Tuesday Night iPhone Photos – This is not a Magritte

July 31, 2012 by 5 Comments

My L.A. hotel was within walking distance of LACMA – the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Well, it was within walking distance for a tourist who thinks it’s okay to forgo the valet parking and engage in twenty minutes of mild exercise.

LACMA was well worth it for several reason, but most of all for Rene Magritte’s “The Treachery of Images (This Is Not a Pipe).” It was my first encounter with Magritte’s 1929 masterpiece and one of those surreal (so to speak) moments, as there wasn’t anyone else in the room. Just me and the not-pipe.

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Quote of the Day: Howard Stern on Dick Cheney

July 31, 2012 by Leave a comment

I can’t believe this Dick Cheney opens his mouth again….so what would you do in Syria, just send in Halliburton again?

- Howard Stern on his radio show (July 31, 2012)

SEE ALSO
Stern Show Quote Bank

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Monday Night iPhone Photo – IHOP Valet Parking

July 30, 2012 by 7 Comments

From my weekend trip to Los Angeles, pictorial evidence that it’s a different world down there.

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Scalia on Affordable Care Act Mandate

July 30, 2012 by 2 Comments

Ham and Cheese

You don’t interpret a penalty to be a pig. It can’t be a pig.

–Justice Antonin Scalia on Fox News Sunday

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia (Photo credit: The Higgs Boson)

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Sunday Night Video – Garry Shandling on the Tonight Show

July 29, 2012 by Leave a comment

Today’s my last day taking in some comedy in Los Angeles. Last night the highlight was watching Jeff Garlin do his interview thing at Largo, which means that he gets a guest and they just talk and banter and meander for about 90 minutes. The guest was Garry Shandling, so I thought I’d check out Shandling’s premiere on The Tonight Show. Who would have thought he’d begin with a prop joke?

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Sunday Comicsmashup #6: Neighborhoods

July 29, 2012 by Leave a comment

Another comicsmashup, in which I put mundane musings into the captions and balloons of old comic books, keeping some of the original.

Comicsmashup 6 - Neighborhoods

SEE ALSO
Comicsmashup #5: Cycles

Filed under Arts & Lit, Comicsmashup, Personal

Saturday Night Video – Fighting for Voter Rights

July 28, 2012 by Leave a comment

Conservatives are fighting against democracy, pushing for Voter ID laws in order to stifle participation from minorities, college students, and others with whom they disagree. AFGE disagrees.

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Improvisors Talk Improv: The Groundlings and UCB

July 28, 2012 by 3 Comments

Before I went to see Tony Clifton last night, I went to The Groundlings’ All-Night Diner. The lobby beforehand was full of audience members gawking at the photos of famous Groundlings alumni on the wall. I was sitting next to pictures of Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig, who were receiving major props. Me, I was touched by the simple sign about the theater doors.

The Groundlings dedicate this theater to the memory of Phil Hartman.

The Groundlings circa 1979. Phil Hartman is in the second row. Photo taken by John Mayer (not that one).

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Friday Night Video – Tony Clifton at the Comedy Store

July 27, 2012 by 2 Comments

I’m in L.A. this weekend and have plans to see Clifton tonight at the Comedy Store. It’s way too late for me — the show starts at 11:30! — and apparently this is what I’m in for. I’m not sure that the years have been kind to Tony. Or his act.

Update on 7/28: It’s 3AM and I’m back at my low cost (for Hollywood!) hotel. I may blog about the show later, but for now let me simply apologize to Mr. Clifton! He put on a stunning show, and I gotta say that the video simply doesn’t do justice to what it’s like to see Clifton, his band, and the Cliftonettes in their 2 1/2 hour extravaganza.

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Quote of the Day: Russell Brand

July 27, 2012 by 3 Comments

If you don’t think too much about spirituality — and why would you, living in a material world with our myths all severed now, living here adrift in some material oblivion? It’s a weird time to think of it, we’re all lapping on the senseless shores of materialism. And then occasionally you’ll see the Dalai Lama and you’ll go “Oh, yeah. Fuck.”

– Russell Brand performing at Largo (July 26, 2012)

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Thursday Night Video – The Aikiu, “Pieces of Gold”

July 26, 2012 by 1 Comment

The Aikiu’s music video for “Pieces of Gold” combines low tech video of their own with low tech video from porn, and demonstrates a pretty good sense of humor in the process. I would hand out a tip-of-the-hat but I don’t recall what brought this to my attention. Boing Boing, perhaps?

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Weekend Movie Review: Words and Music (1948)

July 26, 2012 by 9 Comments

I went to see Words and Music at the Stanford Theatre knowing that it is a post-World War II MGM all-star musical, so I figured that this highly fictionalized account of the career of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart would provide a series of pretty darn good musical numbers, perhaps tied together by a clumsy narrative. Unfortunately, the songs were fewer in number than I’d hoped, even after accounting for the fact that Rodgers & Hammerstein was much more prolific than Rodgers & Hart. A bland narrative hung over the film like Perry Como (who was actually pretty likable in the film), spiced up by the frequently fascinating presence of Mickey Rooney, who played Hart.

RODGERS: A tune without a lyric is a mighty lonesome thing.

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