Matt Taibbi has another Matt Taibbi story in Rolling Stone. A Matt Taibbi story usually uncovers massive corruption by business interests and the ongoing efforts of folks who are supposed to prosecute or prevent such corruption doing their darnedest to not prosecute or prevent. This one's no different. Hey, I thought the Obama Administration was supposed to be "the most anti-business ever."
Monthly Archives: August 2011
Today's Video Link
I assume most of you watch The Daily Show with Jon Stewart but every so often, they do something so perceptive and funny that I just want it on my blog. This is from last night…
Recommended Reading
Conor Friedersdorf writes the best piece I've seen about Rick Perry and what we're in for because of his candidacy. Perry is already working the Palin strategy: You go around trashing and attacking Liberals and Blue State folks. Then you play the victim card when those groups respond in kind. It's gonna be a long campaign.
Sid 'n' Marty
Here's a conversation with my occasional employers, Sid and Marty Krofft. Actually, one does not work for the Kroffts. One gets adopted into the family…and the discussions always sound exactly like this.
Today's Video Link
This one's too complicated for me to embed it here but you might enjoy spending a half-hour watching a good documentary about Peter Sellers.
Great Photos of Buster Keaton
Number ninety-one in a series of one hundred…
Thursday Morning
I appear to be back. The last few days have been rough in terms of work…and I want to make clear that I'm not complaining about that. I've started to get very annoyed with myself when I sound like I'm bitching about the rough part of projects and assignments that, on the whole, I very much enjoy doing. So occasionally the deadlines bunch up and I have to go a night without sleep. I don't want to catch myself whining about that, here or anywhere.
"When do you sleep?" is a question I get often here from folks who note the time stamps on my postings. The answer is that I usually manage to get 4-5 hours a night and that seems to be sufficient…though every week or three, my body analyzes my current workload, decides I have time for an extended coma and puts me into one. That's what happened yesterday. I directed a recording session in the morning, stopped at Farmers Market on the way home for a hot turkey sandwich (one of these), then came home and suddenly found myself playing Rip Van Winkle. Out like a mackerel. Today was mostly devoted to trying to wake completely up.
I missed yesterday's episode of Stu's Show on Shokus Internet Radio so I didn't hear the special announcement that my buddy Stu Shostak made…but I know what it is. He is ending Shokus Internet Radio as we know it. He is not ending Stu's Show. It will go on with new episodes which will be available on the Stu's Show website. You'll be able to listen to each episode for free upon its initial broadcast or download it for the most reasonable sum of 99 cents once it's a rerun. In fact, you can go there right now and download any past Stu's Show for that bargain price. I'd do that if I were you.
The final Stu's Show on Shokus Internet Radio will air next Wednesday, August 24. I was his guest on the first one back in '06 and I'll be there for the final episode on that channel. I'll tell you more about it when we get closer to that date.
Today's Video Link
A funny moment with Johnny Carson and Steve Martin…
Remembering Vic
Nice obit in the L.A. Times for our pal Vic Dunlop. And I'll toss in a quick story here…
Vic was a cast member on a show I worked on called The Half-Hour Comedy Hour, which was basically Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In rolled into one. We had a roster of funny folks including Jan Hooks, Arsenio Hall, Thom Sharp, Rod Hull & Emu, Victoria Jackson and others. Up in the writers' offices, we spent all day writing little sketches for these folks to do.
For a time, we had trouble deciding what to write for Vic. We all knew he was funny but we didn't quite have a handle on what kind of material would suit him best. Then one day, one of the writers — it might have been me — suggested that Vic was great at physical comedy and at playing a shlep/victim. That opened the logjam and the material began flowing freely.
Vic dropped by the office the next day and visited the various rooms where teams of writers worked. He came by the one where a fellow named Mert Rich and I worked and we told him, "Hey, Vic! We just wrote a bit where you get dragged through a buffet and covered with food."
"Great," Vic said. Vic knew the value of slapstick.
The next team of writers informed him, "We're working on a routine where a house painter keeps dropping buckets of paint on your head."
"Terrific," Vic said.
The next team explained, "We have a series of running gags here where you keep sitting on breakaway furniture and falling on your ass."
"Love it," Vic said. And so it went with all the other writers. We were all writing stuff like that for him.
Later that day after Vic had departed, our producer called all the writers in and said, "I've been looking over the material. Just what is it that you guys all have against Vic Dunlop?"
My Latest Tweet
Warren Buffett argues to tax the rich more. The GOP response: The 3rd richest man in the world just doesn't understand how money works. — [Follow me on TWITTER]
Great Photos of Buster Keaton
Number ninety in a series of one hundred. And yes, that's Red Skelton…
Recommended Reading
Michael Kinsley wonders why anyone would go into politics. These days, I suspect a lot of elected officials are wondering the same thing.
Recommended Reading
Warren Buffett, the third richest man in the world I believe, thinks our government coddles rich guys like him and sticks it to the poor and middle class in taxes. He oughta know.
Del Connell, R.I.P.
We lost Del Connell this past weekend. He was 93. Del was a major figure in the history of animation, comic books and comic strips. He was an artist and later a storyman for Disney Studios during what some would call its Golden Era. He was a very productive writer and later an editor for Western Publishing on its Dell and Gold Key comics during what some would call its Golden Era. He wrote, without credit, the Mickey Mouse newspaper strip for several decades. And all that doesn't begin to describe his lifetime output. It was all largely anonymous, though last month at the Comic-Con International in San Diego, he did receive the Bill Finger Award for Achievement in Comic Book Writing. It was one of the few times in his amazing career he ever had his name on anything.
I really wanted to get Del down to the ceremony to receive it and an ovation in person. His doctor advised against it but Del's son Brady was toying with the idea of ignoring that advice and bringing the old man down anyway. The morning of the event though, when he visited Del in the nursing facility, he decided against it. I'm sure I would have, too. Brady — who by the way, produces the popular TV series Extreme Home Makeover — came as his father's representative and gave an eloquent, expertly appropriate speech. I'm glad we were able to send him home with that trophy to show Dad. (I spoke briefly to Del on the phone that evening and he was his usual humble self, telling me that others probably deserved the honor as much if not more. If he'd been there and able to make a speech, that's probably all he would have said.)
This posting and this recent newspaper article will tell you more about Del's amazing career. He was not only one of the most prolific writers ever in comics, his creations including Space Family Robinson, Super Goof, Daisy Duck's nieces, Wacky Witch and so many more. During the fifties, he routinely wrote comics with sales figures well into the millions.
I do need to add a personal note. When I was in college, I began writing comic books for Western Publishing. My main editor there was Chase Craig but Del's office was about five yards from Chase's and we talked often, and later when Chase retired, Del became my editor for a brief time. He was a man to be admired. He was clever. He was compassionate towards his freelancers — not the case with everyone in comics who ever held the job of editor. He worked very, very hard. And like I said, he was genuinely, almost maddeningly humble. I liked him a lot, even before I realized he'd written an awful lot of the best comics I'd read as a child…comics that inspired me to take up writing.
I will leave the last word for now to Mr. Disney. This framed cel was one of Del's most precious keepsakes…
It's from The Cold-Blooded Penguin, a 1945 Disney short that was incorporated into The Three Caballeros. Del wrote it while he was in the Army and away from the studio in 1944, mailing it in from Panama. Walt bought it for $500…and Walter Lantz later "borrowed" the premise for his popular character, Chilly Willy. Ironically, Del wound up writing and/or editing a lot of the Chilly Willy comic books.
In case you can't read it, the inscription from Walt on the cel says, "To Del — Thanks for a swell story." I'd like to say thanks to Del Connell for hundreds of swell stories. He was a very important and creative man and I treasure that I got to know and work with him.
Go Read It!
I'm not really here. I just wanted to suggest you all read a rather personal and fascinating piece that Tom Spurgeon just posted on his weblog, The Comics Reporter. I know Tom a little and have vast respect for his wise and industrious writings about the field of comics. He's one of the good guys and while I don't know the exact nature of the medical problems he writes about, I'm sad to hear he has anything wrong with him. We need more guys like that in the field. Heck, we need Tom.