I just read a number of articles online about Americans "awakening" to the fact that black folks get treated a lot differently than white people do by a lot of police officers. The articles tossed out all sort of theories for the change but none of the ones I read mentioned two things that I think have made a really memorable difference…
I have a great interest in the kind of theatrical jobs for actors that don't involve performing in shows that you or I might ever see…industrial shows, national tours of small towns, cruises, theater camps, etc. I once dated a lady who made a very decent living singing musical comedy without ever doing so in a big city or in the same place for very long. As long as she didn't yearn to be home, she could be acting and singing on a stage in front of happy audiences for 6-8 shows a week and the paychecks were fine.
"I wouldn't work anywhere near that much if I tried living in New York and getting into Broadway shows," she explained to me. "I also wouldn't be singing leads." She told me that if I wanted to see her in a show, it was easy. All I had to do was go to Puerto Rico during the ten days her touring company would be there before heading for the Dominican Republic. I told her Anaheim was about my limit which might have something to do with the fact that I haven't seen or heard from this woman since 1997.
A lot of such performers do tours of Japan, sometimes in a show called Disney on Classic. When there isn't a pandemic, it roams about that country, a few nights here, a few nights there with English-speaking singers from New York vocalizing from the Disney Songbook with a Japan-based 60-piece symphony orchestra before usually-packed houses for tours of four-to-six months.
We have below a two-hour example from 2017 which I enjoyed kind of half-watching as I did my taxes. Every so often, one number was so good, I gave it my non-binary attention. There's probably a certain age when kids who know most of these songs would be mesmerized by this show and if it were playing nearby live, I think I'd go see it.
The singers are — I copied this from the end credits — Lawson Young, Patton Chandler, Mara Jill Herman, Charis Vaughn, Steve Markarian, David Wiens, Maigan Kennedy and Rob Hancock. They're all pretty terrific with ample solos with which to shine. The performers seem to change from year to year and I bet if I post this, I'll hear from someone who did one of these tours who'll tell me more about what it's like to be part of one. Maybe I'll even hear from that lady who dumped me last century. She was more than good enough to be in this…
Ah, me. Our Attorney General was on Face the Nation this morning arguing that Pepper Spray, which is identified in the Justice Department manual as "chemical irritant" and by its manufacturer on its website as a "chemical irritant" and by the Centers for Disease Control as a "chemical irritant" is absolutely not a "chemical irritant." One wonders how much of this is Trump telling his people that they must never, no matter what proof there is that news is being reported accurately, admit they're wrong about anything.
Black Lives Matter is achieving some real progress…or at least, that appears to be happening. With things like this, it's best to see more real results before you celebrate. The protests seem to be almost all peaceful, including the one near me yesterday. That's all balanced somewhat by not-very-good-news on the COVID-19 front and some pretty bad weather in parts of our nation. Still waiting for a few days in a row when all the news is good.
Things are quiet here as I try to battle deadlines and occasional headaches. The biggest problem on these premises is that Murphy the Cat (who is relatively new to my yard) keeps scaring off Lydia the Cat. Lydia has lived out there almost 24/7 for a decade now but when Murphy wanders here in search of food and there isn't anything in the dishes, Murphy gets a little growly and audibly upset. I have to keep checking to find out when Lydia's alone out there so I can feed her. I'm feeding Murphy too but I want to make sure my longest-ever feline tenant gets her chow.
It is still way too early to be looking at polls and assuming they tell us much about November. They do tell us that Biden's considerably ahead and that does affect things currently like campaign donations and Trump's mood and everyone's sense of how the momentum is going. You have polls showing Don 'n' Joe tied in Texas and I'm curious how much of that is folks who once supported Trump bailing on him and how much is new voters — many of them minorities — registering. I can't believe that in this day and age, a non-Southern Democrat can carry the Lone Star State but those polls might force Trump to use a sizeable chunk of his campaign loot down there.
Folks are asking me when I'm going to restart my Conversations webcasts and schedule a do-over of the last Cartoon Voices Panel. I dunno. I think I have the tech problems solved. It just somehow feels…well, not wrong but odd to be having an in-depth discussion of the Paramount Marx Brothers films versus the M.G.M. Marx Brothers films when people are marching over matters of life, death and equality in the streets. I'm sure I'll slowly ease back into the webcasts. Just not sure when…
It's Randy Rainbow. And in case you don't recognize the tune to which he's singing, it's "The Jitterbug," the famously cut song from the movie, The Wizard of Oz…
Here's another one of these…
There are news stories (like this one) that Al Jaffee, who has been drawing for MAD since dinosaurs roamed the Earth, is retiring. Actually, Al retired a number of months ago but it's being announced now because MAD has an issue out this week devoted to Mr. Jaffee.
The Washington Post piece leads off with "MAD magazine's iconic back-page Fold-In is about to fold it in." I don't think that's the final word on it forever. MAD has already run one Fold-In by someone else and even if the current editors don't want more by artists who aren't Al Jaffee, I'll bet there will be some someday. This special issue has one that Al drew some time ago to be his last one but they held it until now. With the mix of old and new material that now fills the magazine, it has not been too noticed that all of Jaffee's work in the magazine lately has been reprints.
Some of us noticed it…and it saddens us, though we can completely understand. Al's longevity and devotion to his work is the stuff of which legends were made. Children who hear of it in the future will not believe a human being could do much fine work for so long. Pick up the new issue this week and see a tiny sampling of all he's done.
Here's a great little short film about the making of the Beetle Bailey newspaper strip. It includes footage of the late Mort Walker, who in his day usually had a couple of strips going at the same time and entertained an awful lot of people around the world…
The Lincoln Project is a group of Republicans, many of whom helped elect Donald Trump but now feel that he has to go before he destroys their party and maybe the country as well. And they have someone who's really good at making (I think) effective commercials like this one they dropped this morning…
Last Saturday, there was a protest rally over at Pan Pacific Park, which is located near CBS Television City, Farmers Market, The Grove and other notable locations here in Los Angeles. I've spoken to several folks who were at the protest and they all said it was peaceful and inspiring and exactly what something like that should be…
…until they showed up, "they" being a contingent of people who were intent on causing destruction and looting. Things got very ugly and not far from where I live, there were clashes with police, broken windows, a few cars and buildings set on fire, some injuries and a lot of anger. Some of it found its way to nearby commercial areas and it was a very horrible, unsettling day here in my city.
Similar unsettlement happened elsewhere, all around the country…and I don't want to make this all about Trump but you sure got the feeling that he looked at all the civil unrest and thought, "I must stop this from hurting my re-election chances" and that was the only thing he thought.
The looters and rioters have been scary…though maybe not as scary as some of the forces put out on the streets to control them. What happened outside the White House when Trump decided a photo op outside a nearby church would help his poll numbers was the kind of thing we point to in news footage from countries ruled by dictators and say, "Thank God that could never happen here."
I try not to be distracted by all this. Really, I try but it's difficult. One moment when my face must have looked like the Edvard Munch painting "The Scream" came when I saw — as we all saw — protesters fleeing from projectiles and gas…and why? Because Trump wanted his photo so he could look "tough." People who do things to look "tough" are almost by definition not "tough," especially when they need to have an army clear the way so they can do them.
And then we have this week's Presidential Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany insisting no tear gas was used and demanding that the Fake News retract reports that it was. The explanation is that they used Pepper Balls (a form of tear gas) instead of other kinds of tear gas. It reminds me of the scene in The Odd Couple where Oscar tells Felix to get his spaghetti off the poker table and Felix laughs and says, "It's not spaghetti, it's linguini!"
I know I shouldn't feel sorry for Presidential Press Secretaries. Their boss orders them to go out and lie and they have to stand there and lie, no matter what the reporters offer as proof that it's a lie. It reminds me of something I once heard someone say about porn stars: "It's a great job for people who will do absolutely anything for money." I guess it also applies to people who'll do absolutely anything to get in front of a camera, too.
Anyway, today I was over in the area near me where a lot of the looting and destruction occurred — not the worst of it perhaps but some. I was impressed with how close to normal it all seems. A lot of storefronts are still covered in plywood. Most of the graffiti is covered up, some of it with crude temporary paint jobs but the whole outside of Farmers Market looks like it was completely repainted in the last few days. Parts of it look better than it ever has.
With some of the crude temporary paint-overs, the painters added new, benevolent graffiti affirming that BLACK LIVES MATTER and added words like "love" and "peace." And on one corner, I saw two National Guardsmen in their scary combat gear…but folks in civilian garb were talking and laughing with them.
For the most part, it was business as usual…or as usual as business can be when people are wearing masks and maneuvering to stay six feet apart. You find yourself redirecting your attention from one crisis to another but I did feel that the rioting/looting in my neighborhood was history.
Then again, history can repeat itself and there is a peaceful protest scheduled for tomorrow at Pan Pacific Park. I sure hope it stays a peaceful protest. They seem to be accomplishing things.
Almost forgot to mention that Volume 6 of The Complete Pogo was just nominated for an Eisner Award in the category, "Best Archival Collection/Project — Strips." I believe this is the third nomination for the series with one previous win and one loss. The traditional awards ceremony cannot, of course, take place this year but there will be something online to replace it. Our thanks to the judges. You can order a copy of this book here…and yes, Volume 7 is still on schedule for its release in October.
From April of 2015, back when Jon Stewart hosted The Daily Show, here's a segment with a lot to say about these days…
It was announced this morning that DC Comics is severing its longtime relationship with Diamond Comic Distributors. I have an e-mailbox full of questions asking me what this means and if I have a good idea and if I can be quoted or interviewed for news coverage.
Here is my answer: I have no idea. Honest. I didn't even fully understand the distribution business when I was writing and editing for DC and the business has changed a lot since then. My opinion on this is almost as worthless as Donald Trump's thoughts on how happy George Floyd would be if he'd lived to see today's jobs report. Ask someone who knows something.
Looking for something non-political to post here, I thought, "Let's see if the Voctave folks have a video out I haven't noticed yet." They do…a nice rendition of a song for which the eminent Charles Chaplin wrote the music. A lot of people assume he wrote the lyrics but those were actually by John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons.
In fact, Chaplin wrote it as an instrumental for his film Modern Times in 1936 which, of course, can in no way now be considered "modern times." The two gents wrote the lyrics in 1954, Nat King Cole recorded it and a standard was born. Anyway, here are the Voctave vocalists vocalizing (well, lipsyncing to their own voices) from their homes. There seem to have been some changes of personnel in the group but they still sound great…
About an hour ago, I saw something I've never seen before driving past my house. I live on a fairly well-traveled residential street and it's even more-traveled when certain nearby commercial streets are closed, as they may be today. Honking horns prompted me to look out a window and I saw what I guess you'd call a Troop Truck driving by — a truck with about a dozen soldier-types seated in back wearing camouflage-type outfits and helmets…and not looking all that comfy in them. (It's 84 degrees out.)
I dunno if the troop truck was honking or if folks in cars were but attention seemed to be the point of it. Those men could have been transported in a bus but that wouldn't have projected the same "ready for battle" image as looking like World War II infantry being shuttled to the front lines. Presumably, they were National Guardsmen being driven somewhere to protect something, possibly in the Hollywood area. Then again, maybe the idea was to just drive them around and scare troublemakers.
I don't know how I feel about what I saw but it sure didn't look like any America I've ever been born in.
People keep saying how divided the nation is and I think we all agree, at least, on that. We also would probably agree with a sentence like, "This is not how we want the United States to be." It's when we get to (a) how we want things to be and (b) who's responsible for them not being like that that we get into — shall we say? — Areas of Disagreement.
Short of that, we're all unhappy with what the pandemic has done to us and the economy and we're pretty unhappy with the racial unrest and the looting unless we got a new Samsung 65" Class 4K UHD LED LCD TV out of the deal. We're unhappy that our political party (whichever one it is) doesn't have a lock on the November election and that we don't know when the virus thing will end and what will and won't be there after it does. Oh — and in the next few weeks, we're likely to be pretty unhappy with what an active hurricane season will do to parts of this country that didn't need any more misery.
But we will get through it. And the silver lining of adversity is that it teaches you lessons in coping with adversity. For instance, the next time I have a disaster and I have absolutely no idea what to do, I know what to do: I'll have someone clear the street by firing rubber bullets and tear gas (and denying they used those things) and then I'll march down to some building I've barely been in and hold up some book I've never read and try to look real, real tough for any cameras that may be around.
And then I'll scurry home to change my underwear.
There is now an official Groucho Marx website run by the folks who control the licensing of Groucho's likeness and various identifying Marx and scars. You may have no occasion to make a deal with them but you don't have to in order to enjoy some rare video clips, photos and other goodies. It is, of course, at www.grouchomarx.com. And tell 'em a DeSoto dealer sent you!