This Just Puzzles Me.

I grew up in a era where every tv show ran 20 to 26 episodes a season and there was a new season every year, usually starting in September.

So it puzzles me greatly why shows that are now 8 or 10 episodes per season can't seem to keep to a yearly schedule anymore.  

What happened?

As an example, I offer this quote from an article about the soon (supposedly) to start production Harry Potter series from HBO chairman and CEO Casey Bloy:

" “I think an annual schedule will be tough, but it depends on how much is written ahead of time,” he said."

What the hell?  

First, this is adaptation of an existing series of novels.  I know it's still got to be written as a script, but it's not like they don't have a framework.  Surely writing 6-8 hours of material to adapt a novel is something that can be accomplished by a team of writers in less than a year?  I'm pretty sure I could knock up a decent script for the first season in a week or two.  

I have little interest in Harry Potter, but it's industry wide.  Every show films fewer episodes and the time between seasons gets longer all the time.  

It's like there's no talent in Hollywood anymore.

Oh..wait...

Some Lovely Pictures.

I'm going to give you a link.  Here it is.

If you go there, you'll see a list of 50 pictures from social media that will bring you the warm fuzzies and maybe even give you the misty eyes.

Are they all real?  No idea.  And really, who cares?  They're lovely and gentle and life affirming.  Their veracity isn't important.

So what kind of pictures are all that?

Pictures like this one about what might be the world's smartest cat.:

 

Is this real?  It makes me happy, so I don't care one way or the other.

I promise, you will smile.  You might even laugh.  At the end, you'll feel pretty good and that's a pretty impressive accomplishment for a bunch of pictures from social media.

This Just Makes Me Smile

I have no idea where it comes from, who the people are or if it's even actually real, but watching this creepy bastard get his cumuppance just makes me happy.  

 

Women don't deserve this crap.  He got exactly what he deserved.

I can imagine my sainted Mother's reaction to this would have been very similar.  But with more post-consiousness nad stomping.

Naming A Building After Someone Great

It isn't easy to get a unanimous opinion on pretty much anything in the internet age.

Imagine a school board in today's political climate voting on anything unanimously!

Well it happened in Missouri.  Swedeborg, to be exact.

The local elementary school needed to name a new building and their choice was a unique and unanimous one.  They named the building after the school's about to retire janitor of 30 years, Claudene Wilson.

You read that right.  Not a war hero or politician, not a sports legend or civil rights activist, a janitor.

This lady has, for 30 years, cleaned up the school and taken on just about everything else that needed doing and in the process become a fixture in the lives of generations of children.  Her care and dedication have endeared her to students and faculty alike and in a touching gesture, they put her name up on the side of the damned building.  Where it belongs.

While you might think it an odd choice at first blush, if you watch the interview embedded in this article (sorry, I couldn't get twitter and blogger to play nice) you'll understand that this was exactly the right choice. 

The work done by "everyday" people is what keeps our lives running.  Without school janitors, garbage collectors, construction workers, couriers, warehouse staff, grocery store cashiers, customer service folks and countless other men and women working "regular" jobs, there are no celebrities, no sports heroes, no media moguls or business tycoons to get their names and likenesses slapped on everything from sneakers to rockets.  

It's nice to see a "regular" life get some love and attention for a change.  It's extraordinary, actually.

Another Stop At Hero Forge

Every once in a while, I stop by Hero Forge and design a few miniatures.  I no longer paint much as my once sharp eyes aren't really up to the task anymore.  I can do it with glasses and magnification but it's just not as fun somehow.

Hero Forge is still a kick though.  I can design pretty much any character, with the only limitation being what's available in the vast catalogue of features, clothing and equipment they offer.  That catalogue is constantly growing, too.  The painting options are damned near infinite, giving you the ability to paint with metallic, plastic, cloth, skin and bone textures and hues among many others.

My latest stop yielded a version of a comic book band I was a big fan of as a kid:

 

Peter, Paul, Gene and Ace, a little off model...

It's a great way to spend an hour or two.  Now if only I could afford to get a few of these made...

Bugs Bunny: You What?!?

Okay, so I'm still working my way through the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies library and I'm still running into things I almost can't believe. 

Like the clip below. 

It's legit, from the 1956 short "Wideo Wabbit," not some 21st Century mocking attack on the morals and humour of the 1950s.  The voice Bugs is doing is his impersonation of Groucho Marx (Google him, kids) and not evidence that this is a fake clip.

 

 

I have no words.

I'm pretty sure I remember seeing "Wideo Wabbit" on TV as a kid, but assuming that's not me misremembering, they DEFINITELY edited this part out.

Agatha. If You Can't Say Something Nice...

...you know the rest.

 

Seven episodes down, two to go.

I've watched this.  It's a Marvel show, so I'm duty bound.

So about that "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all," stuff...

There's a song in the first episode that sets up the whole story.  The song is pretty good.

The last scene of episode 7 is also pretty cool.

I have nothing else to say.

Him Tarzan. Me Sad.

Another one of those childhood hero types has left us today.

Ron Ely played the King of the Jungle in 57 episodes of Tarzan from 1966 to 1968, the same years that saw Adam West play Batman.

 

That's 1966 ripped. Shatner and West had similar frames.

Live action Tarzan wasn't a staple of my childhood and what I did see was a mix of Ely reruns and the occasional Weismuller movie.  I was more familiar and more a fan of the Filmation cartoon, but if a Tarzan show was available, I'd watch.

 

This and Zorro were the BEST.

Ely also had a couple of notable roles later on in his career.  He was never really a huge star even during his Tarazn days, but he was one of the best looking and fittest men in Hollywood at the time, making him perfect for the role of Doc Savage.

 

You can see he's in even better shape here.  70's ripped, literally.

If you're not familiar, Doc Savage is a proto-superhero who predates the advent of "real" superheroes like Superman and Batman by half a decade.  He's a regular human who has trained his mind and body to the peak of physical and mental ability and surrounds himself with a team of experts in various fields who help him solve mysteries and stop crime.  He operates out of his "Fortress of Solitude" in the Empire State Building.  And if that name is familiar, it's because Superman appropriated it for his own "Fortress of Solitude" years later.

The filmmakers of Doc Savage: Man of Bronze took a camp approach, in the vein of the Batman show of the 60s and the movie was a flop.  I've seen it and it's not bad.  There's a fan edit floating around on the web that "de-camps" it and makes a decent movie out if it.  

Ely had a bunch of guest roles on tv through the 70s and 80s but never really found great success.  Notably, he appeared on the Linda Carter Wonder Woman show and did a single episode of the 2001 Sheena: Queen of the Jungle show, much to the delight of Tarzan fans.

Had there been a Superman show made in the late 60s or early 70s, Ely would have likely been the front runner for the lead, standing 6'5" (or 6'3" depending on your source) and rocking an impressive physique for the day, his charming smile and gentle delivery would have been perfect.  He did get the chance in his most notable guest role on the Superboy show when he got the opportunity to play Superman, if only a retired, sweater wearing, silver fox version of the Man of Steel. 

 

Nobody ever rocked the Superman spit curl better.  In a cardigan!

Ely played Superman when Superboy got the chance to meet his older self in one of that show's few standout episodes.  Ely knocked it out of the park.

Ely's later life was marred by the tragic stabbing of his wife by his son in 2019.  His son was later shot to death by law enforcement.

His star never shone as brightly as many of his contemporaries, but he represents some fond memories to me and I shall mourn his passing. 

I Am In Love!

James Gunn continues to work on the upcoming Superman movie and it's still months and months away.

However.

We got some details today and a look at the next iteration of Krypto, the Super-Dog.  I am smitten.

 

I just want to scritch that scraggly pup!

Apparently, Gunn is an advocate for rescue dogs.  This is Adopt a Shelter Dog month, so he shared that the inspiration for Krypto was his own rescue dog.  When they brought their new dog home, he proceeded to destroy their house and made Gunn wonder how much more difficult it would be to deal with if the pup had super powers.  That apparently influenced the script and the direction of the movie.

Now that I've had a look at the pup they cast as Krypto, I'm dying to see what Gunn does with him!  He's scruffier than previous incarnations and I have a feeling that will reflect in his personality.  I can't wait!

PS:

It just occurred to me that the reason I love that dog is that it looks a lot like a dog my neighbour used to dog sit a couple of times a year.  That pup was the best!  So sweet, so friendly and so happy to see me every time I got home and she was out in the yard.
I miss that dog!

So Is Emmy Paying Attention?

Awards shows bore me to tears.  I never watch and haven't since back when Silence of the Lambs was Best Picture.

Still, they sometimes bring attention to stuff that might go unnoticed, so that's a good thing.

This year's Emmys have come and gone.  I think that the timing will be against it, but there's a show airing now that MUST get AT LEAST the Best Make-Up award for 2025.

Somehow, a team of geniuses make THIS work:

 

I've watched 4 episodes and I still can't get my head around it.

Colin Farrell's performance is amazing and he deserves consideration for it.  But the make-up!  

Not once have I looked at the lead character and seen anything but an overweight, scarred, middle-age slob with a limp.  It's like the anti-Farrell.

The show itself is as good as any mob drama I've seen (not my favourite genre) and Farrell's performance as the Batman villain has drawn me in completely.

Addendum:

I anticipated this show being a filler between The Batman and the soon to film sequel, but it was so, so much more.  What you have here is 8 episodes that are nothing short of spectacular.  Colin Farrell's Oz Cobb is far and away the best street level Batman villain ever put on film.  No powers, no tech, no gimmicks.  Just a gun, a mouth and a superb mind coupled with an absolute lack of conscience.  The action is pretty damned good but the plot, the twists, the payoff and the final gut punch are all next level.

Watch it.  Even if Batman isn't your thing, this is pure gangster drama at its finest with a lead for the ages. 

Those Numbers Are Looney!

I'm currently doing a deep dive into the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons.

I thought my "Golden Collection" was complete, but it's only some 500 or so shorts.  They made 1000.

I don't happen to like the really old stuff and I'm horrified by some of the racist depictions that were considered "funny" at the time.  I'm also running across a LOT of shorts that never ran on the shows I watched in the 70s on tv.  I assume that the racism, alcholism, gun violence (there's a few horrible "funny" suicides that are truly jarring) and/or sexism in certain of the shorts (particularly those from the 40s) were deemed too "adult" to allow them on Saturday morning tv decades later.  

Still, there's a lot to love once you filter out the worst of it.  There are also a more than a few surprises to be noted in what I think of as "the good stuff" which makes up between half and two-thirds of the 1000 cartoons.

One BIG surprise was the number of times the various characters actually show up.  The numbers are generally lower that I expected and in some cases truly, shockingly low.

Consider 1000 cartoon shorts.  Now consider the global popularity of some of the characters.  Just off the top of my head I figured the "main" lead characters would have more appearances that they actually do.

Bugs Bunny, the marquee character, appears in 163 or so.  I didn't count and I'm getting that number from Google.  I mean, that's lots of cartoons, but somehow you'd just expect that he'd been in more like 250 of them or so.

Porky Pig appears in 153 according to the Google box.  He appears in a lot of the early stuff, when the characters were still finding their classic designs and voices, so in my "good stuff" list it's only about 125 or so.

Daffy Duck, 130.  Like Porky, the early Daffy stuff is (to me) not really enjoyable, so again, more like 100 or so.

Sylvester?  103, including 3 that won Academy Awards.

From 1000 cartoons, those 4 characters account for the leads in about half of them.  Not really a surprise, but I still find the totals lower than my Saturday morning cartoon memories would expect.

I was surprised by some of the numbers for other characters.

Elmer Fudd takes on Bugs or Daffy in 71 cartoons.  That seems about right.

60 Tweety appearances seemed low, but considering Sylvester also faces off with Hippity-Hopper the baby kangaroo and Speedy Gonzales, it tracks.

Speaking of Speedy, he appears 58 times, which is higher than I would have thought.  Based on how I remember the cartoons as a kid, I thought there was a LOT more Tweety than Speedy.

When I was a kid, we watched the Bugs Bunny and Road Runner Show.  Considering he got second billing, it's kind of shocking to see that there were only 49 Road Runner cartoons.  Wile E. Coyote shows up in 5 more where he's trying to catch Bugs and the same character design was used for "Ralph Wolf" in 7 shorts where he's up against Sam the Sheepdog. 

 

Somewhere, Road-Runner is doing a bird seed spit take.

 

Yosemite Sam only appeared in 33 cartoons.  Can you believe that?  Only 33 out of 1000 and yet he's one of the most beloved characters of the franchise, particularly among short-tempered fans and pick-up truck drivers, for some reason.

Foghorn Leghorn was in 29 cartoons.  He wasn't a favourite of mine as a kid, so it seemed like he'd been in a lot more than that! 

Now comes the truly stunning number.

 

Wild turkey surprising!

The Tazmanian Devil.  Insanely popular character, huge global recognition.  He spun (see what I did there?) off into his own show in the 90s, is on shirts, cups, posters, bumper stickers and just about any other place you can print something.

Truly a mascot for the phrase "quality over quantity."

How many times do you think, in all those 1000 cartoons, did he show up?

Take a guess.  If you don't Google it, you'll be wrong.

He's since showed up in more shorts and movies, but from that original 1930 to 1965 run of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, he was in five. 

FIVE.

That just spun me out.

 

Addendum:

Turns out that another character of great significance and immense popularity also only appeared in FIVE Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies shorts.

 

Only five? That makes me very, very angry.

Yep, Marvin the Martian, like Taz, only appeared 5 times between 1938-1963.  He's showed up more since, but he was HUGE on just those 5 appearances.  Hard to believe.

I mean these two appeared in almost as many as Taz and Marvin, COMBINED, with 9 total cartoons in the same time frame and I've NEVER seen one of them flipping me the bird from the rear window of a pickup truck.

 

Indubitably, indubitably.  THenK you.

 

Don't get me wrong.  I love the Goofy Gophers, but it's just so weird to realize they did more cartoons than either Taz or Marvin the Martian.  Indubitably.

How Did I Miss THIS!

Try to imagine being in a theatre in 1942.  Not so much the theatre itself, but think about the kneelength or longer skirts, uptight about all things sex related, no nudity in film AT ALL, wholesome expectations you would have had of the experience.  Movies in general were, by today's standards, strictly G and PG affairs.

Especially the cartoons.

And yet...

From "The Rabbit Who Came To Dinner," a Bugs Bunny and (very off-model) Elmer Fudd cartoon from 1942 as Elmer tries to get Bugs out of his house:

 

Yep. Elmer Fudd is an art lover.  Nekkid art.

Elmer's got naked lady paintings in his house!  Now I've watched a LOT of Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes cartoons over the years, but I never saw that!

And in case you think it's a fluke, from the same short cartoon:

 

That's a BUM!

A full moon!  Not a cheeky look at Bugs' furry, always naked anyhow butt under a hillbilly wrap skirt, but a human posterior in its full artistic glory!

Gives a whole new meaning to "I tawt I taw a puddy tat!"

Charlie Hustle's Season Is Over

In a Hollywood-esque piece of serendipity, on the last day of the Major League Baseball season, Pete Rose has died at the age of 83.

If you look at the season as a life and the post season as a Hall of Fame, it sadly lines up.

Sure, Rose bet on games.  

He also played more games (3,562), had more at-bats (14,053), accumulated more hits (4,256) than anyone in the history of the sport and had more than 200 hits in 10 different seasons.  All of those numbers are major league records that have stood since he retired in 1986.  He was named to the All-Star squad 17 of his 24 active seasons as well.

The idea of someone holding 4 significant MLB records for nearly 40 years and NOT being in the Hall of Fame is just silly.

It is long past time for an asterisk section, with all the gory details writ large to make it clear that the inclusion isn't an honour but just an acknowledgement of the facts.

If necessary, open it only to the asterisk players once they die so they cannot collect on the glory, even tainted, of being in the Hall.  Steriods, gambling, criminal activity and more can disqualify a player from the Hall, but none of those things erase a player's dominance during their career.  They might have cheated, but they still DID it.  You can't tell me that Babe Ruth never played loaded (or that he didn't drink like a fish during his career which coincided with Prohibition, making him a law breaker) or that there aren't men who abused their wives and kids in the Hall or a hundred other disqualifications.  The only difference is that they never got caught.  Ty Cobb is in the Hall and by all accounts he was a TERRIBLE human being on a bunch of levels.

Shoeless Joe, Pete Rose and a whole host of steroid era hitters like Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa who aren't technically banned but won't ever be voted in as legitimate inductees were DOMINANT in their day.  That the all-time single season home run record holder, Barry Bonds, isn't in the Hall in some way or other is mind boggling.  How does ignoring the most dominant hitter of an era serve baseball? 

I'm not in any way suggesting that the cheating behaviours be forgiven or glossed over, but the Hall of Fame is a museum of sorts and a museum needs to display the truth.  The truth is, Pete Rose hit safely more times during his career than anyone in history.  Not putting him in the Hall isn't punishing him anymore, it's denying a historical truth.

 

Hall of Fame*? You betcha.

Lost In The Shuffle. As Cool As I Hoped!

A long time ago, I saw a very famous magician live at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Two things are significant. 

1. I annoyed my then girlfriend by pointing out how most of the tricks were done and likely ruined the experience for her.  I'm single for a reason, folks.

2. Turns out that one of the most influential magicians, a guy who a lot of modern magicians point to as the inspiration for the modern, intimate, natural style of magic that most of us are familiar with from stage and screen, was from Ottawa.  I grew up there, so it's always a kick to learn that a local boy made good.  Look up Dai Vernon, he's really cool.  Or just watch Lost in the Shuffle.

 

Magic!

A little history, a little personality, a little magic and a lot of fun.  I won't say it's the best documentary I've ever seen, but it's definitely the best documentary about a possible murder mystery that might just have had clues to its solution embedded in the art of standard playing cards for centuries that I've ever seen.

Talk about hiding in plain sight!

If the theory is true, it's the greatest piece of close up card magic ever done!  

Check it out.  It's worth your time. 

Filed Under "S" For: Stuff I Did Not Know...

...or "Super Hero".

I was only made aware that Marvel and DC Comics  both held a joint Trademark on the term "Super Hero" or "Super Heroes" very, very recently when I read about an effort (apparently not the first) to get the Patent and Trademark people to rescind the trademark as too generic a term.  A company wanted to market "Superbabies" (I have NO idea and nor do I care) as a "team of superheroes" and ran into the trademark issue.

Well, now you no longer have to worry about it.  They won.

Apparently the Marvel and DC people failed to respond to the petition and the Trademark has been revoked.

I'm usually on board with most things that comic book companies want to do to protect their interests, but this one seemed pretty low class to me.  It's a very generic term, thrown around for all kinds of reasons by all kinds of people.  Marketing a character or characters as "super hero" in NO way could ever diminish Marvel and DC's brand.  Perhaps they finally saw just how crappy it was to hold onto it and simply decided to do the right thing.  We'll likely never know.

If the legalese interests you, there's an article for you here.

High Potential

So there's a new show on ABC, based on a French show (that also inspired a Greek show) that is called HSI: Haut Potentiel Intellectuel.

The ABC version of the show is called High Potential.  I love this show so much, it's doomed.

It's another "outsider gets a job as a consultant helping the police" show.  Castle, The Irrational, Monk, Elementary and on and on.  It's a well used trope.  Well used tropes are well used for a reason.

To work, a show like this requires two key things.  A great McGuffin and a great lead to make it work.

1.  Morgan is a single mom with authority issues and an IQ of 160.  Her high functioning brain can't sleep if she sees mistakes, so she winds up fixing a mistake in a murder file she knocks over while working as a night cleaner at the police station.   The technical term (according to the show, I'm not 100% on it) is "High Potential Intellectual" which means you have advanced cognitive, creative and memory skills.

2.  Kaitlin Olson, who I've never heard of or seen in a single thing absolutely KILLS it.  Super charming, yet perfectly believable as someone barely able to manage her life thanks to her obsessive brain, while simultaneously always being the smartest person in the room.

 

This better run for years.

Writing will be key.  It's not enough that they showcase her brain full of facts, they have to keep finding ways for her to tie things only she notices to the things rattling around in her head.  The gruff detective she works with...I'm not sold on yet but he's very "opposites attract" and these shows usually go down the "will they/won't they" road.  So far...don't see it and hope that's the way it stays.

Nothing I like this much usually makes it past the first season, but hey...it's got high potential.

Happy Birthday, Jim Henson!

How I dearly wish he was still with us. Thankfully, his genius lives on through his creations. 

 

 

 

 

B is for Bittersweet.

Moo-Deng. Yep, I'm A Fan.

So unless you only use the internet for e-mail and porn, you're aware of Moo-Deng.

She's a baby Pygmy Hippopotamus in Thailand and has more fans than Taylor Swift.  Or something like that.  She is beautiful, full of life and fun and I love that something so pure and innocent has become a viral sensation.  It gives me hope for us as a species.

And now she has her own AI Generator.  That's right.  You can click this link and create your own AI generated, custom situated Moo-Deng.  It's free to do, but Buzzfeed wants you to post your creation to their comment section.  To do that you need to sign up or sign in.  If you don't want to do that, use the print screen button and paste the screen into your paint or photo program and save your creation that way.

It's nice when the interwebs give us something...nice.

 

Warp speed, Mooster Sooloo.

 

Jedi Master Moo-Deng.  "Moo or moo not.  There is no 'try'."

 

The AI is still...AI.  It didn't know what to do with:

"Moo-Deng riding in the Scooby-Doo van."

Scooby-Dooby-Moo!

As with all AI, it's got limitations.  I couldn't get a 200 foot tall Moo-Deng trampling Tokyo any more than I could get the Scooby-Doo van.  

 

Below is what I got with "wearing a flying helmet and goggles, flying a bi-plane."  AI will never destroy humanity at this rate:

 

 

Geronimooooo!

 

 

Still, there are lots of fun spots she should explore. 

 

Go, have some fun.

 

Update:

 

I took my own advice and went back.  This one is the best of my second visit:

 

 

Giant steps are what you take, walkin' on the moooon. 

PPS:

 

Hufflepuff.  Most definitely, Hufflepuff.

Happy Batman Day!

Hard to believe I almost missed this!

 

 Happy Batman Day!

Enjoy sliding up and down your Bat-Poles tonight.  And may all your enemies be Jokers.

It Does Beat The Alternative...

...but getting old still sucks.

I was helping a neighbour with a little paint project today.  She's in her 80s and I prefer that it's me on the ladder painting her eaves.  Plus, it gets me off the couch, which is not a bad thing. 

So, while we have he ladder out, she graciously allows me to use it to clear out a little ecosystem that's grown up in one of my eaves troughs.

Now this particular gutter is just above the roof of my back porch and I've cleaned it out plenty of times over the years when enough muck builds up that things start growing there, but it's been a few years since I've noticed that it needed tending.  This year, it's trying to grow a whole forest up there.

The back porch has a low slope roof that I've been on a dozen times over the years.  I usually get out there through my little bathroom window, but it's been several years and more than a few pounds since I last did this.  There's at least the fear, if not the real possibility of a Winnie the Pooh situation here.

 

Oh, #%@^& bother.

So I get the ladder up beside the roof, clamber up and put one foot on the roof, ready to lightly hop onto the low slope roof.  I've done this literally hundreds of times in my capacity as a telecom technician.  That one foot gets over there and alarm bells go off in my head.  

Now, usually, it's the other way around.  I usually wind up going to do something that my brain is convinced I can do and it's my body that lets me down.  Not this time.  My aging brain recognized something that is now officially beyond me and flat out refused to let that other foot step off the ladder.  

Roofs are now officially off my "to do" list and on to my "I gotta pay somebody to do that" list.

Getting old sucks.

Am I Blue Two...

Have you ever thought about how other people see colour?  

I remember having my mind blown during a drunken conversation in my twenties about this very thing.  Since I can't see through your eyes, it's entirely possible that you are seeing totally different colours than I am.  What I think of as red might be what you think of as yellow.  Like that.

Now until we can figure out how to see through another person's eyes, there's no way to confirm that hypothesis one way or another, but there are still colour questions that science can answer.

Every once in a while the internet will go a little nuts over a blue dress that looks gold to some people or some other colour dispute.  One scientist has had an ongoing dispute with his optometrist wife about a blanket in their house that he sees as green and she sees as blue.

So, he created the Is my blue your blue? website.  You click the link and pick if the screen you see is green or blue until you get a result.  The whole story is here.

I've taken it twice and I get the same result each time. My green/blue boundary is 177 which is bluer than 78% of the population.  For me, what most people deem "turquoise" looks green.

There's obviously some skewing because different monitors will display the same colour slightly differently, but it's still fascinating.  If you have the ability, I recommend taking this with several people at once, all on the same monitor.  It might not remove the colour skew as a monitor to monitor issue, but you'll be able to see among yourselves who is green with envy and who is boo-hoo blue.

This Will Be A Day Long Remembered

Sad, sad news today.

James Earl Jones, the voice of Darth Vader and Mufasa, the bad guy in Arnold's Conan movie, the glue in Field of Dreams and many, many other characters in cinematic history, has died at the age of 93.

 

Thulsa Doom, Darth Vader and so many more.

Jones' unmistakable voice was one of the first to be licensed for digital reproduction, so in a very real sense, we may well get new performances from him in the future, even though he has died.  I'm honestly not sure how I feel about that.  On one hand, it's nice know that a new Star Wars project can still have the "real" Darth Vader in it, but on the other hand, it really subverts the natural order of life and may take roles away from up and coming actors in the future.

Should you like to see the late, great James Earl Jones in a joyful, fun and not in any way digitally created role, I recommend his turn as the Josh Gibson inspired power hitting Leon Carter in 1976's The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings.  It's a somewhat sanitized look at the lives of (fictional) Negro League baseball players in the late 1930s and it's a very, very good film with Jones, Billy Dee Williams, Richard Pryor and more.  One of my favourite movies of that era, actually. 

So, if you're so inclined, fire up a Star Wars movie, Conan the Barbarian or Field of Dreams and salute the career of one of the all time great actors of the last 50 years.  

Thanks for the memories, Mr. Jones.  With great respect, you shall be mourned.

Blue Eye Samurai, Award Richly Deserved.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. This time I have more than my opinion to back it up. 

Blue Eye Samurai was the BEST show of 2023. Not the best animated show, not the best drama, not the best fantasy show, the best show, PERIOD. 

I don't do award shows, but this year's Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program went to Blue Eye Samurai. As far as I'm concerned, it should also win best Drama, but awards programs are notorious category snobs. 

For me, the knowledge that there's a season 2 on the way is even better news than the Emmy.

 

  

Best. Show. Period.

What She Said In Jest...

...in one of those "funny tweets of the week" lists...

Those tweets are never funny by the way.

Anyhow.

One of them struck one of my few remaining nerves.  It was said facetiously but I think it has real merit and as a natural night person, I fully endorse it.

They need to keep museums and art galleries open past midnight.  At 11PM, I'm ready to go do something, but the only option is a bar.  I'm a guy in his 50s.  Bars hold no mystery and less appeal.

Plus, I remember how we looked at the "old guys" in the bar when I was in my 20s.  Yeesh.

If there was an art gallery or a museum open at that time, I'd so go!  I don't want to drink at that hour, or ever, really, but I can see myself checking out some artifacts or great art.  Put a serious "no, this isn't a place for kids to meet each other" cover charge on it to pay the staff.  Sell some nice snacks and drinks at ridiculous prices and I'm a weekly visitor.

Let's get on this.

Vic Fontaine, Singing Off...

Alas, another one of the supporting players in the tapestry of my life has left us.

James Darren, singer, actor, bon vivant, has died at the age of 88.

He had a long and varied career, but to me he will ever be the sentient hologram with a heart of gold and effortless stage presence, Vic Fontaine.  Deep Space Nine went far off the usual script when they added his recurring, swingin' sixties lounge singer and the odd juxtaposition of the man out of time, worldly wise, 1960s Vegas entertainer on an alien space station in the 24th Century just...worked.

The proof is in the I'danian spice pudding.  From the 7th Season episode, Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang, Darren's Fontaine and Avery Brooks' Captain Sisko just...work.

 

The best is yet to come...

Thanks for the memories, James.  You are missed.

Wildlife Photographers of the Year

It's once again time for someone, somewhere, to determine the best wildlife photographer of the year.

Personally, I prefer the comedic version if this competition, but even the "serious" photographs can be stunning, funny and even heartbreaking.

The link to the story is here.  Enjoy.

And what's a post about photographs without...a photograph?

One of the finalists:

 

Me, this week, finding a forgotten box of action figures and Looney Tunes cups.

 

 

Turns Out, It's A Popular Opinion...

A little while ago, I posted this image:

 

Ellie Black and Shallon Olsen consoling French gymnast 

Mélanie de Jesus dos Santos

At the time, I deemed this the most Canadian moment I'd seen at the Olympics.  The Canadians hadn't had a stellar day themselves, but Ellie Black and Shallon Olsen went out of their way to console a competitor from the French team after her disappointing outing.

Fast forward to today and Black has been awarded the Paris 2024 Fair Play award, which is awarded to athletes who "exemplify sportsmanship, the spirit of fair play and respect for others." 

I'll take that over a gold medal in any sport, any damned day of the week.  

My only beef with this is that Olsen should have shared the award, even if she wasn't as hands on as Black.  They both obviously went out of their way to support a fellow athlete during a tough moment, without concern for flags, standings or medals.

Great athletes are fleeting.  Great humans are eternal.  Thank you, ladies. 

Look-ee What I Found!

Waaaay back in the early '90s, KFC ran one of the best promotions a fast food joint ever did.

They sold (gave away?  I can't recall) a set of Looney Tunes mugs to collect and sucked me right in.

I've been digging through a few boxes that got shuffled into a disused closet area in my house back when I first moved in.  I hadn't seen anything in these boxes since at least 2003.

Sufferin' Suckatash!  Look what's been stashed in a closet for 20+ years!

 

Somehow, I still don't have a Tweety.

I picked up Wile E. and Taz back in those days.  I know because I remember carting them around all over the country during my touring days.  I have no idea where or when I picked up the rest, but I'm so glad I did.  They definitely got picked up second hand, since there's a couple of ink stains on Daffy and Bugs and some "no way I did that" scratches on Yosemite Sam's nose and Sylvester's fur.  Still, I'm thrilled that I own them.

I hadn't exactly forgotten owning them.  It's more like I just assumed that they were lost during one move or another and just never made it all the way here.  I'm so, so happy to be proven wrong on that score!

Unless my finances make a miraculous rebound, I can't justify the expense of e-bay-ing a Tweety at the moment, but at least I can display these in my comic book kitchen!

There may also be a Foghorn Leghorn mug, but I will need to do more research to be sure.

I can't believe there isn't a Porky! Th-th-th-that's a fail, folks!

And the lack of a Marvin the Martian makes me very, very angry.

Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story

The trailer made me weepy.

 

  

Not 100% sure I will get through the whole movie without a breakdown. 

Seven year old me is gonna need therapy.

I'm Not Often Excited About A Documentary...

...and even less often when it's not about superheroes, baseball or science. This is one of the rare exceptions. Never heard of this guy, not a big fan of magic or magicians in general but...damn that sounds SO cool!

 

 

It apparently premiered in Toronto this past May at Hot Docs, and will drop on DVD/Blu-Ray on September 10.  No easy to find word on a digital release.

Rest assured, when I watch it, I'll let you know if it's as cool as it sounds.

Scooby-Dooby-Shoes!

This weekend is the "Players Weekend" in Major League Baseball.  The normally conservative League relaxes its rules and lets players play with decorated bats, decorated hats and some unbelievable custom footwear.

Now, I'm not really big on custom footwear and am frankly baffled by those that collect shoes (like I should throw shade on anyone for collecting!) but this I get:

Tarik Skubal, starting pitcher for the Detroit Tigers (nickname: Skub, natch), took the mound wearing these:

 

I would SO wear those.  The cleats would be hell on my hardwood.

Just awesome.

In Four Words...

...describe my brain at any given moment:

 

Nailed it.

Who Watches The Watchmen...Again?

Back when I was really into comics in the late 80s and early 90s, there were two graphic novels (that's the pretentious nerd term for comic book) that were front and centre in the mind of every geek on the planet.

The Dark Knight Returns gave us the darkest, scariest, most serious Batman in a dark, serious, scary and depressing future.  It was so big it influenced Hollywood into putting Batman back on the big screen as a "dramatic" rather than "comedic" property.  You'd have to be living under a rock for the last 40 years to have missed the changes that have resulted.

The other was Watchmen.  Artist Dave Gibbons and writer Alan Moore set out to put a headstone on superhero comic books.  Oh, the irony.

 

So serious.

The book is a masterpiece.  The irony is that it's SUCH a masterpiece that it's intended goal has so totally and magnificently backfired.  Instead of writing the final superhero classic and turning comic books away from men in tights and capes, the genre experienced a massive resurgence, largely due to an influx of writers and artists who were influenced by Watchmen.

At the time, my fellow geeks were of the opinion that Watchmen would and could never see a big (or even small) screen release.  The massive tome was deemed unfilmable.

Fast-forward twenty years and thanks to a lot of geek influence in cinema and the advent of realistic CGI effects, Zack Snyder brings the unfilmable to theatres everywhere.

 

So serious.

Opinions differ, but for my money, Snyder's version is definitive.  All the beats are there, the melody is unchanged, the tempo is faster and yes, he changed the ending.  I'll risk the wrath of a certain segment of fandom and just say, Snyder's ending is actually better and more logical than the original version, at least in my opinion.

Sure, even I would have loved to see the giant squid fully realized in larger than life CGI, but having the patsy be onscreen almost more than any other character was effective and tidy storytelling.

The movie has dozens of shots that are lifted directly from the graphic novel and it's simply an ode to the story, art and genius of the graphic novel from start to finish.

Snyder put a bow on it and it's tough to imagine a more faithful movie could be extracted from the source material.

Fast-forward again, 15 years this time.

Warner Bros has just digitally released Watchmen - Chapter I.  Physical release is due August 27.

 

Seriously?

 

This version is animated.  Honestly, after watching it, the animation is one of the few things that sets it apart from Snyder's live action version.  It's an almost beat for beat animated recreation of what Snyder did and by extension, what Gibbons and Moore did in the first place.

Sure, it's able to effectively juxtapose the story within a story of The Black Freighter with the real time action of the characters.  Snyder wasn't able to include the pirate comic book story in the theatrical version since his film was already pushing 3 hours, but he did get it back into the "Ultimate Cut" physical release, so even that accomplishment is a minor one to hold over the Snyder version.  They do have a nifty way to also get the fictional "biography" of the first Nite Owl in as well, having the actor read part of it over the closing credits.

Still, while the two part format gives them room to stretch and restore a few cutting room floor beats that didn't make Snyder's version, this version just feels empty.  The voice cast is solid, the animation as good as this CG style animation gets and there's a nice "pre-Blade Rnnner" vibe to the streets scenes which I don't recall from the Snyder version, but there's little life and even less real reason to bother going to all the trouble of making this version.  That said, you can bet that Watchmen fans will lap up Chapter II (due sometime in 2025) and use the inevitable inclusion of the giant squid ending to point to this version's superiority.

For me, this version is truly pointless.  I'll add it to my collection for the sake of my inner obsessive, but it's likely I won't revisit it once I've watched my copy once.  It's like someone decided to make a shot for shot animated version of Michael Keaton's Batman or the first Avengers movie.  Sure, I'd put those in my collection and watch them once or twice, but what's the point?

Another Kid Experimenting With Drugs.

The young man in the picture below is Herman Bekele.

Remember that name. 

 

He's humble, but he has a vision.

He might just change the world.

Normally, a kid experimenting with drugs wouldn't be a feel good kind of story.  This time it is.

There's this drug, imiquimod.  Not only is unpronounceable, but it's also used for the treatment of skin cancer.  For the moment it's just used for one type of skin cancer, but it's shown promise against others.

It's usually dispensed as a cream and it's not cheap.

That's where Herman Bekele comes in.  He heard about this drug and wondered if there mightn't be a better, cheaper way to dispense it.  He came up with the idea of putting it in a bar of soap.

It's fascinating and uplifting reading.  I recommend clicking here and checking it out.  

There are still a bunch of hurdles to go before Bekele's vision comes to fruition, but I plan to remember his name.  He's the kind of out of the box thinker that can make big, earth shaking changes.

In Other News...

Sad news out of the sporting world today.

Chi Chi Rodriguez, world famous golf champion, has died at the age of 88.

You might rightly wonder why I'm posting about it.

I don't follow golf and I wasn't particularly a fan of the man or his accomplishments.

So why?

Well, it makes me sad that he died, from a purely human perspective.

It makes me sadder that Les Nessman of WKRP in Cincinnati isn't around to read his obituary.

Sadly Missed.

The Star Trek Universe is a little less bright tonight.

Patti Yasutake, the actress Trek fans will remember as Nurse Alyssa Ogawa, has died of cancer at the age of 70.

 

A smile that could power a warp drive.

Yasutake's Ogawa character was admittedly a minor one, but in 16 episodes spread over the last 4 seasons of Star Trek - The Next Generation plus appearances in two of the franchise's big screen movies, she brought a bright presence to the infirmary.

I just got through another re-watch of all 7 seasons of TNG, so that bright smile is fresh in my mind.  My heart sank when I read the news today.  The actors and actresses who brought and bring Star Trek to the screen are a sort of extended, if never actually met, family for fans like myself.  It's always a sad moment when I lose one of them.

Thanks, Patti.  You will be missed.

The Most Canadian Thing I've Seen From The Olympics

As I said earlier, I don't watch the Olympics.  It is, however, impossible to miss certain things that happen during the Olympics unless you hide under a rock for a couple of weeks.

Today, I ran across something that impresses me a helluva lot more than any sporting accomplishment.

Below is a picture taken following a bad day for French gymnast Mélanie de Jesus dos Santos.  That's her with her back to the camera.

 

Canadian gymnasts Ellie Black and Shallon Olsen console 

French gymnast Mélanie de Jesus dos Santos

The two women facing the camera are Canadian gymnasts Ellie Black and Shallon Olsen.  The pair went out of their way, after a disappointing finish of their own, to console the French competitor.  It's a long exchange, shown on video in the article you can read here.

You really don't need to read it, though.  The picture says it all.

When Canadians take Canada with them as they travel, it makes me proud.  Thank you, ladies.

I Don't Watch The Olympics...

...at least not in the years they don't include baseball, like this year.

I also don't watch or care about surfing.

I wouldn't know a great surfing talent if I watched for weeks.  

This guy?  He's fucking awesome. 

 

This is Brazil's Gabriel Medina.

 

Apparently, he leapt of his board to strike this pose at the end of a near perfect wave.  It's not photoshop or AI, but pure, expert, bad ass showmanship.  

The whole story is here if you're interested.  

Me?  I just love the picture and the exuberance and joy it evokes.

Fucking legend.

After Shows.

I blame LOST.  

There was a time when I devoted a TON of my precious energy to unravelling what I thought was a mystery inside a riddle wrapped in an enigma.

I really thought the folks running the show had a big plan and we mere mortals could parse the clues and figure out that plan.  

As we now know, there was no plan and the show ended with a big collective whimper.  I still haven't watched the last half of the last season and I never will.  I was that disappointed with it.

But.

Some (not all, but some) showrunners took a lesson.  Shows like Game of Thrones, Dexter and others took a lesson from LOST and the before it's time Deep Space Nine and tried to implement a planned over-plot and an endpoint.  They haven't always stuck the landing, but you can see the intention.

Then there's this "after show" thing, which takes the lesson and runs too far with it.  I've seen them on a few shows but paid little attention.  These days I watch shows.  I rarely care enough to dissect and analyze them.  I see that the old LOST spirit is alive and well in those after shows though.  

Here's the thing.  It's a lesson I learned from my own writing, as unsuccessful as it has been:

If you need a second show to explain your show to me, you're not doing it right.  

There's nothing wrong with sprinkling clues in a show for your hyper-obsessed fan base, but they have to either by simple enough for most to catch or if they're really tricky, they need to be explained in show.  If I need to watch the writers and directors talking about what's what in order to understand what's going on, that's a fail.  If the intention is to clarify or reinforce things that they don't feel they truly conveyed or might have been missed by the general audience, same.

How Did I Miss This?

I always have a dvd ready and waiting for those evenings when there's nothing new to watch.

With baseball on the All-Star week break and few shows that interest me on the go right now, tonight was one of those nights I found myself with nothing to watch.

I've been re-watching Star Trek - The Next Generation for the last few months on these nights and I'm coming into the home stretch.  Season 7, Disk 5 to be exact.

One of the episodes is "Genesis", a rather weak "the crew is 'de-evolving' into a bunch of monsters" episode.  When Picard and Data return from a mission to retrieve a wayward test torpedo, they find the ship dark and the crew in various states of "de-evolution".  The questionable "intron" science used to explain this aside, it's not the show's best work.

With one brilliant exception.

Somehow, against all the odds, actor Jonathan Frakes managed to slip something almost unbelievable past the network censors.  Intentionally or accidentally, his de-evolved Australopithecus-like hominid version of Will Riker manages to flip the bird to Captain Picard and Data when they find him mindlessly trying to get his hands on the (presumably) tasty fish in Picard's aquarium.

 

That's my preferred bird flip - fingers bend at the knuckle rather than a fist.  

More sophisticated.

To be clear, this is at least my 5th time watching this series from start to finish.  Season 1 is the first television series set I ever bought and I've gone through the whole series many times since then.  Somehow, I never caught this.  

Interestingly, this is the only episode of TNG that was directed by a female cast member.  Gates McFadden had to lobby for years for the chance to direct.  It's a shame they gave her this weak-sauce episode and I'd be interested to know if this was something she and Frakes cooked up or just Frakes on his own.  I wouldn't blame her if it was her sending a message to the show's producers.

I suspect the copious hair on Frakes' hands helped get this by the censor.  I also have a hard time believing that the gesture was pure accident.  It's just too specific.  

Whatever the story is, seeing Riker flip off the Captain made my otherwise dull evening into a ton of fun that I'm more than happy to share.

Oh, To Be A Mouse In The House....

...when Kevin Feige had to explain this to his uninformed co-workers.

For those unfamiliar, I'll leave you to google the term "pegging" but I suggest you don't use the Google Image query until you know what you might be in for...

From the most recent interview with the Marvel Studios head honcho, as he was asked about the drug and sex jokes that are part and parcel of the Deadpool franchise and how those R Rated elements would work now that the character is under the banner of the House of Mouse:

"There’s a line in the red band trailer — you don’t have to write this in the article for crying out loud! — about pegging. I know what pegging is; it’s in the first “Deadpool” movie. But there were people that I worked with and for who didn’t know what it was. I had to explain it to them."

"...people I worked with and for..." 

There's a conversation with his boss I bet he never thought he'd be having.

 

I just wish I could have been in the room as Feige explained...

I wonder if he used action figures...

 

I mean, the accessory pack alone...

One More Reason Not To Go To The Gym...

I admit it.  I click on those "18 times people failed at their job" lists.  

Most are lame, but every once in a while...

This list deserves sharing.  It's a list of times that a font was chosen that really, really didn't work out the way the designer thought it would.

Click Here for the list.

I'm filling space so the design fail example I'm posting is far enough down the page that you don't see it first thing when you hit the blog.  It's hilarious but out of context it's offensive as hell.

Most of the entries on the list are too...

 

La.la-la--

 

Read the above before scrolling any further....

 

La-la-la-

 

 

 

 

"A whole day?"

More Powerful Than A Locomotive...

...sorta.

Around this time next year, a new Superman movie is due to hit theatres.

James Gunn, he of Guardians of the Galaxy directing fame, has taken the helm of this film and written it as well.  He's totally ignored my overtures on social media (admittedly, I'm no expert in that field, so I can't really blame him) but if this new Superman film is great, I'll happily forgive him.

Below is probably the best picture I've seen from all the shots coming out of the film set.  The cape (with the comic accurate yellow S shield, Yay!) looks phenomenal.  Gunn has put the trunks and big yellow belt back in the costume as well, so I'm happy with the look.  There have been a lot of fanboys bitching that the suit looks too baggy, but I'm confident that cgi post production will make it look slick and well fitted.  I suspect it's a function of convenience for the actor over a long production to not have to squeeze into a form fitting suit every day, since these days they can add muscle definition and nip and tuck the suit digitally after the fact.

 

And I'm confident Superman will be doing the heavy lifting solo.

Filmhands can be cgi'd out as easily as loose fitting trunks.

I have two hopes for this version:  

First, I'm really hoping to see Lex Luthor in the power suit.  The anti-Iron Man version of Superman's nemesis has never graced the big screen and it's WAY past time he did.

Second, no mopey, broody, dark and gritty Man of Steel.  I want a bright, optimistic, happy Superman and from what I've seen, I think we might actually get him this time around.

Happy Canada Day, eh!

A Very Special Person

The morbidly curious portion of me really wants to meet the person who prompted the posting of this sign.

 

"Yikes" seems so inadequate.

This Just Seems Wrong To Me...

Watching a baseball game just now and one of the commentators referred to 2009 as "the good old days".

It was like someone tapping me on the shoulder and saying "you need to give up your seat, sir.  Younger people are waiting."

Next thing you know, I'm going to be wearing my pants above my belly button and hitting the dinner buffet at 3PM.

AI. Not Just Apocolyptic. Also Handy For Fan Films.

Someone put together a fantasy "what if" casting/trailer for a Justice League movie, had such a thing been made in the late 80s or early 90s. I don't agree with every choice, but given how fast AI is moving, there will come a day when every one of us will be able to cast and create a full film like this. It'll be the death of Hollywood, but the possibilities are still damned interesting! 

 

 

Kinda speaks for itself, don't it?

The Fail Guy.

Gave it all I could manage.

I think it was about 6 and a half minutes.

 

Just...no.

No idea what the actual plot is.  After 6 minutes or so, I just don't care.  

My time is more valuable than this.

You Otter Know...

...that today is World Otter Day.

 

Not just cute. Really Cute.

There are River Otters, Giant Otters, Sea Otters and more.  You otter know there are 13 species in total, according to the Wiki machine.

There's at leas one more otteration not listed in the Wiki - The Aniimated Otter.

 

This is Marlene.  You otter get to know her.

The best example of the Animated Otter is Marlene from the Penguins of Madagascar animated series.  She's sassy, smart and even though she knows they're all daft, she's a good friend to the penguins in the show.  She's also voiced by Nicole Sullivan who also voices my favourite Supergirl incarnation in Super Hero Girls.  Sullivan is so good, someone otter give her an award.

Otters aren't just cute.  They are smart, fierce, devoted and really, really cute.

And you otter be aware, they're really, really, really cute.

Happy World Otter Day!