This is silent home movie footage of Stan Laurel at his apartment in the Oceana Apartments out in Santa Monica. He spends most of it admiring the Academy Award he received in 1961 for — and I quote: "Creative Pioneering in the Field of Cinema Comedy." Laurel did not attend the ceremony due to poor health so Danny Kaye accepted for him. Stan was quite proud of the award — as you may be able to tell in this film — although he did nickname it "Mr. Clean."

In the years after Oliver Hardy died, Laurel made no public appearances despite many offers. He told visitors to his home that he was afraid audiences would be disappointed to see him as an old man. He doesn't look bad to me in this film. Matter of fact, he still looks like a very alive, able performer. See what you think.

When I see or hear something I like on the Internet, I like to save a copy to my harddisk. Streaming audio and video, after all, has the tendency to go away. So how do you do this? Here are some tips but they're only for PC users, I'm afraid.

I've tried a number of ways to save videos from sites like YouTube and Google Video. The best thing I've found — which is not to say it works everywhere — is Orbit Downloader. This is a free program that acts as an add-on to your browser. It works best when you're on the home site of a video clip and not on a web page that has it embedded. Let's say you see a YouTube video on my site and you'd like to capture a copy. Click on my embedded copy anywhere except where you click to start or stop the video. That should take you to the YouTube page where the clip originates. If you have Orbit installed and the clip is playing, hover your mouse over it and in a second or two, it'll give you a little window you can clip which will enable you to save the video as an FLV file.

You'll need an FLV player installed to run these clips later. The one I use is FLV Player and it's also free but you may have to root around on this page for a company called Applian Technologies to find it.

If you download FLV Player there, the installer may also ask you if you want to install a couple demos of Applian products. You may want to do this or you may not. Applian makes an array of programs that capture streaming audio and video from websites. They are not free and in some cases, they take a little effort to set up properly. Depending on how badly you want to capture the stuff that Orbit won't grab for you, the time and expense may be worth it. Many of their products like Replay A/V have a timer function and a tuner for Internet radio broadcasts so you can use them like a TiVo to record online programs. I've captured shows from BBC Radio and Internet radio stations (like Shokus Internet Radio) with Applian software.

I've been using their wares for some time and have generally been happy with them…but I'll caution you about one other thing. They seem to come out with a new product every month instead of upgrading the old ones. Many of their products provide overlapping functions and when a new one comes out, I'm never sure what it does that my old Applian products don't do. Make sure you experiment with a demo before you cough up any money. That's good advice, of course, for any software you purchase but it seems especially prudent in this case.

William F. Buckley Jr. writes the kind of column about Bush and the Iraq War which, had it been written by anyone else, would get denounced as the ravings of a leftie.

Mark is back from the L.A. Times Festival of Books up at U.C.L.A., an event that continues through the weekend with more booths of authors selling and signing their books and more panel discussions and lectures. The place was crowded, the sun was hot and people seemed to be having a very good time. If I didn't have to work on a book of my own, I might be going back tomorrow.

I attended one panel discussion today — "The Age of Spin: Controlling the Message" with Joe Conason, David Goodman, Michael Isikoff, Frank Luntz and the moderator, John Powers. The topic drifted a bit, thanks in part to a small but vocal group that was present to argue that the 9/11 attacks were a conspiracy that involved "controlled demolitions" and scheming that the press has refused to investigate. There were people outside the hall and inside with jars of 9/11 rubble that they held up to prove…uh, I'm not sure what. I'm also not sure what kind of scenario they imagine — who arranged these demolitions and why. The thesis seems to be that the lack of evidence is evidence that there's been a conspiracy to hide the evidence.

The rest of the panel was predictable and somewhat entertaining. You can probably catch it on C-Span some time in the coming week and if you do, you'll hear Frank Luntz being very amusing as he defended his own work as a Republican pollster and advisor and Michael Isikoff defending his position as a reporter who works for corporate overlords. David Goodman said that Hurricane Katrina was a turning point for the Bush administration in that they were unable to control the imagery of dead bodies in New Orleans the way they banned photos of the flag-draped coffins being shipped back from Iraq. And Joe Conason discussed the way "spin" was used to sell the Iraq War. For more information, catch it on C-Span whenever it runs. (Someone let me know if you see before I do when it's airing.)

Afterwards, I got to meet Conason and get a book signed, and I told him my theory that the entire Bush administration was a "controlled demolition." He laughed and added, "…of Democracy." I also got a book signed by Paul Conrad, the longtime editorial cartoonist for the L.A. Times.

There were other things of interest that I'll mention as I recall them. Right now, I'm going to thank my pal Gordon Kent for getting me a ticket to the panel and then I'm going to get back to work.

This is a Laurel and Hardy clip — not a particularly funny one but historic, nonetheless. It has usually been reported (by me, among others) that the only TV appearance Stan and Ollie ever made was on the Ralph Edwards program, This is Your Life. Insofar as American TV is concerned, that appears to be true. But in 1955, they did this brief bit on a British variety series called This is Music Hall, saluting some of their friends in that area of entertainment who were members of a club called the Water Rats. Stan was a lifelong lover of English music hall performers.

For the next few days in this space, I'm going to be spotlighting some obscure footage of my favorite performers. None of it will be particularly entertaining but it's always nice to see a little more of those two guys. Here you go…

Yes, I'm plugging another live show in Los Angeles. My friend Shelly Goldstein is a brilliant writer and singer who's been wowing them lately in the British clubs. On May 12, the day before Mother's Day, she will be doing a special mother-themed show she's calling "The Mother of All Cabaret" at The Gardenia, a small 'n' friendly supper club located near La Brea and Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood. I've seen Shelly there and she's very funny and she sings like a dream and what more do you need to know? Oh, right: When to go. The show starts at 9 PM but for the best seating and a darn good meal, go early and have dinner. And you'd probably like to have the number for reservations, which is (323) 467-7444. She has my highest recommendation.

Had a nice time today at the Hollywood Collectors Show out in Burbank. I spoke to many of the folks I mentioned would be there and encountered many other persons of interest in the aisles. Got Mickey Rooney to sign a copy of his autobiography (the first one — he's done two) and bought Bill Marx's new bio about his life as a musician and his father's as a comedy legend. It's called Son of Harpo Speaks.

Mr. Rooney seemed surprisingly healthy but a bit disoriented by the crowds. Hard to believe that at age 86 — he'll be 87 in September — the man has been in show business for more than 84 years. I heard someone today describe Sid Caesar as an "old-timer" and he is. But Mickey Rooney was a performer before Sid Caesar was born.

Oddly enough, Rooney wasn't the oldest actor in the room today, nor was he the shortest. Jerry Maren, who was born eight months before The Mighty Mick, was wandering around. Maren was in his late teens when he played a member of the Lollipop Guild in The Wizard of Oz, and you saw him in a video clip here the other day playing Buster Brown.

My friend Earl Kress and I had a nice chat with Mally Lewis, daughter of famed ventriloquist Shari Lewis. Mally has been carrying on the family tradition, performing (and doing a fine job) with Lamb Chop. Actually, the whole place was full of interesting folks…but not too full today. The longest lines seemed to be for Rooney, Henry Winkler, Erik Estrada, Joey Heatherton and Seka. Most but not all of those folks are scheduled to be there tomorrow.

Back here, we linked you to the website of a new company that takes people on short, expensive air flights in which they get to experience weightlessness and other variations in gravity. As you may have seen on the news, renowned Cosmologist Stephen Hawking recently took such a flight.

So did Teller of the team of Penn & Teller. Here's a short essay he wrote about his experiences.

Rosa Brooks says we shouldn't be as afraid of terrorism as a lot of us are. I think she's right.

…as Billy DeWolfe used to say. And on what other blog today are you likely to see a Billy DeWolfe reference?

Last night, I was out in the Valley for the first of what may be a regular — every other month or so — informal gathering of Animation Writers. My pal Steve Marmel threw it together. No speeches, no agenda. We just all go to a restaurant en masse for food and beverage. This one was at the Gordon Biersch Brewery in Burbank, which I guess is a nice place if you like the beers they make. I never touch the stuff and I almost couldn't handle the hamburger or the noise, either. Still, I had a good time mingling with around seventy of my colleagues and will go to more of these, if and when Steve arranges them.

Then today, it's back out to Burbank for the Hollywood Collectors Show, where the Great and the Near-Great sell autographed photos and other memorabilia. Among those scheduled to appear today and/or tomorrow are Henry Winkler, Mickey Rooney, Brinke Stevens, Gregg Berger, Kelli Maroney, Nastassja Kinski, Traci Lords, Erik Estrada, Tom Bosley, Alan Oppenheimer, Monique Parent, Henry Silva and Joey Heatherton. I always find the attendees at least as interesting as the featured guests so I expect to have a good time.

Tomorrow, I'm heading for the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books up at U.C.L.A. There, I will make my way to lecture halls I always tried to avoid when I was a student on said campus, and I will hear authors discuss their current books. One, I expect, will be Joe Conason, who's among my current favorite political reporters and commentators — a list that is hard to get on and harder still to stay on. Mr. Conason has a good article today over at Salon, all about Rudy Giuliani's silly "elect Democrats and die" remarks of the other day. I was already thoroughly disappointed by John McCain when he started renouncing past positions to try and get the support of the hard right-wing. It's sad to see Giuliani going the same route.

Sunday, I expect to spend writing and then Monday, it's back out to Burbank (again!) to do another one of those interviews for a special feature on an upcoming DVD. At this rate, I'm going to be on more DVDs than copy protection. I'll report on some or all of these events as they happen. And then I'll try not to go to Burbank again for the rest of '07.

On June 7, 2005, I posted the following item on this weblog…

George W. Bush's approval rating is now a full twenty points lower than Bill Clinton's was on the day he was impeached.

Quite a few people wrote me to express amazement at this. It was true, of course, but it was also amazing. I wonder what those people think now that Bush's approval rating is forty points lower than Bill Clinton's on the day he was impeached.

The Three Stooges — colorized within an inch of their lives — lead a classroom in "The Alphabet Song." I never quite understood the premise of the tune, either. But it is kinda catchy.

We're always on the lookout for articles that explain what the U.S. is trying to accomplish in Iraq and what it means to "win" or "lose." This one by blogger Joshua Micah Marshall strikes me as frighteningly on-target.

Just when you think the approval rating for George W. Bush can't get any lower, he outdoes himself.

Actually, the public doesn't seem to like anyone very much. And why should they?

We spend way too much time on this webpage saying goodbye to great artists and writers of the early days of comics. So let's say Happy Birthday to two of 'em…

George Tuska is 91 years old today. George did his first known work in the comic form in 1939 as an assistant on the Scorchy Smith newspaper strip (which he later handled all by his lonesome) and for the Eisner-Iger shop. He's drawn thousands of comics in his day but is probably best remembered for his work on Lev Gleason's Crime Does Not Pay and for a long stint at Marvel drawing, among other comics, Iron Man. Stan Lee often referred to him as "Genial George Tuska" or "Gentleman George Tuska" and both those adjectives apply.

Paul Norris is 93 years old today. Paul started cartooning for the Dayton Daily News in 1937 and was drawing comic books by 1941. His most lasting contribution to the latter was as the co-creator of Aquaman. He later worked on a number of syndicated strips including Brick Bradford, which he wrote and drew from 1956 until it ended in 1987. I was delighted to write some of the comic books he also drew during that period (including Dynomutt) and to get to know this fine man.

George and Paul may not see this posting. I don't think either of them has Internet access and anyway, they'll probably be out partying 'til all hours. But I wanted to wish them well and to note how much entertainment they've provided over the years for so many.