We're all, of course, pulling for our pal Eddie Deezen to make a swift and total recovery from his recent heart surgery. Latest word is that he's back in the Intensive Care Unit so they can monitor how well his body is fighting off a post-op infection.
We need Eddie around because, for one thing, who's going to play all those Eddie Deezen roles if he doesn't? We also need him because he's a great, sweet guy who brightens up any room he's in the way he's brightened up any movie or TV show he's been in. I know he can't see this post where he is and I doubt that sending "good vibes" to anyone has ever helped anyone…but then again, it hasn't hurt and when he gets out of that hospital and gets back on the web, he'll stumble across this page and his face will have one of those great Eddie Deezen smiles on it. So it's worth posting.
We don't have many (really, any) details but Warner Archives will soon issue a Blu Ray of the cartoons that Tex Avery directed for MGM. Those details should be out in the next few days. We hope they will not be omitting or editing any of them.
These are all wonderful cartoons but I'll start warning you now: If you try to watch more than about seven of them at one time, your brain will turn into raspberry jelly and dribble out your ears.
I'm almost not kidding. Many years ago, I joined a bunch of my friends attending a public screening of Avery cartoons. I don't remember how many there were but after about six, most of us were in the lobby…which was fine because Tex, who couldn't sit through that many at a time either, was out there holding court and answering questions. He kept saying, "They weren't meant to be shown like this." I love these films but…one or two at a time, for God's sake. The marathon felt a lot like this…
The topic here is why Rudy Giuliani is not (so far) on Donald Trump's legal team for the impeachment trial. Mr. Giuliani is probably right — and how often do any of us say that? — when he explains, "I am a potential fact witness. I think very potential but still leaves you unable to appear." But isn't the real reason that it's easier for your legal team to throw someone under the proverbial bus when that person isn't on your legal team?
William Saletan reminds us how much Trump likes the kinds of things, like war crimes and torture, that we used to think the United States of America was better than.
Every so often, the folks at The Henson Company do this wonderful show called Puppet Up!, which is a live, improvised, somewhat dirty puppet show for adults. If you live in or around Hollywood and you haven't been to see this, you're missing something you might enjoy as much as I do and I enjoy it a lot. Since it's for adults, leave the kiddos home and expect to hear naughty words from cloth mouths. And since it's improvised, based largely on suggestions from the audience, you can come back and see it again and again.
They're doing it next weekend and when I plugged this before, I said it would sell out soon. It usually does but then they usually do three shows over two days and this time, they're doing five over three. Saturday, January 25th, there's a show at 6 PM and a show at 9 PM. Sunday, January 26th, there's a show at 3 PM and a show at 6 PM. And then — this is new — they're doing a special, experimental show on Monday the 27th at 7:30 with special celebrity guests participating.
Anyway, there are tickets still available for all these performances, which take place at the Henson (formerly Chaplin) lot on La Brea near Sunset. Just being able to walk onto and around that historic studio is a treat in itself. I'll be at the Sunday 6 PM show if that matters to you. Tickets can be ordered here.
I am of the opinion that Monica Lewinsky should be considered one of the great American heroes. That is if you see heroism in not lying to save your own skin and/or profit mightily. If during the Clinton impeachment brouhaha, she had said that Bill C. raped her and then pressured her to lie, she and her family would have had much better lives, right-wing sources would have rewarded her mightily and she would now have Megyn Kelly's old Fox News job with Megyn Kelly's NBC paycheck.
I believe that Ken Starr and his goons did everything short of waterboarding that lady and using cattle prods on her to get her to say words that would have led to Clinton's ouster or resignation. And I believe they themselves would have reaped similar financial rewards for accomplishing that…but Monica wouldn't say what a lot of people would have said. That's also true of Susan McDougal, who basically went to jail for refusing to implicate Clinton in the Whitewater scam. That was back when you couldn't be in the White House if you were at all involved in even one shady real estate deal in your past.
So today comes the news that Ken Starr — the man who considered it an impeachable offense to lie about an extra-marital affair — has joined the legal team to defend Donald J. Trump in his impeachment case. I was groping for the right words but as it turns out, I found the perfect ones on Twitter…
Why is the first state to hold its presidential primary the first state to hold its presidential primary? The Daily Show's Jordan Klepper travels to Idaho Iowa to find out…
Real Time with Bill Maher returns from hiatus tomorrow night. A pity there's been nothing in the news he can talk about.
There are many things I don't like about Bill Maher, including viewpoints he has that strike me as very wrong. But in almost every episode, I hear him utter at least one thing that makes me say (a) that's very, very perceptive and (b) wow, I've never heard anyone else have the smarts and/or guts to say that before. That's one more than I get from almost any other show I watch apart from Seth Meyers's or John Oliver's. (Mr. Oliver's show, in case you've been wondering, resumes after its hiatus on February 16.)
In a related topic, NBC has just announced that its new streaming service called Peacock will be making available The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Meyers at earlier hours — Fallon at 8 PM, Meyers at 9 PM. They'll also be offering all nine thousand seasons of Saturday Night Live during each of which people said, "It's not as good as it used to be."
The last decade or so, folks looking at the ratings of the late night shows have been predicting the demise of late night as a playing field in television. I'm thinking what will be going away is the "late night" part of "late night comedy shows." When a program airs is becoming less and less relevant as more and more people time-shift. 11:35 might be when your DVR records The Tonight Show but you're going to watch it when you damn well feel like watching it… hours, days, even weeks later. I just watched some Colbert shows from back when Kirsten Gillibrand was still in the Democratic race.
If the day comes when most people are watching The Tonight Show during the day or prime-time hours, is it still a "late night" show? And if it isn't, what is? The morning news shows wouldn't be considered morning news shows if you watched one at night…right?
This will only be of interest to certain friends of mine. Hey, Certain Friends of Mine! Remember that great little restaurant I took you to over on Pico Boulevard a block west of Beverly Glen? The little hole-in-the-wall place called The Main Course? You were skeptical at first but one bite of their food — especially if you took my advice and ordered the turkey meatloaf — prompted you to thank me for introducing you to a great, albeit tiny place to eat.
They've closed and they posted this message on their webpage…
Dear Customers! The Main Course restaurant is out of business due to changing circumstances surrounding our lease. We want to thank you for your continued support over the last 37 years! We will miss you!
We'll miss you too, Main Course. I assume "changing circumstances surrounding our lease" means a landlord raising the rent sky-high, which seems to be happening more and more these days. It won't be long before every little, independent merchant will be displaced by a big chain. I wouldn't mind that as much if Applebee's or Outback could make a turkey meatloaf a tenth as good as the one served at the Main Course.
Their statement makes no mention of looking for a new building in which to reopen. In the past, every time a favorite restaurant of mine has shuttered, they've said they will find a place to again flourish…or sometimes, they say they already have a location and are just dickering to nail down the fine points of the contract. I can't recall one that ever actually reappeared, at least in anywhere near its previous form. Sad…but that's just how it is.
Some of you probably think this is a photo of Lydia, the feral cat I've been feeding in my back yard for most of this century. It's not. Say hello to Murphy.
I started putting out food for strays decades ago with a cat named Jackie. By the time Jackie passed away, there were others who'd been attracted by the dishes of grub on my back porch so I put out food for them. Cats died or disappeared but others found their way to Mark's Cafe and there was always at least one who seemed dependent on me putting food out. At one point, I was up to four: Lydia, The Stranger Cat, Max and Sylvia.
The Stranger Cat died in May of 2012. Max, who was about as Alpha Male as any cat could be, stopped showing up and was presumed dead later that year. For a while, it was just Lydia and Sylvia but Sylvia was killed by something — we'd need Jack Klugman as Quincy to know what — in August of 2018.
Lydia has persisted and if she's been lonely out there, she's shown no signs of it. I say that having no real idea of how a cat might indicate loneliness. She sleeps a lot and eats a lot but she always did that.
In the last two weeks, this new cat has found its way into my yard. I don't know why. It doesn't seem to be after food. It nibbles now and then out of Lydia's dish and she doesn't seem to care. In her youth, she would have chased it far, far away but the new cat doesn't eat much and she doesn't care.
Murphy does not seem to be in search of love. I'm not even sure if it's a he-cat or a she-cat which is why I opted for a name that works for either gender. Lydia is pretty old and was fixed long ago. I think Murphy just wants to be in my yard. He or she sits not all that close to Lydia and just howls a lot like it wants…something. It flees if I get within ten feet and when I'm at least 10.5 feet away, it sometimes approaches Lydia perhaps seeking some sort of companionship.
The other day — and I'm really sorry I didn't get a photo of this — Lydia was in her little house and Murphy was walking around it and maybe dancing a bit. At one point, Murphy jumped up on the roof of the house as Lydia was inside, curled up as if in bed. If it was a panel in a comic book and I had to write dialogue for it, Murphy would have been saying, "Aw, come on! Let's play!" And Lydia would have been saying, "Leave me the hell alone. Can't you see I'm trying to sleep?"
And that's about all I have apart from my assumption that Murphy has someone nearby feeding him or her because s/he doesn't ever seem hungry. Lydia has not always been at the back porch waiting to be fed when I expect her to be so maybe she's following Murphy to that cat's feeding place. I'll let you know if/when I find out more but I'm not sensing a Love Connection.
Take a few minutes and read this interview with Rick Wilson, former Republican strategist turned Trump-basher. He believes that in order for Democrats to win in November, they have to forget about national polling, focus on the swing states, not nominate Bernie, and ratchet up the hatred of Donald Trump. I'm not saying he's right but I have a tough time saying he's wrong.
Lawrence O'Donnell points out that "We are the first Americans to see 2 presidential impeachment trials in our lifetimes." I'm thinking we may also be the first to see two (or more) in the same year.
