SID CAESAR: GENIUS

I

I can't stand the comedic acting in most 3D animated features. It's just not funny. I'm an animation guy, but when I'm in the mood for a laugh I reach for 2D cartoons or for live action.

One of my favorite old-time TV performers was Sid Caesar. The guy was a living cartoon. Here he's (above) pantomiming a husband at a cocktail party. The plot has him always always sneaking away from his wife to talk to a beautiful girl. Look at him go!

His wife grabs him and brings him back to the discussion she's involved in....

...with someone her husband finds incredibly boring. That's a brilliant expression on Sid.

In an effort to make the situation bearable he he takes a bite of an hors d'euvres (above). It tastes terrible.

He discreetly puts it in his pocket.

 After a bit he scopes out the beautiful girl again.

Genius, pure genius! You won't find anything like that in new animated features. Come to think of it, you won't find it in the older ones either. Animated comedic acting really only exists in shorts. Too bad. I'm convinced that feature audiences would love to see it, but no one will give it to them.

Caesar was a master of comedic acting. Here he is (above) trying out a brand new
rug.

Ooooh, it feels good!

He's always aware of how he looks in silhouette.

In another sketch he shows off his wife's new maid to his friend.

The shocked friend reaches for a canape and sticks his hand in his coffee instead.

Caesar delivers a masterful slow burn.

Nice, huh?

JOHN DRAWS EDDIE

I showed John my new glasses and he thought the look was incomplete without a mustache, which he proceeded to illustrate. Geez, the guy can draw!

He even discovered a cleft on the bottom of my nose that I didn't know I had.

THE BITTER TASTE OF DEFEAT

Okay, my guy lost! I'll get over it....I'll just....chew on the rug for a while. 

IT'S ELECTION DAY!

The election's here! Who are you gonna vote for? Me, I'm a Romney guy. He has a proven ability to work well with the other side, balanced the budget as governor in a Democratic state, turned around a problem-ridden Olympics, and made a fortune turning around ailing businesses. It's an almost perfect resume for the job he's after.

But you're an Obama person, right? If you're an artist you probably are, since artists are usually among the first to throw a brick through the establishment window. Yes, we're a volatile lot, but I think the Deity still likes us.

Anyway, I'll be away from the computer for most of today and tomorrow. I'll be back Thursday morning. See you then!

LEVITTOWN TODAY

Here's Levittown Pa., way back in the late 40s or early 50s. It was ground Zero for the postwar housing development mania. It's not my taste, but I can see where it was a big advance for the workers who bought affordable houses there. Folksingers on the other hand, were appalled by it, and one of the catchiest folksongs I know was written to ridicule it (actually it ridiculed Daly City, which was a smaller version of Levittown):

Geez, workers having their own houses, sending their kids to universities, having children who became doctors, lawyers and executives...sounds like a success story to me, but what do I know? 

Anyway, I have to admit that the initial uniformity of the houses was a bit off putting. I bring the subject up because I live in one of those post WWII developments myself. Yes, me...I live in one of the dreaded hell holes reviled by folksingers. I thought readers might like to see how one of these places evolved into whatever it is today.

Of course I live on the West Coast where houses tend to be lower and wider than ones in the East Coast example, but I imagine the square footage is roughly the same...and  our tract houses are made of stucco, which is as "ticky-tacky" as you can get.

My development was created in the early 50s. These houses are cheery and comfortable, and they're all made of cheap materials available at any Home Depot-type store. They're affordable and easy to repair. So why did they excite such fury in the folksingers? 

Er, the telephone pole is actually straight, the lean comes from a camera distortion. 

I imagine that these houses looked bleak and arid when they were new, but they didn't stay that way. People planted trees and shrubs, and tinkered together add-ons. I wouldn't be surprised if Levittowners did the same thing.

I'd need more photos to do justice to the subject, but this is all I've got so I'll end for now. No wait, I have a couple more pictures with a different emphasis. I'll put those up......

Okay, how do you like this porch (above) and front door? "What porch? What door?" you say? Good question! Well, you can't see them because they're covered with leaves and branches. I pity the poor mailman who no doubt gets scratched to ribbons every time he delivers a letter.

  

Actually, lots of doors around here are hidden behind thorns and bramble. The developers in this area were real pranksters, real rubber chicken and joy buzzer types.  

How do you like that phony roof trim that leads to nowhere? Variations of that are aaaaall over the place here. I'll take some pictures of it and you won't believe what you see! I only wish I could show you the built-in birdhouse that's out of frame. It dominates the front of the house. You could put an ostrich in it.

TRICK OR TREATERS

I've been taking a lot of pictures lately and usually I have to venture out into the world and do some digging in order to find fit subjects. It never occurred to me til it was too late that Halloween is the one day of the year when fit subjects come to your door in droves and practically beg to be photographed. So...Rats!...I didn't get any Halloween kid photos.

If I had, they'd probably have looked like the pictures assembled here....Halloween as kids experience it, mostly taken down at their level.

This (above) is my favorite of the bunch. It shows an earnest kid and her loyal dog taking care of business.

The best pictures are often simple and the one I'd have died to have gotten was one I saw of a kid and his mother simply getting out of a car in a parking lot. The kid was scruffy and ungainly, just a typical ragamuffin of a kid, but he was happy as could be, boxing imaginary bad guys in his Spiderman costume.

His mother tried to look haggard and adult for the sake of the other mothers who were standing around, but she couldn't conceal her happiness at being with her kid at that moment. She was radiant.

And why shouldn't she be? The kid who looked so scruffy and average to me was an object of infinite beauty and pride to her. You could have offered The Hope Diamond for the kid and she wouldn't have taken it...a clear case of value beyond price.

I felt good for the kid, too. With a mother like that the kid had a chance in life. He'd grow up humane and confident and able to pass that gift on to his own kids.

INTERIOR DECORATION FROM NORWAY

Norway (above) has to be one of the most beautiful places on Earth, and the people there are some of the most appealing. They have a lot of talented home furnishing designers there, in fact I just stumbled on one their sites on the net. It belongs to a woman who doesn't identify herself, but who has pretty good taste in design. See if you agree. 

  

She likes a lot of what Americans have come to identify with IKEA, but she favors the most pure version of it. That's understandable. Norway has an even more extreme climate than Sweden. With long, dark winters, Norwegians naturally favor white (above). What better way to deal with the gloom than to capture every available photon and bounce it around the room?

Even her color accents are tinted with white, as if they were weathered. She has a way of bringing the harsh climate outside into her home and taming it. The tiny, delicate areas of color remind me of wildflowers, which I imagine have a special significance to mountain people.

Her inside windowsill decorations include lots of glass, including glass bottles filled with plants. Maybe the clear crystal of the glass reminds her of ice. Maybe the green is a symbol of hope.

Reminders of ice crystals (above) are everywhere. This designer has not only made her peace with snow and ice...she celebrates it.

Lace is a kind of cloth version of ice crystals and she uses it on lamps. The rest of the room (above) is a bit too minimalist for my taste but the light fixture is a good idea. It kinda looks like the full Moon, too.

At night the white walls take on a pleasing warmth. Very nice. it makes the room look like a comfy alcove in a country barn.

The textiles designed by this artist (above) tend to be rustic. Most of the colors are tints.
This banner looks like an explosion in a bikini factory.

Summer doesn't last long in this part of the world and when it comes, people cling to it. She doesn't just situate her dining table under a tree, she surrounds the tree (above), milking every ounce of green it has to offer.

For a color accent she puts out delicately colored tulips. Boy, Norwegians really know how to savor the Summer.

I noticed these boots in one of her photos. I'm sure she didn't invent this look but I like the fact that she appreciates it. When I was a kid little girls wore boots of fire engine red. These newer boots are a delicate, weathered, Scandinavian red. Very nice.