One of my favorite commercial illustrators was the late Bob Peak. You may not know the name but you know the style. The repros on this website do not do his work full justice but are still enjoyable.

A lot of people have savaged Michael Moore's movie, Fahrenheit 9/11, and I agree that Moore left himself open to a lot of criticism. But in the negative reviews I've read — and I've read a lot of them — I don't think I've seen any criticism or fault found with two of the film's most memorable elements. One is the footage of Bush in the classroom on 9/11, doing nothing constructive after hearing our nation was under attack. Defenses of his inaction seem pretty feeble…he didn't want to panic the children, he was confident Dick Cheney was in command, etc. Most of the time, Bush partisans just seem to change the subject.

The other thing that doesn't get addressed is what some think is the most important material in Moore's film, which is the story of Lila Lipscomb, a Michigan housewife who believed in one set of values when her son went off to fight in the Iraq war and another after he was killed over there. This article affords some insight into her sad story.

The Cinegrill, which is a nice and intimate night spot situated in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, has recently had its latest in a long series of grand reopenings. Most recently, it flirted with higher prices and a partnership that didn't work out with Michael Feinstein. Now, it's just the Cinegrill again, featuring a cavalcade of folks who perform show tunes and other songs with actual lyrics, and we're happy to hear this. If you live within commuting distance of Hollywood Boulevard, you might want to keep an eye on their schedule to see who'll be warbling there and when.

Take special note of who'll be vocalizing there, the evening of Tuesday, July 20. That's right — it's Chanteuse Extraordinaire Shelly Goldstein, offering her new show, which she calls "Slings & Eros." This probably means she'll be singing songs, both funny and poignant, about a raft of subjects, most of them having to do with something or other. Everyone who goes to hear her has a very good time and there's no reason to think you'd be an exception.

That's Tuesday, July 20. 8:30 PM at the Cinegrill in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. No food served…just drinks and good singing. Call (323) 769-7269 for reservations.

I watched Dennis Miller's CNBC show last evening — first time in quite a while…and last. Miller led off with a newscast/monologue that slammed Kerry and Edwards and provoked so little laughter that Dennis tried to joke that the audience was all Democrats. Since the audience never cheered the anti-Bush statements of a few later guests, that seems unlikely.

Jay Leno was a guest but never got near any kind of political discussion. Miller fawned over him a lot, then Jay read and tested the jokes he was considering for that evening's Tonight Show monologue. That's right. Jay was unconcerned about spoiling his precious stand-up spot by exposing his jokes a few hours earlier on Miller's show. That should tell you how low the ratings are at CNBC.

I really don't understand the logic of that channel's programming or that of MSNBC. Yeah, Fox News is doing great as basic cable goes, catering to those who want to enjoy their news with a right-wing spin. But how long do you have to fail, trying to beat Fox at their own game, before you try something else? It doesn't have to be left-wing TV but there must be something else to put on. And it's not like that something else is going to do any worse.

Remember I mentioned being at the Hollywood Bowl for the Fourth of July celebration? And not being certain that it was really Carrol Spinney playing Big Bird? Well, someone who was there and got to go backstage assures me that it was indeed Mr. Spinney wearing the feathers. So I can sleep better tonight.

This is an old story but it didn't get much attention at the time and I forgot to link to it. Did you know that a man escaped the death penalty because of the Larry David TV show, Curb Your Enthusiasm? Here's what happened.

Watching TV Land episodes of The Flip Wilson Show, I am reminded of how much I once liked one of his guests, deadpan comedian Jackie Vernon. (Did I say "deadpan"? Compared to Vernon, Buster Keaton was Roberto Benigni. Jackie got one of his biggest laughs just by coming out on stage and saying, "To look at me now, you'd never believe that I used to be a dull guy." He'd often follow that by saying, "At parties, I'd stay in the room with the coats…memorize labels…") Vernon, whose real name was Ralph Verrone, was a former musician who began doing stand-up in the mid-fifties. He quickly built up a good following in night clubs and at Friars' Roasts and then made the leap to television.

Legend has it that so many "big time" comics were cribbing lines from him that the producers of The Ed Sullivan Show and all the top talk shows figured, "We're already booking Vernon's material…we might as well book Vernon." He claimed authorship of one of the most-stolen jokes of all time: "I used to be an atheist but I gave it up. No holidays."

Vernon's act was, usually, a masterpiece of taking your time and remaining in character. On the Flip Wilson episode I just watched, he was obviously rushed and was therefore about half as funny as usual…but that was still pretty funny. He did his "vacation slides" bit, which consisted of him standing on stage with a clicker, describing slides that you couldn't see…

Here I am touring the Everglades. That's my guide. Guido the Guide. Here's Guido leading me around a bed of quicksand…" [CLICK!]

Here's Guido from the waist up… [CLICK!]

There's his hat. [CLICK!]

Now, here's the rescue party rushing to Guido's aid… [CLICK!]

And here's the rescue party from the waist up… [CLICK!]

And here's a bunch of hats and ropes…

If I heard it once, I heard it fifty times and it always made me laugh. Everything about that guy made me laugh. Unfortunately, he never seemed able to parlay the act into anything bigger than playing night clubs and making the occasional comedy album. He may be best remembered for providing the voice of Frosty the Snowman in the 1969 cartoon special. Here's a warm, funny article by his son, David, who recalls watching the show and bursting into tears at the end when Frosty melted. He thought his father had been killed but his mother reassured him, "He's not dead…he's in Chicago working the Playboy Club." Jackie would probably have said that was better but not by much.

I used to see Vernon lunching over at Farmers Market and even got the nerve once to approach him and chat for about five minutes. All I remember is that I told him I could quote all his routines by heart and he chuckled and said, "You and Milton Berle." That very evening, I saw Berle on Merv Griffin's show and he did the "atheist/no holidays" joke.

I saw him perform once in Vegas. It was at the old Marina Hotel, which they tore down to build the new MGM Grand. He was in a burlesque revue called "Babes Ahoy," which disappointed me a bit since what I really wanted was to just see him do stand-up, even if it meant hearing the routines I knew so well from his albums and TV appearances. Fortunately, he did about twenty hilarious minutes on his own…and to my surprise, he didn't do one joke I'd ever heard before. This would have been around 1985. He passed away in '87.

Since he never did sitcoms and since variety shows are so rarely rerun, his best work has been long forgotten. He really does seem to be recalled mostly from that cartoon special and its sequel. Maybe some CD company will see the wisdom of reissuing his albums, especially A Wet Bird Never Flies at Night and A Man and His Watermelon. They were as funny as anything ever put on vinyl, and proved conclusively that he was not a dull guy.

Here's an article by Joshua Green that will tell you all sorts of things about John Edwards.

Here's one account of how the New York Post went so awry with its cover story on Kerry's choice of running mate.

My Congressguy, Henry Waxman, writes about Congressional Oversight. Quick summary: Nothing was too trivial or too expensive for Congress to investigate when the President was named Clinton but they now do their darnedest not to uncover anything which might embarrass George W. Bush.

Woke up this morning to very predictable news. A New England Democratic presidential nominee has picked a Southerner for his running mate. Some Republicans think this was the worst possible choice. And the New York Post got it wrong.

I don't know from focus groups, and I'm already sick of hearing "he's a trial lawyer," spoken as if the guy was a child molester. But Edwards always struck me as the most energetic, interesting campaigner in the pack. Kerry's campaign needs that badly, plus it's sure easy to imagine Edwards ripping Dick Cheney to confetti in a head-to-head debate.

Anyway, I'm pretty happy. So is whoever in the current Saturday Night Live cast is best suited to play Edwards.

Here's a terrific website full of online videos of campaign commercials of the past. They even have the infamous "daisy girl" commercial for Lyndon Johnson which implied that Barry Goldwater would start a nuclear war that would kill small, cute children. Do not go to this site unless you're prepared to spend some time. And don't thank me. Thank Robert Spina, who sent me the link.

Love him or hate him…or be like me and feel very conflicted…but you might like to know that Michael Moore has opened a weblog. Betcha it's one of those that after the first few entries doesn't get updated very often.

The network formerly known as the Game Show Network is currently on its second go-round of vintage What's My Line? episodes. They ran them all (all they had, at least) one time through, and now their Black-and-White Overnight bloc is running them again. First time around, we made special note of the episode on which journalist Dorothy Kilgallen made her last appearance. She did her last broadcast on Sunday evening, 11/7/65. Then she went home and died. The timing and nature of her death was so odd that it prompted all sorts of conspiracy theories.

She had recently been looking into the assassination of John F. Kennedy and a number of assassophiles speculated — apparently without any real basis in fact — that she was murdered because she was about to blow the Oswald-as-lone-gunman theory wide open. This conjecture appears to have petered out from lack of evidence…but I thought I should mention that GSN is back in its rotation to the final Kilgallen episodes. That last appearance should be the one broadcast this coming Wednesday morning, followed the next day by the one on which her passing was discussed. But GSN occasionally does odd things so we may be a day off here. (Last time these aired, I posted this item and also this one.)

Hello. Hope you had a safe 'n' sane Fourth of July. My wonderful friend Carolyn and I spent the evening up at the Hollywood Bowl, listening to a rousing selection of patriotic songs (and a few ringers) and watching the closing fireworks display which was so loud, you couldn't hear the Sousa marches the orchestra was playing at the time. But it was a heckuva fireworks presentation and a terrific evening of music. Along with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra (John Mauceri, conductor) the performers were Marilyn Horne, Brian Stokes Mitchell and a band of characters from Sesame Street.

Mitchell, one of my favorite Broadway-type performers, was in especially fine voice, even better than when I saw him in Ragtime and Kiss Me, Kate. I didn't get to see his recent stint in a revival of Man of La Mancha…and judging from the way he sang "The Impossible Dream" at the Bowl, I think I missed something wonderful. I've heard that song sung by some of the best but I've never heard it sung better. The guy really is an amazing talent.

Speaking of Impossible Dreams, Stokes (as everyone calls him, I hear) pulled off quite a feat last night. There he was, singing up a storm on the stage of the Hollywood Bowl for its Independence Day program. At the same time, he was the narrator for the Macy's Fireworks Celebration which was broadcast live from New York last evening. How did he accomplish this bi-coastal feat? Beats me. He doesn't explain over at his website, which — by the way — was nicely designed by my pal Daniel Will-Harris.

Marilyn Horne was terrific, too…but you know who I was really thrilled to see? That is, assuming it was him: Caroll Spinney. When I heard they were going to have Sesame Street characters at the Bowl, I figured we'd get some third-string touring apprentice Muppeteers, not the original Big Bird. Well, I think it was Mr. Spinney in the suit. It said it was in the program book but I wasn't 100% sure that it wasn't a good impersonator. At one point, Oscar the Grouch (the other role Spinney originated) made a brief cameo appearance and that sure didn't sound like the real Oscar to me…which made me more skeptical about who was playing Big Bird. I finally decided it was Spinney but that someone else played Oscar because it would have been too awkward for him to get out of the Big Bird costume to do Oscar's two lines, then get back in. That's my story and, as the saying goes, I'm sticking to it. The rest of the Muppet Crew was great. Kevin Clash, the original (and, I think, only) Elmo played Elmo. Fran Brill played Zoe and Carmen Osbahr played Rosita. A gent named Eric Jacobson played Grover, doing a darn good job of imitating Frank Oz, who first performed the character. (And it says in my program book that the Additional Muppeteers were Alice Dinean, Drew Massey, Paul McGinnis and Matt Vogel, for those of you charting such things.) They put on a real fine show, and the audience loved singing along on some of the classic Sesame Street tunes.

One other "star" of the evening was the new bandshell covering the stage of the Hollywood Bowl. It just recently replaced one that dated back to 1929, though that one underwent extensive refurbishment and alteration over the years. The "all new for 2004" model is larger and visually stunning, though I can't vouch for its allegedly improved acoustics. Maybe we were just sitting in the wrong place, or maybe the sound crew hasn't mastered its intricacies yet, but I kept wanting to grab up the remote and tap the Volume Up button. Everything was audible but it fell a wee notch shy of the perfect level. I have tickets again for a few weeks from now and I hope it's a tiny bit louder.