A bit of a Chicago Boy, as it turns out. Thanks to Pejman for the tip. Requiescat in pace.
Arts & Letters
Benji Saves the Universe Bad
My spouse and I used to read the Bloom County comic strip religiously. Reading the comics sitting together side by side was one of the rituals of our courtship. We read in specific order, snaking our way up the page and back down again until we ended up at Bloom County. We bought all the Bloom County books.
As a consequence, our speech is laced with allusions to the comic strip. I keep finding myself wanting to use these allusions in my writings but I can’t because most people won’t know what I’m talking about. One allusion I like in particular is saying something is, “Benji saves the universe bad,” so I’ve decided to post the strip so I can link to it in the future.
Transcript:
Panel 1: “George Phglat’s new film “Benji saves the Universe” has brought the word ‘Bad” to new levels of badness.”
Panel 2: “Bad acting. Bad effects. Bad everything. This bad film just oozed rottenness from every bad scene… simply bad beyond beyond all infinite dimensions of possible badness.”
Panel 3: [Opus pauses for a moment of contemplation.]
Panel 4: “Well, maybe not that bad, but lord, it wasn’t good.”
A lot of things are Benji-saves-the-universe bad. The Iraqi Mortality Survey springs to mind.
The Farrah Fawcett – Ayn Rand Connection
Ayn Rand reached out to Farrah, and wanted her to play Dagny Taggart in a TV miniseries version of Atlas Shrugged, sounds like circa 1980.
I can see it. Done in retro-40s costume, maybe? Or hypermoderne science fiction style?
Either way would have been cool. A big budget, big-name miniseries would have been the best way to film the (very long) novel.
Farrah would have been a very interesting casting choice, though not looking anything like the Dagny in the book.
(I don’t think Angelina Jolie, does either, but she is going to play Dagny in the upcoming movie, apparently, if that ever actually happens. Now is the time for the movie, though. At the beginning of the Reagan Era, we did not need it as badly as we need it now.)
Who would have played Hank Reardon, Francisco D’Anconia, John Galt, Midas Morgan and Ragnar Danneskjöld, circa 1980? Who should play them now?
Those are just the names I remember without looking them up. And I last opened the book in High School. The book does have a way of sticking with you.
I benefitted from exposure to Ayn Rand, but I never became a Randian. So it all worked out OK.
Link via Dr. Frank
Farrah Fawcett, RIP
I was never a big fan. I liked Cheryl Ladd way better.
I paid no attention to Farrah whatsoever since the ’70s, other than noticing tabloid headlines in the grocery store, from time to time, that indicated she was having a rough go of things.
So I was surprised to find myself a little sad when I heard she died.
It took me way back to the ’70s, and made me think of all kinds of long-gone people, places and things. I don’t miss those times. But they are part of me.
I liked this video that I saw on Ann Althouse.
There is another one on there with the BeeGees singing. That is the correct decade, of course, the ’70s. But the Archies doing “Sugar Sugar” goes better, since there is something sweet about many of these images of the young Farrah that goes better with the ’60s pop song, that the ’70s disco song does not capture. I like especially where she is dancing at :31 and at :49. She looks young, normal and happy, except, of course, also being incredibly good looking. I get a kick out of seeing her with Danny Partridge, too. I grew up on the Partridge Family and the Brady Bunch, like a lot of people did.
She was only on Charlie’s Angels for one year, and made one iconic poster, and she became this massively famous person. Everyone in the world knew her name and her face … and her hair. She really was the American face of the ’70s. A very Warholesque 15 minutes.
Fame and youth and beauty and all worldly goods pass away.
Rest in peace. We will remember you as young and beautiful forever.
Watch The Goode Family
ABC has a new animated comedy by “King of the Hill” creator Mike Judge that takes a satirical look at faddish leftism. Even if you don’t usually watch these kinds of shows you should watch this one. It’s a riot. This trailer doesn’t begin to do it justice.
My son and I watched the first episode and we had to pause the DVR every couple of minutes so we could stop laughing so hard we couldn’t hear the dialog. The show starts with a shot of a bumper sticker on the back of a Prius that reads, “We support our troops… and their opponents” and just gets more and more humorous from there out.
Judge does a good job of gently poking fun at his subjects without dehumanizing them. Yes, the characters and their views are exaggerated but only compared to real life. They’re not exaggerated compared to most characters on TV. They’re certainly not more exaggerated than the bizarre depictions of social conservatives that one routinely sees on TV, especially on animated shows.
You should watch “The Goode Family” and let ABC know you appreciate some balance in TV’s depiction of various parts of the social spectrum. You can watch the first episode online at ABC’s website.