send in the clowns

As illustrated on deadlicious.

As performed by Cloris Leachman on FABULON.

As played over a proto-boombox on I'm Learning To Share!.

the devil and Richard Hell

. . . are meeting death at not just any crossroad, but Au carrefore étrange.

Oh, yeah, devil, Richard Hell. Richard Hell, the devil.

(Not a commentary, just clever shorthand/idle pointing. Back to napping now . . .)

reading or just read

The Velvet Underground and Nico by Joe Harvard

Fun 'cause of Joe Harvard's interjections about his wild teen years in East Boston or chatting with Jonathan Richman. Interesting 'cause there always seems to be another story or another point of view on the Velvets, Warhol and all that.

Sudden Music and Why Birds Sing, both by David Rothenberg

Sudden Music is fun 'cause of the folk stories the author uses. Interesting because I don't know if I agree with his eco-aesthetics, but who wants to read a xerox of one's own notions.

Why Birds Sing is fun & interesting because Rothenberg goes at birdsong with science and poetics.

Both books (or at least the editions I borrowed from the library) have CDs of Rothenberg's music which I haven't truly listened to yet. Entirely an indication of my unwillingness to load a CD player (even greater than my hesitation to crack a book).

Back to napping . . .

where trouble goes angels follow

(Courtesy 8270laneman.)

While more of a fan of The Trouble With Angels (Hayley Mills, Rosalind Russell and so forth and so on), I like the theme song to Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows.

Likewise, I caught the start of Modesty Blaise which I hadn't seen since watching it as a kid on late night TV. Unfortunately I saw no video clip of the opening credits, but that theme's great too.

napping

As unterkayness continues to mention the same favorite blogs over and again, the fave blog & whatnot roster in the right hand column has been expanded.

And unterkayness takes a long nap to dream, reflect and otherwise do nothing for a while.

In the interim, the expanded list of usual suspects will serve you well.

the results are in

Poll One asked . . .

dogs & cats: at odds or in cohoots?


100% chose "Yes. Wait, what was the question."

Now we know for certain.

Poll Two asked . . .

do you believe in polls?

100% of those responding chose "I believe in wizards."


Had I voted, I would've chosen "Crickets know my name." But the people have spoken.

And the crickets will surely bide their time.

second that emotion

As announced on The Boat Lullabies, Square America has just put up Moving Pictures, a series of photo strip animations.

Funky Junk Trunk gives us Rita Tushingham.

FABULON presents not one but two Yvonnes.

And I'm Learning To Share! dusts off one crazy TV tray.

if nominated, I will not run

On PCL LinkDump, it seems Mr. Dante Fontana has announced his (and potentially anyone else's) 2008 bid for president.

Seems he's also picked his campaign song.

Jed on Testors glue

PCL LinkDump's post about a model car site includes a cool pic of the Beverly Hillbillies truck kit. Wee doggies . . .

More thumbs than patience, I'm glad to just look at the stuff.

poll cat

In the interest of arbitrarily fiddling with various widgets, unterkayness (for now) features a poll.

It may summarily disappear. Or be replaced by another.

The current one is set to run for 2 years--carefully weigh your decision.

more congrats

Two more fun cool blogs win the Arte Y Pico award, Deadlicious with Au Carrefour Etrange riding along in the sidecar.

congratulations

I'm Learning To Share! wins the Arte Y Pico Award. No surprise there or in ILTS! conferring the same to the also often-mentioned FABULON.

Never having been to Bedazzled! (another A. Y P. conferree), dropped by there to find jukebox themed MP3s and a uke-powered cover of Wire's "Outdoor Miner" (wonder if they do "The 15th" or "Ex Lion Tamer"?).

Fun stuff indeed.

fearful symmetry and alternate MTV

FABULON finds the region where sad, scary and funny combine.

Deadlicious presents a few masked avengers who may yet fix this (or any other morbidly precocious) situation.

PCL LinkDump returns to a time before "paper or plastic".

And hears the sounds of New Orleans.

ain't nobody gonna make me stop

PCL LinkDump snapcracklepops, talks Turkey, does the wearing of the green. And joins Elvis Costello in awed appreciation of the one & only Wanda Jackson.

Frankly, I dunno if the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is cool enough for her, but they can give it a shot.

On FABULON, Carrie gets the nod.

the TV! the TV!

To make public my cathode addiction (and follow up on an old post), I present you with the YouTube playlist of writers, performers & other creative folk who've been interviewed for the Archive of American Television.

The listing runs alphabetically by first name. So Angela Lansbury comes just before Ann B. Davis and Dennis Weaver is well before Sherman Hemsley.

Wait, let me namedrop a few more . . . Composers Quincy Jones, Jerry Goldsmith and Earle Hagen. Folks like James Garner, James Arness, Shirley Jones, Mike Douglas, Leonard Nimoy (and yes, Wm. Shatner and Geo. Takai), Betty White and Pat Morita. And comics galore: George Carlin, Phyllis Diller, Jerry Lewis and Harvey Korman (Jonathan Winters I mentioned previously).

Thing is, these interviews cover entire careers and last for several half-hour segments.

But if the fall season is a bust, then nerdy nostalgia shall prevail.

200 dollars a day plus expenses

Many recent, um, spare hours have gone to a DVD marathon of The Rockford Files, seasons 4 & 5.

So imagine my surprise when, in search of the Rule of Three (as alluded to on the Simpsons), I find this article by Stephen J. Cannell on three act structure.

Dunno if any good scripts are rising from the wake, but I'm almost out of good (old) TV to watch. Writers get busy.

for love of Colonel Sanders

On PCL LinkDump, baikinange presents a KFC commercial for every occasion.

And on Roadside Architecture, agilitynut scopes out a weathervane Colonel Sanders.

Observing the rule of three: That Mall's Sick and That Store's Dead! discovers a giant KFC bucket.

you're damn right

Things'll majorly suck without Isaac Hayes around . . .

I'm Learning To Share! and PCL LinkDump know this.

And being from the left side of the big pond, I could dig the comments & memories left at the BBC's story. Esp. the first one ("'It's wet, but it's wild.'").

And this interview Isaac Hayes gave to the Onion AV club back in '06.

Meanwhile, Black Moses looks on. From a stage in Watts. From a black velvet simulacrum.

Feeling the weight of a full bag of cotton, he's only gonna switch to a new one. And wonder why we aren't keeping up.

again with the looking

agilitynut's Roadside Architecture is on the road again. Def. check out her new photos from the highway on the blog and Flickr.

looking back, in and anyway you can

That Mall's Sick And That Store's Dead! (aka Sickmalls) posts photos of a Bennigan's and a Steak & Ale. Evidently, I'm not alone in wearing a black armband for Butters.

Not being much of a theme restaurant goer, I find my interest is more about how these places become landmarks in current and (later on) remembered space. These two are on the outskirts of what was Coliseum Mall, Hampton VA.

Meanwhile, PCL LinkDump is high on the LSD with Cary Grant and Esther Williams tapping the subconscious with el 'cid. (What, no word of Groucho?)

All that and Hammer time, too.

And The Boat Lullabies presents Who We Were: A Snapshot History of America.

Also ran across USO Clubs in World War II, full of cool picture postcard images.