Here’s a bizarre coincidence. Ebay has an auction right now for a framed amateur drawing. To my surprise, I realized that the drawing is by the mother of a close friend, who was one of my college roommates.
My friend says he remembers his mother selling this picture at a yard sale about 7 years ago. The person auctioning it now picked it up at an estate sale on Cape Cod. By coincidence, the seller happens to be right in my town!
This week’s Spider-Man comic, inserted in the Sunday paper, starts reprinting issue #5, from 1963. Spidey is hopelessly mis-matched, battling Doctor Doom, one of the principal character inspirations for Darth Vader.
I was impressed that the colorist for this little freebie comic made the TV a black & white set, as it was originally, 43 years ago; emphasizing that the comics were in color, but TV (for the most part) wasn’t. Nice touch.
I’m a very big admirer of the late cartoonist Charles Schulz. Someday I’ll visit The Charles M. Schulz Museum. The museum has released a DVD of the long-neglected 1963 TV show, A Boy Named Charlie Brown. How neglected? It was never shown!
I’m providing 2 minutes of footage from the show as an enticement for you to buy it. His ideas were very similar to those of Fred Rogers, don’t you think?
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Order the DVD here. Unfortunately, the museum doesn’t take orders online, and you’ll have to click the “Videos” link to see the ordering information for the DVD.
The show also includes the first Peanuts animation, done a full two years before the ground-breaking special, A Charlie Brown Christimas. For a measly $15, anybody who is interested in the work and life of Schulz must have this unique DVD!
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A movie I remember well from childhood is Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964). My brother Jeff and I were so taken with it that we created our own audio version on my tape recorder.
Robinson Crusoe on Mars was directed by Byron Haskin, who had directed War of the Worlds for George Pal ten years before that. Crusoe was sort of a test-run for the Paramount Studios special effects and production team that would soon begin work on the original Star Trek TV series.
Robinson Crusoe on Mars is not currently in official release. Many people remember it, but most haven’t seen it in decades, so I’m posting it here, probably in four parts. The image is very small, but it should be adequate.
If you don’t already know what the videoblog called Rocketboom is, or was, click here. Let me sneak in a test of a Flash audio player. Here’s a picture of Amanda Congdon, the original host, and an old children’s record with the theme song for Rocketboom.
I don’t know what Rocketboom’s hit rate has been since Amanda split, but I haven’t been watching it. This is Amanda’s replacement, Joanne Colan.
Joanne is fine! Nothing against Joanne. She has a great British accent, and the same name as one of my favorite comic book artists, Gene Colan. But maybe she’s better suited for, I don’t know, HGTV. She’s not Amanda, and Amanda was what made Rocketboom.
How about another test of the embedded Flash Player? This time in stereo. Here is a video clip from Almost Famous. The mythical band Stillwater sings along to a chopped-up recording of Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer,” which is fitting because the video is tiny, too!
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