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Saturday, April 08, 2006 ( 4/08/2006 09:26:00 AM ) Bill S. "NO, I'M NOT CRAZY – I'M THE NEW GENERAL MANAGER!" – Third Banana connoisseur Aaron Neathery alerts us to an on-site download of a fifteen-minute short from 1935 featuring Joe Cook, the star of Frank Capra's circus comedy Rain or Shine. The flick, an "Education Star Personality Comedy" entitled "Penny Wise," features the vaudevillian as a lunatic department store clerk named Joe Widget who – as a result of one of those bets that are only made in comedy shorts – gets installed as General Manager to prove that "even the most incompetent" can manage the store. Chaos ensues and, of course, Cook is also provided the opportunity to show off his well-honed juggling and balancing skills: when chased in the end by a mightily peeved store owner and hic cohorts, Widget flees by balancing and rolling down the hall on a large globe, a one point asking the movie projectionist to run the film back a bit so he can better make his escape. Cook's the pure "nut comic" in this: unlike the feature-length Rain or Shine, there's no attempt at making him recognizably human, more a creature of wacky impulses and comically dumb ideas. He nearly drives the store into bankruptcy by extending the One Cent Sale idea into absurdity, selling initial items for a penny and then the second for nothing ("We won't make any money, but think of the sales we'll have!") Since Cook himself wrote the minimal story, he presumably had little interest in humanizing his character. And even if the comedian plays beyond the bounds of believability, his persona is snappy enough to come across on a low-res video file. W.C. Fields, also prone to meshing juggling with comedy, once called Cook the best of the nut comics. I've gotta admit I personally find the thirties era "nuts" more fun to watch than their devolved modern day counterparts. Apart from the breezily wacked-out Cook, the film also maintains a firm foothold in vaudeville comedy styles: it even contains a classic wooden leg joke that a later generation'll remember from the movie Mary Poppins. (Which, come to think of it, included a more long-living vaudevillian, Ed Wynn.) If you've got a reasonably fast connection and a love for professionally played old jokes, why not check the full short out yourself? # | ( 4/08/2006 09:19:00 AM ) Bill S. "FEEL SO GOOD, I'M GONNA BREAK SOMEBODY'S HEART TODAY!" – Happy blogiversary to Nik Dirga, whose Spatula Forum just celebrated its second year anniversary: a great generalist pop culture blog, of which we here at the Gadabout are particularly enamored. ("Love myself better than I love myself!") Keep 'em coming, Nik! # | Friday, April 07, 2006 ( 4/07/2006 06:44:00 AM ) Bill S. WEEKEND PET PIC – Here's a snapshot of the still-growing Kyan Pup that was taken this a.m. when I let him out to do his morning ablutions (which in puppy terms consists of rolling one's body in the still dewy grass). Drove him into the vet for his second set of shots this week and learned that he's more than doubled his weight since we first got him (34 pounds now) – not quite half as big as Dusty, but it's clear he still has some growin' to do.  NOTE: As before, if you wanna see more dogg blogging, check out the weekly "Carnival of the Dogs" at Mickey's Musings. And for a broader array of companion animals, there's Modulator's "Friday Ark." # | ( 4/07/2006 05:48:00 AM ) Bill S. SONNTAG SHOW – A note to any of you in the Cape Cod, Massachusetts area: cartoonist and illustrator Ned Sonntag has an informal mini-retrospective currently on the walls of Dick’s Coffee Bar, featuring photocopies of graphics that go back to his days as an underground cartoonist. A good chance to see work by this underseen cartoonist, though reportedly Ned is also working up a more elaborate showing in Chatham, Mass.  # | ( 4/07/2006 05:12:00 AM ) Bill S. GOUTING - Had my first big bout of gout in over two years this week, and, lemme tell ya, it's no fun trying to do house repair work like wall-painting when yer right foot is throbbing like all get-out. Been out of Indomethacin, the medication used to treat inflammation caused by gout or arthritis, for over a year - and I'm unable to renew the scrip until I visit my family physician. I have an appt. set for later this a.m., but most of the week, I've been hobbling around pretty pathetically. Yesterday, for example, I went to put the pups out while I was robed & barefoot when 80-pound Ziggy Stardust trod on my right big toe - the primary inflamed area - as he was dashing out the door. Scared every bird in a two-block radius with my loud bellow. Pain sucks. # | Thursday, April 06, 2006 ( 4/06/2006 12:37:00 PM ) Bill S. "IT ISN'T VERY PRETTY WHAT A TOWN WITHOUT PITY CAN DO!" – So Gene Pitney, master of the melodramatic pop single, has passed on at the age of 65. As a 'tween boy in the early sixties, I was a major fan of Pitney – one of the great pre-Beatles rock 'n' roll crooners – and I had copies of his two big movie soundtrack singles, "Town Without Pity" and "Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" (which, interestingly, doesn't appear in the actual movie) in my small library of Woolworth's purchased 45's. I suspect I was just the right age for both songs, but they still both sound great to my ears – did my heart good to hear "Pity" being used to make a thematic point in John Waters' Hairspray, too. Looks like I'll be putting on Rhino's Anthology when I get home this evening . . . (Thanx to Ivan G. Shreve for pointing this out to me.) # | ( 4/06/2006 10:57:00 AM ) Bill S.  "THE LITTLE BIT THAT WAS IS ALL THAT WE HAD" – Learning that Ray Davies, erstwhile leader of the Kinks, was finally putting out his first elpee of original solo material, lo, these many years after his band's dissolution spurred some heavy mixed emotions from this longtime fan. The lads' final albums were not, let's be charitable, the sound of a band or a composer working at the peak of their powers. It seemed pretty clear Ray'd run out of things to say with his band, which had grown rather complacent with its arena rock stance. Perhaps it was best to just remember Raymond Douglas Davies in those young and innocent days of sunny afternoons and village greens, of splendorous Britpop that grabbed from everywhere and sent it back to you all smartly polished.Well, I've been listening to Other People's Lives (V2) for a month now, and all I can say is, "To hell with nostalgic melancholy!" Lives is the best release that Ray's affixed his name to in decades, and if the guy never releases another disc in his lifetime, it won't matter. It's a magnificent piece of autumnal rock 'n' pop. In timbre, the album goes back to my favorite period of Davies' Kinkswork: the willfully eclectic era of character-driven tunes that gave us the great Face to Face, Something Else, Village Green Preservation Society trifecta. Moving to the U.S. several years ago would seem to've renewed Davies' far-reaching love of differing popular music styles: there are plenty of soulful flourishes (check the Stax-y horns on "Thanksgiving Day," the Motown-ish bassline on "Run Away from Time") on this disc, something that would've been beyond the reach of his earlier band, while the return of Latin rhythms that once would've been confined to the periodic bossa nova rip is also welcome. (Sweet use of flamenco guitar on the title song.) Davies' band of hard-rock sessioneers is generally up to his demands, though on more than occasion, I still found myself missing brother Dave Davies' rave-up guitarwork, which could've, for instance, pushed the Credence-y countrified "The Getaway (Lonesome Train)" into pure cow punkery once the song breaks free. Love the "Lola"-esque acoustic guitar slam Ray uses to open "Is There Life After Breakfast?" though. Of course, with Davies, a big part of the show remains his lyrics: arch observations (as in the obligatorily music halled "Next Door Neighbor"), dramatic monologues ("All She Wrote," wherein a dazed lover reads an accusatory Dear John letter that turns into something darker) and generalized admonishments to Buck up, Laddy, it ain't no-how permanent ("Breakfast"). Ray being Ray, he still can't resist shoe-horning a nattering lamentation about the loss of good old-fashioned standards ("Stand Up Comic") into the proceedings. But it's the only misstep in a set that also includes more effectively sardonic takes on tabloid journalism and tourism. More often, Davies' view of modern life's travails is ruefully experienced; though he's singing about "characters," for the first time in ages, you can feel the songwriter inhabiting these other people's skins. It's a gift that I'd long feared the guy had lost after years of rock band living. Turns out all he needed to rediscover it was to do a walkabout in the U.S. of A. all by his lonesome . . . # | Wednesday, April 05, 2006 ( 4/05/2006 07:06:00 AM ) Bill S. THAT CORE BASE - Never did have too strong a feeling for John McCain, though I have to admit the persona he staked out for so long - the let's-look-at-things-on-an-issue-by-issue-basis guy - has its allure for me. Still, watching him attempt to reposition himself recently for the upcoming presidential race by hat-in-handing to the likes of the Rev. Jerry Falwell can't help getting me thinking about the current West Wing plotline wherein moderate Repub Arnold Vinick keeps getting pressured by members of his own party to make gestures that'll appeal to the ultra-conservative base. Principled Arnie sticks closer to himself, of course, but then he's a teevee character and played by Alan Alda, besides, so you wouldn't expect him to do otherwise. McCain is a sadder story. Watching him interviewed via satellite on The Daily Show last night, though, I thought I saw a hint of ruefulness from the man, but perhaps that's just wishful thinking. McCain can clearly think on his feet and has a decent way a with a quip, but that'll only take you so far when you've got a guy like Stewart asking, in all seriousness, what the hell has happened to you. McCain's been a fairly regular guest on Jon's show in the past, but on the basis of last night's interview, I'm betting his people start advising him to skip Comedy Central for the nonce . . . UPDATE: Crooks And Liars has posted a clip of the amazing end of Stewart's interview (where Jon asks the Senator if he's going "into crazy base world"). # | Monday, April 03, 2006 ( 4/03/2006 08:40:00 PM ) Bill S. COULDN'T HELP GETTING THAT SINKING FEELING . . . - . . . as soon as Kristin Chenoweth's Annabeth announced on last night's West Wing that she was gonna go wake up the sleeping Leo . . . # | ( 4/03/2006 02:15:00 PM ) Bill S. "DOWN HERE, I'M CARLITA!" – The second season of Showtime's Huff debuted this weekend with an overlong but heartfelt reintroduction to the series' characters. Though trafficking in soap opera time (at one point we're told it's been ten days since the events of last season – but a character who was newly pregnant last year shows up in her second trimester this year) and a heavily telegraphed character demise designed to parallel the death we saw at the start of season one, the episode contained plenty of nifty actorly moments. Me, I loved Oliver Platt with guest Sharon Stone's epileptic client, Blythe Danner's alcoholic Izzy as she fends off both her caring grandson and pissed-off son, and brother Teddy's (Andy Comeau) believable med-less free associations on the run in Tijuana. Hank Azaria's psychiatrist hero, Craig Huffstodt, remains an appealingly infuriating lead – still struggling to remain an interested observer when his own life is messier than many of his patients – and though he snuck five seconds of Apu into his voice last night, it's clear the man's more than "just" a comic actor. But, hey, did we need two different vomiting scenes? I know: physical purging makes for a handy metaphor, but still . . . Note: Huff fan Ben Varkentine has a typically smart take on the season premiere . . . # | ( 4/03/2006 11:20:00 AM ) Bill S. LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE SOPRANOS – You see a character in an idyllic moment with some sweet-sounding doo-wop oldie playin' on the soundtrack – and that's your cue that the guy's gonna get smashed on the knee-cap . . . # | Sunday, April 02, 2006 ( 4/02/2006 06:50:00 AM ) Bill S. DOWN IN THE ALLEY – It's spring pledge time for many of the PBS and NPR stations in the U.S. – and, like last fall, yours truly did a stint of phone volunteering last night for our local NPR Jazz 'n' Blues station WGLT. Wife Becky and I are mainly there for the blues, which holds sway over the station's programming for most of the weekend, and we're particularly enamored with Frank Black, who's been a blues deejay on the station for 21 years now. Whenever we volunteer, we try to get on one of Frank's Friday or Saturday night shows. Times being what they are, pledge drive goals haven't been as easy a make as they useta be. A few years back, the university-based GLT was doing well enough with the pledges that it was able to cut its pledge drive down several days; this year the station has had to re-expand the pledge schedule by several days. Last night was fairly slow going; we were there four hours, and the first hour had nary a call. Though things picked up, we never got to the point where all five available phones were used at once. Still, we had a fun time eating cold Avanti's pizza and chatting with Janet and Pete Moore, two volunteers we met for the first time this weekend. Janet does a nifty little science feature with ISU physics professor Jay Ansher entitled "Uncommon Knowledge" for the radio station. Spent time this a.m. playing a batch of these shows on the 'puter, and it's a keen collection of science factoids that explains, among other things, why the ink in the new ten dollar bills changes color when you look at it from different angles and whether an egg can really stand on its end the first day of spring. Janet and her hubby also do a Central Illinois-centric podcast called "Illinoise!," while Pete also has a second podcast devoted to un-boring Christian music plus a blog entitled The Bored Again Christian. Busy folks. We also bought our share of leftover GLT merchandise while we were there: two travel mugs that had been a premium gift several years ago and a pair of Frank Black tee-shirts that were printed up last year to celebrate his twentieth anniversary at the station. Our coffee cups are predominately radio station mugs; they get a lotta use in our house, and the only ones that've shown any wear are a pair of latte mugs that, for some reason, lost some of their lettering in the dishwasher. Fortunately the station, which is celebrating its fortieth birthday this year, has proven more enduring . . . # | |
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