Monthly Archives: February 2003

At long last, Amazon has Mad Art available with 24 hour shipping.  Availability seems to be helping its sales, which is a relief.  I was expecting a massive drop in orders once people found out they could actually get it.

Interview with comic book legend Joe Kubert.  Right here.

The ratings for Jimmy Kimmel Live! got screwed-up last night somehow.  Once they're all straightened out, ABC should have something they can spin as demonstrating night-to-night growth, though he seems to have gotten a pretty consistent 6-7 share every night.  If that doesn't drop when he's up against new Letterman episodes — as opposed to reruns the past week — Jimmy might stick around long enough to develop into a first-rate host, and find something to do on his show that every talk show in history hasn't run into the ground.  I thought the last few nights were much, much better, at least in terms of him looking like he wasn't embarrassed by his own program.  They are, however, resorting to the stock talk show staples — a cooking demo, an audience quiz where the audience member can't possibly know any of the answers, pre-tapes that send someone to an inappropriate place (Snoop Dogg to a garage sale, Jimmy's uncle to a Def Jam party), etc.  And I love "Super" Dave Osborne but his appearance the other night, doing the exact same bit that Leno and Letterman long since stopped wanting from him, confirmed reports that the Kimmel show is pretty desperate for guests.

Not much to say about this morn's Space Shuttle explosion that isn't being said more eloquently by others.  I especially identified with the simple sentiments expressed here by Joshua Micah Marshall.

About all I can add is that around 10:00 AM, when I sat down at my computer and saw the awful news, I made a quick tour of major news sites, and then of some of the political message boards and weblogs.  I was pleased to see that the latter were not filled with attempts to spin the tragedy as a failing of George W. Bush or William J. Clinton, or of either of their parties, or of a particular political philosophy.  Everyone I saw had risen above trying to exploit this tragedy to advance their personal causes.

About 90 minutes later, I surfed through all those sites again, and it was starting.

I'm a big fan of the works of Betty Comden, Adolph Green, and Cy Coleman but somehow, their 1978 musical On The Twentieth Century had slipped under my radar.  Fortunately, Los Angeles has the Reprise! series, which resurrects classic musicals and stages them for limited runs of scaled-down productions.  Actually, the only skimping for this show is in the sets.  The costumes are grand, and the orchestra is at full strength because some anonymous donor kicked in to pay for extra musicians.  The cast, even with minimal rehearsal, could scarcely be better.

The story takes place on the famous Chicago-to-New York train known as The Twentieth Century.  As it makes that 17-hour journey, a failed Broadway producer (played brilliantly by Bob Gunton) attempts to salvage his life and career.  Also aboard the liner is an actress (played likewise by Carolee Carmello) who was once his discovery and paramour, but who left him for stardom in Hollywood.  The producer and his two aides (Dan Butler and Robert Picardo) try to get her to sign on for their next show while her leading man (Damon Kirsche) tries to keep her in the movies and a religious fanatic (Mimi Hines) roams the train.  I'd single out more outstanding performances but this is one of those rare shows where everyone is terrific.  The dialogue is rapid-fire and very clever, and the actors handle every wisecrack with style and aplomb.

The show's there 'til Sunday so the odds are you won't get to see it.  But I came home so impressed that I had to write about it.  We theatergoers go to a lot of poor shows waiting for an evening like this.

Recently, I mentioned the DC Comics Message Board.  I should have mentioned that those of you who are interested in DC's splendid Archive series may want to check out the section of the board devoted to those books.  The crowd there discusses what's coming up and what they'd like to see come up, and every so often Bob Greenberger pops in and addresses their queries.  Bob is the Senior Editor of such publications up at DC Comics and they couldn't have a better, nicer guy in that position.  I was thoughtless in not mentioning him by name in the earlier item so I wanted to make up for it.

I always think people take "10 best" or "100 best" lists way too seriously.  Too often, instead of treating the list as just the opinions of one person or one group, it's like, "How dare someone compile a list that would differ from mine?"  When folks begin debating those lists, they not only seem to act like there's only one possible set of right answers, but that everyone is applying the same criteria.  That's not usually the case, either.  (I keep stumbling across lists that purport to itemize "the ten most influential comic artists" and it's obvious that no two people have the same definition of "influential," or even of "comic artists." )

With all that in mind, I direct your attention to this list of someone's "Hundred Favorite Moments in Television."  I'm not sure what definition of "favorite" leads to these selections but it's an interesting list.  It'll remind you of some of your favorite moments, no matter how you define "favorite."

As you can see, I have posted a picture of a can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup.  This is the traditional Internet symbol indicating that the proprietor of the weblog is too busy with pressing deadlines to update his site.  Whenever you see it, you know that though he's swamped, he'll be back in a day or three — or sooner, if events warrant — and that he'll resume posting, just as soon as he gets his work schedule under control.  And come to think of it, wouldn't a hot, steaming bowl of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup just hit the spot right about now?  Mmm, good.