Put Yourself to Bedlam

"Video Killed the Radio STARRRR!"

I got to be on the radio today on a local station 105.9 The Radiator to talk some more about the ART HOP debacle. It was fun.
Did you know that today is  "National Talk Like A Pirate Day?"

I thought it might have something to do with The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (and as it happens, I was right!) but no one at the station had heard of it, so I got to break that story on the air. Score one for the noodley team!

Yarrggghhhhh...Pastafari Irie I
XXKHT

"I think it's the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately." ~ George Carlin

This is a few days late, I know, but I can't let it go, because George was my absolute favorite.

Like many my age, I used to sit around as a teenager listening to his LPs and getting high with my friends. We laughed and laughed and laughed and have not stopped laughing at (with) him for the quarter century that followed.

The thing that defined his comic genius (and all perfect comedy) was his ability to point out the obvious, call us all out on our hypocrisies and make us laugh at ourselves. There is no better teaching method than humor and I laughed myself all the way to enlightenment via his quirky wisdom.

He'll be sorely missed.
RIP George.
XXKHT

"There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls." ~GC

"Listen kid! I'm extremely organized....

...I know exactly where to look for this stuff. I've got it under control right here, but I can't find it. Get it?" --Little Edie Beale in Grey Gardens

Today is Little Edie Beale's 90th b'day. Edie was the co-star along with her mother of the cult classic documentary Grey Gardens directed by the Maysles brothers in 1973.

The two close relatives of Jackie O lived in a mansion in the Hamptons in absolute squalor, with dozens of feral cats, filth and a house falling down around them. Despite this and obvious mental instability - especially Little Edie - the two manage to charm the bejeezus out of viewers.

I saw the film for the first time last week, and I've been talking like Little Edie and quoting her ever since. Once you see it, it's difficult to shake (and you won't want to).

They're wonderfully sad and beautiful and elegant and horrifying. If you haven't seen the film...treat yourself.

Here are some of my favorite lines from the film and outtakes (quotes):
 

"This is the best thing to wear for today, you understand. Because I don't like women in skirts and the best thing is to wear pantyhose or some pants under a short skirt, I think. Then you have the pants under the skirt and then you can pull the stockings up over the pants underneath the skirt. And you can always take off the skirt and use it as a cape. So I think this is the best costume for today."

"Course, I'm mad about animals, but raccoons and cats become a little bit boring. I mean, for too long a time."

"...and then mother found out that cats need heat." 

and the most telling line of all:

"It's very difficult to keep the line between the past and the present. You know what I mean? It's awfully difficult."

Happy Birthday Edie...