A (relatively) quick birthday cake for my friend Jeff’s two sons, the names are blurred out to protect their privacy, you never know where/how these social engineering jerkwads get stuff. It was pretty cool how Somara did the main attraction, think stained glass.
The cake was obviously a hit with the adults and went over well with the kids. I think they were more focused on playing the games at Pinballz! I know, Jeff and Somara really had to twist my arm to help deliver.
Sylvia has been (and remains) a staple of NPR news for 29 years with Europe as her territory. However she is memorable due to how her last name is said. To my ears, it sounds like it begins with “Boo” and “Zuh,” or resembles the French command to “move it!” (you’ll hear this with action flicks). The brothers Ray and Tom on Car Talk always love to say it too.
The official NPR site says Sylvia provides commentary which was a surprise. I’ve listened since the early Nineties and I’ve only heard her opinion about events in Europe twice: the death of Pope John Paul II and Roberto Benigni’s Pinocchio coming to America. Maybe I caught the wrong cycle. I’ll go with having a poor memory.
Sylvia’s career and life will make a fantastic book (or movie). She was born in America to ex-pat parents who were part of the anti-Mussolini/Fascist faction. In school she landed a Fulbright Scholarship so she studied in Rome, a way of giving Il Duce the finger to his grave. Thne Sylvia worked for Ansa (Italian AP) and later NPR. Europe may be seen as a plum gig but I remember she did most of the coverage on the Balkans Wars (Yugoslavia’s break into Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, etc.).
I haven’t bothered with NPR much over the last several years, the news tends to depress me and heightens my anxiety. Still I would like to hear Sylvia’s two cents about Italy’s current dictator Berlosconi.
Last season I felt rather slighted by the AHL. In our inaugural year, the Stars won the Western Conference and were serious contenders for the Calder Cup. Pretty damned amazing for a city that never had an AHL-level team before. Well, the players were no slouches themselves. I know the cities with NBA franchises have to defer to the other sport when it comes to scheduling (three are in our division with three more in our conference) but as defending champs, the Stars should’ve been given the right to open at home, not in San Antonio, again.
The Stars were aligned this time (pun intended) because the AHL gave them their opportunity. After losing all three preseason matches, my team came out swinging and didn’t stop until the final buzzer. I knew the preseason stuff wasn’t an indication of how they’d play, many we saw weren’t on the final roster, theses were guys on the bubble fighting to get a spot or be ready to play ECHL hockey in Idaho, Europe or return to juniors. Once Dallas sent down the veterans they may call on later, the 2011-12 Stars were set. I just didn’t get to meet them last Tuesday thanks to being ill.
Anyway, last year’s initial 3-0 victory was great. I caught it via Internet-based radio. Tonight’s 7-0 drubbing with the first goal (Fortunus!) during the initial 70-80 seconds was incredible. It’s hard to believe net-minder Bachmann was beat out for the backup gig by Andrew Raycroft or maybe head coach Gulutzman would prefer to give Bachmann playing time over benchwarming. Outside the defense, the Stars’ offense was impressive given the skinny about the Stars being a defensive-oriented team under the new coach Jeff Pyle. The Barons made some mistakes, especially in the first period when they had three players in the box yet these Stars capitalized on it with TWO goals instead of over-thinking the powerplay.
By the time the score hit 5-0 it was like watching a videogame with the cheats activated So the crowd focused on hoping to see Bachmann earn another shutout.
One down, 75 to go. If my Stars can repeat such performances for about 10 games, win another 25 adequately and lose 7-10 in OT, I think we will have the playoffs cinched.
My friend’s son has already hit double digits but this is the first landmark…back to a prime number and many kids’ menus don’t apply anymore. More importantly, according to Patton Oswalt, no birthday cake or party. Not until he turns 13.
I wish I had something else to add because he sounds like a swell kid. The last time I saw him, he was going through the Terrible Twos: learning how to speak, learning how to communicate with people other than his parents (or interpreters) and Rad’s wedding was the bigger priority. He was average for someone at two. Chance is nothing like that today. Case in point, my parents said I used to be quiet and obedient at mass/church. We know how that all worked out!
Meanwhile, I’m going to drop his dad a quick line, see what Chance is into these days. A while back he thought Ben 10 was pretty awesome. Due to his father’s line of work (comic book artist), I’m sure he’s graduated to the more well-known superheroes.
I’ve been following the general news about New Corp’s demand to have The Simpsons voice actors take huge pay cuts because the show has become unprofitable. Really? Somehow Murdoch and his flunkies must think anyone with an IQ over 85 has no recollection the vast fortune the show has made through licensing, syndication rights, and DVDs. Or his media barony’s rumored cable network of nothing but this show. I suppose The Simpsons is no longer profitable enough to keep the old turd and his Chinese trophy wife well stocked in Beluga caviar. Hell, if it weren’t for Groening’s creation, Fox would’ve been the crass, craptacular Fourth Network for much longer.
Personally, I think the show should plan a grand finale. When revolutionary programs stick around past their tenth seasons (or more often fifth), they become the new status quo deserving ridicule. Contempt? Depends. The stronger argument comes from the show’s founders, it has failed to explore new territory or surprise anybody. Groening even seems more interested with Futurama anyway.
This brings me to discuss the man behind the voice who made the show a hit. Much like other beloved sitcoms and action-dramas, the original focus was on Bart but within a couple seasons Homer took over as the writers made him more buffoonish. Dan’s skill and fine-tuning are what made it happen. Should you have the time or opportunity, watch the first season. Homer’s voice resembles Walter Matthau more and he’s a well-meaning parent who just isn’t too bright. The sociopath cartoon character begins to emerge by “Bart the Daredevil.” At least The Simpsons owns up to this.
Dan’s career didn’t begin with such a promise in the Eighties. Sure he was a successful member of Chicago’s Second City troupe, did voiceover work with local radio stations and even had a small role in Tom Hank’s 1986 comedy-drama film Nothing in Common (it was shot in the Windy City). However, his audition for The Tracey Ullman Show failed to impress the producers and Ullman. Dan changed Ullman’s mind after she flew out to Chicago to see him perform on stage; his performance of a blind man trying to be a comedian is what did it.
I remember seeing a few episodes of Ullman. It had its moments, namely the Francesca bits and these cartoon shorts. Yet I found it puzzling. Why was Fox trying a format the other three networks ditched in the Seventies?
Back to the little animated shorts. Although producer emeritus James Brooks devised them as an excuse to bring in lesser-known cartoonist Matt Groening, Fox needed to save money so Dan and fellow cast member Julie Kavner were given the additional voice acting duties. What a lucky break. Ullman was cancelled by the Spring of 1990 while the shorts were expanded into its own half-hour cartoon which was taking the world by storm right after the Christmas special in late 1989.
Today, Fox’s gamble is now an American institution alongside Star Trek, Cheers, I Love Lucy and All in the Family. Good thing he was the “nobody” picked out to extra work that day on the set.
Dan also has the fame of creating, inventing or developing the expression “D’oh!” It’s in the dictionary too. Pretty much everybody knows these aren’t written into the scripts; D’oh! is cued by the phrase “annoyed grunt.” When the writers first put “annoyed grunt” into the story, Dan tried “D’ooooohhh!” which was him imitating Jim Finlayson, comic foil/straight man from Laurel & Hardy shorts. I’ve heard two different reasons on why it was shortened. The first was Groening’s suggestion, he thought it was funnier if it were shorter. Groening is right on this and it works to greater effect when another character does it; my personal favorite is Lisa. The second I’ve heard through commentaries was for time. When it episode is made, the audio is laid down first and the rest is built around it. Sometimes parts have to be re-recorded if it has principle characters who must speak at a certain pace. A famous example is “A Fish Named Selma,” Troy McClure and Selma Beauvoir are slow speakers so Jeff Goldblum had to come back in to redo his guest role of Macarthur Park to shave a minute or two down. This sounds silly but seconds matter in animation, thus D’oh! helps immensely.
Beyond The Simpsons, Dan has been the voice of numerous characters you may recognize. My favorites are Grandpa on Hey Arnold!, Earl on Cow and Chicken, The Robot Devil in Futurama and all the “Russians” he has done for Justice League, Jimmy Neutron and videogames. He has never used his own voice with cartoons which makes him hard to recognize with his numerous live roles, see imdb.com, it’s quite a list. Being the geek I am, I spotted him immediately in Space Jam as a die-hard basketball fan.
I’ll wrap it up with final factoid regarding Dan. He also has two full-length comedy records. I have one, I Am Not Homer and it’s pretty amusing. I’ll get the other eventually.
I don’t want to repeat myself and I think I covered the man’s great career over a year go with my obituary.
I will add this about him. The man took inking to a new level. Normally in comic books, the star attraction is the penciller, then the writer with the inker in last. There are times the writer and penciller are juxtaposed, but never the inker. You could say they’re the bass players of comic books. However, when you have a kick-ass inker like Dick, Terry Austen, Jerry Ordway or Klaus Janson, then your comic book has Flea, Donald “Duck” Dunn, John Taylor or Charles Mingus laying down the groove, although ink goes over pencils and is before coloring.
Again, the man is synonymous with defining Batman’s modern look from the Seventies on. He isn’t exclusively the guy, but he’s near the top with Neal Adams, Walt Simonson and Marshall Rogers. I wonder how he would’ve felt about the reboot.
I want to kick with a big thank you from my friends Helen and Peter. I actually received a heartwarming comment via Helen regarding my last entry about A. P. Giannini so this means at least one person is reading what even I would consider a vanity project. If I successfully entertain, inform and/or amuse a single individual, then I feel like this has been worth the effort. Peter gets the thumbs up for a suggestion we discussed over lunch yesterday. Back to Helen, as a ‘thank you’ to her, I have a selection she made for her upcoming birthday. I need to research this person because he’s in a field I’m not very knowledgeable on.
I’m also feeling pretty confident I will succeed in writing about 31 Italians before October is over. Hell, I think I might have the outline for 2012 but I’m still trying to find women who are in fields outside of entertainment; formidable yet very rewarding when they are discovered. I’ve decided to give this run its own subcategory under History as well. Others will continue to have additional categories as appropriate:
Now without further delay, let me discuss the lovely and talented Isabella Rosellini. This year is perfect for it’s the 25th anniversary of Blue Velvet which was her first major role. It’s an odd film or typical David Lynch stuff depending upon your perspective. I can’t resist its charm since I did grow up in several small-town/city communities before transforming into a permanent urban/’burb dweller. My reasons for liking it are partially her, Dennis Hopper and the premise…there’s some creepy stuff underneath the “rocks” of Perfect Town USA.
Isabella has gone on to appear in numerous films and TV shows, including The Simpsons as an art dealer. Sadly, many people also know her as the ex-girlfriend of David Lynch and Gary Oldman. Her first husband was director Martin Scorsese while she was a model. It seems acting was Isabella’s destiny though. Her mother was Swedish legend Ingrid Bergman (you can see the resemblance) and Italian director Roberto Rosellini. Seems dad’s accent won out with traces of Scandinavian cadences in her speech.
Recently, someone told me about these short nature movies Isabella has been making for the Sundance Channel. The one below is funny, informative and gross. Now I know why Somara thoroughly inspects every hotel bed we use on our vacations.
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This man brought banking to the middle and lower-class masses but if he were alive today, modern financing would turn his stomach or maybe he’d be too busy working in the Third World promoting micro-lending to the poor. Much of Giannini’s perspective seems to be how credit unions operate today while banks have more in common with casinos and loansharking.
Up until the early Twentieth Century, banks were institutions only for the very wealthy. You couldn’t borrow money unless you had a lot already, seems like a circular fallacy. Giannini, the son of Italian immigrants, disagreed with this mindset so he formed The Bank of Italy in 1904. It was an enormous success, on the first day alone he took in $8800 in deposits ($210,000 today) and I’m confident he made many “risky” loans to numerous small businesses around San Francisco. He must’ve been doing something right, by the year’s end The BoI had $700,000 in deposits (over $16 million today).
After the 1906 earthquake, all the other local banks chose to sit tight and wait because they weren’t sure if enough survivors would stay, if the government would help, how much it would cost to rebuild, etc. They were waiting to see who would take the initial risks. Sound familiar? Giannini took a couple barrels and a plank, formed a table and said, “The Bank of Italy is now open for business.” Many credit him for saving The City by taking the lead.
Another innovation he brought was branch offices. In his era, banks were often just one building so their fates were often tied to their local economies. Giannini knew branches (across an entire state) helped the overall institution and its customers survive by spreading its assets.
Eventually he merged the Bank of Italy with LA’s Bank of America since its founder shared of his principles. Giannini led the newer, larger BoA until his retirement in 1945.
Giannini might be remembered for some crazy loans he issued too: one to this nut named Walt Disney who wanted to make a full-length animated feature called Snow White and two dudes working out of their garage, William Hewlett and David Packard.
Overall, A. P. Giannini is a CEO we need today because Jack Welch’s antithetical thinking is what dominates today and it’s killing us.
Another great actor you may recognize by his appearance but hardly ever his name. In the non-Geek genre, he is best known as the honky-tonk band leader chasing Jake and Elwood in The Blues Brothers. This was amongst dozens of heavies he played on TV and numerous movies. Joe Bob Briggs interviewed him on Monstervision, or whatever the heck TNT called it in its waning days. When Blues came up in the discussion Napier mentioned how Belushi kept some distance out of fear, the former SNL star thought Napier was violent like his character Harry Sledge in Russ Meyer’s Supervixen. I would chalk that up to Belushi and Akroyd’s coke habits.
However, Charles has a huge place in my personal Hall of Geekdom. He had a guest appearance in the original Star Trek as a Twenty-third Century hippie named Adam (“The Way to Eden”) and as US General Denning circa 1947, for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (“Little Green Men”). He didn’t have a large forehead appliance in either!
The only program I ever followed with him as a regular cast member was The Critic. His Kentucky accent made Jay’s boss Duke Phillips one of the funniest supporting characters throughout the show’s brief run.
Duke: Dance for me Jay, it’s your contract!
Jay: No. My contract says I can prance.
Duke: (Searches through his desk’s file cabinet. Find’s the contract. Says regretfully.) Never sign anything after attending Gracie Slick’s birthday. (Duke’s signature is in a variety of colors and the i’s are dotted with peace symbols.)
I’ve been out sick obviously. I was feeling well enough last night to write down my immediate thoughts regarding the death Mr. Steve Jobs, my boss and indirectly the guy who helped me choose a more lucrative career over broadcasting. Now I need to catch up regarding Italian Heritage Month so I will probably go with these very quick, brief snippets.
Her last name may sound familiar but you’re probably thinking of former Arizona governor and current DHS head Janet Napolitano. Johnette is a singer/songwriter who has entertained many in the Alternative circles for 25-plus years. First as lead singer/bassist of Concrete Blonde. This band tends to be an on/off again thing because I went to their farewell tour in 1993 yet they’re reunited again; they’ll be playing the new Emo’s East later this year.
Most people also remember their big 1990 hit “Joey,” which is a very touching song and Johnette’s vocals are what cinched it.
Outside Concrete Blonde (a name chosen by Michael Stipe when he was the darling of IRS Records), she was in Pretty & Twisted, Vowel Movement, the touring singer for The Heads (aka Talking Heads minus David Byrne) and gone solo.
I also had the opportunity to meet her in 2007 so I can speak from experience that she isn’t related to Janet.
You’ve probably caught the news fairly often regarding the co-founder of Apple and celebrity CEO.
As an employee of 12 years, I’m going to answer the question on most people’s minds and the one the SCLM will drive into the ground…will he be missed? Absolutely but it wasn’t always that way.
When he returned as part of NeXT’s acquisition under the bumbling leadership of Gil Amelio, there was much apprehension. Apple had been continuously hemorrhaging market share, money and innovation since the Nineties began with Windows 3. A “good enough” OS with cheaper hardware (286/386) spelled doom for Apple; really it meant the company would probably live on as a boutique brand: graphic arts namely. Two previous CEOs (Scully and Spindler) proved to be ineffective and number three (Amelio) was just High-Tech Mitt Romney (fire a few thousand people, sell the company off and get a golden parachute). Bringing Jobs back into the inner circle was seen as a crazy move because everybody, especially the same SCLM praising him today, figured he was the same mercurial figure Scully ousted in 1985. As Eleanor Clift once said, people make the mistake of the believing the past to be destiny. Besides, all the momentum was pushing Microsoft’s way. Jobs would go on to be victim number four.
There’s another cliche about learning from failure and it’s wisest to start a business with someone who has experienced such a thing. For Jobs, his decade away from Apple weren’t necessarily failures: NeXT didn’t set the world on fire yet it was integrated into Apple and then there’s some little animation company called Pixar. But the time away definitely sharpened his skills at numerous levels. Most importantly, when and how to make the difficult decisions all his predecessors wouldn’t, namely cutting unsuccessful products loose instead of letting them linger on. For example, the Newton.
Jobs also recruited many lieutenants who shared his vision at many levels and he knew they would carry out his orders. I’ve worked in many other places of varying sizes before Apple and saw the CEO (or equivalent) defanged by managers/department heads. If the CEO doesn’t have this working in his/her favor, nothing will get done contrary to the Randroids’ Cult of Gault Fallacy.
After cutting the losses, Apple pressed forward incrementally: no more confusing model numbers; the iMac; USB to unify Serial, SCSI and ADB; the iPod, iTunes, etc. These started very slowly at their debuts if you remember and eventually became the juggernauts we know today. Could another CEO do this? Maybe but nobody today has Jobs’ showmanship and force of personality. Gates, Bezos, Fiorina,Whitman, Zuckerberg and their sort lacked his charisma with the public.
Now will come the real test I think he saw coming. What will happen without him at the helm because in business, people only remember what you’ve done lately, they don’t care about your entire track record, unless it’s a retrospective or obituary.
As per my promise (or threat?), I’m kicking off my blather about Italy’s contribution to the world with a scientist. His name may sound familiar in the Chicago area and/or if you follow Science stories on NPR because a particle accelerator (aka atom smasher) was named after him. It used to be the place until Hadron in Europe went online and America’s growing disinterest, unless it involves weight loss, spying or sports.
Anyway…on to Enrico. He was born and educated in Italy. He quickly became an internationally recognized physicist over the atom’s mysteries which is amazing, Italy was never considered much of a leader in high tech. Enrico then relocated to NYC before the outbreak of WWII since Mussolini started to emulate Hitler’s racial policies (his wife was Jewish). Yet another mistake on the Axis Power’s part.
During the war, he and his team in Chicago created the first successful nuclear pile, a precursor said energy and weapons. Then he was moved to Los Alamos for the Manhattan Project with Oppenheimer. You should all know the rest there.
Sadly, he died at the age of 53 thanks to cancer from all the radioactive elements he was exposed to. People in his field felt it was a reasonable sacrifice. Years before he perished, Fermi shared other scientists’ fears over humanity’s maturity with nuclear power (energy and weapons). By then it was too late, McCarthyism and paranoia ruled.
For me, Fermi’s coolest contribution was outside nuclear science, it’s called Fermi’s Paradox and it led to the Drake Equation. I recently learned about it from Dr. Plait’s last book Death from the Skies through the alien-invasion chapter. Back in 1950, Fermi openly pondered this question when there was a discussion of UFOs by asking “Where are they?” Let me flesh out the context to a statement that comes off rather flippantly. Since Hubble’s theory about the universe being over five billion year’s old was panning out, Fermi quickly calculated and proposed how the Earth could have possibly been visited by aliens at least a few times, ergo “where are they” if they’re real? Plait followed up with a quick suggestion about how we and/or aliens could do this in a relatively short (by universal standards) time. Say we build a probe and send it to Alpha Centauri, the closest solar system to us. The journey would run about 50 years. When the probe arrives, it explores for a bit and reports its findings to Earth. Afterwards it replicates using materials it finds, like it’s a space factory. Now we have two probes, both head toward the next two closest systems and repeat the process ad infinitum. Based upon Plait’s process, the galaxy would be explored in 50 million years. Earth is over five billion years, the universe is 12-14 billion, we Humans in our current form are a puny 100-200 thousand (at best) so I guess they visited a little too soon.
Debbie Harry still has it after 35 years.
I think there has been a recurring theme with my concert attendance this year…Revenge of the Eighties. First DeVO followed by John Waite, then Weird Al and now Blondie. They are all acts I wish I could’ve seen when I was 25-30 years younger but hey, better late than never. I think I appreciate their larger body of work more too.
This show was done impulsively. July was Blondie month, then I was late getting my concert buddy Mark M his birthday gift, CMJ mentioned the upcoming album/tour, Shazam! Synchronicity! Don’t worry, I asked Mark before I sprung it on him so he had a choice regarding my present.
How was the concert? Despite the standard, horrendous traffic jam Austin has every weeknight on southbound MoPac (by 45th Street it’s a crawl), we arrived 20 minutes before the doors opened and the line was oddly short. This gave us a great location, ergo the rather close photos of the band (those which panned out, a pair of drunk gay guys kept putting their arms in the way). Somara and I are nice to shorter people because we often let a couple go ahead if they aren’t obnoxious (again, see drunk idiots I mentioned earlier). I certainly couldn’t wait for the rather mediocre opener to finish: Nico Vega, imagine Bjork’s voice accompanied to some guitar and drum noodling. You decide if it’s torture, performance art or untapped potential.
Co-Founder-Guitarist Chris Stein. He wrote or co-wrote most of Blondie's hits and developed their sound.
Blondie hit the stage rather promptly, there was no need for Travis W. Redfish to make it happen on time! (I want to see who gets the reference, except Mark.) They opened with “Union City Blue” from their 1979 record Eat to the Beat and then jumped to the recognizable hits “Dreaming” and “Atomic,” which I’m guilty of knowing thanks to a “best of” tape a friend gave me in 1985. Fear not my fellow purists, as per Courtney’s rules, I’ve been fixing my collection to contain the individual remasters and the “best of” CD will have a new home. They squeezed in four from the CD Panic of Girls, pretty good stuff and the audience didn’t appear bored. Then again, unlike my peers (the over 40 crowd), I want to see the older bands continue making new music; I hate the “oldies/hits” mindset. Unfortunately, Panic is difficult to find at stores so I scored mine through the merchandise booth while buying my obligatory shirt. Of course they did “Call Me,” “Rapture” (Rap’s major debut for Middle America), “Maria” and “One Way or Another.” “The Tide is High” and “Heart of Glass” were saved for the encore. Throwing in “Fight For Your Right” near the tail of “Rapture” was a clever touch.
I didn’t want to go with the easy ploy of Halloween so as I searched online for other possible significant ideas, I stumbled upon this. Then it gave me an idea on what I could write briefly every day about, other people of Italian descent and how they’ve contributed to the World via Science, Entertainment, Literature, whatever. Italians have come a long way in America since there was a time not too long ago when they were the “Mexicans;” they couldn’t adjust and they were taking away jobs from real Americans. The rhetoric never changes, just the so-called threat and the paranoid WASPs’ hate organizations: the Know Nothing Party, the KKK, Knights of the Confederacy, Free Soilers, the Moral Majority and now the Teabaggers. Being part Italian, I know we often can be our own worst enemy as The Jersey Shore and corrupt prime minister Silvio Berlosconi demonstrate; the latter will probably do more damage than The Sopranos ever did.
For the header, I went with the flag, it’s rather obvious but what do the colors stand for?
Yet I’m baffled on why their national sports teams are light blue. My only immediate guess is to avoid being confused with Mexico on the soccer field; their flag is similar despite the eagle in the middle of it.
Avanti! as I try to come up with 31 people. I know I can, it’s having the time to do it.
Josh arrived punctually at 9 AM, installed the two new parts, showed me how to lubricate the running belt, showed me how to calibrate it while it’s running (the instruction manual is “wrong” for legal lawsuit reasons) and I was back in business. It couldn’t have come any sooner. Besides my focal review at work, I also received the results of a recent blood test. Most was great, especially the Vitamin D and Calcium. Cholesterol was 213. Not bad for being a fat n’ lazy over the last couple months. Imagine what could’ve been if the treadmill had been operational the whole time!
I didn’t receive any input on my next destination and after a rather strenuous, pathetic 12-minute mile; I’m going to start out modestly. Jose moved last month so I “made it” by default. I’m going to write it off as a push, tack on what I achieved and go on to another Texas town along I-10 from house. Inevitably, I will extend it to include friends’ homes, my brother’s place, maybe Marquette and the timeshare. After them, I guess across the Atlantic to Greenland…or is it Iceland which is closer?
