Tim Conway, Dan Aykroyd or Jerry Lewis. Now granted, some of those folks have won the full Kennedy Center Honors so you could maybe disqualify them…although Neil Simon at least has won both. Perhaps a few were offered the award but declined it for some reason. But couldn't Will Ferrell have waited a few years while they saluted great comedians who'll soon be in no condition to appear and appreciate the plaudits?

I understand about demographics…how the folks in charge might want to snag the younger viewers. But this event is televised on PBS. I also understand how the ceremony is a fund-raiser and they need to fill the room…and I'm not saying Will Ferrell might not do that better than, say, Shelley Berman. Another major consideration in the choice is probably who'll bring in a lot of billable name guests to speak and perform and that's probably Will Ferrell more than some of those other comics. I mean, you just know that when they gave it to Jonathan Winters a few years ago, a primary reason was that someone there said, "Betcha we could get Robin Williams to show up." I get all that.

I just think it's insulting to people who do fit the definition of the award to hand it instead to whoever's hot at the moment. Last year, it was Tina Fey, by the way. Same deal. Maybe they oughta give out two each year: One to someone who's got a hit series or a couple of hit movies…and one to someone who really deserves it.

A great photograph of Las Vegas. If you look carefully, you can even see that Where's Waldo? guy losing his shirt at craps.

Last evening, I attended the premiere of the Reprise! production of Kiss Me, Kate up at the Freud Playhouse at UCLA. I have raved before about Reprise! shows. With minimal budget and rehearsal time, they stage classic musicals for limited runs. This was one of the best I've seen and the audience seemed to agree. I've never heard so much enthusiastic applause and whoops of delight at one of these.

I'm too swamped with work tonight to write the kind of review this show deserves. I'll try to get to it in a day or two but in the meantime, if you're near West L.A., hurry and get tickets. You can order through the link on this page and if you enter the code "KISS," I think you get a discount. More when I have time.

The Book of Mormon is a big Broadway smash that will, they say, be running there for years. I have been informed by Alan Burnett, Gordon Bressack and nine other folks that you can hear the cast album in its entirely over at this page of the NPR site. Apparently, putting this kind of thing online is in accord with Sharia Law.

One day last week, I had to drive by the Westfield Mall in Culver City so I stopped and had me a Five Guys burger. Very good. My other missions at that shopping center took me past the mall's recently-refurbished Food Court and I noticed that (a) they'd really improved the selection up there, (b) a couple of those places look darned good and (c) it didn't matter insofar as my own dining is concerned. If I'm eating there, I'm eating at the Five Guys downstairs. They're about to open a Lucille's Smokehouse Barbecue there too…and while I like those too, it won't matter either. Because if I'm dining at the Westfield Culver City Mall, I'm dining at the Five Guys. I know me.

I also know where I definitely won't be dining there: Sbarro. The Food Court was full of all these really nice little eateries but for some reason, the Italian stall was a Sbarro. In your whole life, have you ever heard anyone say, "Hey, you know where they have great food? Sbarro!"? One of the first rules of marketing is not to name your product something that's difficult to pronounce. I think Sbarro has gotten away with breaking that rule for a long time because they know no one is ever going to recommend their food to anyone…so it's okay if they can't say the name.

I used to wonder if "Sbarro" was Italian for "only option." They always seem like places that get business only because they're situated in a mall or airport where it's either that or something worse. In New York City, they have a lot of them where it's like, "I could eat at Sbarro's or I could walk two blocks to decent pizza…and I don't feel like walking the two blocks." The cuisine usually looks impressive enough and it's all ready to serve so it'll be fast. So I sometimes have to remind myself, "You've never liked the food at Sbarro."

Nobody I know ever has. This article about their recent bankruptcy filing makes that point. In fact, on my drive home from Culver City, I started mentally writing a long blog post about Sbarro and that article says most of the things I was going to write. So I'll just add that I suspect the company is trapped in a vicious circle: The worse their sales get, the more likely that the food on display in a Sbarro's steam table has been sitting there quite a while. And the more likely it is that the food's been sitting there quite a while, the worse it'll be for the hapless passer-by who does order the ziti and that will lead to their sales getting even worse.

And don't you just know that at this very minute, the Sbarro executives are in a meeting somewhere, discussing how to save their company and considering things like a new advertising campaign and how to stuff more cheese into the product?

That's a picture of can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup and you know what that means. It means Mark's so busy with work that he may not be posting much here for the next day or two. He may also be even worse than he usually is at responding to e-mails. This is fair warning to those of you who check in hourly here. Back soon.

Albert Brooks has a novel coming out this week so he's going to be everywhere, signing and plugging, signing and plugging. Here he is plugging in the L.A. Times.

An interview with "Trader" Joe Coulombe, the man who founded the Trader Joe's market chain. I have very mixed feelings about their stores. Every so often, I find something wonderful in one and think, "Oh, I want to always have some of this around." But when I go back to purchase more, they don't make it anymore. Whatever it is. It's like if I like it, they discontinue it.

Woody Allen does not think any of his films will be remembered or even that many of them are very good. So my question is: Does he really feel that way? Or is it something he says so folks will say, "He's so modest and unspoiled?" Or is it that plus he says it so people will assure him it's not so?

I think if I were around him when he said that, I'd say, "No, you're wrong, Woody. That's probably true of the others but Casino Royale will live forever."

Every day or three, someone writes to ask, "Hey, are you still feeding all those stray cats in your backyard?" Yep…all four of them. There's Max, Lydia, The Stranger Cat and Sylvia. Sylvia was formerly known as The Stranger Stranger Cat but now she's just Sylvia. At almost any hour of the day or night, I can go to my back porch and find one or more of them waiting to be fed, looking accusingly at me and demanding to know why they have not been fed sooner. When it's hot in L.A., as it has been lately, they also stare at me as if this is my fault, too. It probably is.

Max is the hungriest of the four and is now getting so plump that I'm thinking of getting him the Lap Band. Or maybe it isn't that he's always hungry as it is that something in his feral past has programmed him to live a life of constant food seeking. You can stuff him with Friskies Mixed Grill at 4:00 and by 4:20, he's back to pound on the glass with his paw and make sounds like he hasn't been fed since Johnny Carson retired. Sometimes, he hides around the corner and waits until I feed Lydia. Then he trots over, scares Lydia off and eats the food I put out for her.

Lydia is a nervous cat. She's the one I trapped and took in for a feline abortion and hysterectomy — or whatever it is they do to control the pet population. Somewhere out there, there's probably a Christian Vet who just teaches them abstinence education. Lydia was skittish before that, which is why it was so blamed difficult to trap her and haul her in, and she's just as skittish now. Of the four cats, she's the only one who does much climbing. She'll climb up to a little roof that sticks out from my garage to cover the pool heater and she'll sleep there because, I'm sure, it feels safer. Occasionally, I'll put her food up there for her since Max can't climb.

Sylvia is not afraid of other cats or animals…just humans. No matter how many times I feed her, she won't come near me…except that every few months, she briefly becomes so friendly that I have to check and make sure it isn't The Stranger Cat. (They look very much alike and are probably related.) She's the only one of the four cats who favors the dry cat food I put out along with the wet.

Max and The Stranger Cat both have too many dental problems to handle it…though when there's none of the moist handy, Max sometimes tries a little of the dry food and since he can't chew it, winds up regurgitating it in large chunks. Lydia will eat dry food even though it's not her first choice — but with Max around, it's often her only choice.

And finally, there's The Stranger Cat, seen in the photo above. He's very old, way past the typical life span of a feral feline…at least doubling that expectancy. He's also very sweet and very friendly and largely deaf and lately he's been having trouble walking.

Unless the gardener or pool guy is out there, The Stranger Cat rarely leaves my yard since that would involve either a small amount of climbing or venturing over to the crack in the fence. That crack is situated in the portion of the yard that seems to belong to Max…ironic since he can just barely squeeze through it and only if he sucks in his tummy. Max rarely goes into The Stranger Cat's area and vice-versa. The porch where the food is placed is, of course, neutral territory. Max will not deny food to The Stranger Cat but does insist on eating first.

A Wednesday or two ago, one of my gardener's assistants was using the hose in my yard. I'd told them not to do that but he was new…and when I saw him hosing down around the pool, I leaned out the door and told him that wasn't necessary. It didn't need it out there and I didn't want him to disrupt The Stranger Cat, who was napping. The assistant said, "I just do a little more" and kept on watering. I told him to stop. He said, "Okay, I stop as soon as I finish this part." I told him to stop right now — and he didn't stop and thoughtlessly sprayed The Stranger Cat, sending the poor ol' guy fleeing. I yelled at the gardener to get out of my yard that second and never come back. Spraying the cat was bad enough but that was a clumsy mistake due to inattention. Not listening to the owner of the house was just plain insubordination.

I was in my robe when this happened so I quickly got dressed, went out and found the main gardener, the guy I pay. His assistant had already told him what had happened and had been told in Spanish, "If you did that, getting one of my best customers angry, I'll have to let you go." The assistant came up to me and in tears, begged for a second chance. Given what they charge for their services, I'm guessing those helpers get less than ten bucks an hour — probably more like five — and they work pretty hard for it.

Anyway, the sight of a grown man sobbing because he stood to lose that kind of job rattled me. I forgave and even apologized for yelling at him. The main gardener said that he wouldn't fire him but just to make sure, one of his other assistants would henceforth be doing whatever had to be done in my backyard.

By the time I got back into my house, The Stranger Cat was back in one of his favorite napping places — an old lounge chair, completely encrusted in cat hair. He was relatively dry and totally serene. And since he seemed to have put the incident behind himself, I decided I should, as well. I think that may be why he's still around at his age. He doesn't hold grudges.