Nostalgia is a weird thing. Some people get really excited about meeting someone or seeing something from their past. Other people couldn't care less. I personally like waxing nostalgic about a lot of things. It puts history and current events into perspective, especially since history has a tendency to repeat itself.
Nothing much more to say about the topic, but I love to see how things used to be done compared to how things are done now.
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Regards,
Mark Arnold
http://funideas.home.att.net
Why doesn't anyone publish celebrity comic books anymore? I just picked up an old issue of "The Adventures of Jerry Lewis" and have always thought it was an interesting book. Nowadays is it because no celebrities are worthy or is it just too much to license such stuff? And who would you have? "The Adventures of Jim Carey?" Or, "The Adventures of Johnny Depp?" Or how about "The Adventures of Jack Black?" Let me know your suggestions...
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Regards,
Mark Arnold
http://funideas.home.att.net
How come no one ever comments that the high gas prices we pay in the US have nothing to do with health care? Meaning, in the UK and other European countries they have gas prices topping $6.00 a gallon, but they get something for paying that higher price, namely healthcare! In the US, it's "every man for himself" regarding healthcare and you have to depend on your workplace to provide this coverage, so if you are unemployed, you are out of luck. I would rather pay $6.00 a gallon and not pay for healthcare through my work. Arguably, I would make more money from work.
So, anyone reading this who has any sort of influence, please introduce healthcare taxes from gasoline that will pay for healthcare coverage for all... Certain things in the US need to be socialized, whether we like it or not. For some reason we think "socialism" is a dirty word, but "socialism" works for things EVERYONE needs like healthcare.
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Regards,
Mark Arnold
http://funideas.home.att.net
What was I thinking? I originally thought this was a very funny movie in the Mel Brooks vein. I rewatched after a number of years on DVD recently and it was no better than Wilder's weak "The World's Greatest Lover". This is very disappointing as I always defended this film as the only Wilder-directed film that was any good. I stand corrected. Too bad. If you've seen my other blogs, stick with "The Producers", "Blazing Saddles", "Young Frankenstein", "Willy Wonka" and "Silver Streak". Those I own, and those I can vouch for being very good or very funny or both...
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Regards,
Mark Arnold
http://funideas.home.att.net
I guess it happens to the best of us. I used to get depressed all of the time. Nowadays, I don't except for rare occasions. It's not as severe, but when it does happen it seems more of a nuisance because I'm used to feeling good all of the time. There's nothing really to complain about, but sometimes I get depressed that certain people in society make millions of dollars for doing virtually nothing, while others have to struggle for a minimum wage job. I'm not on either extreme, but it would be nice if there were some flattening out of things, but it looks as if it's not going to be the case.
No use in moaning about it, but the thoughts are keeping me from thinking about happier and more pleasant subjects to write about. My depressions are usually about one of three things: my money situation, my relationship situation, and my career situation. When it's one or two of these things, it's ok, but when all three happen, it sometimes becomes a crisis, especially when things come to a head. Fortunately, things in my life have come to a head often enough that it doesn't really bother me anymore.
You know how they say people are risktakers when they are younger, and then when they get older, they get set in their ways? Well, I'm the opposite, I used to not take a lot of chances for fear of the consequences. As I get older, I am willing to take more chances as I feel, what have I got to lose? I'm not going to live forever, so why not have a little fun? And besides, there may be a positive outcome, but you don't know unless you try. And, if you fail, so what, at least you can say you tried, instead of speculating about what could happen if you did or did not do a certain thing...
What's also interesting is how they say people become more conservative over the years. The exact opposite has happened to me. While I have always been a registered Republican, over time, my views have changed to fall more and more in line with the Democrat way of doing things. I never thought this would happen. I keep getting more and more liberal in my way of thinking. I guess it's kind of a "I don't give a crap" attitude, although I do care, but just not in the obsessive way that I used to be about things.
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Regards,
Mark Arnold
http://funideas.home.att.net
It is disappointing to find out that some movies released onto DVD by Disney are only available through the Disney Movie Club. The two in question that concern me are "The Horse Without a Head" and "A Tiger Walks". Now, I have solved the problem by ordering through Ebay, but that seems kind of a shabby way to go about things. Granted, these aren't Disney's most popular films, but I feel that if Disney is concerned about their remaining unreleased to DVD films not making any money, restricting them to the Disney Movie Club where an outsider like me can't order them directly isn't the right way to go.
If Disney doesn't want to distribute them to stores that's one thing, but please make the remaining unreleased to DVD movies available on Amazon or something. Oh well, I guess Ebay it is. I don't like to be locked into movie clubs...
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Regards,
Mark Arnold
http://funideas.home.att.net
At last, the last REALLY GOOD Gene Wilder film is on DVD! "The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother". This is easily as funny as Mel Brooks' best work, that it even looks as if Mel snuck in to direct. As it is, it is definitely the best film that Wilder directed, because unfortunately it was all down hill from here. For me, here are Wilder's best films. And no, I did not put "Stir Crazy", while funny, I don't consider it his BEST. It's also my opinion:
The Producers (1968)
Start the Revolution Without Me (1970)
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)
Blazing Saddles (1974)
Young Frankenstein (1974)
The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (1975)
Silver Streak (1976)
I met Gene about a year ago and he is a very charming man. As such, I slogged through Gene's lesser efforts with Richard Pryor and Gilda Radner because I like him so much. It's too bad that Gene can't achieve that level of greatness from 1968-1976, but at least we have the movies. Gene is just too mellow nowadays to reprise the manic characters that he used to perform so well in the past, which is fine. He can retire with style and class.
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Regards,
Mark Arnold
http://funideas.home.att.net
I am just writing an early plug for the fifth "Casper" feature film. Most people don't know that there were more than one feature film. That's because the other four have been direct-to-video. In fact, the last one, "Casper's Haunted Christmas" was completely computer-animated. The third one, "Casper Meets Wendy" is notable today for being the first film role for the currently popular Hillary Duff (as Wendy) and in my opinion, the best of the Casper films.
I am looking forward to these films as some of them have material that is better than the original one. The first one gets a bit weighed down by issues regarding "unfinished business" etc.
Here are the Casper films in order of release and my ratings (1 to 4):
Casper - 1995 ***
Casper: A Spirited Beginning - 1997 **
Casper Meets Wendy - 1998 ***1/2
Casper's Haunted Christmas - 2000 **
Casper's Scare School - 2006 (n/a)
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Regards,
Mark Arnold
http://funideas.home.att.net
My friend, artist/writer Scott Shaw! (Hanna-Barbera, Captain Carrot, Rhino Records, etc.) is known for his Oddball Comics seminars at many comic book conventions. He just started up a new website devoted to the subject at (naturally) www.oddballcomics.com
Funny stuff!! Check it out!
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Regards,
Mark Arnold
http://funideas.home.att.net
I finally found this furshlugginer book in HARDBACK!! I didn't even know it existed that way. And this book is also cool in that it has the original version of "Bing Tiddle Tiddle Bong" with the REAL advertisements at the bottom of the sheet music that got Python in trouble so that they had to change for all future pressings. (For more information about that and other Python court cases, check out the long out-of-print book "Monty Python: The Case Against".)
Anyway, as D.P. Gumbey might say, "It's back is too hard!"
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Regards,
Mark Arnold
http://funideas.home.att.net
So I lied. The Beatles Box Set of the Capitol albums comes out today on CD, not last week. What I want to know is if there will be a volume 3? If so, I propose mono/stereo discs of "Yesterday and Today" complete with butcher cover (it would be fun to have the paste-over cover as a removable sticker), the US "Revolver", "Sgt. Pepper" and "Magical Mystery Tour". The last two in mono would be great because those two in mono are quite pricey nowadays. My thoughts on volume 4 could be "The Beatles" mono/stereo, "Yellow Submarine" mono/stereo, "Hey Jude" and "Abbey Road". Volume 5 could be "Let it Be", "Rarities", the US "A Hard Day's Night" and "The Beatles Story". Time will tell...
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Regards,
Mark Arnold
http://funideas.home.att.net
I will give an unsolicited plug for a great book I just purchased at the APE (Amateur Press Exhibition) yesterday. I met Dan Howland about 10 years ago in San Francisco where he was giving a lecture on Disneyland. Now 10 years later he has compiled the five original issues with some leftover unprinted material in a mammoth paperback called "The Journal of Ride Theory Omnibus". This is a print on demand book and you have to go through www.lulu.com/theory to obtain a copy. Great stuff if you are a fan of Disneyland or theme parks in general.
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Regards,
Mark Arnold
http://funideas.home.att.net
Somebody responded to my blog saying, "Wow, people in the States know who The Frantics are? You just blew my mind." Well yes, thanks to Dr. Demento, who seemed to play "Tai Kwan Leap/Boot to the Head" every week on his syndicated radio show.
Through Demento's CD compilations, I rediscovered that track, plus the tracks "You Were Speeding" and "Last Will and Temperament" (the other variation of "Boot to the Head"). Initially, I thought they were a one-joke act until a friend of mine burned me a CD of their first long out-of-print album "Frantic Times".
Virtually every track was a gem and I was hooked. Recently, I found the "Boot to the Head" CD in a record shop and loved that album too. And now "Frantic Times" is on a CD, which I have on order.
I also found out that Steve Smith was part of the also very funny "Red Green Show" which aired in the San Francisco Bay Area for a number of years on a local PBS station KTEH 54.
I just went to www.thefrantics.com before writing this blog and it says that The Frantics are active again and have a new CD called "Enemies of Reason", which I will be buying shortly when I get some money again.
There is also a "Bootleg" CD of a 2004 concert available and a 3-CD box set coming soon. The best news is The Frantics are performing again. This is great news for someone who never even saw or heard of them the first time around. Guess I'll have to trek up to Canada, unless they decide to tour the US...
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Regards,
Mark Arnold
http://funideas.home.att.net
Could the rumors be true? New Harvey Comics? Casper, Richie Rich, Hot Stuff? Stay tuned to this blog or go to http://thft.home.att.net or subscribe to "The Harveyville Fun Times!" (current issue #63) for more information as it develops...
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Regards,
Mark Arnold
http://funideas.home.att.net
You learn something new every day. I found out about Canadian Stepdancing today. There's a hottie named Tiffany Fewster who is apparently really good at it. It seems to be all the rage in Canada, and as usual for things Canadian in this country (US), apart from "SCTV", "Kids in the Hall" and "Red Green", and maybe "The Frantics", it means nothing here. So much so as I never even heard of it, but I am also not a dancer. I at least have heard of clogging, which is almost as obscure. I find it amazing how little we know of our neighbors to the north...and we don't seem to care!!
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Regards,
Mark Arnold
http://funideas.home.att.net
I was approached by a writer from the Netherlands who was inquiring about Jack O'Brien who did artwork for the longrunning "Sad Sack" title for a number of years. His stories tended to follow the format of Sad Sack getting knocked on the head with some object and then having an extended dream sequence. O'Brien also created "G.I. Juniors" for Harvey and signed his name to it.
Any information that anyone may have will be helpful!
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Regards,
Mark Arnold
http://funideas.home.att.net
