Bee Gees

I always kinda hated The Bee Gees with their falsetto singing. Lately, I've been going to the library and checking out various music CDs of artists that I have ignored over the years such as Traffic, Genesis and The Bee Gees.

The Bee Gees album was a greatest hits collection called "Number Ones". I have to say that their earlier stuff from the 60s on the collection is quite good.

Listening again to their blockbuster 70s hits in hindsight is good too, unlike when they were played incessantly on the radio from 1977-79. The composing and orchestration are great.

The problem still is with the singing. Who told The Bee Gees to sing this way? I guess it gave them an identity, but it still is quite annoying 30 years on.

Finally, I will take this opportunity to let everyone know that Andy Gibb was NEVER a member of The Bee Gees. In fact, the rumor persists on non-Bee Gees project. I was watching an animation documentary by the people who did the opening credits animation for the film "Grease" and they said Andy Gibb wrote the song. Andy had nothing to do with this song, as it was Barry Gibb who wrote it (Frankie Valli sang it, incidentally).

Underdog help

Just FYI. I am still feverishly working on my Total TeleVision book and would love to know if you have any rare artifacts from the following shows:

King Leonardo
Tooter Turtle
The Hunter
Twinkles
Go-Go Gophers
Tennessee Tuxedo
Klondike Kat
Commander McBragg
Underdog
The Beagles
The Sing-a-long Family
Cauliflower Cabby
Gene Hattree
The Colossal Show

I am especially interested in scans of original art or scripts or photos of memorabilia particularly from the 1960s. Email me here or at thft@att.net if you have anything of interest.

Archie Fan Club Button

I realized that there are not two, but THREE Archie Fan Club buttons produced over the years.

FYI, here's the date range for the Archie buttons:

1. 1950s-1971 - Says "Member Archie Club" with Archie in a bow-tie.

2. 1972-1973 - Says "Member Archie Club" with Archie's head only in updated drawing.

3. 1974-1990s - Says "Official Member Archie Club" with Archie's head only and "Archie Club" in balloon lettering.

#3 is easy to find. #1 is a little bit harder, but it's #2 that's the difficult one as it was only available for two years!!

I finally purchased #2, so now my collection is complete!!

Money money money

I need money. Doesn't everyone? It sucks because just when I start taking control of my money situation I can't seem to hold down a job to save my life, and I'm not that much in debt anymore. It's just that I can't pay it completely off because no one wants to keep me as an employee.

I'm a good guy and that's the problem. It seems today that you have to be a complete asshole to make it in the world monetarily.

Oh well. Life goes on. I'll pay my debts, but it'll take a couple more years. If I had a decent job, I could pay it off now.

Time will tell....

Free Comic Book Day 2008

I went to the Saratoga Library book sale and love it when I find some goodies for cheap. I purchased an old "Casper" and an old "Dennis the Menace" comic for only 25c each. Cool!

BTW, if you think 25c is cheap, then here's a better deal. Go to your local comic book store on May 3, 2008, and it will be the annual Free Comic Book Day. Yes, they're free!! I'm working at Lee's Comics in Mountain View that day, so if you are a San Francisco Bay Area local, stop by and say hi.

Post 400

This is my 400th post to my blog, not that anyone's counting and as usual I don't have anything to talk about. I am still transcribing an interview I did with Tread Covington for my TTV book, and I'm still interviewing for yet another 9-5 type job.

Anyway, be patient as I am trying my best to post to my blog on a daily basis. Sometimes the words just don't come, even though I am supposed to be a writer!!

New Beatles Book Blog

I know I keep mentioning it here, but please check out my new Beatles blog at http://beatlesbook.blogspot.com

Second Entry on Beatles Blog

Just to emphasize that I am indeed serious about posting on my new Beatles blog every day, I just added the listing for "Abandoned Love" by George Harrison. Check it out at http://beatlesbook.blogspot.com

New Beatles Book Blog

Hey everyone,



I just started another blogsite. Not that I post all that often here, but it is solely devoted to my upcoming Beatles book. The first entry is up today and I plan to add to it daily (yeah, right!).



Anyway, here's the URL: http://beatlesbook.blogspot.com/

Ringo Starr "It's Love"

I am looking everywhere for this stupid download. I hate it when musicians and/or record labels do this: put out an exclusive track in some bizarre format. In this case, the powers-that-be at Capitol Records thought that it would be neat to have a free download of the otherwise unavailable Ringo Starr track "It's Love" given away for free if you typed in a code on the "New York Daily News" site. What happens to us poor schmucks who don't live there. And the record labels wonder why people do illegal downloading for free.



So I plead with Capitol Records to issue the song in a legitimate form or put it for free on your website or something. Email me a copy at thft@att.net



Help!!



Oh, and by the way, I will be starting a blog exclusively on the Beatles soon, to help promote my book and to solicit help on it. Details soon.

Across the Universe Review

When "Across the Universe" came out in theaters a few months ago, many of my friends asked me if I was going to or had gone to see it. I said, "No" on both counts. Although I am a major Beatles fan, I am not a fan of cover versions. That's not saying that there hasn't been some excellent cover versions come out over the years, Earth Wind & Fire's "Got to Get You Into My Life" comes to mind, but in general, I'm not a fan of cover versions, unless it's the Beatles doing them.



So anyway, it came out on DVD, and I figured, "Why not?" I will say that it is isn't as terrible as I thought it would be, but it also could have been better. The best parts of the movie were the songs ironically, and the movie would have been a zillion times better if there wasn't a storyline. It should have been a song movie a la "Fantasia", but with Beatles music instead.



The best parts were the more surreal ones that were sung by Joe Cocker, Bono, and Eddie Izzard, respectively. The worst parts as I said were the attempts at a lame storyline.



Overall, it's worth a view and I give it a thumbs up, but you may want to fast-forward through the talky parts.

Pop Culture Convention a Success With Richie Rich

I went to do my panel at the PCA/ACA National Conference in San Francisco. Dr. Kathy Merlock Jackson and I did a presentation on Richie Rich. Our presentation was called "Dollars and Dandy Devices: Richie Rich as Prototype for Gadget-Oriented Baby Boomers".



At first I thought it was going to be a disaster as my dad and I created a DVD slide show of selected Richie Rich drawings and covers, but when I got to the Marriott hotel to test it out on their equipment, it didn't work! Another speaker who was discussing Oprah Winfrey put in his DVD that he burned, and it worked fine.



Kathy and I had a backup plan that I would hold up the comics books, as she fortunately brought them with her. Luckily Dr. Harold Dorton brought his laptop and that saved the day. Before that, we were told that the Marriott could rent a laptop to us for only $250!!



The presentation went without a hitch and a few questions were asked. I should have taken photos, but for some reason, the thought didn't even cross my mind.



The PCA/ACA National Conference isn't a conference I normally attend, but this was my second time, as it was in San Diego in 2005 and San Francisco this year. Next year, it will be in New Orleans and plans to be in California again won't be until after 2014.



Hopefully, greater things will happen due to this and other papers and presentations Kathy and I are doing. See http://www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/archives/v3_3/jackson/
for another example of our collaborations.

Harvey Comics Classics Series

The "Harvey Comics Classics" series continues with a book about Hot Stuff, the Little Devil. The most important aspect (to me that is) of this book is that I write the Foreword to the book. It just came out last Wednesday, and I give it my highest recommendation.



You can find it online or at better comic book stores.

Another Day, Another Sausage

If you are a hardcore fan of Frank Zappa, or just happen to have the album "Broadway the Hard Way", you'll know the reference above. Anyway, I don't have anything really to say today, but I'm trying to submit more regularly to my blog.



That said, I will say how much I miss Frank Zappa and his music and always regret that the 1988 tour never made it to the West Coast, where I most assuredly would have seen him.



Fortunately, the tour in memorialized in three different album sets: "Broadway the Hard Way", "The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life", and "Make a Jazz Noise Here".



All well worth picking up for both the casual and hard core fan as they have all of the "hits" as well as many decent covers and on "Broadway" a certain Mr. Sting is lurking about and actually sings on "Murder By Numbers".



Take that, Police fans!!

Texting

Is it just me or am I the only one who finds texting on a cell phone annoying? I recently upgraded my service on Verizon, and they had to send me a text message to implement the new service.



They said that they had to unblock the texting to send me this, so I said all right. All of sudden I get bombarded (well ok, 3) with text messages. Look, I have a number of email addresses and check them frequently. I also have a voicemail.



I know people are not always in a position to leave a voicemail, but guess what? If you call, and don't leave a message, I usually will call you back, unless you have your number blocked.



I haven't gone on a blog tirade for awhile. I'm not pinpointing anyone, just the concept of texting. When the Verizon guy asked me if I wanted texting on my new service and I said, "no", he replied, "Oh, you must be over 30!" I thought that was particularly funny.



Anyway, anyone reading this, email or voicemail will do. If you have an incessant need to text, well go ahead, I just won't receive it...

Jumper Review

Although this movie had great potential, it is all pretty silly and even somewhat confusing. It concerns a boy who discovers his ability to travel through time portals.



Later, after all of this jumping around, another group is out to get these "jumpers". It's not really satisfactorily explained why.



The overall exercise seemed to be to do a lot of on location shooting. It's not boring, however, just kinda stupid.



Hayden Christensen (Darth Vader) still can't act and Samuel L. Jackson does his best with more subpar material.



Brainless, mindless, fun, but don't expect much more.

Pogen Cookies and Frank Zappa

One of the best Frank Zappa songs is this one called "Florentine Pogen". For fun, I decided to do a search on the Internet to see if anyone knew what a "Florentine Pogen" was. I do, but I just wanted to see what others said.



Amazingly, little is known about these Swedish cookies. and most people hadn't even heard of them. I was living in Southern California in the early 70s as was Zappa. His song debuted in 1974. It has nothing really to do with the cookie, other than the name, but Frank must have been eating them just the same. The Florentine ones were probably the best ones they made.



Apparently, the Pogen Cookie Company is really spelled Pagen in Sweden, but people in the US would probably pronounce it pay-gen, so that's why the change to Pogen.



Nobody seems to remember the many varieties of Pogens. I still have a brochure about the cookies and besides Florentine Pogens, there was Oatmeal Pogens, Toffee Pogens, Sprits Pogens, Walnut Pogens, Raspberry Pogens, Sugar Pogens, Ginger Snap Pogens, Pogens Pistachio, Apricot Pogens, Chocolate Chip Pogens, Coco-Mint Pogens, Half Moon Pogens and Space Pogens.



I remember trying them all as a kid, and remember that most if not all of them were pretty good. I never quite understood why they called the pistachio Pogens Pogens Pistachio, but oh well.



So now you know...

Cloverfield Review

I really wanted to see this, but was also hesitant, because I thought it would be another "Blair Witch Project", a movie I hated.



What a pleasant surprise to see that it actually had a story. It has been told many, many times before, namely in multiple "Godzilla" films, but the "live coverage" look made it seem fresh and new.



A problem I have with the shaky camera bit in 2008, however, is that there are more and more stabilizers in cameras these days, that the shakiness is almost moot, yet camera operators keep doing it. A telling scene is one where the crowds are surrounding the head of the Statue of Liberty (mercilessly out of scale I might add), and they are using their cell phones to capture the action and the images in their phones are quite stable and everyone's trying to get a good shot.



Finally, at 85 minutes, it's just a tad too long to make this feature film worthy. It would have made for a marvelous half-hour episode of the original "Twilight Zone".



Overall, it is worth seeing just to see a very noble experiment, but be prepared to get a little queasy with all of the camera movement.

"Liverpool 8" is Great!

Ok, people probably think that since I am a Beatles fan that I like anything and everything The Beatles put out. Not so. I am, however, very impressed with Ringo Starr's output for the last decade. Every album, save for "Choose Love" from 2005 has been remarkably good. It's too bad most other Beatle fans don't think so.



"Liverpool 8" follows in the traditions of 1998's "Vertical Man", 1999's "I Wanna Be Santa Claus", 2003's "Ringo Rama", and 2005's "Choose Love". "Choose Love" was a major disappointment compared to the others on this list, but still leaps and bounds ahead of Ringo's late 70s and early 80s output. In fact, if you compare the last decade to Paul's solo output, Ringo's has been far, far superior (although Paul finally emerged with a good album last year with "Memory Almost Full").



For those wanting to explore Ringo beyond "Yellow Submarine" and his early solo hits, I'd recommend the above five studio albums. They are all hard-rocking and are fun, "good time" albums that all feature catchy hooks and melodies.



I have listened to "Liverpool 8" three times already since purchasing it yesterday, and know that I will be listening to it a lot more.

Persepolis Review

I recently saw an advance screening in San Francisco of "Persepolis", an
animated feature film based on the graphic novels by Marjane Satrapi. The
screening was through the SF branch of ASIFA, courtesy of Karl Cohen. I invited
Lee Hester of Lee's Comics to join me to see this and he enjoyed the screening as well.



The screening had its share of a few comic book notables in the audience, namely
Trina Robbins ("Go Girl" and "From Girls to Grrrlz") and her partner Steve
Leialoha ("Spider-Woman" and "Batman" among others). Lee shared some of his
popcorn with them.



As for the movie, I didn't know what to expect. I actually expected a
disturbing, depressing tale and even though I have eyeballed the graphic novels
(on sale at Lee's Comics!), I never have actually read them for that very
reason. I shouldn't have had such a jaundiced view.



What a refreshing surprise to find that it wasn't really about any particular
political events, although the overthrow of the Shah and the Iran-Iraq War was
mentioned and even shown briefly, it wasn't the main focus of the story.



The real story was about Satrapi herself and her story is so universal, it
really could be told anywhere by anyone. I could even write a story about my
struggles of trying to be a writer and trying to maintain a job and
relationships that would be vaguely similar to Satrapi's.



There were some truly funny moments including Satrapi's pursuit of pirated audio
music cassettes and also her escapades with her various loser boyfriends.



That said, the film is not bereft of some tragedy, but like I said, it isn't the
sole focus. Satrapi has had a well-rounded share of life experiences.



The film is in French with English subtitles, but don't let that keep you away.
It's a very entertaining feature film. I suppose it didn't have to be animated,
but I am glad that it was and it is somewhat similar in art style to Charles
Addams.



Incidentally, Persepolis is the name of an ancient Persian ceremonial capital.
Of course, the present day capital of Iran is Tehran.