Monthly Archives: January 2013

The Egghead Experience

Elmer Fudd appears to have more or less evolved from a character named Egghead, called that after his egg-shaped head. (No surprises there, anyway.) Created by Tex Avery and first seen in 1937, Egghead sported a hairstyle like Moe Howard. … Continue reading

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Rage Against the Radio

Radio On: A Listener’s Diary, by Sarah Vowell – A younger and crankier Vowell listened to the radio constantly in 1995, and left her comments on it for the world to see. Much of it was pretty negative, but there’s … Continue reading

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Toon Talk

I find it interesting that the original voice of Porky Pig, Joe Dougherty, really did stutter. Because he couldn’t control it, recording sessions would run too long and become too expensive, so he was replaced by Mel Blanc. Blanc kept … Continue reading

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Red and Yellow and Green and Brown and Scarlet and Black and Ochre and Peach

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat – This was the direct-to-video release of the musical from 1999. While pretty corny (how could an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical starring Donny Osmond NOT be?), it was also fun. The story is a … Continue reading

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September Surprise

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making and The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There, by Catherynne M. Valente – In these books, a girl named September, who lives in Omaha … Continue reading

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A Whiz of a Wiz

For my thousandth post on this blog, I’m going to write about…the Wizard of Oz. Big surprise, huh? The majority of the back story for the Wizard of Oz is provided in Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, following up … Continue reading

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FLDS Fail

A few days ago, Beth and I watched some 20/20 piece on the Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints, who are basically Mormons who split off from the main church when it decided to no longer espouse polygamy. For the FLDS, not only … Continue reading

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Broken Spanish in the Daytime

Camper Van Beethoven, La Costa Perdida – It’s been a long time since the last album by this band. They reformed in the early aughts and put out New Roman Times, but it’s been more than eight years since then, … Continue reading

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I’m Hunting Anthwopomowphic Wabbits

I’ve discussed the issue of cartoon anthropomorphism with Disney, but it seems to be even more complicated with Warner Bros. Their most famous character, Bugs Bunny, has some clear anthropomorphic traits. He speaks English (with a New York accent, at … Continue reading

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Pot Maze

Pan’s Labyrinth – Basically, the plot of this one is that, in fascist Spain, a widow marries a nasty captain who enjoys killing and torturing people, and brings her ten-year-old daughter Ofelia to his estate with her. She imagines that … Continue reading

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