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Start in 1985 and go back 30 years (as Marty McFly does in Back to the Future) and you’re in 1955; go forward 30 years (as Marty McFly does in Back to the Future Part II) and you’re in 2015, this year. So this year we celebrate BTTF2. Expect to be transported back to 1955, and then in Part III to 1885. Great years in film.
Back in 1975, Alan Dundes and Carl R. Pagter published the first in a series of Urban Folklore From the Paperwork Empire books, in which they catalogued an assortment of material — drawings (most with captions or other text on them) and slogan signs — created by office workers, photographically reproduced, and distributed through office mail. In addition, “dirty” drawings and pictures were passed from hand to hand, just as “dirty” jokes spread by word of mouth. All of this material cycled informally, and (like classic folklore) no one had any real idea where it came from, beyond the person who gave it to you, nor did people care about that.
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This dissemination of subterranean cultural material continues, but now mostly by digital means. And at a vastly increased rate. And a fair amount of it is the same stuff that used to be passed around the office.
In any case, few people care about the source of the stuff that comes their way — an attitude that distresses me with respect to cartoons and obvious artistic creations and makes me uneasy in lots of other cases. Meanwhile, some of my friends treat my attitudes as charming academic eccentricities that don’t, and shouldn’t, concern ordinary people.
In today’s Zits, Sara and Jeremy undo what they had done before:
(On their couple word, see this posting.)
Disentanglement!
Two substantial notes on Scott Bakula, from Facebook comments on my posting about him. From Ellen Evans, a reminder of Bakula’s excellent role in the sitcom Murphy Brown (back in the 1990s). And from Aric Olnes, material from a interview with Bakula about his recent work on the gay drama series Looking.
Frank Bruni in the NYT Sunday Review on the 19th, in “La Dolce Donald Trump”, beginning:
In Rome about a dozen years ago, I had a long dinner with Donald Trump.
Only his name was Silvio Berlusconi.
Aren’t they essentially the same man? The same myth?
They have the same obsession with their wealth. Same need to crow about it. Same belief that it’s the irrefutable measure of their genius. Same come-on to countrymen: If I enriched myself, I can enrich you.
They’re priapic twins, identical in their insistence on being seen as paragons of irresistible lust. If hideously sexist utterances ensue, so be it. Loins before decency. Pheromones over good sense.
… [Italians] repeatedly elected [Berlusconi], so that he could actually do what Trump is still merely auditioning to do: use his country as a gaudy throne and an adoring mirror as he ran it into the ground.
Trump is Berlusconi in waiting, with less cosmetic surgery. Berlusconi is Trump in senescence, with even higher alimony payments.
Trumpusconi is a study in the peril and pitfalls of unchecked testosterone and tumescent avarice.
No minced words here. But a nice portmanteau name, combining Trump and Berlusconi into a single appellation.(Berluscrump would also have been possible.)
You might wonder how I got into posting about actor Scott Bakula earlier today (aside from the fact that he’s an interesting actor with a long career). Well, it all started with Dan Hedaya, believe it or not.
Another episode in the story of the Acting Corps, prompted by a moment in which I could recall neither Scott Bakula’s name nor the name of his most famous tv show, Quantum Leap. But Facebook friends came to the rescue — and inadvertently set up a reason for yet another posting (beyond this one) on tv shows.
I’ll use this posting to talk about Bakula and his acting, and in still another posting I’ll get to my reasons for asking about him in the first place.
This morning’s adventure with the Acting Corps, in the character Eric Speicher in Law & Order‘s “Bible Story” (s16 e11, 12/7/05):
That would be Mark Feuerstein.
Today’s Bizarro, with a play on two senses of complimentary:
The short version of the story, on the adjective complimentary in NOAD2:
1 expressing a compliment; praising or approving: Jennie was very complimentary about Kathy’s riding | complimentary remarks.
2 given or supplied free of charge: a complimentary bottle of wine.
But there’s a considerably longer story, starting with the question of how these two senses are related.
I’ve been posting a good bit on acting on tv, with excursions into the movies and the stage, noting (frequently) that a great many of these people have extensive careers, with large numbers of acting credits, especially on television — where series (of several types) have an almost inexhaustible appetite for competent actors. So some people will pop up again and again. Some have a degree of celebrity, others are familiar faces you might not be able to put a name to, and even the well-known will often be cast in parts that have little to do with the characters they are famous for.
I’ve come to think of this bank of reliable actors as the Acting Corps. The American corps is largely distinct from the British corps — especially in sitcoms, where nearly disjoint sets of actors cycle through sitcom characters on the two sides of the ocean.
I’ll start with two reasonably well-known actors with extensive careers, one (John Ritter) already covered in some detail on this blog, the other (Tom Skerritt) mentioned several times here but not covered in much detail. Both have prodigious portfolios.
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