p-p-p-p, p-p-p-p, Pingu! Pingu!

I've fallen in love with Pingu, an animated TV series from Switzerland that was broadcast, chiefly, in the 80's and 90's with a brief revival in the mid oughts. The show concerns itself with the shenanigans of a young penguin (titular) and his family and friends. It's all done in very spare, sometimes crude, claymation, but it's charming and often hilarious. The voice work--all grumbles, screeches, and babble--is perfect and by itself very funny. The show is for kids, but I think grown-ups will get a kick out of it too. You can find a batch of episodes (all around 5 minutes long) on Netflix, but Net searches will bring up some bits on Youtube and a bunch of web stuff that's more contemporary--games, merchandise, and other nonsense. From what I can see, the best of Pingu  is the old, creaky animation: very Euro, very silly, utterly delightful. Check out this episode, "Pingu Goes Fishing":

And what's a cute little Eurokid cartoon without a Hasselhoff connection? That's right. Check this out too:

Now get THAT out of your head!

~ C.D.

Boardwalk Empire and some Articles

I watched the debut episode of Boardwalk Empire yesterday, HBO's new gangster drama about the life and times of Enoch "Nucky" Thompson, an Atlantic City kingpin. I'd read great things about it and was looking forward to it immensely. Perhaps it had been a bit over-sold: I liked it, but felt it didn't take me any place especially new as far as mob stories are concerned. But perhaps that's because we've been saturated with mob stories over the last 50 years and there literally isn't any place new for the genre to go. Once we've visited the whole spectrum, from Mean Streets to the Sopranos, it all just seems like a retread. Steve Buscemi is a new take on an old type--he's hardly the "heavy" one expects--but even so, I'm not sure he has the gravity for the part of Nucky. I'll keep watching, however, and perhaps it'll suck me in. Lord knows True Blood has, so you know I haven't too high of a threshold!

Here are a few cool articles I've recently read. One on the much maligned but undervalued technique of rote memorization: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/magazine/19fob-medium-heffernan-t.html?_r=1, one on how a burglarized writer tracked down the thief via the internet: http://www.salon.com/life/life_stories/index.html?story=/mwt/feature/2010/09/20/tracked_down_my_thief, and one on what happens to the libraries of famous authors after they die: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/09/19/lost_libraries/?page=full.

Enjoy!
~CD

F for Father

Had a fantastic Father's Day on Sunday, despite lousy PacNwst June weather--sheesh, when will summer get here?. K gave me the Wild Wild West box set (man, did I marry WELL!) and Ian gave me Orson Welles' F for Fake. I suppose the first needs no introduction, other than to say it was the COOLEST EFFING WESTERN EVER TO GRACE THE SMALL SCREEN (not to mention it was the godfather of steampunk). The second, of course, is an oddball film "essay" on the art of fakery featuring master art forger Elmyr de Hory, master literary hoaxer Clifford Irving, and master cinematic smoke and mirrors man Orson Welles. It's too confusing a film to explain so I'll just refer you to wikp and let you sort it out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F_for_Fake. I should say, however, the DVD extrees are fabulous--a documentary on de Hory, a documentary on Welles' unfinished films, a 60 minutes interview with Clifford Irving, and audio segments of the Howard Hughes televised phone interview exposing Irving's autobiography hoax. What a smorgasboard! After turning in grades on Monday (what a horror-show that was!) I went directly home and geeked out on Welles et al. until a certain mysterious mooing sound was heard at the front door.doop-doop, doop-doop, doop-doop DEE doop dee doop doop-doop....
~CD

Lost: A Shaggy God Story

Okay, I admit, I stole that line from a review of "2001: a Space Odyssey"--but it's apt, is it not?

I was a "Lost" devotee for most of the series. But, for me, it really peaked with the revelation at the end of Season 3 that Jack, Kate, et al. had escaped the island--shown to us through some mysterious "flashforwards". That was some thrilling TV story-telling. However, within a few episodes the plot (already wonderfully loopy) began to strain under the influences of time-travel twaddle, quantum-mechanical claptrappery, and metaphysical hokum. It was often still entertaining and "oh-just-go-with-it" fun, but in the main the story arcs became too cluttered with mysteries--almost every one of which was fuel enough for a series itself. I grew fatigued. Generally, I like ambiguous storytelling, challenging narratives, and formula-busting scenarios, but this just started to feel out of control. By the end of Season Four I was beginning to see it all as a shaggy beast that would inevitably succumb to heat-exhaustion in those equatorial temperatures. Not unlike a polar bear who finds itself running loose in a tropical island forest...oh, never mind.

Last night's series finale was rather disappointing. I had held out some last desperate hope that the writers might pull a rabbit out of a hat. I didn't expect every mystery to clean up nicely, but I sort of thought they'd have an exit strategy that would supply us with a strong, smacking, "whoa!" of a finish. It didn't come. The "sideways" reality turned out to be a purgatorial holding-pen for islanders and friends who, evidently, made it into some kind of clique. The antics on the island reached a new level of silly what with Desmond, quite literally, pulling the cork out of the island and Jack sacrificing himself to put it back. So much scurrying around. Such murky motivations. Such silly and improbable turns of event. There were good moments--Jack closing his eyes in the bamboo forest, Vincent beside him; the promise of Hurley as the island's protector; the cliffside battle between Jack and "Smocke" (credit goes to Lynn Nolan for that handle); the resolution of Jack's daddy issues with the most emotionally authentic embrace of the series; Hurley's stupid grin at meeting Charlie again...there are many more. But they're singular pieces to me, not links in a strong narrative chain.

Anyway, good-bye "Lost" I loved you most of the time. Thanks for the great times. I'll get over the less than great, sure enough.

And here's a crazy thing: http://www.theackattack.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/FINALEFINALE_final1.png

CD

Well, my second favorite show on TV came to an end Friday night. Of course, I'm talking about "Battlestar Gallactica" on the SciFi Channel. I had mixed feelings about this final season, generally, and I'm not surprised that I also had mixed feelings about the series finale. I believe the show got tangled up in its own plot lines in season four and got bogged down in excessive exposition, parallel story arcs that collided and conflated, and characters whose emotional rollercoastering grew tiresome. Yet, for all that the show was still a breath of air, often incredibly innovative, thought provoking, and (best of all) genre-busting. I can't say it any better than Laura Miller at Salon.com, so here, read her and enjoy:

http://www.salon.com/ent/tv/feature/2009/03/21/battlestar_galactica/

Farewell, BSG. It's been a whole lotta frakkin' fun.

CD

A curiosity from 1983 came my way the other day (imagine that): Jonathan Miller's British TV version of John Gay's "The Beggar's Opera" starring none other than The Who's Roger Daltrey as Macheath. I showed parts of it in my British Literature class and watched the whole thing myself at home whilst reading the play. While it stayed very true to the work (with slight alterations throughout and a major one at the end) I came away disappointed. It was filmed in that soapy, hushed, BBC drama manner that can bore bore bore one. It felt claustrophobic too--the close-ups and tight angles didn't serve the music very well. Daltrey was still relatively young then (not quite 40, I think) and had some of the charisma and power of his Who persona on display, but his acting chops were still underdeveloped compared to everyone else. And why was it that all the women could sing like angels and none of the men (except Daltrey--some of the time) could croak out anything in tune? But like I said, it's a curio and it came in handy for my class who, I hope, benefited from seeing some scenes performed. "The Beggar's Opera" is hard to fully get otherwise.

CD

All About the O

A few blog entries ago I wrote about the kids' TV show Make a Wish and its odd opening song. It got me thinking about other memorable songs from kid shows. I loved Sesame Street as a child and was actually on hand to see the first episode when it aired: I was in my kindergarten class one day at Franklin Elementary in Spokane when our teacher, Mrs. Chamberlaine (if memory serves), announced that we were to watch a new children's program. Of course, this was 1969, and I can't remember if the "O Song" aired on Sesame Street that early, but it sticks in my memory as one of the more inventive, playful, and bizarre of their early singalong animations. There's a quirkiness--by turns funny and eerie (in a Roald Dahl sort of way)--to it that I still love, and the song by folky Dan Hicks is wonderful. Some of the folks who have commented on the piece on Youtube ask, "What were they smokin'?", as if the invention of such songs and images must necessarily be spurred by hallucinogens. Perhaps so, but as kids we intuitively responded to the surreality of such works--their violation of rules, their lack of linearity, their frenzied action, their bizarre juxtapositions. It's a tradition that goes back to Lewis Carroll, even beyond, and I am forever thankful that the folks at Sesame Street were smart enough to meet us kids at our level.

Remember it?: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIN_eauYq7g

Here are the lyrics:

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-Oooo..
Grow and go Roll over the road
Where the goat explodes all the Os
And the crow flies low
Past the croaking toad
And the boat floats over the ocean
But the wind did blow
And it started to snow
So the toad went home
To the telephone
He spoke to the goat
Who was eating a bowl of bones [foam?], potatoes and soap (o-o-o-o-o-o)
A rope did float
And hooked the goat
And a boy climbed the stone made of Os
The Os turned to smoke
And started to float
Closer to the bulldozer
Who closed up the hole
So the cold wind could not blow
And the sun did show
So the roses could grow
And the whole world would know
That the boat, bulldozer, toad, and the crow
And the boy and the rope, riding the goat
Were all OK (o-o-o-o)
OK?
(o.....)


CD

Mars ain't the kinda place to raise a kid...

In the early 1970s there was a Sunday morning TV show for kids called Make a Wish with host Tom Chapin (brother of Harry and grandson of, yes, you guessed it, rhetorical theorist Kenneth Burke). Anyway, I barely remember the show itself, but the insidious opening song has stuck in my thoughts. That and the singer/guitarist playing it (Chapin) floating into the air as he sings the lyrics "...Fly high!" The animation of the opening and closing credits was very weird--in that crude, seedy, seventies psychedelia way (hard to explain, but I remember some of the animation of the early seasons of Seasame Street having the same quality). Here's a link to a Youtube of the opening and closing of the show, just for kicks (if David Lynch worked for the Children's Television Workshop, this is what you'd get):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz9cQOX4X3w&eurl=http://64.23.8.93/docs/jg.html

And here's a very strange remix of a William Shatner interview on Conan O'Brien. Too weird for words:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLpLU7D7MWk&feature=related

And here's William Shatner doing "Rocket Man" for good measure:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvQwXOCKNLY

I actually saw that one on TV back in the day. I thought it was stupid then, but now I recognize it for what it is: abysmally sublime.

C.D.

KK + BSG = LUV

What does....

Have to do with...

?

As I wrote in an earlier post, I love it when things I happen to like cross pollinate in unexpected and interesting ways (see post for Sep. 18). Here's another one: I'm a "Battlestar Gallactica" fan (the new series, mind you) and I noticed that the title to this season's first episode was "Sometimes a Great Notion." This, of course, was the title of Ken Kesey's great 1964 novel (a masterpiece, in my opinion), in turn borrowed from a lyric in the folk song "Goodnight, Irene": "Sometimes I live in the country / sometimes I live in the town / sometimes I take a great notion / to jump into the river and drown." The speaker is contemplating suicide due to "complications" in a relationship (different versions of the song outline different sorts of complications), but in any event, the title of the BSG episode was a clear reference to Kesey and the song simultaneously--events in the episode correspond to both. And what's more, the co-writer and co-producer of the show, David Weddle, is a huge fan of Kesey's work.

How do I know?

Well, dear Dabbler readers, it may amuse you to know that I have a slight connection to Weddle. In the late 80's, when I was involved in the writing of "Caverns" (see my "You Should Know About List" to the right) with my classmates and Kesey, Weddle interviewed us and wrote a lengthy article for "Rolling Stone" about the project ("Ken Kesey's Eclectic Writing Acid Test" Oct. 5, 1989). Later, Weddle became an acquaintance and friend of other of my Eugene pals, and thus, though I hadn't met him except to speak with him over the phone, we knew each other and I kept tabs on his publications and TV projects. I did finally meet him at the occasion of Ken Kesey's memorial service in 2001, and had a pleasant chat with him over lunch at a cafe around the corner from the theatre where the service was held. But enough of my name dropping; here's the real deal: follow this link to a Chicago Tribune article where Weddle discusses, at some length, the influence of Kesey on BSG (when you get there, scroll down--there's lots of info and Weddle is featured about a third of the way down):
http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2009/01/final-fifth-cylon-ellen-tigh-battlestar-galactica-dualla-dee-.html

But here's the crucial matter, plum-plucked for your convenience:

"The day the staff finished putting the cards up on the board with Ron, and the day before we began writing, I flashed on my favorite American novel, Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey. It is a much underappreciated and towering work. Anyone interested in fine literature and great story telling should read Kesey’s masterpiece.

"The book opens with a childish rhyme that enunciates the theme of the book and what to me was the theme of our show. “Sometimes I live in the country. Sometimes I live in the town. Sometimes I get a great notion. To jump in the river and drown.”

"In Kesey’s book, the hero --Hank Stamper, an Oregon logger -- does constant battle with the river that runs past his home, a river that has claimed the lives of pets and loved ones and comes to symbolize the vast and indifferent power of the universe that both gives life and cruelly snatches it away again. In his notes to himself as he was writing the book, Kesey scribbled something that has become one of the shorthand phrases Brad and I use while writing scripts. Kesey wrote: “Try to make Hank quit.” By that he meant: take this strong, heroic character and pile one misfortune on his back after another until he finally falls. What happens in that moment? Does he despair? Does he get up and go on? For me, there is no more defining moment for a character."

What's particularly fun for me about this quote is that Weddle describes essentially what Kesey always told us, his students, about character: task them and watch them come alive.

Ciao,

C.D.

Who says there ain't no rhyme for oranges?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GqUJURGPhM

This has stuck in my mind for almost 40 years, taking up valuable space where I could have parked, oh I don't know, a Shakespeare sonnet, the first 10 amendments to the constitution, or the presidents' names in chronological order.

CD

Jonny Quest

As a child I was an enormous fan of the television cartoon Jonny Quest. I wanted nothing so much as to join Jonny, Hadji, Dr. Quest, Race Bannon, and of course, the dog Bandit, on one of their fabulous adventures. Their weekly encounters with hostile tribes, mad scientists, monsters, and nefarious villains--always in some exoctic locale and always while testing out some new technology or investigating some scientific discovery--fired my youthful imagination. I even owned an LP featuring a Jonny Quest adventure: Jonny Quest in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Apparently, the 1965 album was intended for live broadcast only and not for retail sale. Nonetheless, I somehow owned it and listened to it endlessly. The plot concerns an attack on Dr. Quest's diving bell by a giant squid. It's a tense, suspenseful tale very much in the tradition of the TV show that spawned it. Recently, I found a site devoted to the record. The site contains all the details of the recording as well as audio clips. If you're a Jonny Quest fan, pay particular attention to the theme music by Hoyt Curtin. It's a jazzier take on the JQ theme, influenced, in my opinion, by James Bond motifs and the (then) new psychedelic sounds emerging in pop music.

Enjoy it all here: http://www.classicjq.com/artifacts/recordings/20000Leagues.shtml

Ciao,

JBF