BIRTHDAY SONGS

Since it's my birthday, I'm going to put up some of my favorite songs. To be indulgent on your own blog is kind of redundant, I suppose, but who cares. These songs move me.

SLINGS AND ARROWS

A current favorite is the hilarious Sundance Channel series, Slings and Arrows, about the behind-the-scenes life of a Shakespeare Festival. Cast and crew struggle to produce plays as the theater runs out of money. Witty dialog and great acting by all, especially Paul Gross, Martha Burns, Mark McKinney, and Stephen Ouimette. A great meditation on art and the marketplace, replete with laughs. Available on DVD.

Every year, I try to get to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival to see some plays, and I bet backstage life is not unlike this series. The whole town of Ashland is given to Shakespeare those summer months, with Elizabethan pennants snapping in the breeze as you rush to dinner and plays and have a great time. I can be found at the beautiful outdoor theater modeled after the Globe, or feeding the ducks in Lithia Park, or soaking up ale with Falstaff over at the Black Sheep Pub. I highly recommend a trip.

An NPR interview with castmembers Gross and Burns. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12144988

THE PRISONER (1967)

The Prisoner was a secret agent show like no other. A secret agent (Patrick McGoohan) is abducted and imprisoned in a weird resort where the keepers are intent on breaking him, and he is equally intent on escaping.

"I am not a number," he repeatedly declares, "I am a free man!"

Like Josef K. in The Trial, the prisoner is kept in the dark and never learns the charges against him. The state has all power, and he must simply submit. In the 1960s, this theme resonated with a great many people who grappled with such issues, in one form or another, but it may seem a bit dated to conformists of today. After all, why not go along to get along? Equal parts Kafka and LSD-infused Pop style, this show is a long, strange, rewarding trip.

Be seeing you!

Patrick McGoohan is Number 6 in the Prisoner.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ELVIS! LITTLE ANTHONY!

January 8th is a big day for birthdays. Not only is it Elvis Presley's, it's also the birthday of David Bowie, and Robbie Krieger, guitar player of the Doors. It's the birthday of Shirley Bassey, who sang the theme from "Goldfinger," Dave Eggers, American writer, rapper R. Kelly, cranky chef Gordon Ramsey, comedian Soupy Sales, New Yorker cartoonist Peter Arno, actress Butterfly McQueen, Mary Queen of Scotts, and Little Anthony. My birthday isn't for a couple days yet, but I've requested a medley from Little Anthony and the Imperials.

NBC PROMO POSTERS 1965-66

I sent away for these promo posters from NBC TV when I was a kid. They were treasured works of art I tacked on my wall, each done by a top illustrator of the day. The Jack Davis poster for Get Smart was my favorite. Davis is amazing, and I always loved his work in MAD magazine, slavishly copying it as best I could. I also loved the Bama illustration for Bonanza. He did all the great Doc Savage paperback covers. Anyway, these four posters were on my bedroom walls, way back when.

NIXON WAS BAD. THESE GUYS ARE WORSE.

On the front page of the Outlook section in yesterday's Sunday Washington Post (Jan. 6, 2008) is a major article calling for President Bush's impeachment written by George McGovern. The article, "Why I Believe Bush Must Go," is subtitled "Nixon was Bad. These Guys are Worse." Perhaps it is significant that a major newspaper prominently places such an opinion. Yes, it's a good sign, but let's not give them too much credit for finally catching up with the majority of Americans who have opposed these scoundrels and their war for quite some time. On the positive side, maybe this will embolden other lapdogs to become watchdogs.

"Bush and Cheney are clearly guilty of numerous impeachable offenses. They have repeatedly violated the Constitution. They have transgressed national and international law. They have lied to the American people time after time. Their conduct and their barbaric policies have reduced our beloved country to a historic low in the eyes of people around the world. These are truly "high crimes and misdemeanors," to use the constitutional standard."

Read the article in its entirety on this link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/04/AR2008010404308_pf.html

SEARCHING FOR THE WRONG-EYED JESUS

Are you looking for something? How about something dark, swampy, eerie, a wicked messenger that stinks of diesel fumes and a deep fryer? Something way down south? Something pentecostal with a little Elvis and a little Easy Rider? Don't go there. Stay home. Some strange scenes from Jim White and Andrew Douglas' weirdly disturbing travelogue "Searching for the Wrong-eyed Jesus."