Thursday's sprint race

I ran a sprint race at Bonner Park on Thursday evening. With the warm and humid conditions I decided to start a bit easy and pick up the pace as I went. That seemed to work out ok.The map is a bit sketchy. The GPS track around 6-7 and 10 reflect some of that.I was moving slowly on the way to 9 because the grass is knee deep on that leg.Back to okansas.blogspot.com.

The Millimum Plus-10 Gulf Oil Gusher

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USA Today 7-28-10, Pg 1: Oil and tourists skip Gulf beaches even though majority of vacation spots declared OK
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Roanoke Times, 7-31-10, Pg 5: Focus changing in spill cleanup.
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Remember the Millimum Bug? The media “shouted” that our entire modern society including all infrastructures was destined to self-destruct midnight New Years Eve 1999/2000.
But it didn’t! Businesses, industries, utilities and government all worked diligently in 1999 and very few problems occurred. Was a lesson learned?
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Fast forward to 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico. A mile deep oil well blow-out, killed 12 drilling system workers (not a big issue in the major media) and then the escape of 94 to184 million gallons of raw crude flowed into the Gulf.
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So here we are on July 28 (100 days later) and the USA Today states: “the oil spill has NOT fouled the vast majority of the area’s beaches” and vacationers should come-on-down! We haven’t even had tar balls or anything with hundreds of miles of our beaches” said D.T. Minch of Visit St. Petersburg tourism authority. (Earlier media predicted oil would flow into the Atlantic and foul beaches as far north as Myrtle Beach!)
In Mississippi (A as in one) beach was closed for a week in Hancock County, but others have remained open, some with advisories.
Few beach warnings have been issued in Alabama and Florida and none in Texas.
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The Roanoke Times Pg 5 story update: A new analysis by the NOAA showed most surface oil in the Gulf had degraded to a thin sheen and beaches in Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle will likely not have significant problems.
About 70% of Louisiana waters (the most affected areas) are now open to commercial fishing.
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The Gulf oil spill is indeed a major issue. Has it been blown out of context? Have millions of dollars in tourist and vacation revenue been scared away unnecessarily?
Is there a lesson here? As Ron Emanuel, Obama’s Chicago main man, has said “let’s not waste a serious crisis”!
However in this crisis case Obama’s got tar-balls on his hands.
http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2010/06/obamanation-continues.html
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Perhaps having major media “news” 24x7 with an insatiable appetite for ratings will someday become passé. Perhaps the “news” media can trade-down their “anchors” with the fashion looks and miniskirts for news we can believe in.
Perhaps not; Perhaps we get what we tolerate.
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http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2010/05/obamas-gulf-oil-actions-of-ill-repute.html
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John Kerry’s New Not So SwiftBoat

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Seattle Times, AP, 7-24-10: Kerry sails $7M yacht into nautical tax haven.
Not found in Roanoke Times – apparently too hard to put a good liberal spin-slant on this one!
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There’s a new Swiftboat in New England built and owned by Mass. Dem. Senior Senator John Kerry, the renowned Nam-Swiftboat Vet, almost US President in 2004, married to the fabulously wealthy Teresa Ketchup Heinz and major supporter of Obama’s war against financially successful Americans. Talk about your “sterling silver spoon” credentials!
http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2006/05/those-poor-democrats.html
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The good news: John just had a 76-foot, Seven Million Dollar ($7M) sloop sailboat built.
The bad news: instead of building in the US with American workers and businesses he had it built in New Zealand! Don't we have a 10+% unemployment problem here?
The really bad news: John docked the $7,000,000 “Isabel” in Rhode Island to avoid paying $500,000 to his bankrupt home state of Massachusetts and avoiding subsequent $70,000 in annual excise taxes.
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Is there any limit to the Hypocrisy of these big name filthy rich Democrats?
Apparently Not!
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http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2007/01/kerry-slippoing-deeper-into-depression.html
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http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2006/11/john-kerry-insults-our-troops-again.html
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http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2006/09/john-kerry-still-waffling.html
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http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2006/03/great-reporting-slant.html
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http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2005/06/dumb-but-dumber.html
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Burma!

Yesterday's Enemy ****
(dir. Val Guest, UK, 1959, 95 minutes)
Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country ***
(dir. Anders Ostergaard, Denmark, 2008, 84 minutes)

Old Woman 1: "BURMA!"
Old Woman 2: "Why did you say Burma?"
Old Woman 1: "I panicked."
- Monty Python, "The Penguin on the Television Skit"

As happenstance happens, I found myself watching two films about Burma last night. You remember Burma, the country now called Myanmar by its almost-perfect military dictatorship (in power in one form or another since 1962), but storied in jingle (if not song) by Burma-Shave ads and in war stories by British vets of WWII. Think Thailand without the sex tourism or North Korea without the starvation. Bored by the increasingly paltry and polarized news offerings on CNN and MSNBC, I switched over to Turner Classic Movies and watched the superbly cast British war movie Yesterday's Enemy (1959) and, later, the Oscar-nominated documentary Burma VJ (2008) - the latter recommended to me by a refugee relief worker and subsequently added to my NetFlix queue.

Yesterday's Enemy

The scene is Burma during World War II. A small British brigade led by Stanley Baker comes upon a Burmese village controlled by the Japanese. The brigade wipes out the enemy, whereupon Baker discovers that the late Japanese commandant has a coded map secreted on his person. When a Burmese prisoner who can decode the map refuses to talk, Baker orders that two peaceful villagers be executed. Baker's actions seem cruel and extreme until it becomes apparent that the enemy is twice as ruthless as he. Based on a TV play by Peter R. Newman, Yesterday's Enemy is a brutal but insightful look at the blurred line between good and evil in wartime conditions.
- Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Yesterday's Enemy was a Hammer Studio film production featuring principals Stanley Baker, Guy Rolfe, and Leo McKern, that struck me as a very realistic depiction of jungle warfare. But as a war movie, it has a dark and existential bent that is rather uncharactistic for its time (the post-war 1950s being a time when most WWII films portrayed the Allies as indisputably Good and the Axis as indisputably Evil). For one thing, it features a war atrocity - the cold-blooded killing of innocent Burmese villagers (albeit in order to extract vital information from a suspected spy - in order to save British soldiers lives and thus, by the logic of this argument, save the lives of tens of thousands of grateful Burmese in the conflict) - raising the moral dilemma of "the rules of war" war and "obeying orders/questioning authority" and foreshadowing similar events in America's subsequent Vietnam War (My Lai, anyone?). When Baker's Capt. Langford and his men are later captured by the Japanese commander Yamazuki, played by veteran Korean-American character actor Philip Ahn (best remember as Master Kan on the TV series Kung-Fu)...


"Hollywood Asian" Philip Ahn as "Kung-Fu" Kan

...he has the same interogation technique used on him; when Baker tries to cop the "We're only here because you started this war!" moral high ground, Ahn reminds him of Great Britain's colonial wars of conquest in the Sudan, India, and South Africa and Baker's silence makes us realize, yeah, maybe everybody has dirty hands in an armed conflict once it gets underway. (Hmmpft! Take that soon-to-be-crumbling British Empire!)

For another, Leo McKern's cynical war correspondent character "Max" at one points angrily laments that all the killing and sacrifice will ultimately serve no purpose other than filling a memorial grave and getting a meaningless posthumous medal for one's widow and fatherless children to store on their mantle. The closing shot is, in fact, a memorial tombstone. (Point taken!)

Guy Rolfe played the film's moral compass as "Padre" the Priest. Rolfe - who was a direct descendent of John Rolfe, the British soldier who married Pocahontas - is fondly remembered by William Castle fans as protagonist Baron Sardonicus in Mr. Sardonicus (1961).


Guy Rolfe as Baron Sardonicus before...


...and after Botox treatment

Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country

Burma VJ is a courageous but depressing documentary about a country every bit as "closed" as North Korea but one that doesn't get as much world attention - except for the occasional catastrophic disaster like the monsoon that devastated the nation in 2007 (during which "The Generals" prevented outside aid, more interested in their own survival than their own people's) - because they don't have nuclear weapons and can usually feed their people. It's also a film in which jumpy hand-held camera work is not an edgy you-are-there artistic technique (unfortunately still in vogue in today's indie cinema, especially "mumblecore" ones), but a necessity for staying alive. Burma's flirtations with democracy have been brief, consisting of student-monk protests in 1988 (their 9/11 was 8/8/88, the day hundreds of thousands took to the streets across the country to call for democracy) and the metta sutta prayer-chanting monk-led insurgency chronicled here in 2007 - both inspired by economic hardships (like raising the price of fuel by 500% in 2007), both brutally put down (3,000 protesters alone died in 1988). As General Ne Win said at the time of the first uprising, "When the army shoots, it shoots straight." (No kidding, General.)

The documentary's most striking update to the violence is the utter disregard for the traditionally untouchable monks, who are shown being beaten, disrobed, thrown into paddy wagons, and their temples ransacked. This disregard for passive civil resistance is capsulized in the footage of a dead monk's body floating in a muddy riverbank. Nothing in Burma, apparently, is sacred under the iron grip of the junta.


Metta Sutta-chanting monks ask: What's so funny
'bout peace, love & understanding?

The '88 protests did lead the dictatorship to hold elections in 1990, which 1991 Nobel Peace Price recipient Aung San Suu Kyi won in a landslide, but the results were nullified and she was - and continues to be - put under house arrest. In fact, she's has been under house arrest for 14 of the last 20 years.

OK, now you're probably wondering why a doc chronicling brave Burmese video journalists (or VJs - and very unlike MTV's VJs!) was made by a Swedish director, Anders Ostergaard. That's because in a land where there is no free press, the only way to smuggle info out is via the Internet (which can be shut down or filtered a la Google in China) or smuggling tapes to the West. In this case, the journalists documenting the protests and crackdowns belong to a guerilla organization called the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) that has contacts in Sweden.

While the rest of the world uploads videos to YouTube showing cute babies, playful kittens, or amateur porn, in Burma uploaded videos are of a more serious nature. They're literally a matter of life and death in a country where the medium is the message and the law of the land says "Kill the messenger."

Tub time fundraiser at Cambridge hotel benefits Trust for Public Land

Hey, I'm all for saving open space. Baths? Not so much. But the idea of going to a cool, pet-friendly Cambridge hotel for a good cause, and treats (of course) sounds pretty good. Plus the chance to get out of the 'burbs, wonderful as they are, and check out the city scene.

(I would have, last night, but some people left me behind while they took in a Boston Landmarks Orchestra concert on the Esplanade, featuring bits of the Puccini opera Tosca. I would have loved to have sung along with the pros. But no.)

So check it out: Saturday, August 7, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Hotel Marlowe, Cambridge. Laundromutt is handling the wash and dry, Polka Dog Bakery is proffering treats (yum!), and I hear the paparazzi will be in attendance.

The $15 fee benefits the Boston chapter of the Trust for Public Land.

Illegal-immigrant law Enforcement: Arizona vs. Virginia

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Roanoke Times, 7-29-10, Pg 1 & 3: Arizona judge blocks immigration law.
San Diego Union-Tribune, 7-19-10, Pg 4: Virginia’s unprecedented surge in detentions of illegal immigrants.
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The Clinton appointed Arizona judge did her liberal duty and hacked away at Arizona’s duplicate copy of the Federal immigration laws that Obama and associates refuse to enforce. So much for state’s rights and the ability of states and communities to act in the best interests of the health and welfare of their citizens when confronted by massive numbers of illegal infiltrators.
Just more hope and change and hypocrisy we can believe in!
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Not found in the Roanoke Times, but published in the San Diego Union-Tribune was a very comprehensive article on Virginia’s unprecedented surge in detentions of illegal immigrants picked up on criminal charges with particular focus on the laws and enforcement in Prince Edward County.
There will be a new 30-acre facility in Farmville in-addition-to the $21 million center in Prince Edward County.
These tax funded facilities are required to manage people who shouldn’t be here in the first place, and would have either been repulsed at the border or been deported if Obama would just enforce the laws he took an oath to enforce.
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New News 8-2-10:
In a decision that could lay the groundwork for an Arizona-style immigration policy, Virginia's attorney general said state law enforcement officers are allowed to check the immigration status of anyone "stopped or arrested."
Can't wait for the howls and cries from the Roanoke Times Editors and their Obamanation associates.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/08/02/virginia-attorney-general-rules-police-check-immigration-status/
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http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2010/05/obamas-national-guard-to-border-two-per.html
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http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2008/06/democrats-for-homeland-insecurity.html
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http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2007/06/democrats-sink-immigration-bill.html
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France Declares War on al-Qaeda

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USA Today, 7-25-10, Pg 6A
Not found in the Roanoke Times – would be totally inconsistent with their declaration that the war is over:
http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2010/05/roanoke-times-declares-end-of-war.html
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“We are at war with al-Qaeda” Prime Minister Francois Fillon said, a day after President Sarkozy announced the death of hostage Michel Germaneau, a humanitarian worker in Niger.
http://politifi.com/news/Sarkozy-blasts-AQIM-slaying-of-Frenchman-974112.html
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Are the French jumping to a premature knee-jerk reaction?
Is this a French John Wayne, George Bush, Cowboy thing?
After many Frenchmen have died in embassy and night-club bombings over the last 10 years, including three who died in the WTC 9/11 attack and the French troops that have died on the battle field why this rush to judgment and declaration of war now?
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This is very curious and certainly inconsistent with Obama’s strategy of making friends with the Radical Extremist Muslims as so well articulated by his NASA Administrator, Charles Bolden.
http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2010/07/obama-nasa-islam.html
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Does a "declaration of war" mean that France is actually going to do something?
Certainly puts them in a better position to surrender should things go badly!
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Sharing a freebie!!

Hi everybody!!!

Hope you are all well!!!

It's been ages since my last post. Everything is still chaotic here but I'm fine, boys are fine and they're growing sooooooo fast!! :(
I'm working hard but I took some time to post something here.
There's no need to tell you that I miss scrapbooking sooooooooooooooo much. I was looking in my hd and I decided to share one of my old PTU kits with you, called "Toxic candyland".
Hope you like it!!!

If you want, you can download it from here

Preview:


Hope I'll be back soon with something else!!

Hugs to everyone!!

Comic Noir: Sam Hill & Johnny Dynamite

On a recent visit to BCPL's Cockeysville Library to grab more titles from their impressive graphic novel collection, I scored Dan Nadel's fascinating Art in Time: Unknown Comic Book Adventures 1940-1980 (Abrams ComicArts, 2010), the follow-up volume to his Art Out of Time: Unknown Comic Visionaries, 1900-1969 (Abrams, 2006). Both Nagel books highlight the unheralded work of visionary comic books and cartoonists, with the author's stated goal of moving toward "a more open and inclusive understanding of what makes a compelling comic."


Dan Nagel's "Art": Time for rediscovery

Well for me the two most compelling comics were Harry Lucey's hard-boiled, wise-cracking gumshoe Sam Hill - the "Ex Ivy League halfback" private eye with a white streak in his hair and a sexy redhead secretary named Roxy - and Peter Morissi's Mike Hammer-inspired one-eyed "wild man from Chicago" who's as explosive as his name, Johnny Dynamite.

Like Sam Hill, Johnny Dynamite had a curvy secretary in Judy Kane, but after issue #4 he lacked Sam's extra eye and started sporting an eyepatch; in 1987 Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty resurrected the JD character for four appearances in their Ms. Tree comic, then created a 4-issue Johnny Dynamite homage for Dark Horse Comics in 1994.


Max Allan Collins rekindled Johnny Dynamite's fuse

Both pencil-and-ink tough guy sleuths date from the Mickey Spillane-dominated 1950s era of detective comics, but I like Sam Hill better because he's less violent and more stylized like the pulp dicks of the '30s and '40s. He's cut more from the mold of a Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe or Paul Pine, whereas Johnny Dynamite is more like Spillane's cartoonishly mean-spirited Mike Hammer (or Donald Westlake/Richard Stark's Parker) - a pure brutarian who seems to enjoy killing a little too much. And, unlike Sam Hill, Johnny Dynamite is completely humorless; he only cracks hard, not wise.

I don't know a while lot about comics - certainly not as much as my pal Dave Cawley, who can spot one panel and instantly tell you who wrote it, who drew it, who penned it, and what company published it (whether you ask for a cornucopia of detail or not!) - but I love the hard-boiled PI genre, so my research choices were either the perpetually wired Dave Cawley or the intrinsically wired Internet. I chose the Internet and found out the following...

Sam Hill by Harry Lucey
7 issues, 1950, MLJ


"What the Sam Hill?" Premiere ish intro.

Born in 1950, Sam Hill lived fast and died young, lasting only seven issues. I guess the reader mail didn't come in "heavy enough" (as pitched below in the premiere ish), which is a real shame because Sam Hill is a fun read - and an eccentric personality as well - how many PIs drank milk and wore bow ties (pretty distinctive - guess that was the "Ivy League" touch of "class"!)?


Sam Hill's talking to you, chum!

I like how every adventure was called a caper ("The Cutie Killer Caper," "The Double Trouble Caper," etc.) and featured a preview of each caper's dramatis personnae on the first page (e.g., "Roxanna...my indispensibe Gal Friday"; "Barbara Berkley...my lucious client"; "Rick Marks...Barbara's attorney"), not to mention the denouments that always seemed to find Hill flirting with his Gal Friday.



Dan Nagel writes that Lucey was influenced by film noir's "expressionistic angles" and probably Will Eisner's The Spirit, noting that his character's facial expressions and his panel-framing technique in presenting the narrative almost made words superfluous: "Remove the words from a Lucey story and readers still know precisely how each character feels and what that means for the plot. This strong technique makes Lucey's cartoon characters seem alive on the page like few others, and gives Sam Hill an urgency that raises it above its obvious genre and cinematic infleunces."

Creator Harry Lucey (1913-1979/1980) spent most of his career at Archie publishers MLJ, where he worked on Madam Satan, Magno, Crime Does Not Pay - and even Archie - between 1950 and 1970. In the 1960s he developed an allergic reaction to graphite and had to wear white gloves while drawing, and in the 1970s he contracted Lou Gehrig's disease, followed by cancer. He passed away in 1979 or 1980.

But he left behind these "7 Wonders" of Private Eye comics, as reproduced below:


Sam Hill #1


Sam Hill #2


Sam Hill #3


Sam Hill #4


Sam Hill #5


Sam Hill #6


Sam Hill #7

Johnny Dynamite by Pete Morisi
Comic Media, 1953-1954; Charlton 1954-1956


The early "Two-Eyed" Johnny Dynamite

Johnny Dynamite was created by writer "William Waugh" (nom du plume of Ken Fitch, who co-created Hourman and Tex Thompson for DC Comics) and artist Pete Morisi (1928-2003). Under the title Dynamite, Fitch and Morisi continued to write and draw the character until issue #9 (May, 1954), after which Morisi moved to Charlton Comics and revived the character between 1955 and 1956 under the title Johnny Dynamite.



According to the excellent online source Comic Vine (comicvine.com), "It ran three issues under that name, then three more as Foreign Intrigues, with Johnny retooled as a government agent..."


Johnny Dynamite turns Fed to battle the commies

Comic Vine continues the story: "...With #16 (November, 1957), [Charlton] dropped Johnny and took on the title Battlefield Action. As such, it ran, sporadically at least, until 1984, but Charlton never used Johnny Dynamite again." That's probably because Moresi not only left the series - he left the cartoon profession itself - at least for a while.

In 1956, Morisi became a NYPD police officer and started leading a double life. Because the NYPD forbade extracurricular work, he worked as cop by day and cartoonist by night. Using the pseudonym "PAM" (for "Pete A. Moresi"), he drew hundreds of comics for Charlton (like Thunderbolt and Montana Kid) up until 1976.

Of Morisi's technique, Nagel writes:

He was a master of moment-to-moment storytelling...each action, each pose, was fondly defined and crisply rendered so that a reader can't help but be immersed in his spaces. Morisi told his stories through a series of still images using every camera angle and filmic device he could think of. As if to accentuate the "screen effect, the panels all have rounded corners and there is nary a speed line, sound effect, or any of the other trappings in sight...his panels are crowded compositions full of close-ups on his hero's invariably agonized or beat-up face...the sheer crowded claustrophobia of a teeming city is always at the fore, and characters are always right up agaginst something, surrounded by buildings, trapped in rooms.

Though Johnny Dynamite remained lost for almost 30 years, he was rediscovered in the '90s by a fellow pulp comics fan. Comic Vine again picks up the story:

Widely regarded by fans of the genre as the best and most interesting of the 1950s comic book private eyes, Johnny Dynamite was a favorite of crime novelist and comics writer Max Allan Collins, one of Chester Gould's successors on Dick Tracy. Collins acquired the character in 1987, when many Charlton properties were sold. His first use of Johnny was as reprints in the back pages of his own Hammer-inspired character, Ms. Tree's comic book. Since then, he's branched out into new adventures from a couple of small publishers. His most prominent modern publisher is Dark Horse Comics, where Concrete and Hellboy started.

JD: Two-fisted (but one-eyed) action!


Related Links:
Johnny Dynamite (Toonepedia)
Sam Hill (Toonopedia)
Sam Hill @ Comic Vine (www.comicvine.com)
Johnny Dynamite @ Comic Vine (www.comicvine.com)

The Land of Used-to-Be, or, Happy Birthday, Mom!

Mom is entering the Land of  Used-to-Be, as in: "I used to be such a fast runner! I used to be such a good tennis player! I used to be able to do the Friday and Saturday New York Times crossword puzzles in five minutes!"

To which I say, Mom, you run everyone around you, especially me, completely ragged, so just stop it.

(One notable exception: Grandma. She makes everyone look like they're moving in stop time.)

A complete day for Mom ends with her being happily exhausted. In summer, this means: running, rowing, swimming, gardening, going to the dump, cleaning, going for several walks, then (it seems to me) starting all over again. In winter, it's ice skating, cross-country skiing, shoveling, walks, cleaning, dump, etc. etc. Also, working. Sometimes, cooking.

So for Mom's birthday, Dad wants her to relax. He suggests going out to lunch. "Waste of a beautiful day!" Mom replies. Eating is not high up on Mom's agenda, which is one area in which we are not at all alike. In fact, eating rates pretty high on my agenda. Only sleeping is higher. That's because my agenda has just two items.

So happy birthday, Mom! My gift to you: I promise to go for an extra walk if you promise to let me nap for the rest of the day.

Despicable Me: The Box Office Animation Movie

Despicable Me is a 2010 American computer-animated 3-D feature film from Universal Studios and Illumination Entertainment that was released on July 9, 2010 in the United States with considerable critical and financial success. The film stars Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Russell Brand, Julie Andrews, Will Arnett, Kristen Wiig, and Miranda Cosgrove.

The story is of a supervillain named Gru who plans to use three orphan girls as pawns for a grand scheme, only to find that their innocent love is profoundly changing him.

In a happy suburban neighborhood surrounded by white picket fences with flowering rose bushes, sits a black house with a dead lawn. Unbeknownst to the neighbors, hidden beneath this home is a vast secret hideout. Surrounded by a small army of minions, we discover Gru planning the biggest heist in the history of the world. He is going to steal the moon, yes, the moon.

Gru delights in all things wicked. Armed with his arsenal of shrink rays, freeze rays, and battle-ready vehicles for land and air, he vanquishes all who stand in his way. Until the day he encounters the immense will of three little orphaned girls who look at him and see something that no one else has ever seen: a potential Dad. The world's greatest villain has just met his greatest challenge: three little girls named Margo, Edith and Agnes.

No matter how dubious this second coming of 3-D is starting to smell. Compared with the restrained sophistication of Pixar's approach to the technology, and in sharp contrast to such murky, hacky live-action conversion jobs as "Clash of the Titans" and "The Last Airbender," here is a product — turned out by a French animation house, written by the team behind "College Road Trip" and " Horton Hears a Who!" — determined to give cheeseball 3-D blatancy a good name.

The second, more openly sentimental half. Ask any three people what "Despicable Me" is about, and no matter how many teasers or trailers they may have seen, they'll have a hard time bluffing.

Genres: Comedy, Kids/Family and Animation
Running Time: 1 hr. 28 min.
Release Date: July 9th, 2010 (wide)
Distributors: Universal Pictures
U.S. Box Office: $118,434,555
Starring: Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Russell Brand, Elsie Fisher, Ken Jeong Directed by: Chris Renaud, Pierre Coffin, Pierre Coffin Produced by: Nina Rappaport-Rowan, Sergio Pablos, Christopher Meledandri

This is a Trailer of Despicable Me, enjoy it !

DON'T BUSTER GUT!

Here's a cover many of you won't have seen before, except as a reduced B&W image in some ads in BUSTER and WHIZZER & CHIPS comic libraries back in the mid-eighties; or for the first time in colour over at http://www.bustercomic.co.uk/ - click on the link for entry into a world of fascinating facts and features concerning ANDY CAPP's wayward offspring.

This issue was pulled at the last moment because it showed Buster and his pal handling fireworks, which was not a good example to be putting on the cover of a children's comic. However, I'm lucky enough to be one of the few people (maybe I'm the only person - wouldn't that be something?) to own a copy of this rare comic. (Bidding starts at one million. Form an orderly queue.)

The Turtles - "Save the Turtles"

"
The Turtles
Save the Turtles: The Turtles Greatest Hits
FloEdCo (2009)

Full Disclosure: All the hits are here but truth be told, I really bought this collection solely for the Chevy Camero commercial at the end, which remains my favorite Turtles recording of all time - and as hard to find outside of this compilation as...well...a 1960s Chevy Camero!

OK, everyone knows The Turtles, the Southern California folk-pop icons fronted by singer Howard Kaylan (who bears an uncanny resemblance to Andy Kaufman's alter ego, Tony Clifton) and singer-guitarist Mark Volman (think Jonah Hill with an Afro) who had all those radio-friendly Top 40 hits in the '60s like "So Happy Together," "She'd Rather Be With Me," "It Ain't Me Babe," "You Baby," and "Elenore," etc. They liked to say that they were only three letters removed from being The Beatles and, like the Byrds, had fashioned one of those "pet" animal species monikers (they even spelled it "Tyrtles" for a spell).


Flo & Eddie - or Jo & Tony?

In truth, they were musical chameleons, able to change their spots to mimic virtually any style, from folk (the Dylan cover "It Ain't Me Babe") and hotrod-surf (the spot-on Jan & Dean imitation "Surfer Dan") to down-and-dirty garage grunge (Warren Zevon's "Outside Chance," Kaylan's "Always There") and the innumerable tunes that captured the soaring harmonies and melodic perfection of the Beach Boys. Heck, they even imitated themselves on "Elenore," though few noticed the self-mockery (least of all their record label, which was more than content with a #6 hit).


Flo & Eddie today

But for the longest time Alpha Turtles Volman and Kaylan were merely Phlorescent Leech and Eddie, or Flo and Eddie for short, as the rights to their name and music were tied up by men in suits with law degrees wrangling over money. With the Suits unwilling to let Volman and Kayman be themselves, much less sing "Let Me Be," they turned to various ventures, including radio broadcasting (they were on K-ROCK, Howard Stern's NYC station, for a while), joining Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention, and at one point in the '80s even resorting to recording background music for kiddie TV shows like The Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake (wowie zowie - from Zappa to kid shows, that's quite an aesthetic 360 turn!).


Flo & Eddie: Bear-ing their souls for the kids!

It wasn't until 1984 - after years of recording/touring with Zappa and as solo artists Flo & Eddie (speaking of which, I'm eagerly awaiting my twofer-on-one CD reissue of their brilliant Illegal, Immoral & Fattening/Moving Targets albums from FloEdCo) - that founding braintrust Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman legally regained the use of The Turtles name, and began touring as The Turtles... Featuring Flo and Eddie. (The "featuring" tag was probably added to their moniker because, instead of trying to reunite with their earlier bandmates, they began featuring all-star sidemen who had played with different groups - like Greg Hawkes of the Cars, who most recently appeared with them at the 2010 Dundalk Heritage Fair).


Flo & Eddie win the case!

But it wasn't until 2009 that they regained rights to their recorded music; they had always wanted to clean up the original recordings they made while under contract at White Whale Records in the '60s and the result is this greatest hits compilation CD that was was issued in 2009 on their own FloEdCo label and distributed by Manifesto Records. And clean it up they did, with all 20 of the selections here remastered under the personal direction of Flo and Eddie from the original master tapes.

One thing I noticed right off was the wide range of songwriting (the early Turtles recorded a score of songs by Gary Bonner and Alan Gordon of the East Coast band The Magicians, not to mention tunes by P. F. Sloan, Harry Nilsson, and their buddy Warren Zevon) and turnover of band members through the years. Other than mainstays Kaylan, Volman, and founding guitarists Al Nichols and Jim Tucker, the Turtles line-up changed quite a bit over the years - especially the rhythm section. The Great Turtles Diaspora saw bassist Jim Pons replace Chip Douglas (no, he wasn't featured on My Three Sons, but Douglas was a talented bass and keyboard player who went into record production, producing hits for The Monkees - "Daydream Believer" and "Pleasant Valley Sunday" among them - before returning to produce Turtles records like "You Showed Me"); Pons would later join Flo and Eddie in Zappa's Mothers of Invention before leaving to start his second career as a film and video director for the NFL (he currently works for the Jaguars); veteran session drummer Johnny Barbata - himself a replacement for Joel Larson (who replaced Don Murray) - left to play with Crosby, Stills & Nash.

That said, if there's one Turtles collection you should shell out the bucks for, it's this modestly-priced greatest hits comp, proceeds from which actually go towards saving turtles at the Turtle Hospital in Marathon, FL. Following are some of my track-by-Turtle-track observations.

1. "Happy Together" (Gary Bonner/Alan Gordon)
Their biggest ever hit and most remembered song, included here in the Numero Uno lead-off spot, as befits a #1 record. Written by the prolific songwriting team behind the NY band The Magicians, Gary Bonner and Alan Gordon, who also gave The Turtles the 1967 hits "She'd Rather Be With Me" (#3) and "She's My Girl" (#14), as well as the singles "Me About You" and "You Know What I Mean."

2. It Ain't Me Babe (Bob Dylan)
The Turtles debut single from the summer of 1965 rose as high as #8 on the charts during the Dylan-Folk Rock Craze Phase. Hey, it worked wonders for the Byrds' careers, as well. I still prefer Sebastian Cabot's version (available on Rhino's Golden Throats CD) better - but he sure couldn't hit the high notes like Flo and Eddie!


Mr. French hits a low note

4. "You Baby" (P.F. Sloan/Steve Barri)
Despite the opening jingly-jangly riff, the third Turtles single (#20, 1966) is noted for its new direction, moving away from that Folk Rock experiment and more toward high-octave harmony-laden pop in the vein of Frank Valli and The Four Seasons.

5. "Elenore"
Quoth the Turtle: "Elenore." A self-parody of themselves for the album The Battle of the Bands and still the only Top 10 record to contain the expression "et cetera." In fact, the only other "et cetera" song I can think of is The Smiths' "Sweet and Tender Hooligan."

6. "Let Me Be" (P.F. Sloan)
P.F. Sloan came up with the necessary folkie follow-up hit to "It Ain't Me Babe" on The Turtles second White Whale single, which reached #29 in 1965, still primo Top 40 turf. And it clearly adhered to their folk agenda of the time: tambourine, 12-string guitar, and a singer pleading for individuality, babe.

7. "She's My Girl" (Gary Bonner/Alan Gordon)
Another hit (#14, 1967) courtesy of The Magicians Bonner-Gordon team with an ominous opening.

8. "Outside Chance" (Warren Zevon)
Warren Zevon penned this garage rock beauty that starts off with a Beatle-y "Ticket To Ride" guitar lick before getting down-and-dirty, as one would expect from the volatile Z man. It was the first track new drummer Johnny Barbata played on, but its lack of success led to bass player Chuck Portz quitting the band, with Chip Douglas replacing him.



9. "You Showed Me" (Jim McGuinn-Gene Clark)
As a Byrdsmaniac, I naturally loved their emo version that appears on the album Pre-Flyte, but I gotta say, this one might be a tad better because of the spooky vibe and Chip Douglas' masterful production (though I could have done without all those melodramatic strings). But hey, enjoy both flavors - like Doublemint Gum, it can only double your pleasure, double your fun.

10. "Can I Get To Know You Better" (Steve Barri/P.F. Sloan)
White Whale wanted a follow-up to Sloan's "Let Me Be" sound, so they commissioned this, but The Sequel No One Asked For didn't chart. The first recording on which Chip Douglas appears.

11. "The Story of Rock and Roll" (Harry Nilsson)
Quite the studio production epic -think Brian Wilson producing the Raspberries "Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)" - but I don't like history lessons, especially when they include sax riffing like you hear leading into those commercial breaks on Saturday Night Live. But I guess it was appropriate for their concep album, The Battle of the Bands.


The Kinksy lost masterpiece

12. "Love in the City" (The Turtles)
Guitarist Al Nichol, perhaps influenced by The Lovin' Spoonful's current hit "Summer in the City," wrote this in 1967 and shared the credit with the rest of the band (which at this time included Kaylan, Volman, Nichol, bassist Jim Pons, and drummer John Seiter). This is one of two songs (the other is "You Don't have To Walk in the Rain") culled from The Turtles's 1969 release, Turtle Soup, the critically acclaimed record they recorded with Ray Davies of The Kinks that clearly shows the influence of Ray's 1968 concept album The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society. This was also the "democratic" album on which other band members - not just Kaylan and Volman - were allowed to sing their songs and share in the songwriting credits. Another Turtle Soup song, "Hot Little Hands," turns up on Turtle Tracks, the limited edition hits compilation sold only at "The Turtles...Featuring Flo & Eddie" live shows. (It's great - I'm glad Amy bought one at the 2010 Dundalk Heritage Fair show!)

13. "Me About You"
Another Gary Bonner-Alan Gordon tune that was also covered by The Mojo Men and The Lovin' Spoonful, among others.

14. "You Don't Have To Walk in the Rain" (The Turtles)
Great Beach Boys Farfisa-y intro to the strongest single off Turtle Soup.

15. "You Know What I Mean" (Gary Bonner/Alan Gordon)
Mark Volman describes this Bonner-Gordon song as "brilliant" and considers it "probably the best Turtles record ever made." That's really saying something - and it's hard to argue with him! The sophisticated production is Pet Sounds-worthy. The single reached as high as #12 in 1967.

16. "Sound Asleep" (The Turtles)
Issued as a single in early 1968, "Sound Asleep" was credited to the whole group, which at this point included Kaylan, Volman, guitarist Al Nichol, bassist Jim Pons, and Johnny Barbata.

17. "Making My Mind Up" (Ray Roberts/Gary Montgomery)
Gawd, this is SOOOOOO Sixties, like the theme song to a rock dance show that never was! Reminds me of Jay and the Americans singing the Love American Style theme.

18. "Grim Reaper of Love" (Chuck Portz/Al Nichol)
Folk Deathtrip Ennui. Serious-sounding but dated step into The Deep (a la Barry McGuire's Dylan-derivative, P.F. Sloan-penned attempt at social commentary "Eve of Destruction").



19. "Guide for the Married Man" (John Williams/Leslie Bricusse)
Love this song, love this 1967 movie (directed by Gene Kelly and starring Walter Matthau, Robert Morse, Inger Stevens, and Carl Reiner)! Before Star Wars there were frisky married men like Matthau just dying to commit adultery and swing in a suburban galaxy far away, and John Williams was there to play Pied Piper and lead the way. 1967 was also the year Williams earned his first Academy Award nom, but for scoring Valley of the Dolls - not A Guide for Married Man!


Bitchin' Camero

20. "Chevrolet Camero Commercial" (previously unreleased)
Lean and muscular, full mod with rally racing stripes, it's no wonder "the Camero will drive you absolutely wild!" As on "Surfer Dan" (B-side of their single "Elenore"), The Turtles return to their Crossfires surfboards-and-hotrods roots. The last voice you hear is their bud Warren Zevon!

Related Links:
www.theturtles.com (Official Site)

House of blues: missing my sister

With my sister away, I've been getting into all kinds of trouble. She's the one who keeps me on track: makes me go for my afternoon walks; loads me in the back of the wagon when I'd rather be in the front; gives me a bath without putting up with my fussing.

So, you can imagine how I've taken advantage of Mom, poor thing. Today she promised me a mani pedi without making an appointment, and so to assuage my disappointment when the groomer wasn't available (and keep me off the tracheas) bought me a braided bone  (although they are much cheaper at Tails, still open this week. Note to self: stock up tomorrow).  While I was being fawned over for being very, very handsome (note the double form of amazement at my beauty) unbeknownst to me, she also purchased lavender scented dog shampoo. Oh, my sister never would allow that!

Here's the part where I make her life difficult: Even with that awesome bone to tempt me, I still wouldn't get in the car before I had properly examined my surroundings. Even then...you know I'm as stubborn as they come. Finally Mom gave in and put me in the back (not the way back) which she is a bit frightened of doing, but honestly, I'm bigger than she is.

Then, bath time. She thought she could trick me by covering the bucket full o' water with a towel. Hah! I knew better. She uncovered the grill (I love the grill!). She sauntered around pretending to tidy the garden. I fell for the grill trick, and that was it. I was clean. But I still laid on all the beds to help me finish drying. Wouldn't want to catch a chill.

"A mistake is a mistake even if you get away with it"

"A mistake is a mistake even if you get away with it."That's why I've been trying to come up with a good way of counting "near misses" - mistakes that don't cost any time. So far all I've come up with is sitting down with the map and going over my route trying to remember any near misses. Maybe there's a better approach, but I haven't figured it out yet.The quote is from Ed Viesturs, a mountain

The cutest little truck party you've ever seen!

Hi there! I'm super excited to share this absolutely precious truck birthday party I came across on Smile and Wave. Rachel Denbow is a crazy creative mommy of two, and she came up with this simple but oh-so-cute party for her son Sebastian's birthday.

Let's start with the invitations!

She made these amazing postcard invites just using card stock, graph paper, and some layered washi tape! She made all of these with things she just had on hand and they came out so cute!

Inspiration for sure!

The cute doesn't stop with the invited either...the food table looks just as good ( and might I add healthy too! )

This is my favorite touch! Duct tape garland!! The woman is a genius!

I'm not sure when but I am all over this idea for a future bash!

Such a simple and inventive idea , especially since you can get duct tape in all sorts of festive colors these days!

This party is downright perfect!

Check out some more of Rachel's ingenius ideas at Smile and Wave!

The cutest little truck party you've ever seen!

Hi there! I'm super excited to share this absolutely precious truck birthday party I came across on Smile and Wave. Rachel Denbow is a crazy creative mommy of two, and she came up with this simple but oh-so-cute party for her son Sebastian's birthday.

Let's start with the invitations!

She made these amazing postcard invites just using card stock, graph paper, and some layered washi tape! She made all of these with things she just had on hand and they came out so cute!

Inspiration for sure!

The cute doesn't stop with the invited either...the food table looks just as good ( and might I add healthy too! )

This is my favorite touch! Duct tape garland!! The woman is a genius!

I'm not sure when but I am all over this idea for a future bash!

Such a simple and inventive idea , especially since you can get duct tape in all sorts of festive colors these days!

This party is downright perfect!

Check out some more of Rachel's ingenius ideas at Smile and Wave!