A Fun Little Quiz

Copped from Kelly, and, coincidentally, Jaquandor, but they worked off different lists. I started with Kelly’s, then added Jaquandor’s, or, occasionally, not.

1. Go to www.photobucket.com (don’t sign in)
2. Type in your answer to the question in the “search” box
3. Use only the first page
4. Copy the html and paste for the answer.

What is your name?
Roger!!!

What is your Relationship Status?
married

What is your favorite color?
blue

What kind of car do you want?
Don\'t Care

What band/artist are you listening to?
beatles

What is your favorite movie?
Annie Hall

What is your favorite Disney Princess?
toy story 2

What is your favorite TV show?
Photobucket

Where did/do you go to school?
New Paltz

Where is your dream vacation?
PARIS

Name an alcoholic Beverage:
Coke & Rum

What do you want to be when you grow up?
librarian

What is your favorite type of shoe?
chuck taylor

What is your favorite song?
Drive My Car

What is your favorite dessert?
carrot cake

What is your favorite letter?
Qq
What do you love most in life?
Photobucket

What are you most afraid of?
boredom
What annoys you the most? (What, no pictures of “theological arrogance”?)
BAD RELIGION

What’s your favorite animal?
the cats

How old are you?
55

What one word describes you?
Enigmatic

Jello Shots


Tom Lehrer, who turns 80 today, is widely credited with inventing Jello shots; i.e., replacing half the water with distilled liquor.

Oh, yeah, he also did some nifty songs, from Poisoning Pigeons in the Park (1953), which I have on a Dr. Demento album:

To the exquisite Vatican Rag:

To ‘Silent E’ from “the Electric Company:

My suggestion: go to Evanier’s page, type Tom Lehrer in the search mode. 15 of the 16 hits prior to today will be Tom Lehrer videos, and I’d be surprised if there weren’t one or two more to celebrate the occasion. Then go here and check out the lyrics.

Here’s an interview from 2007 from whence I stole the image above. To paraphrase the great Tom Lehrer, “When Mozart was my age, he had been dead for 20 years.”

ROG

Unsettling

I had the TV on last night just before 7:30 pm, when there was a scroll along the bottom of the screen indicating that an Amber alert had been called. I’ve seen them before and they’re always a bit scary, but not as much as this one. The address listed is the school in my neighborhood; indeed, we were at that very school on Saturday, checking out the Pre-K and kindergarten programs. Fortunately, the boy and the man who allegedly took him were found not far away in Cohoes less than one hour later.
***
Saturday as a very busy one for us. First, we went to a pancake breakfast to benefit the FOCUS Churches food pantry, then to the school. We went to our credit union to put money into an IRA to mitigate our taxes, using some of the money we’re going to get from the stimulus package. (Shhh! Don’t tell President Bush!!) Then, that evening, we got a babysitter, went to the Troy Music Hall, and listened to an exquisite performance of the Brahms Requiem and other pieces by Albany Pro Musica; here is feedback from one of the singers.
***
My computer at work uses Microsoft Office for e-mail. Friday, and again yesterday morning, when I would click on a hyperlink within my e-mail, it would look as though I were trying to download an executable (.exe) file. Apparently, the problem was that when I downloaded an update to iTunes last week, I also downloaded Safari, and it did not play well with Microsoft Office. Eliminate Safari, reroute the e-mail – which someone else did, trust me – and I was good to go again.
***
The big news in the area is that Pat Riley, oh, and some other folks, got into the Basketball Hall of Fame. It’s a huge local story because Riley was a high school star in Schenectady; the high school gym there is named in his honor.

ROG

Just Another Manic Monday

The NCAA final’s tonight. After UCLA lost on Saturday to Memphis, I figured I was destined for 6th or 7th place in my 9-person grouping. But when UNC lost to Kansas, that locked me into 3rd, behind the only person to pick Kansas to win the final, and it doesn’t matter if Kansas wins or not. Congrats, Susan.
***
When I heard Charlton Heston died this weekend, three quotes IMMEDIATELY jumped to mind:
“Take your stinking paws off of me, you damn dirty ape!” (66th on the AFI list of great movie quotes)
“Soylent green is…” (77th on the list)
and the one that my wife, of all people, actually parodied without having read Mark Evanier.
I really appreciated his sense of humor at his own expense when I saw him on Saturday Night Live. And I did see him in a LOT of movies, including:
Bowling for Columbine (2002)
Town & Country (2001)
True Lies (1994)
Earthquake (1974) [the “shake” half of “the shake ‘n bake movies”; “bake was “The Towering Inferno”]
The Four Musketeers (1974)
Airport 1975 (1974)
The Three Musketeers (1973)
the aforementioned Soylent Green (1973)
Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) – I saw all five PotA movies in one day; not recommended
the aforementioned Planet of the Apes (1968) at least twice
The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) multiple viewings on TV
El Cid (1961)
Ben-Hur (1959)
The Ten Commandments (1956) I saw him playing Moses on TV probably a half dozen times
The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
While I chafed at his NRA position, I do remember that he was very active in the civil rights movement for a time. So, goodbye, Chuck; maybe you’ll meet Moses and compare notes.

ROG

BOOK REVIEW: Kirby: King of Comics


It seems I discovered Jack Kirby at the worst possible time. I started reading comics in the early 1970s, but I was pretty much a Marvel zombie, thus missing New Gods and the other books from his “Fourth World” until about a decade later. So when the “Jack is back!” mantra came to Marvel in the mid-1970s, I was excited to see the work of the legendary KING of comics. Boy, was I disappointed. Captain America seemed to be a character from another time. The formerly sleek Black Panther seemed cartoony. And Devil Dinosaur?!

So it wasn’t until I started working at a comic book store in Albany called FantaCo when I got to really get an understanding of Jack Kirby’s significance, and more importantly, tremendous skills in developing the Marvel universe that I knew and loved. And digging further, I recognized his prolific output in the pre-Marvel days.

But it took the Mark Evanier book, Kirby: King of Comics, before I got the full measure of the man born Jacob Kurzberg on August 28, 1913 in New York City. More than just a narrative, this small coffee-table presented artwork from his days as a comic strip writer working under several pseudonyms and his work for several comic book companies.

A couple core narratives flow through the book: 1) Jack was creative and fast, 2) Jack obsessed with financial security, though largely did not know how to achieve this, long before the disputes over what parts of the classic Marvel universe Jack was responsible for and how much writer/editor Stan Lee created. Jack, not always glib of tongue, had a strong sense of justice and often thought that his hard work would get him the financial remuneration to which he was undoubtedly entitled. If Evanier, Kirby’s assistant and friend for a number of years, tends to err on the side of his subject, it seems consistent with the throngs of Kirby fans who believe that Jack has gotten ripped off, not just monetarily but also in terms of credit.

This may not the definitive Kirby biography that some may have been seeking – at 219 pages, over half are full-page illustrations or pictures, and many other pages have accompanying art on them – but I’m happy to own it, perhaps BECAUSE of the many pictures from over the years. Incidentally, Amazon suggested that the book would take two to five weeks, but I ordered it on February 29, and it arrived on my birthday, March 7, a mere week later.

I spoke to Jack Kirby only a couple times, chronicled here. At that time, I was just beginning to get a sense of what a great contributor to comic-book art – no, scratch that, ART – he was.

One criticism of the book was that Evanier didn’t take advantage of his long association to dig deeper inside the man, but I get the sense that Jack was who Jack was, with no psychobabble analysis needed. And the one story that Mark told about himself and Jack at the end of the book was both moving and a good representation of Jack’s character.

So, thanks, Mark. And thank you, Jack.
***
ADD’s review.

ROG

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