Mark Evanier's Blog, page 28

The Doctor Is Out

As you may have heard, Barret Hansen — known far, near and wide as Dr. Demento — is hanging up his turntable. I was an avid fan of his radio program almost from the start and he started in 1970, playing records no one else on radio played. In some cases, he played records no one else had. I was a huge fan of some of the vintage stars he showcased like Stan Freberg, Spike Jones, Tom Lehrer and so many more. I collected comedy records but the good doctor's stash of such material towered over my collection and maybe everyone's.

When I first discovered him, I taped his show every week using a reel-to-reel tape recorder, a radio, a timer and a couple of wires that formed what now looks like a stone age VCR for audio only. When Dr. Demento played something I didn't have in my collection — which at the start was, like, every week — I'd splice the tape of that tune onto a big reel I had. I'm sure I wasn't the only listener who did this and I'm sure the doctor knew and approved.

He was one of the few on-air radio personalities who played records and didn't talk over the beginning and/or end of each record. He left them clean for those of us who were recording them. Back in those pre-Internet days that was the only way I could get a copy of something he had that I wanted to have a copy of for myself.

I've probably since found every song I "saved" that way. He established there was a market for old Spike Jones material and there were many Dr. Demento records and CDs of stuff from his library. And these days, a lot of that material — being public domain in many cases — is downloadable from somewhere on the vast World Wide Web. In the seventies though, the only source was Doc Demento's Sunday night broadcasts.

I got to meet him a few times. Once at one of Laraine Newman's birthday parties, "Weird Al" Yankovic introduced me to Dr. Demento and I thought that was appropriate since Dr. Demento had introduced "Weird Al" to me and to the world. I've never addressed him as Barret because he seemed to be Dr. Demento in front of a microphone and away from one. But we talked about great comedy and novelty records and talk about your Walking Encyclopedias of Knowledge…

I just re-read the above and it sounds a bit funereal and it shouldn't. The guy's not dead. He's just not doing his show anymore. I just wanted to salute him for doing it, doing it for so long and doing it so well. I wish him a happy retirement.

Today's Video Link

And here's how they did it on the TV series, How I Met Your Mother…

Bye Bye, Betty

Click to enlarge

As we feared, Boop! The Musical has announced its closing on Broadway. The final performance there will be July 13, they say…though there have been shows which announced a closing date and then had a stampede to the box office so they extended for a while. Even if that happens here, there's no way I can get back to New York in time to see it. It opened April 5 so if there's no extension — and there probably won't be — it will have played 25 previews and 112 regular performances.

Everyone I know who saw it loved it…so we now have the question of whether it will tour or have some sort of afterlife. There will at some point probably be regional productions of it but those won't be the same as seeing it with this cast — Jasmine Amy Rogers, especially — and these costumes and that staging. It may turn out be remembered best for launching the career of Ms. Rogers, who is probably already being approached with offers.

Sorry to see it go. One friend of mine who saw it during ten days of seeing as many shows as possible said it was the only one he saw with a sense of joy and a cast of talented folks who "looked like they were ecstatic to be performing for us." I also feel bad for the people who've been trying to engineer a comeback for the cartoon character as a viable "today" property.  I also feel bad for whoever backed this show because they probably lost a helluva lot of money.

FACT CHECK: Is The Bombing Bombing?

Did the U.S. bombing raid on Iran leave that country's nuclear capabilities "totally obliterated?" Trump says they did and seems furious when anyone suggest they didn't. That's even though his vice-president, when asked that question, hedged his answer and didn't say "Of course!" Here, Politifact tackles the question and — SPOILER ALERT! — their answer is that it's too soon to tell. Of course, it wasn't too soon for Trump to declare the mission a smashing success and to begin planning his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech…

…while FactCheck.org says the answer is "no."

And here's Ed Kilgore explaining about how meaningless it is for anyone to be "nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize." Someone — anyone — just has to send the right letter to the right address. It's kind of the same way we accept nominations for the Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing. We've had hundreds of people nominated for this award, a great many of whom do not remotely qualify.

We still have that guy who keeps sending letters nominating Curt Swan — a wonderful artist who does not, as the criteria for the award demands, have a body of work as a writer. This gent who keeps nominating Swan over and over, even though multiple nominations of the same candidate by the same person carry no weight, has a simple explanation…

It's basically that we all agree that Curt Swan was the most talented person to ever work in comics so it's unthinkable not to give him every single award that is ever bestowed on folks who do comic books. I'm thinking the late Mr. Swan will receive a Nobel Peace Prize for drawing Superman comic books before Donald Trump gets one for anything he does.

Today's Video Link

And here's how they did it on the TV series, Glee. (I'm talking about performing the Billy Joel song, "For the Longest Time," not humiliating Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — although both are very popular on YouTube…)

Another Video That's Not A Billy Joel Song

Congresswoman Kim Schrier (D-WA) questions our Secretary of Health and Human Services. As you watch this, just remember that Donald Trump picked people like Robert F. Kennedy Jr to make up his cabinet and staff…

Today's Video Link That's Not A Billy Joel Song

Seth Meyers gets a informative (and very funny) segment just by quoting everything Donald Trump said and everything he did about the Israel/Iran situation…

FACT CHECK: A Bad Bill and Bombs Bombing

Politifact tackles some of the factually-challenged (i.e., false) statements that have been made about "The Big, Beautiful Bill."

So…what do we know about radiation risks in Iran after the Israeli and U.S. strikes? The Associated Press debunks or clarifies some of the things being said.

Trump says that because of the bombing he ordered, "Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated." FactCheck.org says that ain't necessarily so.

He also says that the U.S. brought in $88 billion from tariffs in just two months. Again, FactCheck.org says otherwise.

And my favorite commentator on topics like the military and the Middle East, Fred Kaplan, has an article up entitled, "If You're Confused About the War With Iran, You Have Every Reason to Be." Well worth your attention.

Today's Video Link

Three people — Lea-Marie Sørensen, Rasmus Almlund and Nikolaj Christoffersen — sing six-part harmony on Billy Joel's song entitled…well, you know…

FACT CHECK: Wha' Happened?

Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post has an article up entitled "How Israel deceived the United States about its nuclear weapons program." There doesn't seem to be a whole lotta agreement out there about what Israel has, what Iran has and what we just did with what we have.

That would include disagreement about whether Trump violated the War Power Act with his orders. Politifact digs into that.

FactCheck.org looks into statements by Donald Trump and Tulsi Gabbard about the nuclear capabilities of Iran.

And Ed Kilgore tries to sort out various conflicting (and perhaps erroneous) things that our leaders and others have been saying about what happened over there and whether we're technically at war. That would be nice to know.