When last we heard from Mark's Package, it had gone from Winter Garden, Florida to Jacksonville, Florida to Los Angeles, California (where Mark lives) to Kansas City, Kansas to Des Moines, Iowa. Our latest information is that it has spent the weekend in Des Moines, Iowa.
This has been Where in the World is Mark's Package?, a public service of this blog. Check back often for the latest update on where the hell Mark's Package is at any given moment.
Here's a half-hour interview with Dick Van Dyke at last year's Salt Lake City Comic-Con. With all the anger and hatred in the world today, isn't it nice to see someone who is disliked by absolutely no one on this planet?
Stony Brook University is located in New York. Its School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences has worked up a computer model that suggests that without Climate Change, Hurricane Florence would have dumped a lot less water on folks who now find themselves living in lakes and rivers. You can read the details here.
Bending over way more than backwards, I am willing to accept that maybe there is an argument that Climate Change is not happening and that it is not taking lives, destroying property and causing great human misery with the worst yet to come. That would sure be great, wouldn't? If that was not so? Alas, I've yet to see anyone credible taking that position. It mostly seems to be, like, high school science teachers who have found cash and fame by saying such things. But let's say there is someone out there who has that position with some science behind it.
I keep thinking back to the Iraq War and guys like Dick Cheney saying things like, "Even if there's only a 2% chance that Saddam Hussein has Weapons of Mass Destruction, we can't take the chance and must respond like the threat is 100%." Would even the Climate Change Deniers argue the chance of them being wrong is below 2%? How many Wilmington, North Carolinas do we have to have to get them to admit it might be as high as 3% or even 4%?
What really bothers me is the amount of Denial that seems to be wholly political these days. Left-wingers think we have to do something about it now. A small but vocal percentage of right-wingers seem to think that the world will end if left-wingers get their way about anything. I get the feeling there are still people out there who would rather die than admit Al Gore might have been right.
As a guy who sometimes directs the voices for animated cartoons, I often speak to wanna-be voice actors. One thing I always suggest is that they go to the website of Neil Ross, listen to demos of his work and really, really understand that that level of performer is their competition. Neil has had a glorious career as a radio personality, promo announcer, cartoon voice actor, videogame thespian, awards show announcer, voiceover guy for commercials, etc.
Like anyone who directs anything, I have a little stable of performers I know I can always count on. They'll be there on time, they'll take direction, they'll do it as many times as I feel necessary, they won't complain if we have technical downtime…and they can do just about anything. Neil is not the only person I know who checks all those boxes but in twenty-or-so years, he has never let me down. Spend a little time over at his site playing demos and you'll understand why I consider him one of my not-so-secret secret weapons.
Or take a look at his IMDB page. They have 257 credits and that doesn't include radio, promos, commercials…it doesn't even include all the TV jobs he's done just for me. It might be about 2% of his career.
He has just published a book about his long, busy career. It's called Vocal Recall and it's invaluable for anyone who wants to understand what it's like to work in all the kinds of jobs to which Neil lends his expertise. It will also be of interest to animation fans who'd like to hear how a voice actor does what he or she does.
I could send you to Amazon to order a copy but I'm going to suggest going to this page where you can order a paperback copy, a Kindle copy, a PDF copy or — most intriguing — an audio MP3 where Neil reads the book and performs many of his voices. Or if you pick up a copy somewhere else, you can order a signed bookplate. Anyway, that's my recommendation. Do with it as you will.
This is from a recent (a few years ago) stage production of Anything Goes in Australia. Musical comedy star Caroline O'Connor, who bounces back and forth between stages in this country and stages in that country, is playing Reno Sweeney and this is the show's title song. Some of the commenters on this video didn't like it but I think it's pretty nifty…
On Wednesday, September 5, I ordered an item via Amazon and it hasn't shown up yet. Here's the latest USPS tracking info which you have to read by starting at the bottom and reading up…
Saturday, September 15
9:24 AM – Package has left the carrier facility
Des Moines Ia Network Distribution Center, US2:47 AM – Package arrived at a carrier facility
Des Moines Ia Network Distribution Center, USThursday, September 13
3:43 PM – Package arrived at a carrier facility
Kansas City Ks Network Distribution Center, USSunday, September 9
11:54 PM – Package arrived at a carrier facility
Los Angeles Ca Network Distribution Center, USFriday, September 7
11:18 AM – Package has left the carrier facility
Jacksonville Fl Network Distribution Center, US8:47 AM – Package arrived at a carrier facility
Jacksonville Fl Network Distribution Center, USThursday, September 6
3:08 PM – Package has left the carrier facility
Winter Garden, FL USPackage has left seller facility and is in transit to carrier
So they mailed it in Florida, it got here to Los Angeles and then instead of bringing it to me, someone sent it to Kansas and now it's in Des Moines…which is fine. I hear Des Moines is lovely this time of year. Tune in Monday and we'll see where it goes next. I'm wondering if my package has ever seen the Grand Canyon.
Can someone out there who knows how to edit Wikipedia give us a hand with this? It's on their page about the animated series Thundarr the Barbarian, which I worked on. There, it presently says — but won't for long because one of you will correct this —
Twenty-one half-hour episodes were produced by Ruby-Spears Productions, an animation house formed by former Hanna-Barbera head writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, from October 1980 to September 1982. Despite high ratings, the show was cancelled, possibly due to the violent content.
Here, as I explained in this post some time ago here, is the correct explanation…
The ratings would have justified another but that was the period when someone at Paramount decided they wanted cartoons on Saturday AM based on Garry Marshall's hit prime-time sitcoms. This was back when if Mr. Marshall had said, "I want all the ABC executives dancing naked on my lawn and I want them there in ten minutes," they'd have all been there and nude in five. Thundarr had to be yanked to make room for one of them.
Also, I would say it had "decent ratings," not "high ratings" and I don't think Gerry Conway worked on the series. Thank you.
UPDATE, A BIT LATER: I screwed up the explanation above. It has been corrected. Sorry.
Here's a find. Before they did the live broadcast of Peter Pan on NBC in 1956, cameraman Sid Chomsky shot some 8mm home movies of Mary Martin, Cyril Ritchard and the rest of the cast in rehearsals. There's also some footage in there from a rehearsal for a Kraft Hall of Fame, also with Cyril Ritchard. The film is silent but also priceless…
Sad about Marin Mazzie and feeling bad for folks in and around the Carolinas who are being deluged. We get paralyzed here in Southern California if we get three inches over a couple of days and there are parts of North Carolina getting that much per hour with no end in sight. As I will forever say about such situations, the government should spend on this kind of thing — which does happen — like it spends on prepping for wars that don't.
"More bad news for Donald Trump." That's in the first paragraph of a news item about three times a week and that's not going to change. If anything, it will get worse. If the man fantasized about being hailed as a Great and Trusted Leader by a majority of the country and being free of scandals and investigations, that is never going to happen. It will be like it is now until whenever he leaves office and for some time after.
Today's bad news is the apparent flipping of Paul Manafort. The White House is furiously telling people that what Mr. Manafort's pleading guilty to is not about Trump. That may be true but what he can testify to in other matters sure does involve Trump. Lesson to be learned: When you surround yourself with crooks, some of them are going to sing…and they'll sing about you. The next election's turning into this…
If you believe Donald Trump and his associates should be investigated and held accountable for any criminal actions, CLICK HERE to vote Democratic.
If you believe they should not, CLICK HERE to vote Republican.
Other issues may arise for local and statewide races. But on the national level, that's really all that's going to matter.
Sad to hear of the passing of Broadway star Marin Mazzie. She died Thursday morning at the way-too-young age of 57. Blame ovarian cancer for this one, folks. It robbed us of an incredible talent.
I never met Ms. Mazzie but I saw her perform many times on many stages, including twice in the 2000 revival of Kiss Me, Kate. She was real, real good.
Bob Woodward's in the news a lot these days. If anyone's reading this who's too young to remember Watergate, here's a TED Talk that Woodward gave early last year that will tell you what that was all about, with many unspoken analogies to what's going on today…
I bought Bob Woodward's book Fear but may not have time to read it for a while. Here's an Amazon link if you want to get a copy.
In the meantime, here's an article by Andrew Prokop about Woodward's book and his modus operandi. Ever since The Final Days, which Woodward wrote with his then-partner Carl Bernstein, I've been a bit uncomfy with something. I wrote about it twelve years ago here…
One thing I've always wondered about in books and reporting of the Woodward variety is the "blind source" whose identity seems obvious. There are a lot of them in his work…in The Final Days, especially. For example, it seems obvious that Alexander Haig was a major source for the book. There are many scenes that could never had been reported if Haig had declined to speak with Bernstein and Woodward. Now, if you were to ask Woodstein about it, they'd say, "Sorry…can't divulge sources." But in this case, if Haig didn't talk to them for the book and provide the accounts that were the basis of those pages, the authors are guilty of deliberately conveying a false impression that he had.
I'm sure they would argue, "Well, we didn't say he did." But they sure led people to believe he did.
Then there's the scene in which Nixon and Henry Kissinger get down on their knees and pray together. Much dialogue is quoted, a lot of details are included. You figure it could only have come from someone who was there…but only Nixon and Kissinger were present, and they say in the introduction that Nixon refused to be interviewed for the book. Ergo, while Woodward and Bernstein are pointedly refusing to say that Kissinger was the source, they're also quite consciously leading everyone to believe that he was.
It's how Woodward works. So far, he's had a pretty good track record for accuracy…or at least for not having things be disproven. I'm not entirely comfortable with his tactics but the guy sure gets results.
Here from the days when you were legally not allowed to have a talk show without bringing on Tony Randall as a guest is the entire first episode (minus commercials) of Late Night with Conan O'Brien. It aired 9/13/93 and in addition to Tony, his guests were John Goodman and Drew Barrymore.
I thought it was a decent start and that he got much better in a hurry. Apparently, folks were running through the halls of NBC declaring him a disaster and he was getting "renewed" (if you can call it that) for two weeks at a time, doing shows with the constant possibility of pending cancellation. It was and still is a great success story of the television industry that he not only survived but succeeded.
Reportedly, the entire run of that series will soon be available online and I'm looking forward to revisiting many episodes in his first ten years. I lost my interest in the show later on when it seemed to be less about good, clever writing and more about the ad-libbing abilities of its host. But there were plenty of years there when it was as innovative as anything anyone (even Dave) had done at that hour. Here's how it all started…