April 10, our friends at Writers Bloc are putting on what sounds like a great show. Rachel Maddow will be interviewed by Bill Maher down at the Saban Theater in Beverly Hills. It all has to do with Ms. Maddow's book, Drift, and everyone who attends the event receives a signed paperback copy. Sounds like something I'm going to attend. If you're in or around the Los Angeles area and would like to be there, here's the link. And if the price sounds steep, remember about the signed book.
Great Photos of Stan Laurel and/or Oliver Hardy
Number one hundred and thirty-eight in a series…
Dave at 30
Here's a collection of YouTube clips that span David Letterman's 30 years in late night television. They're in roughly chronological order and as you move through them, you may notice a trend. As the years go by, the memorable segments are less and less things that Dave and his writers decided to do for laughs…and more and more, moments that were significant because of things happening in Mr. Letterman's life.
Al Rio, R.I.P.
The Brazilian comic book artist and animator Al Rio has died (an apparent suicide) at the age of 50. I did not know Al, though I certainly knew and liked his work. His friend and occasional collaborator David Campiti has written an obit that all of Al's many fans will surely want to read.
Today's Video Link
Our pal Jason Marsden is one of the stars and producers in a fun new podcast series. And it really is a podcast because the cast is in a pod. Here's Episode One…
A Comic-Con Tip
If you are planning to attend Comic-Con International this year — or if you think you might want to go at some future date — do yourself a favor and get yourself a Member I.D. It doesn't cost anything and you only have to do it once for the rest of your life. It will expedite matters when you do want to register for this year's or some future year's Comic-Con. And no, I don't know when registration for this year's gathering will occur. But it will be soon and when registration opens, you'll want to have your Member I.D. number handy.
My Tweets for 2012-02-01
- Newt says he's a conservative, Romney's liberal. So if Mitt wins the nom, doesn't that prove Republicans are becoming more liberal? #
- I've lost track. Which does Newt now have more of? Delegates or ex-wives? #
- Newt says he's "consolidating conservative support" and he's right: They're all uniting against him. #
Great Photos of Stan Laurel and/or Oliver Hardy
Number one hundred and thirty-seven in a series…
Highly Recommended Reading
Ryan Lizza on how Barack Obama set out to be the president who could transcend partisanship and therefore unite left and right…and why that didn't happen.
Colbert Financial Report
Stephen Colbert is crowing that his Super-PAC, recently reclaimed from the custody of Jon Stewart, has raised more than a million dollars…and apparently without one cent of donations from corporations or unions. That can buy an awful lot of very silly ads and make a pretty big point about unregulated political action funds.
Today's Video Link
Abbott and Costello Meet Errol Flynn. I don't think Mr. Flynn does a very good job with this routine but it's still an interesting interpretation…
Convention Hopping
The Comic-Con International has released its full list of special guests for the 2012 shindig. As usual, I'm on it. They're not allowed to have that convention without me. The con takes place July 12-15 (with a Preview Night on the 11th) and no, I don't know when tickets will be available. Keep your eyes on the convention website.
I will also be a guest-type person at WonderCon, which takes place this year in Anaheim. The dates for that one are March 16-18 with no Preview Night. For those of you who've never attended Comic-Con because you fear its size, WonderCon is operated by the same skilled operators and is somewhat smaller in scope 'n' size. Which is not to say the place won't be packed with folks to meet and things to see and buy. I will be hosting panels at both these conventions…and some of the same ones like Quick Draw! and at least one Cartoon Voices panel. I'll tell you which days these will occur as soon as things are set in stone. Or at least dried Play-Doh.
Magical Summit Meeting
A few years ago when I was doing the dialogue on The Spirit for DC Comics, we did an issue that involved magicians. As a 3+ decade member of the Magic Castle, I know most of 'em and I dropped the names of several into the issue, including identifying my three current faves as The Spirit's magic teachers. Recently, that trio — all masters of close-up magic — got together to take note of that special distinction.
If you are ever anywhere where you can see performances by Whit "Pop" Haydn, Richard Turner or Johnny Ace Palmer, fight your way to a seat in the front row. No one better.
Also in that issue — appearing as a character, in fact — was the extraordinary Misty Lee, spouse of one of my closest friends, writer Paul Dini. Misty is not only a magician but a talented voice actress, currently heard in many commercials and cartoon shows including (in the latter category), The Garfield Show.
Misty recently got a great honor via sad circumstances. Recently as I posted here, we lost a good friend to all of us and to the Castle when Mark Nelson passed away unexpectedly. For years, Mark had been The Voice of the Magic Castle — the person you heard on its intricate voicemail system and in promotional materials. He inherited the position from the late Harry Blackstone Jr and would be happy to know that the exalted post has passed on to his friend Misty.
Great Photos of Stan Laurel and/or Oliver Hardy
Number one hundred and thirty-six in a series…
Spamalot
Here's the latest on the ill health of this site. As you may recall, a hacker secretly installed two other sites within mine last November — one which sold counterfeit designer purses and one which sold little pills that make one's johnson less flexible. The all-knowing, all-seeing spider-people of Google delisted my site because from their point-o'-view, all that stuff was on my blog.
I purged the site of it all…which took a while as some of it was embedded deep within other files. I kept thinking I'd found it all, then I'd discover it elsewhere. As of last week, enough of it was out that one wing of Google relisted me. On parts of Google though, I still remain a site that sells medications to combat erectile dysfunction. This is largely because other sites infected with the same computer hacks still have links to the viagra-vending pages I removed from this site. There seems to be nothing I can do about that except to wait for those dead links to go away.
Meanwhile, my last problem (I hope my last) was with Google Reader, which many folks use to read this site. My Google Reader "feed" was full of spam so Google Reader would not read all that I post here. Where said spam was coming from was a mystery but after an investigation worthy of Ellery Queen, I found it and nuked it and now I think Google Reader will work.
I believe the hacker got into my site because I was then running a very old version of Movable Type. The MT people had long since stopped updating and supporting that version so as new security holes turned up in it, they were not patched or closed. I had not upgraded Movable Type because I was too busy, I didn't like the new pricing structure and I'd decided that I wanted to dump Movable Type anyway and switch to WordPress when I had the time. Everything that went wrong here seems to have been implanted before I did switch over to WordPress on New Year's Eve even though I didn't discover it all until after the change.
The management of this blog (i.e., me) apologizes for any inconvenience…and the fact that some systems still see the ghosts of the penis pill pages on Google and block access here. That should go away. Thanks also to those who wrote to offer suggestions and sympathy, especially Glenn Hauman.