Category: All Posts

Just Call Them Political Cartoons

Last week I noted that Art Spiegelman’s Maus won a Pulitzer Prize. It was the first, and so far it’s the only, graphic novel to be awarded that distinction.

The category of graphics that the Pulitzer people have recognized for exactly one hundred years is editorial cartooning. But no more. From now on, the category will be called Illustrated Reporting and Commentary. Cartooning is not illustration, and if they think this somehow dignifies the craft, it doesn’t work for me.

http://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2022/01/21/editorial-cartooning-legend-dead-to-pulitzers/

herblock cartoon
Herblock’s 1953 Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoon

The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists seems to be taking the change in stride. Maybe some of their Illustrated Reporters and Commentators will have something to say about it.

Cheek-fil-A

It’s been exactly four years since a top Boston plastic surgeon closed up the huge hole in my scalp, resulting from the removal of melanoma skin cancer. I assume he makes more money from cosmetic surgery than reconstructive. I’ve stayed on his mailing list and I continue to receive promotional announcements. This one showed up today:

Cheek Filler

The late Jo Shishido was known for having cheek filler surgery, in an effort to have a more distinctive onscreen appearance. I became aware of Shishido only recently, from Eddie Muller’s “Noir Alley” series on TCM.

Shishido appeared in many Yakuza (gangster) movies. Regarded as one of the best is Seijun Suzuki’s Youth of the Beast. Click the “CC” icon if the subtitles don’t appear automatically.

https://youtu.be/IlDdkouwR14

Roomies

Right after thinking up the title for this post I wondered if there’s a Roomies TV show or musical. This is what I found:

“ROOMIES is a sassy, silly, & sexy new web series about two gay roommates from small town Indiana who move to L.A. in pursuit of fame, glitz, & glamour.”

They’re certainly not shy about embracing gay stereotypes. But the subject of this post isn’t that.

A while ago I talked about one of my college roommates, regarding the subject of cassettes. An old friend of mine, going back to high school, has told me a bit about her one-time roomie in college.

Geena Davis
Geena Davis during production of Thelma and Louise