Fred Hembeck Archives - Page 10 of 12

Here Now the News

One Fred G (for Generous) Hembeck passed this on to me: Rupert Murdock’s New York Post front page from yesterday. I don’t remember which of these many characters in Anna Nicole Land this Larry is, but the picture is worth posting anyway.
He (Fred, not Larry) may be featured in another post in the near future.
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Meanwhile, I was watching ESPN last night when the crawl made mention of two stories:
Men exonerated in rape charge – oh, yeah, the Duke lacrosse team members.
Don Imus suspended by his network – oh, yeah, for dissing the Rutgers women’s basketball team.
Interesting how, in some way or another, race, gender, class and power all played into both “sports” stories.
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I read that Google Earth is mapping the atrocities in the Darfur region of Sudan. Thought I’d look for it myself, but absentmindedly used Google Maps instead. I discovered something quite curious. There’s a Darfur, Minnesota 56022, about 130 miles southwest of St. Paul.
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However you feel about the war in Iraq – and I’ve made myself quite clear on this in the past – there’s something really unsettling about the Defense Dept. extending the tours of duty of US soldiers by 25%. It has me worried about what happens if/when another war breaks out; also, the “bait and switch” seems patently unfair to the soldiers and their families.

ROG

Not Such a Good Friday

I’m sitting in the choir loft last night, listening to the Passion reading from Luke as the lights get lower and lower, and suddenly get a vivid sensation about why I so oppose the death penalty: the execution of the innocent. It was a point I had reached intellectually before, but this was a more visceral understanding that I’m not sure I can explain.

In any case, I’m still feeling rather awful. Looking at computer screens is particularly not recommended, because everything looks fuzzy. So, I’ll be brief:

Thanks to Gordon for answering one of my questions,. One down, about a dozen to go. Microsoft Paint, eh?

Thanks to Scott for embracing his 2003-ness and citing me as the inspiration.

Congrats to Gay Prof for not having to go back to Texas, but will instead be at BMU.

Thanks to uberblogger Mark Evanier for posting a video AFTER I DID. This pleases me, and I’m not sure why. And thanks to Dan for sending it to me in the first place.

Thanks to Lefty’s Mixed CD pals, even Greg, and to little Stevie Brown, Lefty’s intelligent iPod.

Special thanks to ol’ what’s his name who I spoke to by phone yesterday for the first time in a while.

I’m going to rest most of the day so that I can try to sing tonight. I had about a six-note range last night, mostly in the lower register. Wish me luck.

Perplexing Pixilation Problem

So what did I do on my birthday? I got up early to finish – finally!- burning some CDs that I promised to the folks involved with Lefty Brown’s Mixed Bag. It was NOT for lack of trying. It seemed as though iTunes is the culprit, for me and a co-worker at least. Even though it has this lovely way to put together collections, it appears that stuff I copy from iTunes, including things I didn’t even BUY on iTunes, has a tendency to allow the first nine songs or so to track, and then not so much after that. So, I took said disc with nine seemingly OK songs and rerecorded said tunes into another program, then made a disc of them from a third program. (I’m exhausted just thinking about this.) Problem was, those nine already recorded songs, when copied onto a disc, tended to fade in and out. Thus, I had to rip the nine songs individually AGAIN. The good news is that this actually seemed to work. Finally.

My baby sister and her daughter called at 6:15 to wish me HB (talked with my other sister later in the day), then Carol took Lydia to day care so I could have a few extra minutes playing racquetball. Came home, ate, made a list.

I hate making lists.

I hate making lists, because, inevitably, the list is longer than the time allotted for the things on the list. I will tell you that reading the newspapers, working on the blog, putting the CDs away that I’ve played recently (“recently” being since late January), or even emptying the dishwasher did not happen. Didn’t even put “going to the movies”, my traditional birthday item, on the list.

Looked at a few blogs, including the one of my good buddy Fred Hembeck, who has the Greens Goblin, Lantern, and Arrow, plus the Martian Manhunter wishing me an HB; the Hulk had another agenda. (Fred might be interested in reading the March 6 post on why “24” uses real phone numbers on the show.)

I did print out lists for the mixed CD, no small feat, since the printer had been spooling out gibberish for a couple weeks. After taking myself to lunch at an Indian restaurant, I stood in a very s-l-o-w line and finally MAIL these CDs to the participants (and also to the aforementioned Mr. Hembeck). Additionally, I sent one of them to the guy who sent me this link to the MidWinter’s event I missed this year because it was right after Lydia’s surgery:

(Not to be confused with this or this, though the process is similar.)

That guy, BTW, also, walked me through the incredibly convoluted process of burning these CDs in the first place, on Saturday. Thanks, effendi! He, Fred, and Lefty Brown also got a copy of this book. (If anyone else would like a copy, please let me know, and I’ll send you one.)

After the P.O., I went to the grocery store to get some food for the hearts card party I’m having on Sunday – call if you want to come. The card party is really what I put on my birthday wish list.

I have all this new music from these folks I’ve never met that I’m supposed to rank by Sunday, which is really difficult. I will say that Lefty’s disc is in second place, of the ones I’ve heard so far, which is all that I received before yesterday.

Watched a couple news programs. Had dinner with wife and daughter, with carrot cake for birthday dessert. Lydia sang happy birthday to me thrice on my birthday: in the morning, when she came home, and with the cake.

I did get presents: headphones (the only other thing I asked for – my old ones broke), a couple racquetball gloves, and a pass to the Spectrum movie theater. My wife was mock upset when I told her I might take my girlfriend to the movies until I noted that SHE was my girlfriend.

All in all, not the birthday I planned, but mostly pretty OK.

On the other hand, the celebration continued the next day, with a half dozen birthday messages on my voice mail and work e-mail, plus a couple cards in the mail. Most special, the drawing that Mr. Hembeck featured on his blog for March 7 was in a package at my desk when I got to work! Not only that, some, actually a LOT of, tunes were also included. Huzzah!

ROG

Another Movie Meme

1. Name a movie that you have seen more than 10 times.

Not sure I’ve seen ANY movie more than 10 times. MAYBE the Wizard of OZ on TV, but the first several times was on a B&W set. “Annie Hall” I’ve seen a lot. Also Le Roi de Coeur, which played in my college town annually for a while. There tend to be scenes, usually because TNT/TBS is running the movie over and over, that I’ve seen a lot: the end of Animal House (from “the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor”), e.g.

2. Name a movie that you’ve seen multiple times in the theater.
At least three times, and possibly many more: Le Roi de Coeur. Four times: Annie Hall, Midnight Cowboy. Twice: the first Planet of the Apes, Help!, Yellow Submarine. Woodstock, I sat through twice in a row. Catch-22: 1 1/2 times – there’s a story there.

3. Name an actor that would make you more inclined to see a movie.

Meryl Streep, apparently. Saw, in the movie theater, two of her movies (Prada, Prairie Home Companion) in 2006. James Cromwell (Babe, L.A. Confidential, The Queen). There are probably others.

4. Name an actor that would make you less likely to see a movie.

Rob Schneider. Actually about a third of the SNL alums (David Spade among them) who are making movies.

5. Name a movie that you can and do quote from.

Quote on a regular basis like in my everyday life? Midnight Cowboy: “I’m WALKIN” here!” I try NOT to quote “The Wizard of Oz”.

6. Name a movie musical that you know all of the lyrics to all of the songs.

“West Side Story”, “Fiddler on the Roof”, “The Sound of Music”

7. Name a movie that you have been known to sing along with.

I don’t sing along with movies. Takes me out of the film.

8. Name a movie that you would recommend everyone see.

With the caveat that I don’t think there’s such a thing that everyone MUST see: Schnidler’s List.

9. Name a movie that you own.

I own a number of VHS tapes. One of them is Stuart Little, which I’m pretty sure was a gift. We started watching it, but the cat was too scary for Lydia. I didn’t know that Hugh Laurie, who I only know from the TV show “House” was the father in that movie or that M. Night Shyamalan co-wrote the screenplay; the movie was released the same year as The Sixth Sense.

10. Name an actor that launched his/her entertainment career in another medium but who has surprised you with his/her acting chops.

Will Smith, Chuck Connors.

11. Have you ever seen a movie in a drive-in? If so, what?

Saw lots of movies at the drive-in as a kid. The last time that I can remember the films were all five Planet of the Apes films (I fell asleep during the last one, which, apparently, is just as well).

12. Ever made out in a movie?

Probably.

13. Name a movie that you keep meaning to see but just haven’t yet gotten around to it.

Office Space. Actually went to the library to seek it out last month, then didn’t have time to watch it before it was due back.

14. Ever walked out of a movie?

No, but got awful close with Fellini’s Satyricon.

15. Name a movie that made you cry in the theater.

I cried at the end of The Pursuit of Happyness, I cried at the end of Brokeback Mountain. I can be a sucker for a weeper. Oh, and – do I want to admit this? – I got a little misty in Toy Story 2, when Jessie the Cowgirl sang When She Loved Me.

16. Popcorn?

Usually.

17. How often do go to the movies (as opposed to renting them or watching them at home)?

Not nearly as often as BL (before Lydia), when it was twice a month, at least, and a lot more in the winter. Now it’s usually every two months, at best.

18. What’s the last movie you saw in the theater?

Notes on a Scandal.

19. What’s your favorite/preferred genre of movie?

Intelligent comedy.

20. What’s the first movie you remember seeing in the theater?

State Fair

21. What movie do you wish you had never seen?

I don’t remember the title. It was a double feature with some old Francis the Talking Mule film. The story involved this woman who was old and/or homely but became lovely through this potion. Men found her irresistible, but if they kissed her, she’d revert to her former self. She had to kill them, using some ring to the jugular, and blow some powder to return to her beautiful self. I was about 10 or 11, so this movie came out before 1964. The thing gave me nightmares for MONTHS. It was, quite literally, a pain in the neck.

22. What is the weirdest movie you enjoyed?

I don’t know: Life of Brian, The Sixth Sense, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Any of these weird?

23. What is the scariest movie you’ve seen?

That I can remember the title to? Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia.

24. What is the funniest movie you’ve seen?

Young Frankenstein, which I can quote in part, but it doesn’t make any sense out of context.
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So I’m going through the list of bloggers I check out, and I come to the site of my buddy Fred Hembeck and what do I read on March 1? “I blame Roger Green.” What?

Seems that the idea Tom the Dog had to list all of the Oscar-winning movies he’d seen I expanded on somewhat to mention the circumstances. Well, Monsieur Hembeck took the concept much further, not only with far greater detail than I could possible muster about who he saw films with, but also about a dozen responses to MY posts, plus nearly as many pictures. A real bang-up job that you should see here.
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Hey, Albany: The Oscar-winning “On the Waterfront” at the Palace Theater, Wednesday, March 7, 1 and 7 pm, $5.

Fred G. Hembeck – the G stands for Great

The second annual summer meeting with my family and Fred’s led to all sorts of cool things: our Rashamon take on an obscure 1960s song by Tom Clay, which somehow segued into me writing about Snoopy vs. Osama, and getting a response from the Royal Guardsmen.

But even when we don’t see each other, we’re in contact. He’s turned me on to Nellie McKay and SpongeBob.

I now realize that I’ve known Fred half of our lives. I met him in February 1980, when he was doing a signing for the FantaCo publication Hembeck 1980, when he was 27, and today he turns…lessee 27 times 2 is..this higher math is tough… Of course, there was a big gap in there, but I’m glad he started doing his blog, and that our mutual friend Rocco told me about said blog. (Peculiar that I find out more about Rocco, who lives in Albany from Fred, who lives over an hour from here, than I do from Rocco.)

Another thing you should know about Fred: he’s a proud NGSD supporter.

Last point: this is my favorite time in my relationship with Fred Hembeck, where (for five weeks) he’s older than I am. Utterly petty, but I enjoy it anyway.

Happy birthday, effendi!
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And speaking of FantaCo and long time ago, check out this link about something called the Daredevil Omnibus that Fred sent me. There are five pages taken from the Daredevil Chronicles, originally published by FantaCo, three pages of an interview, featuring a nifty Hembeck illo, and the two page Miller/Janson spread . I didn’t edit that particular issue, Mitch Cohn did; I was working on as similar ‘zine about the Fantastic Four at the time. But I’m sure I proofread that issue, as Mitch proofed the FF. Really took me back.