Monthly Archives: June 2017

No, I have not seen the Wonder Woman movie, which some friends tell me is spectacular and others say they liked about as much as I like cole slaw. Maybe I'm wildly outta touch with society today but I can't recall the last time I rushed to see any movie. It would probably be before the rise of home video ensured that they'd all be around and readily available for viewing at any time.

There are those who feel somehow disconnected from society if they haven't seen the movie everyone's supposedly stampeding to experience. Me, I sometimes have a sense of urgency to see a given play or other live performance because those things go away. Movies don't. I always figure a movie will be there when I'm ready for it. I don't have to go when it wants me to see it.

If I did camp out to see a movie, it wouldn't be a Wonder Woman movie. Years ago, after dragging myself through way more issues than most people ever experience, I gave up for a long time trying to read any comic books about the lady. I like the name, the costume, the way Lynda Carter looked in the costume, the way the character functioned in brief guest-star appearances or comics like Justice League of America where she only played a minor role…but that's about it. When a pal told me this new film "is faithful to the comic book," I thought, "Oh, for its sake, I hope not."

I would say I've enjoyed less than about 5% of all the Wonder Woman comics I've read and I've read a lot of them.  Still, even during periods when the comic book was the only place the character existed, I was fond of the character.  I will gladly explain why this is just as soon as I figure it out for myself.

The 5% would include close to 0% of all the issues supposedly written by the strip's creator, William Moulton Marston.  Even when I was younger, it wasn't because it was about a "girl," as we called them back then. I liked Supergirl just fine. But Wonder Woman's feature just never struck me as being grounded in a mythos and premise as primal and appealing as those of Superman or Batman or many other comics I enjoyed. It was like Dr. Marston said, "Hey, a female version of Superman would be commercial" so, despite not really having an idea for one, he whipped one up anyway.

Yes, yes…I know that's not the way it happened — a brief history of Mr. Marston and his Amazon Princess can be read here — but that's the way the comic always felt to me. Never cared for the art by Harry Peter, either. It seemed ugly, and I don't just mean he made Wonder Woman unappealing. I thought he made everyone unappealing, plus you were never far from a pointless bondage scene and some gratuitous lesbian innuendo.

When I was younger and reading Wonder Woman, I used to spot the kinda-kinky elements and think, "Well, maybe when I get older, this will all have some meaning to me." When I got older, it didn't. They just seemed like themes that couldn't be developed or resolved in a comic book for kids, plus they undermined the scenes with Steve Trevor or any potential romantic interest. You would think a comic book created by a psychologist would at least have a convincing male/female relationship but it always seemed like a muddle to me.

The 5% also did not include the issues written by Robert Kanigher, who took over when Doc Marston died. Kanigher was the writer-editor of Wonder Woman from 1947 until 1968 and the writer of many, many issues thereafter. What's still amazing to me about Kanigher's stint was not just that he did it for so long.  It was that he did it so long without doing anything I thought was particularly good.  Having never, in all the years I've been around comics and their collectors heard anyone express any fondness for them, I don't think I'm alone.  I think the name, the look (for which Mr. Peter deserves credit) and the sheer idea of a female super-hero carried the comic for decades.

This is not to knock Kanigher, who demonstrated in the other comics that he was a fine writer.  Most of them, like Sgt. Rock and Metal Men, were quite gripping.  Many, unlike his Wonder Woman, won rave reviews and huzzahs.  This always made me feel that it was Wonder Woman the feature that was flawed, not its writer.

The first Wonder Woman comics I ever really liked formed the 1968-1971 story arc done at first by Denny O'Neil and Mike Sekowsky and then by Sekowsky alone.  Sales had slipped to the point where it should have been canceled but they couldn't do that.  Under the terms of Marston's contract, if they didn't publish a specified number of Wonder Woman comics each year, the rights to the property would revert to his estate.  This was when Batman was raking in a bat-cave of money due to that TV show and there was interest in (and one unsold pilot) of Wonder Woman.  There was also increased merchandising of her as an adjunct to all the bat-toys and bat-shirts and bat-tchotchkes.

DC, of course, didn't want to lose her…but they also didn't want to publish her comic at a loss.  The solution?  They removed Kanigher and we got a somewhat different version of the character, one connected to but quite unlike Marston's vision. They de-powered her, took her out of the famous costume and even did some of Marston's mildly-depraved stuff better than he had. The book shot up in newsstand sales for a time…and then when Sekowsky quit or was fired (long, ugly story there), it neatly coincided with an increased interest in classic Wonder Woman as a feminist icon.

That movement was gaining traction and the "old" Wonder Woman was on the cover of the first issue of Ms. magazine…so the comic went back to that version. Since then, it's been handled for a while by darn near every editor and writer who wandered within six blocks of the DC offices and wasn't me, and she's still to this day passed around with (mostly) short runs by different creators. Some of them made her interesting, many did not, but with so many people trying, there had to be some good ones. That's when I began sometimes reading it again and got most of my 5%.

Three times in my life, by the way, it could have been me.  The first time I was offered the job of writing her comic, I was new in the biz and landing that assignment would have been impressive.  Still, I declined. I was expected to write the then-current Wonder Woman, not reinvent her, and I hadn't liked enough previous non-Sekowsky issues to be sure what a good Wonder Woman story even was.  When the other two offers were made, I still wasn't certain, and I still view the good issues as exceptions that prove some kind of rule.  Compliments to those who did them.  I doubt I could have done one I'd want to read.

If the new movie is as sensational as some say, great. Maybe someone really has rethought the character and made her more than a great name and look. In the past, fans have bemoaned movies and TV shows that adapted a comic book and didn't get it "right." Lately though, we've had some movies that redefined a property and got it "right" in a way that the comic rarely did. If that's the case here, I'll be thrilled to see the film but I'm going to do that when it's convenient for me. Like I said, the movie will be there when I'm ready for it.

And besides, I started reading Wonder Woman around 1962 and I've waited this long to really enjoy a story about her. I can wait a little longer.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar defends what Bill Maher said last Friday night on his show. I wish people were more offended by actual racism that doesn't use that word.

On Sunday, May 21, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus gave its final performance, at least for now. Given the length and breadth of the franchise, I find it hard to believe that someone won't revive it in some way soon but at least the current version of it has shut down. At this very moment, dozens of clowns are all driving in one tiny car to the Unemployment Office.

Speaking of those clowns, here's a lovely little tribute to them set to a tune by Kermit T. Frog…

I'm not sure how I feel about this, except of course that it's sad when any enterprise shuts down and lots of folks are out of work. I would imagine some of those folks worked long and hard to perfect certain skills that they can no longer count on to yield a paycheck.

Beyond that, I have my mixed feelings because of some aspects of circuses. One is that I'm not sure how I feel about animal acts, a subject I may delve into in a future blog post. I am, however, sure how I feel about clowns: I find a lot of them creepy and not in an entertaining way.

I am talking here about the make-up, not what they do while wearing it. I like the spirit of clowns. I like the mania to amuse. I like pantomime. I like clever gags when they have them. I just don't like clown make-up. (Actually — and this is also a subject for a future blog post — I don't like a lot of make-up on women for cosmetic reasons, or cosplayers or anyone for that matter.)

But clowns…when I was a kid, I wasn't so much scared of them as bewildered. It was like, "Why would someone do that to themselves?" I never thought "it's a tradition" was, all by itself, a good reason to do anything. I'd see clowns perform and I'd think, "Gee, this might be funny if it were a human being doing this." Clown make-up makes the performer distant, alien and sometimes demented.

With all the great pantomime comedians I ever loved — Laurel, Hardy, Keaton, Langdon, etc. — most of the humor was in the face and in the expressions — or in Mr. Keaton's case, lack of expressions. Some clowns design their faces to enhance expressions but some pretty much paint the expression on and there it is. And like I said, some of them seem creepy as they hide behind those masks and their frozen faces. The one or two professional clowns I've known personally were all funnier and more expressive without all that stuff on their faces. I'm sorry some of them have no place to clown anymore. Or anyplace to wear their huge purple shoes.

Trying to think…it's been a good thirty years since I went to a circus, unless you count the "du Soleil" variety. Longer than that, probably. I remember the clowns working real hard and looking like they put more effort into applying and removing their makeup than they did coming up with jokes. I remember liking the acrobatic feats that demonstrated skill and artistry and not liking the ones that were sold as dangerous with constant reminders that we could be out to see someone lose their lives or break every bone in their sequin-bedecked bodies. And I kind of felt bad for the animals, though I have since seen acts where I thought, and later confirmed, that the animals led very good, healthy lives.

So I don't know how I feel about the Greatest Show on Earth going away. Given how little attention the closure got, I'm obviously not alone.

When I started writing this, I planned on closing with a quip about how no one has to go pay good money to attend a circus anymore. They can just flip-on C-Span and see pretty much the same thing, only not as amusing. But now that I'm here, what I'd planned seems kind of obvious…

…so let's just bid a fond farewell to the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus — a throwback to another era. I'm already missing the parts of it I'd expect to miss and none of the others. If you feel as ambiguous as I do about the whole institution, maybe that's why they had to fold their metaphoric tents and steal away into the dim recesses of childhood memories.

If nothing else, the Trump Administration is rewriting the rules of politics forever.  For instance, from now on if the economic news is bad, you can just announce it's great and that anyone who says otherwise is peddling "fake news."  You won't get away with that forever but some people — more than any of us might have imagined — will buy it. You can also contradict your own spokesperson and make them look like ninnies. The latest ploy for not being nailed down on anything is to insist that the president's spokespeople do not really speak for him. No one does, including the president.

If you're ready to click, I've got these links…

• The singular achievement of Trump's Middle East trip seems to be this $100 billion arms deal. But Bruce Riedel, who seems like he's in a position to know, says there is no $100 billion arms deal. There are however some old deals and discussions from the Obama Administration that Trump and his cohorts are passing off as a new $100 billion arms deal.
• Ezra Klein writes about how Trump is always complaining about the government, forgetting that he is the government. But then, the guy's never figured out that he works for us instead of the other way around.
• What's this thing Trump wants to do about privatizing Air Traffic Control in this country? It's not as looney an idea as it might appear at first, perhaps because it isn't his idea. There are advantages and disadvantages to it, the latter mostly because depending on how it's done, it could remove many layers of oversight from the big airlines. Henry Grabar tells us all about it.
• Daniel Larison doesn't like what Trump is doing, kissing up to the Saudis. Doesn't like it at all.

Al Franken has canceled as a guest on Bill Maher's show for this Friday…a bit of cowardice on the senator's part but perhaps understandable.  I'm wondering if the Real Time people are scrambling to book a couple of respected black folks to come on and say that what Maher said is no big deal.  I don't think it is but he has given his enemies a potent weapon with which to hammer him.  And isn't it odd that at a time when the President of the United States says so many rude, offensive things that we're discussing punishing comedians for lack of decorum?

I was surprised to discover that the Bill Cosby trial started yesterday. Not so long ago, I would have thought that would be an all-time attention-getter, ranking up there with the O.J. affair…but no. Mr. Trump continues to suck up most of the headlines. By attacking the Mayor of London, he's even managed to make much of the coverage of the tragic bombing over there about him. Let's see how he manages to divert notice of James Comey's testimony later this week. I dunno if it's strategic or if the man just has a natural impulse to demand that people talk about him.

They say this is 5,000 ducks but I only counted 4,987…

Trump went on another of his Twitter rampages this morning, mostly doubling-down on the inappropriate comments he made over the London terrorism attack. He's like the kid who falls off his bicycle and then rather than admit clumsiness says, "I meant to do that!" Remember when his supporters were telling us that once he was in office, he'd pivot and instead of insulting his opposition, he'd become more "presidential?" I guess they didn't figure on him having more opposition after he was elected than before. Now, this…

• Daniel Larison has a real good, clear explanation of why pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord was a mistake. It makes you feel that Trump didn't even read or understand the accord; merely sensed that his "base" would be thrilled if he did that. More and more, that seems to be what drives this guy's actions.
• Jonathan Chait notes that the Trump administration is trying to tap dance all around the question of whether D.J.T. really believes in climate change. I think even asking this question is kinda dumb. Trump believes in bolstering his personal popularity and in rich people like him making money…and he believes in nothing else. He doesn't have a view on climate change except to the extent that saying certain things may help him with one or both of his only two concerns.
• Chait also notes that Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt is now claiming that due to Trump, the coal-mining industry has added "over 50,000 jobs since last quarter." Not even close to true.  Coal is a dying industry and contrary to what some Trump backers seem to want to admit, it's not because those damned environmentalist Nazis have regulated it out of existence. Coal mining is going away for the same reason that delivering telegrams did. Technology has come up with something cheaper and more efficient but somehow, despite Trump's yearning for private enterprise to maximize profits, we have to prop up an increasingly-unprofitable industry mining coal.
• Zeeshan Aleem says that pulling the U.S. out of the accord is going to help one country a lot…and it ain't us. Hey, maybe it was China that did all that computer hacking to help Trump win.
• One reason health costs are so high in America is that we pay more for drugs. A pill that costs two bucks overseas goes for $80 here. On the campaign stump, Mr. Trump vowed that if elected, he would bring those prices down. Democrats have long vowed the same thing. As Matt Taibbi notes, many are willing to promise that. Few are willing to keep those promises.
• John Cassidy on how whenever there's a terrorist event, Trump's first and only instinct is to exploit it to promote his agenda. Most politicians have the class to think, "I'd better express something that sounds like sincere compassion before I exploit this to promote my agenda." Not our Donald.

John Oliver said some very good things last night on his show about the London attacks.  He also had a good, long segment on the dishonesty in Trump's claimed reasons for pulling out of the French accord. It reruns all week and is worth catching at least once.

Take this full-screen on your computer and use your mouse to move the screen around. It's a 360° backstage tour of The Ed Sullivan Theater as Stephen Colbert goes out to do his pre-show warm-up…

Just got four e-mails almost simultaneously from readers of this site asking what I think about the Bill Maher controversy. As you probably know, he used the "n" word on his show Friday night…although as few of his critics have noted, he did not use it to call any black person that or to suggest anything bad about their race.

I have never felt that anyone should be fired for using any word…so no, I do not think Maher should be fired. If someone uses a racist slur — and I don't think in the context of its use, it qualifies as that — then the penalty should be that more people consider the person a racist. There are plenty of them around and they do things like instantly presume the cop is always in the right when one of them kills an unarmed black man. On a scale from 1 to 10 of Racism Indicators with 10 being the Klan lynching mentality, saying the person of color was just asking for it is about an 8.5.

Saying the "n" word not directed at one or more black people is between a 0 and a 5, depending on the context. If a History professor of any color were to speak that word as part of a discussion of segregation and church burnings and lynchings, would anyone accuse him of being a racist and demand he be terminated? Well, maybe if they already hated him and his lectures and thought that screaming about that would make him go away. A lot of those calling for Maher's head didn't like him before that because they don't like his politics and anytime you can silence someone like that, you try to seize the moment.

Will Maher get fired? I doubt it. Being on HBO, he has no advertisers who can withdraw their advertising and make his show unprofitable. If HBO lost a significant number of subscribers, maybe he'd be in trouble but I find it hard to believe a lot of people would cancel their HBO over this. It's one word and if they're outraged about it, it's probably one word on a show they didn't like to begin with.

It's been my observation that when on-air personalities get fired for saying or doing something awful, it's usually because the network or station was thinking of dumping them anyway but hadn't quite gotten there yet. Then the personality commits the faux pas and someone in the big office upstairs says, "Hey, if we're really close to getting rid of this clown, he's just handed us a great reason! We can look really responsible if we can him now!"

When Mr. Maher was jettisoned by ABC/Disney for his post-9/11 remarks, I think that was the case. Politically Incorrect wasn't doing that well and it didn't fit the current programmers' idea of what their network should be airing. He handed them a reason so they could rid themselves of him without saying, "We don't care for certain of his views." He won't lose the current show unless HBO was already thinking they'd be better off without him for whatever reason. And since that company prides itself on being gutsy and unafraid of controversy, I can't see that happening.

Debuting tomorrow on HBO is If You're Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast. Carl Reiner (age 95) chats with old people who are still working like Dick Van Dyke, Betty White, Mel Brooks, Norman Lear and even Stan Lee.

I don't know if I've said this before but I think Carl Reiner is one of the most amazing people I've ever met. Here's a man who is universally loved and respected and who has always been working. Since shortly after he got out of the Army in 1946, his career has never had a "nobody wants me" moment…and yet at no point has he ever done anything called The Carl Reiner Show. The unsold pilot that turned into The Dick Van Dyke Show might have been that had it sold but instead, he has had this long, long run making other people look good.

He made Sid Caesar look good on Your Show of Shows. He made Dick Van Dyke and others look good on The Dick Van Dyke Show. He made Mel Brooks look good on all those 2,000 Year Old Man records. He made Steve Martin look good in several hit movies. And so on. He has done occasional leads but basically he has worked in service of others through seven decades without being unemployed or making an enemy.

If I were a young actor today starting out, I don't think I would want to emulate the career of Leonardo DiCaprio or Robert Downey or any of the top box office stars. I think I'd want to grow up to be Carl Reiner.

The First Lady of Cartoon Voices, June Foray, will turn 100 years old on September 18. She deserves an honorary Academy Award for all she's given to the field.

I could go into a long explanation as to why but I have a feeling that if you're the kind of person who'd come to this blog, you don't need any convincing. You know why. There's an online petition you can sign to help maybe make this happen.

If by some chance you do need to know why or just want to be reminded of all the wonderful work June has done, here's an article by Mike Tiano, the guy who started the petition. Wish I'd thought to do that.

Yeah, lost another friend and this time, it wasn't because of their support for Trump. I hope it isn't permanent but Lydia isn't speaking to me.

Lydia is one of the two feral cats I feed in my backyard. In the above photo of them staking out my their chaise lounge out there, Sylvia is the one at the top…and since she showed up here many moons ago, Sylvia has always looked at me with pretty much that expression. Grumpy Cat should pay royalties to Sylvia for appropriating her look. No matter what or how much I feed her, she pretty much replicates my reaction when someone puts cole slaw before me. That frown, I'm used to.

But the pussycat below her, Lydia, used to like me…or so I thought. Maybe she was just faking it to get the Mixed Grill, I don't know. She's been out there for at least ten years, which is way beyond the average life span of a stray cat in the city. Some of you may remember that back in 2008 — as chronicled here through a series of posts on this blog — I trapped her and took her in for a kitty abortion and further preventive surgery. After that, I thought she'd never speak to me again but that was a minor offense compared to what I did last week to piss her off.

I have this great, talented friend named Brad Ellis. Brad is a brilliant musician and you heard how brilliant if you ever watched the TV show, Glee. He arranged an awful lot of the music for that show and was involved in its playing…and he even played on-camera. He was the never-speaking rehearsal pianist on the program whenever one of the kids had to sing something with a rehearsal pianist.  He's been on other shows and he's always off working the piano with some symphony orchestra or celebrity. I think he's somewhere playing for Jane Lynch this weekend.  Here's a bio of him which needs updating.

We sometimes write songs together and when we do, they feel to me like those legendary collaborations between Gomer Pyle and George Gershwin.  I'll let you figure out which of us is which in that comparison.

So last week, Brad drops by for the afternoon and he brings along Ace. Here's a picture of Brad and Ace…

Brad is the one in the cap and glasses.  Anyway, I decided that while Brad and I talked, Ace might be more comfy in my backyard so we put him out there.  In so doing, I momentarily forgot that it is actually not my backyard.  It's Lydia's and boy, was she pissed.  I have never gotten a look like that from a human being and God knows, I've done many things that deserved it.

Quickly realizing my error, I immediately brought Ace back inside but the damage was done and I am not to be forgiven.  Lydia was so upset with me that for the first and probably last time in more than a decade, she actually spoke to me.  In a voice rich in indignation, she said, "What the f*ck is that dog doing in my yard?"  She uttered the word "dog" with particular distaste.  And then she fled her yard as she does whenever I thoughtlessly allow my gardener to garden back there.

She returned hours later after Ace was off the premises and she ate an entire can of Friskies Salmon that I put out for her…but without so much as a glance in my direction.   And of course, she hasn't said a word to me.  I continue to put out chow and I keep adding in extra treats to apologize…but I am, you'll excuse the phrase, in the dog house.  I still hope to win back her trust.

From the outrage in her whiskers, I'd almost think she reads this blog and is furious at me for the anti-Trump material I post.  But I know she didn't vote for that man.  Lydia is way too smart for that.

I just set mine to record the first episode of The Jim Jefferies Show on Comedy Central this Tuesday. Jefferies may be my favorite stand-up comedy working today and while I'm not sure that what makes him wonderful on a stage will apply on a half-hour program but I'll sure give it a try. HBO's comedy channel is running one of his stand-up specials on Saturday the 10th.

Also: Starz has been running a fine documentary on one of the all-time great stand-ups, Robert Klein. If you get that channel and haven't seen this, set whatever recording device you have to record Robert Klein Still Can't Stop His Leg this coming Thursday afternoon. This could be the last time they run it for a while.

We often rave on this site about our friend Frank Ferrante, Groucho Impersonator Supreme. I've seen his show An Evening With Groucho so many times, I know everything except the ad-libs by heart. In fact, I could probably perform it except that I'd have to change it to An Evening With Zeppo and then just be stiff, awkward and unfunny on stage.

His upcoming performances in Solana Beach, California are sold out and I'm not sure he'll be Grouchoing again until November when he has an extended engagement in Cincinnati. However! You can monitor his every movement over on this site and you can see a few fine minutes from the show by clicking below. Do this…

The other day, comic Kathy Griffin was photographed holding up a severed head of Donald Trump. Why did she do this? Well, I have a hard time believing she thought everyone would laugh and think how funny it was, or that everyone would take it as a pithy political statement. The most likely motive was that she noticed there wasn't much talk about her in the news feeds and couldn't allow that to continue. So she went out and did something shocking.

There are other people who do this regularly — consciously trying to do something that has no purpose other than to be outrageous and get attention. I'm trying to think of another example…

Oh, right. The guy whose severed head she was holding. He's the master of that.

And of course, what then happens is that what was said is not discussed so much as the mere fact that he or she said it. Some people are outraged that last night on his show, Bill Maher used the "n" word. They aren't discussing the sentence in which he used it or the political thought he was expressing…just that he let it cross his lips.

And further of course, folks on the other side of the political spectrum from Ms. Griffin are ginning up all possible outrage as a weapon to be used for their causes. In Georgia's 6th Congressional District where Democrats hope their candidate Jon Ossoff can pick up a seat, ads supporting his opponent Karen Handel are showing Griffin's photo and saying, "Now a celebrity Jon Ossoff supporter is making jokes about beheading the president of the United States."

Nice going, Kathy. She's apologizing for the photo and at the same time complaining about the backlash against it, thereby keeping herself in the news feeds. I actually think Griffin can be very funny and even witty when she's not trying to position herself as both the creator and victim of publicity-seeking outrages.

It's all such a waste of good bandwidth that might be used for discussing actual issues. We have some, you know.