Monthly Archives: November 2014

Here's a long profile of James Randi, a man in whom I find much to admire. He doesn't like the term "debunker." I don't like the term "skeptic" as it's currently applied. (Most people I encounter who describe themselves as "skeptics" in the Randi sense tend to be too skeptical, usually starting with the presumption that the conventional wisdom about anything must be wrong merely because it is widely believed.)

I've met and spoken to Randi a few times and find him fascinating and generally heroic. I don't always agree with what he says but do get the impression that he is quite prepared to disagree with what he said last week if he encounters better data. I am of the belief that there's no such thing as E.S.P. or talking with the dead or psychic healing or ghosts or mystic powers or people who like cole slaw or…well, ignore that last one. But I believe what I believe about the other stuff and think it's great that someone is out there exposing the Sylvia Brownes and Peter Popoffs among us who swindle the gullible.

The article spends a bit too much time on Randi's personal problems and it neatly skirts his devout atheism…but it's a pretty good read about a pretty "amazing" man.

So Kim Kardashian poses for this magazine cover that has her bare butt glistening with oil and, it would seem, her waistline photoshopped down to make it thinner, therefore making her butt seem bigger. And the Internet is awash today with stories of how Ms. Kardashian's butt is "breaking" the Internet…

..and it is, sort of. It's not flooded with images of her butt. It's flooded with articles about how it's flooded with images of her butt.

Of course, almost all those articles include the image of her butt but the flood is because of all those postings about the flood.

Years ago, I think on this blog, I wrote something about Anna Nicole Smith. I said there are people in this world who are famous. Then there are people in this world who are famous for being famous. Ms. Smith, I wrote, was the first person to be famous for being famous for being famous. All her fame was built on how well she'd become famous for being famous.

When she passed away, I switched the line to Kim Kardashian and it fits even better.

And here she is, causing an Internet flood of articles about how she was causing an Internet flood which she probably wasn't causing before people started writing about how she was causing it.

I can't wait to see this taken to the next level. It will probably be a flood of people writing about how she caused an Internet flood of people writing about how she caused an Internet flood of people writing about how she caused an Internet flood of people writing about how she caused an Internet flood.

Someone — I'm not sure who — schools Senator Ted Cruz on what "Net Neutrality" is.

[UPDATE: As seventy-three billion of you have told me in the last hour, that site is the work of cartoonist Matthew Inman. And fine work it is.]

The Batman TV show (the one with Adam West) has finally gotten a DVD release and also a Blu-ray release.  Those are the links to order.

And while you wait for your copy to arrive, tune in Stu's Show today when Stu's guest will be the noted Bat-expert, Joel Eisner, author of the newly-revised The Official Batman Batbook. Stu and Joel will be talking about all sorts of bat-things but mainly the TV show.

I have an odd view of that series. I'm fascinated by the making of it and I really liked most of the people on it, plus one of its main writers, the late Stanley Ralph Ross, was a good buddy of mine. But I didn't like the show…much. It was too repetitive and too contemptuous of its source material. I liked Adam West and Burgess Meredith and Victor Buono and Julie Newmar and when Yvonne Craig came along, Yvonne Craig. I liked many of the others, too. I just didn't like that they had to keep doing the same thing every week and I also didn't like the hard-to-overlook feeling that some of those behind the series thought the comics were crap and that anyone who liked them was pretty feeble-minded.

Stanley and I used to talk about this a lot and I think he came to agree with me that the show often had its tongue too far into its own cheek and that the adherence to formula is why it had an unusually short run for a series that got that such astronomical ratings when it first came on. So I won't be clicking those links I embedded above…but if you loved the show (and a lot of my friends did or do), I certainly understand. I sure liked most of the performers on it.

Anyway, that's what I think about it. If you want to hear what Stu Shostak and Joel Eisner think of it, listen in today. Stu's Show can be heard live (almost) every Wednesday at the Stu's Show website and you can listen for free there. Webcasts start at 4 PM Pacific Time, 7 PM Eastern and other times in other climes. They run a minimum of two hours and sometimes go way longer.  Then, not long after a show ends, it's available for downloading from the Archives on that site. Downloads are a measly 99 cents each and you can get four shows for the price of three.  Holy Bargain!

Today is the publication date for The Art of the Simon & Kirby Studio, a new book that I helped assemble for Harry N. Abrams Publishing, one of the leading publishers of art books in the world today. To get the Amazon link out of the way quickly, you can order a copy here. Now, let me tell you what you're ordering. Here's a slightly trimmed version of something I posted here a few months ago…

Before Jack Kirby worked with Stan Lee on the Marvel Super-Heroes of the sixties, he was partnered with a great creative talent named Joe Simon. It was Simon and Kirby who launched Captain America and the Boy Commandos and the Newsboy Legion and who invented romance comics and who became one of the most popular creative forces in comics of the forties and much of the fifties. Their studio produced great comics, many of them written and/or drawn by Joe and/or Jack but also employing other top talents including Mort Meskin, Al Williamson, Doug Wildey, George Roussos, Bill Draut and many, many more.

Joe Simon saved a lot of the original art to the comics they did and just before his death in 2011, he was looking forward to assembling a big art book featuring some of that art, presented "warts and all," meaning that you'd be able to see stray pencil work, smudges and pasteovers and corrections and everything. In my 2008 book, Jack Kirby, King of Comics, I presented a Simon-Kirby Fighting American story printed right off the originals and Joe loved the look of it and the idea of letting people see the artwork, up close and personal like that. He made a tentative deal with the folks at Harry N. Abrams Books, who'd published my book, to put out a whole book like that and he asked me to be its supervisor. When the estate representing Jack Kirby's interest (which is sharing in the book) asked me also, I couldn't say no.

The project got off-track for a time when Joe passed but since he wanted it out, it's coming out.

It's a big book. The pages are 9" by 12¼" and there are 384 of them. That is not the size of the original artwork. I love those big collections that do that but I find them hard to read and harder to store. This book is meant to be read and to that end, I included as many complete stories as we could locate.

Most of those 384 pages contain artwork by Simon, Kirby or someone who worked for them. Some though have an intro by me telling a little about Joe and Jack and what they did. And some pages have an article by Joe's son, Jim on what the world of Simon and Kirby looked like from his unique perspective.

Not much to add to that. I'm quite proud to be associated with this book. The art's great and the folks at Abrams do a dazzling job of production and design and making sure the printing is first-rate.

If you're anywhere near Miami, I will be speaking about this book at the Miami Book Fair, which runs November 16-23. I'll be there the last two days signing (I'm not sure yet when or for how long) and speaking (Sunday at 2 PM for an hour). C-SPAN will be broadcasting many of the speeches at the Book Fair but I'll bet you $50 mine is not among them but the one by Lou Dobbs is.

On Veterans Day, Marvel Comics salutes Jack Kirby…for his military service.

John Cleese is on a book tour, popping up everywhere. He is never not interesting so I'll link to this interview which Vince Waldron told me about. I'll probably be linking to others, plus I'm going to go see him speak next week. Betcha dozens of people there try to get his photo even though as he mentions in the piece here, he doesn't like doing that.

My pal Steve Stoliar is a writer and an actor and a Marx Brothers historian…in fact, he's the guy who worked in Groucho's house the last few years of the great comedian's life. I have plugged Steve's book about that experience before and I'll plug it again. I think I even plugged it before I knew Steve so you know I'm sincere. It's a real good read.

Via the Marx connection, Steve got to know another Friend of Groucho, the eminent TV host Dick Cavett. This led to, among other things, an odd TV appearance by my friend Steve. But here — I'll let him tell you about it…

Cavett had a late-night talk show on the USA Network in 1985-6. He came to L.A. to tape some shows, amongst them a writers panel with three legends: Pat McCormick, Larry Gelbart and David Lloyd. His secretary, Judy Englander, called me and said that Dick wanted me to be a part of the panel to represent young, aspiring writers.

I had great mixed feelings: On the one hand, if I tried to pass myself off as their equal, people would think, "Who is this jerk?" On the other hand, if I just sat there silently, radiating, "Gosh! Golly! Jeepers!", people would think, "Who is this idiot?" So I was nervous. A few days before the taping, Judy called to say I wouldn't be participating after all, because "Pat McCormick doesn't want to be on a panel with more than three people." I said, "Pat McCormick is more than three people," but was relieved to be off the hook.

The day of the taping, Larry Hussar and I went down to the Mayfair Music Hall to watch the show from the audience. I had on one of my trademark Hawaiian shirts and blue jeans. We loved listening to everyone's stories and Cavett was longtime friends with all three writers. Then, just after the show appeared to have wrapped, a production person came down to me in the audience and said, "The next guest was supposed to be Rod Steiger, but he's trapped in Malibu because of the mudslides, so we're going to bring you out and add you to the panel and tape a few more segments."

I went pale and clammy, then asked, "But — what am I supposed to do or say?" She said, "Dick will explain everything."

That was October of 1985. Dick has yet to explain anything.

Next thing I knew, someone was running a microphone cord down my shirt and tucking a remote into my back pocket, another chair was brought out, I was plunked down into it, and Cavett introduced me to this cluster of brilliant wits, my heart pounding and my mind racing. I was still faced with how to come off as more than a mute and less than an undeserving punk. Here's how I handled it…

Brian Beutler gives some good reasons why the Supreme Court won't vote to gut Obamacare. I don't have a lot of confidence in anyone's predictions about what the Supreme Court will do and I don't think some of its members care all that much if a given ruling is illogical if it achieves the political result they crave. (See Bush v. Gore)

Still, I think Obamacare will never go away unless it's replaced by something better (and no one seems to have anything better) or the same thing disguised as a Republican alternative. I'm not even sure most of those who say they want to "repeal and replace," want it to go away. For one thing, none of them seem to have or be trying to find a real replacement. I think they just want to gin up anger against the Affordable Care Act, exploit that anger for personal gain, and then not have to face the fallout from taking away health care from people who will die because of it.

So there was this bear in the Polish Army…

No, really. A real bear. In the Army. Honest. A filmmaker named Brendan Foley is working on a movie about him and I know Brendan. He's a decent, honest fellow who's married to my pal, Shelly Goldstein. If Brendan says it's so, it's so. Read all about it here. He's like Harry Speakup but he's a bear.

Obama's Death Panels have already claimed one victim. They ordered the execution of Bea Arthur! Is Betty White safe?

I was involved with two comic art books that are out this month. One features the work of Walt Kelly in his prime. The other features the work of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. At the funeral of Jack's wife Roz, I introduced my friend Carolyn (daughter of Walt) to Lisa Kirby (daughter of Jack) and I couldn't help but think I was witnessing a moment. The DNA of the greatest "funny animal" comic artist was meeting the DNA of the greatest "adventure" comic artist. If you could have somehow merged the two, you could have grown a new Wally Wood.

I'll tell you more about the Simon-Kirby book tomorrow. Right now, I'm just noting for the record that Volume 3 of The Complete Pogo, the one that's just been released, is on the top of the New York Times list for its category. Long before I met Carolyn, I thought Mr. Kelly's Pogo was the best newspaper strip ever done — a viewpoint that is hardly unique to me.

We're reprinting it chronologically and in this volume, we get to the years when Walt Kelly really hit his stride. I don't think he got any better than what's in this book because you really couldn't. But he did maintain that standard until his health gave out many, many years later. If you haven't ordered a copy yet, here's an Amazon link. Comics don't get any better than this.

Matt Taibbi, now back at Rolling Stone, tells us about a most interesting whistle-blower. I'm still eager to see some Wall Street tycoon frog-marched into prison so I can see what that looks like.

My pal Bob Elisberg has it out with a theater manager about that "handling charge" he was assessed on a ticket that wasn't really handled much. The rule of thumb buying tickets online is that the less they have to do, the more they charge you for it.

Canter's Delicatessen (a favorite hangout of the newsfromme staff) revamped its classic menu a few years ago, adding a bunch of new items. One of the few deletions was the Billy Gray's Band Box Special, a sandwich that was probably about the same size as Billy Gray's Band Box.

Its inclusion on the Canter's menu caused many a diner to wonder, "What the heck is or was Billy Gray's Band Box?" A waitress there once told someone who asked at my table that it was the restaurant next door to Canter's and that years ago, the Canter family bought it, knocked out a wall and expanded into it. This is not true.

Billy Gray's Band Box was a nightclub about a block and half south of Canter's on Fairfax. At first it was a jazz club then it became a comedian's paradise…and a prototype for The Comedy Store, which in turn has been the model for hundreds if not thousands of other establishments. My pal Kliph Nesteroff, who is becoming the Doris Kearns Goodwin of comedians from the fifties and sixties, has been researching the place for some time.

Some time ago, he sent me an ad for it giving its address — 123 N. Fairfax — and I stared at it for long minutes, trying to figure out what's there now. That address was so familiar, I thought, that I should know. Finally, I gave up and went to Google Maps where I found out why it was so familiar: It's now more or less the parking lot for the Wells Fargo Bank where I used to have an account.

Kliph has a book coming out next year that we await with great interest. An excerpt from it covering the history of Billy Gray's Band Box can be read here and I highly recommend it.

In the piece, you'll also see Kliph mention two different locations for a night club called Slapsy Maxie's. One was 7165 Beverly Boulevard, which is where the Beverly Cinema is now located. I've written here in the past about going to the Beverly Cinema.

The later Slapsy Maxie's was at 5665 Wilshire Boulevard which is now the Office Depot where I buy most of the office supplies I don't buy online. Before that, that was the address of a Van DeKamp's bakery and coffee shop. In 1969, the second time I ever took a girl on a date, we went there for dinner and then we went to the Ivar Theater in Hollywood where we saw the closing performance of the L.A. company of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown starring Gary Burghoff. It was a great show but looking at the photo I just linked to of when it was Slapsy Maxie's, I kinda wish it had still been that place and Spike Jones was still playing there.