They seemed to resemble the pattern on a station wagon, surfboard or the long-legged shorts you’d see on the beach.
Only about six weeks to go before we see the next season covering the misadventures of Rick and Morty. Meanwhile, sporting this shirt based upon the Obey Andre the Giant logo/meme you may seen around is a very nice person who I see about every weekday at work. Lena is a big fan of the show so I got her the homage with the Mr. Meseeks creature. You have to watch the episode to get the joke and if you can’t stand Lemongrab’s voice, you’ll hate Mr. Meseeks too.
Last month was the 25th anniversary of the Class of 1990’s graduation. No more games of three-man, no more papers and no more dorm-food dinners! Time to face the real world which in 1990 was during the Reagan-Bush Recession, the upcoming reunification of Germany and Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in three months. I fell short by 12 hours so I wouldn’t be celebrating. Good thing too, I wasn’t ready yet. Helen on the other hand, she was set (mostly) and she graciously wrote this brief contribution on what could be remembered.
Take it away Helen…
So I was given the assignment of writing about my graduation from Marquette 25 years ago this last May. (It was made as a request but OK –Steve) It should have been a simple enough task, but I have to say that after 25 years, I recall very little about that day or any of those days. It comes back to me in bit and pieces…I do remember things like, it was really cold for May, and it snowed, which shocked my East Coast family.
I also have brief flashes of the night before graduation. I was clutching my money from selling back textbooks as we all walked to Good Time Charlie’s to celebrate, exactly who was there has been wiped from my memory. (I was there one evening, I recall we agreed on playing “Lady” by Little River Band on the jukebox –Steve.) I am proud to admit we still possess a few of those really big shot glasses Paul stole that night. I have told my children about “Uncle Dougie” shooting off bottle rockets and his unfortunate miscalculation involving a tree and a lot of people screaming and running away from the rocket as it came crashing back to the ground to explode.
I do know my sister, Jeanne, spent the night in my dorm room and we were late getting to the Bradley Center because I as ridiculously hungover, and Paul was the envy of many since he was in possession of a Mountain Dew! I definitely know I sat next Chris Morrissey during the ceremony because I wanted to beat the shit out of his sister who kept popping up like some crazed paparazzi though out the whole thing taking pictures of him while screeching, “CHRIIIIIIISTOPHER SMIIIIILE!!” I dozed off through the commencement speaker (Who was it? –Steve) but woke up every time my tassel hit me in the face. When I walked across the stage for the separate ceremony for the College of Arts & Science, the dean mispronounced my last name! It’s so hard to pronounce a name like MARCOTTE when you are, in fact, a dean at MARQUETTE!!!
After the ceremony, my family went out to lunch with Paul’s family. I have no idea where we went, I only remember that during the meal I fell asleep at the table with my head propped up on my elbows. When Paul gently nudged me, I was so startled, I actually screamed like a lunatic, which was the exact impression I was hoping to make on my future in-laws. And that’s truly all I remember.
My family left for the airport afterwards and I stayed behind. I had two classes to take in Summer School since I was not technically graduating until August but I was allowed to “walk” with my class in May. I went back to Mashuda Hall, packed up my life and moved a few blocks down to an apartment where I spend the Summer…and that is a whole different set of fractured memories…
– Helen Silder (née Marcotte)
Helen, bravo and thank you. Excellent post. The annoying sibling photographer definitely paints a picture reminiscent of the American Pie films. Well done. I never thought I would live to hear of a day when Mountain Dew would be a sought after commodity, even during the End Times.
I apologize if this was exactly on time. Helen was gracious enough to write this during her busy schedule as a teacher and raising two teenage sons. We did go over it a couple times to tweak elements for style, petty shit like grammar all the while my goal was to keep her unique voice intact.
If you enjoyed this and would like read more from Helen, I know I do, post a comment or write to me directly. I will gladly forward your compliments to her. Like most intelligent, thoughtful Americans, Helen is reluctant because she feels her writing is inferior. Nonsense! Good, effective writing for a well-educated person is on par with riding a bike. You never forget the essentials. Oh you’ll lose your balance initially, skin your knees and then after a couple little mishaps, boom! it’s as if you never stopped riding during your prime years as a kid. I for one would love to read what happened while Helen was taking those Summer classes. All I recall was one class having our mutual friend Hoser in it and she often had to nudge him awake. Pretty boring course I’m guessing?
This very old document from English history is greatly exaggerated in what it actually established but I do think it put the Western Empire on the right track for what would follow: legislatures, habeas corpus, written constitutions, bills/charters of rights and numerous other elements to form republics and democracies instead keeping us mired in petulant monarchies.
How it’s oversold I think is that C-students (or American pundits) believe the charter establishes the principles we live by today in the West. HA! The MC is more along the lines of a contract between King John (or in America, the lesser villain in Robin Hood) and the barons who felt they were getting screwed. In modern terms? It’s identical to every professional sports strike/lockout in America; a snit between the billionaire owners and the millionaire players. The rest of the English (and Americans)? Buckwheats for them.
According to the Economist, King John didn’t even honor what he was forced into agreeing to; maybe John was as conniving as Hollywood made him out to be. His son Henry III fared better when the document got amended in the 1220s…plus he had a more powerful army to bring the rebellious barons to heel.
It does remain a good start at reining in the power of a sole ruler even if just protects the other One Percenters. Inevitably others got included, too bad it wasn’t sooner. Oh, and all you Right Wing, Irrational Obama haters (you’re also bigots), the current president nor the predecessor I despised, were nowhere close to being as contemptible as King John who required such a written document.
This is a project for the near future but not until housesitting season is over and we’re home more.
That’s a joke reserved for those who are familiar with the common exclamations of the dark old one’s followers…who aren’t exactly sane.
My co-worker/friend Kathy is also a DJ through something I think she belongs to called Ambient Camping. Sorry, I’m ignorant of the whole thing. I just like tunes and I know some artists also take time to spin/mix stuff (Calvin Harris, Moby, DJ Rap) but my club days are long behind me. However, I had to get this for Kathy since it mixes the great line from The Holy Grail when King Arthur fights a delusional Black Knight.
You saw the shoes, now to cover the awesome event Aaron K and I attended. Our little rendezvous with TV and animation legends. I know better about next time, I signed up for the mailing list to get a jump on a possible badge should next year’s lineup is worthy of taking a day off. Besides The Simpsons, the Rick and Morty people were in town but you’d think this was all about The Gilmore Girls and Dawson’s Creek reunions; or as Oakley and Weinstein would call it, reminiscing when the WB was the little girl’s network.
Despite being single-ticket event holders, we were semi-guaranteed entry. Semi? If the badge holders (mostly out-of-town “industry” assholes and tourists who may move here to make Austin more overpriced like the shitholes they originated from), we would get a refund. No thanks. I came to see the legendary James L. Brooks speak alongside Al Jean and Matt Selman on how they made the longest-running animated show in America. They defeated The Flintstones in 1996 and pull way ahead of Scooby Doo some years ago. It’s also the longest-running Sitcom in the US; can’t remember when it exceeded My Three Sons (Mr. Brooks wrote an episode of that too). The next milestone to beat is Gunsmoke which Al and Matt ridiculed during the Q&A.
So Aaron and I wanted in line. I tried to trick the crowd outside into turning around the corner to get out of the sun and not obstruct traffic along Congress. I was partially successful, the majority followed suit and then some entitled douches made their own line to add to the confusion. Nice to see those ATX volunteers with free badges doing the work they’re assigned to do. It wasn’t a total loss, I spotted Executive Producer Matt Selman wandering about. He was relatively easy to pick out, I could sort of read his name on his badge, I roughly knew what he looked like from interviews and he was wearing an LA Clippers hat…in Texas? He definitely wasn’t from around here. I followed him, called him Mr. Selman, got a reaction! We spoke quickly and he autographed both shoes, said I would be selling them on eBay tonight. I responded, uh no, these go in a shadowbox and I will be buried with these like a pharaoh. I then asked if there was a chance Mr. Brooks and Jean would sign, he replied, not likely.
I don’t think Matt was being mean or unfriendly, just polite but I spotted them all in the lobby. I went ahead, waited for an opening when whoever was speaking to Mr. Brooks was done to introduce myself. Couldn’t have been a nicer man! I said, it’s a thrill to meet you Mr. Brooks. I have been watching your stuff since I was a kid…Mary Tyler Moore, Taxi, Cheers and I loved The Critic. To this he said, “Hey Al! Here’s someone who liked The Critic!” This brought Al Jean over (he’s famous for more than just two prime-time cartoons, before The Simpsons, he wrote for It’s Garry Shandling Show, ALF and did a tour of duty for Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show, for you under 30, he was the host before the sycophantic Jay Leno and whose record David Letterman recently beat).
On to the show!
After we endured the annoying bumpers promoting ATX, I heard these needed to be either mixed up or eliminated as per The AV Club, a out-of-town organization I do respect since they’re tied to The Onion. Then there was a brief montage of great clips from The Simpsons (only one I had never seen). The guests were introduced including one person I wasn’t notified of and I felt terrible I didn’t recognize him…the show’s first supervising director David Silverman! Beyond working for the Yellow Man, he was also the director of Monsters, Inc.
Al Jean answering questions, thanks for the photo AusChron!
The show was moderated by some guy from Entertainment Weekly, I didn’t know weekly magazines still pay a living wage to employ an actual reporter instead of a stringer. He got to ask his pre-written questions. Some good news was conveyed. Harry Shearer isn’t completely out, Al said things remain in the air and the writers hope he returns but his parts are currently being auditioned for. Matt explained how they keep trying to make the show fresh, the first thing is they avoid looking over this because it would intimidate them too much into trying anything. As for a character they would like to develop further, David volunteered via voice the Yes Man (for us TV aficionados, character actor Frank Nelson). Eventually the audience received its turn. How much longer can the show go on? Al had a hilarious reply, the actors are signed on up to season 30, the sun is good for another four billion years and I have bills to pay so I’m good to season 65. He threw in, one mean joke, we could do is give up one show short of beating Gunsmoke at 634 (episodes). When it came to the big stunts (the house in Las Vegas, the jet, etc.) the show has been tied to, James explained that every one of them approached the show first. He was proud they’ve never had to do this since they have the rare luxury of no notes from Fox executives. Matt followed this up with the Simpsons ride at Universal. For those of us who don’t live in LA, he explained how the theme park converted the old Back to the Future ride into a Simpsons ride…and it sucked. The park people came to them to fix it, namely, give the ride a narrative people will enjoy and want to come back for. All the writers stated how awesome the experience was, they got to wear hardhats, see where the cars come up out of the ground and how the effects worked. When will there be a second movie? Al clearly stated probably when the show is off the air. As successful as it was, it was exhausting for the writing staff. Matt interjected it wore out Al, he would wrap up the TV show early in the evening and then was working until 11 PM or later getting the movie, listening to the Italian version of Homer for approval. Is John Swartzwelder a real person? David and Al said, absolutely. He’s just a reclusive guy. Al brought up the commentary when the crew called John’s house and thought they contacted him only to discover it was John’s brother. I’m glad they mentioned John’s hilarious books, I’ve read two as you have seen on my site. Hardest guests to bring on? Al said, they’re still trying to get a living ex-president. Nixon was the closest possible success but he died in 1994. However, they have used an actual recording of Teddy Roosevelt. When will Smithers be changing races again? Al, that was an animation error so never.
Other parts already reached the news probably from ATX: Sideshow Bob will finally kill Bart in an upcoming Treehouse of Horror, Al stated how he always wanted the Coyote to eat the Roadrunner just once. The being Homer and Marge separating too; this comes from Homer finally revealing his ongoing insomnia and Girls‘ creator Lena Dunham playing the pharmacist who provides Homer his meds.
Near the end, James explained the annual writers retreat due to a question about how do they figure out their show ideas. Al threw in how they almost snagged Prince to be on, yet it fell through; Prince didn’t know he couldn’t have his friend write the script. Back to the retreat. It circled around to the cliff-hanger we’re celebrating 20 years later, who shot Mr. Burns? James was having trouble over who pitched and wrote it. Here I had to be rude and shout “Oakley and Weinstein!” Aaron and I were in the front row anyway, I didn’t have to shout too loudly. James said, thank you, yes, Oakley and Weinstein pitched this and had to figure out how to throw people off on the answer. David followed it up on how he had to do the key storyboards near the ending to keep the mystery under wraps. Al added how they came up with the false leads and shooters too. The animating part was too overwhelming for one person, David got permission to include Wes Archer to help.
Anything else? David loves any chance to animate Krusty, a character who bangs his head on a table is always funny. Al identifies with Lisa, his older sister was much more like Bart in the attention-getting department. Matt loves working for the show, before The Simpsons the SitCom landscape was dominated by Major Dad. James is grateful along with David that the original pilot “Some Enchanted Evening” having terrible animation from South Korea was a goof.
Aaron and I then scored David Silverman’s autograph when the show let out. We thanked him for Monsters, Inc. and I told him how I loved his story about The Tracy Ullman Show being a reunion for him and Nancy Cartwright; they were friends at USC when they were younger. Plus, I remembered he gave the pointers on how to draw Mr. Burns in the awesome The Simpsons Handbook, the three spots on his head make a triangle!
Aaron and David Silverman
I regret not getting photos a bit. I felt I had impinged on their time enough and I will never forget this. OK, I did but Al about the movie’s missing stuff ever seeing the light of day, primarily what he told Fresh Air regarding a segment called, “Well, they liked it in Portland.” He said, the DVD market has declined too much, maybe on the Internet. The movie also had another commentary they weren’t able to include.
I will close with two final things as I’m completely geeking out on this post through. Al did give credit to Sam Simon when someone asked about how the one act mislead was developed; a trick Sam learned from his previous career in animation. Then he finished with how today would’ve been Sam’s 60th birthday; this brought applause and I welled up a little. This forum strengthened my resolve to tell the critics who often lament “Oh the show jumped the shark after the insert season here” and “the show sucks ass, it’s a parody of itself,” to go screw themselves. Is it profitable? Hell yes and those people up there have mortgages to pay yet I bet every one of them could move on, do something and probably do better financially if they chose. I’m confident they’re pretty aware of the pressure to keep things interesting and fresh, but they sincerely love those characters and all. So I’ll wrap it up with an old scene I loved the writers did as a screw you to the Comic Book Guy types.
Comic Book Guy: Last night’s Itchy & Scratchy was, without a doubt, the worst episode ever. Rest assured, I was on the Internet within minutes, registering my disgust throughout the world.
Bart: Hey, I know it wasn’t great, but what right do you have to complain?
Comic Book Guy: As a loyal viewer, I feel they owe me.
Bart: What? They’ve given you thousands of hours of entertainment for free! What could they possibly owe you? If anything, you owe them!
Comic Book Guy: Worst episode ever.
It’s not a big surprise since the owner of the Dallas stars sealed the deal last season and often when the NHL parent owns its AHL franchise, they often make the two teams almost indiscernible. Dallas has chosen to do this with my team to follow suit with the Leafs and Wild. At least the use of the star in the logo makes more sense than how awkward it appears with Dallas. Is it a ninja throwing star (shuriken) with a D embedded within it?
Will I be getting another customized jersey? Eventually. Gotta’ get the Vegas matters covered first.
Contrary to the Web page saying it has an 18-hour lifespan between charges, I have managed to get close to two days per recharge. Going with the tap over the raising your wrist part helped. I also put it in a low-powered state when I go to bed. All of its features don’t do any good while I’m asleep.
I’m still perturbed over the disagreement we’re having over my exercising and what Activity thinks. I’ll live. Others said, use the Workout app. Well, I don’t want to fall down and break my face on the treadmill messing with the Watch. The other problem is that lately I don’t get very far contiguously; lately I’m doing .25 to .4 mile stretches before I need to stop for a minute to catch my breath. I have clobbered the Move goal by achieving double five days out of seven; Standing 12 for 12 easily; Exercise remains the sore spot with Tuesday being the record setting 23 minutes out of 30.
Somara and I have a lot of fun with the scribbling thing you can do between two users. She has a stylus that keeps her stuff more accurate; a cat, words, kissy-face. Me? Ugh, it’s right there with my awful handwriting. I do have a smiley-face down.
I’ll close with how much I love the phone element. I can hang up on the auto callers even faster!
Oh wait, there was the WWDC parts. Watch OS 2 looks good. The only element I ever felt was missing was an activation lock for the Watch. Theft-protection for a $400 piece of jewelry is a pretty good idea.
Next up, one month.
Rough week at Picayune, my site turning into a dreadful obituary section which used to be the easy money for newspapers alongside the want ads.
A friend brought up this news because I guess poor Mr. Brandstätter wasn’t that important or then again, I may have been busy with trying to get through last week unscathed. Either way, he has been important in my life over the years, especially in the last few with my monthly visits to Terra Toys.
The Guardian has a nice piece about him here.
I first encountered the toys in the late Seventies. I think it was a toy commercial promoting their knights which was one of the only three lines they made. An immediate family member gave me the knights which was pretty cool. It came with seven figures, two in red, the other five in black, white, green, blue and yellow. They had swords, shields, pole arms, a throne (one knight got the crown over a helmet), benches, a table, plates and goblets. I didn’t care about the lack of detail, they were just cool. Sadly, they were put aside in time for the more popular Star Wars and Adventure People action figures which were not customizable.
Over the years though, Playmobil did expand into other ideas and genres: Cowboys, Ancient Egyptians, Ancient Romans, Pirates, Super Spies, Police, Firefighters, Astronauts, you name it, they’ve probably done it.
We got reacquainted when I was first dating Somara. To cheer her up after being sick, I scored her a Old West Calvary set as a cheer-up gift. I re-enacted an old bit from F-Troop I had seen a hundred times on Channel 44’s plugs. We’ve been buying them off and on since. Namely their highly amusing blind-bag series. I’m also working through a German co-worker to get the highly coveted Martin Luther figure.
Playmobil may lie in the shadow of Lego in America but it’s really a different toy. Lego is a building-set toy which is equally cool. Playmobil is more in line with its American competitors Imaginext from Fisher-Price yet it has cooler accessories and to some extent, a subtle sense of humor. I mean c’mon, name a little kid who’s going want a figure of Elvis or Surfing Santa?
Thanks a million Herr Brandstätter! The toy you championed during the oil embargoes will live on through its many incarnations.
The consummate villain for sixty years and Ian Fleming’s cousin to boot! I had the good (or bad) fortune to see his work in the Hammer films as a kid. For some reason, WCIA-3 in Champaign, IL would have a week or two of these flicks from three to five during the Early Show. Less harmful than Jerry Lewis week in my opinion.
Mr. Lee definitely got immortalized for numerous generations by landing the roles of Saruman the White (a good guy converted to evil) in The Lord of the Rings and Count Dooku/Darth Tyrannus in the terrible Star Wars prequels. At least he was one of the few upsides to negate Jar Jar and the horrendous dialog. Scaramanga in Bond’s The Man with the Golden Gun was pretty sweet too. These three roles earned him individual appearances on the villain dating-parody site Am I Evil or Not?
He had a humorous side too. I clearly recall him being the guest host on SNL with the first troop. In his opening monologue he introduced a couple horror flicks he turned down, namely The Thing That Wouldn’t Leave; he played Death apologizing to a little girl for taking her hamster away; led a team of vampire slayers who had to drive a stake through Nixon’s memoirs before they were published; and did a hilarious “mistake” with his pronunciation when introducing the musical guest, “Ladies and gentlemen, meet…loaf.” Lee was definitely a natural at comedy. It probably explained why he could be a convincing, menacing Dracula.
Once again Netflix proves that they are a better future for TV because Daredevil is an ongoing superhero/vigilante show done well. It’s a strong balance between being ridiculously gritty/hyper-violent (HBO, Showtime) and milquetoast (all the broadcast networks). An average episode is also over 50 minutes long too! A broadcast hour clocks in around 42 minutes on a good day and cable is hardly better.
I wasn’t too thrilled when Daredevil would be the first character Netflix and Marvel (Disney) were going to release in their new partnership. Even before the awful Ben Affleck movie, I’ve always felt the character was a poor-man’s Spider-Man in the Marvel Universe and a weak attempt to compete with Batman. Sure Frank Miller injected new life into him way back in the early Eighties which continues to flourish. Recently he was a minor guest in my short-lived She Hulk comics as a rival attorney facing off against Jennifer Walters (that’s She Hulk). Yet Daredevil does remain low on my list of any comic book I’d ever read though; after Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns “realistic” street-justice superheroes were done to death, they remain abundant.
Anyway, the creative team behind this direct-to-Netflix series successfully found a way to make a compelling story arc with an excellent supporting cast, menacing villain and got it all to plausibly be woven into the cinematic Marvel Universe. Not a spoiler warning but if you’re expecting any of the Avengers or Agents of SHIELD to drop by, you’ll be disappointed. Casting is another strong point. Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson “the Kingpin” Fisk proved to be a brilliant move. D’Onofrio really throws himself into the villain and makes him a more complicated person. He’s not comic-book evil as say Loki, Ronan the Accuser or Mandarin, he’s more along the lines of many historical figures who feels his means justify his ends. You’ll soon discover his one weakness as the episodes progress. Then comes the other supporting cast members, most are primarily character actors you’ve seen over the last 20 years. The most obvious one is Bob Gunton as Fisk’s money guy, he delivers as always; a man in his seventies yet he has enough pull to speak his mind around Fisk’s dangerous allies. I was pleasantly surprised to finally see Rosario Dawson in a role in which she functions credibly unlike the horrible Clerks sequel.
Yesterday’s news got me more excited about next season in April (they’re probably shooting now since Netflix posts the whole thing in one swoop). Jon Bernthal will be either an ally/nemesis as the Punisher. Again, the Punisher is another lame, me-too character Marvel came up with during the Dirty Harry fad in the Seventies. I’m confident the producers will make this work well. Plus Bernthal was cool as the unhinged Shane in The Walking Dead and he’ll be in a couple movies I’m looking forward to.
A milestone for our California-based friends. Not like there was any doubt they’d get this far which is why I applauded their wedding/marriage.
Ethan I’m sure was swamped for the interim, yesterday was WWDC, but now he better get a little time off to enjoy his special day with Kelly and their three hilarious daughters, or as I’ve labeled them, the Pirate Sisters.
Not sure what to send their way. They probably already have Apple Watches so what may be on my short list will be rather weak.
Drop them a line if you know them!
