This is your last reminder that this Sunday, August 5, PBS is debuting an episode of Great Performances subtitled Recording The Producers: A Musical Romp with Mel Brooks.  What it is is a documentary about the recording of the cast album/CD, filled with generous excerpts from the score and (I'm told) a lot of kibbitzing from the sidelines by Mr. Brooks.  Oughta be worth a tune-in or tape.  But be aware that Sunday is just when PBS is distributing the show to its affiliates.  When your local channel airs it is another matter.  KCET in Los Angeles, for instance, is running it the following night, Monday at 8 PM.

The David Letterman show sent a video crew to the Comic-Con International in San Diego to shoot a segment.  It's tentatively scheduled to run on Late Show this coming Monday, July 30.

A few months ago, I recommended a visit to Gary Grossman's website and the purchase of his terrific book on the George Reeves Superman TV show called Superman: From Serial to Cereal.  If you don't have a copy, you should and — lucky you — he's having a sale on them.  Go over to www.supermanbook.com and order a copy before he wises up and cancels the sale.

Michael Kinsley offers up a pretty simple explanation of why the privatization of Social Security cannot possibly work.  Here's that link.  And here's a nice little piece by Roger Simon about the seventies.

Back in 1995, the fine folks at Wildstorm issued a set of Groo Trading Cards that are still avidly collected.  The main set consisted of 153 cards drawn by Sergio Aragonés with clever-but-difficult-to-read quips on the rear by Yours Truly. The same set also included nine harder-to-find "Images of Groo" cards featuring artwork by Mike Allred, Kevin Nowlan, Stan Sakai, Dave Sim, Sam Kieth, Simon Bisley, Jeff Smith, John K. Snyder III and Jim Lee.

Now, here's where it gets complicated.  Sergio originally signed 500 of the regular cards — the ones that comprise the set of 153.  Let us call those "autographed cards" for the purpose of this discussion.  He also signed and drew sketches on 50 of what we'll call "sketch chase cards."  One side featured a little sketch and autograph by Señor Aragonés; the other featured a printed picture of Sergio explaining what the cards were.  Here's an example of the two sides of one of these.  (Obviously, what was sketched varied from card to card.)

These are very rare.  (How rare are they?  Here's how rare: I wrote the word balloons on the front of them, I've had thousands of packs of Groo cards pass through my mitts…and I've still never seen one of the chase cards in person, let alone obtained one.)  They go for a lot of money — generally between $50 and $100.

The "autographed cards" are, however, worth a lot less — perhaps five or ten bucks.  This is because, at conventions and store appearances, Sergio signs thousands of autographs and these are often on Groo trading cards that are thrust beneath his pen.  When he does this, it creates something that is utterly indistinguishable from the "autographed cards" so they're much more common and their number is growing.  For that reason, we've tried to avoid referring to the "autographed cards" as "chase cards," since the latter term implies rarity and a limited supply, neither of which is true of these.

Alas, every so often, some dealer either intentionally or unintentionally advertises one of the "autographed cards" as rare, and some buyer thinks he's getting one of the scarce "sketch chase cards" and pays accordingly.  The other day, one sold on eBay for $66.75.  The auction listing will scroll off soon but for now, you can see it by clicking here.  The seller called it a "chase card" and he was in error when he said they were all signed in black ink but otherwise, he did not really misrepresent anything.  He just did not make clear (or perhaps did not know) that, though the card he is selling was one of 500, Sergio has since created another two or three thousand and will doubtlessly sign more.

I have notified the eBay seller and he says he will put things right with the buyer…but the rest of you, beware.  And if you see someone else making the same mistake, point them towards this page.

As I hope I made clear in an article I wrote and posted on this site, I treasured my friendship with the late, great Bob Clampett. (That's Bob at lower left on the set of Time for Beany. The puppeteers are, left to right, Daws Butler and Stan Freberg; the gent with the clipboard is Klaus Landsberg, who founded KTLA television in Los Angeles.) I loved the cartoons Bob directed of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. I loved the puppet and cartoon shows he produced of Beany and Cecil. But most of all, I just loved Bob…a witty, friendly gent who took a genuine interest in his many fans and who was unsparingly generous with his time and knowledge. It's nice to see that he still lives, not just in his amazing body of work but all over the Internet.

Here's a rundown of six venues…

Bob Clampett Productions, which does a splendid job of presenting and protecting Bob's work, maintains a must-visit website at www.bobclampett.com.

One of the best things they've done is to issue a wonderful DVD that is ostensibly a collection of cartoons from the Beany & Cecil cartoon show. But it's so loaded with extras about Bob's life and times that it's really an interactive look at the man and, either way, well worth your purchase. The cheapest place I've found to order it online is a place I've never patronized called Digital Eyes. They sell it for $20.99 plus $2.90 shipping, as you'll see if you go there. (You can also obtain it at any decent DVD dealer.)

Each week, Cartoon Network presents three uncut Clampett classics on their series, The Bob Clampett Show. To find out when it airs, click here and go to their schedule.

The opening titles for The Bob Clampett Show feature a wonderful mix of animation and puppetry (much as Bob's career did). They were executed by an outfit called Curious Pictures and you can read how they did it — and view what they did — at their website. Click here to go there.

An expensive limited-edition portfolio of cels has been made from the Clampett-supervised model sheets of Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Daffy Duck and Tweety. If you can't afford the folio, you can at least view it online at their website.

Martin "Dr. Toon" Goodman has written a number of fine articles about Bob and his work. One is over on the www.bobclampett.com website while another can be read at this link.

All of this is a woefully inadequate way of expressing my thanks to Bob's wife and son, Sody and Rob, Jr. Last week, they made the long trek from L.A. down to the Comic-Con International in San Diego where they presented the annual Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award to a 49-year-old kid whose mother watched Time for Beany when she was carrying him. I have a lot of awards in which I place little stock. This one's different…because it has Bob's picture on it.

Several of you have written to ask that I keep pointing you towards non-partisan articles about the Florida recount.  They are few and far between, for most who write about it seem to be breathlessly spinning to say that their guy deserves to be in the White House, damn all laws and precedents.  But you occasionally come across an article that looks at the bigger picture…like this one by Renata Adler in The New Republic.

I agree with almost every word of Richard Cohen's column about the Gary Condit Affair.  Here's a link, just in case you want to see what I agree with.

Interesting article by Penn Jillette (of "…and Teller") over on their website, www.sincity.com.  Both halves of the duo post diary-type entries that are well worth reading but I really enjoyed Penn's latest, which you can reach directly by clicking here.  Browse around some of the others while you're over there.

I have now received something like twelve e-mails which had attachments bearing the W32.Sircam.Worm@mm virus.  The way this sucker works is that, if your system becomes infected, it picks a random file from your hard disk and e-mails an infected version of it to everyone in your address book.  It comes in a message that says something innocuous like, "I send you this file in order to have your advice," or the Spanish equivalent.  Since it comes from you, your friends may think it's okay to open but if they do, their system becomes infected with it and the plague continues to spread.  In the meantime, the worm is doing assorted other nasty things to your system.  So far, it only seems to be infecting Windows systems that are not running Windows NT or Windows 2000…but you should be on guard anyway.  You should also…

• Be suspicious of any attached file, even if it comes from someone you know well.  Be especially wary if the message to which it is attached says something bland like, "Here is the file you requested" or "I hope you like this file."
• When you send someone a file, attach it to a short e-mail message of the kind that could not be generated by a stranger who writes virus programs.  In other words, say something personal in your text so that the recipient will know that you intentionally sent the e-mail.
• Spring for a good virus checking program.  I use McAfee VirusScan, which seems to do the trick.  It's made for folks who have permanent on-line connections via networks or cable modems, and it will access the McAfee site once a day to update itself, if necessary.

Now, here's a scary image: Above, you see a gentleman named Buck Steele and, yes, that's his real name.  I know it sounds like a great TV western star of the fifties but Buck Steele is, in fact, 42 years old and he manages an AutoZone parts store in Pahrump, Nevada.  This year, perhaps from too many months sniffing all those crankcase oil fumes, he was seized by an inexplicable urge…to fashion a Groo costume and to don it for the Masquerade Competition at the Comic-Con International in San Diego.  Which, as you can see for yourself, is just what he did.  For his aberrant efforts, he won a $200 prize — which should serve to all as proof positive that there's money to be made by debasing yourself and performing aberrant actions in public.  This goes a long way to explaining the American political system.

My pal Jerry Beck is forever filling his Cartoon Research website with vital nuggets of animation info.  In case you haven't checked in today, I'll save you a click and mention this one:  A year or three ago, the folks over at Columbia/TriStar International Television decided to syndicate a package of old Columbia and UPA cartoons, including those of The Fox and the Crow and the early appearances of Mr. Magoo.  They hauled long-untouched negatives out of their vaults, struck off beautiful new prints, transferred them to video and packaged them into 65 half-hours they call Totally Tuned-In.  The series is being sold around the world but has yet to land an American berth.  I'm sure it will soon and then you'll get to see these lost treasures, many of which are quite wonderful.  In the meantime, you'll have to settle for this:  The website for a Singapore-based kids' network is offering up online clips from the shows it airs, which includes Totally Tuned-In.  Here's the link and if you go there right now, you may be able to catch a minute or two from one of the Fox & Crow cartoons.  But stop by Jerry's site first.

The longest-running musical in the world is the off-Broadway New York production of The Fantasticks, which opened on May 3, 1960.  That's right: May 3, 1960.  Every few years, it posts a closing notice, thereby arousing enough interest and business that they rescind the end date and keep it going.  Well, they're now saying it will close on August 12.  We'll believe it when it happens.

Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme have set up their very own website over at www.steveandeydie.com.  You can order a few of their CDs there (including a new issue of Golden Rainbow, a sixties' Broadway musical that fell into the "famous flop" category) but the real reason to visit is the gallery of vintage photos.  You forget how long they've been around and how they've worked with everyone.  I'm predicting here and now that, after the current resurgence of interest in The Rat Pack dies down, we'll be seeing Steve and Eydie biopics and impersonators.

Well, I don't know about you, but I had a pretty terrific time at this year's Comic-Con International in San Diego.  If you were there, you probably did, as well.  The place was packed and while no official attendance has yet been reported, they probably cracked the 50,000 mark with ease — which is all the more amazing at a time when you remember that very  few comic books can sell even half that many copies per month.  The spirit inside the hall was good, the people were all interesting (every last one of them) and, yes, Gene Colan was properly surprised at his surprise party.  This is not to say there were not gripes, most of which had to do with the proverbial embarrassment of riches…

"The Exhibit Hall is just too big."  It is.  It was too big last year and, this time around, it was even bigger — so big, in fact, that several folks told me they just gave up on the concept of seeing all or most of it and instead picked one section to explore.  With even more expansion planned for the future, I think the day is near when the con will have to be sub-divided; to have one section of the hall devoted wholly to publishers, one to back issue dealers, one to anime dealers, etc.  This brings us to…

"Look how much of this place is not about comics!"  Every year, less and less of Comic-Con International has to do with comic books while more and more is about motion pictures, animation, video games, glamour art and so on.  I don't know if this trend is bad for the convention — I suspect it isn't — but it sure doesn't bode well for the publishing of comic books.

"There are too many events I want to attend opposite each other!"  This year, the con had more than 300 programming items, including panels, lectures, presentations, film previews and seminars.  I oughta know; I felt like I hosted about half of them.  There have always been good and intriguing events occurring simultaneously but, if the comments I heard are any indicator, this is becoming more frustrating to some, having to pick which once-in-a-lifetime panel they're going to miss in favor of which other once-in-a-lifetime panel.  (Fortunately, this year, all but one of the dozen panels I moderated were videotaped…though no one yet seems certain how and where those tapes might be available for viewing.  I'll be presenting partial written transcripts here in the weeks to come but that's not like actually seeing and hearing the full event.)

"Where have all the Booth Babes gone?"  This was only a gripe of some.  Others were pleased that there were fewer unclad women about to hawk tawdry products.  There was, however, one young lady strutting about dressed in something crocheted out of about ten yards of dental floss, her plasticity almost inviting one to wager on which parts of her, if any, were original equipment.  Were I a betting man, I'd have laid a hundred bucks on clavicle and wisdom teeth.

"As the con gets bigger and bigger, the food gets worse and more outrageously priced."  This is true.  Next year, I'm packing a lunch.  I also heard tales of folks parking miles away and/or paying a few appendages for the privilege.

These are, of course, "complaints" that stem from the success of the convention.  They wouldn't exist if the thing weren't as popular as it's become, and it wouldn't be as popular if it weren't so damn much fun.  Ergo, the peeves aren't likely to go away in the future, especially if the convention operators continue to do their usual fine job of convention operating.

By the way, to those of you who are e-mailing me to say you loved one or more of the panels I moderated: A lot of the credit should go to the con's splendid programming director, Gary Sassaman.  And, in the spirit of learning from bad examples, some should go to all the dreadful, miscast panels I've been on and/or hosted at conventions over the last three decades.  I believe that if you get the right panelists together with the proper topic, a rhesus monkey could moderate and you'd have an interesting panel.  (Matter of fact, wouldn't you go to see a panel moderated by a rhesus monkey?  I know I would.)

In the past, I've witnessed or participated in too many discussions of errant conception.  One too-common mistake is to pack the dais with more participants than can comfortably be accommodated by the time constraints.  Some cons think they have to put every guest on some panel or if, say, they're having something called a "Golden Age Panel," they have to include every body on the premises that was in comics before 1970.  I once moderated a Golden Age Panel with, I think, 18 people on it and it was ridiculous — especially since two of them were Julius Schwartz and Gil Kane, each of whom is/was a panel unto himself.  More is not always better because, with so many up there, no one gets to speak very often, which means their minds drift.  General rule of thumb: When your panelists aren't paying attention, neither is your audience.  That is, if you can even keep an audience.

I prefer panels with only a few participants.  Seven is the max, five is better, three is just fine.  Some of the best convention events I've hosted were just me interviewing one fascinating human being.

A large mistake that I think some conventions make is as follows: Whoever's in charge of programming thinks up some interesting (to him) topic, paying little or no attention to the expertise of the folks who'll be available to speak to said topic.  He'll decide there should be a panel on — and these are all real-world examples — "Morality in Comics" or "The Art of the Fight Scene" or "The Karma of Super-Heroes."  Then he will populate this panel with guests who have no interest in addressing the topic (assuming they even understand it, which is not always the case) and it will be unenthusiastically attended by fans who'd rather hear those people talk about their actual work.  The topic of the panel should flow from those available to appear on it, not the other way around.

Anyway, I'll have more to say when I get around to writing up a whole column or two for Comics Buyers' Guide.  For now, I'll just say that if you weren't at the con this time, start saving your dimes for next year, because it was great.  If you were there, you have no need of my encouragement.  You're already setting aside the money…and wondering where the hell you're going to park.

While I'm off at the Comic-Con International in San Diego, I thought I'd post some links and recommendations here, starting with a plug for Randy Skretvedt's terrific book, Laurel and Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies.  I never like to use the word "definitive" to describe something because it asserts that there's no reason for anyone else to tackle the topic…and, of course, there's always more to be said about anything.  But Randy, who has had access to scripts, notes, studio records and data, has assembled a stunning portrait of how Stan and Ollie did what they did — which, of course, was to make the best run of comedy films ever made by anyone anywhere.  You can order your copy of this "must-have" volume from Amazon-dot-com or, better still, via the website for Past Times Publishing.

You can also order some obscure Laurel & Hardy films (as well as other vintage videos) from A-1 Classics.  They have a number of tapes that feature the solo comedies of The Boys but what interests me most are the foreign language films.  For a time, the films Stan and Ollie made were not dubbed for other countries.  They would actually re-film each movie — sometimes, several times in several languages — with Laurel and Hardy doing their dialogue phonetically and other actors brought in, where necessary, to play supporting roles.  Hearing Stan and Oliver speaking Spanish or German is fascinating enough…but these foreign films also feature many scenes that were either never filmed for the American versions or filmed and cut out.  Usually, they would take two two-reel comedies done for the American market and stitch them together with added scenes to form a makeshift feature for foreign release.  Los Calaveras, for instance, is a Spanish language feature that combines two shorts — Be Big and Laughing Gravy — along with bridging footage and, for the Laughing Gravy part, an entirely different ending.  Fascinating stuff.

The Broadway musical of The Producers (which we loved) will be the subject of a fancy coffee table book that will reprint the script along with photos and facts of its production.  And on Sunday, August 5, PBS will premiere "The Producers": A Musical Romp With Mel Brooks, which will take us behind-the-scenes of the recording of the cast CD.  If you can't wait 'til August 5, you can see about 5 minutes of the recording session (and hear samples of most of the songs) at this website.

Speaking of Mel: You can download sound clips and images from all his movies at The Mel Brooks Humor Site.  But the most interesting thing there is a 1997 interview he did with The Jewish Journal in which he talks about doing The Producers as a big, splashy Broadway musical and maybe getting someone like Nathan Lane to star in it.

If you're a fan of Sheldon Mayer's wonderful comic book, Sugar & Spike, there are two websites you'll enjoy.  Here's the link to one of them and here's the link to the other one.

Funny column by Molly Ivins on the proposal to rename North Dakota.  Here's that link.

Good article over on Salon by Jaime Weinman about how Nick at Nite and TV Land, among other channels, delete scenes from the shows they're running to make more room for commercials.  Here's that link.

Lastly: Michael Kinsley has a good piece on the stupidity inherent in the notion that we should have a constitutional amendment to ban flag-burning.  (Like me, he thinks it's a cure for which there is no known disease.)  Here's that link.

Lastly: The other night, my friend Carolyn and I went to the Greek Theatre here in Los Angeles to hear a wonderful concert by jazz/blues legend Nina Simone.  I got my seats through Ticketmaster and couldn't help noticing some tiny print that appeared on the obverse of my stub…

Warning: Pucks, hockey sticks, balls, bats, racquets, and other objects flying into spectator area can cause serious injury.  Be alert at all times when in spectator areas.  If injured, notify usher for directions to medical stations.

This amuses me, first of all, because apparently "spectator area" is fancy talk for "the audience."  So if you're in your seat or even on your way to it, you're supposed to be on guard for flying pucks.  Secondly, they seem to have this printed now on all tickets for any kind of event.  When was the last time anyone took a hockey stick in the face at a piano recital?  Thirdly, I have no stats on this but I'll bet a leading cause of injuries to folks in the "spectator areas" of sporting events is players flying or falling into the stands…and the disclaimer makes no mention of that.  Lastly, is it necessary — and does it really matter in court, which is I assume why this is there — to tell people that if a baseball bat flies into the bleachers, you might get hurt and, if so, you should ask for first aid?

The ticket also says on the back, "Do not expose to extreme heat," which I guess means they're suggesting you don't set fire to it.

Over in The New York Times, they've published what some are terming an important article about the vote counting in Florida.  The new configuration of the Times website makes it difficult to link to a piece and, anyway, there are several related articles there so you really ought to go there and look around yourself…but do so by 7/22 because that's when the articles are a week old and they start charging to read them.  Here's a link to the Reuters summary of it but I'll also give you mine…

It's that when it came time to count the absentee ballots, both Republicans and Democrats made rabid and hypocritical attempts to get some ballots counted and others disqualified, based on projections of which ballots would help or hurt their guy.  The attempts were hypocritical because (a) both sides were claiming in public posturings that they wanted every possible vote counted when they clearly didn't and (b) both sides wound up arguing one set of legal principles in one venue to try and get certain ballots counted and the opposite of those principles elsewhere to try and get other ballots tossed.  The Republicans were more successful, possibly because they were smarter and/or more aggressive…and had, in Katherine Harris, certain home court advantages.  They got a lot of ballots accepted that, under a strict application of law, would not have counted.

The Times says that, even if all the questionable ballots had been tossed, Bush probably would have won…so the main impact of this story is to rebut Republican claims that (only) the Gore forces tried to get ballots thrown away.  And I guess it also makes the whole Florida vote count look even more like something conducted in a Banana Republic.  Since all but the most fiercely-partisan "spinners" already believed that the vote count was slipshod and that both the Bush and Gore forces did everything possible to avoid an honest count, none of this is news.

Still to come, any year now, are the results of the Big Press Recount.  Since nothing's leaking and no one's rushing to announce what the consortium of newspapers found in examining the ballots, my guess is that the outcome will be ambiguous.  It'll say that Gore would have won, had certain precincts been recounted.  It'll say that a lot of votes that were reported as recounted were never actually recounted and it will point to some stash of ballots somewhere that were never counted even once but would not have put Gore in the White House, had they been.  Most of all, it will show that the voting and counting were even more error-prone than anyone previously thought, and that the outcome had even more to do with after-Election Day legal maneuvering than with how many people wanted either guy.  And, of course, the Supreme Court's mantra about "equal protection" will look even more misapplied than it already does.

Last week, as promised in an earlier news item here, The Movie Channel ran The Night They Raided Minsky's.  What we didn't know then was that someone has made an interesting alteration in the film.  In theatres and in its earlier video releases, the movie ended with an instrumental medley of several of the songs from the film.  The version run on T.M.C. replaced that with Rudy Vallee's vocal rendition of the title song, which was heard on the soundtrack album but not on the soundtrack.  And since this song runs longer than what it replaced, they did a video freeze-frame on the last shot of the movie to extend it.  I'm guessing the change was made by someone at M.G.M.-U.A., possibly as they transferred and remastered the film for a forthcoming DVD release…though other explanations are possible.

On Thursday afternoon at the Comic-Con International in San Diego, there's a panel you might want to attend.  In the program book, the listing reads as follows:

4:00 New Art Techniques — An incisive discussion of how high-tech pencil erasers have changed the way in which comic books are drawn. With Murray Fassbinder (president and CEO of the Snorp Eraser Co.), Hal W. Carter (inventor of the CartEraser), William Franjipanoski (advocate of using lumps of cheese for erasing), and comic book artist Gene Colan. Moderated by Mark Evanier. Room 8

But that's pretty much a lie. This panel is actually a SURPRISE BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR GENE COLAN!  Gene turns 75 shortly after the con.  For more than 50 of those years, he has delighted comic fans with his artwork for comics ranging from Batman to Tomb of Dracula; from Wonder Woman to Daredevil; from Iron Man to Howard the Duck…and so many more.  He's also a helluva nice guy.

Gene is attending this panel under the impression it's about the topic above. About three minutes in, we're going to dump the topic, sing "Happy Birthday" and bring in a huge cake. Then we'll spend the rest of the 90 minutes talking with Gene about his career and having some of his collaborators discuss their work together.

Please spread the word to EVERYONE EXCEPT GENE COLAN!  His wife is in on this and is keeping him from seeing anything — like this — that would tip the surprise. So don't tell him but tell everybody else…and get there early. (The panel before in that room is me interviewing John Romita, Sr.) It should be quite an event.

That's THURSDAY AFTERNOON, beginning at 4PM in Room 8. At the con.

And I'm moderating some other fine panels at the convention.  For a complete list of them, click your widdle mousie right here.

Years ago, one of my favorite columnists, Jack Germond, was on a TV show and he said something to the effect of, "The problem with the press today is that we aren't paid to say, 'I don't know,' so we have to say something, even when we don't know."  I keep thinking of that as I see reports on the Gary Condit/Chandra Levy matter.  Everything that the press really knows could probably be summarized in about 90 seconds…but CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, etc., have kicked into "All Condit, All the Time," recycling rumors and speculations, and giving it more air time than the Gulf War, the Olympics or even Regis Philbin.

It also strikes me that there is more interest in learning where Mr. Condit's genitalia has been than in where Ms. Levy might be.  By virtue of being that rarest of oxymorons — a conservative Democrat — Condit has managed to get everyone in the public arena against him:  Conservatives are hoping he goes down because he's a Democrat and liberals are hoping he goes down because he's a Conservative.  He may well deserve to be ostracized and punished for his conduct (especially not being candid and forthcoming immediately upon his friend's disappearance) but there will be plenty of time for that.

At the moment, I am annoyed at the rampant rumor-mongering, especially by talking heads who want to spin this possible-tragedy for ratings or to slam their political opponents.  They can't even do a good job of pretending they really care about what happened to Chandra Levy, aren't loving the scandal…and aren't praying that, if and when she turns up, it's in some manner that makes the story juicier and longer-lasting.  No wonder Bozo was so popular…

In our previous News page, I gave some tips for enjoying the impending Comic-Con International.  Jim Guida writes to remind me to remind you that there's a very large, well-stocked Ralph's Market just a couple of blocks from the convention center…good place to grab a bottle of water or something to eat.  Also, if you're still deciding how to pack for the con, you might note that AccuWeather has dropped its predicted high temperatures a bit.  Here's the link for the latest San Diego forecast.

News of me:  I dropped a hint about this a few weeks ago but I think it's safe to announce now.  One of my great heroes, Stan Freberg, has asked me to serve as producer of his forthcoming CD, Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America, Volume 3.  We record it in a few months and the tentative release date is July 4, 2002…again, from Rhino Records (or Rhino CDs or whatever they call the company now).  Needless to say, I am still pinching myself over this one.

The column I posted here about Barry Manilow has just been reprinted — with my permission — in the current issue of Rainy Day Rhythms, the organ of the officially-recognized Barry Manilow Fan Club in Manchester, England.  Eat your heart out, Tony Isabella.