Monthly Archives: April 2021

A whole bunch of Broadway performers — including Lena Hall, Patina Miller, Javier Muñoz, Alex Newell, Jarrod Spector, Erich Bergen and Aaron Tveit — salute New York City…

• Disneyland capping admission at 25% of park capacity sounds like a great idea to me. Can we get them to keep it that way forever? Or at least when I go?

Another rendition of the "Meet the Flintstones" theme. This one, as any fool can plainly see, is performed by DOMi…

Hello. Sorry to be posting so late in the day but I spent a lot of today's blogging time writing a final version of my recipe for Mark's Ridiculously Simple and Quick Recipe for Creamy Tomato Soup. It's there if you want to take a look at it. I have a bowl of said soup to my left as I'm writing this. And the bowl has the proper croutons in it.

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More and more things are opening up. Disneyland reopened today and I'm pretty certain that a lot of businesses that weren't sure of the proper time to do that decided to take their cue from the Magic Kingdom and its outlying lands. And I don't know if it's hit the press yet but the Magic Castle in Hollywood has told its members of a timetable to open its doors in the coming month…in, of course, a limited capacity.

I'm thinking of a number of folks I know who either were in the opening day mob for Disneyland or dearly wanted to be. These are folks for whom it's kind of a sacred place…an environment they love so much that they got cranky and/or depressed if they didn't go there once a month or even once a week. And some of the ones I've encountered probably weren't yearning for any particular attraction or photo op. They just feel good being somewhere — anywhere! — in Disneyland.

I never had that emotional connection to the place. I've lived in Southern California for my entire life — closing in on seven decades — and I think I've been there about six times. I usually enjoy myself but I've never felt a need to visit and have had free passes that expired before I got around to using them.

But I think I understand that yearning. I also understand the near-desperation some have had during The Pandemic to feel a bit of normality in their lives. I have friends who urgently needed to dine in a restaurant and did so as soon as that was possible. I have my own serious needs but not that one.

What I've heard about precautions and closures and COVID-related changes in Disneyland make it sound not-too-appealing to me as a place to be. I'm also not all that comfy with the idea of being around lots of other people these days, no matter what percentage of them are fully-vaccinated. I feel the same way about Las Vegas and New York. I feel the same way about the reopening plans for the Magic Castle. I've been a member there for forty years. Comic book conventions have been part of my life for fifty, yet I feel no time-sensitive need to be at one, especially when they're not in their normal state. I can wait until all these things are a little more like they used to be.

I don't think it's odd that I feel this way. I was an only child. I'm a professional writer. I've never had a problem with "alone" as long as I didn't feel it was forced upon me by no one wanting to associate with me.

Today though, I'm thinking about the people who absolutely, positively had to be at Disneyland as soon as possible. I know what one of the appeals of the place is how separated you are from the real world while you're there; how whatever worries about life and politics and your job and all the bad things that happen when you're not at Disneyland you may harbor, they can be easily overlooked when you're on Pirates of the Caribbean or Splash Mountain.

But as I understand it, the monorail is closed, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln is closed, the Matterhorn bobsleds aren't bobsledding, you can't meet Mickey, etc. A lot of attractions and places to eat are closed and a lot of guests will be wearing masks and there will be new dividers and other ways to keep people from getting too close to one another…

I'm curious if the attendees today and the coming weeks will feel they've gotten away from outside world…or if there are just too many reminders…

Another rendition of the "Meet the Flintstones" theme. This one, as you may have guessed, is by Snowboy and the Latin Section at Hideaway…

I don't know that I've ever quoted this in more than two decades of doing this blog but at least once a week, I find myself thinking about and/or quoting a line that was uttered by the great playwright/director Moss Hart. Here it is…

I have had many successes in my life and many failures. Each time I had a success, it was for a different reason. Each time I failed, it was for the same reason. I said yes when I meant no.

That's the quote. See if you can retain it in the most-easily accessed part of your brain. And see how often you find yourself using it.

This Sunday night — 9 PM on my set — CNN is at long last beginning The Story of Late Night, a "six-part docuseries that will take viewers on a journey through late-night television's most memorable moments. Spanning a more than 60-year history of engaging with, adapting to and influencing our rapidly changing society, late-night television has grown into a thriving entertainment phenomenon and vitally important cultural institution." That's from the press release.

This has been in the works for quite some time and I think they announced and reneged on a couple of start dates…but it looks like it's debuting for real. I will be TiVoing and watching and we'll probably discuss it on this blog.

I see a lot of folks online today presuming Rudy Giuliani is about to be cuffed and hauled off to the slammer. Well, maybe. What we know about the case would lead us in that direction…but I remember all the times when right-wingers were dead-certain Hillary C. was about to be incarcerated for obvious, undeniable crimes. Maybe we oughta wait until someone is arrested before we celebrate their arrest.

Podcaster Joe Rogan is walking back comments he made on his show that young people don't need to be vaccinated. Joe Rogan is not a doctor, he's a fucking moron…and that's not what I'm saying about him, that's what he's saying about him, adding "I'm not a respected source of information, even for me." Too many people who have a microphone and an audience think those equate to a diploma from an accredited medical school.

Don't get your medical advice from the Joe Rogans of the world or the Tucker Carlsons or politicians or even me. Here's my medical advice: Find a real, honest-to-Hippocrates, licensed doctor that you trust and listen to them. They may not be infallible but they'll be right a lot more often than you are.

Why won't some people get the two doses of Pfizer or Moderna or even the one dose of Johnson & Johnson? William Saletan, a columnist often quoted on this blog, crunches some polling numbers to tell us why.

And last week here, I linked you to author John Green discussing "vaccine hesitancy." Here, John's brother Hank tackles the same issue in a somewhat different manner…

This was posted to the web one year ago yesterday but for some odd reason, I never saw it until today. It's a lot of folks involved with the musical Wicked celebrating and thanking people who extended themselves with great heroism during the COVID crisis…and it's every bit as timely, if not more so, today…

• Hey, isn't this the first time a president has ever addressed a joint session of Congress with two women seated behind him?

Another rendition of the "Meet the Flintstones" theme. This one is from The Notebenders…

Paul Krugman just posted this on Twitter about Rudy Giuliani, whose Manhattan apartment was raided this morning by Federal Investigators in connection with a criminal investigation into Mr. Giuliani's dealings in Ukraine…

Does Rudy Giuliani ever think about how easy and pleasant his life could have been? He could have spent the last 20 years giving lucrative speeches about Leadership, consisting of a few nouns, a few verbs, and 9/11.

It's one of those things I don't expect to ever understand. There was a time when the then-Mayor of New York was the most respected, beloved figure in this country. Now, Democrats hate him because of his advocacy for Trump, Republicans hate him because of his failures for Trump and it doesn't look like Trump is even that fond of him these days. What a way to squander good will.

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Keeping with the theme of things I don't expect to ever understand…

Unlike way too many people in this country, I think the folks at the CDC know more about disease prevention than I could ever possibly know. Yesterday, I took a long walk sans mask to my bank and then to a restaurant. I donned the mask before entering the bank and just forgot that I had it on so it stayed on until I got back home.

It's such a simple, innocuous thing to do, wearing a mask. When I hear Tucker Carlson say that making your children wear one is a form of child abuse that should be reported to the police…well, I get why he says such things. It's his job to say whatever he thinks his viewers want to hear, no matter how stupid it is. I just don't get why so many people want to be fed such foolish, usually demonstrably-untrue items.

It's like there's a list they circulate at Fox News of things that Americans hold dear and feel they cannot live without…things like their homes, their cars, their TV, chocolate, football, Walmart, etc. And every day when an on-air Fox News employee reports to work, they're expected to pick one from the list then go on camera and claim that Liberals are plotting to take it away from everyone. The other day, Larry Kudlow — the "economic adviser" who as far as I can tell has never been right about anything — chose "hamburgers." Next week, it'll probably be Biden planning to outlaw clean socks.

My chum Charlie Frye is The Rubberband Man…

…because no matter how bad things may seem at times, they could be worse. You could be working for Scott Rudin.

That's the unspoken message in this article about the various ways in which the TV/movie/Broadway producer allegedly abused those in his employ. Interestingly, there's no sex scandal in there. It sounds more like a desperate need for Anger Management. I have worked for people who screamed and fired and threw things but not like this.

And one of the unwritten morals of this story is that if you're important in show business — and maybe certain other fields as well — no matter how bad you are, there will always be someone willing to work for you.