Tuesday, April 30, 2019

Bootlegging and Fingerprinting...and Stealing my Brother Theodore Photos

Do I even need to repeat this?

"The lawless Internet has changed all the rules."

Even "nice" people copy everything. They download all the movies and TV shows. The upload to YouTube and maybe even say "I don't own copyright, I just like this." And YouTube (owned by Google) is ok with that.

At one time, you could hardly even xerox a page in a library without worrying if you'd get thrown out.

Now, everybody copies everything. Yes, you have the professional plagiarists like NEWSER, and other websites that simply copy and re-write what they see on REAL news sites. You have forums and torrents, and bloggers (Google owns Blogspot, the worst offender) who figure they're entitled to ANYTHING on the Net. "Copyright is copy WRONG."

You think my name on this photo of Brother Theodore even gets me a photo credit? Nope. People routinely Photoshop the photo credits off. They either want to pretend THEY own the image, or they don't want to blatantly be caught using somebody else's photo without permission.

What do I do, "watermark" the photo, and put a transparent COPYRIGHT RONALD L. SMITH over Theodore's face?

Do I add: "DON'T COPY?"

Back in the late 80's, before there WAS an Internet, my friend Theodore was using a publicity photo from the 50's. We decided he should have a new publicity photo.

We went down to the 13th Street Theater, where he performed his Saturday night one-man show, and I used his lighting set-up for a few rolls of color and black and white. I rented a darkroom and printed out a dozen or two 8x10's for him to choose from.

At this point, you can find them all over the Internet, almost always WITHOUT a photo credit.

Bootleggers have used the above image to sell CDs on obscure websites.

A 70 minute documentary about Theodore, produced by a first-timer from South Carolina named Jeff Sumerel, uses my uncredited photo on IMDB.

Google "Brother Theodore" and you'll see quite a few of my photos being used all over the place. Uncredited.

As with music bootleggers, who write "if you like it, buy it" some sites say in small letters, "image may be copyrighted." As if I'm going to track down some asshole and sue. "What are your damages?"

Generally it isn't worth a lawyer's time and Internet weasels aren't easy to dig out of their holes.

Google DOES have the "face recognition technology" to block images on their search engine and on their notorious BLOGS and YOUTUBE. They COULD siphon off ten cents or fifty cents or a few bucks from somebody's G-PAY account for usage. As in: "Pay up or we block the image."

On YOUTUBE their sensors actually do detect the use of Warner Bros. movie clips or various songs, and tell the uploader, "your upload has been blocked" or, "your upload stays but YOU don't get monetization, the copyright owner does."

How about that happening with photos?

Yeah, how about that. It won't happen because photographers have no union. They have no lobbyists. At best, there are a few photo agencies, such as Getty, that are badly run, don't encourage submissions, and are, like the RIAA and the rest, making enough without rocking the boat on behalf of the mere FOOLS who supply them with material.

While Theodore was around, payment was certainly not important to me. Any magazine or newspaper that wanted to use one of my pictures was free to...get it FREE. The important thing was publicity for my good friend. Now? It would be nice if my images were ONLY being used in non-commercial ways, and by people who asked. But that's not how the Internet works.

As Theodore used to say, "In this best of all possible worlds...everything is in a hell of a mess."

FAKE QUIZ SHOW FACTS

Make a Film Stoned

Yeah, you lay down your hashtag and here comes...my favorite waste of time. A few minutes of Photoshop to make it real.

Thursday, April 25, 2019

STAMP OUT DALE CARNEGIE - The Post Office Needs to FLAN UP and LICK DALE!

Dale Carnegie was one of our greatest Americans.

His wisdom and common sense have helped millions of people achieve a better life.

He deserves better than flan.

Yes, the peculiar latino dessert. Flan.

You know, that DELICIOSO dessert nobody eats.

Back in 2017 our United States Post Office decided to salute...South American, Mexican and Caribbean foods with a set of stamps.

Yes, the AMERICAN POST OFFICE saluted FLAN. As well as empanadas and SANCOCHO...

I've had flan a few times. I was not impressed.

I've read the books of Dale Carnegie. They have had a positive impact on my life, and both the books and adult education courses Carnegie pioneered have used American values to enrich not only Americans, but people in South America, Mexico, the Caribbean and all over the world.

"How to Win Friends and Influence People."

"How to Stop Worrying and Start Living."

"The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking."

"Develop Self Confidence Improve Public Speaking."

"The Leader In You."

And more.

Dale Carnegie practically invented the "self help" genre. He also wrote "Lincoln The Unknown," his salute to another great American.

WHY HASN'T HE GOTTEN HIS OWN STAMP?

A check of current U.S. Stamps shows us a lot of semi-known and fairly insignificant people getting this honor.

"Little Mo?" A tennis player? Why? And why NOW? How has a dead tennis player influenced anyone? Compare her to Dale Carnegie, and the books that, every single day, give people the tools they need to make their lives better.

Oh, compare HER. Ah, got it. DIVERSITY. Mo is a FEMALE.

Who else has been honored recently?

Gregory Hines. Anyone able to instantly name a film or a show he was in? Anyone care? Ah. DIVERSITY. He's BLACK.

Fine, we must give minorities something to stick on their envelopes and feel proud.

But explain THESE recent stamps...

Perhaps, PERHAPS, a good reason to put somebody on a stamp is to call attention to his or her good deeds.

As in: "Never heard of this person. Let me go to wikipedia and find out why this person is on a stamp."

That would include THESE PEOPLE:

There's nothing wrong with pandering to the race card in some cases, but a BIT of equality would be nice. An ordinary white guy who did an extraordinary job of making lives better for people ALL AROUND THE WORLD...isn't that a GREAT AMERICAN?

Is it more important to remind Americans that fruit tastes good?

How about this: Dale Carnegie wrote several best sellers. Ezra Jack Keats wrote a book most people never heard of:

Fact: none of the stamps above involves anything as far-reaching and meaningful as "How to Win Friends and Influence People," a Bible of good advice, a Koran of wisdom, a Rumi-roomful of good advice for getting along with everyone socially and at work. Few authors have had the wide-reaching influence of Dale Carnegie. Dale Carnegie's books have been in print continuously, and selling among the best in their category, for close to 100 years.

How somebody or some THING gets nominated for a postage stamp is a peculiar and secretive undertaking. Nobody has been able to explain what kind of lobbying or salesmanship is involved.

I used to think that Dale Carnegie's honor was being held up because there are Carnegie schools around, and his "PRODUCT" is sold in bookstores. But the post office is VERY commercial about putting rock stars on stamps, even rock stars with very questionable lifestyles. The post office has routinely put cartoon characters on stamps of which "Scooby Doo" is just the latest.

Would it help to say that Dale Carnegie was handicapped? Would that aid in the DIVERSITY needed to put him on a stamp in the 21st Century? OK, he ripped out his ring finger during a climbing accident. Still, that's a reason to feel sorry for him. He achieved so much despite this mutilation.

So, U.S. Post Office, celebrate a white guy who overcame a handicap. From humble beginnings, from failed careers as a biographer and a door-to-door salesman, Dale became an inspirational book author, a "self help" guru, and a leader in education. He did it all while missing a finger. And for taking so long to honor him, and for probably continuing to put him behind fruits, vegetables, and unknowns of color, YOU get the FINGER from ME.

Wednesday, April 24, 2019

When Does the Hank Williams Statue FALL IN ALABAMA?

The scene is Montgomery, Alabama. A genial white man looks at a black child, smiles and says to a few people nearby, "...curly hair, protruding lips. I must have seen a hundred of 'em..."

The people around him cringe a little.

A black voice calls out, "HE A RACIST! RUN HIM OUT OF TOWN! WHATEVER JOB HE HAS, FIRE HIM!"

The white man says, "Oh, I didn't mean anything. What do you mean? That little child does have curly hair and protruding lips. But so do most COLORED people...."

WHAT? That should be "people of color!"

Still, what do you do with somebody who isn't really a racist, but a bit clueless, perhaps. He's somebody old, who hasn't kept up with how quickly, and venemously, "political correctness" can end careers.

You simply tell a gent like this, "Times have changed, and we use different words. Martin Luther King Jr. may have used "Negro" but now we say "Black." That kind of thing. You mean well, but please choose your words more carefully."

He nods. And he's not fired. He's not run out of town.

BUT...

What if he's HANK WILLIAMS?

What if he's got a STATUE on display in Montgomery, Alabama?

Considering what just happened to Kate Smith, would it be a surprise if something he said YEARS ago leads to his statue's destruction, and his reputation stained with the charge of RACISM?

THIS statue:

"Hey, Hank Williams once described a black child in a bad way. HE BE RACIST. Let's get that statue taken DOWN!"

WILL that happen?

I was thinking about how Kate Smith's statue got pulled down because she sang a sympathetic song aimed at the "pickaninnies" in an orphanage. She sang about how they should look past their misery and dream about a Candyland where there would be a river of lemonade, and lots of watermelon to eat. Check my post on Kate Smith here, and you'll see how a nice fat lady who only wanted to be kind to black kids, has now been portrayed by a monster. Keep in mind that black kids back then (1933) would've jumped with joy at meeting Kate Smith, and would not have considered "pickannines" an offensive word.

Scholars have lost the trail here and there, but the word goes back to a "pequeno," as the Latinos put it, a "pickney" in Jamaica, a "piccaninny" in Australia and "pikinini" in Papua New Guinea and other islands.

Generally a term of affection, there's a Hal Roach comedy short in 1921 featuring black child actor "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison called "The Pickaninny."

Kate Smith, one of America's icons, was painted as a racist and a bigot because a few songs. (The other, "That's Why Darkies Were Born" was also covered by Paul Robeson).

The Philadelphia Flyers knocked down her statue outside the stadium (she was often at Flyers games to sing "God Bless America"). What they SHOULD have done was tell any anonymous, sulky whiner playing the race card, "Kate Smith was not a racist, she sang a song that was fine with the times, and she loved all children. Look at the movie and see how she sings this song with warmth in her heart. Now fuck off."

Is the Hank Williams statue in jeopardy because of a kneejerk reaction from guilty whites?

Damn right it's in jeopardy.

"HE BE RACIST! Listen to what he said! He said COLORED! He said PROTRUDING LIPS! What a horrible man! He did it because HE A BIGOT, not because he had sympathy for a dead child at a funeral! HE BE RACIST LIKE THAT WHITE LADY KATE SMITH!"

The track is "The Funeral."

It's loaded with terms most would find OFFENSIVE if offered on any record album by any contemporary performer.

But just as Kate Smith's statue was taken down because of a song that is NOW OBSCURE, and was only ONE of THOUSANDS she recorded, Hank is in jeopardy over a song, VERY OBSCURE, that was only ONE of HUNDREDS he recorded.

As "Luke the Drifter," Hank talks about a funeral in a Southern town: "Out front a colored couple sat in sorrow nearly wild

On the altar was a casket and in the casket was a child

I could picture him while living, curly hair protruding lips

I'd seen perhaps a thousand in my hurried southern trips

Then rose a sad, old colored preacher from his little wooden desk

With a manner sort of awkward and countenance grotesque

The simplicity and shrewdness in his Ethiopian face

Showed the wisdom and the ignorance of a crushed, undying race

And he said, "Now don't be weepin' for this pretty bit of clay

For the little boy who lived there has done gone and run away

He was doing very finely and he 'ppreciates your love

But his sho 'nough father wanted him in the big house up above

What do we make of HANK WILLIAMS. Do we make a fuss about him and take down the statue, as the Philadelphia Flyers just did with Kate Smith?

Or do we have a dialogue, and understand that Hank meant no offense, but only sympathy?

Is it better to be a sanctimonious hypocrite and pretend that taking down a statue over ONE song is the moral high road? Or is it more in the American Way to NOT censor, and NOT bully, and NOT be so stubborn and intolerant as to judge someone guilty based on poor evidence?

The rush to judgment in the case of Kate Smith could and probably will happen again.

The politicians who successfully have taken down statue, the owners of the Flyers who did it a few days ago, are not likely to encounter violent protests, or anything more than a letter to the Times or a few Tweets or blog posts.

It would not be too surprising if Hank Williams and "Luke the Drifter" get banned, and few play the records and few dare mention the name, and the statue lies shattered to pieces. That's how things are drifting in this peculiarly chaotic PC world.

Put a Name in a Film Title

Yeah, somebody does a hashtag request, and I have nothing better to do...

Sunday, April 21, 2019

Statuetory Rape of KATE SMITH by the ignorant kneejerk PHILADELPHIA FLYERS

Taking down statues.

That's the big deal these days thanks to finger-pointing PC witch hunts. And you thought the McCarthy Era was over!

"Oooh, there's Dr. J. Marion Simms' statue in Central Park. He be racist!" So says some loudmouth politician. Rather than debating the facts, or getting them RIGHT, out goes to the statue, literally to the graveyard where the man is buried.

"Oooh, Stephen Foster, he be racist!"

So say the finger-pointers who apparently never heard a heartfelt rendition of "Old Black Joe." It would seem that Stephen Foster, at best, shared the same view of slaves as Abraham Lincoln did.

Honest Abe once wrote to a friend, Joshua Speed:

"....in regard to your slaves. I confess I hate to see the poor creatures hunted down, and caught, and carried back to their stripes, and unrewarded toils...You may remember, as I well do, that from Louisville to the mouth of the Ohio, there were, on board, ten or a dozen slaves, shackled together with irons. That sight was a continued torment to me..."

Is it at all POSSIBLE that Foster, who loved Dixie, also felt compassion for Old Black Joe and other slaves? But let's ignore that for the sake of some smug bullies playing the race card. TAKE DOWN THE STATUE.

The latest statue to fall? KATE SMITH of all people.

KATE SMITH, the woman who is on a U.S. Postage Stamp.

THAT Kate Smith.

In her prime, when Franklin Roosevelt was President, she was presented to England's King George VI. President Roosevelt said:

“This is Kate Smith. Miss Smith is America."

Decades later, Kate Smith was awarded The Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Until this past week, Kate was heard by millions every year singing "God Bless America" at Flyers games, and at New York Yankees games. These are two teams that didn't bother to hire a black player until most other teams in their leagues had already done so. The Yankees were among the LAST to acquire a black player (Elston Howard). They recently stopped playing Kate Smith's version of "God Bless America" at home games, and a few days later, the Flyers made a similar decision, AND they cloaked and then removed her statue.

Yeah, Kate Smith, SHE BE RACIST, Y'ALL.

Did the Yankees or Flyers investigate Kate Smith and find proof of this? That she never worked with a black musician? Never autographed something for a black fan? Did anything bigoted?

What happened to "innocent till proven guilty?"

No, no, some ANONYMOUS finger-pointer played the race card, and in this PC world, that's enough to screw up all rules and common sense, and kneejerk the wrong response, and bend over backwards because of somebody's ignorance and screeching.

Face it, if the actual Yankees and Flyers players were like their owners, and did the bending over backwards and the kneejerking, they would all be on the disabled list.

Meet you after the break...

The decision to ban Kate Smith's nostalgic recording was based on...two obscure songs that nobody ever plays! In fact, one of them she apparently didn't even record, but sang in an obscure movie almost nobody's seen since it came out.

She recorded THOUSANDS of songs...on 78 rpm singles, on albums, on transcription discs for radio broadcasts. TWO are objectionable to a few quivering wimps and sanctimonious clods at the Yankees and Flyers front office.

Up until recently, racial humor was ok. It was ok for Chico Marx to do an Italian accent. It was ok for the Marx Brothers to end "Room Service" with a ridiculous rendition of "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" that included a few "Yeah, man" black-stereotype impressions from Groucho. It was ok for some uncomfortable stereotype black people to dance with Harpo in "A Day at the Races." It was OK for Groucho to make endless jokes fat-shaming Margaret Dumont.

Now fat Kate Smith has been slandered and nobody thinks it's a shame?

The 30's. The 40's. Kate Smith was popular on records and on radio. Also popular? Warner Bros. cartoons. In "Fresh Hare," the punchline was Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd in blackface, with minstrels in the background:

Warners was the company that made Al Jolson the star of their first talkie, "The Jazz Singer," in which he, of course, sang in blackface.

Do we NOT show ANY movies made by Warner Bros. anymore? Is that the punishment because a few of their cartoons aren't PC anymore?

Of course not. Because Warner Bros. is a a multi-million-dollar company. Kate Smith is one dead singer. Her distant relatives are being ignored.

Who is speaking up for Kate Smith? Her niece. Some white woman who doesn't matter to the Yankees or the gutless Flyers who could've said, "We aren't jumping to the wrong conclusion just because of the Yankees." Kate's niece Suzy Andron spoke to a few reporters but how many papers, magazines, or Internet websites picked up on it? Almost none.

“I’m appalled,” she said of the mistreatment of Kate Smith. “Aunt Katherine was probably one of the kindest people I’ve ever met. She was certainly anything but a prejudice person. She loved everybody.”

Not good enough.

Not good enough in THIS environment, this UN-AMERICAN environment of witch hunts, finger-pointing, and kneejerk decisions where opinion is mistaken as fact.

What ARE the facts here? Kate Smith MADE "God Bless America" great.

Irving Berlin wrote the song in 1918, but nobody cared. 20 years later he sought out Kate Smith with a new version of his song, hoping that with his changes and her talent, it would be a hit. It was.

Kate performed it on her radio show, November 10, 1938. She said it was....

“…a song that’s never been sung before by anybody …one that was written especially for me …a song that will never die."

Kate sang it at many Philadelphia Flyers games in the 70's, and that's why they erected a statue for her. Which they have since taken down.

OK. You want to know what the TWO songs, out of the THOUSANDS Kate sang, led to her downfall.

"Pickaninny Heaven," which she sang in an obscure 1933 movie, is just one of many sympathetic, if misguided songs that condescending whites sang. In the film she prefaced it this way:

"“And now folks, I’m gonna sing this next song for a lot a little colored children listening in an orphanage in New York City. Here ya are, kids..."

Does THAT sound like a racist remark to you?

Take a look at her singing it:

Does this look like a bigot in action?

At the time, "pickaninny" was simply a mild term for a young black child, and there are similar-sounding words in a dozen languages, including Spanish: pequeño. It means LITTLE, that's all. Sammy Morrison, a black child actor used in "Our Gang" comedies, starred in his own short called, yes, "The Pickaninny."

That it's offensive NOW doesn't mean it was offensive then. "Colored people" (as in the NAACP, and as Stevie Wonder's "Living For the City") was likewise a common term at one time.

The Philadelphia Flyers' management cringes and moans and bends over backward and clutches their delicate ears because some anonymous person said "Pssst...Kate Smith sang a few racist songs." No, she didn't. She did NOT. At the time they were NOT racist songs.

That the Flyers are upset that TODAY they might seem racist is absurd. Just tell anyone who is offended NOT to be. The Flyers were playing "God Bless America" at the games. Why not leave it at that? They put up a statue because they wanted to honor her.

There's a statue for Hank Williams. Should THAT be taken down because he once offered a recitation called "The Funeral," that mentioned a "colored" child's "protruding lips?" He didn't mean to be offensive. It's one thing not to play THAT song again or "Pickaninny Heaven," but it's insane to defame the person and ban all their music.

Kate caring about black kids in an orphanage is BIGOTRY? This is a BAD woman??

Yes, the song uses stereotypical phrases that are cringeworthy NOW. But they were NOT CRINGEWORTHY THEN and her intent was to cheer up the kids and not degrade them.

In the song, Kate sang about a fantasy candy-land where there were "great big watermelons" and "a river made of real lemonade."

She sang to THESE kids, who are NOT looking stereotypical:

In one of the opening lines, she tells the children that they will go to this heavenly place and love it: "I'VE BEEN THERE..." says Kate. And then she talks about the joys of this heaven.

Bigotry is the nasty "coon song" that insists blacks are lazy or violent, and there aren't many of them, because hate songs of any type were not what major record labels were about. Not then, not now. The worst and most racist songs on blacks come from small indie labels in the South; "Johnny Rebel" songs with insults and epithets. There are hate forums that offer downloads of them, and unless reported when they appear at auction, sold on eBay, too.

We all know, don't we, about "Old Man River," another song which was intended to be sympathetic to the black plight, but is now considered clumsy and even racist.

"I heard that they've even got a Swanee River made of real lemonade...heaven...heaven...living all together in a gingerbread house...they eat the windows and doors, they eat the ceilings and floors...."

Philadelphia Flyers, you DARE to slander a great American over THAT?

You tell the world that she was a racist and what she's done should be forgotten? You apologize for EVER playing "God Bless America?" How INSANE. How outrageously ridiculous that is. Is this white guilt or PC madness?

Obscure now, but probably as well known as "Old Man River" at one time, is "That's Why Darkies Were Born."

Did you ever hear it?

I never did, up till now, researching this piece. I do recall Groucho Marx using it as a comic punchline. But until this Kate Smith fiasco, I never checked it out. THAT is how obscure the damn thing is.

There are people who don't even know the words to "God Bless America," and the Philadelphia Flyers are concerned that these people have heard an old Kate Smith song that you'd need a turntable to play. You'd need to deliberately go hunting for it on a streaming service like YouTube.

Yes, it's one of those clumsy attempts at explaining why blacks were suffering. The same "logic" has been applied to many minority groups. Jews? They've suffered for 2,000 years. That's part of being the Chosen People. Right? And blacks?

“Someone had to pick the cotton,

Someone had to pick the corn,

Someone had to slave and be able to sing,

That’s why darkies were born;

Someone had to laugh at trouble,

Though he was tired and worn,

Had to be contented with any old thing,

That’s why darkies were born...

Sing, sing, sing when you’re weary and sing when you’re blue,

Sing, sing, that’s what you taught all the white folks to do...

Guess what. Kate Smith didn't WRITE the song. She was one of MANY who merely COVERED it. What say we track down EVERY singer who covered it, and haul their bodies out of their graves and burn them?

If we do that, we'd have to dig up....PAUL ROBESON.

If you want to listen to this song, go over to YOUTUBE and you'll see KATE SMITH and PAUL ROBESON side by side:

Ooops. Did you notice a detail for the Paul Robeson version of "That's Why Darkies Were Born?" It says:

"Provided to YouTube by Warners Music Group."

Yep, them RACIST Warner Bros. again. When, oh when, are the Yankees and Flyers going to persuade the world to boycott ALL Warner Bros. products because of what they did in the 30's and...what they are STILL doing?

Did you notice that the Robeson version was "2008 Remastered?" Yes, they be racist MASTERS to the black slaves! They MASTERED this Darkies song and put it on YOUTUBE. Damn!

Anything else the anti-Smith mob dug up to justify this ridiculous witch hunt? Oh yeah...

While the Yankees and Flyers didn't mention it, there WAS an ad in a 1940 magazine about "Kate Smith's Mammy Doll."

Huh? What up?

No, she was NOT selling a Mammy Doll. She didn't even BUY it. It was GIVEN to her in a made-up comic strip that she may not have even seen before it was published.

This was the same era as UNCLE BEN'S RICE and AUNT JEMIMAH PANCAKES and Hattie McDaniel as Mammy (winning an Academy Award) in "Gone With the Wind." Kitchen help was often "colored," and the term MAMMY was not perjorative.

The Calumet baking powder company used Kate Smith to endorse a cookbook with "147 grand recipes...from the most lavish layer cake to the simplest biscuits..."

For SIX CENTS, to cover the cost of the postage (this was 1940) a person could send away for Kate Smith's Recipe Book.

That's what this ad is all about. Titled "Kate Smith's Mammy Doll," it describes a white woman who frets that she can't cook nearly as well as her colored maid. What CAN she do about this? Well, "Honey Chile" (a term you often heard in those days), the answer was to get a copy of Kate Smith's recipe book.

In the comic panel, we see that this worked like a charm, and one day, Kate Smith received a "mammy doll" in the mail, by way of gratitude.

WHAT is wrong with THAT? Nothing in 1940. Nothing at all. Not a good idea NOW, but why are we applying NOW to what Kate Smith's sponsor did in 1940, or what her record label chose for her?

The surprise, really, is that Smith lasted this long. After all, she IS white, and she sings "God Bless America" all wrong. Not enough SYLLABLES added. You know, the Whitney Hou-oo-ooo--ahh-ooo-ahh-ahh-yehhh-ohhh-ston approach. Today we prefer black singers to sing the National Anthem a sporting events (diversity!) and applaud as they compete for the most ridiculous, and disrespectful show-off version possible.

These days, old white versions of ANYTHING are prone to be tossed in the garbage. Frankly, if the Flyers or Yankees had quietly substituted Ray Charles' classic version of "America" for Kate's "God Bless America," nobody would've cared. It would've simply been a sign that Kate's day had passed. But to have it end with slander, and the taint of racism?

The Philadephia Flyers?

Look at their choice of photo for their Twitter feed. Some toothless violent asshole in a melee:

Isn't it ironic that HOCKEY has some kind of "morals?" If that were really so, there would be no hockey fights. But that's why people come to the games. They're waiting for two morons to drop their fat mitts and grab each other by the shirt and bop some snoot.

Hockey is loaded with toothless redneck WHITE FOLKS on cold ice trying to beat the shit out of each other. If we're being HONEST, the Flyers don't nearly have the amount of black fans that the 76'ers do, and that won't change. Basketball will ALWAYS be more popular than hockey.

It's doubtful the Yankees or Flyers will back off in their sanctimonious ignorance. Things will probably get worse.

When WILL that N-Word be clipped out of every new edition of "Huckleberry Finn" and every old copy BURNED in a huge bonfire? When WILL "The Jazz Singer" DVDs be officially banned from Amazon mail-order, and anyone owning a copy forced to turn their copy over under threat of jail?

Civil liberties and common sense are under fire. In God-less America, faceless corporate owners of sports teams, and power-mad owners of gigantic Internet sites now rule and do as they please. Taking down statues of Dr. Simms, Stephen Foster and Kate Smith is only the beginning. Bullying, censorship, and the ignoring of common sense are all on the rise.

TWEET TWEET TWEET.

The Philadelphia Flyers are not about to APOLOGIZE to Kate Smith's relatives, and declare that they made a ridiculous kneejerk decision without knowing all the facts. They'll continue to shout "God Bless America" even when they are acting like a bunch of Fascists and Communists.

UPDATE APRIL 22

This morning's NY Post confirmed that Kate Smith's statue was taken down, and the idiotic and sanctimonious PRESIDENT of the Philadelphia Flyers was not going to allow something from the "past" to interfere with the good name of the Philadelphia Flyers of today.

Yeah? How many Flyers are black? How many people in your office are black? How DIVERSE are YOU? What's in YOUR past?

We don't know what nameless jerk whispered the "allegations" to you and the Yankees, like some conspiratorial brat in a Lillian Hellman play, but how about if some investigators start checking out every little thing YOU ever said in your life? Or your players? Will you all come up lily-white clean? Or will there be a reason for the ALLEGATIONS to lead to you ALL being fired?

So far, our leerless feader, Donald J. Trump hasn't Tweeted about this affront to America. Maybe it's because he's a fan of bullying and collusion? He doesn't dare do something that might seem like he's not America's greatest Civil Rights leader ("the blacks love me")?

Let's take a look at the Philadelphia Flyers roster.

Hmmm...they don't seem to have much DIVERSITY do they? They talk about what a racist Kate Smith is? Where are all the BLACKS on this team? I see one possible "mixed race" guy, and that's IT.

Who was the race-card-playing troublemaker who told the Flyers and Yankees that Kate Smith was some kind of bigot?

Why isn't the REVERSE noticed? How about the Philadelphia Flyers having almost NO DIVERSITY AT ALL?

Why is that? Doesn't it look like the PHILADELPHIA FLYERS are the RACISTS?

WHITE AS THE ICE. That's the Philadelphia Flyers. A huge field of WHITE ICE with barely one BLACK PUCK.

And yet the owners of the Flyers had the kneejerk wussiness to instantly rush to judgment, and not only ban Kate Smith's "God Bless America" but spend money knocking her statue down!

In an environment of witch hunts and allegations, NOBODY is safe. And that's NOT America.

"Don't it make you feel ashamed, to live in a land where justice is a game..."

REDACTED FILM TITLES

Twitter can be SO rude...

Friday, April 19, 2019

RECORD STORE DAY - WARPED HYPE

Morons grin and tell me, "Vinyl is making a comeback!"

Bless their pointy heads. (I'm referring to the MAN BUN they usually wear.)

No. It is NOT.

"Record Store Day" means even less than a trending Twitter topic like "Today is Peanut Butter Sandwich Day!"

Vinyl is very dead. It's dead even if an artsy band presses up a hundred copies of vinyl. The artsy band may be happy that their relatives, and a few dozen fans buy it up and they make maybe $5 a disc. That beats the chump change in royalties on an mp3 album version that Spotify and YouTube streams (giving maybe a penny per 1,000 plays). It's still nothing.

Most thrift shops don't even take vinyl anymore. (OR CDs or DVDs).

On eBay hapless sellers often can't sell their vinyl at $1 a disc.

"Record Store Day" is only good for a laugh:

The only thing more dead than vinyl sales is cartoon sales.

How many magazines buy cartoons anymore? The New Yorker? Now how many run FUNNY cartoons? That eliminates The New Yorker.

The cartoonist is right. Elitist assholes tend to pretend that vinyl sounds better than CD. They have no proof of this,but they give you that climate change declaration: "...it's warmer."

They also insist that scratchy surface noise is a GOOD thing.

They also apparently have nothing better to do than get up every 20 minutes and change the platter. (They do NOT use a record changer that stacks!).

I did a little editorial work on the cartoon. I figured the braggart would be a Millennial with a MAN BUN and a bit of a gut from buying "healthy" hero sandwiches and salads with a lot of creamy dressing and chunks of cheese.

I gave him a little pubic goatee. His gay friend (this IS a trendy cartoon, and we love diversity) got his skull elongated via Photoshop, to the dimensions of Jon Anik.

I know, you have no idea who he is. He's a UFC play-by-play announcer, and a good one. He just happens to have a freakishly elongated head. He's not bald, yet, but there's some kind of Millennial trend whereby if you don't have a MAN BUN, you go to the other extreme of a severe buzzcut (which you read about on Buzzfeed). It's making a statement. The statement is that you have a freakishly elongated head and are proud of it.

I also added a poster for the wall.

This is a close-up of it:

Status symbols. That's what RECORD STORE DAY is about. It's about calling attention to yourself for being ahead of the 33 and a third curve, and thinking outside the iPod.

Did you know there's such a thing as a RECORD STORE CRAWL?

A friend of mine sent me the link to a story about it. She was surprised. She's only casually involved in this insanity. She'll buy a new VINYL set on some old band, just to show she SUPPORTS the old band.

BUT...she buys from the old band's website. She doesn't go on a...RECORD STORE CRAWL.

The idea is for all the MAN BUN people to get in a MAN BUN VAN of some kind, pay $100 or whatever, get a free DRINK (or two), and then make the route from the one or two record stores still surviving in Manhattan to the one or two designated hip places in BROOKLYN.

The idea is to time this caravan so you arrive when there's an event going on...some has-been signing copies of a colored vinyl (excuse me, VINYL of COLOR) limited edition. The latest hip new artist might sing a SONG and do a SELFIE with you. This kind of thing:

Don't be fooled. This crap is NOT going to replace COMIC CON events and other nerd-centric activities. Buying action figures that don't actually move, and replicas of lightsabers, and pictures of chicks who appeared topless in "Game of Thrones," will ALWAYS have more status than overpriced VINYL OF COLOR.

Yes, there's a website for this, and a few cities are pushing it...

The fact remains...VINYL IS DEAD. More people will dress up as ZOMBIES and go to a Comic Con, than will EVER buy a new 180 gram VINYL copy of an old record by the original ZOMBIES.

Scary but true. Don't believe me? Less than 300 hits for a YouTube video of Colin and Rod looking over that LIMITED EDITION box set that just came out...

How come the numbers didn't ZOOM into the THOUSANDS after "RECORD STORE DAY" last week?

EBAY, PAYPAL ... part of the naggy, naggy, NAGGY INTERNET

Why is it that the Internet is more annoying than your parents?

It's not good ENOUGH that you visit some website, one out of a MILLION?

The website should be flattered.

Instead, the website "helpfully" starts flashing shit at you. Like a parent.

It might as well be, "Are you wearing your galoshes?" "Are you having REAL food for dinner or some junk food?" "Have you added money to your I.R.A. account recently?"

EBAY.

They aren't content that you actually decided to try and find a used book or a record or a piece of clothing on their site. They have to instantly blast you with a revolving Carousel of Greed.

Didn't see anything?

Don't worry, this is a CAROUSEL, and it keeps going and going.

SPLASH. FLASH. SPLASH. You keep getting a NEW set of moronic ads shoved in your face.

Their twisted half-sister Paypal?

Go to THEIR website, and they're gonna stop you from checking your account.

They always have some reason to pester you first with a flash ad:

Yes, PAYPAL, I Photoshopped your ad, just to be HELPFUL.

NEWSER - stealers of shitty jokes and fraudsters of faked photos

No, I don't just hate NEWSER because of its obnoxious millennial website name.

Not because these assholes think that if you want to know the latest news you're a "NEWSER." Same as being an asshole who plays video games being a "GAMER."

NO.

I despise NEWSER because it thinks plagiarism is cool.

All these little pieces of shit do is pub-crawl with Google, go to REAL news websites, take the copy, and re-write it. BADLY.

The big yock here is that a cat was named BREXIT "because he whines to go out, then refuses to leave."

Here's NEWSER botching it.

You have to get through some hack writer's preamble to FINALLY get the anecdote:

You also noticed that since they couldn't find a photo of the cat named Brexit (that's too much effort) they substituted a generic photo?

They spent more money get the hacks from Getty to PAW through their cat files (ha ha, PAW through...) than they did in getting one of their tampon-centric writers to butcher a bloody bad joke-story.

It's an irony that many websites for REAL newspapers now BEG people "turn off your adblock." They even darken their page to PERSUADE people to let the shitty ads flash on and off.

It's a double irony that a monkey see monkey re-write site like NEWSER does the same thing.

Why bother to turn off adblock? If you've been tricked by a news aggregate website into going to NEWSER for an article, you know you can leave (BREXIT) and find the SAME article UN-blocked on the original site that NEWSER visited.

I'd like the staff at NEWSER to take a NOOSE and be USERS of it.

Hang in there, cats and kitties...

When your horrible website collapses, you can go back and live with your parents.

Create a "QUOTE FROM A SEA SHELL"

Yeah, just another dumb hashtag game on YouTube.

Why do people waste their time contributing stupid quips for free when...oh, nevermind.

KUKLA FRAN AND OLLIE and DILDO

No, not a Photoshop job.

That's just Amazon being Amazon.

Can't find a photo of a Kukla Fran and Ollie DVD? Use an algorhythm or something. Then throw it in.

Maybe they're waiting for somebody to tell them something's wrong? Do they know how hard it is to get the attention of ANYONE at Amazon?

Thursday, April 18, 2019

RuPaul, Michelle Obama and Adele go into a bar...

RuPaul, Michelle Obama and Adele go into a bar...

And RuPaul says:

"The highballs are on ME!"

Sunday, April 14, 2019

The Killer Cassowary - and Jim Moran

Ripped from today's news headlines:

OK, not ripped from today's news...more like screen-capped.

When I read that an idiot in Florida owned a cassowary, or several, and was apparently breeding them to sell to other collectors, I thought "that's a foolish thing to do."

First off, who the hell WANTS one? Just for the novelty of it? To be able to say "Oh, an OSTRICH? Not for ME...that's TOO Common..."??

They are MUCH more dangerous. How did I know?

Why, I'm a comedy expert, that's how. I instantly flashed back to Jim Moran.

To who?

Jim Moran, who died age 91 back on October 22, 1999, put out a comedy record during that golden era when such things could go gold, and obscure people like Tom Lehrer and Allan Sherman could become stars.

He had a whole routine about a cassowary.

His full time job was PR man and publicist. Since the 1940's he amused the press with his stunts. In order to promote the publication of "The Egg and I" he sat on an ostrich egg for 19 days...and hatched it.

Time magazine dubbed him "the supreme master of...the publicity stunt." Eventually he became as well known as his stunts, and this led to appearances on late night talk shows, and after several visits to Jack Paar's program, his very own record album.

From his cassowary treatise:

"The vicious, ill-tempered cassowary of New Guinea. That's a miserable bird...Did you know a six foot male cassowary weighs 300 pounds, and has wattles that hang down sixteen to eighteen inches from his chin? Two bright red sacks full of hard lard swinging back and forth? It's depressing. But don't ever get a cassowary sore at you. I was weighing the wattles of a cassowary down in Queensland, Australia two years ago...the cassowary didn't seem to be in a very good humor, so I gave him a wad of tutti-frutti chewing gum. While he was trying to figure that out I picked up his wattles and gently laid them on the scales. I guess the weighing pan was kind of chilly because his wattles began to pucker. Well he went hog wild and started to wattle me across the chops. And having never been wattled before, much less by an angry cassowary, I had no defense so I got wattled. I learned a good lesson though. Never pucker the wattles of a cassowary..."

Moran wasn't quite accurate with his description of a cassowary. Yes, the bird can be six feet tall. But 300 pounds? No, they weigh about half that. But that's enough.

The cassowary not only has a powerful kick, it has a sharp claw that's like a four inch knife. It can very easily slice somebody fatally. Just what happened to 75 year-old Marvin Hajos, I don't know. He may have been kicked, slashed, or just died of fright.

The point is, listen to comedians. Ya might learn something. It might save your life.