Buck Rogers and Doctor Who--Contrasting Sci-Fi Heroes

Last Saturday two great sci-fi icons and figures from my past appeared on TV. Turner Classic Movies began running episodes from the 1938 Republic serial Buck Rogers. (They usually show movie serials on Sat. mornings, which is when they were shown in the movie theatres back when my father was a kid.) Most people now know Buck Rogers as a 1980s TV series, but the comic strip and serial were first. That night BBC America had the American premiere of the new series of Doctor Who.

These series both star time-travelling heroes, both vastly different in terms of their problem-solving techniques, and were big parts of my childhood and adoloscence. Buck Rogers was a comic strip started in the late 1920s about a daring pilot trapped in suspended animation for 500 years to emerge in the 25th century. He bravely fights against Killer Kane, a futuristic gangster who has taken over the world, a sort of combination of Hitler and Al Capone. Local Philadelphia station Channel 17 used to run episodes on weekday afternoons with a kiddie TV host named Wee Willie Webber. I remember my uncle Jim in Boston had a big book of the original strips that fascinated me and my parents later bought me a copy for Christmas.

I first encountered Doctor Who, the long-running British sci-fi series about a Time Lord and his companions roaming the universe in a time-space machine disguised as a police box, when Phila. public TV station Channel 12 showed episodes starring Tom Baker, the fourth actor to play the role. The trick of the series was that Time Lords can regenerate themselves into an entirely new body so a new actor would take over the role when the previous one was tired of it. That way the show continued for several decades. My relationship with the Doctor continued into my move to NYC when I left college and became an adult. I actually joined a Doctor Who fan club called UNYT--named after the military branch of the British government the Doctor was allied with.

I even attended a Doctor Who convention in Valley Forge, PA, and met Doctor Who number 3 Jon Pertwee and several Doctor Who companions. I remember they showed episodes all day long. There was a Doctor Who event in Brooklyn College when I lived near there and I got Tom Baker and Colin Baker (Doctor number 6)'s autograph. My ultimate Doctor Who experience was at Infinicon, a weird convention held in NYC at the Institute of Ethical Culture that UNYT pariticipated in. I served as guest escort for George Takei,Sulu of Star Trek, and met Patrick Troughton (Doctor number 2) and Peter Davison (Doctor number 5).

The main difference in these two is Buck Rogers uses his daring and muscle to get out of a situation and the Doctor uses his mind. Both are infinitely brave. The Doctor thinks nothing of facing Daleks, Cybermen, Ice Warriors, or other invincible foes as does Buck Rogers, but the Doctor doesn't even have a raygun like Rogers, just a sonic screwdriver.

The new Doctor Who with Matt Smith is really gripping. So far we've seen two episodes and there is a weird story arc involving the Doctor's death and a little girl inside an Apollo astronaut suit. Amy Pond may be pregnant and her husband Rory doesn't know if his wife loves him or the Doctor, plus maybe we'll finally discover who Dr. River Song is--I think she's Amy's baby grown up from the future. Buck Rogers is up to episode four at TCM and not quite as exciting. Buck is trapped in the open country between Killer Kane's city and the Hidden City where the forces of freedom are keeping themselves. He is protecting Prince Tallen, an emisary from Saturn.

The Amazing Race 18--Episode 8--Freudian Sweeps

Perhaps it was a Freudian slip that made me record Undercover Boss instead of the Amazing Race this past week. But I would have to explain that to the Globetrotters who didn't even know what the significance of the Freudian couch they were carrying through the streets of Vienna. Even the cowboys got that much and Jet made a joke about laying on the couch and telling his brother all of his problems while he carried him on it.

Fortunately, the mistaken DVRing took place at at our upstate place and the backup recording did occur properly at home in Queens. I was able to watch the episode on the CBS website the next morning before we drove to New Jersey for Passover. This was a relavitely tame episode with not very difficult tasks. After flying from Vernasi to Vienna, all the teams had to do was choose between eating a big meal in 12 minutes or hauling those couches a few blocks--Jerry has been to Vienna and he said the Freud house is close to the university--then driving four or five hours to Salzberg and dropping a leaded weight down a chimney three times. Gary and Mallory had trouble figuring out they had to back up their car to get a clue to their next destination. They came in last and now they have a speed bump in the next leg. What tremendously difficult task will it be? Remember their birthdays? Eat a mint? Tie their shoelaces?

Justin and Zev have won three legs now and are neck and neck with the Globetrotters for the top position. The cowboys are continually starting in last place and really need to catch up, but I think they can. The Goths are close to self-descturction if Kent doesn't shape up and Vyxsyn doesn't get rid of that nose ring. OK, the nose ring probably has nothing to do with their position in the race. I just can't stand it.

With all the money the series is getting from product placement from Snapple and Ford Focus (this week) you'd think they could afford to go a little bit further than Lichtenstein next week.

Day 15--fly from Vernasi to Vienna
Day 16--Arrive Vienna, detour, then drive to Salzburg

Leaderboard:
Justin and Zev--three wins, trips to Cancun and Costa Rica, one Ford Focus each
Mallory and Gary--two wins, Express Pass (used), $1 million rupees, an Indian dinner and a bottle of Snapple
Jet and Cord--one win, $5,000 each
Luke and Margie--one win, trip to Aruba
Flight Time and Big Easy--one win, trip to Hawaii

Annoying Sunday

Very annoyed with myself--through some slip I failed to DVR The Amazing Race on the TV in my upstate house and wound up DVRing Undercover Boss. Damn! Well, I am sure that the TV in my Queens place did get the show and I can always watch it on the CBS website. (Although I did try that once and it only got through the first 45 mins befoer the image broke up.) Tomorrow we are driving to NJ for Passover so I won't get to see it till tomorrow night at some point.

It's been a strange and busy week with lots of shows to cover as we wind down towards the end of the 2010-11 theatre season. Just got the disheartening news that the Intiman Theatre of Seattle must cancel the rest of its 2011 season due to lack of funds. After my weekend at Actors Theatre of Louisville it was so exciting to feel part of a regional theatre and then to get this bad news.

It's also the anniversary of both the start of the Civil War and the Lincoln Assasination. Fort Sumter was fired upon on April 12, 1861 and Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865. I'm reading a book on the assassination and the subsequent trial. I also want to see this new movie, The Conspirator, directed by Robert Redford. The book is called "They Have Killed Papa Dead," taken from a quote Tad Lincoln uttered when running into the White House after learning of the succesful attempt on his father's life. Earlier this week as I was reading the book on the subway, I was close to tears. The author was describing the moments after the shooting as Lincoln's body was carried across the street from Ford's Theatre to a private house. It was feared he would die immediately if they took him to the White House.

I supposed I got emotional imagining the reactions of the people in Ford's and in the nation's capital. After four hard years of bitter warfare, the hostilities had finally ceased and just as everyone was looking forward to peace, the man who led the country through its most difficult trial is brutally murdered by a fanatical madman. Lincoln tried to bring us together rather than divide us by appealing to a narrow base--like some politicians today. Speaking of which...

Donald Trump appears to be serious about running for president. That doesn't concern me too much since he is basically a joke. It would be amusing if he did run and when he fails to get the Republican nomination, even more amusing if he ran as an independent. That would almost guarantee a second term for Obama since a Trump candidacy would pull votes away from the mainstream Republican--probably Romney.

The Amazing Race 18--Episode 6 and 7--Tea Time

The past two weeks have been jampacked with theatregoing since we are approaching the end of the Broadway season, plus I was in Louisville last weekend. So I have fallen behind in my Amazing Race evaluations, even though there was no episode last week due to the Country Music Awards. The main observation is the producers are really cutting costs. So far there have been seven episodes and we've only been in three countries: Australia, China, and India. There seemed to be less action in these past two episodes compared to the pair of double-part legs and the double U-turn. I did learn that Calcutta is no longer called that, but like Mumbai it is now known by a traditional Indian title--Kolkata.

In Kumning, the racers were given some tea and their next destination in India. In Kolkata, they had to identify the same tea they drank in China amid thousands of cups. All in the name of product placement because Snapple was sponsoring this episode and they were marketing a special limited edition Amazing Race tea. Luke supplied the big drama by breaking down and having a hissy fit when he couldn't find the right one. (Maybe I shouldn't criticize since I don't know how I would react if everyone had already left and that Omar Sharaf guy kept shaking his head at me that I got it wrong.) After the challenge of painting an elephant or delivering school books (difficult! Not! What happened to bungee jumping?) Gary and Mallory won. Mallory reacted way too excitedly over winning a bottle of Snapple, but she was justified when they threw in the $1 million rupees.

The only other big drama was Vyxsin's nose ring. Scary! She continued to wear it into episode seven where the teams stayed in India, but at least they flew to another city rather than taking yet another train. Once in Vernasi, one team member had to find six holy men and put together a message (copying the Devil and the deep blue sea challenge of episodes 1 and 2). The segment reminded me of when I was in Nepal and I took a picture of a holy man and give him a few rupees. He gave me a red dot on my forehead. I was also wearing my Nepali cap at the time and my dad whom I was travelling with said I had gone native.

This episode also reminded me of being in Delhi (This was part of the same trip with my dad). Just as the racers commented on the craziness of the streets of Varnasi, I remember the streets of Delhi full of animals, togas, rickshaws, motorcycles, pedestrains, people hauling garbage, cars, etc.

Kent invoked bad karma by promising to lead Gary to the final holy man after they worked together, but he dumped the old guy like a hot rock. Kent paid for his treachery later by turning into Mister Crabby Goth. His backpack was suddenly too heavy and he made Wonder Woman Vyxsin carry it. Then the Goths got in the wrong boat and Vyxsin jumped in the dirty Gangas River! They finally found a cab and pushed the passenger out and screamed at the driver. I thought they were going to lose when it was between them and Ron and Christine, but the father-daughter team was unable to make up for lost time since Ron was the last one out of the holy-man search.

The Globetrotters won, coming back from last place and Justin and Zev were second. I'm glad they're still in it. The competition is really tight now with only really good players left. I think Kent and Vyxsin are the next to go. Coming attractions made it look like they are reaching the breaking point, just like they did they last time they were on.

Day 10--head to airport for flight to Kolkata
Day 11--Arrive in Kolkata, wait overnight until Town Hall opens in the morning
Day 12--Road Block with tea tasting and Detour with schoolbook or ganesha painting; Gary and Mallory have their product-placement dinner
Day 13--Leg 7 begins, head to airport, book flights to Vernasi via Delhi
Day 14--Arrive Vernasi at 10:45 AM, cowboys one hour behind, but catch up

Leaderboard:
Justin and Zev--two wins, trips to Cancun and Costa Rica
Mallory and Gary--two wins, Express Pass (used), $1 million rupees, an Indian dinner and a bottle of Snapple Jet and Cord--one win, $5,000 each
Luke and Margie--one win, trip to Aruba
Flight Time and Big Easy--one win, trip to Hawaii

Third Time in Louisville

This is the third time I visited Louisville, Kentucky for the Humana Festival of New American Plays, and it’s the best one yet. Almost all of the plays are of high quality—I’ll be writing about them on the Back Stage website—and I reconnected with theatre professionals I’ve met before and made the acquaintance of new ones. Since I have been to the city twice before, I didn’t feel compelled to rush around and see everything. I did let my curiosity get the better of me and went out of my way once or twice. On the first night, guests were given a welcome reception at the home of one of the trustees. On the bus to the party, we went through Bardstown Road, one of those trendy little neighborhoods all cities seem to have. You know, the kind that have cute little shops selling used books and CDs and nowadays DVDs, etc. The first year I was here, I foolishly walked all the way from the downtown area to Bardstown which had to be at least five miles. (It looked much closer on the map.) Anyway, this time the bus is driving down Bardstown Road, and out of the corner of my eye, I see the Incredible Hulk and Wolverine adorning a storefront, with the sign outside reading “COMIC BOOKS ARE A GOOD SOURCE OF FIBER! HONEST!”

Immediately, I think I’ve got to come back here. I somehow missed this comic book store the last time I was here. In fact, Louisville did not rank high on the comic-book index (outside of NYC, I’d give Chicago and Philly high marks). Anyhoo, the only time I had to take the cab ride to the Bardstown area was the next morning—Friday. The rest of the time was eaten up with going to Humana plays. So I find a cab the next morning and located the store I had seen the night before. It was called Roll of the Die—since it also sold gaming stuff. Once again, cool title, so-so merchandise. Like too many comic places these days, they only had Bronze Age books and later. And that was overpriced. They did have a replica of the captain’s chair from Star Trek. I should have sat in it and asked for a picture—and here’s the reason for that:

In Roll of the Die, there were flyers advertising the Louisville Science Center’s hosting of the traveling Star Trek Exhibition, and it was just a few blocks from the theatre. How could I resist? (There was another place that sold comics in the area of Roll of the Die, but it was just too far away to walk and get back to the festival in time for my next curtain.)

The next available opening was Sat. after 6. Fortunately, the center was open till 9. So I went hoping to take some photos, but it turns out that was not allowed—copyrights of something. You could get your picture taken on the authentic captain’s chair and have it Photoshopped onto a replica of the bridge and also have yourself Photoshopped on the transporter platform, but they wanted $21 for a DVD of the photos and the same price for prints. It would have been fun to dress up this blog with the photo. But it ain’t worth a double sawbuck. So for the tens of you reading this, just look at my Facebook photo and imagine me sitting where William Shatner’s ass was. There were original props, costumes, histories of the Romulans, Vulcans, Klingons, etc., even a timeline for the entire history of the Star Trek future. But it was out of order! It went from left to right, going from the 24th century back to present, but the new Star Trek movie (2010) which take places right after the 20th century was at the beginning and should have been near the end. It was sorta fun and I’m glad I went. It reminded me of all the sci-fi conventions I used to go which were different from the comic conventions I go to now. I went to the sci-fi shows to meet the actors from Star Trek, Doctor Who, Blake’s Seven, etc. Now I just go for the comic books. If there are celebs at the current conventions, you are charged extra just for an autograph or taking their picture.

Then I returned to the theatre where they presented the Steinberg Award for the best new American play presented outside of NYC in the past year. The award is presented by the American Theatre Critics Association and I was on the committee of critics across the country to choose the winner and the two runners-up which receive each a citation. We read about 30 scripts and exchanged our views on them via email. The president of ATCA, Chris Rawson from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, introduced us from the audience, so that was gratifying. One of the winning playwrights, David Bar Katz, wrote a play about the creation of Superman called The History of Invulnerability, and we talked about comic books and my Jack Kirby collection. I also met people from Dayton, Ohio (a reporter who told me her son makes a living entering video contests on the Internet which he always wins—which is worth repeating), and Washington, DC (the theatre dept. head from the NEA), several playwrights, actors (Small World Dept.: it turns out one knew my college acting teacher), and directors. It’s always exciting to go to Humana because the audiences are all theatre people and you feel like you’re part of a big national community.

The Amazing Race 18:Unfinished Business--Episode 5--Stuck in China

It's been a week since the last episode and I have been so busy reading comic books and watching DVDs that I haven't had a chance to blog about it. Here it is Sunday and the next segment will be on tonight. I may as well just blog about the two together, but I have been doing that too often lately. So I'll just give my impressions as best as I can recall. I could watch the episode again on CBS.com, but I have better things to do like read some more comic books and watch DVDs. (I actually watched half of Twelve Monkeys on the train to upstate and the Blu Ray of Alice in Wonderland last night, the best thing about the latter is the employment it provided for so many British actors like Helena Bonham Carter, Frances de la Tour, Lindsay Duncan, Alan Rickman, and Timothy Spall.)

Episode 4 ended in the middle of a leg which is the second time they've pulled that trick this season. I think they are trying to save money by making the racers take trains rather than jets to the next destination. It also avoids multiple non-elimination rounds. Everyone had reached the midway point, thinking it was the finish line, except for Justin and Zev and Kent and Vyxsin (I probably misspelled her name, but what do expect if she gives it an eccentric twist with that y in there?)

The Goths had to go back to the gondola to get their missing fanny pack, then catch up with the others who were all on the same train back to Kunming, where they had just come from the previous night. Zev and Justin had checked in and got to the train station in time to watch the Globetrotters play basketball with the cowboys and the volleyball players.

The Goths were met with icy stares when they joined the others and lied about not being told by Phil they would receive a time penalty for missing the plane from Tokyo. This is another new wrinkle in the race, if you miss a flight--even if it is required--why should you get a time penalty? You've lost all the time, it's not as if they got another earlier flight which put them ahead of everyone. Anyway, they got back to Kunming in the middle of the night and the Goths wisely U-turned the redheads because they were right there! They explained that last time they stupidly u-turned a team that was ahead of them. This way they knew they weren't making the same mistake. It would up costing the redheads the race because they had to go back and play with the dolls and then they had a tough time assembling the dinosaur.

Zev and Justin turned into the Globetrotters by leeching onto another team--Ron and Christina--figuring they wouldn't get lost because they know Chinese. But the ploy backfired on them when the father and daughter's cabdriver took them to the wrong location. Despite the language advantage, Ron and Christine wound up near the bottom and Zev and Justin barely escaped elimination. Gary and Mallory, another victim of the Ron-Christina caravan fiasco, used up their express pass when they got the dinosaur park and saw how difficult the task was. The cowboys still beat them to the number one spot and the Globetrotters survived despited getting the second U-turn from the redheads.

In the previews for next week, now tonight, it looks like Luke will be crying to his mommy because he can't figure out the differences between some Indian tea. Hopefully, it will be a single leg with no cliffhangers. The flight to India will probably put everyone on an equal footing again and it's still anyone's race.

Day 8--Leg continues, teams take train from Lijiang back to Kunming
Day 9--Teams arrive in the middle of the night to perform roadblock,dawn is breaking as they hit Double U-turn, get to park, assemble dinosaur, finish leg

Justin and Zev--two wins, trips to Cancun and Costa Rica
Jet and Cord--one win, $5,000 each
Luke and Margie--one win, trip to Aruba
Mallory and Gary--one win, Express Pass (used)

The Amazing Race 18: Unfinished Business--Episode 4: PMA or PMS?

Kent and Vyksyn lost their shit literally and figuratively this episode, losing a passport and a fanny pack as well as several hours going the wrong way from Kurihama to Tokyo. Vyksyn had several breakdowns along the way. Maybe she's using too much magenta hair dye. We were led to believe they would get eliminated for sure this time after they nearly got the axe two episodes ago in Australia when Vyksyn went nuts in the shark tank. But surprise--it's another two part leg and everyone is still racing though Team number one (Luke and Margie) won a trip to Aruba. I will admit I was totally taken by surprise when that happened, because we just had two-part leg in episodes one and two. I like this better than non-elimination legs so I'm not complaining.

At least this race is not predictable. I couldn't even tell if it was day five or day six when we started. I'm guessing it's the sixth day because by the time Jamie and Cara found the lucky frog and came in 10th on day five it was dark out. This leg began at 8:44 PM and teams had to drive several hours from Kurihama to the Tokyo airport. I'm guessing it was the night of the next day. There seems to be more work involved in the travelling and more days covered in the individual legs. They are really making the contestants work for the money this time, as opposed to the easy-peasy challenges of the past couple of seasons (bring some tea to an old guy, sit in a sauna, drink a shot, etc.) This leg they had drive all night, take a plane (evidently there were transfers according to Jamie and Cara in the extra footage in the CBS website), then a train, a shuttle bus, a gondola, then another bus.

Kent and Vyskn started out with PMA (possible mental attitude) which quickly turned to PMS when neither of the Goths could get their car door open. It went downhill from there, and they got lost, missed the flight to Kunming, and wound up in a death struggle with Justin and Zev for last place.

As the teams drove to the Tokyo airport, several reminisced about their last time in China. The Copperhead cheerleaders recalled how much they hate China because nobody speaks English there.

All the teams but the Goths made the flight to Kunming. Ron and Christina used their knowledge of the language to get a train ahead of everyone and arrive first in Lijiang. They even had time for Ron to stop and eat all the food in the country. We're into a whole other day (Day 8) by the time they get to Lijiang for an usually full day of challenges. First they had saddle and ride a yak, find twelve charms with the Chinese Zodiac and arrange them properly, figure out their Zodiac sign (this held up the Globetrotters who named every animal before randomly hitting on theirs--didn't they ever read those paper placemats in Chinese restaurants?), then pound candy or march through the streets while blowing a huge horn. Apart from the drama of Kent and Vyksyn, the high point was Ron and Christine falling off the wrong vehicle and throwing rocks at the right one to get it to stop. Wouldn't you know it, the Globetrotters saved Ron and Christine's bacon by getting the bus to stop. So, after mistakenly taken their fanny pack, they are now even with the father and daughter.

Some on the internet have complained about this episode for springing another double leg on us so soon, but I loved it. Lots of action and unexpected twists.

Day 6--Drive to Tokyo airport from Kurihama
Day 7--9:50 AM Flight from Tokyo to Kunming, China, train to Lijiang, Kent and Vyksyn leave Tokyo at 3:30 PM, arrive in Kunming in the middle of the night
Day 8--Arrive in Lijiang, Kent and Vyksyn catch up, leg doesn't stop

Zev and Justin--two wins, trips to Cancun and Costa Rico
Gary and Malllory--one win, Express Pass (still not used)
Luke and Margie-one win, Trip to Aruba

Reflections on Wisconsin and Japan, Free Markets and Class Wars

The events of the past few days have led to the conclusion that Ayn Rand was an idealistic nut. The thesis of all her novels and philosophical tracts can be summed up thusly--let the rich, smart, and ambitious get all the power they want and don't let the government do anything to restrict or restrain them in any way. No taxes, no regulations, nothing. An entirely free laissez-faire system will take care of all those pesky collusions or unfair trusts. She actually believed a free market would regulate itself and all injustices would even out because the public would stop buying the product of an unfair manufacturer.

What's been happening in Wisconsin demonstrates what happens when the super-rich want to get super-richer and no one has the guts to tell them, hold it a minute, you can't just take everything. Corporate interests like the Koch Brothers are out to diminish the power of public-worker unions so that forces friendly to them will stay in office. If the state doesn't take out the union dues there'll be less money to contribute to Obama and the Dems.

As I understand it, the unions gave in the governor's demands and yet he still insisted on stripping them of their right to collective bargaining. The Fox News crowd played along by painting the unions as corrupt fat cats getting enormous salaries for lazy slobs. Ann Coulter on Sean Hannity cited bus drivers making six-figure salaries. The strategy is clear, Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes are kowtowing to their corporate overlords by selling the Fox audience the idea that the unions are against the unorganized workers at Walmart, etc. See, they say, look at the red bastards stealing your money and giving it to those gold-bricking school teachers who get a whole summer off. Fox and their ilk are the ones waging a class war, pitting the working classes against each other--unions against unskilled, unorganized labor. If the Repubs and their rich cronies really wanted to balance the budget, they'd get the millionaires to pay taxes in proportion to their income.

Rand's philosophy and that of Glenn Beck and his cohorts is if you are smart and hard-working you should make and keep as much money as you possibly can and pay as little tax as you can get away with, forget the rest of society or the common good. If some poor slob who isn't a ballsy entrepeneur and can't get insurance, then goes broke because of one hospital visit, that's his tough luck.

Speaking of the common good, as I was watching the horrible scenes from the tsunami and earthquake in Japan, I was reminded of similar footage from New Orleans and Katrina. The difference was the people in New Orleans were stranded by their government, both in preparedness (faulty levees) and help after the disaster, and the people in Japan seemed to be getting aide right away and there was no looting or panic. The looting in New Orleans can be attributed to taking avantage of a bad situation, BUT they were also people who had no food or medicine and there were no sign state or federal authorities were going to help them. In fact, many conservative commentators said it was the citizens own fault for living near so much water and relying on the government for help.

Batman and the Indians

My friend Lydia pointed out that the Hub has shown just about all of the Batman episodes, except for a handful--the first guest starring appearance of Vincent Price as the Egghead, a villain not from the comics, but created for the show, and a two-part episode from the Batgirl season with Cliff Robertson returning as Shame and Dina Merrill as his sidekick Calamity Jan. Checking a Batman chatboard, a few posters conjectured that these episodes were nixed because of the comical, and possibly offensive, depictions of Native Americans.

In the Egghead episode, Edward Everett Horton, the narrator from Fractured Fairy Tales, plays Chief Screaming Chicken, the last of a tribe which leases Gotham City to the original settlers for some pelts. In the Shame episodes, a dour Indian named Chief Standing Pat is part of the western villain's gang. Are these characters offensive enough to warrant not showing the episodes? I'm not Native American, so I can't say. But by the same token should we not show episodes of old sitcoms with swishy gay characters like Uncle Arthur on Bewitched or Hispanics with thick accents or Gone with the Wind because of the simplistic depiction of Prissy? Chief Screaming Chicken and Chief Standing Pat are comic figures but so was everyone else on Batman.

The Amazing Race 18: Unfinished Business--Episodes 2 and 3

Episode Two was chiefly exciting because we got to see a lot of bare chests--especially Kris's--and then a lot of kangaroo outfits. Plus Mike cried like a baby with guilt because he felt he was killing his 70-year-old father for a measly $1 million and some much-needed exposure. But things really heated up in Episode Three. Instead of going on the traditional 12-hour rest period after bouncing across the finish line in the mining town of Broken Hill, everyone had to take an overnight train back to Sydney and then take a plane to Tokyo. In our last blog we learn lesson number one of the Amazing Race: never help a stronger team, always help a weaker team. Zev and Justin learned that lesson hard in Episode 3 when the Globetrotters repaid them for giving them a vital clue by giving up a pair of seats on a flight with connections which was supposed to get in 15 minutes earlier than the direct flight.

This leads us to lesson number two: always take a direct flight; a connecting one can have delays. Naturally the connecting flight was delayed and Zev and Justin, along with four other teams, lost about an hour and the Globetrotters now owe them nothing. Flight Time and Big Easy continued to mooch off everyone by following the other cars to the first destination in Tokyo. They didn't even have a map. Then they swiped Christa's fanny pack at the road block. OK, it may have been an honest mistake, but it really wasn't clear what happened. Did they deliberately take it, realize the error and then leave it in the changing room instead of where they found it on the mountain in order to gain time? The editing make it very confusing.

We also learned Christina is engaged to Azaria, half of the brother and sister team from her season. That's interesting. I don't remember them ever relating during the race, maybe they hooked up later. Anyway, Christina whined to Phil and the Globetrotters got a 30-min. penalty. I'll bet this will come up next week and we'll have a confrontation scene. Flight Time and Big Easy seem like fun guys, but I really don't want them to win. Pro athletes have an unfair advantage and they leech off other, smarter teams when they can't figure out clues or directions.

I love that Zev and Justin roared ahead of the other teams who were stuck in traffic and conferring with each other on directions. They just took charge and wound up in first place again. I think it's going to come down to Zev and Justin and Gary and Mallory who have come out ahead so far. I cracked up when Zev said, "Don't touch me" to Justin.

After taking off a Japanese guy's side view mirror and trying to bribe him, Jaime and Cara narrowly escaped elimination because 70-year-old Mel was nearly frozen to death in the mud looking for a frog. My favorite line: Mel to his son Mike: "I'd rather die here with you, than at home in bed." That conjures up some pleasant images.

Day 2--Sydney (Still part of first leg, though into the second episode)
Day 3--charter flight to Broken Hill; overnight train back to Sydney
Day 4--arrive in Syndey, book flight to Tokyo
Day 5--arrive in Tokyo, drive all over the place

Gary and Mallory--Express pass--which they haven't used yet
Zev and Justin--two wins, trips to Cancun and Costa Rico

Hucka-Bite-Me

Mike Huckabee seemed like such a nice guy--for a rabid right-wing Republican that is. I was taken in by his gentle demeanor, I guess. Compared to other conservatives he appeared actually sane. And he defended Michele Obama for campaigning against obesity which was at least decent. But this week, he's totally lost it with his crazy talk about Natalie Portman's pregnancy and his inaccurate criticism of Obama's life history.

Let's take Portman first. First of all, she is getting married to the father of her child, the guy who choreographed Black Swan. Secondly, she's not holding herself up as a model to all young girls or saying hey, I'm having a baby and you can to. Thirdly, where was his righteous indignation when Bristol Palin got preggers--and that skank's STILL not married! Why didn't Mikie make some noise about Sarah and Todd being awful parents and how they should force Levi to do the right thing and get hitched to their little filly? Why pick on Natalie? I'll tell you why--because she just won an Oscar and Huck saw a chance to throw his base some red meat in the form of Hollywood-bashing. Natalie can support her child, what has that got to do with offering a bad example? He later said he never meant to criticize her and he really enjoyed that ballet movie. Right.

Then Huck went on some crazy radio show and said the Prez couldn't relate to average Americans because he was raised in Kenya where they don't have Boy Scouts and Little League. It also explained why he removed the bust of Winston Churchill because granddad Obama was part of the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya which occured when Winnie was Prime Minister. WHAT? A spokesperson later clarified the remark by saying Mike has misspoke and meant Indonesia where Barack did spent five years of his youth--incidentally sources say young Barry was a Boy Scout in Jakarta, so there.

The "misspoke" gambit doesn't make sense because Huckabee said some very specific things about Obama's supposed Kenyan upbringing like being instilled with an anti-British anti-colonial mindset by his evil Kenyan rebellious relatives. Indonesia was a Dutch colony and had nothing to do with the Mau-Maus. And anyway, weren't George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams rebels like Obama's paternal grandfather? Didn't we rebel against British imperialism like the Kenyans? And do we know that the grandfather was involved in the uprising, that's not even clear.

I read that there were other lies and exaggerations in Huck's talking points. Like the fact that the Winston Churchill bust was not returned to the British but moved to another part of the White House to be replaced by a bust of Abraham Lincoln. Is Huckabee coming out against Lincoln now? I am appalled!

And speaking of Boy Scouts, did you know that Huckabee's son David was fired as a Boy Scouts camp counselor for torturing and killing a dog? And that Huckabee who was governor of Arkansas at the time hushed up the investigation? This was about 10 years ago, but the son was 18 at the time which is pretty old for excusing cruelty to animals as a youthful prank. Why doesn't someone ask Huckabee about his family values if he can raise an animal torturer? If any of Obama's kids did something like that, we'd never hear the end of it from Fox and Friends.

Huckabee seems to be testing the waters for a presidential run, but I doubt if he'll do it. He wants to finish building that house in Florida and his Fox salary is too high for him to give it up. But look for more lies and distortions and "misstatements" about Obama from Huck and his pals.

The Amazing Race 18--Episode 1

Season 18 of The Amazing Race started last night and it looks like a lot more fun than the last reteaming of previous contestants. Best of all, Boston Rob is nowhere to be seen. I saw his hateful puss on the cover of TV Guide for his Survivor return and nearly lost my lunch. I thought I was rid of that bitch, I said to the checkout girl at the Price Chopper. I have no idea who the other bozo is on the cover with him, touting their so-called intense rivalry, but I hope he beats Rob's 15-minutes-of-fame ass. Thank God I do not care for Survivor, I'd go nuts otherwise. Another side note: have you noticed how TV Guide is no longer the most important mag around? Thanks to DVR and the handy program grid on the cable system, nobody needs it anymore.

But I digress. The episode opens in Palm Springs and Phil informs us it's really windy there--the second windiest place on Earth (What's no. 1?). The 11 teams gather (see previous blog for my thoughts on each) and Phil calls them a bunch of losers. And OMG what is with Jaime and Cara's hair? Wherever they got their coloring done needs to be on Tabatha's Salon Takeover right away. Their henna rinse makes them look like two Lincoln head pennies. Zev and Justin are wearing Harlem Globetrotter T-shirts for some reason. We later see they giving Flight Time and Big Easy a big clue. Word to the wise: help teams that are weaker than you, not stronger. Learn from Margie who helped Kent and Vyxen and then said in her interview: We need to have a team we can beat at the end.

After the teams find a paper airplane amidst a bunch of windmills--except for stupid but cute Amanda and Kris who are still mad at being U-turned several years ago--they take off for Australia. It takes a 20-hour flight to get there from the West Coast. I know because the press agent working with Geoffrey Rush told me the actor took the trip twice to get to LA from Down Under for the Golden Globes and then the SAGs. The first flight became the second when a passenger had the gall to suffer a heart attack and caused them to be delayed in Hawaii.

Once in Sydney, they had swim with sharks--repeat of a task from the season with Chip and Reichen--then decipher a clue with flags and letters. I marvel at the lack of culture among these people. Are you telling me none of them had heard of the phrase, Between the devil and the deep blue sea? I shouldn't be surprised since they didn't know who Chekhov or Kafka were.

Jaime and Cara incured bad karma for their awful hair by having their boat turn over and one of the crew step on Cara's foot. "Get off my foot, peasant!"

Miss Kentucky--where they never lie, according to her--and her dad won the Express Pass, but it turns out they had to keep racing. I like that we have a two-parter at the very beginning, but it may also be because they sometimes do 90 minute premieres and they are just trying to save money by spending two episodes in one location--Sydney.

Mallory and Gary--one win--Express Pass
Day One--Palm Springs, CA (20 hour-flight to Sydney)
Day Two--Syndey

Taking Down the Christmas Tree on Presidents' Day Weekend

Yeah, you read that right. I did not put away our mid-size artifical Christmas tree until this weekend. So sue me, to quote Nathan Detroit. I got better things to do, like stay in bed and complain, to quote Judy Tenuta. (Whatever happened to her?) I have not been to our upstate place in a while so we just left the tree standing. Removing the ornaments brings back memories because so many of them are from trips we've taken: a lobster from Provincetown on Cape Cod; a pineapple from Honolulu; a stuffed doll figure of Henry VIII from the Tower of London; Spongebob Squarepants and Capt. America from Universal Islands of Adventures and a Mickey Mouse from Disney World; a crayfish and some Mardi Gras beads from Santa's Quarters on Decatur Street in New Orleans. There are also a set of portaits of Batman, Robin, Catwoman, and the Joker, as well as Sylvester carrying a load of presents with Tweetie on top. There are also figures of Spiderman and several different Santa Clauses as well as Renaissance-type archangels. On top is a Father Christmas figure. I remember a Presidents' Day weekend about three years ago, I should have been working on my book about George C. Scott, but I goofed off and watched a Project Runway marathon. It was from season two, before I was obsessed with it. I watched several episodes I hadn't seen before.

Presidents' Day also had me thinking about Richard Nixon. Jerry went to see the Met HD broadcast of Nixon in China and I had seen the premiere live just before we went to Florida. From age 9 to 16, Richard Nixon was president and how I hated him. I remember my sister saying if he were elected in 1968 he would make us go to school on Saturdays. During the Watergate scandal, I yearned for his impeachment and we wathced the hearings avidly all during that summer of 1974. He was the boogey man, the evil villain taking advantage of his power and betraying the trust of the American people. I remember several years after he resigned--I was so angry that he stepped down rather than allowing us the magnificent spectacle of a trial in the senate--he showed up on Nightline with Ted Koppel. I screamed as if I had seen a ghost and I had. His hair was white and he was noticably older.

Now John Adams' opera shows a more human figure, pathetically singing of his days in the navy running a snack bar and selling the guys hamburgers and beer, desperately wanting them to like him. In 100 years, is this how Nixon will be remembered? Yes there is Oliver Stone's movie with Anthony Hopkins as a troll-like co-conspirator, but the opera may survive it and be performed around the world. How will this era be seen?

Nixon in China got me interested in hearing more modern opera and I looked up Einstein on the Beach on YouTube. It is hauntingly beautiful, but I doubt if I could take five hours of it. Robert Wilson's productions look fascinating, but I think his main esthetic is visual since he is also a designer, and not dramatic, so his productions look good but don't move you.

The Amazing Race 18: Unfinished Business: Preview

Here's a David Desk first: a preview of the next Amazing Race season before it even starts. Next week starts the second time TAR has reassembled a bunch of teams from previous seasons and this time, it's all audience favorites who didn't win through bad luck or stupidity. I checked them all out at CBS's website and here are my thoughts:

Zev and Justin: My very favorites. The guy with Asberger's disease and his pal. They were eliminated after finished first in an early leg because they lost their passports. I loved Zev's spirit when they beat the beefy Boston lawyer and his girlfriend to the mat. The lawyer claimed he was a lion and the other teams were gazelles. Zev said right there he'd take on the guy. Love it. I want them to win.

Mel and Mike: Definitely rooting for them, though Mike is a successful actor and screenwriter so he doesn't need the money, but they were a lot of fun and I would love for middle America to see a gay father and son win.

Father and daughter (two teams): Why are these people back? One is Miss Kentucky and her dad and the other is the Asian dad and daughter who were always fighting. Both did reasonably well and finished near the top of their respective races. This season should be reserved for those who finished near the bottom and goofed up because of a little slip. Neither of these two excite me.

The cowboys: These guys came in second and the other brothers who won were just a tad smarter than them. They had plenty of airtime in their season and were not cheated of anything. So I don't think they deserve a second chance. They're jsut popular with the Oklahoma viewers.

The Goths: Fun outsiders who added a lot to the mix. I enjoyed them and their eccentricities.

The Globetrotters: I'm sure these two are great guys but they're professional athletes for heaven's sake. Unfair advantage. Plus they don't need the money. They lost because they couldn't figure out who Franz Kafka was, but I doubt if they've been boning up on European authors.

Volleyball players: They lost because one had to go to bathroom and couldn't wait. So I don't feel particularly sorry for them. But they did show a lot of spirit. Also look for them to renew their rivalry with the deaf son and mother.

Deaf son and mother: Again they did very well on their race, finishing near the top, so I'm not rooting for them.

Cute couple: There has to be at least one hot straight dating couple on every show.

Cheerleader chicks: I guess they needed one token pretty-girl team. I don't even remember this pair, what season they were on or what their tale of woe was to qualify them for returning. Oh yeah, they had a bad cab driver. Boo-freakin'-hoo, baby!

Valentine's Day A Day Early

Just got back from a lovely pre-Valentine's Day dinner with my partner Jerry. We went to Benoit, a French bistro on 55th St. between Fifth and Sixth aves. I would definitely recommend it. We started with three delicious cheeses--the brie was unexpectional, but the blue was exquisitely thick and rich and the third, I can't remember what it was, had a nice texture. An excellent light white wine which was slightly citrus-y, almost grapefruit-like washed it down.

I had the prix fixe three-course dinner--lobster salad, stuffed quail, and porfiterolles. The lobster salad had a syrupy dressing which wasn't too sweet. The lobster itself was fresh and cold, mixed with greens and a little fruit. The quail was stuffed with figs and pate. My only quarrel with it was it was small. The bird was served on a bed of spinach prepared with just a hint of salt and butter. I had a taste of Jerry's buttery filet mignon. He said it was the best he'd ever eaten.

The dessert was truly heaven--a plate of little pastries with creamy filling was set before us. On the side was a dish of hot chocolate sauce, decadently rich. We each got a dish of vanilla ice cream and fondue skewers. We dipped the pastries in the chocolate sauce and stuffed them in our mouths. Then poured the sauce over the ice cream. A cup of earl grey tea for me and coffee for Jerry finished one of the best meals I've ever had.

"You May Call Me Creepy, Cookie!"

Just as Masha in Chekhov's Three Sisters cannot get a snatch of poetry about a golden chain around an oak tree out of her head, I cannot stop thinking about Creepella Gruesome's first words to Wilma Flintstone: "You may call me Creepy, Cookie." And like Masha, I don't know why. Is it the eagerness for intimacy expressed by the unconventional Creepella to the conformist Wilma? Is it the fact that Creepella looks exactly like a drag-queen version of Cher? Is it the introduction of a horror-show neighbor to the Flintstones because The Addams Family and The Munsters were flooding the airwaves?

The Gruesomes were pretty much forgotten among the 1960s monster families that invaded America's living rooms. These Halloween nightmare creatures were substitutes for the hippies and weirdos creeping into the suburban consciousness of middle-class USA. They were safe versions of the scary challengers of the two-car garage. In an interesting development when the Flintstones introduced the freeloading Hatrocks to the Gruesomes in order to scare the pesky hillbillies, they took to the weirdos. It took a conspiracy of all three Bedrock families--the Flintstones, the Rubbles, and the Gruesomes--imitating a prehistoric version of the Beatles to finally get rid of the Hatrocks. You would think the red-state yokels would want to shoot to long-haired Gruesomes on sight.

Maybe Creepella was really a tranny hiding her bizarre secret from Wilma and Betty.

Finding the Fantastic Four in Florida

A little vacation is better than none, so my partner Jerry and I took a five-day trip to Florida in the midst of one of the worst winters in recent memory. We were scheduled to leave on a 7 AM flight on thurs. morning Feb. 3. I made the mistake of covering the opening night of Nixon in China at the Met the night before. The John Adams modern opera was three hours and 45 minutes. I got home by 12 which only left me about five hours of sleep. Fortunately, I was able to sleep on the plane; it was Spirit Airlines where they pack you in like sardines and the seats don't recline. Plus you have to pay extra for your seats and each piece of luggage is another $15, even your carry-on. I dozed in an upright position for most of the three hours.

The weather was lovely. We visited friends who have a condo in Hillsboro Beach which is near Fort Lauderdale. The best part was walking on the beach thinking of our car under a foot of ice and snow. While having lunch on Los Olas in Ft. Lauderdale, our young waiter, a transplant from New York, asked if there was anyting we were looking to see. Jerry asked if there were any used CD stores for himself and comic book stores for me. The waiter said he would call his friend who was a comic book fan. He recommended a store called CJ's Comics which wasn't far. What the hell, we thought, and drove there. It was a little place in a tiny strip mall. It appeared closed but there was a handwritten sign in the window reading "Back in 5 mins." We waited until CJ showed up and I bought five issues of the Fantastic Four from the 1990s. I finally found the one where it's revealed the Human Torch's wife Alicia--who was previously in love with The Thing--is really a Skrull. That's a whole story line I thought was a bit farfethced even for a comic book. But it turned out to be a pretty good issue with unexpected twists. I'll have to find the rest of the story arc.

Our hosts were wonderful, especially considering that on our second day, they had gotten a phone call informing them the roof over their inside pool at their home in Massachusetts had collapsed from the weight of the snow.

We spent the rest of the time with Jerry's sister and brother-in-law who have a home in Lake Worth. While we were there, we swam in the pool and soaked in a hot tub. We also saw Capitol Steps, a touring musical political revue.

Our next big trip will be a cruise to Alaska with my parents and brothers, then we stay over in Vancouver where Jerry has a conference to attend.

Michele Bachmann's History Lesson

I was upset because Egpyt erupted into chaos and knocked off the State of the Union and the Republican and Tea Party rebuttals from the Sunday morning political shows. I wanted to hear Chris Matthews call Michele Bachmann a balloonhead again. And then there was Sarah Palin's sputnik moment when she conflated 30 years of history into one sweeping incident. Bachmann is really showing herself as an attention whore. She tried to get a major position in the Republican-led House. When they turned her down, she reached for another gambit--appointing herself head of the Tea Party and rewriter of American history.

The sad thing is the media is bypassing a perfectly legitimate concern of the Tea Party types--the deficit--and drowning it out by spending hours and hours concentrating on the fact that Bachmann looked into the wrong camera and gave a whacko interpretation of the last 300 years. I commented on it on the Huffington Post and some right-wing nut responded that the National Embarassment from Minnesota was technically right. Huh? In her speech in Iowa, Bachmann said the founding fathers worked tirelessly until slavery was eradicated. She specifically sited John Quincy Adams. First of all, JQ was not a Founding Father. His dad John Adams was. JQ was an anti-slavery advocate and did work to get slavery outlawed in the District of Columbia when he was a congressman, after losing his second term from President to Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson--I loved the musical.

Maybe she saw Amistad and got confused. That was that movie with Anthony Hopkins as JQ Adams where he defends the hot model who was playing a slave who rebelled. Or maybe when she was a little girl, she watched The Adams Chronicles on PBS with William Daniels who played JQ. The same actor played the father John Adams in the stage and movie version of the musical 1776 and they did try to outlaw slavery in that show, but the mean old Southern representatives put a stop to it. But somehoe I doubt Bachmann saw 1776 on Broadway; maybe she saw the movie on the local Minnesota channel on the fourth of July.

Anyway, she made it sound like all the Founding Fathers worked to end slavery. Sorry, but they didn't. Some were against it, but the institution didn't end until the Civil War, several generations later. The FFs kept it in the constitution and counting slaves as three-fifths of a person was NOT a meaure to start on the road to equality, but to get the Southern states bigger representation in the Congress. Glenn Beck actually ranted on Chris Matthews for calling Bachmann an idiot. Beck actually said he thought Bachmann could become president. Now I know he's nuts.

Technology and Me: A Horror Story

I have a bizarre relationship with technology: it sometimes scares me. Everytime something goes wrong with my laptop or the TV or my digital camera or the clasp which keeps my sock cabinet closed, I panic. I worry that if I try to fix it, it will just get worse. To make anything work these days, you have to be a bloody electrical engineer. It's as if everyone should have a permenant IT team from India living in their apartment.

For example, my partner Jerry bought me a Sony Blu Ray player for Christmas. The whole point was so that we could stream Netflix live to our TV in Jackson Heights, Queens. Since the gift was mine, I volunteered to hook it up. Mistake. Well, the hooking up to the TV was not very difficult. We bought an HDMI cable and all you had to do was attach it to the TV and the Player. That was the easy part. Getting it hooked up to the Internet was the nightmare. It turns out you need a LAN adaptor--whatever that is--to get the internet. Best Buy and all the other chains were out of the LAN adaptor SONY made. Evidently there was a big rush after Christmas. At Walmart, they recommended something called the Netgear Universal Adaptor which supposedly works with every brand. The directions said you had to detach your router from your computer and hook up this universal adaptor to it to program it. I was frightened that if I removed the internet connection from the router, it would be lost and I would have spend 127 hours on the phone to India and I'd have to cut my own arm off like James Franco to get it to work again.

Fortunatley, I got it to work and everything turned out OK. But Netflix does not yet have its entire enormous inventory available for direct streaming to your TV. It did have Mystery Science Theatre 3000 and Rocky and Bullwinkle.

I'm also having problems with my Nikon Coolpix digital camera--I think it's the one that Ashton Kutcher does the commercials for. The outdoor shots come out fine, but as you may have noticed in some of my previous blog posts, the interior shots are kinda blurry. Do I have it on the wrong setting, I wonder? I thought all these point and shoot jobs gave marvelous pictures for even idiots like me. I had a Canon that worked very well, but it got banged up and the screen where you see the shots went black. Jerry is going to lend me his camera so I can see if it's better than the Nikon. Moral for me and Bruce Willis: Don't trust Ashton Kutcher.

Unexpected Gay Subtexts in Batman

Aside from the most obvious gay subtexts on the Batman series were some subtles ones. In the second appearance of the Mad Hatter, The Contaminated Cowl/The Mad Hatter Runs Afoul, the villain (played by David Wayne with a sibilant s) sprays the Caped Crusader with radioactive spray turning his cowl a bright pink. Was this a hidden message to gay viewers--like the code phrase Friends of Dorothy--that Batman played on their team? Speaking of that expression, I was on a cruise a few years ago with my friend Diane and the ship's newsletter listed a meeting of Friends of Dorothy on the lido deck the first night. I thought, what is this, 1955? Do we gays still have to hide our identity like Batman from unsuspecting straights? I later asked the cruise's social director the reason for the anachronistic reference? He explained that in the cruise line's experience, listing Friends of Dorothy rather than gay and lesbian passengers, was an easier policy and wouldn't upset more conservative passengers. It turned out there was a huge group of gay guys travelling together and we all became friends during the cruise, and the straight passengers figured it out.

Sidenote: Featured in that episode of Batman was Leonid Kinskey, best known as the Russian bartender Sascha in Casablanca, as Prof. Overbeck, a German atomic scientist.

A few episodes later, there was a three-parter guest-starring the Penquin and Marsha, Queen of Diamonds, a villainess not featured in the comic books, played by Carolyn Jones, Morticia of The Addams Family. In the first segment, Penquin Is a Girl's Best Friend, Pengy tricks Batman into acting in a movie he's directing with Marsha as his star. As director of the project, Penquin forces Batman to kiss Marsha during several takes of a love scene. The female crook has coated her lips with a love potion to make Batman her willing slave. For some reason, the Masked Manhunter is reluctant to smooch the gorgeous villainness and he kicks his legs up and visibly resists. Robin later says "Boy I'll bet you never want to kiss another girl again." What kind of message is being sent here?

In an earlier episode, Marsha tricks Batman into marrying her in order to save Robin whom she has captured--mmmm, more subtle hints at the true relationship of Batman and Robin. Marsha wants to get the Bat-Diamond in the Batcave, but Batman vows no stranger will ever enter his secret liar. "Well, then marry me, darling, and I wouldn't be a stranger." Not exactly the firmest foundation for connubial bliss.

At the last minute, the Caped Crusader is saved from a fate worse than death by the quick thinking of Alfred who shows up with Aunt Harriet claiming she is Mrs. Batman--a beard if ever I saw one. We also learn Alfred has never been married. Double Hmmmm.

Scenes from the Life of an Amatuer Comic Book Collecter (21)--Supergirl's Lesbian Marriage

That Supergirl is one complex dish. Last time we talked about her intimate relationship with her Superhorse Comet, who is really a centaur. While reading through my recent 600-plus acquisition of comics, I came across another walk on the wild side for the Maid of Might. In Action #357, we learn of "Supergirl's Secret Marriage." While on her way from Stanhope College to visit her parents for the weekend, Supergirl in her secret identity of Linda Lee Danvers is accosted by a brash young man named Joaquin who boldly kisses her and claims to be her spouse. She tells him to go fly a kite, but he counters that he knows she is Supergirl and that she has had a memory lapse due to exposure to red kryptonite. Like an idiot, Linda gets in Joaquin's car and they drive to the home the man claims is theirs.

The ending is really twisted. It turns out Joaquin is a not a man at all, but a woman in disguise. In a flashback she explains that she is from another planet and that Supergirl rescued her and her boyfriend recently. He subsequently fell in love with the Blonde Blockbuster. The alien woman decides to masquerade as a male and take Supergirl off the market, thus sending her former lover back into her arms. Just like in As You Like It, Twelfth Night or Two Gentlemen of Verona.

How did Supergirl discover this sick ruse? When Joaquin kissed her "he" put "his" arms around Supergirl's neck. Supergirl claims that all men put their arms around a woman's waist while a female will place her hands on a boy's neck. Really? Don't you think Supergirl would have realized in some other less subtle way? Like maybe when she found Joaquin trying on her Supergirl costume? Or maybe she would have thought, "Well, maybe he's really an evangelist, like that Ted Haggard?"

This story is so weird on so many levels. Just from a practical point of view, wouldn't the boyfriend fall back in love with Supergirl once he realized his girlfriend was really his rival? To solve the problem of sleeping together, the disguised alien claimed "he" had to sleep in a special bed which give him a dose of radiation necessary for him to live in earth's hostile atmosphere.

The other story (featured on the cover) in that issue follows Superman as he must defeat a motorcycle driving juvenile delinquent with atomic fists. The kid takes over the government with his gang straight out of The Wild One.

Shootings in Arizona

It's been a weird weekend. I took the train upstate through beautiful snowscapes on Friday night. On Saturday, my partner Jerry and I attended the HD broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera of Puccini's Girl of the Golden West with Deborah Voigt. We attended a different production a few summers ago at Glimmerglass which I found more intimate and moving. (Sidenote: did you know Andrew Lloyd Webber lifted one of his main themes of Phantom of the Opera from Puccini's score.) We saw the opera at Time and Space Limited, a neat small theatre in Hudson that shows really offbeat films in addition to HD broadcasts from the Met and the National Theatre of Great Britain.

After the opera, we heard on the radio about the shootings in Tuscon, Arizona where congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was wounded and six people were killed including a judge and a 9 year old little girl. It reminded of the late 1960s when I was about 10 and it seemed assassinations and violence were erupting every week. I remember I was watching Bewitched and they interupted it to announce that Martin Luther King had been killed.

It's only a day after the shootings and the political debate has already been launched. Did the violent rhetoric of the right--and yes, it's mostly--not ALL but mostly---coming from the right, I'm sorry but it is--create an atmosphere of rage to influence unbalanced individuals like the 22 year old nutjob who did the shooting? It's way too early to tell anything and I don't believe people like Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, Sarah Palin, and Sharron Angle are purposely inciting violence. Well, I take that back about Sharron Angle. She did say discontented Tea Partiers should invoke "Second Amendment remedies" if things didn't turn out the way they wanted in the last midterm elections. But, I don't believe the rest really meant to incite violence. But when you use targets and crosshairs on images of people you disagree with, as Sarah Palin did on Giffords' congressional district in Arizona, you have to take responsibility for creating a dangerous climate.

Palin could have used less violent imagery to get across her point in the last election. We don't know if this crazy kid saw Palin's website and was inspired by it. We do know his ravings on the internet are incoherent and he may be just plain crazy and this would have happened with or without the media madness stirred up by Palin and her ilk. But people like Beck are invoking, even jokingly, violence and death against people like Michael Moore and Nancy Pelosi. I remember driving through Missouri a few years ago and listening to a local talk station. The host joked that he wanted to be fair, but then said "Michael Moore must hate this country." I just don't get that. Yes, you can disagree with Moore all you want, but must he hate this country just because he doesn't share your opinion on health care and gun control?

The sherriff of Tuscon said in a news conference yesterday that Arizona is becoming the capital of bigotry and inflamed rhetoric and that it's time for American media to tone it down. I believe all but a few fringe-lunatic Americans abhor violence, but too many in power both in the media and in politics have no problem using it to grab bigger ratings or more votes. And they have no conscience and sleep perfectly well when something like this happens because they don't make the connection. Sarah Palin and hubby Todd are getting a good night's sleep on their mattress stuffed with all their millions, and she is not responsible for yesterday's shootings. But she is responsible with her crosshairs imagery and scary talk of death panels in creating a climate of division and rancor.

Jetsons' Residence, Rosie Speaking

We have new phones at my office and we have an infinite choice of ring tones. I chose the Jetsons doorbell. This was one of my favorite shows since it predicted the world of the future not the past like the Flinstones. The best thing about the Flinstones was the animals who operated all the appliances and would look at the camera and say "It's a living."

The Jetsons on the other hand was about the world I was supposed to grow up in. I remember figuring out I would be about 40 in the year 2000. I imagined we would be flying around in rocket cars, vacationing on the moon, and spending the weekend in Acapulco, like Jane's friend Helen. ("Now that's what I call racy dialogue," Helen quipped when Jane and George could only say each other's name to each other after Jane's trip to a dude planet.)

The picture is of Jane getting ready for "My Space Lady" and George gave the tickets to Mr. Spacely. That episode always annoyed me because Mr. Spacely was within his rights to demand George forego the theatre, but to take his wife's ticket as well was just cruel. I always wandered what "My Space Lady" would have been like. Did Professor Henry Higgins-rocket make Eliza Spacelittle into a lady at the interplanetary ball?

Another Jetsons memory was when Rosie fell in love with Mac the Robot. When Henry the Janitor de-activated him, she went around saying "Eh-Neh" like she said Judy sounded when she was out of love.

The most interesting aspect of the Jetsons was its total lack of advancement for women. In their world, females are still mostly housewives with a fear of mice and poor driving skills.