Monthly Archives: December 2017

What does the new tax law do? It drastically reduces the tax burden on really rich people, including a lot of lawmakers who wedged in provisions that help their particular financial situations. That seems pretty evident and we do not seem to have heard from many real economists — maybe even any — who think it won't drive the deficit way, way up. Remember when Republicans thought that was a horrible, disastrous thing to do? Kevin Drum has many of the bad features of this bill in easy-to-comprehend lingo.

Hey, what about those women who claim that Donald Trump sexually abused them? It seems to be the position of the Trump Administration that since he won, that means the nation is fine with whatever he did. William Saletan quotes a whole mess of polls that say that the country is in no way fine with it.

Trump is now claiming that the new tax bill fulfills his campaign promise to repeal Obamacare. Jonathan Chait explains why that's a lie.

And Trump claims that Republicans were 5-0 in Congressional elections before Alabama when in fact, as the A.P. notes, they were 4-1. I think there's a rule in his White House which is to never admit defeat. When you lose, just lie and say you won.

FactCheck.org lists some of the biggest lies of 2017…from Trump and others.

Fred Kaplan explains about Trump's new National Security Strategy. You may be shocked to hear that it doesn't make a whole lot of sense and, of course, make us less secure.

Last September, as you probably know, a bunch of us put on a big event in the theater at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills.  Its purpose?  To honor the late 'n' lovely June Foray. Last Monday night, we had a little invitational dinner at the Smoke House restaurant in Burbank for some of those who contributed to that evening. I'll identify the attendees in the above photo, starting with the folks who are standing…

At far left is my associate/assistant John Plunkett who associates and assists with so much of what I do. Then as we move left-to-right, we find animation expert Jerry Beck. Then — oh, look! — there's TV expert and host of Stu's Show, Stu Shostak He's is in the hammerlock grip of voice actor Bob Bergen.  Bob is, of course, the voice of Porky Pig and many other characters and he's one of the best teachers of cartoon voicing.  Peeking over his shoulder is Marian Massaro, who was our main announcer at the event.  You've heard Marian announcing some of the major awards shows on TV and countless commercials.

Then the fine-looking lady dressed like a zebra is chanteuse extraordinaire Shelly Goldstein, who has been oft-mentioned on this blog as a first-rate writer and performer and next to her is Joe Campana, a superb film editor who did some of the superb film editing for us.  Then the guy in black is Neil Ross, voice of dozens of your fave cartoon characters and our other announcer that evening.  Neil does most of the commercials and award show announcing that Marian doesn't do.  And way over on the end is one of the greatest guys I know, Disney exec Howard Green. This is not to suggest anyone else in the photo is not a great guy or gal.

I'm the fellow who's seated and for some reason, I'm holding Howard Green's "to go" order.  To my right and your left is the lovely Amber Payne.  She's the Amber I've written about on this blog the last few months.  Finally: To my left and your right is the lovely Jeanine Kasun, spouse of Stu Shostak and host of her own podcast, Baby Boomer Favorites with Jeanine Kasun.

Three other points or maybe more…

• If you've been thinking you might want to make a living as a voice actor or announcer, go visit Bob's, Marian's and Neil's websites and click on the links that play their demos. That's your competition.
• The Smoke House is a fine place to eat and it also has some interesting connections to the worlds of animation and comic books. I wrote about them in this article.
• But every time I write about it here, I get e-mails from folks scolding me for spelling its name wrong.  Go look at their website, people.  They spell it "Smoke House," "Smokehouse" and "SmokeHouse" there, sometimes varying it on the same page.  If they can spell it any way they want, I can spell it any way I want.
• But however you spell it, it still has the best Garlic Cheese Bread in the world. In fact — and this is true — that's all that was in Howard's "to-go" order: Garlic Cheese Bread. This dinner was paid for with a $500 gift certificate we had and I was thinking maybe we should forget about the steaks and chicken and salads, and just get $500 worth of Garlic Cheese Bread.

And one more point: A lot of other folks helped out, including animation expert Tom Sito, who wasn't there because some lunkhead (the guy holding the Cheese Bread in the photo) accidentally gave him the wrong time to be there. We were and are grateful to all who pitched in to help. It is an additional tribute to June that so many folks volunteered to help, many of them saying, "I just want to be a part of it." Thanks to everyone who was.

As we've mentioned, MAD magazine — a New York fixture since its inception in 1952 — is relocating to Burbank. Many of the same freelance writers and artists will continue to work for it. Sergio is drawing marginals even as you read this…but only one of its editorial staff members is migrating.

Joe Raiola, a clever guy who's been there since no one would even think of ridiculing Donald Trump, is not among that one. So he favors us with an exit tune and since this is an embed from Facebook you may have to click a little X next to a speaker icon to turn on the audio. (If the embed doesn't play at all in your browser, try clicking on this link.)

I have raved here in the past about Puppet Up!, a live show produced from time to time on the old Chaplin movie lot in Hollywood by the Henson Company. Basically, it's a mostly-improvised and mostly-raunchy puppet show performed by talented puppeteers who know how to think on their feet and have it come out via their hands. It is not for kids or the easily-offended and it is hilarious.

When they do this show is quite unpredictable and when I asked a Henson insider about this, he said, "Every so often, for no visible reason, Brian Henson says, 'Hey, let's do that again.'" Well, they're doing it again — two shows on Saturday, January 27 at 6 PM and 9 PM, and one show on Sunday, January 28 at 5 PM. They will sell out so if you're interested, go order tickets now. I'll be at the Saturday 9 PM performance.

• This space reserved for a joke about the new animatronic Trump at Disney World grabbing Daisy Duck by the gizzard, stealing the 7 Dwarfs' gloves and telling so many lies that the other animatronic presidents all demand he be moved to Fantasyland.

Hey, let's visit Katz's Delicatessen in New York…something I haven't done in close to two decades. I have a strange feeling nothing has changed there in all that time except the prices.

I remember great food but way too much of it. Half of one of their sandwiches is plenty and then the other half becomes a problem. You don't want to throw it away but you also don't want to carry it around with you the rest of the day. The last time there, I carried it around the rest of the day — even to the other restaurant where I had dinner and then to the Broadway show after — and finally threw it away when I finally got back to my hotel room. That's so much better than just leaving it on the table at Katz's.

I also recall a strong vibe there of being told how I had to eat the foods I wanted to eat: You have to have sauerkraut on your hot dog. You have to have spicy brown mustard on your pastrami or corned beef sandwich or hot dog. You have to put sour cream on your latkes. Those of us with major food allergies don't like that attitude even when it isn't pressing us to eat something we shouldn't.

And I notice that every latke recipe on the 'net seems to call for all-purpose flour. Was my non-Jewish mother the only latke-maker in the world who used matzo meal instead?

But I still liked the place so let's go to Katz's. Make sure you don't lose that ticket they give you on the way in or boy, will you be in trouble…

More than a few friends of mine are counting the closure of the Du-Par's restaurant in Studio City as among the worst news items of 2017. Du-Par's has long been a chain of coffee shops around Southern California that somehow seem like both a long-time fixture of the area and a kind of "pop-up" temporary presence. The one in Farmers Market has been there forever ("forever" meaning since 1938) while others — like recent attempts in Encino and San Diego — open and close faster than the last dozen Woody Allen movies. Two opened a few years ago in Las Vegas and only one of them remains. It's in the Suncoast Hotel-Casino there.

They're great places for Breakfast and many patrons like to just sit and drink coffee — kind of a Starbucks for senior citizens. My father, after he retired, would go to the Farmers Market Du-Par's at least two mornings a week and sit there until he'd consumed one plate of their French Toast, three cups of joe and that morning's Los Angeles Times. Lunch and dinner are much less impressive — I usually order French Toast (no syrup, no sugar) or eggs (over hard) no matter what time it is — but at any hour, they're great places to park and talk with friends.

The chain started at that Farmers Market location via a partnership between James Dunn and Edward Parsons. Note what the letters in boldface spell out. Expansions began soon after and Du-Par's became one of many such operations around the Southland like Biff's and Tiny Naylor's. Both of those brands were owned by a gent named W.W. Naylor, who got his nickname because he stood 6'4" and weighed in at 320 pounds, most of which was probably blueberry pancakes.

At one point, there was a Tiny Naylor's at 12056 Ventura Blvd in Studio City. The Du-Par's that's about to close in Studio City is at 12036 Ventura Blvd.  It was a great, friendly rivalry there but eventually, Du-Par's was the Last Diner Standing.  All the eateries in the Naylor dynasty finally closed but in 2004, the son of Tiny — also named W.W. Naylor, I believe — headed up an investor group that bought Du-Par's. At the time, there were three of them to buy along with the name: The one at the Farmers Market, the one in Studio City and the one in Thousand Oaks.

I have a special fondness for the Thousand Oaks location. When I was working for Jack Kirby in the early seventies — or later when I was just socializing with Jack and his wife Roz — that was a frequent place we dined. Also, when I was collaborating with another wonderful comic book artist, Dan Spiegle, we'd sometimes meet up for lunch halfway between his home in Carpinteria and my home in Los Angeles. The halfway point was the Du-Par's in Thousand Oaks.

One time, I drove out to Thousand Oaks and had lunch there with Dan. Then I drove over to spend a few hours with the Kirbys and as evening arrived, I said, "Hey, let me take you out to dinner! Where do you want to go?" We wound up not only in the same restaurant but, because of where the hostess chose to seat us, in the same booth. That Du-Par's closed in 1991 to make way for a huge shopping center.

The one in Studio City closes New Year's Eve and is reportedly packed until then with folks who need to visit it one more time. An employee at the Farmers Market location told me the other day that the company is already looking at new possible locations in Studio City. He said, "They're not closing there due to lack of business. Business is great. They're closing because some other business wanted to open there and made an offer that drove the rent there way, way up."

That other business is rumored to be a Sephora's, that chain of upscale make-up shops. You could probably feed a family of six at Du-Par's for what Sephora's charges for a lipstick and an eye-liner.

We shall see if Du-Par's has a future in that area. In my experience, restaurants that have been around for a while rarely admit death. They usually say, "We're looking for a new location and will definitely reopen" and then some of them reopen and some don't. In any case, as 2018 begins, Du-Par's will be back to three outlets, all open 24 hours a day: The Du-Par's at Farmers Market, the one remaining in Vegas and one other out in Pasadena. I hope Studio City will soon be added back to that list.

By the way: If you want to see what the Studio City Du-Par's looks like, track down the episode of Jerry Seinfeld's Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee that featured Garry Shandling. That's where they got their coffee and I'll bet they were not the only show business folks there that day. It would also be nice if someone could bring back Garry Shandling but I'm not counting on that.

Like it says. Seventeen years ago today, I put up my first post, foolishly thinking, "Maybe I'll write something here two or three times a week!" The web was so primitive then that I couldn't find decent blogging software so I did it all by hand. Eventually, I fashioned my own, crude software and when a new commercial one called Movable Type seemed sorta perfected, I migrated the whole site over to that (which took forever) and some years later, converted it all to WordPress (which took longer).

I wrote about why I enjoy doing this recently when we hit 25,000 posts. A couple of folks wrote in to ask why I don't take on paid ads and monetize this thing but good…or why I don't hook up with some commercial site and get paid to blog for (and attract readers to) their business. The answer to the first suggestion is that I don't want to screw around with ads or have to think about whether something I write is going to cost me an advertiser.

The answer to the second is that about ten years ago, I got a few offers to front for a commercial site but they wanted editorial controls and assurances that I'd lace my posts with personal recommendations for their products. I said no to that and no one's asked me since. I think I like it this way.

That's about as self-congratulatory as I can stand. Thank you, those of you who stop by now and then to read whatever's on my mind. I'd probably still do this if nobody read it but as Louis C.K. once said, it's more fun with an audience.

Turner Classic Movies has released its annual Obituary Video. These are always very classy and they always cover a lot more people than ever make it into the "In Memoriam" reel that's shown at the Oscars. To those who always ask, "Why doesn't the Academy let these guys do their reel?", I would like to make three points, none of which answers that question.

One is that the TCM reel is usually a work-in-progress. Today is 12/17. At least a few more people from the world of motion pictures will leave us before New Year's Day. As you'll note, there are moments left open in this video. I assume that's done deliberately and they expect to go back in and insert more clips as others pass away and also as fans react and say, "Hey! You left out So-and-So!" (Internet chatter suggests they already fixed one clip which was not of the person identified.)

Also, the package shown at the Oscars has to be edited to allow for applause. When they show their montage at the next Oscars, the audience will clap for Jerry Lewis and for Roger Moore and Martin Landau and several others. TCM can get through those guys in three seconds apiece. And my third point is that even the TCM reel gets complaints of "You left out So-and-So" that they don't correct. All that said, here it is…

I seem to have confused a few folks. In this piece, I mentioned that I sometimes write forewords for books that I want to see reach a wider audience and that I do these for free. I should have clarified that I am usually paid — though never a lot — for writing forewords. When it seems appropriate though, I do them totally pro bono.

I write a lot of forewords and not long ago, I began making two conditions to do them, and this applies to the ones that pay and the ones I do for free. The first condition is that the publisher has to spell "foreword" correctly. I have always known how to spell that word but you'd be amazed at the number of forwards and forewards I've had my name on — and I think there was even once a forewood, which sounds like something that should open a book about golf.

Second condition: What I write has to be legible when printed. That means no flyspeck or ornate fonts and no yellow type placed over a colored photo or anything like that. In my years in publishing, I have occasionally encountered book designers and art directors who don't get that legibility is Job One. They think Job One is to do something that will cause everyone to say, "Ooh, what a lovely looking page design" and they're wrong. Job One is legibility and to not put it first is to be like a surgeon who says, "True, my patient died but didn't I do a lovely job of stitching up his incision?"

Sometimes, you can almost hear them grumbling, "Damn narcissist writer…actually wants people to be able to read what he wrote…"

In the meantime, I have this question from Michael Grabowski…

You mentioned writing forewords as something you do to get a wider release for a book. Is there evidence that people purchase books because of the author of the foreword (or preface or introduction)? Or is it a marketing tool the publisher uses to attract the book retailer's attention? If you have insight or experience with how & why that works, please talk about it. Thanks!

I don't know if there's any evidence beyond the anecdotal kind but I'd say publishers are pretty sure that when you have a book by an unknown, the endorsement of a well-known name can really help sales. I'd say it's to attract both customers and retailers. It can also help classify a book. If you have a horror/suspense novel and you can get Stephen King to write a foreword for it, that tells the world, "If you like Stephen King books, you should like this one."

In a way though, I think it's like a theory some have in the comic book business that explains one reason so many comics have a cover that is not done by the artist who drew the insides of the book. The theory goes like this: If Artist A draws the insides, you get Artist B to draw the cover. The readers who love Artist A's work are already going to buy the comic. This may also get you some of the readers who love Artist B's work.

Neil Gaiman was gracious enough to write a foreword for the new volume of Pogo: The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips. You know…that book you should all be ordering from this link. Somewhere out there, there must be some Neil Gaiman fans who would never have taken a glance at a book of old comic strips but who will stop and at least consider a purchase of this one.

The Stephen King scenario won't apply here. They won't think, "Oh, this must be very much like a Neil Gaiman book!" because it's obviously not. But they'll look at it and maybe some stores will display it more prominently because of his name. At the very least, his name assigns a certain importance to the book.

Will it help sales? Well, it's a lot like the joke where a man is hit by a car and a doctor who happens to be walking by rushes to help him and calls for an ambulance. While they await its arrival, a little old Jewish lady wanders up and says, "Give him some chicken soup!" The doctor says, "Madam, this man had multiple fractures and contusions. Chicken soup will not help!"

And she says, "It wouldn't hurt!"

This is a series of articles I've written about writing, specifically about the problems faced by (a) the new writer who isn't selling enough work yet to make a living or (b) the older writer who isn't selling as much as they used to. To read other installments, click here.

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We've been talking about becoming (or remaining) a professional writer and I plumb forgot to give what I consider an important definition of a Professional Writer.  There are many but I think this one is key to understanding why you get work or don't get work.  Here it is, set off with special margins to make it seem even more significant…

A Professional Writer is someone whose work is purchased, sometimes by total strangers, for professional rates or who is hired for professional rates, and this happens largely because of the merits of the writer's own work.

Okay, now: Before you start asking what "professional rates" are, that's easy.  It's roughly what other Professional Writers are receiving for work of roughly the same value to the same employers or purchasers or comparable buyers.  There are dollar figures determined by the free market, sometimes with the help of a union or other professional organization, that are more or less standard.  At some comic book companies, for example, there's a beginner's page rate and if you're a beginner, that's the minimum you should probably get.

Be wary of an offer of much less. There are folks who think that as a trade-off for giving you an important break, you should work for less or even nothing. In some (not all) situations, that may not be the worst trade-off in the world…but don't do much of that, don't do it in a situation where they could pay you professional rates and just don't want to, and remember that you're not really a pro until you're getting pro money.

There are times you'll want to work for free or close to free because the project has a special value to you. For instance, I often contribute — pro bono — to magazines and projects that I feel further expand what we know about the history of some area that interests me like comic books or comedians…but I don't do that to promote myself. That's different. Or, sans pay, I write forewords for books that I want to see reach a wide market.

The kind of work you do to earn a living…that oughta pay. It doesn't have to pay top money if you're new but it should pay something that isn't insulting.

And note the part above where we consider the value of that work to the buyer.  If you sell a 10,000 word short story to some magazine, that doesn't mean you have to get or will get the same money that they paid Stephen King for his 10,000 word short story in the same issue.  His name on the cover probably has a lot more value to them than yours does…now.  Later, when the world discovers you're a much better writer than he is, you should probably get more than he does.

For now though, you should be paid at the minimum whatever professional rates are for that engagement…or comparable engagements elsewhere.  In an upcoming installment, we'll discuss why that's important for reasons other than getting as much money as you can get.  (Hint: It also has a lot to do with how you and your work are treated.)

So now let's focus on two aspects of the above definition: "total strangers" and "the merits of the writer's own work."

An awful lot of writers get their first break or their big break because they know someone — a relative, a guy they went to high school with, whatever. That's a great boost for the writer but it only goes so far. There's probably a limit on how much work that friend or relative can give you so to have a long career, you have to convince some people outside your family or your circle of acquaintances that you can write.

I feel so strongly about this that when I've been in a position to hire writers or actors, I follow the following policy: I will give someone their first job but not their second. This is, of course, assuming I think they're good enough to warrant that first job. I tell them, "Okay, you have one credit. Now, go out and impress someone else and get another one." If they can't, they aren't going to have much of a career.

Please do not think I'm saying you shouldn't work over and over for or with the same people. If you're any good, they will want to work with you again…and again and again and many more agains.  And if they treat you right, you'll want to work for them for many agains. But the core of a career is that you impress people who have no other reason to work with you other than they think what you produce is good enough to publish or produce. They read something you've written and say, "Hey, this guy's good" or at least, "Hey, we can use this!"

Or they meet you and hear some ideas or a pitch or something that makes them think you're good enough. You need the ability to do that because the producers and editors change over time…and if you got in because of a relative or a personal connection, you're likely to run out of relatives and personal connections after a while.

By the same token, if you aren't selling your work, don't start believing that the game is rigged because you're "on the outside" and don't have any family members or friends who can toss you a writing job. There are writers who enjoy some success for a time because of "ins" of that nature but a real career depends on being able to cultivate new "ins." This brings me to a question I've received in various forms many times since I began this series. Here's one form of it, cut-'n'-pasted from the most recent e-mail of this kind…

Isn't it all a matter of who you know? You know an awful lot of people and you've worked a lot. Isn't that what it's all about? You hire someone on one project and then they hire you on their project? Isn't that how it works?

No, at least in my experience, that's not how it works. I'll explain why in our next installment.

Ron Mark reports on what's up with O.J. Simpson since he was released from prison. It is amazing to hear that this man still has friends and that there are places where is treated like a true celebrity. Some people forget (or are too young to be aware) that there was a mountain of evidence that he was guilty of killing Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson…and that neither he nor any of his defenders ever offered even a semi-credible theory as to who committed that double murder if he didn't.

Back here, I told you that Lewis Black was doing a show at Largo at the Coronet on February 1. It's a rare opportunity to see a great comedian in a small theater at a small price — and guess what! It's sold out!

But guess what else! They've added another show on January 31st! It too will sell out so if you want to see my favorite monologist relatively up close and personal, get tix now!

You may have seen Nathan Mathis on the news. He was the gentleman in Alabama who was out protesting Judge Roy Moore with a sign that told his own, tragic story about a gay daughter who'd taken her own life. Ellen DeGeneres had him on the other day and this video will make you very hopeful that people who hate LGBT folks can see the error of their ways…

Let's talk about all these women who claim Donald Trump grabbed them, propositioned them or kissed them without their permission — in other words, did the kind of things he bragged about doing on that Access Hollywood video. He insists he never met any of them…and you get the feeling that any day now, this guy's going to start swearing he never met Michael Flynn or Jared Kushner. I doubt many (if any) of Trump's most fervent supporters really believe he never met or groped any of the women but they'll say they do because he's their boy at the moment.

Depending on what source you listen to, there seem to be seventeen, eighteen, nineteen or twenty women. Politifact says seventeen and here, they run down the evidence that our current Oval Office occupant actually met each one of them. Their conclusion?

If someone appeared on The Apprentice, had their picture taken with Trump, interviewed him, or had a relative confirm their story, it seems likely that at the very least Trump had met them. By that yardstick, Trump verifiably knew or met eight of the 16 accusers. It's likely that all of the beauty pageant contestants also meet that standard, but we haven't seen pictures of them standing side-by-side with Trump. By no means can Trump claim to not know or have met all of the women who have talked about his sexual transgressions.

At the risk of siding with Donald Trump — which is becoming increasingly dangerous in this world — I'm going to take issue with one point in the above. I think he probably met and did just what he's accused of doing with each of them…and it wouldn't surprise me if there's a hundred-plus more other ladies with similar experiences. But having your photo taken with someone, especially in a public place, is proof of only having "met" them in only the most superficial sense.

Every celebrity I've ever known has their picture taken with countless fans and ultra-casual acquaintances. Heck, I'm about ten-zillionth as famous as Donald J. Trump was before he dove into the political arena and I have people I don't really know come up to me at comic book conventions and ask, "Can I get a picture?" In an era where almost everyone goes everywhere with a camera in their phone, it happens all the time. It also happens when people don't formally pose.

Picking one example out of hundreds I could cite: Back in the seventies, I was present for one of those Battle of the Network Stars shows and somewhere here, I have news photos that were taken at the time of me talking with or standing next to Telly Savalas and Sonny Bono and Dan "Grizzly Adams" Haggerty and several others with whom I had only the briefest contact.

There were pics I was in with O.J. Simpson and Bruce Jenner from back when it was pretty cool to have your picture with O.J. Simpson or Bruce Jenner. The National Enquirer even printed a photo of me sitting on the ABC bench next to Charlie's Angels star Jaclyn Smith and captioned it to suggest I might be a new beau.

None of those people really "met" me. Most never heard my name or if they did, had no reason to remember it ten minutes later. If I later accused one of them of a crime and he or she said they'd never met me, they would not be lying. They'd be wrong in a very technical, understandable sense but they would not be lying.

At that event, I was actually introduced to and spent a little time talking with Howard Cosell, who was one of the hosts. A year or two later, I was introduced to him at another function and he not only didn't remember me, he didn't remember even hosting that TV special. He could have passed a polygraph, I am sure. He was wrong but he was not lying.

This is not much of a defense of Donald Trump, especially since I suspect all his accusers are not only not lying but that they're recalling a bad experience that they'd forget if only they could. I just think that "Look, there's a photo of her with Donald Trump" is not by itself proof of anything except that the lady once had her photo taken with Donald Trump. And he does seem like the guy who not only wouldn't remember someone's name, he might not even bother to learn it in the first place.