Could Be Worse

Germans ahead of the curve in dealing with travel nightmares.

Hearst Castle Neptune Pool

Today's sea is quite storm-tossed. However I only have photos of yesterday's sea, which was more or less Okay. Still, no poet ever won fame writing things such as "my thoughts tossed about like a fairly average sea."

To the left is the Neptune Pool, shot from under my umbrella at Hearst Castle. Quite a place, a bit roomy. But they've still got zebras running around the yard as well as assorted foreign deer. I especially enjoyed the Patty Hearst Room, where our tour was locked in closets, emerging as crazed revolutionary nut cases. Fortunately, the tour had a small bank set up for us to rob. Later, we hijacked the tour bus "for the people," rode it to the gift shop and bought tee-shirts and coffee mugs.

Photos From Cambria

Here in this small town in central California, my wife and I relax as we ponder our future as members of the work force and Californians. Beautiful scenery but strange merchandise in the stores. For instance, there are action figures of zombies, frightened people from B-movie horror films, and paparazzi. Imagine running home from school so you and your chums could dive in and play with papparazzi action figures. We decay as a nation.

New Bowl in Town

Perhaps even a step up from the Meineke Car Care Bowl.

You Need A Friend

New Apple Friend Bar Gives Customers Someone To Talk At About Mac Products

Yuletide Thoughts

Christmas nears and we're rather broke. But we have our love and steel ball bearings that we fling at the back windshields of cars cruising our street with the bass cranked up to Stun. It's the little things that hold you together.

Paul Rugg Auctions Freakazoid Stuff

For the sake of charity, Paul Rugg will part with various Freakazoid! cells and memorabilia. Times are tough, but even tougher for some. Paul has even promised to sign each cell in the blood of a Taliban warrior, killed as part of a different charity auction. In any case, stop by his site for a merchandise preview. (Image: Joker.Net)

Tom Sheppard Brings Home the Bling

Scroll down and visit Tom Sheppard's name as a WGA award recipient in animation for an episode of Back at the Barnyard. With a 2010 Emmy for the same show, Tom's walking heavy this year—a man fat with awards.

Video: Scary Hand Model

Losing her grip. Zombies are out; scary hand models in.

bestviewedvids via Ace of Spades

Advice for New Writers

Teens write, read, meet and collaborate on fiction over at Figment. I'm pitching the site on a column where an older, experienced writer teaches a new generation how to complain, brood, and properly nurse resentments so they mature into depression. This is vital to the writing experience and a must for young scribes. (Picture: scienceblogs.com)

Batman Sobs by Bruce Timm

Via Tom Ruegger @ Cartoonatics: Bruce Timm renders the agony of defeat.

Cal Arts Update

Samantha has been up to this.

Miss TSA 2011

Friend Ken sent this cutie along to delight and enchant.

Good On All Sides

I hate hearing that some star I like is a real butt-head off camera. Thankfully, that was not the case with the late Leslie Nielsen. As he once said in Police Squad:

"Life is risk. Getting up in the morning, crossing the street, putting your face in a fan." (Photo: Chris Malafronte)

There's A Drebin in Heaven

Leslie Nielsen is gone but we'll always have the House of Rattan.

via ambassador7

A Road Not Taken by E.T.

Many endings were contemplated for E.T. The one depicted here would have led the character of Elliot down a different path. But director Spielberg chose a less European direction. (Image: Yurock)

Binky the Doormat

It all comes out at the bar.

via bryan10983

Happy Thanksgiving!

Yes, a fine, noble Thanksgiving to all, filled with football and turkey and pleasing condiments that don't irritate either the palate or the conversation. (Image: nitro:licious!)

Russian Flick Kills Cow

Saw a Netflix film last night called Come and See. Set in Russia during World War II, the movie follows a peasant teenager who volunteers for the Soviet partisans. Directed by Russian Elem Klimov, we observe the protagonist's journey over several weeks as he transforms from a smiling, eager-to-please young fellow into a hollowed out wreck whose actions often inadvertently lead to the death of others. Sound effects levels were uneven as if certain ones had been hastily added in post. The ending was lame and the director allowed actors to address the camera in such a way that you felt they were talking to a camera and not another character. But the movie had its moments.

One scene had our protagonist and another partisan steal a cow. Leading the placid beast across a field at dusk, they are suddenly caught in the light of a flare. A German machine gun opens fire, tracers zipping through the fading light. Our protagonist hits the dirt, but his friend is killed while the cow goes on munching grass, oblivious to rounds whizzing past.

With night approaching, the cow wanders back toward the barn from which it was stolen. Our teen partisan stops the animal and leads it back across the field. The movement draws another flare and a second, more prolonged machine gun burst. This time the cow is hit. It falls, drags itself on front legs, topples on its side and lows in agony as it tries to rise. Hiding behind the riddled animal, the terrified teen watches the cow's eye rolling in pain, too stupid to know its been shot; too dumb to know its almost finished.

Somehow the slaying of a harmless animal effectively captured the ugliness of war in a way that horrid deaths to characters good and bad failed to do.

Though made in 1985, Come and See presents the cow's last words as "Eat Mor Chikin."

I think someone tampered with the film.
(Photo: Wickipedia)

'94 Emmy Photo

Mirth in Beverly Hills as we chuckle our way through disappointment at the spring 1994 Emmy Awards. The wrong Animaniacs' episode was submitted to the judges. We lost for Best Show, but Tom and Richard Stone won for the theme song. Another gem from the Hastings Archives. From l. to r.: Tom Ruegger, Peter Hastings, Rogerio Nogueira, Andrea Romano, Randy Rogel, me, Paul Rugg and Nick Hollander.

South Park Steal from You Tube?

Who is right here?

Board With Life

Acme Comedy Theatre doesn't rate a peep, but former carpenter Adam Carolla manages to nail down the laconic wisdom while lost in Boston. (Photo: Huffington Post)

Blog Anniversary

Five years writing this and that. Since 2005, I've stacked up:

Visits: 28,871

Page Views: 48,359

There are Whales of the Web that log numbers like those in a hour, but I prefer a more pastoral pace in cyberspace.

Thank you all for stopping by.

Ape an Artist

Can't think of anything to write? Draw a monkey.(Bearing in mind that if it were a real monkey it would be plotting your death. Extreme? Well, that's how they roll.)

Video: A Struggling Actor Prepares

A man, commerical copy, frustration, adult-themed language.

via giantmonster

Kurt and 'Nam

Some veterans die in battle while others return home to perish on the installment plan. My friend Kurt passed away in 2003 from liver cancer, partially brought about by PTSD-inspired drinking coupled with hepatitis from a bad blood transfusion he underwent in Vietnam. Kurt could have skated on that particular war, but extended his enlistment in order to fight. Serving in Marine Recon, he won a Navy Commendation medal for helping his unit fight clear of an ambush.

Several Purple Hearts later, Kurt served in an ultra-secret outfit that probed the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos. Hacked out of the jungle, the Trail was a highway for the North Vietnamese to funnel men and supplies into South Vietnam and Cambodia. Because of political silliness, Laos was officially off-limits to U.S. ground forces. That meant Kurt and his unofficial team were forced to ditch the bodies of their dead who would be listed as "Missing in Action in South Vietnam." It always bothered him that families of fallen comrades would be denied the closure of burial—or the recognition of bravery from a seemingly indifferent government.

A good portion of Kurt's post-war years were spent in rage and self-destruction. In time, he made peace with his past and, little by-little, cut a trail over to serenity from which he rarely strayed. His last ten years were good ones.

I was a pallbearer at Kurt's funeral. He received a Marine Corps color guard, taps, and a view of the 2 Freeway stretching below in the distance, flowing past Forest Lawn Cemetery on its way to Eagle Rock. (Transportation arteries played a big role in his life.) I think of Kurt when I drive past and often wish he could call down artillery on erratic delivery vans.

This Veteran's Day Kurt came to mind. And while he's at peace, I send prayers and best wishes to those still struggling with the silent baggage of war. And to the many other servicemen and women who worked and trained hard, giving up years in service to America.

Happy Veteran's Day to all.
(Map: The Adventures of Chester)

Link to Tall TV Star Death

Show biz mourns the death of a big celebrity.

Happy B-Day, USMC!

Here's a short article commemorating the Marine Corps on their 235th birthday. Best wishes to all Leathernecks past and present. (Photo: Acclaim Images)

Nate Ruegger Report

Another Life slides into the Big Easy Film Festival. Keep stacking 'em up, Nate.

Troubled Youth and Parachutes

What the article doesn't mention is that the youngsters will then fight the paratroopers' Market-Garden foes: troubled German teens trained as members of the 9th and 10th SS Panzer Divisions. Simon Cowell hosts the TV version. (British and German Insignia: Wickipedia)

Adam Carolla and The Ascent of Man

Acme castmate Adam Carolla talks guys (what else?) and his new book.

Peabody Award Photo

Photo: Peter Hastings

My first limo ride in NYC back during Peabody Fest '94. Peter Hastings captures me excitedly pointing to a street mugging—smaller than the one I'm doing in the photo— while Tom Minton keeps his cool. Darn Tourists

Back in the Day

For more old school Warner animation photos, scroll down Tom Ruegger's site.

21 Again

Another from the Hastings Archive via Paul Rugg. More from the 1994 Peabody trip as we stand outside NYC's swank 21 Club, an old speakeasy seen in countless films including Sweet Smell of Success. Myself, Tom Ruegger, Tom Minton, Jean MacCurdy (hailing our limos or small men to carry us—I forget which), Paul Rugg and Nick Hollander. Peter Hastings mans the camera as we look fairly exhausted from a long day of spending the company's money on tourism and fancy dinners.

Stupid Fools!

What the election has wrought!

Links to New Wonder Woman and Muslim Superheroes

Changed to accommodate the 99?

Zany Government Worker

TSA employee has some fun with dumb-ass passengers.
via Drudge Report

NYT Link re Nickelodeon

NYT talks about Nickelodeon and the state of kids' programming.

Link: Spook-Be-Gone Article

In England, there's help for the homeowner plagued by the deceased. (Artwork: eldaram3)

Link to Broke MGM Story

Troubles at the studio that brought you the Merry Old Land of Oz.

Good as the New Looney Toons?

Superman gets a make-over as a brooding, hoodie-wearing pc fellow, courtesy of more "re-envisoning" in the Time-Warner empire. "Re-envision" is often a euphemism for "new stink."
via Hot Air

U.N. Me Orgins

The picture that inspired the song: U.N. Me, that is. And this photo didn't inspire the song, but the United Nations gift shop did. Here are Paul Rugg, myself and Tom Minton outside that august world body during our 1994 Peabody Award trip. This is yet one more photo from the Hastings Archives forwarded to me via Paul Rugg. I can't remember if Peter went with us to the Empire State Building—which was next that day. But if Paul sends me another photo, the answer will be 'yes.'

Norm Abram, Paul Rugg and Chums

Wood You Look At That? The real Norm Abram along with Paul Rugg, Peter Hastings, myself and Jean MacCurdy at some private dining room in Pasadena circa 1996. Norm talked dowels and we talked animation. The result was Normadeus. (Peter Hastings found this in his voluminous photo archives.)

Ruegger and I Smoke Up NYC

Ala Mad Men, there was a time you could actually smoke in the Big Apple. This was taken by Peter Hastings in 1994, when Jean MacCurdy took the Animaniacs writing staff to New York for the Peabody Awards. We got to meet Time-Warner president Gerald Levin, a small man who wore large cushioned shoes and worked in an office hotter than the planet Mercury. This led to speculation that he was from a distant world sent to earth for business reasons.

At the Peabody award luncheon, we sat at a table next to Paul Harvey. Paul Rugg would not stop imitating him and we ended up laughing into our napkins a great deal. There's nothing like a fun, memorable trip paid for by the company.

New Secretary of Education

This guy just became available.

99 Muslim Super Heroes on the Wall

Here come the The 99, a group of animated Muslim superheroes bound for TV on the Hub. Working on the show is former Batman writer Stan Berkowitz, who is interviewed in this article. In the first episode, the 99 must deal with one of their own when Samir the Unhinged has a fatwa placed on his teenage daughter for emailing Justin Bieber.
(Artwork: Teshkeel Media Group)

Fast Show Video

A sketch from a very odd English comedy show circa 1997 called The Fast Show.

via abbottdirector

Link to Craig's Animaniacs Gear

Craig's holding a ton o' Animaniacs merchandise.

Exercise While Drunk Video

You can have your cake and eat it too—so to speak.

Study: Americans Get Majority Of Exercise While Drunk

Did Paul Rugg Write This?

There is more than a hint of Ruggian sensibility. (Plus Swedish blood courses through Paul's veins like cold water from the Baltic Sea flowing beneath a freighter filled with iron ore and blondes.)

Jaded Haven via RightNetWork