Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Ask me - I live there (Finally, my review of Vic and Sade)
I live in a small house halfway up the next block.
I spend hours most everyday pouring over Vic and Sade
material - most of it is stuff I have written myself. There's no cure for me - the lure of being in the small town
halfway up the next block is too strong.
It's become commonplace for me to imagine myself as a fly on the wall at
the Gook house.
There's little plot.
What I hear are bits and pieces of stories, generally about people I
have heard of, but I don't "know."
Well, I DO know them because the Gooks talk about them all of the time.
The Gooks are not really doing anything - which may seem to
make the show slow. But what they are
actually doing is having a "conversation." And while they are having
their conversations, it's plausible to say that Vic is not really listening to
Sade and he sure isn't listening to Rush.
Sade is not listening to Vic or Rush.
Rush is reading from his books - outloud - and no one else really wants
to hear "that trash." Uncle
Fletcher is either DEMANDING to be heard or goes away quietly. Meanwhile, everyone is talking over each
other, striving for someone to hear what they say.
It sounds chaotic - and it is - but there is a magical
rhythm to it that becomes predictable after a while of listening. As a matter of fact, the show is all about
rhythms: Brainfeeble... Kneesuffer... Gutstop... Kissy Lunge... J.J.J.J.
Stunbolt, Y.I.I.Y Skeeber, for crying out loud. The whole secret of the show is acclimating yourself to the rhythm
of what's being spoken. Once you learn
that, you don't really care what they say.
The rhythm and the very silly names (Cupid and Stupid Golfbake, Robert
and Slobert Hink, Rishigan Fishigan from Sishigan, Michigan) are jumbled up
inside of the rhetoric - but then you soak up the ridiculous situations and reflect
on your knowledge that has been passed along before - because the continuity is
overwhelmingly good and you realize - yes, these friends of the Gooks are crazier than they are and everything that's been said is completely plausible.
Writer Paul Rhymer often took normal situations and made the
most ridiculous things happen in the 1940's; for instance, a set of four
idental twins call the Gook residence, think Rush is a girl, asks Sade how much
she weighs naked.
Vic's visiting lodge brothers might come for a visit; not 2 or 3 but 19 of them.
Or Vic -very intelligent yet a big "kid" trapped
in a man's body- having to have his wife participate in one of his strange
lodge ceremonies (he tells her to screw in a green lightbulb, make him soup and
serve it to him barefooted.) Then there
was the time that Vic complimented Sade's fat friend on a dress she was
wearing; the fat friend gains confidence because of this and buys a new
dress. The fat lady then invites the
Gooks over hoping Vic again will compliment her and he's reluctantly prepared
to do so until he finds a set of antique guns and a cowboy hat over at her
house - he dons them all and literally psychotically
escapes into a world where he looks to kill desperados. When the fat lady comes out to show Vic her
new dress, he doesn't give a flying fang about it - all he cares about are the
cattle rustlers he's imagined he can shoot.
Sade on the other hand, is all about some gossip. She loves to share it with anyone who will
listen; the family listens only out of being forced to. Sade is thrilled when she gets a boring,
predictable letter from her sister but the family could care less. Vic and Rush care less, eh? Well She'll guilt trip them and nag them to
death. And she does. And it's hilarious.
Sade is uneducated and doesn't understand even the simplest
math. Her vocabulary is short as
well. Yet, her enormous powers of
insight and observation make fools out of the much-better-educated Vic and Rush
almost every show.
The women in her sewing club can get furious at each other over the fact that one has smaller feet than the other.
Rush is "a big old high school boy" but cares
little about girls - he's enamored with counterfieting ___ (fill in the blank)
and movies at the theatre, which are at least 90% love stories. No, Rush isn't gay - I think he gets a kick
out of watching these movies as there are no other movies to watch. His adopted mother and father sure aren't
about affection nor listening to him, so he watches the love stories.
Sometimes, he and his father conspire to do dirty deeds like
draw a pencil mustache on a sleeping, silly neighbor who cries all the time and is afraid of
the dark.
Uncle Fletcher is a head case. But is he crazy, senile or are his stories so crazy that they only
make him appear nuts?
He knows an
endless line of inventors. He enjoys riding on the garbage wagon. He knows the ages of people when they got married. He seems to
be endlessly rich. Yet his passion in
life seems to be his friends and his family.
Everyone loves Uncle Fletcher even though he is bothersome, partially deaf and
probably as nutty as a squirel's house.
If it appears to you the family is disfunctional - think
again. They are simply quirky and they
all know quirky people.
©Jimbo 2010/2011
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Things I can't stand in shows I like
I can't guarantee that I currently listen to more old-time radio than anyone in the world but I'll bet I'm in the top twenty! Alot of my day is filled with the pleasing tones of OTR.
I have written a lot in this blog and I have have often written about things I don't like. I thought I'd share with you today about some of the things I don't like in some of the shows I do like. Was that clear? Okay, moving on...
For instance, in the Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show, I can find a number of things I don't like. The live audience for one. It works on some shows but it doesn't always fit the bill on this show, for me anyway. The constant jokes about alcohol could go as well. Julis Abroozio is loud and obnoxious; as much as I enjoy Walter Tetley, I do believe I enjoy the subtler "Leroy" better than Julius. The impromptu songs could go too; I shuffle right on by them with my iPod when I'm listening.
Listening the Jack Benny Show, I find myself -at times- wondering why I am listening to the show at all. Mary's dumb poems and even more dumb laugh. I know, that's Mary; but Mary is a goofball. Have you ever listened to the background? Don Wilson is laughing at every joke. Fred Allen once made this same observation and everyone laughed at Fred, but it's true. And after listening to the show umpteen times, sometimes I want to get a crane and pick up Don Wilson and drop him in the Pacific Ocean.
I really enjoy The 21st Precinct. It seems the more I listen to the show, the more I like it. But I could kill somebody whenever I hear the telephone "ring" at the station house. It's not a ring but a buzzer that sounds like a thousand woodpeckers are boring a hole in your ears.
I generally enjoy the comedies of the Golden Age but my goodness, seriously, how many songs do you have to have in a show? There's always that one or two minutes of the orchestra playing at the very beginning, then about six minutes in, the orchestra plays another song; 8 or 9 minutes later, some tenor is up at the microphone wailing away and then you have the ending music. I have no idea how anyone could stand listening to the singing back then, aside from The Andrews Sisters.
Here you go: I'm even going to find fault in the show, You Bet Your Life. Since most of the shows were also simulcast to television, sometimes it is near impossible to know what is actually going on. For instance, if couples tie and have to answer the final questions together and write down their answer, you may as well forget it, you'll never know who won. Groucho won't tell you. He'll tell you someone won and the crowd will cheer and you're sitting there mad for a minute or two...
I'm starting to get into Boston Blackie. The show is fun and the more I listen, the more I like it. But whose idea was it to use the organ as much as they do on that show? Organs are very annoying to me. I'd like to destroy all of them with a wrecking ball. On the Boston Blackie program, it sounds a team of monkeys are playing the organ.
I can't remember how many times I have heard or read people enjoying dumb secretaries on shows. Box 13, The Great Gildersleeve, The Adventures of Sam Spade and on and on. I'm sorry. I'm not in that camp - I can do without the dumb secretaries. It also occurs to me that housekeepers are generally in the same category. I know I've harped on specific ones before but golly - I just don't like them.
©Jimbo 2010/2011
I have written a lot in this blog and I have have often written about things I don't like. I thought I'd share with you today about some of the things I don't like in some of the shows I do like. Was that clear? Okay, moving on...
For instance, in the Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show, I can find a number of things I don't like. The live audience for one. It works on some shows but it doesn't always fit the bill on this show, for me anyway. The constant jokes about alcohol could go as well. Julis Abroozio is loud and obnoxious; as much as I enjoy Walter Tetley, I do believe I enjoy the subtler "Leroy" better than Julius. The impromptu songs could go too; I shuffle right on by them with my iPod when I'm listening.
Listening the Jack Benny Show, I find myself -at times- wondering why I am listening to the show at all. Mary's dumb poems and even more dumb laugh. I know, that's Mary; but Mary is a goofball. Have you ever listened to the background? Don Wilson is laughing at every joke. Fred Allen once made this same observation and everyone laughed at Fred, but it's true. And after listening to the show umpteen times, sometimes I want to get a crane and pick up Don Wilson and drop him in the Pacific Ocean.
I really enjoy The 21st Precinct. It seems the more I listen to the show, the more I like it. But I could kill somebody whenever I hear the telephone "ring" at the station house. It's not a ring but a buzzer that sounds like a thousand woodpeckers are boring a hole in your ears.
I generally enjoy the comedies of the Golden Age but my goodness, seriously, how many songs do you have to have in a show? There's always that one or two minutes of the orchestra playing at the very beginning, then about six minutes in, the orchestra plays another song; 8 or 9 minutes later, some tenor is up at the microphone wailing away and then you have the ending music. I have no idea how anyone could stand listening to the singing back then, aside from The Andrews Sisters.
Here you go: I'm even going to find fault in the show, You Bet Your Life. Since most of the shows were also simulcast to television, sometimes it is near impossible to know what is actually going on. For instance, if couples tie and have to answer the final questions together and write down their answer, you may as well forget it, you'll never know who won. Groucho won't tell you. He'll tell you someone won and the crowd will cheer and you're sitting there mad for a minute or two...
I'm starting to get into Boston Blackie. The show is fun and the more I listen, the more I like it. But whose idea was it to use the organ as much as they do on that show? Organs are very annoying to me. I'd like to destroy all of them with a wrecking ball. On the Boston Blackie program, it sounds a team of monkeys are playing the organ.
I can't remember how many times I have heard or read people enjoying dumb secretaries on shows. Box 13, The Great Gildersleeve, The Adventures of Sam Spade and on and on. I'm sorry. I'm not in that camp - I can do without the dumb secretaries. It also occurs to me that housekeepers are generally in the same category. I know I've harped on specific ones before but golly - I just don't like them.
©Jimbo 2010/2011
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
I Can't Stand Jack Benny Because...
He fills the air with boasts and brags,
And obsolete obnoxious gags.
The way he plays his violin
is Music's most obnoxious sin.
His cowardice alone, indeed,
Is matched by his obnoxious greed.
And all the things that he portrays
Show up my own obnoxious ways.
And obsolete obnoxious gags.
The way he plays his violin
is Music's most obnoxious sin.
His cowardice alone, indeed,
Is matched by his obnoxious greed.
And all the things that he portrays
Show up my own obnoxious ways.
- Carroll P. Craig, Sr.(1945)
Winning entry in the 1945 "I Can't Stand Jack Benny Because. . ."Contest.
Today would have been Jack Benny's birthday!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
