81 Years Ago Today

Penguin Books debuted!

On July 30, 1935, Allen Lane changed the world of books. He introduced paperback Penguin Books, bridging the gap between expensive hardcover books and cheap newspapers. With that middle option—and with distribution in places other than bookstores—the Penguin line became a staple of booksellers worldwide. Penguin paperbacks were actually inexpensive enough to be sold from a vending machine.

They're my favorite; I love that uniform orange/black style guide they use.

Classic Trigger du Jour

Absolute classic Trigger pic.twitter.com/3PxN9KUSmQ

— Only Fools Videos (@OnlyFoolsVideos) July 18, 2016

Question.

Do all these special hugs include getting to feel women up?

Dammit.

Great. The Weather Channel stole the title of my upcoming autobiography.

Is This...

...every winning moment of any game show from the 70s/80s?

One MOre Reason to Vote HIllary

Tim Kaine apparently has great taste in music:

Replacements biographer Bob Mehr points out that if elected, Kaine would be the first Replacements fan to serve as vice president. During a radio interview with Richmond-based DJ Chris Bopst, Kaine listed the Replacements’ Let It Be as one of his favorite albums, Style Weekly reports.

Now here's The Replacements listening to a Tim Kaine speech.

Oh Oh

Great. The Navy hates America and freedom; Jesus and his scrappy, lovable sidekick Baby Jesus are gonna be FURIOUS when they hear about this.

Incredibly, Are These People Even Dumber Than We Thought?

Wait til these idiots find out Alex P. Keaton didn't really turn into a werewolf during basketball games. They're REALLY gonna be miffed.

Questions. I Have Them.

Is there a male equivalent to the "look at me I'm on the shitter but oh gee aren't I really sexy" meme? Because I'm pretty sure there isn't one.

Boycie!

"Leave off Marlene....." pic.twitter.com/sS96g6g0rF

— Only Fools Videos (@OnlyFoolsVideos) July 30, 2016

Why Oh Why?

As you know, Peep Show is one of my favorites of the dozens of BBC shows I've discovered over the last 2 years:

I for one am able to relate to both characters, something I could never do with George/Jerry as I could only really relate to George, not Jerry. I spent years and years like Jeremy, completely useless and draining those around me, and I've always spoken in my head like Mark, shredding the patheticness (which isn't even a real word) of myself 24/7 while saying the opposite to anyone in front of me.

But now Starz is looking to make an American version:

Peep Show, one of the best and most celebrated British comedies of the past decade, is getting remade to remove all of those pesky accents. Starz has put in an order for an American version of the series, which is shot from the first-person perspective of the two main characters. Series creators Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong will be consulting producers on the US adaptation, while Eli Jorne of Blunt Talk and Wilfred will write the half-hour pilot and be the showrunner. No word on who will be cast to fill in for original actors David Mitchell and Robert Webb, who frankly feel pretty irreplaceable. But hey, people thought the US adaptation of The Office was a terrible idea, and that ended up working out pretty well.

What's the purpose of this?  I understand in the old days, before we had access to BBC shows, it made to sense to adapt the best of British tv (All in the Family and Sanford & Son, for example...HEARD of 'em?) to American tv. But nowadays you can easily watch every episode of Peep Show - it's on Hulu, it's on Netflix, it's on Acorn, and on and on and on. Also, the BBC unleashing its entire archives is supposed to (SUPPOSED TO!!) be happening this year. There's no way they're topping the original so why try, when the original is now just as easy to access as the new version would be? Wtf?

I CANNOT WAIT FOR THIS SHIT HURRY UP SEPTEMBER 17!!

Here's the 2nd trailer to the upcoming Ron Howard doc on The Beatles' touring days!

The first trailer can be seen HERE.

2016

Rather incredibly, Donald Trump has managed to almost make racism the second-most childish thing about his campaign; his "oooooh, I know something you don't know!" will surely hold the title until next week's "na-na-na-boo boo, stick your head in doo-doo!" Tweet lands. Wow.

Not the Most Graceful of Headlines. (tho Bill will be pleased)

Ireland

Just as with PARIS and LONDON last year, thanks to Brothatime!! I got a chance to visit my family's homeland of Ireland. And not just Ireland, but Dingle - going in of course I knew the place would be beautiful, but I had no idea how much. It was stones and grass and sheep and cows and oh what do you know, here's the ocean. And every 12 feet in town there was a pub, a pub older and more endearing and inviting than any pub you've ever been to.

My pictures can never do it justice, but here's to an amazing week. I can't wait to go back.

Look who's in a cab on his way to Dulles! "I believe I'll honor the European system of not tipping, starting now." 

Of course he's got his reading picked out for the trip. If only, of course, he could read.

Cork Airport - someone's first beer in Ireland! #whatdoyoumeanyoudonthaveBudlight

"Drink our coffee or we will maul you to fucking death."

Tea time in Dingle! Tea in Ireland tastes funny...and makes me end up lying naked on the neighbor's roof trying to figure out the words to How Much Is that Doggie in the Window. How strange.

58 degrees on July 17? No big dig deal. Oh by the way, on a side note, let me ask you something -  WHY THE FUCK DO I NOT LIVE HERE????!!

Ol' Paddy Mac contemplating life at sea. So far, he's come up with...well, nothing.

Where Everybody Knows Your Name, indeed... 

Westernmost point in Ireland, was told I could swim straight to America from here...boy, when you've overstayed your welcome with Irish relatives, you've really accomplished something.

Not sure what the big deal is; same view as from my apartment in DC, just without the passing police sirens trying but failing to drown out the fact that I am naked under my bed with the lights out crying into a tub of Country Crock.

Irish prostitutes: not as hot as I'd imagined. 

And I hadn't quite had enough pints to try the "Sheep & lamb experience."

Waking up view. Not bad but a 7-11 here would be a nice touch, Dingle. #justsayin

"Y'all know me. Know how I earn a livin'."

Nothing could go wrong here.

My bad-ass personalized belt being made while I wait, inscribed, "MAKE AMERICA SOMEWHAT BETTER EACH DAY IF POSSIBLE WHENEVER THE OPPORTUNITY ARISES." #dickmackspub

And here is where I push the bounds of UberX to its absolute limits.

If you've ever wanted to be completely embarrassed to be an American, show up in a foreign country when the 2016 RNC is happening. Wow.

"One day this will all be mine!!! MWA-ha-ha-" (slips, falls down mountain...the sheep get into him good before they find what's left of the body...)

Having a castle named after you is pretty cool until you realize that since it's a castle there will probably be no tv. #suchislife

The heart of the matter.

Heat advisory finally over; quite a panic-stricken 4 minutes in these parts.

Paddy Mac's mobile beer truck. "Buy this beer or my band of comically undersized thugs may decide to make things quite difficult for you."

Ireland was not without its bad breaks.

Rodders du Jour

Speechifying

Pretty great article HERE from Jon Favreau (no, not the fat guy from Rudy) (tho yes, coming from me you're right to assume it would be) on writing Obama's 2008 convention speech:

It was the first true all-nighter I ever pulled. But by the time we arrived in Denver the next morning, we had ourselves a speech — or, at the very least, a speech that Obama was ready to line edit. The rest of the speechwriting team joined us at the convention, and we all went back and forth on drafts until dinner. As we left to get some food, Obama said, “Favs, don’t come back after dinner. You’ve been up for two days straight now. Your mother would kill me. Go get some rest. We can take it from here, and we’ll wake you up if anything exciting happens.”

That’s the man I worked for.

EXCITEMENT DU JOUR

Nearly shit myself this morning when I stepped on some large bubblewrap I didn't know was there.

Quite a life I'm putting together here, people.

Newest BBC du Jour, Plus a Big "What If?"

LUCKY FELLER
One series, 1976
Starring David Jason

Lucky Feller is somewhat of an amalgamation of Jason's biggest hits, Open All Hours and of course Only Fools and Horses. His character is similar to the virginal, dopey Granville of Open All Hours, but the setup is very similar to what would later become OFAH. From the creator/writer's son, who only found out about the show himself a few years ago when he stumbled on some VHS tapes in his dad's attic:

If I was to tell you of an old sitcom starring David Jason about two working-class brothers living by their wits in a council flat in south-east London, one a wide-boy the other a bit simple, what do you immediately think of?

Only Fools And Horses, I presume.

And, yes, it’s about the adventures of two working class lads from Lewisham. They live in a council flat. One’s a bit of wide-boy, the other’s a bit dim and drives a funny little car. And so on … The big difference is that David Jason played the slow one, not the wide boy.

I've watched about half the series and it's laugh-out-loud funny. How wasn't this a bigger hit?  How did this become a "lost" sitcom? Frisby may have the answer:

Have you ever wondered why it is that the BBC made so many sitcoms that have since become classics and ITV so few? The pool of talent the two broadcasters were drawing on was pretty much the same. ITV actually paid better. The answer lies in the policy of the broadcasters towards repeats. The BBC used to put their stuff out in blocks of six or seven, often first on BBC2, then repeat them on BBC1, and then repeat them again, sometimes even a fourth time, as a warm-up for the next series. They could do this because they had control over their channels. ITV – or LWT – couldn’t, because different companies were vying with each other for the slots, so sitcoms and dramas were rarely repeated. About the only exception was (the wonderful) Rising Damp, but that only got repeats after years of single showings.

The BBC’s Fawlty Towers is widely regarded as the greatest British sitcom of all time. The first series (6 episodes) was broadcast in 1976 to 1.5 million viewers. The reviews weren’t great. Richard Ingrams described Cleese as, ‘Long John short on laughs’. The series was repeated and got 3 million viewers. It was repeated again and the number went up to 6 million. The fourth repeat got 12 million. Everybody in the country knew and had talked about the show for years yet there had only been six episodes. The second six episodes weren’t shown till 1979. If the BBC hadn’t repeated that first series, Fawlty Towers, may well have been forgotten and the second series never commissioned. Imagine that. A Britain with no Fawlty Towers, no ‘Don’t mention the war’ (from the last episode of the first series), no ‘He’s from Barcelona’, no ‘Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically …’ and all those other wonderful gags and phrases now in the national lexicon.

Something similar happened with The Office, which was nearly dropped after its first showing on BBC 2 back in 2001 so poor were the viewing figures.

Since the show wouldn't be getting the full-on rerun treatment, Frisby decided it wasn't worth busting his ass doing a 2nd series, and the show stopped there. But the bigger question is: if Lucky Feller HAD continued, and been repeated ad nauseum until it caught on, could Only Fools and Horses have existed? Hell, besides the setting and the characters, David Jason even drove a three-wheeled car!! If Lucky Fellar had been burned more into the public conscience, surely OFAH would've been quickly dismissed (if even conceived at all) as being too similar.

Hard to even fathom a world without Only Fools and Horses, and yet it could've easily happened were it not for a quirk in the policies of the BBC et al.

Art vs. Life

I stumbled upon a Jon Stewart interview from a few months ago, and I found this passage horribly true:

QUESTION: And so I just want to hear more about your philosophy and what (inaudible) areas of policy are where you think comedy can have a big impact? 

STEWART: You know, here's the only thing I would say, shame can be a final gust of wind. Comedy can't have an impact on policy. People can have an impact on policy. Grassroots lobbying, foundational lobbying, have an influence. Comedy and satire are an expression. They are an artistic idea. They are not activism. It is not anything other than a painting, a song, a joke. None of those can change anything. They can, occasionally, focus a conversation at a crucial moment and help the good work of all the individuals that have put in that time, and I never forget that. Nothing that we ever did meant anything compared to the people on the ground in grassroots who work tirelessly in anonymity against all odds to do what's right, and have to do that facing headwinds that shouldn't be there in the first place, that are artificial. 

This was the realization that hit me in 2004 when I realized that no matter how many times Bruce went around singing to people, it's possible that rock n' roll can't immediately change the world. Read the entire transcript HERE. 

Hold Up.

Certainly the most exciting thing about Tim Kaine anybody's ever heard.

RIP Alan Vega

Eddy Grant Forever

Pretty much since Day 1 of this blog I've blathered on and on about my love for the most overlooked band of all time, The Equals; for my 44th birthday longtime Xmatime buddy Jack surprised me with this, a song from an Eddy Grant side project in 1969 that's been playing in my head over and over for 2 weeks now. Enjoy!

Hanks for the Memories!

The first love letter I ever wrote to my high school girlfriend began with the first line from a set of handwritten lyrics found in the back seat when Hank Williams died:

"We met, we lived and dear we loved..."

Unfortunately, the whole thing ended worse for me than it did Hank. Sigh.

ANYhoo, on the plane back from Ireland yesterday (more later!) I watched the Hank Williams biopic I Saw the Light - great performance by Tom Hiddleston in a movie that didn't really make any coherent sense or tell a story; disappointing since you'd think it'd be hard to fuck up Hank Williams' story - and I remembered the above passage. And thanks to the never-ending generosity of the internet, here's that note:

Here's the story form the college kid who was driving the car when Hank died.

Tommy Says So

It's not every day I click on Salon and see an interview with Tommy Stinson, but his strict adherence to being on time,  after having grown up (literally) in one of the most incredibly dysfunctional bands of all time, may be even more surprising:
You don’t drive. Does that make touring feel that much more youthful for you?

Paul doesn’t, either! Ultimately, someone’s got to navigate and be able to read a fuckin’ map! Why would I learn how to drive? Someone’s got to know how to read a map and be the passenger. I like that role. I would often ride with the equipment trucks because I liked to do that. 
 
I never felt the need to do it. I grew up in Minneapolis and traveled all over the place. I was always comfortable with public transportation. I lived in L.A. for twenty years. I’m the only guy that I know that was completely punctual to every meeting by taking public transportation.

I run my life like that. I’m not completely anal about time. But if I have a 3 o’clock meeting and I’ve got to take a bus or train to get there, I’d rather be on the early rather than late side.

Only Fools du Jour

Del: Never give up on people, Rodney. I know that most of the time they don't seem to understand. But when you're in trouble and you cry out for help some will always be there. Trigger's cousin Cyril's a perfect example. He owed 500 quid on his mortgage.
Trigger: They were gonna be thrown out on the street the following day. he was very worried about it.
Mike: So what happened Trig?
Trigger: He drove out to Beachy Head. Parked about five foot from the edge of the cliff.
Albert: What he was gonna drive off it?
Trigger: Yeah! He just sat there for a couple of hours his head resting on the steering wheel. People tried to talk to him out of it but he was too depressed to listen.
Del: But then, and this is what I mean about people Rodney, they had a whip-round and got him his 500 quid.
Rodney: No! Who held the whip-round?
Del: All the passengers on his bus.

Ireland

Back in 2009 I wrote:

I wanna shoot past 48, I wanna get to my own twilight years, I wanna get to them green rolling hills in Ireland. Because, despite my seemingly own best efforts, I still have a chance to. 

Today, in 6 & 1/2 hours I am getting on a plane to Ireland.

Life is funny.

Happy Birthday to Me

Today I turned 44, and my beloved Yankees are 44-44. Hmm. 

A Day at Camden Yards!

Thanks to Brothatime! I got to go to the Orioles game this Saturday, where they whooped the Mike Trout-led Angels 3-2.

Love that they announce the umps as if anyone cares. "Baker? Oh, he's good."

Someone is unfortunately under the impression he's pitching today. What a fucking idiot.

I have never rooted harder for a goddam Oriole in all my life. #Dennys

Paddy Mac turning around to tell this loudmouth to sit down shut the fuck up and pay attention to the damn game. 

They did it! Thank you Mark Trumbo!!! #wherethefuckisthenearestDennys

 

#wearefucked

Pretty sure we've pushed ourselves into the wilderness of being completely fucked when Newt Gingrich says something that even remotely makes sense.

Ah yes...

...we're finally going to get the "Are guns super-awesome amazing or just super amazing?" GOP debate.

Iowa? IOWA?

Wow. Here's a guy really going out of his way to let you know he's a racist shithead.

Go Home NASA, You're Drunk.

This Seems Intoxicating & Terrifying (Oh Did I Mention Terrifying?)

GMy Great War, as part of the BBC 4-year WWI Centenary season:

In 1964, the BBC filmed hundreds of hours of interviews with the veterans of World War One – and the result was a 26-part landmark series, The Great War. This series only used a fraction of the interviews shot. The Great War is a new film based on this unseen archive, and tells, with the directness of living testimony, what it was like living and dying on the frontline. 

From its IMDB page:

One of the greatest achievements of television -broadcast from 1964 in 26 episodes. Use of extensive archive footage and sound effects, linked with contemporary classic music of that area. Concentrated by the commentaries by Michael Redgrave, and some of the finest male actors of the twentieth century. Still manages to be breathtaking despite the lack of special effects or modern gimmicks. 

- Nick Gunning

Here's the first episode, looks like you can YouTube through the whole damn thing.
 

New BBC du Jour

I'm looking forward to watching this but it'd be much less confusing if the Germans didn't all have English accents.

The Greatest Album of All Time?

The Pistols are at least in the conversation.

The. Vintage. Mencken. Think I got it, thanks.