On August 21, It's All About Friz

We have been reminded by this blog that August 21 will be the centennial of the birth of esteemed Warner Bros. cartoon director Friz Freleng (1906-1995). (Some references actually cite 1905 as being his birth year, but I've long stuck by the 1906 date, particularly in light of a fall 1964 profile that gave his age at the time as 58.)

We will indeed be participating in the blogathon on that date. I haven't decided on what aspect of Friz Freleng's career we'll touch on - something he did at his own studio, or one of his Warner Bros. classics, or perhaps one of the obscure cartoons he did on a brief flirtation at MGM in 1938.

Nothing's Sacred... Not Even Monopoly!

First they decided to give the board a makeover by redoing all the place names so it isn't so Atlantic City, now Hasbro wants to do away with paper money.

Back On The "West Side"

A year and a half ago, I worked with the Our Gang Players on a little show called "The Music Man", and swore up and down that if I ever had the chance to work with this company again, I would.

I had done "West Side Story" almost a decade ago to the day for a group called Dream Street Productions, and swore up and down that if I ever had the chance to play WSS again, I would.

The conclusion: Our Gang is doing "West Side Story". So, I'm the "old man" of a pit of mostly college age players under the direction of the remarkably talented Steve Strouse, with whom I worked a couple of winters ago on "The Music Man". And we have a terrific cast of dancers and actors and singers who will wow you with their talent and tightly choreographed street fighting.

"West Side Story", in all its Leonard Bernstein-Stephen Sondheim glory, will play August 3, 4, 5 and 6 at the Ocean First Theatre at the Stafford Township Arts Center.

Now THAT'S Hot!

Get ready... something approaching intellgience has emerged from the mouth of Paris Hilton. She recently was interviewed about her reality show, "The Simple Life", and told the interviewer at one point, "All reality shows are fake, basically."

Thank you.

"Go Get 'Em, Billy!"

Nice to hear Bobby Darin's swingtime version of "I'm Sitting On Top of The World" - complete with Mr. Darin's acknowledgement of arranger/conductor Billy May - in promos for Fox's coverage of the baseball All Star Game, which is guaranteed to be Soaking With Mets this year! Go get em, Carlos, Paul, Jose, etc.!