The Daily Brief

Chloe, Santino and Daniel V..

Update: As I predicted, Kara is out. But the money shot of this episode is Michael Kors’ critique of Santino’s design (to paraphrase): “It’s like you are saying: ‘Hey, I’m smarter than you. And I know you won’t like all the crap I’m tacking on this dress. But fuck you anyway.'” Oh Yeah!

Olympus Fashion Week has already happened. I don’t have any insider info as of yet. But, IMHO, the smart money is on Daniel Vosovic.

Here’s one for Valentine’s Day: This television series was the first to feature a married couple who actually shared the same bed.

Yea! Three cheers for reader Bill!

According to the usually reliable Snopes (and I’ve confirmed it a couple of other places), it was Mary Kay and Johnny , which aired from 1947 to 1950, first on Dumont, then NBC, then CBS. It is also credited with being TV’s first sitcom.

The problem is, very few of us have ever even seen the show, as it was live, and no Kinescopes are known to exist. For those that want to know a bit more, I’ve cached a pretty obscure old AP article here.

I got on the trail of this as a result of some other research I was doing into The Adventures Of Ozzie And Harriet. Reading this MBC article, I was reminded that Ozzie and Harriet (I haven’t seen the show in at least 35 years) shared a double bed. However, the same article claimed that it didn’t happen again until The Brady Bunch (1969).

But I knew that was incorrect. The Flintstones came out in 1960. And Bewitched and The Munsters in 1964. But those were all sold as exceptions to the censors, as they either weren’t live action or human characters. To my previous knowledge, the first flesh-and-blood human couple (and actually the first, if we include the qualification not married in real life) to share the same bed on TV were Oliver and Lisa Douglas in Green Acres (1965):

Well, I’ve gotten away from that just putting the answer under the “more” key thing, as I think that discourages creative guessing. But it’s all down on a “non-published” page, and will be revealed in a few days. 🙂

This Roy Rogers look-alike, ….?..?…., was widely referred to as The King of ….?..?…., and, by many, the most popular entertainer west of the Mississippi, in the years immediately following WWII.

But his fame was short-lived. As, in the late ’50s, he became a heavy drinker. And he was arrested for murdering his wife, in 1961.

But, unlike so many of today’s celebrity miscreants, he was actually convicted.

A model prisoner, he left the penitentiary in Vacaville on a three-day leave in 1969 – shortly before his parole date. On Nov. 23, he made a public appearance at a Sheriff’s benefit concert in Oakland. There, he had a fatal heart attack backstage.

….?..on..?…. had been his theme song during his television career, and it became his epitaph.

Update: Ah c’mon – you guys are sooooo close! 🙂

What… Is this just a tease? Did I jump the time-Q for nothing? Wait and see. 🙂

The Answer! Reader Dwight Fisher almost got it. And our own B Dubya got closer; it is Spade Cooley, The King of Western Swing. But the song title is just Shame on You. (Although the lyrics start out with “Shame, shame on you.”)

This might just be the best BSG episode ever.

My older brother always used to say that a padlock just kept an honest man honest…

Well, for all of you who just can’t wait, there’s no more need to Google… All you have to do is click the “more” link. But, I bet our beloved Sgt. Mom doesn’t even need to do that:

It is popularly believed that this was created by this person to celebrate the opening of this wonder of the modern world. But, its premiere, on December 24th, 1871, was fully two years too late. However, it was actually created for this.

Congratulations! to reader Steve Skubinna

It is popularly believed that Aida was created by Giuseppe Verdi to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal. But, its premiere, on December 24th, 1871, was fully two years too late. However, it was actually created for the Khedive’s new Cairo opera house which was created to celebrate the Suez Canal. It opened with Verdi’s Rigoletto “around” November 1st, 1869. And Aida wasn’t even commissioned until May of 1870.

I’ve just started reading Prayers for the Assassin but I thought I’d put a couple of first impressions down before I got too deep into it.

So far it reads like a whodunit/where’dshego set in an America that’s been conquered, mostly through non-violent means, by Islam. I’m liking it more than I thought I would which suprises me. I had prejudged it in my head as simply another attempt at some sort of Twilight Zone episode writ topical and large, but I find myself more intrigued the more I get into it.

“What if?” is a hard game to play. Get too out far out and you lose the readers. Get too matter-of-fact and you risk boring us to death. Ferrigno doesn’t beg the question of how Islam took over in the United States, he simply tells the story and in the process he reveals how it happened without taking over the current story. A neat trick.

I’ll leave it at that until I’ve finished, but I’m already thinking about turning in early to read a couple extra chapters tonight and I don’t do that very often.

BTW: I love this mock news site that they’ve set up to further imerse ourselves in the world of the book.

NOTE: Thanks Kevin for checking my spelling.

Since Boyo is nine, I often get to enjoy current cartoons where many grownups may miss some of what’s going on in that arena. Okay, fine, I watch cartoons with my son sometimes. I’m all for the current trend going on at Cartoon Network where they’re once again producing cartoons with some very grown-up humor that goes right over the kids’ heads and smack into our funny bones. When Grim from The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy awoke from a dream saying, “This is not my beautiful house. This is not my beautiful wife.” and Billy was chanting “Same as it ever was, same as it ever was.” I almost lost a mouthful of tuna salad. A Talking Heads reference was not expected, and I loved it. And last night when Billy unearths a frozen Fred Flintstone from his front yard? Funny stuff.

Yesterday morning, before school, Boyo was watching a new Scooby Doo cartoon. I’m not big on the newer Scooby cartoons, the formula was old when I was watching them and the artwork has gotten downright sad. However, something stuck out in this one. As the gang was fleeing from a giant sea monster, Daphne surfing a 10 footer with the rest of the crew on her shoulders, Rockaway Beach by The Ramones was playing. Not some cheezy, producer written, studio musician performed psuedo 70s rock tune, Rockaway Beach by The Ramones.

I don’t know who’s behind this, and I don’t care, but I think it must be celebrated, it must be cheered, it must be encouraged. My son’s musical tastes are currently centered around the soundtrack from The Chronic (WHAT) kulls of Narnia to Evanescence to Enya, who we played in his nursery to get him to sleep some nights. Any more good music that he can get exposed to that doesn’t come from us (because, what do parents know about music when you’re nine?) is well appreciated.

Bravo Scooby Doo. Keep up the good work.

Note that, on coming back from hiatus, I’ve changed the name of this series from “Movie Trivia” to “Entertainment Trivia.” I think that’s appropriate, as some of the earlier puzzles were only tangentially related to the movies. This gives me more liberty.

So, here goes: In 1925, this scientist turned down a $100,000 consulting job from Samuel Goldwyn. Extra credit: name the picture.

THE ANSWER! Sorry for not getting this out yesterday, as promised. I had this really good essay on psychoanalysis and the cinema, but I forgot to bookmark it, and now I can’t find it. As you might guess now, Sigmund Freud is the scientist, as Goldwyn considered him the world’s foremost authority on matters of love and romance. The extra credit was a trick question, as I can find no evidence that the idea ever even got far enough to be given a working title. But the first film Goldwyn had in mind was to be about Anthony and Cleopatra.

As Jay Tea has demonstrated, there are still some skeptics. But, in 1925, the science of psychoanalysis got almost no respect at all. Much of this was racist, with psychoanalysis being widely labeled as “Jew science.” This didn’t exist in Hollywood, of course, as virtually all the movers and shakers were Jews themselves.

Note: Time tag jiggered

…this whole thing where the entertainment media combines names of famous couples.

Quit. It.

It’s not cute, it’s not hip, it’s not hot, it’s annoying.

Bennifer
TomKat
Brangelina (Thanks Stryker)

Maybe it’s the stars of today. Can you even imagine the stars of yesteryear putting up with:

Tracy and Hepburn? SpenceKat?
Bogie and Bacall? HumpLaur? BogCall?
John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara? JohnAureen? Waynara?

See? Not even in your wildest dreams. It’s just wrong.

What the heck, put your favorite combinations in the comments.

Jeff Roche has emailed Glenn Reynolds, praising Wonderfalls, and laments that it only lasted four episodes (they actually taped 13):

We couldn’t figure out how such a great show could have been cancelled so quickly. Then we read it aired on Fox.

That explains everything. The Network that cancelled “Briscoe County JR”, “Space: Above and Beyond”, “Firefly”, etc.

Well, Firefly may be one thing. But Space Above and Beyond and The Adventures of Briscoe County Jr. were middling at best. And all the networks have their cancellation boners. Among them, we can include The Judy Garland Show (CBS), Sports Night (ABC), and perhaps the greatest boner of all: Star Trek (NBC).

To Fox’s credit, they haven’t been afraid to take risks, bringing animation back to primetime, and giving such excellent programs as 24 and Arrested Development (which they’ve stuck by despite lagging ratings), all to say nothing of sister network FX’s stellar line-up.

Update: I’m aware that Fox is looking to sell Arrested Development, most likely to Showtime. But, in any event, and unlike Firefly and Wonderfalls, they plan to air the final 4 episodes of season 3. Three seasons is a good run for a (rather expensive) show that never really captured a broad audience.

Update 2: BTW: In case some of you might want to check out Wonderfalls, without buying the DVD, all 13 episodes play on Viacom/MTV Networks new “Gay America” LOGO channel.

…we have assumed control, we have assumed control, we have assumed control.

Yesterday I found R30, Rush’s 30th Anniversary World Tour, recorded in Frankfurt, September 2004, and I almost couldn’t wait to put the DVD in the Bose last night and crank it to 11. Beautiful wife went so far as to put her earplugs in for me. Sigh. Wonderful woman.

First of all, I have been a Rush fan since 1976 where in Paul Anderson’s basement I first heard 2112. As far as I’m concerned, there isn’t a better guitar player than Alex Lifeson, a better basist and synthesizer wizard than Geddy Lee or better drummer/lyracist than Neil Peart. They got into my teenage head and heart and they’ve never left. I will still stop a converation if Tom Sawyer comes on the radio. I’ve seen them live and I hope to take my son to see them live one day. They’re musicians, stage craftsmen, performers extraordinare.

How the hell they keep the songs fresh after all these years, I don’t know, but there isn’t a stale moment in 22 songs. They still look like they’re having a blast, and they still look like they’re working on improving the material. I really like their takes on classics like Crossroads, Summertime Blues , Heart Full of Soul and The Seeker which were all pleasant suprises in the show. They sound a little weird with Geddy Lee’s giant mouse/siren voice singing but they’re very good.

BEST. DAMN. ROCK. DRUMMER. EVER. (Unless Bill Bruford is in the room and then well, they’d probably try to put it off on the other.) Neil Peart, aka, The Professor, is still center stage, surrounded by his drum kit from which he invokes both thunderbolts and butterfly carresses at will. His precision has been written about and commented on for years…and he’s still a freak of nature when he plays, sometimes making me wonder if he’s not a creation of the Priests of Syrinx. He introduced me to Ayn Rand. Yes drum fans, Der Trommler is played in all it’s glory. I got chills.

Geddy Lee with his bass and magical symphonic keyboards (some that he plays with his feet) are over stage left…his voice clearer but still as quirky as ever. I don’t think there’s a uglier damn rock star on the planet. He’s always had this mad wizard thing about him and now that he’s older, it just fits him even better. He’s also one of the three vocalists that can turn his voice into a siren so, much is forgiven. (And the other two are? Anyone?)

Alex Lifeson is stage right and his hands haven’t slowed down a damn bit. That man always was one of the least acknowledged guitarists around. He’s one of the guitarists I love to WATCH play.

I thoroughly enjoy watching rock bands who go away when they play. Not the muggers and pretenders. The ones who somehow manage to truly step aside and let the Rock Gods use them up for the two or three hours that they’re on stage. R30 captures that. Instead of taking bits and pieces from the worldwide tour in 2004, they managed to capture an amazing night for all of them and present it as such. I never thought a film or video of Rush could do them justice, but R30 does.

All in all, even if you’re a casual Rush fan, one that can hear the opening of 2112 and not close their eyes in bliss, you’re going to want to add this DVD to your collection. This is the way Rush is meant to be heard, playing for and with an audience.

And if you’re not a Rush fan and try to dump on them here, I will delete you, I have no desire to have that conversation.

I think I like Episcopalians. They’re whacky!

Too bad the pilot ran into Galactica.

By the way, SciFi Friday is all new. Galactica RAWKED!

than The Band’s The Last Waltz. Absolutely none. If you don’t own it, you’re life simply isn’t as full as it could be.

Just in case you forgot or missed the other times I’ve mentioned it.

The Islamic States of America, could this happen? America’s resources stretched razor thin by an extended war on terror. Our economy falters under the strain. Our leaders fail to have a plan. Western Europe’s Muslim minority becomes the majority.

Sound like any blogs you know? Sound like your blog? This is premise Robert Ferrigno puts forth in Prayers for the Assassin.

The novel will be published by Scribner in February. We have been given 400 advanced reader editions to send to writers focused on politics, religion, world events or books.

If you actively blog or podcast about politics, religion, world events or books, we invite you to request a free advanced reader edition of this novel. Just fill out the form below. Note, we only have a limited supply and cannot guarantee every request will receive a free book.

I think it’s very cool that they thought of sending advanced copies to bloggers. I’ll let you know what I think when I’m done with it.