tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13880801059941855912012-01-02T20:57:32.011-08:00The musings of a boy who grew up in a neighborhood that no longer exists.Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.comBlogger1221100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-32584850347083761822012-01-02T19:39:00.001-08:002012-01-02T20:03:11.159-08:00

This is not the ending I was expecting. Bucky is sobbing on the streets of Pasadena. Somewhere Hubbard, Rosa, and Purdy are singing On Wisconsin off-key. All over the dairy state, cows are tipping themselves over in shock and dismay. Beer refuses to leave their taps. Oscar Mayer is blowing a dirge on the wiener whistle. The colors of cardinal and white walk around shrouded in black crepe. Lawry

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-289288658976019102012-01-02T08:29:00.000-08:002012-01-02T15:28:19.734-08:00

I’m a Bucky Badger who lives out in Los Angeles. Until Barry Alvarez rode in on Rocinante in 1990 and gave all of us Wisconsin football fans a reason to live for Saturdays, Badger Football was so bad that any Wisconsin emblazoned clothing I wore around the city, I had the words “Be Kind, Be Generous, Show Pity” sown prominently into it. I must admit I did plagiarize that slogan: It is the union

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-73890852459323772962012-01-01T10:45:00.000-08:002012-01-01T19:05:17.451-08:00

My Year End summary to all my friends, creditors, and assorted others who still believe I owe them money.2011 had more ups and downs for me than a retirement community discovering Viagra for the first time. 2011 was a year filled with some joy, but that’s boring to speak about so let’s get to the mental chaos, the physical pain, and those unusual number of late night phone calls from someone

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-16215058462711979792011-07-14T08:49:00.000-07:002011-07-16T16:20:10.604-07:00

Get your motor running, head out on the highway,Looking for adventure in whatever comes our way.SteppenwolfA steel and metal tsunami of cataclysmic enormity rolls our way this weekend. A wave which will be so unstoppable in its ferocity and mindless in its destructive potential that Republican politicians are already chafing at the bit to privatize it and give it its own Caribbean tax shelter.

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-34771689704921244472011-05-06T12:13:00.001-07:002011-05-09T21:27:19.972-07:00

Not only did the Navy Seals force Bin Laden to go hunt up an ophthalmologist in his after-life (good luck finding anyone named Cohen, Schwartz or Rosenberg in his address book), but the treasure trove of information, both personal and tactical, discovered in his bedroom demonstrates how the world’s most hunted 6’4” dialysis patient could stay concealed for so many years in a garrison town full of

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-81463130914066022182011-03-16T16:16:00.001-07:002011-03-16T16:46:40.086-07:00

H.L. Mencken once said: A politician is an animal which can sit on a fence and yet keep both ears to the ground. I love Michele Bachman because she's from Minnesota, and I'm not. Every time she opens her mouth, I check her hair coloring. If stupid remarks were a crime, she'd never leave the courtroom. When Michele Bachman stands before a crowd and talks of our glorious history, I can hear Texas

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-74536649726493489402011-02-27T22:11:00.001-08:002011-02-28T05:01:29.807-08:00

Things I did while watching this year’s presentation of the Oscars:I checked to see if my pulse was running slower than the pace of the show. I was lucky. Were it I would now be dead.I began painting my apartment the color of ennui. Then I broke into the apartment next door just to see if darkness was more exciting.At the 127th hour of the telecast I cut off my right arm just to have something to

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-76103102060471982302011-02-06T09:54:00.000-08:002011-02-06T09:55:16.398-08:00

Some dates just should be remembered.Today marks the 65th anniversary of the passing of Justus D. Barnes. Apparently,not much is known about this gentleman's life. Even the author of his Wikipedia article can barely scratch out a couple of words. He does have a FACEBOOK entry and there is his IMDB listing. Yet Justus would have faded into the background during those pre-Nickelodeon days of movie

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-12807269669302556712011-02-05T09:51:00.000-08:002011-02-05T10:40:37.681-08:00

As a kid I wanted to grow up to be either Vince Lombardi or one of those chimps shot off into outer space. Before Lombardi arrived in Green Bay in 1959, the town was so depressed about its professional football team (in 1958, the team went 2-10) that city plans were in the works to move the entire community to the Navarino State Wildlife area and sell all its beachfront property to Michigan.

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-40811344847125303662010-10-10T20:58:00.000-07:002010-10-11T05:52:11.557-07:00

I belong to a film society that meets every Saturday and Sunday morning at the Royal Theatre in West Los Angeles. I’ve been a member of it for years. The Royal is part of a dying breed, an old art house standalone that has been a constant in the neighborhood since 1924, when it was called the Tivoli, and that portion of Santa Monica Blvd. was part of the original Route 66.The size of the Royal's

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-7063988977550543802010-09-17T09:40:00.000-07:002010-09-17T09:41:37.247-07:00

While looking for a candy bar recently, I unearthed an unfinished e-mail draft for a kids' programming pitch. Why I thought I could find a sugar rush on my hard drive I can’t rightly remember; but several weeks earlier I had discovered week-old warm pizza behind my stove, so perhaps that was the motivation. I’m very lucky in that regard: I’ve located edible snacks in the strangest places in my

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-11095733376356598792010-08-24T00:01:00.000-07:002010-08-26T12:37:24.350-07:00

Okay pigs, now listen and listen good. There's a bomb in the Army Math Research Center—the university—set to go off in five minutes. Clear the building. Warn the hospital. This is no bullshit,man.I was staring up at the ceiling, lackadaisically listening to my parents loud whisperings about what an ongoing bloody wastrel I had become, when the bomb went off. The explosion was so intense it

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-1425975190609712012010-08-22T18:40:00.000-07:002010-08-22T20:24:11.079-07:00

Once upon a time, as the young Greenbush Boy bicycled around his world, he received some advice from a crusty old soul who had seen much in his 80 years as the neighborhood rag picker.Now the rag picker was well known in the neighborhood. Any old clothes no longer worthy of another wash or a patch up were boxed up and given to him. No one knew what he did with any of the threads or even where he

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-53533890657619696082010-07-21T16:21:00.000-07:002010-07-22T13:59:18.997-07:00

Many videos make me laugh, but there are few examples of comic brilliance that have me on the floor coughing up hairballs from both ends. Whatever marketing genius designed the new Old Spice commercials with former wide receiver Isaiah Mustafa as the pitchman deserves a special place in the Jerry Della Femina Advertiser Hall of Fame.Mark the words of Greenbushboy. Mel Gibson's rants will be

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-56001855122948275052010-07-17T23:33:00.001-07:002010-07-18T17:34:35.612-07:00

Saturday evenings are usually spent with my favorite girlfriend, Credit Card Olga from the Ukraine, some loaded weapons, a bottle of Grey Goose, and the Sci Fi Channel. I love their movies. Ridiculous scripts, atrocious special effects, acting from the school of "hey you with the nippley big hooters, want to be in a movie."Titles like Bone Eater (not worth the sexual pun even for me), Flu Bird

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-64208085182180332552010-05-26T16:32:00.001-07:002010-05-27T06:49:26.206-07:00

Don’t Matter BrotherI had planned to never again blog about LOST. What's the point? Life is short. The death of a show is longer. Once a program is over and done with, then, like a relationship gone as sour as milk left overnight next to a litter box, it is time to concentrate on other passions, other obsessions, other inconsequential ways of wasting time.I loved the show for six years. Much of

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-68214298958828844252010-05-21T20:48:00.000-07:002010-05-23T08:35:01.265-07:00

The series LOST ends Sunday evening. In preparation, I plan on serving myself the sort of food most of the survivors ate during much of their stay on the Island: wild boar, polar bear, Dharma crackers, electromagnetic current, sea water, sand, and grass, all nicely plated alongside fatal knife wounds, flaming arrows to the chest, gunshots, explosions and drownings. More major characters died on

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-75596648531316734912010-05-08T19:14:00.000-07:002010-05-08T20:06:00.450-07:00

Well, once again I exploded my budget, ripped the screen door of fiscal responsibility clean off its hinges, and climbed willingly into the twin caves of excess and endangerment. As Mr. Schenck, my math teacher, once said to me, “Life is short, death is long; mister, you’re making a mockery of both simultaneously. Life is meant to be lived, so live it to the fullest, you dolt.” So instead of

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-2654352364235717252010-04-24T22:25:00.000-07:002010-05-07T12:57:06.246-07:00

A friend of mine who swims in Edmonton oil shale for a living sent me this site. The web cam is shut down at night, but during the day and early evening it's a real hoot watching mom in action. The male shows up, as most of our species does, only to take out the garbage, toss some change on the table, and move leaves around. I caught her once accusing her mate of spending his nights after work at

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-40384106857688133492010-03-15T22:47:00.000-07:002010-03-16T16:58:35.856-07:00

On the Ides of March in 44 BC, Julius Caesar, the man who single-highhandedly brought down the Roman Republic, walked into the wrong end of several daggers. If you want to learn more about this man whose innards were turned into a salad of the same name, I suggest something called school -- but as assassinations go, this one ain't no Jean Paul Marat.I wasn't looking for one, but recently a

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-1624996058836458802010-03-07T18:04:00.000-08:002010-03-07T18:46:10.769-08:00

I love movies, but the Academy Awards program is prolonged, tedious, and redundant. There is about as much surprise in an Oscars broadcast as there is in handing a bottle of whiskey to an alcoholic grandparent suffering from incontinence then plopping him on reupholstered couch just to see if the inevitable happens.In contrast, the Grammy broadcast is like a couple of healthy teenagers who,

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-37066834363362906042010-03-04T11:20:00.000-08:002010-03-04T11:21:06.896-08:00

All I do on weekends is watch films from the local Blockbuster. I rent so many I think I might be the only one keeping the chain solvent. I am a hold-out: I don’t use video on demand nor do I Netflick by mail. I leave my apartment so rarely that the opportunity to meet anyone to practice my grunts and groans is worth the journey into sunshine and smog. I stay in my apartment so much I have to

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-35535120927566581492010-02-25T17:19:00.000-08:002010-02-27T16:45:15.191-08:00

Today was the day of my annual physical. I usually have them in February so I know whether to celebrate my upcoming birthday in March or just buy the coffin and sit in the dark and wait for my Cheney episode. I’ve been going to the same doctor for 36 years so he knows who I am. I am his chronological patient number 114 out of close to 10,000 that he's examined in his office though he has examined

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-78954792871840317852010-02-22T17:01:00.001-08:002010-02-22T17:05:01.549-08:00

Finally picked up the DVD of “Law Abiding Citizen” and screened it last night. I can only imagine the development meetings behind this gem.THE BOSS: Okay people we don’t have much time to act. I just got word that both Gerald Butler and Jamie Foxx are available to star in our next Wasted Talent Production. Of course the script doesn't yet exist, but that has never stopped us before. We have to

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-76263242741146946692010-02-09T11:15:00.000-08:002010-02-09T14:41:51.250-08:00

Over heard today at the local grocery store:My ex is so brutal that in the divorce settlement, I’m only allowed to talk to the voices in my head every other weekend.A Vietnamese neighbor saw me coming upstairs with several pizzas for the Super Bowl. Later that afternoon, she knocked on my door and asked if she could borrow a pizza because she and her friends had run out of food.In addressing a

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-45546783512048119362010-01-27T09:21:00.001-08:002010-02-03T01:27:31.170-08:00

Obama’s Introduction of foreign dignitaries including the Na’vi, the Cylons, and those creepy characters from District 9Congressional members showing populist support by hanging tea bags from their $2000 Armani suitsThe “You Lie” Glee Club receiving more applause than the PresidentFox News Cutting In to Broadcast a 1994 Newt Gingrich RebuttalSupreme Court allowing large corporations to begin

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-29650556991968850492010-01-15T18:16:00.000-08:002010-02-03T01:27:51.468-08:00

Sitting in theaters watching 3D movies has always given me migraines. It is not the 3D process itself, which is enjoyable with or without an attached storyline. No, the migraine problem is rooted in my inability to keep my hands off the 3D glasses. I spend most of the screen time moving them up and down the bridge of my nose or taking them off completely just to see the contrast between 3D and

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-91373429987087166452009-12-31T21:18:00.000-08:002010-02-03T01:28:19.241-08:00

Due to the hysteria created by the Underwear Bomber, the FAA went into a sanity lockdown and began a new round of regulations for the flying public that continued throughout 2010.To the Flying Public:Congratulations one and all for surviving another wild and wacky year with us here at the FAA as America continues to fly around this great globe of ours! We hope you've had as much fun working

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-17712654646412152472009-12-23T10:35:00.001-08:002010-02-03T01:28:33.966-08:00

Those of us who scour the Internet looking for animated good cheer that doesn't involve liquids, find plenty to choose from this time of year in the files of gifted animators. Christmas means so many things to those with the talent to draw objects other than water from wells or long stretches in the state pen. Take these three samples for instance, all of which exhibit how expansive a holiday

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-30245220332266080342009-11-07T22:54:00.000-08:002010-02-03T01:29:28.900-08:00

Jake was one of my father's closest friends from the old days of the Greenbush area. Both met after World War II when Madison's Triangle Area became their home after long years of wanderings and displacements. The men knew each other for close to a quarter of a century before my father's declining health forced him to abandon the bitter Wisconsin winters in the late 70s for the warmer weather of

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-58963300711512114822009-10-15T18:03:00.000-07:002010-02-03T01:29:43.854-08:00

Starman, 12, died Thursday October 15 in Boston, Massachusetts after being found comatose in his apartment in Cambridge. According to his family, the cause of death was kidney failure; he had deteriorated rapidly over the last two months.Starman was known for his large size and his inquisitive and good-tempered personality. He tirelessly patrolled the front door, and supervised all visitors

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-31815544240939581952009-09-06T21:56:00.000-07:002010-02-03T01:30:27.453-08:00

Last night I attended a screening near UCLA of “Inglorious Basterds” a film so tedious, boring and idiotic that halfway through the movie, my fingers began to reflexively Twitter Psalm 23 in Morse Code. I found this frightening, since I don't know Morse Code and have never Twittered anything in my life. I left the Westwood Theatre with fingers more arthritic than when I arrived several hours

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-51355517302268478942009-09-03T06:19:00.000-07:002010-02-03T01:30:42.666-08:00

Coming up topics:Why I haven't blogged in ages.The missing letter from a Disney superhero.Looking for a Beetlejuice animation cell.Lost in an August Minnesota blizzard.Bumping into Miss Right 30 years too late.

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-81017814084314684122009-07-26T17:02:00.000-07:002010-02-03T01:30:55.350-08:00

I just can’t quit her though She has grown big, fat and ugly since our first idyllic get together some three decades ago. Her face, once graceful, fine and gentle now is a lumpy mess; the curve of her calves, so svelte, beautiful, alluring now rage outward as an uncontrollable mass; and the simple luxury of a kiss and a hug long ago vanished, supplanted by the ubiquitous push and a shove. Her

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-68642593776449745412009-07-21T06:00:00.000-07:002010-02-03T01:31:30.906-08:00

It seems like forever, but it wasn't really that long ago. On May 6, 2009 I posted a wacky little piece entitled NOIR OBGYN: FINGERS OF FURY. At that time, I mentioned the treatment itself was about ready to go online. As you can see, I was off by several months.I have always hated the process of writing. Twisting my head 360 degrees and spitting out pea soup is so much simpler an act than

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-45420443827686241052009-07-06T22:19:00.001-07:002010-02-03T01:31:45.824-08:00

I saw Michael Jackson perform only once. It was at Dodger Stadium and he was performing along side his brothers during their Victory Tour concert. My ticket stub reminds me the date was December 3, 1984. My high-priced seat in Chavez Ravine was so near the top of the vertigo section that had I fallen over backwards, I would have washed ashore on Catalina Island.While I liked Michael and had

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-21540980984987950152009-07-04T13:28:00.001-07:002010-02-03T01:32:01.432-08:00

Today celebrates the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. That means as a nation we are 233 years old, still young enough to repeatedly believe we lose our innocence every time something really bad happens to our national psyche. That hoary expression "America will never be the same again" has been used so often by commentators since our beginnings that it might as well be part of

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-89990950666572508592009-07-02T17:27:00.000-07:002009-07-03T10:14:51.561-07:00

I wish I could find a politician's wife to marry. Any female willing to stand by her man in front of the entire world while he fashions some horse's ass excuse for sliding back into teenage Porky's-Animal House stupidness is my kind of soulmate. Or sole mate, depending on whether she also shines shoes. I wonder if you have to be a politician yourself to purchase a relaxed politician's wife?

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-20729132248738798752009-07-01T00:56:00.000-07:002009-07-01T06:01:30.320-07:00

I love short films. Perhaps it's because I have attention deficient disorder or a small bladder or the thought that I might forget where I parked my car if I stayed too long in the theater. As much fun as it is to see mind rupturing visual effects, or hear the best in ear splitting noise, or marvel at what great actors can do with awful dialogue (Lawrence Olivier as "Zeus" in Clash of the Titans

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-5294183143683249012009-06-21T20:09:00.001-07:002009-06-22T17:12:51.759-07:00

Three young men were murdered 45 years ago today. Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney joined the ranks of dozens of others who, just over the last 60 years, were shot, stabbed, bombed, and lynched attempting to straighten out the left behind mess of post Reconstruction America. These three became known to America as the Mississippi Burning Boys who should not be confused with the

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-86134194683768622052009-06-10T20:38:00.000-07:002009-06-13T14:21:08.445-07:00

The term For Your Consideration (FYC) is a familiar mantra during this time of year for those of us who are voting members of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (some 14,000 plus). The Emmy nominating process is in full swing, all of which culminates Sunday night September 13 on CBS with the Prime Time Emmy Show. Other networks think so highly of this star-studded program extolling the

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-62605202047673438072009-06-06T12:58:00.000-07:002010-05-28T23:10:23.911-07:00

I remember his name being Wendell. He was tall, not basketball player tall, but the height I hoped to one day grow to. His face was already alcoholic lined and so many pockmarks, the sort caused by teen age acne left ignored by ignorance or cost. His eyes were a series of black circles matching the flecks of dirt that all but fell out of his ears. His teeth were a hard dark yellow even though he

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-32324831418549799822009-05-30T12:30:00.001-07:002009-05-30T22:04:46.107-07:00

When I get jaundiced-eyed reading the humorous polemics of C. Wright Mills, the ruminations of Dwight MacDonald from Partisan Review or even the salacious events surrounding the lives of Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord and Madame de Staël, I kick back with a case of Smirnov, pack my brain stem in the freezer, and watch an example of one of my favorite film genres: the Japanese splatter

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-77653494214648004632009-05-24T22:20:00.000-07:002009-05-24T23:51:34.094-07:00

My last blog was entitled "Wimpy is for Hamburgers, Not Americans." I thought it was a rather clever play on words and the title worked well for the main point of the post. With 2.5 millions Americans locked up in stir and with Supermax prisons dotting the countryside like big box roach motels, why the irrational concern from wimpy members of Congress, stoked by whiny media tele-prompter readers,

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-38528498974648251832009-05-21T09:14:00.000-07:002009-05-21T23:24:28.421-07:00

I’ve always thought of myself as a tough American male. Granted, I never went into the military service, nor have I ever fired a gun heavier than what the good Lord gave me at birth; but I’ve driven the freeways of Los Angeles at night, fought off the wheel-chaired crowds on Black Friday, and suffered through enough blind dates with professional virgins to produce stigmata.Toughness. I’ve walked

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-82588434417587345802009-05-16T10:52:00.000-07:002009-05-16T10:58:48.032-07:00

I love this sort of stuff and, yes, I watch action like this for hours on end, though I do tend to be embarrassed during courting season when I wish all concerned would simply get a room.

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-64885542984416017482009-05-15T17:25:00.000-07:002009-05-16T08:43:35.204-07:00

Short films still get short shrift in the commercial marketplace. While we junkies have specific film festivals, cataloging sites like Short Film Central, You Tube, Google Films, AWNtv and a multiple of other internet viewing locations (when permission is given) to keep us abreast of this wonderful perverse world, the short film remains the step-child of the business, given its eye blink of

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-72997325901383564362009-05-13T16:35:00.000-07:002009-05-13T16:40:40.147-07:00

I was reminded of this clip several days ago when I overheard several young gamers discussing the merits of the latest killer videos out there. According to them, game animation has reached such exquisite levels that you could all but smell the sweat of bleeding terrorists and the dust of exploding mud huts. Makes me want to go out and learn how to work my opposable thumbs again.Sandbox is

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-84359276443049065952009-05-09T19:09:00.000-07:002009-05-20T09:45:15.901-07:00

I play Russian roulette with my arteries whenever I walk into a deli. My fatal coronary will be due to my high school math teacher, Mr. Schenck. He used to say, "Life is short, death is long, you're making both unbearable for me," during our daily hour together. I wasn't one of his better students in trig or calculus. I never asked stupider questions or had a more open-mouthed, dumb as a sack of

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-308975688618883232009-05-08T15:33:00.000-07:002009-05-09T07:01:26.062-07:00

What better way of celebrating Mother's Day than by cleaning up and throwing out everything that might some day be of value on eBay? None of us wants to be the cause of entire neighborhoods going up in flames after an H-bomb attack.No doubt my mother was ahead of the curve when she tossed out all of my original blacklight posters from the 1960s, the Janice Joplin autograph from her November 21,

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-50045305276472094962009-05-07T11:50:00.000-07:002009-05-24T22:31:37.660-07:00

One of the most recognizable faces of the New York children’s book publishing community passed away yesterday of a pulmonary embolism at the far too early age of 56. Craig Virden was Bunyanesque, boisterous, wonderfully erudite, a marvelous raconteur, a natural humorist. I knew him first from his days at Scholastic Books, then as the producer of DIC's Get A Long Gang. In the mid-nineties he

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-36149584245508906572009-05-06T20:34:00.000-07:002009-05-07T07:54:04.151-07:00

I’m a big fan of Adult Swim, Cartoon Network’s late night batch of idiocy for the insomniac in all of us. Why go to bed after the Colbert Report when such eye-catching gems as Assy McGee; Aqua Teen Hunger Force; Frisky Dingo; Robot Chicken; Venture Brothers; Superjail; Lucy, Daughter of the Devil; and dozens of like-minded shows can prevent dysfunctional males from dialing Escorts-R-Us or walking

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-66146337629418315422009-04-28T11:31:00.001-07:002009-06-22T23:21:01.009-07:00

Ever since I was a kid and some old Greenbush sage told me cockroaches survived atomic explosions, I've had a fascination with insects of the order Blattaria. Of course, living in the Greenbush area afforded me many opportunities to see cockroaches up close and personal. There was the time one almost fell down my throat while I lay on the floor of an abandoned house, staring up at a ceiling full

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-444453015241875502009-04-23T23:53:00.000-07:002009-05-06T20:24:23.795-07:00

Today is not the birthday of Laurence Olivier ,but it is possibly the birthday of the guy who created the skull he's holding. Scholars argue whether April 23, 1564 is William Shakespeare's real birth date (there is a record of his baptismal on April 26th), but the world is quite sure that Earth's greatest author left this brave new world on this date in 1616. So if it's not his birthday, it's his

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-54049363473520294272009-04-21T06:45:00.000-07:002009-04-21T09:19:41.798-07:00

We live in a society where history is re-versioned in real time and memory is as malleable as blown confetti. I was an American history major, so at an early age I became aware of this country's tendency to collectively forget its thirty-car pile-ups and focus instead on the clear stretch of highway ahead. Why waste the energy filling out messy police reports? In fact, why bother sticking around

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-72380560666464662862009-04-15T19:03:00.000-07:002009-05-06T20:22:30.846-07:00

Lincoln's Deathbed in the Petersen House"A little before seven I went into the room where the dying President was rapidly drawing near the closing moments. His wife soon after made her last visit to him. The death struggle had begun. Robert, his son, stood with several others at the head of the bed. He, bore himself well but on two occasions gave way to overpowering grief and sobbed aloud,

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-84050414264103829502009-04-14T15:00:00.001-07:002009-05-06T20:24:23.798-07:00

Once upon a time there were some miners named Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Sneezy, Bashful, and Doc, and, of course, Dopey. They were the Seven Dwarfs that helped to create the Disney Empire. They were short. They were industrious. They were male.Today, Disney uses a new group of dwarfs to help fashion their empire. They don't have funny iconic names, but they do have eyes that see the obvious and ears

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-21707445371973318012009-04-09T18:30:00.000-07:002009-04-18T15:34:01.511-07:00

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the death of America's second greatest architect, his work surpassed only by God's handiwork along the Colorado River.I know nothing about Frank Lloyd Wright, except that he went to my high school when it was called Madison High, and, like me, stank academically especially in algebra, botany and physics. There is no record that he ever graduated from high

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-70002652110641337912009-04-05T09:33:00.000-07:002009-04-05T15:56:45.278-07:00

BeamerFilms.comThe images within this video could actually be expanded many times over without coming close to the true number of Medieval and High Renaissance depictions of Christ.

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-39724989707723460252009-04-02T13:50:00.001-07:002009-05-06T20:24:23.800-07:00

You've heard of finger popping time? Well within a couple of days comes Chametz tossing time. Like everything else, it's all about tradition.This Wednesday evening begins the Jewish holiday of Passover. Some believe that passover is what happens when you're not called for jury duty; but in actuality it is a major religious holiday commemorating not only the passage of the ancient Hebrews out of

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-78560804595803504752009-03-28T23:41:00.001-07:002009-03-28T23:42:52.837-07:00

Short film: Out of Order from Flabber TVShort film: Love HurtsI love the internets. Was too lazy to go out tonight to rent horror films (or really blog extensively) so went online instead and found these. Short films and tall leggy women from the Netherlands. Winning combination for me regardless of genre. I must admit I didn't get either ending, but then again I might have missed something in

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-55808533893278299752009-03-25T23:27:00.000-07:002009-05-06T20:24:23.803-07:00

This clip is not from the movie Madagascar: Escape to Africa. This is an actual French commercial produced several years ago that I stumbled upon last night while reading a post about Dan Ackroyd signing crystal skulls (filled with vodka) in Madison, Wisconsin. I can't make stuff like this up. If I could, I'd be working at this very moment as a paid writer and not as the itinerant cleaner of cat

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-3990461951231808522009-03-22T15:25:00.000-07:002009-05-06T20:24:23.805-07:00

Darkblack is a Canadian blog of infinite visual stimuli, as well as one of my favorite sites not affiliated with the XXX-Nation. If I could Photoshop this well, I would be employed at The Daily Show or be creating graphics for the New Adventures of the Trailer Park Boys. Darkblack's stuff is that good.So imagine my consternation when I checked out a recent post and came across this:Before you

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-16516402773831457462009-03-17T20:31:00.000-07:002009-03-17T22:57:08.380-07:00

Most of my neighbors in the Greenbush area were old immigrants and spent their time either cooking Old World foods, starring tearfully out of windows, screaming at each other, or listening to long playing records loud enough to shatter windows half a block away. Walking around the neighborhood as a seven year old, I became quite an opera fan, familiar with the tenor voices of Robert Merrill, Jan

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-7559572287700271662009-03-10T11:52:00.000-07:002009-05-06T20:24:23.811-07:00

Norman McLaren, Canada's greatest animator, won an Oscar for his 1952 study of neighborly love. Spend a leisurely afternoon in between looking for that now elusive job, eh? Kick back a last nourishing LeBatt's before repossession of hearth and home, eh? And enjoy his wonderfully quirky and totally original short pieces, found on any video download site where X does not mark the spot. You need not

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-54599608687322158862009-03-08T01:40:00.000-08:002009-03-08T18:11:54.807-07:00

Bill Holm (1943-2009)Minnesota lost its poet laureate on February 25th. Bill Holm was a literary institution in his home state, as well as in those circles that understand and appreciate a unique subset of American regional poetry: the hardscrabble social radical who takes nourishment from the soil without over-romanticizing those who plow its fields. An imposing figure from Icelandic stock,

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-74350218405016169392009-03-04T22:34:00.000-08:002009-05-06T20:24:23.814-07:00

I spend hours a day on the computer looking things up, jumping from one link to another and wondering how the world survived without a search engine. The Google is the best little engine that could since my college girlfriend researched and wrote all of my papers during the four years of the Revolution when I was out doing god knows what. I paid her well for keeping me afloat during those

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-56532765016652612222009-03-01T06:00:00.000-08:002009-03-01T15:26:35.557-08:00

Henry Fonda and Jane Darwell"A fellow ain't got a soul of his own, just a little piece of a big soul, the one big soul that belongs to everybody . . . Then it don't matter. I'll be all around in the dark - I'll be everywhere. Wherever you can look - wherever there's a fight, so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Wherever there's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there. I'll be in the way guys

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-87974426787842485422009-02-25T06:16:00.001-08:002009-02-25T07:20:53.835-08:00

Imagine for a moment that the world has run you over with a forklift. The job is gone; the money has run out. The wife disappeared with the homeless guy down the street. The kids did the right thing and broke into prison.The food on the shelves consists of stale air and untouched dust. The hounds of foreclosure are banging down the door. Time to make the Alamo stand. Your weapon of choice, last

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-53845344720198997262009-02-23T01:07:00.000-08:002009-02-23T14:00:17.162-08:00

The Cold Rush by Mikael Lynen, Simon Corbaux, Tristan Urbin and Rémi CerthouxOnce more my win/loss record for choosing Oscar winners ranks me right up there with Napoleon betting against the Russian Winter and Custer's certainty that his Crow scouts were too drunk to have possibly seen so many Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho Indians playing canasta along the Little Bighorn. I was so

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-48111130484750932512009-02-22T13:25:00.000-08:002009-02-22T13:41:19.953-08:00

OSCAR THE GROUCHI see scores of new movies a year, and I have an opinion on every one of them. This means nothing more than a bunch of burned out brain cells, because I am not a voting member of the Academy. Over the decades, my win/loss ratio in office pools ranks right up there with the '62 Mets. If I say a movie will win or a star will walk away with the Oscar, bet the opposite. I lost so

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-2741197990907715802009-02-18T22:18:00.000-08:002009-02-21T17:58:37.518-08:00

I have a very blustery cockroach living in my bathroom, and the big brute blames me for his continued lackadaisical love life. I call him Langer because I first saw him high-diving Greg Louganis style into my morning mango-nectar drink shortly after breaking up with FANG, a bi-polar example of femininity if ever there was one. Diving in head first, he would paddle around as if he were a

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-6766347570145641592009-02-16T10:05:00.000-08:002009-05-06T20:24:23.817-07:00

I spent most of the day yesterday sleeping off the effects of a box of Godiva chocolates I gave to myself because my true love pulled a Crater recently with my former best friend, the one I loved like a brother even though he was dumber but more handsome than me, and now both live in some unincorporated area of Idaho protected by Rabid rottweilers and a bunch of survivalists who were hippies at

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-21588168191191446182009-02-14T08:47:00.000-08:002009-02-14T10:19:54.967-08:00

An irate female once told me that men don’t need women to dance around poles as much as they need to be hit upside the head by them. I think that blind date cost me four stitches. I was only asking...For all those female readers out there in the New England area who secretly dream of dancing exotically around chairs, poles, and other upright items found around the home, let me introduce you to

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-91621154861290691032009-02-12T11:26:00.000-08:002009-02-12T15:19:31.448-08:00

On this date 200 years ago, Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born. Talk about less than six degrees of separation between me and these two great men: Darwin wrote about man's linkage with simians; Lincoln’s critics called our 16th President, the Great Ape. I worked for Hanna-Barbera. They're humans. Hanna-Barbera created the Grape Ape. I love that show!I don't buy this nonsense that man

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-46253367811570748322009-02-11T00:14:00.000-08:002009-02-11T05:58:58.716-08:00

Amy Winfrey's Making FiendsMy art skills are on par with those of a groundhog. I can neither draw a circle with a compass nor a straight line with a ruler. Even my stick figures look fat and out of shape. Most of my adult life, I've worked around animators and designers who've make it clear that their talents are God-given and not man-made. This makes me feel very bad about myself until these

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-1647911503075544292009-02-08T20:23:00.001-08:002009-02-08T21:07:10.243-08:00

Image source: Fun with Dick and Jane: A Commemorative Collection of Stories. San Francisco: Collins Publishers, 1996Generations of American children learned their ABCs using the Dick and Jane readers. Perhaps that's why most of us still write in complete sentences of no more than three words before all grammatical hell breaks loose. The books' pictures were simple; the animals dishearteningly

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-66238391243654716162009-02-06T13:24:00.001-08:002009-02-06T13:28:10.578-08:00

I first came up with the basic idea for THE WRECKTIFIERS around the time the Roslin Institute introduced the world to Dolly the Sheep... and I have been doodling around with it ever since. I know far less about basics genetics then Gregor Mendel did, but with this brave new world of cloning and genetic experimentation fast approaching, I wondered how geniuses would pervert it. I imagined a world

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-71327546632063454782009-02-06T00:44:00.000-08:002009-02-06T08:16:09.716-08:00

Around 3 in the morning, I climb down from my column and go into Buñuel's cold coffee and day-old pastry shop and order my favorite drink, the Mi Ultimo Suspiro. Playing on a forever loop in the background is "7:35 de la Mañana," a 2004 Oscar-nominated live action short from Spain. I do not know why.I wait in line, surrounded by a clientele that communicate with each other by holding up cue cards

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-57589237153758414012009-02-02T20:10:00.000-08:002009-02-03T10:45:31.354-08:00

I've done some pretty stupid things over the years to aggravate women both in and out of my life. Even this Neanderthal knows better than to (1) make cracks about their looks to their faces; (2) disparage their love for bodice-ripping romance novels; or (3) show any hostility to their cats, bathroom wicker baskets, or the ratty stuffed animals from their childhood that lie scattered around their

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-52471239096178791452009-02-01T01:59:00.000-08:002009-02-01T09:27:17.439-08:00

It's been a tough day already preparing for the Super Bowl. Practicing those expandable stomach exercises while rehearsing the rules of gaseous etiquette for public gatherings takes so much of the fun out of the game. With that in mind, until I can get back into my game, I leave you with two interesting animated pieces."Ruby Rocket, Private Detective" (from NiemannWorks Animation)By late Sunday

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-65923070008954661112009-01-29T20:38:00.000-08:002009-01-30T14:56:00.345-08:00

Scenes from "Avatar: The Last Airbender"I always got a headache whenever I tried to watch "Avatar: The Last Airbender." I found much of the premise convoluted. I was totally confused throughout the series about which martial arts fighting style represented which element (thank goodness for Wikipedia) and who could bend what and why.I've seen so much original anime over the years that this program

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-11592136678427676302009-01-26T14:10:00.000-08:002009-05-06T20:24:23.819-07:00

"The Graveyard Book" by Neil Gaiman; illustrated by Dave McKeanBookstores and libraries beware! Prepare for a mad dash of children coming in search of the 2009 Newbery Award winner, instead of just the usual crowd of well-meaning parents, guardians, nannies, and other individuals with constipated expressions searching for "legitimate" children's books to thrust onto book clubs.Kids reading for

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-49188222444699944112009-01-25T00:06:00.000-08:002009-01-26T14:46:05.740-08:00

Watching last night’s premiere of "Wolverine and the X-Men" reminded me once again of an egotistically stupid argument I had nearly twenty years ago. It forever ruined a friendship.By early 1993, the Fox Kids Network (FKN) was well on its way to becoming the number one place for kids on Saturday morning. From a rather forgettable beginning in 1990, FKN had, with careful programming choices and a

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-67979578734589197282009-01-22T16:17:00.001-08:002009-05-06T20:24:23.821-07:00

What Bush and Cheney Thought Brought Down the Plane in the Hudson

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-54384979172170085642009-01-20T22:53:00.000-08:002009-05-06T20:24:23.823-07:00

I fell asleep reading Kafka and so...I spent a good part of yesterday afternoon at various hardware stores, battling with members of Beverly Hills gangs of liberals and progressives -- punching and screaming and carrying on as if we were all after the same plasma television at a Circuit City liquidation marathon. I don't remember being in so many cat fights since I stopped to ask for directions

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-4870695784107972952009-01-19T00:00:00.000-08:002009-05-06T20:24:23.825-07:00

Earlier today, a friend commented that my blog had, after only one month's worth of existence, become blurred and neglectful of my original objective of uploading all of my animation and live action treatments onto this site. Her evaluation has some merit, since only one example exists online to read. My posts tend to ramble and stumble around from one subject matter to another, much like the

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-29178808091132889012009-01-18T00:48:00.000-08:002009-05-06T20:24:23.827-07:00

Atul Rao, a Canadian animator and friend, recently posted his latest piece of wacky animation online and, as usual, it's pretty funny. This guy is so prolific that he has his own channel. Not even David Sarnoff programmed every time period on NBC, and he ran that joint for 50 years.I've liked cutout and collage animation since I first noticed it while watching Monty Python's Flying Circus. I've

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-1005377080897570942009-01-17T07:00:00.000-08:002009-01-17T13:37:16.674-08:00

On October 26, 1881 the most famous gunfight in all of American history occurred. 47 years, 2 months, 18 days later Wyatt Earp put his six guns down forever, cinched up Old Paint and rode off to join brothers Virgil, Morgan, and James at that big cat-house in the sky. I’m watching My Darling Clementine for the umpteenth time when I realize that I had forgotten to post by three days the 80th

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-83257114858396436112009-01-15T12:50:00.001-08:002009-05-06T20:24:23.830-07:00

Does this man not deserve his own Wikipedia entry?Ever since I first discovered the tubes and piping called the Internets, and with it the invention of Wikipedia, I’ve waited for someone with knowledge of the man to write up an entry for Harvey Goldberg. Is it important to recognize him in this fashion more than two decades after his death? I think so, otherwise why would I bring it up?Could the

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-5461692049209894102009-01-14T00:35:00.000-08:002009-01-19T07:15:58.103-08:00

As coroner, I must averI thoroughly examined herAnd she's not only merely deadShe's really, most sincerely dead!You know when you reach a certain age and there's no one to help locate your walker or find the pills necessary to make you pee straight (any bowl in the storm will do), and sleep is nigh impossible because the bedroom has been misplaced, a 2 AM viewing of "The Wizard of Oz" sets

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-49013760330791654812009-01-13T23:34:00.000-08:002009-05-06T20:24:23.832-07:00

Several weeks ago, we residents were given an early 2009 bonus: notification by a budgetary official in Sacramento that California could be in the "Brother Can You Spare A Dime", riding the rails category within two months.The Golden State has now become so bankrupt the Pacific vacations elsewhere. We're so broke we can't afford a dust bowl. Times have become so tough the Grapes of Wrath are

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-1641988378632546782009-01-11T00:02:00.000-08:002009-05-06T20:24:23.834-07:00

My refrigerator before tonight's little adventureIt is late. I cannot sleep. The walls shake and the cupboards rattle. At any minute I expect blood to drip down from the ceiling. I am suddenly paying rent to live in The House on Haunted Hill, the classic 1959 William Castle version and not the gimmicky 1999 remake. The couple next door continues to celebrate their wedding night, though I swear

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-58434045631826414452009-01-10T00:33:00.001-08:002009-01-10T23:56:36.740-08:00

Every year for many years, I've received a Christmas card from Tomie de Paola. Anyone who has had the nerve to have small children over the last four decades is very familiar with the works of Tomie, especially the story of Strega Nona. He is one of this country's premiere children's book author/illustrators as well as a pretty cool guy.This year the card arrived yesterday, no doubt first routed

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-48074555512306492092009-01-08T10:24:00.000-08:002009-01-19T07:18:14.598-08:00

Today is Elvis' birthday so it gives me a legitimate excuse to disconnect my arthritic hips to the beat of "Viva Las Vegas", not surprisingly my all time favorite Presley song. In the early 1970s I led a quasi-debauched snake eyes existence, as all future television executives invariably do, and morphed in and out of Vegas more often than the New Jersey mob. The boy from Tupelo, Mississippi was

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-5187991855640159692009-01-07T22:47:00.000-08:002009-05-06T20:24:23.836-07:00

I was thinking about this piece of animation while stuck in a "ripping my eyeballs out with a socket wrench" traffic snarl earlier today. I have no idea what caused the mess that turned the 405 into a personal steel cage match, but that's just one of the upsides of living the good life in Los Angeles.The freeway problem did not involve road construction, fender benders, drive by shootings,

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-14079736232989362302009-01-06T06:00:00.000-08:002009-01-29T20:55:05.819-08:00

A friend of mine, whose wedding I attended sometime during the last century, now has a son who will soon walk briskly down the matrimonial aisle unless his bride wises up. For this young man's benefit I post the following two videos from the 1950s. His father took their educational component to heart. At least for his first two marriages.Are You Ready For Marriage? Part IAre You Ready For

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-65590679360284796142009-01-05T12:05:00.000-08:002009-01-08T10:14:59.732-08:00

I only knew you for the last of your nine lives, but any cat that would leap a distance of half a room to be my fur cap was alright with me.

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-55283162304195709612009-01-04T21:27:00.000-08:002009-05-06T20:24:23.838-07:00

Critics describe Richard Yates as a writer’s writer. No author ever wants to read those words in his or her own obit. That sobriquet is literary code for a tremendous talent dying ignored, unloved, and broke -- capillaries filled with more smoke and drink than could have been found at an unlimited martini lunch at Sardi’s during the 1950s. Authors fitting that description no longer have even

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388080105994185591.post-56147840640916568932009-01-01T12:29:00.000-08:002009-01-01T23:38:31.153-08:00

I've followed the antics of the Village Voice for about 40 years because of the writings of Nat Hentoff. His columns introduced me to Jazz, the Civil Rights movement, the exhilerating night life of New York (which did me no good living in Madison), and a whole lot of heady stuff that prevented my brain from turning into a turnip. As he got older, some of his more conservative leanings towards

Sidneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02447266913798362538noreply@blogger.com0