Hey, is that Stephen Colbert without his glasses, putting black parishioners to sleep? Wait. OMG no, it’s Rick Santorum! Why isn’t he wearing a sweater vest?
Ah, here’s Colbert.
As I’ve done in the past, I’m cheating by using Colbert as a place-holder on the blog. I’d better get back to doing some real posts.
Two huge J.R.R. Tolkien fans are Brian Sibley and Stephen Colbert, and they happen to have provided me with a convenient segue so I can include them both in a single post. (I hope Colbert hasn’t already coined the word “pollutionation!”)
Brian (friend of the blog) Sibley is up for a BBC Audio Drama Award, for his superb radio adaptation, The History of Titus Groan, based on the Gormenghast books by Mervyn Peake. This is a wonderfully engrossing and challenging series of radio dramas, with outstanding performances that are both finely nuanced and, when required, hilarious and over the top. The cast includes one of my favourite ladies of British stage and screen, Miranda Richardson. Winners of the BBC Audio Drama Awards will be announced on Sunday. Good luck, Brian!
A couple of days ago, Brian told the story of the ill-fated attempt by Boston-based American publisher Houghton Mifflin to have artist Maurice Sendak provide illustrations for an edition of The Hobbit. By coincidence, this week The Colbert Report featured an uproarious interview with Sendak.
The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive
The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive
Petula Clark is in NYC, for a series of cabaret-style shows, like the ones she did in France fifty years ago. NPR has this interview with the lovely lady, who is now, if I’m not mistaken, entering her 70th year in showbiz. This evocative portrait of Petula at fifteen is from a 1947 issue of Vogue magazine.
It’s Los Angeles vs. San Francisco in the fight for our online future! The music and movie industries have always cried foul over every new perceived threat to their business model. Thirty years ago they insisted that cassettes and VHS would be the end of them.
Perhaps I’m easily amused, but I never tire of the Downfall parodies, with Hitler in the bunker, railing about the latest tech controversy.
Wednesday at 6:30 PM ET, Turner Classic Movies is showing The Runaway Bus, a nifty little caper comedy with Petula Clark, from her years in British film. No singing, just Pet being perfectly perky as Nikki, a resourceful stewardess.
And this coming Sunday night/Monday morning at 4 AM ET, TCM is showing Petula in one of her teen roles from the popular Huggetts series, The Huggetts Abroad. Thanks, TCM!
Good thing I have a previously scheduled dental appointment on Tuesday morning, because I think there’s a root canal in my future.
Follow-up: Yep! It’s a root canal for moi.
