Cartoon Time!

Some of the Warner Bros. cartoons of the early-mid 1930's are interesting at best. This one is actually on the good side. It's called "Sittin' On A Backyard Fence" and it's a 1933 Merrie Melodie, produced by Leon Schlesinger shortly after the departure of Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising as producers. It's only the second Schlesinger-produced MM, after "I've Got To Sing A Torch Song". By this time the song "I Think You're Ducky" became the Merrie Melodies signature tune (replacing "Get Happy"), and this cartoon features a much longer arrangement of same.

Sittin on a Back Yard Fence
Uploaded by MatthewHunter

Jerry Beck and Will Friedwald, in the "Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies" guidebook published some 20 years ago (really!), took special note of the girl cat in the closing title, saying "So Long Folks" with what was described as "grotesque" mouth action. It's not all that bad, actually, and she does pose quite cutely at the end of her brief recitation. Thanks to Matthew Hunter, one of the Net's flamekeepers of WB cartoons, for posting this one.

Technologizer

It rhymes with apologizer.

But we wish HMcC great luck in this new endeavor.

Joan Rivers Late Show

This is the first several minutes (and some of the closing) of the first episode of the Joan Rivers Late Show that launched the Fox Broadcasting Company in 1986. I'm posting it here because my wife and I had a little discussion minutes ago about Michael Sembello, whether he was more famous for the song "Maniac" or for co-writing the theme song to this talk show with bandleader Mark Hudson (one of the Hudson Brothers of 70's kidvid fame). Only musicians I can pick out of this clip are baritone sax player Beverly Dahlke-Smith (known as "Bev The Tramp" on the show), and tucked almost out of sight in the back row is bass trombone player Lew McCreary.



Prior to her taking this show over, Rivers acted quite frequently as Johnny Carson's guest host, and I believe the two never spoke again when Rivers basically double-crossed the King of Late Night and decided to compete against him. Alas, Joan Rivers and Fox parted ways a few years later, and after a succession of guest hosts (including Howie Mandel), the time slot eventually went to Ross Shafer and eventually Arsenio Hall, who spun off into his own syndicated offering for Paramount. Fox floundered in late night with garbage such as "The Wilton North Report" and "The Chevy Chase Show" and finally gave up on the daypart altogether.

When IMDb Is Most Annoying

Today, when they suck up to corporate sponsors' dollars and frame their site in an ad for some movie that's going to make a billion dollars anyway.

And don't get me started about WENN.

Contradiction

Seen within a few feet of each other in a LBI sign shop:

TREASURE FAMILY - ENJOY FRIENDS - CELEBRATE LIFE

and

FRIENDS WELCOME - RELATIVES BY APPOINTMENT

George Carlin Dead

The news of George Carlin's death yesterday at age 71 solicited mixed reactions from those staying at our beach house. Some of the West Coast types who "got it" were almost in tears, while the older, Eastern folk just focused in on his filth.

Among his many accomplishments in the comedy field were this "Baseball vs. Football" routine - very funny, and 100% devoid of those "seven dirty words" that brought him such notoriety. This clip is from 1990; George had been doing this routine for many years and in fact did it on the very first episode of "Saturday Night Live" in October 1975.

Beachin' It

This next week, I will be ensconced at our family's beach house on Long Beach Island. Though we have ready Internet access, sitting at a computer is a task simply not done at the beach. We'll try to update that No Hitter count, because we can again. But we'll be super active once back from our week at the shore. Bye for now!

When Boredom Strikes

Bye, Bye, Willie

BUT, the Mets could have figured out a much more dignified way to axe him. His 3:15 a.m. (ET) dismissal seems like he was being thrown out with the empties at the end of a long, drunken night.

I'm glad Rick Peterson is gone too. When you have no idea that your starting pitchers can actually go 8 or 9 innings and take some pressure off the bullpen once in a while, then it's time to go.

Well, That Lasted Long

Due to the fact that we couldn't make Movable Type do what we needed it to do, we are back using Blogger. We will try to recover the posts that appeared under the Movable Type version of our blog.

Now That "American Idol" Is Over

The finale last night was quizzical. There were a lot of things on there that didn't have to do with AI, such as that faux-1972 "audition" for Gladys Knight's Pips, featuring Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. (looking very good for an ex-junkie). But we were most impressed with the musical performances. Really liked Michael Johns and Carly Smithson teaming up, and that shot at the end of the show with Carly snuggling up to David Cook was precious. We are looking forward to seeing them in performance when the AI tour comes our way in August. But so much of it seemed to be selling something - commerce trumping art. (And Fox, like I've said, the end of the May Sweeps is way to early to be flogging your Fall crap.)

Congrats to David Cook - the "word nerd" did it!

ENOUGH ALREADY

In the last two days, I have seen ads for fall shows - and I certainly won't mention which ones - on Fox and CBS. Is it too much to ask, oh mighty TV networks, for us to have a SUMMER first?

McCracken Hangs It Up -- Again

Lest you think that the resignation from Harry McCracken from PC World Magazine is becoming an annual event, this time he means it. Last year, Harry (my very good friend of almost two decades) resigned in a dispute with upper management at the magazine, but later recanted the decision after powwwows. Now he's about to launch his own venture - we're not quite sure exactly what it's going to be but we know that Harry knows his way around HTML. We'll let you know when it launches! Good luck, Harry.

Oh Boy! Videos of Records Playing!

This guy direct-outed a couple of goodies. First, the Cold Blood version of the Donny Hathaway tune, "Valdez in The Country"...



And, Lighthouse's "One Fine Morning", played off the vinyl as it should be. Warning: Do not play any version of this song from a CD, as the remastered version is horrible. All you kiddies, this was like Canada's answer to Chicago, and it even had Howard Shore in the sax section.

7359: UGLY

Sadness of the day, more so than the Mets dropping the third game of four to the Nationals (so full of Mets castoffs it's embarrassing), was Mike Pelfrey's no-hit bid being broken up in the 7th.

Come on, dude. We need that no-hitter.

Pinball in Allentown This Weekend!

If you love the pin and ball as do the Mackey Bros., check out the Pinball Wizards Convention this weekend at the Agri-Plex, in Allentown, PA. We'll be there Saturday; any more time spent there and my wife would have my head. It's $15 a day to get in, and you can play pinball all day for free. Our hands are usually aching by 5 or 6 p.m., but it's a happy day well spent (and afterwards, we eat at the Waffle House off the Interstate, which is the nearest one to my house). It's also a great place to buy or sell your machine. We are planning on bringing my three machines next year, all Gottliebs: Mayfair (1966), Roller Coaster (1971), and Spin Out (1975).

The Mayfair was a machine I picked up last October intending it to be a surprise Christmas gift for my wife and stepdaughters, but lack of suitable space in the house nixed that idea, so the machine is currently in storage. I won it on an eBay auction for $200, priced low because it wasn't working. (It turns out the guy I bought it from is employed by the same school system I teach in, as a bus driver.) Within a day or two of bringing it to my old house, I had the thing running again. I put about $200 worth of new parts on it, including new rubbers and some new lane guides, and it looks and plays like a champ. The playfield on this one is in outstanding shape. Roller Coaster and Spin Out were purchased in the late 1980's-early 1990's and were on location in arcades near me - the Roller Coaster was at the old Palace Amusements in Asbury Park, while the Spin Out was purchased from Buccaneer Bill's arcade in Lavalette. They haven't been set up lately, so I'm just wondering what they're going to do once under power again.

All-Stars Already?

Voting has been opened for this year's All-Star Game, which is being held this year at the soon-to-be-demolished original Yankee Stadium. Go to the MLB website and vote. Back in my day, you had to send in punch cards which had the most likely candidates. If you wanted Bobby Pfeil on the team, for some odd reason, you had to write him in. The online ballot works much the same way.

When Irish Eyes Are Voted Off By The Great Unwashed

The Los Angeles Times' Richard Rushfield on the unfortunate voting-off of Carly Smithson on "American Idol".

I had Carly to win. Really. The more I saw her, the more I liked of her performances and her feisty and fun Irish attitude. (If they ever decide to remake "The Commitments", here's your girl.)

UPDATE: The Idol Tour Dates have been announced. Carly and the gang will be rolling into Atlantic City on Saturday, August 2nd, with an on-sale date of Saturday, May 17 at 10:00 a.m.

Da Mets

As you can tell, I've been strangely silent on the issue of the New York Mets so far this season. If you've come late to the party, be it known that I am now in my 42nd year as a New York Mets Fan, having first embraced the team in the latter days of Casey Stengel's run as manager.

It seems to me that in spite of the same personnel (except maybe Pedro, who's out with hammy issues), the Mets team that has taken the field this week (and won all five of their games so far) is a lot more together than the team who played the first two weeks of the season. And it's great that the Mets are taking the Phillies to the cleaners, as that team did them dirty last year, especially near the end. This excites me no end.

But I'm still waiting for that no-hitter. All that pitching talent and no goose-eggs to show for it.

Wrong Blog, But Hey...

Here's a puzzler from that puzzlin' guy, Pat Sajak.