Snap snap

So Lance Mannion mentioned this old TV series on the Facebook and I've had the theme song to 77 Sunset Strip playing in my ear ever since.



Which makes me want to binge watch the entire series from the first episode. Somebody should make that possible. And I'm not ashamed to admit I had a teenage crush on Kookie.


Also too, Connie Stevens! She was the Taylor Swift of my youth.

Bye, Bye Miss American Pie

By Capt. Fogg


Indications are that the Mayans were right and that 2012 is indeed the end of an era, not because of  some change in politics or religion and not because of anything cosmic or tectonic, but because a piece of America as we knew it has died. An America, exuberant in itself, proud, forward looking, confident.  Hostess bakeries died this week and not because of mismanagement but because of what America has become: timorous, ashamed of what it loves and afraid of being provincial.  Our sweet land of phony authenticity.  Of thee I sing.

The Twinkie, the Ho-Ho, the Snowball are gone now, along with the Oldsmobile and the Mercury; with Buddy Holly and the independent hamburger stand. You can't buy a Hostess cupcake any more for much the same reason you can't find anything like Hopper's Nighthawks any more. Your cupcakes have to be 'artisinal,' gluten free, in season, free range and come from a 'cupcakery' just as that cup of Joe is now an 'Americano' and served (artisinally) by a 'Barista.'  You're not à la mode enough though, unless you order something that sounds like Mississippi camp-meeting glossolalia and costs forty bucks for a "venti."  Good God, don't ask for a "large." America's rites of self detestation and the industries that thrive on it the way a tapeworm thrives on weakening it's host have us all scrambling for the plastic, made in Taiwan, European panache that we attribute to lands  that we otherwise pretend to loathe because, of course, they're 'authentic' and we're not. American means fake and we flee from it toward an imported synthetic authenticity.

The Authenticity industry with it's vast smoking factories churning out the local and seasonal and artisinal synthetic-reality products we crave and the flim-flam pseudo-scientist diet doctors selling us low 'carb' gluten free and without fructose and for heaven's sake, not 'processed' foods: we zumba and carb-count our way to South Beach to be fleeced.  In an age most noteworthy for the triumph of scientific method over superstition and fallacious conjecture, we have come more to trust 'alternative' information that comes from movie actors, comedians and people who get rich by insisting, contrary to all evidence, that gluten is poison, that miracle berries and magic beans will let you live forever, that cooking your food is bad and the fructose you get from corn is full of bad and fattening juju unlike the identical Furanose Sugars found in (organically grown, artisinally picked, local and seasonal ) strawberries.

Studies show. . .  I cringe when I see that and nearly always it means that tendentious conjecture based on selected facts might fool you into thinking. . . It nearly always means that there was no real study.  Large scale, double blind and randomized scientific studies that are repeatable and published in peer-reviewed journals don't have a chance against diet doctors, Oprah-backed pundits or miracle food and fake science purveyors, not in a country trained to favor faith over fact, trained to celebrate the notions of celebrities and mistrust scientists; trained to patronize diet doctors who tell us that studies show.

Twinkies have anti-oxidant  "preservatives" which everyone knows are bad because studies show. They contain things like gluten and fructose that everyone knows are bad because studies show.  Twinkies may be authentic, but they're authentic American and that doesn't count. We long for something Tuscan, even if we're not sure where that is -- something from Tuscany where it's all artisinal.  Hostess Snowballs -- they didn't stand a snowball's chance in the new America. Maybe if you called them gluten free Palle di Neve or Boules de Neige and opened chic little sidewalk places in Boca Raton and Park Slope and South Beach and had them served by Ballistas for ten bucks each. . .
Ah well, one can only dream now of  temps perdue.  Where? When? O lost, and by the wind grieved, ghost, come back again.

When I was young

Looking forward to this movie short. Somebody unearthed previously unreleased footage from a 1965 taping of the Rolling Stones. We were all so young and innocent then. Well, maybe not that innocent, but surely idealistic and maybe a little naive.

Love this trailer from the Stones movie so much. Can't wait to see it.



[via Greg Mitchell, once editor of Crawdaddy magazine]

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Random nerdery

These guys often go over my head, but this epic xkcd cartoon is easy to understand and it's not hyperbole to say it's the most incredible ever. Warning: Don't click the link unless you have at least ten minutes to look at it all.

And I'm too excited for this December release. First trailer for the new Hobbit movie is finally out:



[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Life is like a Star Trek episode

Charlie reminded me that Voyager reached the end of our solar system and is about to venture into deep space. It was long trip. It started from Earth in 1977.

I suppose Charlie and I aren't the only ones who thought of the Star Trek villain V'ger when we read the news. Which led to a discussion at his place about who are the best Star Trek villians ever.

My personal favorites are Q. Amusing, charming in a fiendish way yet somehow childlike and vulnerable, always seeking approval. Second is Kahn because Ricardo Montalban. Love him in everything. Third, not technically villains but they did present a danger to the ship -- Tribbles. For the obvious reason. [More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Justin Bieber was creepy

The Bieber thing has become so ubiquitous, I've no longer been able to avoid him. I tried to like him. I did. But there's something about that kid that I find really creepy. Which I don't think is fair. Because he's just a kid and probably a victim of some ugly adult supervision. But that just changed.

In possibly the best post ever published on the internets, Thers put Bieber in a context that didn't make my skin crawl. This is my favorite part.

I wish anyone in Washington was proposing a Canadian-style system. However, they are not. The Canadian system is not especially similar to "Obamacare." They are different things! This minor detail of substance however does not detain Hill; he has a trendy pop culture hook for a canned wingnut diatribe, dammit!

Recall that in May of 2010, then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi noted that the Obamacare legislation would enable “artists” to simply quit their day-jobs, and not worry about providing for themselves. "We see this as an entrepreneurial bill,” Pelosi noted at the time, “a bill that says to someone, 'if you want to be creative and be a musician or whatever, you can leave your work, focus on your talent, your skill, your passion, your aspirations because you will have health care.'"

No need to think about who pays the Doctor, for Ms. Pelosi. Just focus on your “passion” and “aspirations,” and thanks in no small part to her, you will simply “have” healthcare. Sounds like Bieber’s Canada.

The ability to work hard and live your dreams without having to worry about going bankrupt because of medical bills-- sure sounds like Canada is basically Mordor. This is one of the reasons an overwhelming majority of 14% of all Canadians want a US style system, because they're tired of having the freedom to follow their "passion" and "aspirations," on account of how terrifying those things are once you put them in scare quotes.

Brilliant takedown and finally, I have a reason to kind of like little Justin. Or at least empathize with him. And I wanted to. Seriously, read it all.

How very sad

I'm not watching the Michael Jackson funeral but see on Twitter that his father is hawking $50 t-shirts outside the Staples Center. Pathetic if it's true.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Bode!

I just found out my friend, Mark Bode, son of the legendary 60s comic artist Vaughn Bode and a brilliant artist in his own right, has a licensing contract with Puma sneakers. They just came out with a new line of Bode sneakers featuring Da Lizard to be launched in Boston on May 16 at a store called Bodega that is apparently so underground and exclusive it's hard to get an address.

I also see Mark just signed a deal for a movie with Universal, based on his Cobalt 60 graphic novel. I used to hang out with Mark and his gorgeous wife Molly a lot when we all lived in and around lovely downtown Northampton. I miss those days and I really miss them.

Meanwhile, their daughter Zara is all grown up now and carries on the family's artistic tradition through various music projects, including her band The Sweetback Sisters. If you get a chance to meet any of them, I recommend you take it. They're really cool peeps.

Geekery for grrrls

If you live in or near the Happy Valley, this looks like it could be fun.

ConBust is a sci-fi/fantasy/anime/gaming convention put on each spring by students at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts.

What sets ConBust apart from most other sci-fi, fantasy, anime, and/or gaming conventions is its focus on the female members of the participating community. While the various realms of geekdom remain stereotypically male-dominated, ConBust is held to celebrate the work of women amongst these genres.

It's going on through Sunday. The roster of speakers looks interesting and admission is very affordable.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Palin: The new Paris Hilton

The Politico breathlessly announces queries for Palin rank high in search engines. I don't know why they seem so excited about it. When you yank an unknown out of the Yukon and propose making her the VP of the US, people are bound to be a little curious about who this person is, but so what? Paris Hilton still draws high search figures and everybody knows who she is already. Both share the same distinction of being famous for being famous.

Also, broad search numbers don't tell the whole story, so let's do a little comparison searching, shall we? If you just do a generic search by name only, Palin would appear to be the winner with 38,900,000 hits to Hilton's 27,500,000 but qualified searches are more revealing. In each example below, Palin's number comes first, followed by Paris.

naked: 2,310,000 - 1,430,000

sexy: 2,480,000 - 1,160,000

idiot: 2,630,000 - 1,740,000

stupid: 6,330,000 - 6,090,000

Accomplishments: 431,000 - 306,000

IQ: 760,000 - 1,060,000

smart: 6,240,000 - 7,880,000

Competent: 290,000 - 177,000

Incompetent: 499,000 - 142,000

honest: 3,630,000 - 2,370,000

lies: 5,970,000 - 3,240,000

policy positions: 727,000 - 961,000

issues: 69,100,000 - 130,000,000

Looking at these numbers one might extrapolate that searchers were more interested in Palin's body and Hilton's mind. Paris might be considered the smarter and the more honest of the two and people were more interested in Hilton's stand on the issues. Remembering Hilton's ad in response to John McCain's early slam at Obama's celebrity, one might also surmise he would have done better to invite the known celebrity of Paris to front his ticket than to have used all that capital in making Palin one. As I recall the base was ready to elect Paris after just that one ad and she was already well vetted.

So as the GOP ponders making Palin the new face of the GOP they might do well to remember that there was a time not so long ago that cable teevee was interrupting news broadcasts to announce Paris had arrived in the building. But celebrity is as fleeting as the last DWI arrest and the novelty of turkey pardons won't last forever. The only thing certain is that some will always seek for the naked and the famous. "Hillary Clinton naked" still turns up 1,750,000 hits, but the first hit asks -- would you look? If she was 25 years younger, I don't think that would be a question.

[Thanks to Crooks & Liars for the link.]

[More posts daily at The Newshoggers and The Detroit News.]

Robin Williams Is Not Joking

Today Robin Williams declined to apologize over statements he made concerning Catholic priests and pedophiles. Good for Mr. Williams, this is nothing to apologize for.

He made the jokes earlier in the week on the The Tonight Show.

Williams pretended to be playing a shell game with a cup, and provided the running commentary: “Here we go. Find the priest, find the pedophile. Find the priest, find the pedophile. Here you go right now. Move ‘em around, move ‘em around. Oh, you found the pedophile.”

Meredith Vieira of The Today Show asked him if he ever worried about offending people.

“All the time,” he said. “But it’s my job as a comic sometimes to keep going. It you read it, it’s not like it didn’t exist,” he said of the sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic church.

Williams had riffed on priests abusing children. “Their defense was that 40 percent of the victims were under 14 years of age,” he said. “Oh, thank you. That makes it OK, then. Because I was using the word ‘children’ — 14 and under — and the rest were certainly illegal, but that’s OK.”

And he's right, the Catholic Church has no room to squawk about this, their track record on dealing with pedophile priests has not been very good.

Of course when anything about Catholics is said you hear right away from world renown bigot Bill Donahue of the Catholic League. If this asshole is against something then I'm for it. Here is his typically stupid comment.

Leading the response to Williams’s remark was Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, who said, “Isaiah Washington lashes out at one gay person in private, and he is banished from ‘Grey’s Anatomy.’ Robin Williams lashes out against all priests in public, and he suffers no consequence.”

That's true isn't it? But Isaiah Washington shouldn't have been fired and Robin Williams makes his living commenting on the obvious and ridiculous.

If the Catholics don't like being painted with a wide brush then they should stop providing the brush and the paint.

Keep talking Robin, you must be hitting a nerve.

Jim Martin

We'll always have Paris

By Libby

I don't follow celebrity gossip so I barely know who Paris Hilton is, but it's not every day a privileged white girl gets sent back to jail, so it's worth remarking on.

I understand she's been hysterical for days. I hear it's a medical condition. When I was her age, we used to call it spoiled brat. I don't know the medical term for it is now but Dan DiRito diagnoses what's wrong with Paris and those in her social circle.

[T]hey believe that life will accommodate them in the same way they have been accommodated by their parents. This often leads them to disregard society’s rules…assuming they apply to others but not to them.

The problem we face as more of these children enter the real world is that they are not only unprepared to be contributing citizens, they are unwilling to accept the consequences of their actions.

Dan worries about what that means for the future and so do I. The Paris Hiltons and Bush twins and the rest of these entitled class kids will be inheriting the power in a generation or two. How are they going to take responsibility if they don't know the meaning of the word?

That being said, I have to wonder if Paris isn't paying a higher price for her celebrity in a sort of reverse discrimination. I mean, I read this story...

SELMER, Tenn. - A woman who killed her preacher husband with a shotgun blast to the back as he lay in bed was sentenced Friday to three years in prison, but she may end up serving only 60 days in a mental hospital.

Mary Winkler must serve 210 days, or about seven months, of her sentence before she can be released on probation, but she gets credit for the five months she has already spent in jail, Judge Weber McCraw said.

That leaves only two months, and McCraw said up to 60 days of the sentence could be served in a facility where she could receive mental health treatment. That means Winkler may not serve any significant time in prison.

... and I wonder if a Christian preacher's wife can literally get away with murder, whether Paris doesn't deserve less time behind bars after all.

[thanks to the The All Spin ZOne for the link.]

Sorry Paris, This Isn't The Hilton

I can't believe that poor Paris Hilton was sent back to jail today.

When will our long national nightmare be over?

Jim Martin

What Will MSNBC Do Now?

Well, Imus is gone from MSNBC. His show was discontinued by the cable news network for making racist comments about the Rutgers women's basketball team.

Here is the thing. I tried to watch this radio show once and it was really strange. There were these sort of ugly guys setting around with headphones on trying to be funny and hip but coming off as really snarky and juvenile. Then they would go to a long break and they would sit around for a few minutes and say nothing.

Then there was Imus who looks sort of like King Tut with a lot of hair and a cowboy hat mumbling and interviewing political leaders and pundits who seemed to fawn over him like he was a kingmaker. He insulted them with even handed zeal, he seemed to hate everyone.

Now think about this for a minute, I was watching a radio show, how weird is that?

It wasn't very good. It wasn't very funny and it will not be missed. Now if I was driving in my car for a while then it might be OK, but a radio show on TV? Yuk.

The other thing is that this was the best MSNBC could do for three hours from 6:00-9:00 a.m. Are you surprised that Fox is the top rated cable news show?

I wonder what Howard Stern is doing from 6-9:00?

Jim M

Disappointment

It's over, it's finally over. Larry Birkhead is the winner of the Anna Nicole Smith baby sweepstakes. A picture of the happy winner and father can be found here.

I'm glad this is finally over and I can get on with my life. I knew it couldn't have been me since I must be the only guy within a 1000 miles who didn't have sex with her.

Damn.

Jim M