Former “Fantastic Four” and “Flash” artist Mike Wieringo died Saturday from a heart attack at age 44.
Evidently, he was in seemingly good health and a vegetarian.
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Now playing: The Beach Boys – Sail On, Sailor
via FoxyTunes
If you’ve noticed the “now playing” end tags on my posts lately (and sometimes on my emails), they are courtesy of FoxyTunes, a free download for Firefox.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple comes up with something similar for Safari and calls it JukeBox or something. And the Windows version will be called, um, LinksToMusicYouWereListeningTo.
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Now playing: The Beach Boys – Add Some Music To Your Day
via FoxyTunes
Former teen heartthrob has built a 1/5 scale model of Disneyland in his back yard.
This makes me think of “The Music of Chance,” by Paul Auster, in which a grieving man and his ne’er-do-well partner are forced into indentured servitude and made to build a medieval wall in the back yard of two lottery-winning yokels who, it seems, also have a mini-scale replica of their home town occupying an entire room of their mansion.
Whether or not truth is stranger than fiction, they are certainly on speaking terms.
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Now playing: The Beach Boys – Surf’s Up
via FoxyTunes
Judging from the news coverage, yesterday and today seemed particularly bad for Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
First, he was captured on cellphone video shopping at a mall in Encino with his mistress, Mirthala Salinas. That video was promptly sold to TMZ.com, where you can watch it. Theoretically it isn’t that interesting — just a highly recognizable public figure and his girlfriend, until recently a major local news broadcast figure, neither of them apparently smart enough to realize that everyone everywhere now has a cellphone with video capability, and that of course someone would capture them on said video and sell it to a sleazy website, where it would then lead off the local news. My understanding of witness protection is that it works only when one relocates, stops being a public figure, and doesn’t act stupidly. The video is also interesting because of the immediate distance the mayor puts between himself and Salinas as soon as he sees someone pointing a cellphone at him; I understand the impulse, but it’s already too late. (And actually, if he’d had better impulse control perhaps he wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place.)
Secondly, we were then treated on the evening news to newswoman Ana Garcia’s ongoing pursuit of Antonio at City Hall to release some sort of papers or others, papers that evidently James Hahn had released when he was mayor. If I’m remembering this storyline correctly, what Garcia and others are after is Villaraigosa’s schedule (no doubt, to fully establish how long he has been seeing Salinas on the sly). As part of this coverage, we are witness to Garcia’s passage through City Hall being illegally blocked by security, her being actively jostled (“Don’t push me! Don’t push me!” she cries out on tape), and Villaraigosa, finally cornered at some public event, lamely telling her on-camera that he’s just going to continue to focus on doing the people’s work. (Perhaps not realizing that he is the reason the focus has shifted.)
Finally, today there was a major rally downtown in support of state bill SB-840, which would establish single payer healthcare coverage in California. Hundreds and hundreds of activists and all the major local news crews were in attendance. Major speakers included Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi, actress/comedienne Lily Tomlin, City Council President Eric Garcetti, and, a surprise turn-up, the always entertaining presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich. Who wasn’t there? Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Where was this rally held? Oh, the steps of City Hall. Tell me he’s not hiding out. Especially because, until recently, nothing got between Antonio and his limelight.
Given all this, I think I’ll share some advice for Antonio, advice I shared with two fellow Democrats in the car on the way down to the rally. I like Antonio, and I am rooting for him to pull himself out of his predicament of a 24/7 news cycle about his adultery which after two months so far just doesn’t seem to be ending. (And which he isn’t helping to end by going shoe-shopping with girlfriend in tow, thinking that those sunglasses actually hide his identity. Although this may be the first time in decades anyone has seen a mayor of Los Angeles in the Encino area when he wasn’t shopping for votes or donations.) A few years ago, when he was on the City Council and had not yet announced for mayor, I asked Antonio to do something about an issue I cared about; he did it, and I haven’t forgotten. Moreoever, although because I don’t live in the city proper I couldn’t vote for him, I don’t think people elected him to be faithful to his wife — they elected him to do a job. But now it’s the job that’s suffering.
So here’s the advice:
Antonio, stop sneaking around. You can’t avoid the camera crews, let alone the cellphones. Pick a moment (say, after a ribbon cutting), and give every news crew both professional and amateur the full benefit of your time. Stay an extra five hours if need be. Tell them that your relationship with Mirthala Salinas is an afffair of the heart, that you are a person of passion who got swept off his feet, that you ask for their understanding, that you are sorry that you hurt your wife and children, that you intend to keep seeing Ms. Salinas although you have made no decisions about marriage, and so on and on and on. You don’t need to share tawdry details, but you do need to be frank and forthcoming. In case you don’t get it, they’re chasing you because you seem to be hiding something. So stop hiding. And with regard to the papers that Ana Garcia wants: release them. If James Hahn released them, you should release them. Even if he didn’t, you should. You told people you were better than Hahn. Show it. And stop having security block her or shove her around, and give her a special interview as a make-nice.
Then, next time, you can join your compadres on the steps of City Hall for the news crews. And in a couple of years you can still run for governor.
p.s. Advice for Mirthala Salinas: your news career is over. Unless you pull a Geraldo and go tabloid.
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Now playing: Echo & The Bunnymen – A Promise
via FoxyTunes
On this post, longtime fans of the Ritz Theatres in southern New Jersey were bemoaning the repurposing of that art-film house.
Now comes word that the historic Rialto in Pasadena is closing after 82 years. Landmark Theatres has no apparent plans to reopen or repurpose the space.
The Rialto has not been an art house, per se. What it is is a historic, beautiful theatre; one with a huge screen, hundreds and hundreds of seats, and a balcony. In the 90’s it was also a place I was able to see big beautiful art films, re-releases, and foreign offerings on a big beautiful screen, like Peter Greenaway’s films, one of the many final directors’ cuts of “Blade Runner,” and Roberto Begnini movies. I also remember being myself and whomever was accompanying me being two out of about seven people watching the film, so its closing is not unexpected. That doesn’t make it any less sad, though.
As you’ll see below, a man “killed” a rattlesnake, beheaded it — and then suffered a venomous bite from the head when she stooped to pick it up. This Associated Press story shows us just how out-of-touch with nature most of us — and especially the media — have become.
I say this because, where I grew up, I thought it was common knowledge among people who lived in rattlesnake climes that the severed head of a rattlesnake could (and would) still bite you; it was certainly knowledge among me and my 10-year-old friends.
I say that also because the AP has reported this event as news.
Beheaded rattlesnake sends man to hospital
Rural Washington man thinks he’s killed the reptile and is then bitten by it
PROSSER, Wash. – Turns out, even beheaded rattlesnakes can be dangerous.
That’s what 53-year-old Danny Anderson learned as he was feeding his horses Monday night, when a 5-foot rattler slithered onto his central Washington property, about 50 miles southeast of Yakima.
Anderson and his 27-year-old son, Benjamin, pinned the snake with an irrigation pipe and cut off its head with a shovel. A few more strikes to the head left it sitting under a pickup truck.
“When I reached down to pick up the head, it raised around and did a backflip almost, and bit my finger,” Anderson said. “I had to shake my hand real hard to get it to let loose.”
Venom was spreading
His wife insisted they go to the hospital, and by the time they arrived at Prosser Memorial Hospital 10 minutes later, Anderson’s tongue was swollen and the venom was spreading. He then was taken by ambulance 30 miles to a Richland hospital to get the full series of six shots he needed.
Elliot S! Maggin, principal writer of Superman comics from 1971 to 1986, is running for Congress in California and I’m supporting him.
Mr. Maggin is running to dethrone Elton Gallegly, a proponent of much that I’m against, and opponent of much that I’m for.
I actually spoke with Mr. Maggin today when I called to invite him to be a featured speaker at this event that I’m emceeing on October 13th, which honors political comedienne and syndicated radio host Stephanie Miller. I told him that I live for the campaign that features the writer of “Superman” saying that the seeming-conservative is undermining “truth, justice, and the American way.” He is going to join us to do that, so mark your calendar.
In the meantime, here’s his campaign announcement. Please click and donate. We need more comic-book writers in Congress and fewer looney tunes.
Over on Mark Chaet’s blog, in his inimitably cranky style he takes on drivers who misuse the curb lane on Sunset. Which is pretty much what happened yesterday when I was a pedestrian in front of the Cinerama Dome and witness to an accident in the curb lane on Sunset — about four feet from me.
A few minutes ago I made a mistake typing in a URL, and so, instead of MSNBC.com, I wound up on msbc.com, the website of Morningstar Baptist Church. Here’s what I learned both from the home page and this podcast:
This educational message brought to you at no charge.
Certainly, some exist. I haven’t seen too many characters in wheelchairs on stage, at least not a proportion equal to that in what I see in the wider world. Same with blind people.
But I have to disagree with the people who posted this listing seeking play submissions:
Submission Guidelines
* Only unproduced works will be accepted.
* Plays must have a female or other underrepresented minority as the
protagonist
* Plays that have had staged readings are eligible.
* No adaptations, musicals, or children’s plays.
* Cast size maximum: 5.
* Length: 25 minutes maximum, no minimum.
* Settings should be simple or suggested.
* Playwrights may make multiple submissions.
* Please do not submit works that have been previously submitted.
* Scripts must be postmarked by August 24, 2007.
By “minority,” are they referring to about 52% of the population (i.e., females)?
By “underrepresented,” do they mean people choosing plays, reading plays, writing plays, acting in plays, producing plays, attending plays, etc? Because the majority of them also seem to be female.