January Rambling: sweatshops, Steve Bissette and singing

Some yahoo wrote The Rare Case Against Creator-Owned Comics, citing the Steve Bissette article as “proof” of his premise.

 

Vernon Supreme for President. Just one of about four dozen candidates on the New Hampshire ballot.

From here: “When Steve Jobs died…, deification from the media and inconsolable consumers made gripes about Apple’s use of sweatshops seem like the cynical mumblings of contrarians. The problem is that there’s plenty of documentation and reporting that supports the criticism.” See also this: “Mike Daisey was a self-described ‘worshipper in the cult of Mac.’ Then he saw some photos from a new iPhone, taken by workers at the factory where it was made. Mike wondered: Who makes all my crap? He traveled to China to find out.”

Rich Kids For Romney.

A Gentle Question for the Christian Right.

Nobody has the right to take another life; Roger Ebert on the death penalty.

Elizabeth Warren: ‘It Gets Better’

Gabrielle Giffords resigns from the US House of Representatives, a year after being shot in the head, so she can more fully recover. The video is very nice, but there are always trolls – check them out at the YouTube site at your own risk – who show what schmucks some people can be.

My buddy Steve Bissette noted the unfortunate circumstances involving the non-publication of 1963, a project that involved, among others, Steve and Alan Moore. Then, some yahoo wrote The Rare Case Against Creator-Owned Comics, citing the Bissette article as “proof” of his premise. Steve responded to “this oddly-headlined post at Newsarama, which”, Steve hastened to add, “somewhat distorts the context of my own end-of-2011 Myrant post.”

Aggressively inarticulate.

The late Etta James covers Guns ‘N’ Roses’ Welcome To The Jungle. Here’s her Roll with me Henry a/k/a The Wallflower.
From the Wikipedia: “[Musician Johnny] Otis took the group under his wing, helping them sign to Modern Records and changing their name from the Creolettes to the Peaches and gave the singer her stage name reversing Jamesetta [Hawkins] into Etta James. James recorded the version…in 1954, and the song was released in early 1955 as ‘Dance with Me, Henry’…changed to avoid censorship due to the subtle title. In February of that year, the song reached number one on the Hot Rhythm & Blues Tracks chart.” Yes, her At Last was played at Carol’s and my wedding reception, too. And coincidentally, Johnny Otis died that same week as Etta. Here’s his Willie and the Hand Jive.

A nice story about the late Dick Tufeld, who voiced the robot on Lost in Space, among MANY other gigs.

Ten Bits of Advice Writers Should Stop Giving Aspiring Writers.

The Year in Kickstarter.

Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy hit back at Fox News during a UK press conference following the London Premiere of their new film. Fox News had publicly criticized the film for supposedly pushing a ‘dangerous liberal agenda’ at kids.

Three musical pieces, including those 5 people on one guitar I saw more than a few times across the interwebs.

Art Spiegelman exhibition in Angouleme, France.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1910).

Ellen and Sofia.

Sammy Davis performing If I Were A Rich Man, with Mark Evanier citing the source, and making an interesting point about its appropriateness.

Pie on the brain.

Mozart is 256.

This guy travels the world and everywhere he goes, he shoots a second or two of video of himself. Then he goes home and puts it together.

Pacman, the Musical.

Cookie Monster as Tom Waits. Or vice versa.

Sorry, San Francisco football fans, but the 49ers Aren’t Going to the Super Bowl. So, go New York Giants, even if they play in New Jersey.

MOI, ELSEWHERE

Post SOPA/PIPA, KeepThe Web#OPEN; Oppose ACTA

The GOP Debates debate

Slavery By Another Name: Doug Blackmon, Bill Kennedy and Me

Chainsaw Comics Presents: Fear

GOOGLE ALERTS

Roger Green Trim and Construction – Local Business · Charlotte, North Carolina

Dr Roger Green DDS – General Dentistry Sun City West, AZ

11629 West Roger Green Road, Campbellsburg IN 47108

November Untranslatable Rambling

gobsmacked AND flabbergasted

I lead with some heavy stuff; it gets lighter after the pic.

Read the sad tale of Bill Mantlo, former comic book writer and attorney, until a hit-and-run accident wrecked his life. Mark Evanier, linking to the article, writes: “Those who still fear government ‘death panels’ should take note of the portions of Mantlo’s story where his private insurer keeps trying to cut off all payments to him because, after all, their primary duty is to their stockholders.” Here’s the direct link to the article, and here’s Evanier’s correction to the article about the comic book process, which does not negate the insane way Mantlo has been warehoused.

But for sheer devastation, few things I’ve read actually made me weep like Jaquandor’s recollection of a particular day.

Joe Paterno and Jerry Sandusky’s Next Coaching Gig

The Beatles album artwork worth £70,000: Top 10 most valuable record sleeves revealed

How music changes our brains

The Beach Boys An Introduction to “SMiLE Sessions”, released this month. It’s great seeing Mike Love, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston and Brian Wilson on the same page.

Michelle Shocked – Quality of Mercy (version)

Evanier also found The Lambeth Walk as performed by Adolf Hitler and a batch of Nazi soldiers, which reportedly had Joseph Goebbels running, screaming from the room in anger. In fact, there are about a dozen versions of this song on his blog this month.

A song about Roman Emperor Constantine…sung to the tune of “Come On Eileen”. Of COURSE, it is.

SamuraiFrog linked to Life Is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me) by Reunion. What caught my eye, though, were the initial visuals, which I recognized INSTANTLY from a commercial for Country Corn Flakes; I knew that ad by heart, I’m afraid.

American expat linguist Lynneguist, now in the UK, lists the untranslatables, those British and American English terms that don’t travel well across the pond. I made a comment, and a word I used as a jumping-off point for even more discussion.

Saucy Shakespearean Slings

Sid Melton, R.I.P. – if you watched a lot of TV in in the 1950s and later, you might say, “Oh, THAT guy.”

Maine Man’s Car Logs One Million Miles, Equivalent to Driving Around Earth 40 Times. Imagine how far he would have gotten if he’d only taken care of the vehicle.

Dustbury’s Today’s brain-cloud generator. Say What?

Mike Sterling was gobsmacked AND flabbergasted. Which is how I felt when I saw the middle item, about a new font, on Jaquandor’s page.

The Harvey Pekar Library Statue at the Comics as Art & Literature Desk — A Comics project in Cleveland Heights, OH. And Steve Bissette’s support for the same. Plus, in support of this memorial, Joyce Brabner has “coaxed Alan Moore out of the darkness wherein he dwells to video record a special message to comics folk in which he’s offering several hours– by invitation only– video conference from his home in the UK. Viewers may ask impertinent questions. Alan tells great stories.”

Bill Cosby – The Playground

Hawkeye Pierce as a serial killer

GOOGLE ALERT

Pols’ promise to themselves by Roger Green, Scottsbluff

September Rambling

Roger and Patricia Green were married 50 years ago on August 19, 1961.

But before I get to that, the baseball playoffs begin today and Scott wants to know:
How do you think the MLB playoffs will go?

I expect that Boston will beat Atlanta in the World Series.

Wait, are you telling me NEITHER of them even made the playoffs after MASSIVE leads in the wild card race on Labor Day? I got a haircut yesterday, and a Red Sox fan walked into the shop and immediately, before anyone could even say a word, noted that the Yankees’ collapse in the 2004 playoffs (up 3-0, lost in 7 games to the Red Sox) was worse than the Bosox slide this year. Maybe. This year was certainly worse than the 1951 Dodgers’ collapse.

OK. Yankees over the Tigers, though with Verlander pitching for Detroit, anything’s possible. The Rangers over Tampa Bay. Texas over NYY.

Phillies over Cardinals. Brewers over Diamondbacks, though I know almost nothing about that Arizona team. Philadelphia over Milwaukee.

Phillies over Rangers.

Rooting interests, in order: NYY, Milwaukee, Detroit, Tampa Bay, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Arizona, Texas.


I remember reading earlier this month that actor Cliff Robertson, “who starred as John F. Kennedy in a 1963 World War II drama and later won an Academy Award for his portrayal of a mentally disabled bakery janitor in the movie ‘Charly,” had turned 88. Then, I discovered, he died the very next day. Some fans will recall that he was the “very first man ever to enter ‘The Outer Limits’, in addition to…his two trips to Rod Serling’s original ‘Twilight Zone’.” And yes, he was Spider-Man’s Uncle Ben. (NO relation to the rice of the same name.)
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Eleanor Mondale died. She was the hallmate of my wife’s best friend in college. Yikes, she was only 51.
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Justice denied in the Troy Davis case
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I came across Linda Carmical’s blogpost about grief – she lost her daughter on 9/11/2001 – somehow through Twitter, and I made a comment on her blog. Here’s her response to my comment. (Got that?)
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Spatula Forum says goodbye to R.E.M.
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Roger Ebert falls down (and don’t we all?)
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Great customer service
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Something I can’t do (and, I suspect, neither can you). Confidential to…you know who you are…red-haired woman.
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Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker’s son is a minister. And apparently a good one.
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I’d definitely file an amicus curiae on Jesus’ behalf
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This is called On Black People and Homophobia, but it turned out to be very sweet.
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Wither the ampersand?
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The Economy’s Latest Casualty: America’s Baby Bottoms
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Shooting the boss with an AK-47, at his request. (No blood is spilled, thankfully, but still.)
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Cover of Toxicity-System of a Down by 2 Cellos [LISTEN]
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Pinky and the Brain meet the Beatles [WATCH]

GOOGLE ALERTS
Roger and Patricia Green were married 50 years ago on August 19, 1961.

The new frontier of cashless transactions – Roger Green + Associates

Roger Green, Attorney – Other for $12000.00 on 09/08/2011, We are helping people get their money back from Roger Green, Attorney Scams.

 

Closure…or Not

While some Republicans congratulated Obama, others praised GW Bush for using Gitmo as an intelligence source, while pointedly ignoring Obama’s role.


I woke up ridiculously early Monday morning, around 3:50 a.m., and just could not get back to sleep, so I went to the computer. Ah, Bin Laden’s dead. Hmm. Where’s my fist pump? Maybe I’m still too tired.

I came across Kevin Marshall’s piece, which was entitled “No closure from Osama bin Laden’s death”, and even before I read the actual piece, I realized that he was on the right track. Key half-sentence: “I became confused as to why I didn’t feel that level of joy that everyone else seemed to be expressing.” It reminded me of what I wrote about the execution of Tim McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber.

Then I went to Reader Wil’s page. She said, “…People are glad that this cruel man is dead. Isn’t it terrible that we should be glad that somebody is killed, even if he deserved it? It asks for revenge and hatred. The death of any tyrant is cause for satisfaction for one group and cause for fury, anger, and revenge for his friends.” Sounds about right.

The next stop was Mark Evanier’s post: “Boy, it’s nice to see America so happy. This country has been in bad need of a hug for a long time and the killing of Osama Bin Laden seems to be it, at least in some quarters.” Yeah, I saw the celebrations in New York and DC and elsewhere, but is AMERICA happy? And if America’s so happy, why aren’t I?

After finally going to sleep and too soon getting up again, I started reading more responses. Newsmax echoed Evanier’s point: “Bin Laden Death Gives US Reason to Cheer,” to get us out our “surly” state over “rising gas prices, stubbornly high unemployment and nasty partisan politics”. Wow – now I can ignore the $4.159 per gallon gasoline, up six cents just this week, at the local station.

So I watch the Today show and read more stories and find the samo samo. While some Republicans congratulated Obama, others praised GW Bush for using Gitmo as an intelligence source, while pointedly ignoring Obama’s role. Meanwhile, someone was blathering about the liberals and the Ground Zero site, and I tuned out. And speaking of nasty partisan politics

Let me be clear: I’ll shed no tears for Osama bin Ladin. But this paragraph in David Sirota’s article in Salon rings too true: “This is bin Laden’s lamentable victory: He has changed America’s psyche from one that saw violence as a regrettable-if-sometimes-necessary act into one that finds orgasmic euphoria in the news of bloodshed. In other words, he’s helped drag us down into his sick nihilism by making us like too many other bellicose societies in history — the ones that aggressively cheer on killing, as long as it is the Bad Guy that is being killed.” I also noticed Jack Bauer, the fictional character from the TV show 24, was tracking on Twitter, and I knew for sure that this one death is no cure-all.
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Steve Bissette’s rant, Part 1 and Part 2. And on a lighter note, how the former Kate Middleton helped to do in Usama.

Woody Allen is 75

Last month, TV writer Ken Levine wrote an open letter to Woody Allen, which suggested that Woody:
Take a break.

I have noted more than once that Annie Hall is my all-time favorite movie; moreover, it was commercially successful and critically acclaimed. Nominated for five Academy Awards for the 1977 season, it won four – Best Picture, Best Actress (Diane Keaton), Best Director (Woody Allen), Best Original Screenplay (Allen and Marshall Brickman), losing only Best Actor (Allen).

Yet, when making a list of his six best movies – ZELIG, PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO, HUSBANDS AND WIVES, VICKY CHRISTINA BARCELONA, BULLETS OVER BROADWAY, MATCH POINT – Annie Hall was not among them. Is it unreasonable to suggest that a director is mistaken about his own films?

I saw all the movies mentioned except Match Point; I can say that Vicki Christina Barcelona clearly does NOT belong on this list. I’d be hard-pressed to actually come up with my other five on a list – Hannah and Her Sisters, and Zelig, for sure, maybe Bananas, Broadway Danny Rose, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Purple Rose of Cairo, Radio Days, or even Manhattan if the parallel with his actual life didn’t creep me out so much.

Slate takes a crack at Copy-Editing the Culture: The Rise and Fall of Woody Allen, as Experienced Through His Punctuation.

Last month, TV writer Ken Levine wrote an open letter to Woody Allen, which suggested that Woody:
Take a break.
Stop making movies.
At least for now.
Please.
It’s time.
It really really is.

An interesting discussion ensued.

Read some interviews, some recent, some historic, that delve into Woody’s mind. Also, on May 6, 1971, Johnny Carson’s guest host on The Tonight Show was Woody Allen, whose guests included Bob Hope and James Coco.

Happy birthday, Woody. No matter how much I think you’re off your game, you provided me with great cinematic pleasure for many years.

Ramblin' with Roger
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