Requiescat in Pace
Sep. 3rd, 2017 09:18 pm- John Ashbery, prize-winning poet
- Walter Becker, guitarist of Steely Dan
- (Mark Evanier on Shelley Berman)
A Little Extra
Sep. 2nd, 2017 09:57 am People have posted some excerpts from Shelley Berman so... A Personal Appearance Part 2.
Requiescat in Pace
Sep. 1st, 2017 09:03 am- Richard Anderson, actor
- Shelley Berman, comic (third comic this fortnight) I believe I mentioned him as a formative influence on my sense of humor. Maybe $DEITY is having trouble stomaching Trump too.
In Memoriam
Jun. 26th, 2017 04:48 pm- Glenne Headly, actress (I forgot)
- Bill Dana, comic
- Gabe Pressman, TV journalist (I met him once, and the only thing i remember is that his makeup was thick and crumbling.)
- Pete Flynn, Mets groundskeeper
In Memoriam
Apr. 6th, 2017 03:24 pm- Gilbert Baker, the Rainbow Flag
- Katy Feeney, baseball executive
- Don Rickles, "Mr. Warmth," comic
In Memoriam
Feb. 7th, 2017 10:43 am- Svend Asmussen, jazz violinist
- "Professor" Irwin Corey, comedian (Brief recollection from Mark Evanier.)
In Memoriam
Aug. 29th, 2016 04:06 pmI heard someone talk about this on the bus home, and I was hoping it wasn't true. More fool me.
Gene Wilder, comic actor.
With video clips. He had Alzheimer's. It's just sad.
Gene Wilder, comic actor.
With video clips. He had Alzheimer's. It's just sad.
- Goldfish conquer lakes.
- BBC Radio documentary on Lenny Bruce, 50 years after his death. (About an hour long. Mostly interviews.)
Intelligence, Comedy, and a Post-Mortem
Aug. 6th, 2016 12:16 pmNot necessarily in that order.
Blueberry pancakes?
- Bernie Sanders and the Black Vote (Bruce Dixon, Black Agenda Report), or why he didn't get much of it. (See also this article in Fusion, which the Black Agenda Report is reacting to.)
[...]. Instead of asking those questions, the Sanders campaign and Mr. Starr’s Fusion article treated the black community as a kind of united corporate whole with no perceptible internal divisions or contradictions, all of it potentially winnable by just putting the right message in front of the right audiences, or throwing enough staff and money at the problem. - The "intelligence community" is not enamored of Donald Trump. (Adele M. Stan, AlterNet)
- Really bad writing, sex scene division. Not exactly safe for work, but maybe sneak a peek in less sensitive locations?
I cannot speak for others, but for me this scene had all the thrill of an Ikea Chair assembly manual.
The Rotting Post (I think the number of 'h's was related to the Fibonacci sequence, but what do I know? [In that case, the last "ahhhhhh" should have only had 5 'h's.]); also check out the comments. ETA: Also at The Rotting Post, check out "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening," as penned by DJT . via![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
filkerdave .
Blueberry pancakes?
Flight of the Fumble Fee
Aug. 2nd, 2016 02:11 pm"Donald Trump asked a woman with a crying baby to leave his rally in Ashburn, Virginia on Tuesday."
Baby Herman puffed meditatively on his stogie. "See, here's the thing," the famous animated infant said. "This Trump guy thinks babies take orders from him. Not going to happen. He forgets that he's just a giant baby with money. That kid wasn't even thinking about Trump. The kid was trying to alert Mommy to its wet didy. If I'd been there, I'd have called Trump a wet didy, but I'm kind of busy in Toontown being the Mayor."
As an afterthought, he mused, "The only interaction politicians are allowed to have directly with babies is kissing them. Let me tell you, some of my constituents were not happy about that."
(Trump's a balloon, and everyone is a potential pin.)
Baby Herman puffed meditatively on his stogie.
As an afterthought, he mused, "The only interaction politicians are allowed to have directly with babies is kissing them. Let me tell you, some of my constituents were not happy about that."
(Trump's a balloon, and everyone is a potential pin.)
Two Things
Mar. 5th, 2016 12:20 pm(Wanna bet?)
- Everything you have ever wanted to know about the world of Edward II of England, with corrections for everything you think you know about Edward II. (via Making Light, which has a link to "The Support Group for People Unfairly Maligned in Historical Fiction." Naturally, I dived into the rest of the blog. What a banquet, to mix the metaphors. Thanks, PNH.)
- Am I the only person who cracks up while listening to well-worn comic routines? I ask because about two weeks after I mentioned that Shelley Berman, a comedian from the '60s, whose album we had played so often it was practically memorized, had Alzheimers, I succumbed to the urge to see if that record was on YouTube.
Yup. Broken into parts, but there. (Some of the parts had ads attached, which, considering one of the sketches, is a bit ironic.) I played all the pieces and cracked up, even though I know every word.
I've done that with Monty Python, too, and Robin Williams for a while ("Are these your roses?"). I recognize that some of it is familiarity with the material and some of it is nostalgia, but I'm still laughing. In the present. Go figure. - (See?) Uh-huh. As could Obi-Wan, Mace Windu, and Yoda. Depending, of course.
(no subject)
Feb. 15th, 2016 01:08 pm Current weirdness is that I keep finding stuff I want to write about until I open the entry-posting screen.
The comedian Shelley Berman has developed Alzheimer's. This news reminded me that back in the '60s, we kids could recite verbatim A Personal Appearance [corrected 9/1/2017] and crack each other up. (It was clean, never fear. But the phrase "smartly furnished chamber of horrors" in that voice still makes me smile. As does "You're all dressed up with a heel in your pocket.") And I would have gone on from there, but every word fled at the Post an Entry page.
*sigh*
The comedian Shelley Berman has developed Alzheimer's. This news reminded me that back in the '60s, we kids could recite verbatim A Personal Appearance [corrected 9/1/2017] and crack each other up. (It was clean, never fear. But the phrase "smartly furnished chamber of horrors" in that voice still makes me smile. As does "You're all dressed up with a heel in your pocket.") And I would have gone on from there, but every word fled at the Post an Entry page.
*sigh*
Hippo, Birdie, Two Ewes
Nov. 30th, 2015 12:40 pm Jonathan Swift, Dean of Satirists, 348 today.
(I suspect that he and Mort Sahl might have an interesting conversation...)
(I suspect that he and Mort Sahl might have an interesting conversation...)
Three Things
Jul. 29th, 2015 10:41 pmSo.
[crossposted, now that I have more than 6 minutes]
- Terrance, Republic of T, on Sandra Bland and The Talk.
- Echidne of the Snakes, quoting someone very astute about Camille Paglia, in lieu of writing about her.
- The New Yorker finally discovers Samuel R. Delany.
[crossposted, now that I have more than 6 minutes]
Roses from the Cowflops
Jun. 21st, 2015 01:00 pm- If you have missed or are studiously avoiding the Hugo kerfuffle, you should ignore this post, not that this post is about that, but I am pointing to delightful by-products, and they won't otherwise make sense.
- ( The aforementioned delightful by-products. )
- Any of the links on this page will get you to selected quotes from the factions. Warning: Have shower and brain bleach standing by.
Miscellaneous Musings
Jun. 14th, 2015 01:38 pm Rooting around in the midden of my mind and finding chicken bones.
- 40 or so years ago for some reason (or maybe none. It was the '70s) I went to a theater in Manhattan which was showing something called ...And Now for Something Completely Different. And this morning I fell into a trove of actual episodes, many of which I've never seen. Have one.
- A backstage tour of Oliver! which I may have
slept throughseen in the mid-'60s. - Department of Why The Onion Can't Keep Up: Married Australian couple promises to divorce if same-sex marriage legalized. The Backburner is up to the challenge: Same-sex couple threaten not to care. (I may have to bookmark the site.)
- Niall Ferguson objects to fact-checking onaccountabecause he has different facts. I will not speculate on his political affiliation...
- You can be prosecuted for deleting your browser history. Which I do once a week because clutter. And will continue to do because if I fall across -- excuse me, I hear the Crunchy Frog sketch.
In Memoriam
Apr. 7th, 2015 06:08 pm- Stan Freberg, humorist. Mark Evanier remembers him. I've mentioned him once or twice as shaping my sense of humor. Even though he didn't much care for rock 'n' roll.
- Julie Wilson, singer (that "undated photograph" was on every announcement of her concerts. Until this obit, I had no idea of what her actual face looked like) and actress.
- Dr. Phyllis R. Klotman, scholar and archivist of African-American film.
- Lon Simmons, Bay Area sportscaster.
Requiescat in Pace
Sep. 4th, 2014 04:34 pm- Joan Rivers, comedian. (Appreciation.)
- Andrew McLaglen, director, westerns (NYTimes obit)
- ETA: Kirby McCauley, agent of the sf/fantasy/horror world
In Memoriam
Jun. 28th, 2014 09:09 am- Bobby Womack, singer.
- Steve Rossi, singer/comedian (sometimes called Steve Stunning, which confused my adolescent self).
- Julius Rudel, New York City Opera conductor and impresario.
- Teenie Hodges, guitarist and songwriter
Requiescat in Pace
Mar. 31st, 2014 03:33 pm- Khushwant Singh, diplomat and journalist
- Hobie Alter, surfboard & sailboat designer
- Eddie Lawrence, "The Old Philosopher" (I heard ads in that style as late as the '90s)
Requiescat in Pace
Feb. 12th, 2014 04:56 pmShirley Temple Black, actress and diplomat. (Link via Avedon)
ETA: Sid Caesar, tower of comedy. Via skippy, who includes a video.
ETA: Sid Caesar, tower of comedy. Via skippy, who includes a video.
Not Censoring at All, Nosiree!
Feb. 7th, 2014 08:00 amandrewducker and supergee brought my attention to Yahoo's crude substitution of a 1995 Dilbert strip for today's actual Dilbert strip.Gee, ya think? I mean, Scott Adams is not normally on my side, but why obscure the one time that he is?
Note to Yahoo(!): There's a reason folks prefer Google, and it's not the level of evil.
