Queer the Census!

Here's a video commercial for the census from George Takai and his partner, I won't bother to explain since it will be evident when you watch it:

Related articles by Zemanta

• Queer the Census (outsidethebeltway.com)

Beer Monster

The weirdest thing happened today, Bennet was sent an email from a movie studio with a picture of one of my old T-shirts done for STS Graphics in 1986. It’s for a TV pilot that takes place in the 80’s and they wanted to get some authentic clothes for that era. I don’t know how they found this one, doesn’t look like it’s ever been worn or washed.

To make it clear, I was working for STS back then as art director, that company went out of business in the early 90’s. One of the owners decided to re-open a screen printing shop about 5 years ago with the same name. Bennet is my step-son and also the production manager for this new STS Graphics. I work for them on a freelance basis.

What a blast from the past this was. You can see the copyright in the bottom right, which is how we know the date of the art. You can also see my signature just to the right of the beer keg running up the side. This was even done BC - Before Computers, which means all the art was done by hand.

Robert Culp

Image by Nevada Tumbleweed via Flickr

He died yesterday at the age of 79, collapsed on the street in front of his Hollywood home.

Most people probably don’t know who he is but he lives large in my memory because he starred in my favorite TV show when I was a kid, I Spy.

When the show first came on I wanted to see it because I was already a big fan of Bill Cosby, I’d been listening to his comedy albums for years and had them all memorized perfectly, even to the point of having all of Cosby’s voice inflection down perfectly. I was really curious to see how he did as an actor since my 12 year old self thought it strange for a comic to get work as an actor.

The big buzz at the time was the idea of a black man cast as an equal to a white man, but I was so naive about racism in those days I was completely unaware of this at the time and for many years afterwards. It never even occurred to me that something was strange about a black man in a starring role.

Culp played Kelly Robinson, tennis bum, while Cosby played Alexander Scott (Scotty). From the beginning it was Culp who drew my attention even though I watched it because of Cosby. Culp was the better actor and created a character with lots of depth who I found very interesting. No other TV show or movie has done the “buddy” theme as well. The show ran 3 seasons, 1965 to 1968. I managed to find reruns on cable a couple of years ago and found I loved them almost as much now as I did then. The chemistry between the two was still obvious and the stories were still good, for the most part. Parts of it were just pure camp because of the time when it was filmed, but that just added some comedy.

I always felt sorry for Culp because after the show he fell into obscurity while Cosby went on to make TV and comedy history, I thought that was very unfair. Cosby always spoke highly of Culp, saying that he took him under his wing and taught him the acting business and made him feel at home. In 1972 the two teamed up for a movie called Hickey and Boggs where they played 2 old and washed up private eyes, especially Culp who was the older of the two. Word was that Cosby put it together to help Culp out but I don’t know if that was true or not. Don’t know if they ever appeared together again or not.

Robert Culp will always have a special place in my memory and I Spy will always remain one of my favorite shows.

Related articles by Zemanta

• 'I Spy' Star Robert Culp Dies After Fall (abcnews.go.com)
• Obituary: Actor Robert Culp, star of `I Spy,' was a real tennis ace (thestar.com)

Hell No You Can't!!

I love this video, it shows who the Republicans really are, evil, strident and negative.

Waterloo

Jim DeMint was right, the health care reform bill has been Obama’s Waterloo, Good Ole Boy Jim just didn’t realize that Obama was playing the part of Wellington and the GOP were Napoleon.

Heh, heh.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Jim DeMint: Health Care Bill 'Must Be Repealed,' Plans To Introduce Legislation (huffingtonpost.com)
• If Health Care Is Obama's Waterloo, Get To Know The Duke Of Wellington (dailykos.com)

Grammar

A friend of mine posted this on Facebook and I thought it was funny enough to put here. I feel his frustration, in these days of email I communicate with most of my clients that way and am amazed at the mistakes. I'm no expert on grammar but at least I know which "there" to use when and the difference between lose and loose.

OK, folks. THEY'RE in THEIR yard over THERE. YOU'RE in YOUR yard. I'm going to go LIE down after I LAY my wallet on the table. If you have a LOOSE tooth, you may LOSE it. *** There, I'm finally got that off my chest.

Of course, it's pretty funny that he should have said "I've" in that last sentence.

When people correct my grammar and spelling I always appreciate it, we all (or most) have things we either missed or our brains twist around and can't remember. I've seen loose used wrongly so many times after 17 years on the web that there are times when I have to think about which one to use.

And I have Dan to thank for knowing when to use it's and its.

Krugman on Health Care

Image by Taekwonweirdo via Flickr

On his own blog Krugman has a post called Health Reform Myths. He addresses the myths and knocks them down - easily. It's easy to do because all of the complaints the right has raised are non-existant. In other words, they are lying.

All they want to do is have Obama fail and they don't want any kind of health care reform anyway, so they lie in order to get their ignorant base all riled up over things that doesn't exist. They think they have succeeded because the polls show a majority of Americans disapproving of the bill, but the fact is when parts of the bill are broken down and polled people like all the individual parts of it.

And a lot of those that don't like it are liberals who think it's a government give-away to health care insurance companies and is lacking a public option. But Krugman says this:

For a real piece of passable legislation, however, it looks very good. It wouldn’t transform our health care system; in fact, Americans whose jobs come with health coverage would see little effect. But it would make a huge difference to the less fortunate among us, even as it would do more to control costs than anything we’ve done before.

This is a reasonable, responsible plan. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Paul Krugman Debunks Health Care Reform Myths (huffingtonpost.com)
• The Political Case for Health Care Reform (politicalwire.com)
• Grayson Introduces Public Option Act (trueslant.com)
• Health Care Reform Twisting and Turning (alankatz.wordpress.com)

A Great Caption

One of my regular blogs that I follow is Atheist Revolution. Yesterday he had a picture on his site that was great, the best part being the caption. Go here to read it. Made me laugh out loud.

The Chilean Earthquake

Image via Wikipedia

Of course we have all heard of the Earthquake in Chile. It was 8.8 in magnitude and was actually off shore of Chile, which means they also got a tsunami that did quite a lot of damage. It was the 7th strongest earthquake ever recorded.

The part that blows my mind is that it tilted the earth's axis by 3 more inches. It also increased the speed of the Earth's rotation so now our days are 1.26 milliseconds shorter. Set your alarm clock accordingly.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Crazy Tsunami Maps From NOAA - And You Thought the Recent Chile Earthquake Was Bad... (treehugger.com)
• 4.3 million watch Hawaii Tsunami stream (slyvisions.com)
• Chile Earthquake Videos (huffingtonpost.com)
• Massive Earthquake Strikes Chile (slog.thestranger.com)