Monthly Archives: November 2008

I'm still without a working Internet connection in our room and you wouldn't imagine the machinations I go through to get these deathless postings up onto ye olde website. But you're worth it.

I had a very good time at The National, which is the giant, economy-size version of New York's popular Big Apple Comic Conventions. I did two panels, starting with a war comics panel (with emphasis on Sgt. Rock) featuring Russ Heath, Dick Ayers, Billy Tucci and Mark Sparacio. Billy's responsible for a new Rock mini-series from DC Comics that's just coming out (with Mark assisting on covers) and if they're all as good as the first one, they'll have a real winner there.

The other panel was — and I know you'll find this hard to believe — a Jack Kirby Tribute Panel. This one featured Roy Thomas, Joe Sinnott and Stan Goldberg, answering questions about the legendary comic creator. One thing I learned is that when Joe inked a page of Jack's, and I suppose he did this with everyone's pencil art, he'd ink the bottom panels on a page first, then work his way upward. This is because if he started at the top, his hand might smear the pencil work below it. I've known Joe for close to forty years and interviewed him thirty times and this was the first time I heard that. Makes sense.

A few other folks I saw: Herb Trimpe, Ken Gale, Richard Howell, Irwin Hasen, Neal Adams, Chris Claremont, J. David Spurlock, Steve Saffel, Jim Salicrup, Danny Fingeroth, Bob Smith, Larry Hama, Elayne and Robin Riggs, Dan Gheno and I forget who else. I ran into Richard Bensam. Richard was the first person to offer 364 in our contest to guess Barack Obama's final electoral total. We do not yet have a winner. Obama is currently at 365, which no one guessed, and Missouri is still out. They say it'll report by Tuesday. (This'll make someone mad: A lot of us arrived at our guesses by figuring out which states might go black and not go back, and how many electoral votes each represented. Richard may have beaten us all by, he says, picking a number that just sounded about right.)

Speaking of political stuff: I spent a fascinating hour-or-more with Fred Kaplan and his lovely wife, Brooke Gladstone. Those who listen to NPR know Brooke from her program on that fine network. Those who read this weblog know Fred because I'm forever hectoring you to go read his articles on Slate, which have been concise and pragmatic insights into what's going on in our government, particularly with regard to matters of nation defense and Iraq. Fred actually understands things like military budgets, even if no one at the current White House or press corps seems to. Other reporters let our leaders get away with promising to send soldiers we don't or won't have but Kaplan has accurately predicted much that has happened, just by being aware of how many troops we had and when their tours were up.

He has other good insights…so it was a pleasure to meet the man and get to know him a little. People ask me why I go to the time and trouble of this weblog. There are a lot of answers to that but one is that because of it, I get to meet people I respect and can maybe learn from.

That's about everything I have to report about the con. Saturday evening, Carolyn and I went to see Gypsy and I'll post a review in a little while. More to come from New York in a day or so.

Well, I'm not at home but the house sitter assures me all is well…and yes, the cats are being fed.

But every time there are big brush fires in Southern California, as they've seen the last few days, I get a number of concerned e-mails asking if my home and I are in any danger. Answer: Never. I'm in an urban area. A fire up in Malibu would have to burn down all of West Los Angeles and Beverly Hills to get to me. The ones in Sylmar would need to take a couple of freeways. I appreciate your concern, dear correspondents, but you fret for naught.

Over at the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center, they have this revival of South Pacific that's been playing to sell-out crowds since it opened. There's a reason. It's really a stunning, emotional and memorable production. The thing runs a good three hours and all three hours are good.

South Pacific debuted on Broadway in 1949. Josh Logan directed, Oscar Hammerstein wrote the lyrics, Richard Rodgers wrote the music and Logan and Hammerstein collaborated on the book. It was an enormous hit…one that changed the American musical theater, some said, with the way it crossed over from musical comedy to, at times, musical drama. Logan directed the movie version with the odd color scheme…and I must admit it had never meant much to me. I may need to see it again now.

The Lincoln Center version restores (they say) every word and note of what originally appeared on Broadway, including the orchestrations. Throughout the show's long life in regional and community theater, that has rarely been done and many companies temper the portions of the book that have to do with the mixing of races. In New York in '49, it must have been a pretty powerful condemnation of bigotry…and I'm even guessing it caught some theatergoers by surprise. A show called South Pacific somehow sounds a bit frothier than what you get. I say that because from some of the energy I felt in the theater at Lincoln Center, I gather a lot of attendees either didn't know it was coming or had forgotten. Many also seemed unprepared for some of the more wrenching emotional moments of the two love stories in the narrative.

Still, everyone loved it. Everyone. I may never go see this show again because I doubt I'm ever going to see it done this well.

Yeah, that's where I am. American Airlines now charges $15 for your first checked suitcase and $25 for your second. I had but one…and for some reason, I'd almost rather pay more for my ticket and not go through that at the airport. It feels like, "Okay, now that you've purchased your new car, would you like to buy a steering wheel to go in it?"

One problem with this new fee is that people now have a new incentive to go carry-on…and American hasn't increased the number of overhead bins on their planes. Ergo, you have a fine mess of folks fighting for space and quite a few wound up having to check their carry-ons on the plane. Seems to me the whole thing just delays the boarding process. And then our plane sat on the runway for 45 minutes, which is always fun.

Then, as we were landing, a flight attendant announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, as you know we're getting in late. We have thirty people aboard, all seated towards the rear of the plane, who need to make a connecting flight on Iberian Airlines to Spain. They may just barely be able to make it so we'd appreciate it if when the plane reaches the gate, the rest of you would remain seated and allow our friends who need to make their connecting flight to get off first."

Everyone more or less nodded that, yes, they'd remain seated while the thirty people deplaned. And then, as soon as the Captain turned off the seat belt signs, the folks on their way to Barcelona were forgotten and everyone filled the aisles and started hauling down their carry-ons. I suspect some travellers missed their connections.

Still, all in all, not a bad flight. The inflight TV got stuck or something and ended up showing the same commercial over and over — that American Express one with Tina Fey and Martin Scorcese in the Admiral's Club. And then in the airport after landing, I nearly crashed into Arianna Huffington. But you expect that.

You don't need (or care) to hear what I did yesterday except that last night, Carolyn and I went to the new, acclaimed revival of South Pacific. Boy, what a great and thrilling production. I'll post a full report in the next day or three. And now, it's off to the con…

The FBI is investigating numerous reports of men claiming to be war heroes who aren't. One of them, a North Carolina man named Randall Moneymaker, allegedly fibbed to collect more than $18,000 in disability payments. I don't know if he did or he didn't but I think it's a good idea not to try and con people out of cash when your name is Randy Moneymaker.

On a related note: Lately, every homeless male I see with a cardboard sign asking for money is claiming on it to be a veteran…some of Vietnam, some of Iraq. I rarely give those folks anything, preferring to direct my charity to an agency that I know will put it to the best possible use. But I'm wondering if anyone has ever done a survey to determine what percentage of them actually are what the signs say they are.

I know this is not high on too many priority lists these days, but I wish we could do more to get these folks into some kind of shelter or assistance program. It's not even a matter of simple human compassion…although that is certainly reason enough. But it would also be good for everyone because it's a health and crime hazard, and the way the economy's going, some of us may be joining them on those street corners soon. I'm thinking of having my sign say "Will blog for food."

Early this morn, I embedded a video of my favorite episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show. What I didn't know is that hulu, the company that hosts these videos, is not accessible outside the U.S. About a dozen folks from other lands wrote to ask which episode I'd embedded. Answer: "It May Look Like a Walnut."

In truth, there are at least a dozen episodes of that series I could have identified as my favorite and not have been fibbing by too much: The one where Laura went on the game show and told the world that Alan Brady was bald…the one where Mel Cooley was fired…the one about Buddy's practical joking…the one where the writers almost went to work for a snail…and others I could mention. But this week, the one about the walnuts is my favorite.

This weekend, I'll be in New York, New York appearing at The National, a fine comic convention at the Hotel Pennsylvania. I'll be hosting panels on Saturday. I'll be hanging around on Sunday and maybe part of Friday. Before I return to L.A., I'll also visit publishers, go to Broadway shows, see friends…and I think I'm even going to have lunch or beverages with Fred Kaplan, whose Slate articles I'm always recommending to you. Expect intermittent reports (the hotel has lousy Internet connectivity) which should include reviews of South Pacific and Gypsy.

Then, no conventions 'til February. I'll be at the Wondercon in San Francisco from 2/27 through March first, then the next one I've said I'll attend is the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo, which is April 25-26. There may be one other in there but I think I'm getting conventioned-out, and all my good shirts are too full of holes from name badges.

Over at fivethirtyeight.com, demon number cruncher Nate Silver concludes that the success of Proposition 8 in California — the one that banned same-sex wedlock — was not, as some have concluded, due to a higher-than-usual black vote. Silver thinks it's generational. Older voters went for Proposition 8, younger ones didn't.

That makes sense and it's also encouraging. The last time Gay Marriage lost a statewide vote in California, it lost by 22 points. This time, it was a little less than 5 points. It's disappointing that it lost at all but at least things are moving in the right direction.

I have no idea how likely the various court challenges are to overturn Prop H8, as people are now calling it. (It took me a minute to figure that one out, too.) But there is something unseemly, or perhaps self-defeating, in trying to invert something that was an expression of, after all, The Will of the People. Seems to me Gay Marriage will never be a settled matter in this state until it becomes The Will of the People via a clear, inarguable victory at the polls. Maybe all the energy that's now going into blocking traffic and siccing lawyers on the matter would be better put into amassing bucks to back a proposition on the next ballot.

I don't know when that next ballot could be…but by then, a few more of the older voters will have died out. And just in case there is some merit to the theory that black turnout for Obama helped Proposition 8…well, that shouldn't be a factor next time, either. Court challenges might take just as long — and even if successful, reinstating same-sex weddings that way is merely going to muddy the issue. I'm sure there are some people out there who bought the following argument: Never mind gays getting married…the reason to vote for 8 is that we want to show those damned courts that they can't overturn our vote.

Even if only 2% of those who voted for 8 had that in mind, that's almost half the winning margin. Take that concern off the table and figure that by the next election, more older voters will be out of the mix…and it seems to me Gay Marriage could win with the electorate, no matter how much money the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints threw at it. Wouldn't that be better? The trouble with winning via legal challenges is that it becomes a victory based on technicalities, not on human enlightenment. This one deserves to win because enough people in California come to their senses, not because an attorney finds a loophole.

So it's a week after the election and we still don't know for sure where Missouri's electoral votes are going to land. A few news sites have awarded them to John McCain but most haven't…and I wonder if the ones that have would have called that state if it did matter.

It's interesting to imagine a scenario where they did. Let's say Obama won all the states Kerry won plus Iowa and Nevada, McCain took everything else except Missouri…and Missouri was still in the balance. That would put Obama at 264, McCain at 263 and the entire nation on pins and needles, waiting for Missouri to come in and declare our next President. I assume somehow they'd have sped up the counting process there and we'd have a winner by now…but maybe not.

I don't have a punch line for this or even a semi-interesting observation. I just think it's fascinating to note that this could have happened.

Anyone here see John McCain on with Jay Leno last night? I have mixed feelings about that. It's nice to see the "old" John McCain, I guess, but you'd like someone to ask him if he was really proud of the campaign he wound up running. Does he still think Obama is a socialist? Or that Obama voted to cut off funding for our troops? Is he worried about having someone who "pals around with terrorists" in the White House? Leno, of course, is not the guy to ask such questions but I hope someone will. Jay did ask if he regretted the choice of Sarah Palin and of course, McCain said no. He's proud of her and expects her to have a career on the national scene in some way. Somehow, I don't believe either part of that.