Author: Roger

I'm a librarian. I hear music, even when it's not being played. I used to work at a comic book store, and it still informs my life. I won once on JEOPARDY! - ditto.

More January Ramblin’

I should have written this yesterday, but I was in the midst of doing something (which will become evident), taped the end of the NFC championship game Sunday night, but neglected to account for it running long. The game had about two and a half minutes to go when the recording stopped I turned on ESPN’s Sports Center and saw all the important remaining plays, including those in overtime.
GO, GIANTS!! I suggested three weeks ago that the Giants playing New England tough then, when it “didn’t matter”, was a good idea, and now they have the chance to play them again, when it does. I worry, though, that the transition that NYG coach Tom Coughlin’s face will suffer going from -4F Green Bay – was he suffering frostbite? – to sunny Arizona will be a shock to his system.
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Johnny Podres died. I got totally into that Boys of Summer storyline. The 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers, with Jackie Robinson, finally beat the hated New York Yankees, finally beat the hated Yankees, with Podres winning Game 3 and the decisive Game 7, for the only time before they moved to Los Angeles.

Allan Melvin died. He’s one of those guys who you would see on TV (I remember him from Phil Silvers, Dick van Dyke and All in the Family/Archie Bunker’s Place, plus a commercial) and you might say, “You know, THAT guy.” (By Archie Bunker’s Place, even I knew him by name. If you don’t, see what ME had to say.

Suzanne Pleshette died. That last episode of Newhart, in which she reappears as Emily Hartley, probably THE best TV ending of all time, I was watching, and yet I missed it. From IMDB
The final episode (“The Last Newhart” Episode: #8.24 – 21 May 1990) ran for 30 seconds longer than the typical episode. WRGB Channel 6 in Schenectady, NY was the only CBS affiliate to not get the message, and halfway through the concluding joke in the entire series, the control room cut to a local newscaster. As was typical at the time, he was to read teasers for that night’s 11 o’clock news but he was visibly surprised at his own face appearing on the monitor since he was watching the end of the episode as well. The station DID show it during the 11 pm news, but I didn’t watch that program, and I never saw the end until it was reprised some months later. Most of the early obits missed the fact that she had been married to Tom Poston, another Newhart cohort, until he died last year.

Richard Knerr died. Who was Richard Knerr? He was only the co-founder of Wham-O, that made the hula hoop (I had one, never that good at it), Slip ‘N Slide (I had one, loved it), and the Frisbee (STILL have one; most of the knockoffs aren’t aerodynamically as sound as the original). Part of my childhood has passed as well.

ROG

ROG

Privilege

From Tosy, I purloined this meme, which is meant to indicate how many advantages one has in starting adult life. It is, I understand, based on an exercise developed by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Illinois State University.

ITALICIZE WHICH APPLY TO YOU:

Father went to college
Father finished college
Mother went to college
Mother finished college
Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor
Were the same or higher socio-economic class than your high school teachers
Had more than 50 books in your childhood home
Had more than 500 books in your childhood home probably
Were read children’s books by a parent – don’t recall that they did. I know I read a lot to myself in my room.
Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18 – I remember only a year of piano
The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively
Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18
Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs
Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs
Went to a private high school
Went to summer camp
Family vacations involved staying at hotels (Family vacations involved camping, which I hated, or visiting someone)
Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18 – At least the vast majority. I WAS the first grandchild on both sides of the family.
There was original art in your house when you were a child Yes, several. Painted by my father, sometimes in frames, but more often, painted right on the walls.
You and your family lived in a single family house
Your parent(s) owned their own house(s) or apartment before you left home – They bought a house my first year in college
You had your own room as a child – Well, for the first couple years, maybe. After my second sister was born, my sisters shared a room, and my father built a couple walls into a room which became my “room”
You had a phone in your room before you turned 18
Participated in an SAT/ACT prep course
Had your own TV in your room in High School – not on your life.
Owned a mutual fund or IRA in High School or College
Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16 – Actually, though, did fly from Binghamton to Albany on a 20-passenger plane when I was 16.
Went on a cruise with your family
Went on more than one cruise with your family
Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up – No, but I went on my own.
You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family – Maybe not the exact dollar amounts, but I had a sense of them

There’s no rubric here, so make of it what you will.
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Someone sent me this picture; I have no idea about the original source, but I find it most peculiar:

I think it must be dadaist. (As he anxiously awaits the fallout…)

ROG

ROG

Herschell Gordon Lewis

One thing watching the movie Juno took me right out of it for a minute. That was a reference to Herschell Gordon Lewis. I shan’t expand on that in terms of the movie.

Herschell Gordon Lewis is, more than anything, a businessman. He discovered that one way to make money is to make films filled with blood and/or sexual titillation that the major studios wouldn’t get caught dead doing back in the early 1960s. Read this particular description by Steve Bissette, who knows a WHOLE lot more than I do:
“BLOOD FEAST (1963) Notorious Herschell Gordon Lewis shocker dared to go where no major studio would, crudely carving out brains, tongues, limbs, and its unique niche as the first true ‘gore’ film. This widely-imitated breakthrough hit of the 1960s drive-in circuit was filmed in and around the beaches of Sarasota, Florida.”

I was working at FantaCo, primarily a comic book store, in 1983. Splatter Movies (1981), written by John McCarty, was, after we found a sales niche advertising in FANGORIA magazine every issue, became a huge success. So what do we do next? As I hope I made clear, it’s not my genre, so I haven’t a clue. But Tom Skulan, the owner, and John McCarty somehow team up with Daniel Krogh, cinematographer on Lewis’ The Wizard of Gore (1970), and decide to put out a book called The Amazing Herschell Gordon Lewis, and His World of Exploitation Films by Krogh, with McCarty.

The book premiered at the 1983 FantaCon, and HGL, as I referred to him, was making an appearance. What kind of man makes these kind of films? Well, as it turns out, the guy was very much a gentleman, sweet, soft-spoken, at least in that setting. He was a natty dresser. I didn’t spend a whole lot of time with him, but I did get him to sign my copy of the book, which read: “To my friend Roger”. Daniel Krogh signed it “TO ROGER OF FANTACO”. John McCarty, who I had gotten to know from Splatter Movies, wrote, “To Roger – Whose job I don’t envy”. That was in reference to the fact that my task, once the convention was over, was to ship hundreds and hundreds of these to the comic book distributors. Ultimately, we also sold directly to non-comic book shops and at retail. As FantaCo subsequently published scripts for 2000 Maniacs and Blood Feast, HGL dominated my life until I left FantaCo in 1988.

I started my new job as a librarian in 1992. Perusing the shelves of the SBDC Research Network, what should I see but a book on direct marketing by someone named Herschell Gordon Lewis! Could it be the same guy? It could, and it was – check out his bibliography and filmography, right on his own website. He doesn’t shy away from his past – or his present – there is a Blood Feast 2 listed for 2002.

So seeing the HGL reference in Juno brought it full circle for me.
ROG

ROG

Legacy QUESTION

In a year and a day, George W. Bush will no longer be President. What will his legacy be on: 9/11, the war in Afghanistan, the war in Iraq, peace initiatives in the Middle East and elsewhere, the economy, the environment, Constitutional issues, human rights, security, etc.?
Will it improve in the next year or get worse?
Will history be more kind to him than we are?
Is there any cause to impeach him, as George McGovern called for recently? Or is it too late?
For me – well, if you’ve read this blog enough, you probably have a good idea.

The distortions that ran up to the Iraq war were revisited last fall, when former W henchman Karl Rove said the White House was opposed to having the Senate vote on the Iraq war so close to the elections, fearing it would “politicize” the process. (The Senate voted October 11, 2002.)
VIDEO.
That, of course, was utter bullsh nonsense. Google any number of articles, including this White House press conference of September 24, 2002:
THE PRESIDENT: I’m confident a lot of Democrats here in Washington, D.C. will understand that Saddam is a true threat to America. And I look forward to working with them to get a strong resolution passed.
From CNN, October 11, 2002
“Bush also must certify that action against Iraq would not hinder efforts to pursue the al Qaeda terrorist network that attacked New York and Washington last year.” As the forgotten war in Afghanistan is now getting more troops, that seems to have worked well.
I do think that people might get a little soft-headed about W as he moseys off into the sunset over Iraq if American deaths diminish, but this will be countered by rising anxiety over recessionary concerns of higher prices, higher unemployment, shrinking investments in a bear stock market, and fear of losing one’s home really sink in.

I don’t think history will see him as another Truman, as much as he has invoked his equally beleaguered predecessor.

Yes, he should be impeached – him and his little dog, too – but I know it won’t happen.
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2008 Presidential Primary Info. Voter Registration Deadlines, Delegate Allocation, Polling Hours.

ROG

ROG

MOVIE REVIEW: Juno


Here’s why I like to go to the movies early in the run of a film: I don’t like to have preconceived notions. So, it was only mildly problematic that I knew this film, and its star, Ellen Page, were critically acclaimed. This was Roger Ebert’s favorite film of the past year. Conversely, it has suffered a certain backlash of perhaps being too cute and clever and trendy – it was 0 for 3 in the Golden Globes! And there was one other antipathetic strain I heard: Juno is about [if you have seen the trailer or the poster, or the cover of the soundtrack, this absolutely CANNOT be a SPOILER] pregnant and 16, and she is, some feel, too glib for that situation.

Carol and I got a babysitter and went to the Spectrum Theatre in Albany to see it anyway. It is a smart and warm comedy, though I can see that in lesser hands, this could have traveled into treacle. As it was, I really enjoyed the film, especially the co-stars Alison Janney (West Wing) as the stepmom, with one particularly great scene with Page; JK Simmons (The Closer; the Spider-Man movies) as the dad, totally credible. Two guys from Arrested Development, Michael Cera as the baby’s father and Jason Bateman as the would-be adoptive father, are also strong, though they don’t share a scene.

But the real surprise here is Jennifer Garner (Alias) as the would-be adoptive mom. Would it be catty to say that I didn’t know she could act? Probably.

The other revelation is the music, much of it by someone named Kimya Dawson, which integrated quite well with the storyline. But the most affecting songs were by Cat Power and by Sonic Youth, oh, and the last song in the movie before the credits; I won’t ruin it any further.

So, it may be “overrated” compared with the hype, but but it was a good time at the cinema.
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The Ultimate Adventure.

ROG

ROG
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