Oddities and Humor

I saw that on TV news. Personally, I think it's a shame to break the tradition. I know we all are disgusted with the man in the story. But, there are going to be many who follow him, and I don't begrudge a one of them a last meal, regardless of the severity of the crime.

Another of the six part, six one hour, epic showcasing of the funniest men, women and moments in American entertainment Make ‘Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America-was on TV last night.1 Make ‘Em Laugh is a must-see if you have any sense of historical knowledge of American comedy or are looking to educate yourself in this field. If you know all these acts, or even some of them, or even none of them, you’ll have an education, a blast, reliving some classic skits and film footage. This is a fantastic primer on some of the all-time greatest comedic moments in the world of film, television, Vaudeville, radio and everything else.-Ron Price with thanks to ABC2, 11:35 pm to 12:30 p.m. 22 & 23/9/11.

As spring was making its entry
in the Antipodes & I was making
my entry into television-land at
midnight after a busy day of work
at reading and research, editing &
publishing, writing and scholarship:
a bit of history came my way giving
me a summary of comedy in the US
since I left Canada in 1971. I missed
much of it: Archie Bunker because I
had no TV, Bill Cosby and Roseanne
since I was working 60 to 70 hours a
week and Reality TV since I found it
distasteful. I enjoyed Seinfeld: 89-98
thanks to my son Daniel but not until
I retired from the world of jobs and had
time to sit back and laugh which is one of
the main purposes of TV or, as that critic
of American society Gore Vidal once put it:
we all have laughing gas pumped into our
lounge-rooms every night and go to sleep
in front of the TV as the world experiences
a tempest which is deranging its equilibrium,
uprooting its institutions and harrowing-up
the souls of its inhabitants with catastrophic,
unpredictable, and ultimately glorious results.1

1 Shoghi Effendi, The Promised Day Is Come, Baha’i Pub. Trust, New Delhi, 1976, p.1.

Ron Price
24 September 2011

Thanks for that, Ron. Comedians and funny TV shows are some of my favorite pastimes.

I wonder how these two entrepreneurs got the victim's pin number?

Great question. Perhaps that will figure into the way these guys are dealt with.

More oddities and humor, yawl.



The true definition of a star is any object that has enough mass to support fusion in its core. That’s what’s happening in the Sun, and even in the smaller red dwarf stars. But if a star is too small, it lacks the mass to support fusion. Instead of blazing with the light of a fusion at its core, it smolders with the heat of gravitational collapse of its mass. These objects are called brown dwarf stars.

Now the humor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFIvq6jO5m4

Love sachmo.

Satchmo is a star, letty. One best humored men I ever saw.

Saturday Night Live opened its 37th season with a send-up of the seemingly endless parade of GOP debates.

This one, entitled "Either The 7th or 8th GOP Debate," started out by tackling the inappropriate cheering of previous audiences, and then made it clear that Mitt Romney (Jason Sudeikis) and Rick Perry (host Alec Baldwin) were the only candidates worth the attention of moderator Shepard Smith (Bill Hader).

After briefly introducing the other "six people who will never be president but showed up anyway," the sketch tackled Rick Perry's inconsistent performances -- "Can you speak for 10 seconds without alienating your base?" -- Romney's inability to connect, and the rest of the field's general lack of gravitas. An extended bit with Taran Killam as Jon Huntsman, addressed the former ambassador's two years in China in a way that had us both squirming and laughing out loud.

Kristen Wiig, Paul Brittain and Kenan Thompson also had fun turns as Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul and Herman Cain respectively, and given that Cain just won the Florida straw poll by a healthy margin, maybe Thompson will get to roll out this impression a few more times before the season is over.

LONDON (AP) — It's a bird, it's a plane — no, it's a pig, floating above London.

The 30 foot by 15 foot (9 meter by 4.5 meter) inflatable porker soared Monday over the derelict Battersea Power station — an image famous from the cover of Pink Floyd's 1977 album "Animals."

The scene was recreated to mark the release of remastered versions of Pink Floyd's 14 studio albums.

Organizers had hoped to use the original vinyl pig, which has been in storage for 35 years. But it was found to be leaky, and a replica was created instead.

There was no replay of the moment during the 1976 photo shoot when the original pig broke free of its moorings and floated into the flight path for Heathrow Airport. It was later found in a farmer's field.

Where's Ticomaya?

Pigs can't really fly. But they do make good silk purses.

NEW YORK -- When Paul McCartney took a bow at the opening night gala for "Ocean's Kingdom" last Thursday, the record will show it was the most dramatic moment of the evening. One reviewer noted "a large contingent of ladies screaming like it was 1964"; another wrote "there were cheers and screams" from the A-list crowd just at the mention of McCartney's name. But it wasn't the former Beatle's ballet that set their hearts aflutter.

"Every single person in that theater ... is there for one reason -- not for the ballet, because of Paul," acknowledged Peter Martins, the New York City Ballet's ballet master in chief and the show's choreographer, in a preview for the show.

By the time the matinee performance took the stage Sunday, with McCartney no longer there, it was just another day at the ballet. The house was filled with an older, more seasoned audience, who were there for the ballet, along with a natural curiosity to see how McCartney had fared. Some arrived with grandchildren in tow, dressed in their Sunday best, down to matching outfits for one grandchild and her doll. Another individual rolled in wearing a baseball cap to casually take in that afternoon's double feature ("Union Jack" was up next).

The dress code lacked uniformity, but when the final light dimmed after the fourth act, the crowd showed solidarity in its reaction: polite clapping. A lone cheer or two could be heard, but even those petered out as the leads took their final bows. It was the opposite of the steady, cheering crescendo that etiquette traditionally demands. At that point, no one could keep up the pretense there was much worth cheering for.

"Ocean's Kingdom," McCartney's first ballet, was written and scored by the man himself. It's a love story between two royals from different worlds -- Princess Honorata (Sara Mearns) from the ethereal Ocean kingdom and Prince Stone (Robert Fairchild) from the menacing Earth kingdom. A weak attempt at thwarting their love is the ballet's major plot point. It's a simple story you've heard before in some variation, and it has more than a few plot holes, but those weaknesses alone are not the dealbreaker here -- even the simplest of stories can be made powerful with the right dance routine. It is Martins' passionless choreography that makes the gaps in the plot all too evident.

Each act looks, more or less, like another cycle through the same dance routines. In the most notable motif: the male lead grasps the female lead around the waist from behind and hoists her up against him, as she languishes in his arms. What this is meant to evoke is not clear, as the same move occurs in supposedly happy and sad moments. And that sums up the biggest problem with "Ocean's Kingdom": choreography that confuses a plot in desperate need of clarifying.

The show has its high points, but you can count them on one hand -- a few snazzy routines by the tattooed earthlings and a drunken number at a ball (the setting of which I know only because I read it in the program), where the stumbling dancers weave in and out of rhythm with a lazy trumpet.

While this is his first ballet, Sir Paul has been composing classical music for some time, with four albums so far. "Ocean's Kingdom" is a pleasant addition, and it meets the basic requirements of a ballet score, guiding the emotion and telling the story, inasmuch as there is a story to tell.

McCartney also had a hand in the costumes, commissioning daughter Stella McCartney to design them. The most notable flourish are the tattooed earthlings who sport some pretty stylish coats, clearly the mark of a fashion designer. But often, Stella's outfits err on the side of too costume-y, a distracting look for dances that couldn't meet them in dramatic impact.

As we neared the finale of the 50-minute "Ocean's Kingdom," the drama waned until it flatlined. Once it became apparent that this really was the last, anemic image, many in the audience began hightailing it for the exit before the bows even began.

After all the buildup for McCartney's work, it was disappointing to see one of the world's most esteemed ballet companies pinning its hopes on a man who, for all his talent, previously had zero ballet experience. It was disappointing to watch a ballet and realize the dance itself was overlooked. But in the end, this show won't suffer much for its poor reviews (of which it has many) because people, myself included, will want to see for themselves. Paul McCartney is the ultimate trump card. Had he been in the theater on Sunday afternoon, we would have forgiven everything.

Darth Schwarzenegger.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKEg6fJ-7P4

Saruman.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaqC5FnvAEc

Bank Of America Plans To Charge Monthly $5 Debit Card Usage Fee
www.huffingtonpost.com
Bank of America will charge customers $5 per month to use their debit card starting in early 2012, according to Dow Jones Newswires. The fee will apply to customers who use their debit card to make any purchases during the month, but won't apply to those who only use it for ATM transactions, accordi.....

The purpose of banks is to find new ways to charge you for using your own money....

B of A is vile...

they charge you $5 to cash a check drawn on them if you don't have an account with them.

hell will serve frosties first...

I found myself laughing hysterically, while nodding agreement.

This one may be distressing to cat lovers. Watch at your own peril.