Category: All Posts

My past American Life

Having been a young man who was involved with Campus Crusade for Christ when I was in college, I can assure you that the sort of bizarre, twisted, ridiculous thinking that’s described in this week’s This American Life is all too real. Click the audio player to hear part 7. (Sorry, the audio is no longer available.)

I used to attend a church called Grace Chapel in Lexington, MA. It was headed by Gordon MacDonald, who became one of Bill Clinton’s “spiritual advisors” when the Monica affair hit the news. Click here to read more about Gordon.

From Barnes’ Back Pages

Today on Barnes Newberry’s online radio show, My Back Pages, he played the band Love doing AndMoreAgain, a song I hadn’t heard in, I think, 40 years…

… and he played a song I couldn’t recall ever hearing before — Fleetwood Mac with its founder, Peter Green, shortly before he left the band, doing The Green Manalishi (With The Two Prong Crown). What a great track! To me it sort of sounds like Alice Cooper with Elvis Costello style vocals.

A King deal

Denro tipped me off that Barnes & Noble stores have bargain-priced copies of Mark Evanier’s book Kirby: King of Comics. I bought one for $12.95, so now I can keep my autographed copy on the shelf. This deal is, from what I can see, available only in stores.

As I have said before, Jack “King” Kirby — a title given to him by Stan Lee — was the greatest creative force the comic book biz will ever have. Kirby’s family has, so far, been unsuccessful in getting money out of Disney-Marvel, and that’s wrong, because the corporation owes the man a lot.

TCM triumph

I was worried during the intro to tonight’s in-theater showing of Casablanca by Turner Classic Movies, because the sound was out of sync with the picture. The problem was bad enough that I went to the concession counter and told one of the staff there about it. If the movie itself had that problem, I would have told Carol we were leaving and requested a refund but, happily, the presentation was nearly perfect. The 4:3 “Academy” aspect ratio was maintained, and the sound was monaural, as it should be. The picture could have been a bit brighter, but that’s a common complaint at movie theaters these days.

P.S. The show was very well attended. I’d estimate 2/3 of the seats were taken.