Wrote the last post, "What We Want For 2021" on the morning of January 6th, when my agenda was to take it slow, have a quiet after-breakfast time and write something inspired by outstanding 20th century music (that trifecta of The Amazing Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk and Elmo Hope ALWAYS works for me). Alas, practically the moment after this posted, "I read the news today, oh boy". . .
While the violence, mayhem and swaggering idiocy feels alarmingly like an appalling continuation of horrible 2020, the infinitely better topic of today's post, believe it or else, YES, that's right, I said BELIEVE IT OR ELSE, is that actual good things are beginning to emerge, rather sheepishly, in the thus far miserably misbegotten new year. First and foremost, Tommy Stathes has spearheaded a Kickstarter fundraiser to support the upcoming Cartoon Roots Blu-ray/DVD collection, this one paying tribute to the silent era animation of Walter Lantz.
We are pleased as pomegranates to support the Kickstarter and looking forward to seeing the latest Cartoon Roots release, devoted to Otto Messmer's Felix the Cat. Tommy does great work and somehow manages to find cartoon rarities this lifelong dyed-in-the-wool animation buff hasn't seen.
A collection of the top film historians in the country - the best of the best - have joined forces on COMIQUE - The Classic Comedy Magazine, which can be found on archive.org. The roster of writers includes many of our favorites. Among them is Sam Gill, formerly of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (and more recently with the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum), who knows more about silent era comedy movies and film history than anyone else walking this planet. I'd be thrilled to see some of Sam's interviews with those both in front of and behind the cameras in the silent movie days find their way into future issues!
Kliph Nesteroff, author of The Comedians: Drunks, Thieves, Scoundrels & The History Of American Comedy and the mastermind behind the fascinating Classic Television Showbiz website, has a new book: We Had a Little Real Estate Problem: The Unheralded Story of Native Americans & Comedy.
It's officially out in February and can be pre-ordered both here and here. Can't wait to read it! As Mr. Nesteroff has an investigative journalist's instincts and drive to get the story, I expect that We Had a Little Real Estate Problem: The Unheralded Story of Native Americans & Comedy will go to areas very few authors have attempted to explore.
Nesteroff's 2015 book, The Comedians: Drunks, Thieves, Scoundrels & The History Of American Comedy, takes a deep dive into the worlds of nightclubs and standup comedy in mid-20th century America, but not in a way that is pedantic, academic or dull in any way. It remains highly recommended reading.
Mr. Nesteroff, extremely adept of finding the seamy underbelly of show business, is a former standup comic and sees comedy from the inside. From backstage tales of the wisecracking vaudeville and nightclub denizens (and the mobsters who owned the clubs), he constructs an expansive, thoughtful and unsparing overview of 20th century American culture and politics. Add to this a Canadian's take on America and superb reading is the result. For more, listen to the following interviews on WGN Radio and LA Review Of Books.
All that said, I expect to learn a lot from Nesteroff's latest tome and hope he does guest appaearances on such terrific podcasts as WTF With Marc Maron, Norm McDonald Live, Maltin On Movies and Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast to promote it.
Undoubtedly, Mr. Nesteroff will have amazing stories and anecdotes that did not make it into the final book.
While I never had the pleasure of seeing such Native American comedians/satirists as Charlie Hill, quality time spent with standup philosophers from Robin Williams to Richard Pryor to Mort Sahl enriched my life and expanded my perspective in no uncertain terms.
The preference on this blog 99.8% of the time is to stick entirely to 20th century pop culture as subject matter and stay the hell away from current events, but the unspeakably horrible past 48 hours puts us in a .2% scenario. Sadly, this writer is neither surprised nor shocked one bit by this latest turn of events.
All one can say is HOLY SHIT, these are the 1995 Oklahoma City bombers multiplied by 1000!
This is followed by the realization, looking at a rabid, rampaging mob of moronic, violent and vile 4th grade dropout redneck terrorists, a veritable Coup Klux Klan ransacking the United States Capitol, reading about how they, keepin' it classy, smeared feces on the Capitol Building walls and urinated on the carpets (all the while yelling lunatic gibberish and grinning stupid goober grins) and how the coup's ringleaders were trained former police and ex-military officers (no doubt getting revenge for dishonorable discharges), that uncontrolled inbreeding is never, ever a good idea.
Smearing feces on paintings in the Capitol Building and urinating on the carpets are not tactics that will elicit the respect these guys so desperately desire. The Breitbart Brainwashed insurrectionists had the money to travel across the country, spend lots of dough on firearms and stay in D.C. hotels, so they did not represent the hackneyed "Hillbilly Elegy" stereotype, affected by rural poverty.
I don't know if there will be better days ahead, but I will read Kliph Nesteroff's latest and Comique magazine, then enjoy the Cartoon Roots DVDs to take the edge off.
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