SC

Sean Connery was the best James Bond, easily.  He was also a fine actor, besides.

I'd say more, but the blogger template is fighting me.

Moving Pieces

Taking a break from Cobra Kai, I watched the Neftlix miniseries The Queen's Gambit.  Created by screenwriter Scott Frank (Get Shorty, Out Of Sight, Logan), it's based on a novel by Walter Tevis (The Hustler, The Man Who Fell To Earth).

It's the story of 1960s chess prodigy Beth Harmon, from her days in the orphanage through her development as a grandmaster. Big-eyed Anya Taylor-Joy is the lead, and she does a fine job carrying the show, with everyone else in supporting roles.

I've spent hundreds of hours watching YouTube videos analyzing chess games, so I'm generally fascinated by chess movies (Computer Chess, Pawn Sacrifice, The Luzhin Defence).  Of course, movies can't concentrate on any single game, that would be boring--it's got to be about the characters and their emotional crises. Further, chess has to be simplified somewhat in dramatic situations--the characters play faster (every game ends up being speed chess) and they almost always win or lose, even though in real tournaments draws are most common.

The look of the era is captured pretty well.  The story's pace rarely flags.  Overall, well worth checking out.

Now I think I'll go over to YouTube and watch Beth Harmon's games analyzed.

Strike First. Strike Hard. No Mercy.

I avoided watching the YouTube, then Netflix, series Cobra Kai.  I wasn't a big fan of The Karate Kid, and I just didn't want to see a show built around the worst aspects of it--I imagined a lot of nasty people doing martial arts drills.

But I finally gave in, and just watched the first season.  It's delightful.  Set in the present, life for the Billy Zabka character has gone downhill.  He's divorced, drinks too much, lives in a lousy apartment and has no prospects.  Meanwhile, his old nemesis, still played by Ralph Macchio, is doing great--lovely wife and family, beautiful home, owns a car dealership.

While we follow both their stories, putting Zabka front and center was a smart move.  And making him far from perfect was even smarter.  He opens a dojo--Cobra Kai, of course--and starts teaching misfits to be tough, maybe too tough.  Indeed, a large portion of the show is devoted to the lives of the teennage characters, as Zabka and Macchio each become a sensei.

The show plays off the memory of the original films, but you don't have to know them to enjoy the story.  Perhaps what surprised me most about Cobra Kai is how funny it is.  There's certainly drama, but it made me laugh more than all but a handful of shows do. And as a bonus, I now know the San Fernando Valley, and can recognize where the action takes place.

So, belatedly, let me recommend Cobra Kai.  I've still got the second season to binge, and a third season to look forward to.

See No Evil

You never know where you'll land up on YouTube. You look at one video and they suggest related videos, which takes you in a new direction. Recently I watched a video of little kids meeting all the princesses at Disneyland.  I noticed the comments were turned off.  I wondered--did the parent do this?

So I viewed a number of these videos--there are quite a few on YouTube (there are quite a few of everything on YouTube)--and all of them seemed to have the comments turned off. Not that I wanted to make a comment, it just seemed a curious phenomenon.

I checked to see if this is some sort of new policy.  Sure enough, it is.  Last year, YouTube disabled comments on all videos featuring minors, apparently as a children's safety issue.

It's not the biggest deal, but I don't get it.  How does this protect children?  In fact, I assume the people who put out these videos are hoping to get comments on how cute their kids are.  Which is what they generally do get. There might be the occasional nasty comment, but how does that endanger children?

Match This

I was watching The Match Game, a popular game show from the 70s. (It actually started in the 60s, but this rerun was the popular later version hosted by Gene Rayburn). In the money round, you're given a word and a blank to fill in to complete a phrase.  The trick today is to put your mind back to that era.  In other words, for Jerry _____ think Lewis, not Seinfeld.

For this round, the contestant needed to guess Walking _____.  She got to query three of the celebrities on the panel for help.  They gave her Walking Tall, Walking Stick and a third answer that sounded so bizarre to the audience that they booed.

Walking Tall, by the way, seemed like a great clue to the audience, and the contestant, since it was the name of a popular 1973 film.  It probably wouldn't play so well today.

So what were the three top answers, based on a poll of a previous studio audience?  Third was Walking My Baby Back Home, an old song that was popular in the 1950s, but is all but forgotten today. Second was Walking Stick.  First, sure enough, was Walking Tall.

And what was the ridiculous answer? Walking Dead.

Buddy, Can You Spare A Dime?

While out shopping (which is already a big deal), more than once I've seen a sign that there's a "national coin shortage." So, if possible, they'd like you to give exact change (or not care about getting change back?).

How did this happen? Aren't there the same number of coins in circulation that we had a year ago, when there was no shortage?  Or do we need a constant re-supply, denied by coronavirus issues? (If this is true, why isn't there a currency shortage?)

Or are people hoarding coins?  Why would they?  It's not like loose change is more valuable right now. (In fact, it's less valuable than ever.) Toilet paper you hoard, but dimes?  You don't even need quarters these days to run washing machines at the laundromat, there's an app for that.

Anyway, since I heard about the coin shortage I've been hoarding coins.  You never know when you'll need them.

Dave's Day

I've just watched the entire run* of the Canadian version** of The David Steinberg Show.  It lasted 20 episodes and, with each episode under 24 minutes (minus commercials), it didn't take long to finish them off.

I was going to discuss it at some length, but this new blogger template is making it hard to type anything at all. So here are the main points:

--It's a meta-variety show, regularly taking us backstage where characters talk about the "show."

--Steinberg does some monologues, always old material.

--It's not good--conventional comedy done poorly.

--Halfway through the season they switched up the format a bit but it didn't help.

--The only regular listed in the credits is Bill Saluga, who plays Vinny, owner of the deli across the street, as well as "Mr. Johnson" (of the famous "You can call me Ray" routine).

--Of greatest interest today is the stock company, which includes Martin Short, John Candy, Joe Flaherty and Dave Thomas.  Around this time they were also coming up with another Canadian variety show, SCTV.  That show features the backstage doings of an entire TV station.  Makes you wonder if they weren't influenced by Steinberg's show.

*Actually, Amazon Prime offers 20 episodes but, according to the IMDb, there were 24.  Give us the missing four episodes!

**Steinberg had a summer replacement variety show on American television in 1972.  It ran for five episodes.  The Canadian show ran one season from 1976 to 1977.

Where We Stand

I haven't written much about politics lately because it's so depressing, no matter who wins.  But, looking at the polls--which can be off (a bit) and can change--it sure seems like the Democrats will do well, for both the White House and Congress.

Here's how I see it (ignoring early voting, which I don't like, but that's another post).  It's not exactly making predictions, since I got all the bases covered so I can't be wrong:

--32% chance of a blowout for the Democrats

--32% chance of a solid victory for the Democrats

--32% chance of it being close enough it could go either way

--4% chance of a solid victory by the Republicans

Sorry if the numbers make this guesswork seem more precise than it is.

AR

The Amazing Randi has died.  I was a big fan.

Randall James Zwinge, born in Toronto, Canada, left home at 17 to perform in a carnival.  He became known as a top magician and escape artist, achieving a fair amount of fame starting in the 1950s.  In the 1970s, he traveled with Alice Cooper's Billion Dollar Babies tour, helping out with certain effects, such as Alice being decapitated by a guillotine.  He also appeared as himself on an episode of Happy Days (which was probably the first time I saw him).

But like his hero Houdini, Randi had a second career.  He investigated and debunked claims of the paranormal.  As a magician, he could see through the deceptions of "psychics" that would fool scientists.  He exposed the methods of people like spoon-bender Uri Geller and faith healer Peter Popoff (not that he ended their careers--a lot of people want to believe).

He founded the James Randi Educational Foundation, dedicated to educating the public on those who claim to have supernatural powers. JREF offered a million dollars to anyone who could demonstrate paranormal abilities.  No one ever got that money. He also wrote a number of books from a skeptical viewpoint.  My favorite is his classic Flim-Flam!

I saw Randi give a speech--and do some tricks--at a skeptics group in Santa Monica about twenty years ago.  It was exciting to meet him in person.  He might not be that well known to the general public, but he was one of the great men of our times.

Earlier today I rewatched An Honest Liar, a documentary about his life.  I recommend it.  But if you don't have time, check him out on YouTube.

Ants In Your Plants Of 2020

I just finished screenwriter Charlie Kaufman's novel Antkind.  That's an accomplishment itself--it's over 700 pages. I don't have the time (with a blog template that fights against me) for a full-fledged review, so here are just a few observations.

The basic plot is about a pretentious, politically correct, sexually frustrated, not particularly successful film critic (loves Judd Apatow, hates Charlie Kaufman) who travels to St. Augustine on an assignment.  There he meets an ancient black man who shows him a stop-motion movie he's been working on all his life. Indeed, it takes three months to watch the film (no one else has ever seen it), and the filmmaker dies during this period.  The critic believes his fortune is made.  He'll truck this masterpiece back to New York and build a career around it.

Unfortunately, the film catches on fire on the way back, and much of the novel deals with the critic's attempts to recreate the film in his memory, especially with the help of hypnosis.

There are a lot of side-stories in the novel--the critic's obsessions with various women, the recounting of several plots within the three-month film (I especially liked the stuff regarding the fictional comedy team of Mudd and Molloy), mockery of Donald Trump, the end of the world and so on.  Really there are enough stories here, some quite imaginative, to make five or ten films (all with the themes we've seen before in Kaufman's cinematic oeuvre).

However, the story goes on an on without really going anywhere.  There's nothing cumulative about it.  And though we've got an unreliable (and obnoxious) narrator, it hardly matters, since the story is already surrealism verging on fantasy.

Still, a smart book with some nice gags.  What Kaufman needed most was an editor.

Drawing The Line

It seems like every time I start a YouTube video, I get a message asking me to donate to the Democrats because there's a deadline coming up.

I swear I've been seeing this plea for months.  Just when is this deadline? (And why would there be a deadline for donations?)

Good News

When I lived in Chicago, every Thursday night I'd get some Harold's Chicken for dinner. Once a week was enough--any more would have killed me.  My favorite meal was a quarter white with mild sauce (yeah, I'm a wimp).

Harold's Chicken Shack was my favorite fried chicken. There were locations all over Chicago, especially the South Side.  But what I didn't know until last week is there's one in Los Angeles!

It's on Hollywood Boulevard, right up the street from me.  If it weren't for the pandemic, I would have dropped in immediately.  Now I think I'll have it delivered.  I hope there wasn't anything special about Chicago that made it taste better there.

Creek's Cutoff

I just watched the sixth and final season of Schitt's Creek.  It recently became available on Netflix, and at only 14 half-hours, doesn't take long to get through.

I watched the first five seasons in one stretch, but this time around it was different.  This time, the show was a huge Emmy Winner.  The final season won every big Emmy, and I mean every one--Best Comedy, Writing, Directing, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress.  Has any show ever had such a sweep?

The concept, you'll recall, is about the rich Rose family--husband and wife Johnny and Moira and their adult kids David and Alexis--stuck in a backwater town after losing all their money.  Through the seasons, they grow to like the place, and become leading citizens.

The main arc of the last season deals with David's marriage.  I generally don't like sitcom weddings, since they're a chance to overdo the sentiment and underdo the comedy.  Luckily, most of the episodes don't center the wedding.

As before, I felt the kids in the Rose family outdid the parents (even if the parents are played by great SCTV actors Catherine O'Hara and Eugene Levy). And, as before, the best of the rest is Emily Hampshire as Stevie.

The final season was very charming and very sweet.  It even gave everyone happy endings.  But is it a classic, or even great, comedy?  No.  I'm not sure why Hollywood decided to shower it with awards. I guess it's not the first time the Emmys got it wrong.

Old Boys

The second season of The Boys ended this weekend.  That went fast.  Spoilers ahead.

While I enjoyed it quite a bit, I did find Season 2 disappointing after the stellar first year.  For one thing, it was mostly variations on what they did better first time around--a tight-knit conspiracy of mostly regular people trying to take down psychopathic superheroes, with some fraternization between the two groups.  Also, Stan Edgar, head honcho of evil corporation Vought wasn't nearly as interesting as Madelyn Stillwell, who held a similar position in the first season.

The show also didn't answer one of the big questions set up in the first season.  Or actually, they just ignored it.  Near the end of the first season, the Boys' cover is blown.  Which means in the second season, they're highly wanted criminals by the government and by Vought.  So how do they hide?  Well, they hang out in a basement but otherwise don't let it bother them.  If they need to go out in daylight, they do it and nothing really happens. (A similar problem, I suppose, with the whole world finding out about Compound V.  It was the deep dark secret of Season 1, but now that it's common knowledge, how can they get that genie back in the bottle?)

Worst of all was what, I suppose, amounted to the main arc of season two.  The new member of The Seven is Stormfront, who turns out to be...a Nazi!  Yawn.  The show already had great villains--it didn't need to resort to this cliché.  Maybe this is in the comic book--doesn't matter. (This also leads to some "satire" of modern-day politics.  As in the first season, the show is never worse than when it's at its most explicitly political, as if the audience is too stupid to get the point.)

Anyway, Season 2 ended with some triumph, some tragedy, some surprises.  Things are certainly set up for a third season.  And since The Boys is the most popular show on Amazon Prime, not even Homelander could stop that from happening.

Tonight Won't Be Just Any Night

A little head's up.  If you have HBO, tonight is the premiere of Cats.  That is all.

JL

John Lennon would have been 80 today. (I don't want to be gruesome, but he's now been dead as long as he was alive.)

John wrote a song for Ringo, "I'm The Greatest." John, you're the greatest. We still miss you.

EVH

Wow. Eddie Van Halen has died.  I didn't know he was sick, but apparently he'd been fighting throat cancer for years.

I wasn't a huge fan, but he was perhaps the most influential guitarist of his era. He makes the top ten of any great guitarist list--top of the list to millions.  And the band Van Halen (no matter who the lead singer) released one top ten album after another in the 80s and 90s.

Here is where I'd put some videos, except this new template doesn't allow me to. So go to YouTube and play your favorites.

PS Johnny Nash of "I Can See Clearly Now" and "Stir It Up" is also gone.

Tommy Gets His Jams Out

Tommy Stinson, who turns 54 today, started playing bass with the Replacements when he was barely a teenager.  Since they broke up he formed his own band, as well as playing with Guns N' Roses and Soul Asylum.  But we love him for his work with the Mats.

MS

Murray Schisgal has died.  Perhaps not a great playwright, but an interesting one.

He first rose to prominence with The Typists & The Tiger, two imaginative one-acts that ran off-Broadway as a single show.  His biggest hit was Luv, an absurdist romantic comedy. It was his first production on Broadway and ran 901 performances in the mid-60s.  Directed by Mike Nichols (who won a Tony), it starred Alan Arkin, Anne Jackson and Eli Wallach.

His next play, Jimmy Shine, was not a hit, but starred up-and-comer Dustin Hoffman, starting a professional relationship between Hoffman and Schisgal.  Hoffman would make his first movie appearance around this time in The Tiger Makes Out, a bad adaptation of Schisgal's The Tiger, starring Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson.  For that matter, the movie version of Luv, starring Jack Lemmon, Elaine May and Peter Falk, doesn't work either.

His play All Over Town, directed by Dustin Hoffman, got some notice, running 233 performances on Broadway in the mid-70s.  His last Broadway production, two one-acts collectively known as Twice Around The Park, opened in 1982 and ran four months. It reunited Schisgal with Anne Jackson and Eli Wallach.

Schisgal wrote and produced a few TV projects, but his best-known work outside the theatre was his Oscar-nominated screenplay for Dustin Hoffman's huge hit Tootsie. Of course, this being Hollywood, Schisgal was hardly the only scribe involved.  The story was credited to Don McGuire and Larry Gelbart, and the screenplay to Gelbart and Schisgal.  In addition, Barry Levinson, Elaine May and other writers worked on it, not to mention the input from star Hoffman and director Sydney Pollack.

The last time I read Luv, a few years back, I thought it had dated.  But now I wish someone would revive it.  There may be life left in it yet.

Good Guide

I just received my Official Voter Information Guide for the upcoming election.  The law requires everyone be sent a copy.  It's pretty long--111 pages--and goes into detail about the 12 initiatives we'll be voting on in November.

There are some high profile issues.  There's one about stopping the state from discriminating based on race, sex, etc.; one about a change to property taxes; one about a change to rent control; one about once more allowing independent contractors to work for Uber, Lyft and other app-based driving.

I haven't read the booklet so far, but I do have certain rules of thumb (or maybe it's a flow chart).  If they want to raise taxes, or spend more, the answer is no unless it's something really good.  The same goes for giving more authority to the government.  And if it's unclear what will happen if the initiative passes, the answer is no.

There is one initiative I would like to see, however.  Just how many people read this Voter Guide?  How many even look at it?  If even 5% give it more than a glance, I'd be surprised.  We should stop sending them out--if Californians want to know what's going on, let them look things up on the internet.