A commercial for the stupidest toy I ever owned. I was bored with it two minutes after taking it out of the packaging…
Wednesday Morning
Thank you all for the birthday wishes. I'm getting hundreds of them over on Facebook, many of them (amazingly) from friends I actually know.
Posting will be light here today, not because I'm off partying but because I have a deadline that demands most of my attention. I may even be too busy to go eat Creamy Tomato Soup at Souplantation today. That should give you an idea about how busy I am. Back soon.
Least Surprising News Item of the Day
Bob Woodward, practitioner of occasional journalism, tells us that Donald Rumsfeld's new book does not quite tell the truth about his role in the Iraq War.
Recommended Reading
Michael Kinsley on government subsidies that are intended to lure motion picture production to certain states. He's certainly right that the benefits of giving out such money are greatly exaggerated.
Today's Video Link
I don't even know what to think of this…
Here's To You, Mr. Robinson…
Comic art legend Jerry Robinson has his own website now. I could tell you about all the wonderful things this man has done but why listen to me when you can go to that site and see it all for yourself?
Eddie Brandt, R.I.P.
So there was this man named Eddie Brandt…funny guy, very creative. Good musician. He mostly played piano for bandleaders who had a good sense of humor like Spade Cooley and Spike Jones. When that kind of music began to go out of vogue, a couple of Spike's band members wound up in animation, mostly at Hanna-Barbera, mostly in the editing department. Eddie was hired as a writer and he worked on a number of H-B shows in the sixties. He hated the work. He liked writing funny stuff but the folks at the network level were especially bad then with what they wanted and what they didn't want. They didn't want anything Eddie thought was funny…and sight unseen, without knowing any of the particulars, I can tell you that they were wrong and Eddie was right.
It is said that the show that drove him over the edge was Moby Dick, which H-B produced from 1967 to 1969. It was one of those shows that no one liked…not the people who made it nor the kids who watched it. Someone who was briefly a vice-president at CBS came up with the idea and Eddie had to make it work. At one point, he felt some sort of nervous, ulcerous collapse coming on and he walked off the show, out of the business and down to North Hollywood where he opened a store called Eddie Brandt's Saturday Matinee.
Originally, it was a memorabilia shop and you should have seen it in those days. It was crammed full of movie posters and stills and 16mm movies and books and animation art. Where did he get it all? To a large extent, it was a big garage sale for his friends in the music and cartoon businesses. Everyone Eddie knew — and he knew a lot of people — emptied their attics and closets and gave him stuff to sell. The great cartoon director Tex Avery supplied thousands of old animation drawings he had stashed in his garage. The first time I went into Eddie's shop, I bought 50 drawings and cels from old Avery MGM cartoons.
One time, he asked me, "Would you like to see an original Friz Freleng?" I said yes…and he took me over and introduced me to a short, older man. It was, of course, Friz Freleng. He was not for sale but I could (and did) buy a couple of Bugs Bunny cels that Friz had brought in for Eddie to sell. It was that kind of place.
Then it turned into another kind of place. Home video began coming out just about the time Eddie's sources of stuff to sell were drying up. He knew how big that business would be so he began stocking Betamax tapes. Then when VHS came out, he began stocking VHS…and he had everything. Everything. No movie was too obscure, no video company too small. Tapes you couldn't find anywhere else, you could find at Eddie Brandt's. If you were a film buff — especially if you liked weird, esoteric fare — it was the way you wanted every video store to be.
If you were lucky, you could find that film you always wanted to see again…or even for the first time. If you were really lucky, you got to talk to Eddie, who was full of facts and stories and always interesting…but you didn't see Eddie there a lot the last ten years. He increasingly retired and handed operations over to other members of his family. And then on February 20, he died at his home at the age of 89. He was a helluva guy and he leaves behind a helluva store — a place where movies are bought and rented by and to people who actually love movies.
Vital Soup News
March is Creamy Tomato Soup month at your local Souplantation or Sweet Tomatoes. I like this soup a lot and regret that they only have it for the month of March plus one week in October…so guess where I'll be dining often during the next thirty days. If you would like to try it, you can find out if there's a Souplantation or Sweet Tomatoes in your neck of the woods on this page…and while you're there, check the menu and make sure they have it because it's possible some locations opt out. Some may have it today but most will start tomorrow.
Then go try this soup, guaranteed to give every male a perfect physique! It makes fat men thin! Thin men fat! It removes hair from where you don't want it and puts it where it counts the most! It broadens your shoulders, narrows your hips! It builds up your corpuscles, lowers your blood pressure! Wakes you up in the morning, puts you to sleep at night! It softens your beard, toughens your skin — and what's more it cleans your teeth and leaves your breath alone!
Shore got good manners, don't it?
If you do go there to try it, you might want to print out these coupons (it's a PDF file) which will give you discounts from now through Thursday. You might also want to remember that for all the fuss I make here about it, all it is is good tomato soup. If you go in expecting the nectar of the gods, you'll only be disappointed…but that's true just about everywhere and about everything, isn't it?
South by Southwest
This article will be of interest to you if you fly Southwest Airlines. They're changing the way their Rapid Rewards (i.e., Frequent Flyer) program works. It used to be that after 16 Southwest flights of any kind, you got one free. Now, you accrue points based on how much your tickets cost.
Thanks for the Memories
Turns out Paul Feig originally did the dubbing of Bob Hope for that segment on the Oscars and they replaced him with Dave Thomas but credited both. Feig is, by the way, the fellow who created the TV show, Freaks and Geeks.
Today's Video Link
Hey, remember that sketch I posted a few days ago with John Cleese and a bunch of very funny Brits performing at a charity event? Well, the original version of that material (Jonathan Sloman reminds me) was performed on At Last, The 1948 Show by its stars: Cleese, Graham Chapman, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Marty Feldman. Here it is. I'm not sure which one I like better…
By the Way…
I see in the end credits of the Academy Awards that the redubbing of the Bob Hope clip was done by Dave Thomas. Figures. (Actually, it says "Voice of Bob Hope," then it lists Dave Thomas and Paul Feig. I'm guessing Mr. Feig directed the dubbing.)
The Oscar Mire
Thanks to the miracle of the Internet, tonight's Academy Awards have already been resoundingly trashed around the world, especially the hosts and especially James Franco. I find myself thinking that the folks who rush to call most of these telecasts "The Worst Oscars Show Ever" are imagining a wonderful, wildly entertaining awards program that has never existed. I'm also baffled by those who moan it's 3+ hours of rich, successful people stroking one another. Well, yeah. Those who have this complaint are unclear on the concept. The premise is that a lot of people in the movie business tell others in their field how great they are. Yeah, some overdo but that's the value system going in. So is the idea that the show's going to run long.
It can get a little better and some years, it does…but it's never going to be as wonderful as we wish it could be. If it bothers you, try doing what I do: Don't watch it live. TiVo or tape the thing and watch it with judicious use of the Fast Forward button. I got through it this year in well under an hour…and I have to tell you: At that pace, it ain't a bad show.
Go Hear 'em!
You can now listen online to Part Two of Groucho Was My Father, a three-part series in which Miriam Marx remembers her dad, Dr. Hackenbush. The third and final part airs next Saturday.
Also at the BBC Radio site, they're running a two-part series on The Chaplin Archive, a repository of work left by Charlie Chaplin. I apologize I didn't know about this earlier but as I write this, you have about four hours to go listen to (or if you know how to do it, capture) Part One. Part Two should be in its place after that. Thanks to Jeff Abraham for letting me know.
Recommended Reading
The New York Times editorial writer(s) say that what the Republicans are proposing to cut from the federal budget will not help the economy but will, in fact, hurt it. And it does make sense: You don't help bring down high unemployment by causing hundreds of thousands of people to lose their jobs.
While you're over there, Frank Rich has a good column about how Republicans really aren't serious about bringing down the deficit. They're just using that as an excuse to cut the kinds of programs they always want to cut, regardless of how good or bad the economy is. He notes, "That's not to say there is no fiscal mission in the right's agenda, both nationally and locally — only that the mission has nothing to do with deficit reduction. The real goal is to reward the G.O.P.'s wealthiest patrons by crippling what remains of organized labor, by wrecking the government agencies charged with regulating and policing corporations, and, as always, by rewarding the wealthiest with more tax breaks." I wish America was paying a tenth as much attention to this kind of thing as they are to Lindsay Lohan and Charlie Sheen. Why are their personal dysfunctions so much more interesting than those of our elected officials?