Monday, March 11, 2024

New Pinnacles of Disengagement

I am sure I do not have to remind you how I cared deeply about the Oscars from approximately age 10 to age 50, followed by a steep decline lasting a decade or so. In fact, a couple of years ago, I stopped watching the show altogether, as your research into my personal habits has no doubt affirmed already. Moreover, I did not even know that this year's Oscars were happening until 8:30 PM Central Time on the night before the ceremony. Nevertheless, my sister and I (she has precociously developed a similar disinclination to engage with awards season) cannot get out of the habit of trying to beat one another soundly when it comes to guessing the winners. It gives me no pleasure to say that I trounced her for the first time in many years, my victory leaving an ashy, bitter taste of irony in my mouth, given that neither of us cares anymore. About anything!

Saturday, March 09, 2024

That Upon Which I Was Sitting

I was sitting on something for secret reasons that no longer require sitting. Forget about those reasons, for they are defunct. The important thing is that I fished out my COMPLETE ILLUSTRATED WORKS OF LEWIS CARROLL some months ago... it is still over there, in my home office, sitting forlorn atop a box of Daily Racing Forms from 1956 (long story, or maybe no story); I need to reshelve it. But that is not what I came here to tell you! Those months ago, when I fished it out for my secret reasons, I opened ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND with fateful randomness to a passage I had somehow never noticed before, in which we are informed via poem that "the Owl and the Panther were sharing a pie." If you do not understand why I am telling you this, I advise you to spend the next several years studying this "blog."

Friday, March 01, 2024

The Official Record

Well, McNeil has combed through his journals and I find myself compelled to issue a clarification on earlier "blog" matters. As I am sure you will recall with crystal-clear accuracy, and without even needing to "click" on this "link," McNeil claimed that I had boasted to him that I had met Phyllis Diller. I denied it, as I never met Phyllis Diller. McNeil said that in that case I had been lying to him, and vowed to scour his archives for proof. I scoffed at such an attempt. And yet, in a way, I was wrong. And yet, in another way, I was right. In McNeil's journal entry of November 6, 1998, he writes, "Talked to Jack this afternoon and learned that he is going to meet Phyllis Diller next week." First, please note that the meeting is to take place in the future, as far as November 6, 1998 is concerned. And it really was supposed to happen, though I had forgotten about it until McNeil's recent communication. My friend Ward McCarthy and I were making a thing called "The Movie Lounge," and we had asked Phyllis Diller to comment on the Chuck Norris film INVASION USA, in which she sort of appears in a particular capacity ("click" here for more details. I know you won't!). At the remove of all these years, it is easy for me to imagine why she or her representatives abruptly pulled out of the scheduled appearance. Let me say, however, that although I once told McNeil that I was "going to meet" Phyllis Diller, as was supposed to be the case, I never told him that I had "met" Phyllis Diller - an event, I reiterate, that sadly did not occur after all. I cannot recall whom we got to talk about INVASION USA in Ms. Diller's stead. That is a question for Movie Lounge host Kent Osborne. In the sort of coincidence that McNeil and I both enjoy - and I hope it will bring him succor as this incident draws to its belated close - Ace Atkins and I had a talk about INVASION USA on our most recent walk around the neighborhood, which my diary reminds me took place on Monday, February 26 of this year.

Thursday, February 29, 2024

I'm Not Cool

It is my duty to report that I will be wearing giant wraparound sunglasses at the event tomorrow, not an eye patch as previously predicted. Please be advised that I received the giant wraparound sunglasses at the surgery center and will be wearing them under the orders of a physician. I am not trying to look "cool."

Saturday, February 24, 2024

In the Way

Hello! I will be doing a little DJ set at The End of All of Music at 3 PM local time on Friday, March 1. Chances are good that I will be wearing an eye patch for legitimate medical reasons. "Click" here for more details (about the event, not the eye patch). Remember when I quit social media? That is why this will sadly have to do in the way of promotion.

Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Another Thing

Another thing that Hanna and I argue about is GILMORE GIRLS, of course. As you can imagine, the subject of contention is a ranking of Rory's boyfriends by suitability.

Monday, February 19, 2024

Skyland

Well, it's Presidents' Day, and you know what that means, of course: no work for today in the animation business. At least here in the USA! To our Swedish coworker Hanna, for example, Presidents' Day is nothing but an incomrpehensible travesty on the occasion of which we take away her pens and pencils. Oh, how we love to rib Hanna about Presidents' Day. And by "we," I mean "I." Anyway, one thing is for sure: now I have time to let you know about all the latest updates on the book report that McNeil wrote for school 45 years ago... a story the "blog" has been working to crack since 2012! I've just been sitting on this hot breaking news, waiting for a time like Presidents' Day. I can keep you in suspense no longer! McNeil found his actual, original copy of the book (The Crash of 2086, you've never heard of it) in "a box in the garage crammed between a copy of the movie EXECUTIVE SUITE, and an even older book called 'Never Trust Anyone Over 13.' I paid 62 cents for the Crash book, 29 cents for the 13 book - both from The Book Rack in Skyland Shopping Center." Readers will be excited to learn that the Skyland Shopping Center in Mobile, Alabama, is also where McNeil saw his first liter bottle of Coca-Cola, and it made a huge impression on him, as previously reported on the "blog." We are assuming that the copy of the movie mentioned above is a VHS tape, but clarifications or corrections will be issued as necessary.