I had a close call this evening, when I was almost made to look foolish (I've come to terms with being foolish, and now merely focus my efforts on keeping others from discovering my foolish nature). I went out to dinner with my mom after work, and forgot my keys. She went to talk to our neighbor for a minute when we got home, and I wasn't able to open the door. I didn't feel like talking to the neighbor, so I just decided to wait. Which was fine for a few minutes, but soon it became obvious they were going to have a long chat (she was apparently showing pictures of her daughter's wedding). But now too much time had passed for me to walk up and say I needed Mom's key, without looking like a fool (I faced a dilema similar to one faced by Sen. Larry Pressler after accidentally walking into a closet). And as more time passed, my dilemma deepened, as it became less and less an option to ask for Mom's key, yet it became more and more an inevitability that I would appear a fool when discovered waiting at the door (though just by one person, rather than two).

Fortunately, I was sent a savior, in the form of a neighborhood kitty who has recently taken a shine to me. I'd set the cat loose a couple times after being cornered by Tanner, so now we have some sort of bond, and in the last week or so, she's often looking for me when I get home. And after I'd been sitting outside the front door for about twenty minutes, my feline friend came by, giving me the perfect cover: I was sitting outside the door so that I could pet the kitty. I think Mom thought the scene didn't quite seem right, but I was not conclusively shown to be a fool, so I was happy.

I was also thinking that kitty needs a name. I think she's a girl (although the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence, she doesn't seem to have male genitalia), so I decided on the name Sable. I actually came up with a good name while attending a Dave Alvin concert last night, but couldn't remember it in the morning (yes, I stand around thinking up names for kitties while attending concerts by rock 'n' roll combos--yet another window into my soul, courtesy of Blogger). But whatever name slipped into the ether, I do think the name Sable suits her, even if does sound a bit like a stripper.

Good news: I got out of jury duty.

My vacation is approaching, and I was thinking about how to spend my evening in Los Angeles, when inspiration struck. Sadly, an internet search revealed that the Naked Trucker (aka Dave "Gruber" Allen), whom I've been wanting to see live for some time), was performing the night before I'm in town, and the night after, but not that Thursday. But apparently he's taping a new series for Comedy Central, so I'll be able to see him in all his glory, eventually.

David Brent in Microsoft training videos. Kind of long, and the best stuff tends to be near the end, but worth watching.

Vintage drug ads.

A movie version of Sweeney Todd starring Johnny Depp has been green-lit. Tim Burton seems a great choice to direct a film based on one of my favorite musicals, but I share Sondheim's reservations about Depp.

The Meat Purveyors are splitting up, according to their MySpace blog. Very sad that I never had a chance to see them live. Their Oregon show almost coincides with my vacation, I'm tempted to go see that show, but I don't see how I can stretch my vacation that much. At least their new album was good, so they're leaving on a high note.

Wondering why you can't buy a copy of a newpaper from a vending machine in Las Vegas? Turns out the porn industry is to blame. Though you probably already figured as much. This Question of the Day is only available today, August 9th, after which you'd need a Las Vegas Advisor subscription to access it (the coupon book is a good deal for many Vegas travellers, depending on your needs, but I wouldn't recommend signing up just to learn about the newspaper/vending machine/porn nexis).

I just had a conversation in which it was revealed that I had Steve Gutenberg and Judge Reinhold confused. Anyone have any idea how this might have happened? The two look nothing alike, and I'm not aware of any similar roles they played. The only thing I can think of is the names, Gutenberg Bible being what Judges might have sworn you in on at one time. Anyway, I felt a little foolish about that mix-up, especially since I realize I'd been confused on this matter for some time (how Reinhold's appearance on Arrested Development didn't set me straight, I don't know).

Another embarassing item, I passed out at the blood bank on Monday. I've given blood quite a few times with no issues, so it was a bit surprising. But suddenly some nurse asked if I was okay, and I said I was fine, and gradually came to realize I was on the floor. I think it happened because I haven't slept well lately, and Monday was my first chance in awhile to sleep in, so I didn't get up until about 11:30, which means I didn't have breakfast, and I wasn't drinking water all morning. But in my fall, I apparently hurt my shoulder, which is still a bit sore this evening. I planned to go to the gym this evening and see if I could loosen it up, but decided on second chance I should take it easy a few days until I'm sure I'm back to normal. In any event, be assured that I will get up early the next time I give blood, have a big breakfast and drink lots of water.

Randy Newman kept an online journal from his recent European tour. I am excited to be seeing him this Wednesday at Humphrey's. Also excited to be seeing Ramblin' Jack Elliot tonight.

For some months now, I have been meaning to plan a vacation to Las Vegas. I'm sure faithful readers of this blog have been very concerned for my mental health, taking notice of how long it's been since I've been to my true spiritual home. But I recently got word that my sister received four passes for a tour of the Charles M. Schultz Museum from her local PBS affiliate. The tickets are good until sometime next year, but I've been meaning to go there for some time, and now seemed as good as any time. So I've decided to scrap my Vegas vacation and go up to see her and the baby.

As driving up to San Jose would involve passing through Los Angeles, I thought of stopping off at the Museum of Jurassic Technology, which I have badly wanted to visit since learning of its existence. But it doesn't open until noon on Friday, and looks like it requires a few hours to get the whole experience, seeing as they screen two one-hour films in addition to the museum. So I thought I might have to save the museum for another time, even though I really am anxious to experience this rather odd place. But then I remembered that I keep seeing advertisements on the TV in which George Lopez tells me and my fellow Southern Californians that we should take our vacations in Los Angeles, and I decided that George Lopez seems pretty on the ball, so I'll go ahead and make a day of it, and spent the night in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, I'm planning on going right after Labor Day, and I've noticed several attractions (most notably the Huntington Library) I would like to attend have reduced hours in the post-Labor Day off-season. So seeing it all in one day will be a bit tricky (fortunately, the Museum of Jurassic Technology is open late). I'm considering spending two nights in Los Angeles, so I have a whole day with no travel time (except for the eternity it takes to get anywhere within Los Angeles), but since the room rates I've found for basic accomodations in neighborhoods I think are reasonably safe look to start at $99/night, if I can keep it to one night, that'd be good. I was also thinking about visiting the Hearst Castle on my way home from San Jose, and staying somewhere along the coast that night, rather than driving all the way home in one day. I haven't yet decided where I would like to stay, though, and as I was looking into the details of the Hearst Castle tours, it dawned on me that my plans would put me there on September 11, and I had to ask myself if it was appropriate to ogle the ostentatious wealth of a prototypical American fat cat on a date on which, while I mostly haven't done much to commemorate those who died, it seems fitting that I at least comport oneself in a subdued and contemplative manner.

Anyways, I spent most of this evening perusing various websites (AAA's, mostly) for ideas of things to see in Los Angeles (I'd planned to see Cash'd Out at the Casbah tonight, but I wasn't feeling very good, so I decided to stay in). I'm thinking maybe I'll go to the Los Angeles Arboretum and Botanical Garden first, as it's near the Huntington Library, and then head over to the Museum of Jurassic Technology. I'd like to visit Will Rogers State Historical Park, but I don't think I'll have time, just as I know I won't have time for the Getty Center, unless I decide to add a day to my stay. Any suggestions of things to do in Los Angeles, or of a nice place to spend an evening on my way back from San Jose, are welcome.

I uploaded some pictures from Comic-Con.

I'm sure everyone has been eagerly awaiting my account of Comic-Con 2006. With this damn heat, I've been too lazy to type it up, preferring instead to spend my time staring vacantly into space. But today the heat wave seems to have broken a bit (though the humidity remains), and I was even able to venture to the gym (it actually occurred to me to go down there and go ice skating for the first time in my life, but neither Saturday session was well-timed for me, so I just ended up on a treadmill), so perhaps today is as good a time as any to type about my brief exploration of this years Comic-Con extravaganza.

I suppose I should start with Saturday, since I never got in the building, and it shouldn't take too long to explain why. Generally, I buy the four-day pass well in advance, at a substantial savings. Even if you miss a day, you still come out way ahead on the deal. But I kept putting off the purchase, and as I only planned on attending Friday and Saturday, I decided to just purchase day passes for those two days. So Thursday night, I registered for Friday online. I decided not to purchase a pass for Saturday at that time, so that if I saw everything on Friday, and decided I didn't want to go back on Saturday, I could back off. It seemed a sensible decision, as I hadn't been as excited about Comic-Con as I had in the past (though by Thursday, I was beginning to get Comic-Con Fever). So when I got home on Saturday, around 10:30 or so, I went to register for Saturday, only to find that online registration had been closed due to this year's increase in attendance. Registration on-site Saturday would be available, but not guaranteed.

That didn't sound good, but I decided I had to go try to get in, so I got up Saturday morning and took the trolley down to the convention center. I was expecting a long line, but not what awaited me. The line for on-site registration reached down behind the Hyatt hotel, down to Seaport Village. I gamely tried to find the end of the line for about ten minutes or so, but soon came to the realization that there was no way I would get inside the convention center; the fire marshall would cut off admission long before I got my turn to register (even if I did get inside, the panels I was most interested in were early in the day, when I would still be in line). So I hiked back to the trolley stop and headed home, with a heavy heart. I got a call just before 2:00 from a friend who got in line right at 10:00, who had just gotten inside, and about fifteen minutes later, I looked online and saw the announcement that on-site registration had been shut down. So there was no way I was getting inside; my decision to return home proved to be a wise one.

I think it was a good thing that online registration was closed, as the line to pick up preordered badges was itself horrendous, and I don't think I would have enjoyed waiting in that line (though I would have eventually gotten in), seeing as I had a pounding headache when I got home, and generally felt like crap all day due to, I believe, a touch of heat exhaustion. It is a credit to Comic-Con that they are responsible enough to shut down registration when the enrollment gets to be too great, rather than just selling more and more tickets for more and more people who will spend the bulk of their Comic-Con experience waiting in line in the stifling heat. My sister often complains about the Star Wars convention she goes to sometimes, which has no problems selling tickets without regard to maximum occupancy, so that the fire Marshall shuts them down, and ticket holders can't enter the convention hall. Comic-Con generally does a great job of managing all the logistics of hosting such a massive event, and deserve praise for their hard efforts.

So that's why I didn't get to go on Saturday. Now let me skip back a day, and tell you what I saw when I did get to go inside, on Friday. There wasn't really anything scheduled early in the day I wanted to see, so I took my time getting there, arriving a bit after 11:00. I hoped that the preregistration line might have died down a tad by then, and it had. I waited about ten minutes at the most to pick up my badge, and soon I was on the floor of the convention center. No sooner had I entered the hall and turned the corner then I was face to face with Lou Ferrigno, who was selling autographed polaroids for $20. It was tempting, but I passed. The Lollipop Kid, one of the munchkins from The Wizard of Oz, was selling a very nice looking autographed picture for a bit more, $35, if memory serves. I considered purchasing one as a gift for my sister, but decided to buy it the next day, instead, as I planned on leaving earlier that day, and wouldn't have to carry it around as long. But that wasn't to be, of course. Billy West was also selling autographed pictures, head shots of himself along with some of the animated characters he voices, but as he signed the CD I purchased last year, I passed on that and just snapped a somewhat unflattering shot of him myself, while he told a story about meeting Jerry Lewis (recently, I believe, though I came late to the story).

Of course, autographs aren't the only thing to be had on the Comic-Con floor, and I spent about half the day covering approximately half of the booths. If you've attended in past years, there were no big surprises to be had. Mostly the same merchants selling the same stuff. A piece of Simpsons artwork caught my eye at the Van Eaton Galleries booth, with all the ancillary characters hanging out in Moe's Tavern, but though the price seemed quite reasonable, I decided to pass, as I have no place for it. The Peanuts booth had some nice T-shirts for sale, including two Snoopy Comic-Con exclusives. But they only had the one I wanted, with a more subdued image of my second-favorite beagle, in large, and they ran small, so I had to get the other one, with a glittery Snoopy that probably won't wear well (and even the extra-large was still quite snug and unflattering on me, so I'll have to slim down a bit before I wear that one in public), along with a T-shirt of Snoopy and Woodstock in a sixties motif. I bought one or two comic books, and contemplated some other purchased, which I planned to make on Saturday. I marveled at the detail in the Little Nemo in Slumberland anthology, which I actually held in my hand for the first time at the Bud Plant booth, but decided that was a luxury purchase I could not presently afford. And I ventured past the merchant booths into the center region, where the Hollywood studios and other big-wigs have their booths. I had to pick up some stormtrooper figures for my sister from the Star Wars booth, which only took fifteen minutes or so. Like the booths on the north end of the convention center, there weren't many huge surprises here, with the same companies promoting the sequels of things they promoted here last year. I did think that video games were more heavily represented. I watched some people try out an Eye Toy video game (I must remember to post here about my experience with the Eye Toy, which I purchased a month or so ago), and various other booths also had demo games available. Most elaborate was the Nintendo booth, which was heavily promoting the DS and its games (I didn't notice any reference to the forthcoming Wii). I unfortunately did not bring my DS, so I was unable to download any of the demos they were offering. In fact, that is my primary regret about not getting in on Saturday, as I brought my DS with me and was eager to download the demos of upcoming games.

The southern end of the convention floor included the booths of various independent publishers and some more comics-related booths. There were several booths in particular I was looking for, and I also was anxious to browse amongst the offerings, but by this point, the floor was getting quite crowded. It felt like a Saturday crowd, and it was getting a bit difficult to move. Not gridlock, just slow-going in getting from one point to another. So I decided to move upstairs to the panels, after grabbing lunch, and to save the south end for Saturday. So I can't tell you what was to be seen down there. I waited in line for twenty minutes to spend $11.25 on a (unappetizing) personal pizza and a Snapple, then took my seat for the panels.

One nice thing about how Friday's schedule worked out, almost everything I wanted to see that afternoon was in the same room. So while I was able to get a pretty good seat for the first panel, I was able to get a prime spot for the following panels (though I left to get some dinner and only had an okay seat for that evening's panel with Robert Smigel and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog).

The first panel was a conversation with low-budget filmmaking pioneer Roger Corman. It was fun to hear Corman talk about his experiences and the various filmmakers, and the discussion of Death Race 2000 was especially entertaining, but some of the discussion of his more recent work for the Sci-Fi channel bored me. He was also hurt a bit by the act following him: It's hard to take his B-movie work too seriously when you're waiting to hear from the cast of the first real A-grade sci-fi motion picture, Forbidden Planet. Richard Anderson, Warren Stevens, and Earl Holliman were in attendance, as was Robbie the Robot, or at least a replica of recent vintage. They were at the Con to promote the upcoming DVD release for the film's 50th anniversary. The discussion was not terribly informative, but they all shared their fondness for the film, and also spoke about their career in general (I was happy to hear Holliman menion his role in the very first episode of The Twilight Zone as a moment of his career he was most fond of. They had Robbie the Robot do his sassy robot schtick, which was cute at times, and fortunately they gave it a rest before it got too old. It was more exciting just to see this eight-foot robot up close (there was no one in this suit, they just wheeled it out on a platform). And they positioned it right in front of me, so I got some good shots of it, and of the cast posing with it. I will definately get the DVD when it comes out. I saw Forbidden Planet as a double-feature with 2001: A Space Oddysey some years back, and I thought that Planet was quite easily the better film.

I had dinner at Trophy's, and then came back for the Smigel panel. During Smigel's introduction, the emcee got interupted by Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, who got lots of laughs ripping on the various events at Comic-Con, explaining that these nerds don't need to sit through boring introductions, because these are "nerds with options". When he learned that this panel was next door to a presentation on "Klingon Lifestyles," he insisted on crashing that panel, and ran off, out of camera and microphone range. I can imagine Triumph the Insult Comic Dog at a Klingon Lifestyles Presentation would be something to see, but sadly, as the Smigel panel had started a bit late, the Klingons were already gone. So we got a little more of Triumph, then Smigel moved on to his T.V. Funhouse work for SNL, which is why he was at Comic-Con. I was concerned the panel would be little more then him showing clips from the DVD, but he actually showed a lot from his archives, including stuff I doubt the lawyers will let him put on the DVD. I especially enjoyed a Christmas T.V. Funhouse he did, using real audio from various preachers perverting the Christmas message, as Jesus looks on in the background, getting pissed off. Finally, Jesus is channel-surfing, disgusted by everything he sees, until he ends up watching Linus on A Charlie Brown Christmas, getting teary-eyed before dancing like Snoopy (I would assume this is available via the tubes of the internet, but I can't seem to find a link that works). He discussed how touching he finds the Peanuts special, adding that he wondered if the image of Jesus moved to tears by a cartoon would get a laugh, but explained that it never does, as most others feel the same about the special as he does. Then he noted that Jeannie Schultz, Charles' widow, was in the audience, and she got a nice round of applause. I was surprised she was attending this panel, and wondered what she thought of some of the more risque cartoons.

In addition to T.V. Funhouse, Smigel went into his archives, showing stuff from pilots he's worked on, and from The Dana Carvey Show, amongst other things. I tend to find Smigel's stuff somewhat hit-or-miss, but I got quite a few laughs from what he showed here, and was very excited to see Triumph the Insult Comic Dog in person.

I intended to attend a screening of some of the worst cartoons ever made, but Smigel ran a bit long, and the line to get in to that screening was quite long by the time I arrived, which meant that this screening would probably start late, and I'd get home quite late as well. I was rather wore out, so I decided not to try to get in to see the cartoons, and went home instead.

Overall, I had a pretty good time at Comic-Con this year, on Friday. Had I known it was the only day I would attend, I would have used my time a bit more wisely. But I saw most of what I wanted to see. As to the panels on Saturday, I regret missing out on the opportunity to see Art Clokey, creator of Gumby. I also was looking forward to confronting the current illustrator of The Family Circus, asking him how he sleeps at night. But there was nothing on Saturday I couldn't live without seeing. I just wish I had brought my Nintendo DS on Friday, so I could have gotten the demos from their download station.

I'll try to get my Comic-Con pictures up tomorrow.

Ken Jennings insists his snarky comments were actually a joke. It's rather amusing to read Jenning's original post and then the news coverage of the post. Apparently the ability to read, or rather to comprehend, is no longer a prerequisite to a career in journalism. Or maybe I'm just out of touch, and unaware that The Colbert Report is in fact deadly serious.

Top poker players suing the World Poker Tour over IP, anti-trust concerns. I think they might have a case on the anti-trust aspect, but it seems to me the image concerns are a stretch. The WPT might want to make a deal with these big players, since I'm sure their presence helps with the ratings, but it seems like the agreement they sign is pretty standard, and certainly less onerous than what you sign to be on American Idol and such shows (until I read the American Idol contract, I didn't realize that the phrase "in perpetuity throughout the universe" is actually a term found in legal documents).

I just wrote a nice long post about Comic-Con, and then my browser crashed (thanks again, Adobe Acrobat), so so much for that post. I won't try to recreate it, I was just discussing some of the things I'm most looking forward to seeing. So I suppose you'll have to hear about them after the fact. Anyway, should be an exciting couple of days. I'll be sure to put up a full report, eventually. Maybe even save it a time or two as I proceed (Blogger offers a handy "Recover Post" option that never seems to work).

Doctor and two nurses arrested for euthanizing patients in New Orlean's Memorial Medical Center after Hurricane Katrina. Some months back, NPR ran a facinating and disturbing story about the investigation. Are the arrested medical personnel guilty? I don't know. But what disturbed me about the NPR story was the fixation on whether a lethal cocktail of drugs was administered to the patients. The implication being, that abandoning these patients to die of "natural" causes in the evacuated hospital would have been perfectly legal and ethical. To quote from the NPR article:

According to court documents reviewed by NPR, a key discussion took place on Thursday, Sept. 1, during an incident-command meeting held on the hospital's emergency ramp. A nurse told LifeCare's pharmacy director that the hospital's seventh-floor LifeCare patients were critical and not expected to be evacuated with the rest of the hospital. According to statements given to an investigator in the attorney general's office, LifeCare's pharmacy director, the director of physical medicine and an assistant administrator say they were told that the evacuation plan for the seventh floor was to "not leave any living patients behind," and that "a lethal dose would be administered," according to their statements in court documents.

Now, as I understand this passage and the rest of the article, my understanding of the timeline seems to be that it was concluded, with evacuation efforts faltering, that the patients were to be abandoned, and then some staff members concluded that those to be abandoned should, out of human decency, be euthanized. If there is criminal conduct here, it is in abandoning these patients, not in giving them morphine. In discussing the difficulty of conducting forensic analysis on the deceased, the NPR piece notes that "the bodies were not retrieved from the hospital until two weeks after the storm and were in advanced stages of decomposition." So the patients were abandoned for two weeks without food or water, in a hospital with no electricity where temperatures were well above 100 degrees. Yeah, giving morphine to someone in that position is clearly immoral.

Again, I really don't know what happend in that hospital, and I can't say for sure whether those arrested today are guilty. But to me, guilt or innocence should not come down to who gave morphine to whom. If the people arrested made the decision to abandon the patients (i.e., they concluded that euthanizing them would be easier than moving them), they deserve their present fate. But if they were merely responding to the failure of someone (the hospital? FEMA?) to evacuate the most vulnerable patients of Memorial Medical Center, then I believe a grave miscarriage of justice is in the works.

Home of the Groove discusses Fat Domino's cover of Randy Newman's "Have You Seen My Baby." I never realized Fats does not play piano on the Fats is Back album, let alone that Newman himself played on the album (I knew he arranged some material, but not that he performed).

Incidentally, if you enjoy the song posted on the blog above, you'll love Sweet Patootie, from Rhino Homemade, which includes material from Fats is Back and other ancillary recordings.

I saw Strangers With Candy this evening. The film drew a nice crowd out to the Ken Cinema to see it on a sweltering Friday night, and it got pretty hot in the auditorium. But I was laughing so hard I didn't realize I was sweating like a pig (a "pig newton," to quote the film) until the lights came up. I was really looking forward to this movie, as Strangers With Candy is easily in my top five favorite TV shows of all time. And the film pretty much gives fans of the TV show what they want. I must admit, compared to the TV show, the movie isn't as good as half the episodes. And the film recycles a fair number of jokes from the show--but at least they're funny jokes. Still, there's a lot to like here, for fans of the show. I'm not sure what those unfamiliar with the series will think. I think you can appreciate it, generally, but will always feel a few steps behind the movie. The movie is for fans of the series, and I for one really enjoyed it. Good times!

The Daily Show tackles net neutrality and the internet gambling ban. Funny, funny stuff.