Mark Evanier's Blog, page 107

Cartoonist for Kamala

The auctions are open! A group of cartoonists have done or donated drawings to the cause of electing Guess Who as the next President of These United States. As I understand it, the funds collected go to groups backing the Harris/Walz ticket so here's your chance to score a lovely piece o' art and contribute to that effort.

Today's Video Link

Here's a 1986 profile of Joe Barbera on 60 Minutes. First, some notes: The voice actor you'll see briefly is Stanley Ralph Ross, who was more of a writer (he wrote the Adam West Batman show and developed the Lynda Carter Wonder Woman show among many other credits) but he sometimes acted and did voices. Huckleberry Hound was not the first product of the Hanna-Barbera studio. That honor belongs to The Ruff & Reddy Show.

There's a scene in there where Barbera is pitching to NBC execs and I, who pitched to them myself many times, recognize Phyllis Tucker Vinson and Sam Ewing. There's a creative meeting with writers and artists at the H-B studio and I recognize Glenn Leopold, Tom Ruegger and Iwao Takamoto.

And I think when Joe is talking about networks laundering his shows, he's overstating the problem somewhat but I've written about this elsewhere here. It is a nice portrait of a fascinating man who was a great salesman and an important part of a lot of lives, mine included. Thanks to "John G." for sending me this link…

Monday Afternoon

Something of interest will be here later today. No, let me amend that: Something will be here that's about as interesting as anything ever is on this blog. You'll be the judge of whether it's of interest to you…as this post probably is not. But I'm dealing with deadlines and meetings these days and I'm also looking in horror at what the poor folks in the path of that one-two hurricane punch may be living through..and of course, we hope they all live through it.

Marjorie Taylor Greene says that someone somewhere is controlling the weather. I wish that was so because then maybe more benevolent weather controllers could take over and stop this horrible destruction. I don't think that's possible but maybe we could do a lot more to prepare for events like this.

Today's Video Link

Did you ever see this? It's a music video for Herb Alpert's rendition of "Puttin' on the Ritz" and it's said to have been shot in one continuous take with no edits. One online page says it's a creative collaboration between Alpert, artist Glenn Kaino, filmmaker Afshin Shahidi, producer Kerith Lemon and choreographers Napoleon & TabithaD'umo. The lead dancer is Vincent Noiseux. This has been around for a while but somehow I never was aware of it until recently…

One More Political Note…

The Charlotte Observer, a newspaper in hurricane-devastated North Carolina, has published an editorial entitled "Shame on Donald Trump for worsening NC's Helene tragedy with political lies." You can read the entire piece here but I'll quote just the beginning…

Western North Carolina is trying to pick up the pieces left behind by Hurricane Helene, which decimated the region, leaving communities destroyed and a death toll in the triple digits. This is not a situation to capitalize on for political gain. But former President Donald Trump has politicized the situation at every turn, spreading falsehoods and conspiracies that fracture the community instead of bringing it together.

And it ain't much nicer to Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the self-described "Black Nazi" who's running for governor and is only, according to the latest poll, seventeen points behind his opponent.

What is with these guys who don't understand that human lives are involved here? That people are killed, homes are destroyed, businesses are outta business, etc.? I don't think there's any greater test of leadership than leadership in a time of life-threatening emergency.

Today's Political Comment

Less than thirty days to Election Day, it looks a lot closer than anyone would like but I'm still optimistic. Yeah, it's maddening that they continue to lie and lie and lie — and you know who I think "they" are — but it's looking more like desperation than anything else. Here's Politifact face-checking a speech Trump gave the other day. And here's Jonathan Cohn debunking JD Vance's claim that Trump "saved Obamacare."

I do get that there are people in this country who are super-paranoid about "immigrants" to the point there they don't differentiate between the legal kind and the illegal kind. And I get that that fear is not lessened even if they recognize that some or all of the Trump/Vance horror stories are fabricated. I still think Harris/Walz will triumph…and that if they don't, that'll be the main reason.

Apparently, Marjorie Taylor Greene doesn't believe that nature can change the weather but that secret cabals of humans can.

The new document dump from Special Counsel Jack Smith is even more damning than we first thought and new details keep emerging. Josh Kovensky covers some of them.

And to wrap up for now, here's a new commercial from The Lincoln Project that I would think would swing some votes in the right direction…

Today's Video Link

Jim Walton, who originated the role of Franklin Shepard in the musical Merrily We Roll Along sings a tune from that show…

Hollywood Real Estate News

We are still interested in what becomes of the Jim Henson Studio Lot — formerly owned by all sorts of people including Herb Alpert, Red Skelton and Charlie Chaplin — over on La Brea Boulevard in Hollywood. Rupert Murdoch's New York Post and other outlets reported it had been purchased by the Church of Scientology and that caused all manner of reactions across the Internet. But the Henson folks have now issued a statement saying, "In regards to recent rumors about the sale of the La Brea studio lot, the Henson family is not in any business dealings with the Church of Scientology, and that organization is not in consideration as a potential buyer of the property."

So we dunno what's happening there but it seems pretty certain it is not a done deal the way the Post and other sources were claiming. A lot of those getting it wrong also seemed to think that Scientology was acquiring the Muppets as well, which could never be the case. All the known Muppets are either owned by Disney or are in a business relationships with the folks who bring us Sesame Street. They wouldn't come with the buildings. The Jim Henson Company as it now stands owns current projects that it has developed — like Puppet Up! — and I suppose it could be sold but there is no indication that it has been or that the family is willing to part with it.

Mark's Bad Break #7

I've had a couple of requests for updates on how my broken ankle is healing since I broke it 258 days ago. Here's your update: It's healed. At least, the doctor who did the surgery looked at x-rays and complimented his own work. The problem though is that the foot attached to said ankle hasn't fully healed from having various rods and screws inserted into it…so the ankle is fine but the foot isn't.

Thus, I am still having trouble walking, part of which has sometimes been because the knee on that leg is worn out and in need of replacement. Various injections keep it lubricated for periods of time but I'm generally having balance issues. I can walk but not well, especially on uneven ground. Still, it's better than it was last month when it was better than the month before when it was better than the month before…and so on. I guess I'm just lucky to be in a line of work where you can earn money while sitting down.

And that's basically your report. By the time I do another one of these, I expect to be balancing better than Simone Biles. So it may be a while.

Today's Video Link

A recent interview of a very smart, funny man named Michael Palin…