'TBH Politoons'
Baron Dave Romm
Mork vs. Gomez
By Baron Dave Romm
Images from another world
Swirls in the South: A close-up view
of Saturn
Last week we listened to the sound of Titan in mp3 form. the Huygens' descent onto Titan and I asked what it sounded like. Responses included: A washing machine, a storm, a scratchy needle, new age music (not a Yanni fan, I guess) and the parts of a George W speech the networks don't air. Thanks all for playing!
One of the great ways of viewing a culture is through the eyes of The Outsider. From the story of Joseph in the Bible through Marco Polo to Shogun, how a person views an alien culture reflects on the person and the culture. In the 20th century, we turned that around and had an alien view our culture. Sometimes, this was a serious drama that tried to show the alien's way of thinking as well as our own. Brother From Another Planet or The Man Who Fell To Earth or even the brief glimpse of the id in all of us in Forbidden Planet. Most often, and especially on television, this clash of cultures was played for laughs.
Gore Vidal's comic play Visit To A Small Planet was turned into a slapstick Jerry Lewis vehicle, but in many ways set the tone for the Alien Invasion tv shows such as Mork and Mindy and 3rd Rock From the Sun. Lewis arrives of Earth and immediately discovers he's in the wrong place at the wrong time... but stays to observe. And realizes why he doesn't want to stay.
Mork and Mindy was something of a cultural phenomena at the time. The first season is out on CD, and I've been having a grand ol' time going through the episodes. They hold up as humor and as a set-piece for late 70s culture. One of the first things that strikes me is how underrated Pam Dawber is as Mindy. She's an excellent straight man, and the show wouldn't work without her. Try to imagine Marlo Thomas, That Girl (1966), discovering an alien and bringing him home to live with her and meet daddy. Now, try to imagine Jennifer Garner of Alias or Amber Tamblyn of Joan of Arcadia dealing with Robin Williams/Mork from Ork in the present.
Robin Williams is great as Mork, but mostly he's playing Robin Williams: Standup comedian. He says his funny line, he does his hysterical shtick... and then stands there. He's not observing Earth, he's waiting his turn. This is most apparent in the early episodes where the producers didn't know what they had. The first few episodes only had the four major characters and maybe a guest or two. The show wouldn't work at all except for the ending piece where Mork talks to Orson (as in Orson Wells, presumably). Mork's reports to Ork may be a bit sappy, but they're the main thing that connect the Orkans to the Earthlings and give a few minutes of positive message. You'd have to watch three episodes of Little House on the Prairie to get what Williams delivers in two minutes. Some critics didn't think the reports belonged in the show; I think they are the major thing that saves it.
The show didn't open up until the coming of Richard Donner's Exidor. I love Exidor. He's a true alien, even though he's human. But, unlike Williams who delivers his lines and smiles, Donner lives the part. One of my all-time favorite bits of comedy on television is, alas, completely outdated. Mork and Exidor meet in jail and Exidor explains his new religion based on worshipping... OJ Simpson. Donner is an excellent actor, but he outshines Wllliams simply by staying in character even when it's not his turn.
Watching Mork and Mindy has given me an appreciation of another alien visitation: The Addams Family. Precisely where the Addams family came from or how they happened to be living on Cemetery Lane is never explained. But, like Mork and Mindy, the closeness of the family contrasts them with the rest of the world. Their family values were the best on tv: They may be altogether ooky, but they loved each other and cared for their relatives. The outsiders were the ones who suffered. Plots centered around finding a mate for Thing or Cousin Itt. When the children were being treated unfairly in school (the teacher said the witch was the bad guy), Morticia rushed to straighten her out.
John Astin, as Gomez Addams, compares favorably with Robin Williams, as Mork from Ork. Both are great comic actors who took on roles with an askew view of the world. But in their respective short-lived series, I have to give the edge to Astin. He was always in character. "Tish! You spoke French!" All the actors respected each other and didn't step on any lines (or laugh tracks), but no one stepped out of their carefully constructed roles. Everybody was a character AND everybody was a straight man. It was a family.
Mork works because he was so strange and Williams used pop culture references as part of his stand up act. Gomez works because Astin makes you believe someone like him could actually exist. Astin continues to have small but juicy roles, such as playing Harry's father on Night Court or a villain in Duckman. Williams went on to star in movies, often playing a variation of his Mork weirdness. In many ways, both are still aliens with an askew view of the world.
A sad note: Johnny Carson died Jan. 23, 2005. Amongst television's greatest achievements must be Carson's 30 year reign as host of the Tonight Show. Noteworthy moments are few and far between, and few shows will be remembered in their entirety. The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson will be remembered for consistency, influence with the audience and making groundbreaking changes in the way television is viewed and produced. Late night shows are an hour because Carson didn't want to keep doing 90 minutes every night. During one period when NBC's prime-time schedule was in the toilet during the 80s, the claim was that Carson was responsible for 60% of NBC's profit. More has been written than I shall attempt. I just wanted to say goodbye.
Baron Dave Romm is a conceptual artist and a noble of Ladonia with a radio show, a very weird CD collection and an ever growing list of political links. Dave Romm reviews things at random for obscure web sites. You can read all his music recommendations from Bartcop-E , and you can hear the last two Shockwave broadcasts in Real Audio (scroll down to Shockwave). Thanks to everyone who has sent me music to play on the air.
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But Untrue
Strangely Believable
Attorney General John Ashcroft was forced to resign after the White House learned he tried to blackmail David Geffen of Geffen Records into giving him a recording contract.
~Jeff Crook
Jeff Crook is the Ceci Connolly of the Left. ~ J. Howard Tuft
Strangely Believable but Untrue is now available online at the Untrue Fact of the Day web calendar. Help spread disinformation and misunderstanding by sharing this with your friends and enemies.
Paul & Palmer Show
George McGovern
Here is the first Paul & Palmer Show with the George McGovern interview. The interview is 18 minutes long and broken into 4 segments throughout the 1 hour program.
Paul
Thanks, Paul!
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
DAN KENNEDY: Google eyes: The company everyone loves knows more about you than you might realize. And that's just for starters. (Boston Phoenix)
IS THERE A company anywhere within these United States with a better public image than Google has? We love it. We need it. We use it - more than 200 million times a day, by some accounts. The unofficial slogan - "Don't Be Evil" - epitomizes everything we want in a business relationship. And more often than not, Google lives up to those words. But there is another side to Google, and it's one that the company would just as soon you not think about.
Courtland Milloy: If I hear Bush, then I don't believe him (Washington Post, Decatur Daily Democrat)
WASHINGTON - I would have listened to President Bush's inaugural address Thursday, but my hearing seems to have deteriorated so much over the past four years that I probably wouldn't have understood a word he said. For instance, during Bush's first inaugural speech, it sounded to me as if he said: ``Our unity, our union, is the serious work of leaders and citizens in every generation. And this is my solemn pledge: I will work to build a single nation of justice and opportunity.''
Take a look at the 2004 election map of red and blue states and tell me: Do I need a hearing aid, or what?
10 Ultra-cynical ways to beat the republicans (Buffalo Beast)
Why did the Democrats lose? At least in part, it's because they thought that being right would actually work in their favor. Let's face it, logic doesn't mean squat in politics. People say there's too much cynicism in politics today, but we think there really isn't enough. Cynicism works. The Republican Party has embraced it, and it has worked wonders for them. The Democrats have made some progress in this area, but they are still lagging badly. If there's any hope for the blue states, they must learn the lessons of Machiavelli and Rove. To help them along, the BEAST offers these suggestions.
ROGER EBERT: Sundance doesn't kid about swag
PARK CITY, Utah -- For 10 days, Robert Redford was observing, the population here swells from 7,500 to 45,000. That's a gain -- I'm guesstimating here -- of 37,499 cell phones, 15,000 SUVs, 400,000 cups of designer coffee, 100,000 postcards advertising a movie that 47 people will see, and 170 restaurant hosts and hostesses fed up with people asking them, "Don't you know who I am?" This last complaint has grown so common that a T-shirt has emerged with the message: "No, I don't know who you are, and I don't f---ing care." Oh, the rudeness, it is epidemic. Last year one of the biggest pains in the butt, according to a Canadian journalist, was me. This is not likely because (a) I am the gentlest and most grateful of individuals, and (b) I did not attend last year's festival, and can prove it with a note from my doctor.
The Passion of the Critics: James DiGiovanna and Bob Grimm have a nice, quaint little chat about the movies from 2004 (Tucson Weekly)
James DiGiovanna: Here's my basic problem with the whole "best of" thing: It seems to me that the point of film criticism isn't to just say "I liked this" or "I hated that," but to write something that's entertaining and says something interesting about the film itself or the culture that produced it, or to find in the film some point of interest that maybe not everyone would see. "This is good/This is bad" is pretty uninteresting all by itself. Plus, "best/worst" lists just generate mail from people saying things like, "You right-wing liberal media elitist heterosexist abortionist pig! How dare you say anything vaguely negative about Rain Man II: President Rain Man! That movie was full of specialness!" With that in mind ... on with the best/worst lists!
Their List of Best and Worst 2004 Films
Please E-mail Your Elected Politicians
The President says that he is worried about a Social Security "disaster" that he says will happen decades in the future. Why not e-mail him (and your other elected politicians) and tell them to take care of the federal budget deficit disaster that is happening now? Look up your elected politicians' e-mail addresses here:
Fun Stuff
Reader Comment
Re: Hubble
Are we too proud to contact the Russians to bail out the Hubble?
An average Soyuz T4 launch would cost around $100 million - that's with a 3-person crew and 2000 pounds of cargo.
It's like a pick-up truck instead of an 18-wheeler.
SoCACal
Thanks, Cal!
A Fresh Rant
Avery Ant
Purple Gene Reviews
'Wild Things'
Purple Genes' review of the movie "Wild Things" (1998) Directed by John McNaughton:
I wrote a review a while back about a steamy noir mystery called "Body Heat" and I remember saying that it was a shame that they never made a sequel to such a sexy, smoldering wonderful WOMAN WINS in the end movie. Well they did ……but NOBODY KNOWS !!!!! Even Roger Ebert alluded to the possibility by referring to the movie "Wild Things" in his review as an example "Florida Noir" - hot on the heels of "Palmetto"…..well Roger……"Florida Noir" was initiated a long time ago with Bogart and Bacall in "Key Largo"…..it was alluded to in 1975 with Gene Hackman and a brand new Melanie Griffith in "Night Moves" and finally it was epitomized by "Body Heat" with a beautiful and burning performance by Kathleen Turner……Nothing will ever match that 1981 masterpiece but I found the "B" movie sequel……sort of…..
Sam Lombardi (Matt Dillon "Tex" - "Rumblefish" - "Drugstore Cowboy") is a well respected high school councilor in the town of Blue Bay Florida……until Kelly (Denise Richards "Star Ship Troopers" - "Scary Movie 3" - "Mrs Charlie Sheen") a spoiled, rich and popular student and her trailer trash friend Suzy (Neve Campbell "The Craft" - "Scream" - "Scream 2" - "Scream 3") accuse Sam of raping Kelly…..these girls need a life and Kellys' mother Sandra (Teresa Russell "The Razor's Edge - "Black Widow") and her father Tom (Robert Wagner "The Pink Panther" - "Hart To Hart") who are rich to the gills are taking Sam to court!
Sgt Ray Duquette (Kevin Bacon "Animal House" - "Footloose" - "Mystic River" - "The Woodsman") is assigned as chief investigator and Sam gets the best Lawyer in town to defend him…..Kenneth Bowden (Bill Murray "Caddyshack" - "Meatballs" - "Charlies' Angels" - "Lost in Translation") a quirky and effective defender of the "Innocent" !!!!!!!! It turns out that we have a little inside game going on and Sam and Kelly and Suzy plot to plunder Kellys' moms' and dads' estate by lying in court about the rape and Kenneth the Lawyer cashes in for the threesome…..but sgt Ray smells a rat and he has to be included in the SCAM……lets cut to the sex scene….with Kelly meeting Sam in a seamy and steamy low rent motel for a celebration with champagne for screwing Kellys' parents out of 5 million……..oh oh we get a surprise visit by Suzy and she wants in on the fun and pretty soon we have a bubbly soaked "THREEWAY" that matches "Body Heat" for….. "Body Heat"…….but some how Sgt Ray accidently shoots Kelly and the money is going to be split 3 ways……
So we're on the big Yatch at the end and Sgt Ray and Sam are having a beer….oh no Sam swings the sail into Ray…."Man overboard"…dead…. Now there're only 2 to split the money….Sam and Suzy !!!!!!! Like I said…this is a WOMAN WINS movie and Suzy give Sam a nice little Vodka on the rocks…spiked….."man Overboard"…….The end of the movie is Suzy collecting all the money from Kenneth the Lawyer…….Ain't love grand….. I'm sorry to tell you that they actually made "Wild Things 2" …..semi sexy and stoooopid !
Purple Gene gives "Wild Things" 8 sweaty overhead fans out of 10 for providing a semi-sequel to the classic movie "Body Heat".
Purple Gene
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny day, foggy night.
In all the Johnny Carson tributes, I have yet to see anyone mention what was one of my favorite shows - the one where
Johnny allowed James 'The Amazing' Randi to nail
the loathsome faith-healer/conman Peter Popoff.
My favorite 'Carnac The Magnificent' punch line was 'Sis. Boom. Bah'.
Tsunami Concert Draws 60,000
Wales
Headline acts including rocker Eric Clapton, pianist Jools Holland and The Manic Street Preachers drew more than 60,000 people to a charity concert raising money for Asian tsunami relief.
Fans packed the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff on Saturday for the seven-hour concert featuring 20 British bands and solo artists.
The concert started with 24-year-old Welsh opera singer Katherine Jenkins, who opened with a version of "Amazing Grace."
Other performers on the program included Charlotte Church, Badly Drawn Boy, Feeder, Lemar, Lulu, Craig David, Goldie Lookin' Chain, Snow Patrol and Brian McFadden, and the rock band Keane.
Wales
Names 'The Aviator' Best Film
Producers Guild
The Producers Guild of America, often an important barometer of Oscar sentiment, on Saturday night named "The Aviator," director Martin Scorsese's film biography of billionaire Howard Hughes, best film of 2004.
In other awards, the Producers Guild named HBO's "Angels in America" as the year's best TV movie or miniseries. It also gave two other HBO shows awards: "The Sopranos" was named best drama series and "Curb Your Enthusiasm" best comedy series.
NBC's "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" was named best TV variety program and "The Amazing Race" on CBS was named best reality series.
Producers Guild
Likes London
Dustin Hoffman
Hollywood actor Dustin Hoffman flew into London on Sunday, and denied plans that he planned to settle in Britain permanently.
Hoffman arrived with his wife, Lisa, to promote his new film Meet the Fockers, the Meet the Parents sequel.
"I was doing some publicity for this movie in the states, and one of the things they asked was don't I have a place in London?"
"I said yes, for 25 years, but we haven't been able to use it as much as we want because we didn't like to separate from the kids.
"That turned into: I'm moving to get away from (U.S. resident George W.) Bush," Hoffman said.
But he said: "That's silly. You can't go anywhere in the world to get away from Bush."
Dustin Hoffman
Documentary Bares All at Sundance
'Deep Throat'
It was shot for $25,000 in just six days. Its male star was a film-crew member shoved in front of the camera as a last-minute replacement. Its director readily conceded it was not even a good movie.
Yet "Deep Throat" was a cultural phenomenon whose theatrical grosses are estimated at $600 million, and it became an emblem of decadence for anti-pornography crusaders and the namesake for an informer who helped bring down a president.
"Inside Deep Throat," a documentary that premiered this weekend at the Sundance Film Festival, examines the legacy of the 1972 flick, a forerunner of today's hardcore adult-entertainment industry and a touchstone for obscenity laws.
Produced by Brian Grazer, whose films include "Apollo 13" and "A Beautiful Mind," "Inside Deep Throat" opens theatrically in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston and five other cities Feb. 11.
'Deep Throat'
FCC Makes Them Very Nervous
TV Producers
There's no more potent symbol for Hollywood TV executives these days than Peter Griffin's pixilated buttocks. That was the image on Fox a few weeks back. The network's executives ordered a 5-year-old "Family Guy" scene blurred because it was nervous about what the Federal Communications Commission might think of Griffin's naked rear end - a CARTOON character's naked rear - on television.
In a separate episode, Fox similarly covered the baby behind of Stewie, Peter's son. Both were shown with no reaction when "Family Guy" ran initially a half-decade ago.
The jitters extend well beyond Hollywood, as witnessed by the dozens of ABC affiliates that would not air the Academy Award-winning drama "Saving Private Ryan" last November because of concerns about violence and profanity.
For a lot more, TV Producers
Old Man of Sea Hooked Nobel
Ernest Hemingway
It was the narrative of an old Cuban fisherman's struggle against nature that finally persuaded the Swedish Academy that Ernest Hemingway wasn't too rich or famous to be honored with a Nobel Prize.
Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter reported Sunday that the Academy had been considering the war correspondent and classic American novelist up to seven years before he was awarded the Nobel laureate for literature in 1954.
Hemingway's 1952 novel "The Old Man and the Sea" convinced members of the Academy he had earned his place alongside other laureates for "his mastery of the art of narrative."
Ernest Hemingway
Something Else Wingnuts Hate
Tolerance
Using a young readers' novel called "The Misfits" as its centerpiece, middle schools nationwide will participate in a "No Name-Calling Week" initiative starting Monday. The program, now in its second year, has the backing of groups from the Girl Scouts to Amnesty International but has also drawn complaints that it overemphasizes harassment of gay youths.
"Gay students aren't the only kids targeted - this isn't about special rights for them," Howe said. "But the fact is that 'faggot' is probably the most common insult at schools."
"No Name-calling Week" takes aim at insults of all kinds - whether based on a child's appearance, background or behavior. But a handful of conservative critics have zeroed in on the references to harassment based on sexual orientation.
"I hope schools will realize it's less an exercise in tolerance than a platform for liberal groups to promote their pan-sexual agenda," said Robert Knight, director of Concerned Women for America's Culture and Family Institute.
Tolerance
"...Robert Knight, director of Concerned Women for America's Culture and Family Institute..." - are those poor concerned women too stupid to speak for themselves, or are all their thoughts processed by a 'special' man first?
To Bypass Munich Conference
Rummy
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will not attend the Munich Security Conference in February. Some say the cancellation is likely due to a war crimes complaint against him that was filed in a German court.
The head of the security conference, Horst Teltschik, said in Friday's edition of the Münchner Abendzeitung newspaper that Rumsfeld will instead send the number three official at the Pentagon, Douglas J. Feith, the undersecretary of defense for policy.
The defense secretary sent a message to the German government through the US embassy in Berlin that he would not attend the Munich meeting if there is a chance a case will be launched against him in Germany. However, when he informed the German government he would not take part in the conference, he did not refer to the charges filed against him.
Rummy
In Memory
Rose Mary Woods
Rose Mary Woods, the devoted secretary to President Nixon who said she inadvertently erased part of a crucial Watergate tape, has died. She was 87.
Woods, who moved to northeastern Ohio after leaving the disgraced president's staff in 1976, never talked much about her years with the only American president to resign the office.
She denied she caused the full 18 1/2-minute gap, testifying later that she inadvertently erased four or five minutes. The phone rang while she was transcribing the tape, she said.
A panel of experts set up in the 1970s by federal judge John Sirica, who presided over the Watergate criminal trials, concluded that the erasures were done in at least five - and perhaps as many as nine - separate and contiguous segments. The panel never figured out what was erased.
Rose Mary Woods
In Memory
Johnny Carson
Johnny Carson, the "Tonight Show" host who served America a smooth nightcap of celebrity banter, droll comedy and heartland charm for 30 years, died Sunday. He was 79. NBC said Carson died of emphysema at his Malibu home.
"Mr. Carson passed away peacefully early Sunday morning," his nephew, Jeff Sotzing, told The Associated Press. "He was surrounded by his family, whose loss will be immeasurable."
Born in Corning, Iowa, and raised in nearby Norfolk, Neb., Carson started his show business career at age 14 as the magician "The Great Carsoni."
After World War II service in the Navy, he took a series of jobs in local radio and TV in Nebraska before starting at KNXT-TV in Los Angeles in 1950.
There he started a sketch comedy show, "Carson's Cellar," which ran from 1951-53 and attracted attention from Hollywood. A staff writing job for "The Red Skelton Show" followed.
In 1958, Carson sat in for "Tonight Show" host Paar. When Paar left the show four years later, Carson was NBC's choice as his replacement.
After his retirement, Carson took on the role of Malibu-based retiree with apparent ease. An avid tennis fan, he was still playing a vigorous game in his 70s.
He and his wife, Alexis, traveled frequently. The pair met on the Malibu beach in the early 1980s; he was 61 when they married in June 1987, she was in her 30s.
Carson's first wife was his childhood sweetheart, Jody, the mother of his three sons. They married in 1949 and split in 1963. He married Joanne Copeland Carson that same year, but divorced nine years later. His third marriage, to Joanna Holland Carson, took place in 1972. They divorced in 1985.
His nephew said there will be no memorial service.
Johnny Carson
The 'Ed Ames Clip'
