A bunch of us went to see The Who’s Tommy musicalon Broadway last night. I loved it. There were a few slow moving parts, but the music and the flashing lights and loud production was the thing.
Two small kids played Tommy at ages 4 and 10 and what was remarkable was that they didn’t have much or any dialog but their presence and silence and they way they were swung around and turned upside down and just thrown around as if they were dolls was amazing. When the stage was full of other singers, dancers and actors, you couldn’t keep your eyes off the young kids.
Of course, I knew most, if not all of the Who’s music and that made it great.
The story of course is of a boy who witnesses a murder, in his own house, at age 4, and that causes him to turn into himself and he becomes deaf, dumb and blind, as the song goes. It’s a great, loud production.
I heard various reviews from the people I was with and it seems as if I am the one who was the most enthusiastic. But at the end of the musical, the whole audience was up on their feet cheering and singing and leaving the theater smiling. A day later I can still hear the music in my head.
The musical is at the Nederlander Theater on 41st Street in Manhattan.
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I woke up early this morning and I started scrolling Twitter and almost every other post was Madonna’s concert in Rio last night. She had a free concert to close out her tour and it was attended by over a million people. The stats say from 1.5 to 2.5 million people – all singing and dancing, in peace, I might add, at Copacabana Beach in Rio. You can see videos of it all over Twitter and other places today including right here, part 1 and 2.
I started clicking and watching clip after clip because it all brought me back to my youth. Whether we think about it or not, Madonna was a large part of our lives from the early 1980s and on.
I remember I was in a club back then and my friend Javier, who I’m sill friends with today, said to me as I was leaving one Saturday night, “Aren’t you staying for the show?” There were free shows in the clubs back then. I asked, who is performing? He said, “Madonna.”
“Who is that?” I asked. He replied, “You know, she sings ‘Burnin’ Up’ and ‘Holiday.’ ” I remember saying, “No, I don’t like that.” Which I did, I just meant to say, it’s getting late, the show was starting at 2 am, and I was tired and wanted to leave. Of course I regret that now because I would have been mere feet away from Madonna on that night as she performed.
I saw her in person many times after that – in concert, at the movie theater and driving in her car, where I almost gave her the finger! And ironically, it was a block away from where I live now. She lived down the block, next door to Sylvester Stallone. Remind me to tell you about the funny story when Javier and my friend Peter were caught almost stalking her and she went to Stallone for “protection” right in front of them.
Anyway, she was driving erratically and I was rushing to get downtown to meet my friends at Happy Hour on a Friday night and as drove by her, I put my hand up and gave her dirty looks. She seemed nervous behind the wheel, she was alone, in a black Mercedes. As I looked, I said to myself. “That looks like Madonna.” And then she turned onto her block and I was sure of it. I’ve felt embarrassed about that all these years, as if she know who I was. That’s how much she was in our lives – we felt we knew her (and she knew us).
The Rio concert is worth checking out, the music brings back so many memoires.
I have three favorite Madonna songs, that I’m sure people don’t expect me to say. In this order I love: “Live to Tell,” “Cherish,” and “True Blue.” I love all her stuff, but these are my three favorites. I noticed Debi Mazar in the True Blue video today, which I never noticed before.
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The last few years there has been a Sarah Brightman Christmas special on PBS and in it she talks about an animated 1982 British movie called The Snowman, based on a children’s book.
There’s a haunting song that she features about and has a boy from her choir along with the original singer Peter Auty.
This is a scene and the song from the movie.
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With The Beatles’ new song out, “Now and Then,” there seems to be a lot about The Beatles online now. I’ve seen a bunch of memes along with news stories. One meme, shown below, reminded me of this old Paul McCartney cartoon I did awhile back. Tube vs. Tube.
I guess it should really be is he on the “tube,” meaning subway or “telly,” meaning television? But tube and tube seems to work.
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I was shocked and saddened to hear of Jimmy Buffett’s death Friday. Living in Florida, he was a big part of our lives. I never cared for tequila or margaritas, but I lived the Margaritaville lifestyle for most of my life.
It was a life of spending almost every day at the beach – for an hour or for eight hours. In crowded beaches and secluded beaches. I would find fallen coconuts on the beach, crack them open and use the milk as suntan oil.
Meeting friends on the boardwalk was a common thing, we would run, then head to happy hour at a beach bar. I would work out or relax at secluded beaches. Many times, grabbing lunch, then head to a quite beach and eat, then head back to work. I did that last week.
Years ago, I would skip school and when I got home, my mom would ask me why I had a tan. I would make up some sort of excuse.
Regarding my cartoons, there was period of time where I would go to the beach daily and make a rule where I would not be able to leave until coming up with two cartoon ideas. Many ideas and gags were water and beach related, but most weren’t. It was a fun, interesting exercise. I must have done a good job of it because during that period, I sold a lot of single panel cartoons to magazines and newspapers. Looking at some of those old cartoons, I can remember where I was, at what beach, where the ideas came from.
I spent a lot of time in Key West, too, where Jimmy is worshipped. But he was worshipped all over South Florida. Every time I drive by the old Miami Marine Stadium in Miami these days, I think of Jimmy, he did concerts there in his early days and while I didn’t attend, I guess it was big news around here, so it sticks in my head.
I found some Jimmy Buffet music and books and stuff here at Amazon.
Jimmy jumping into the bay after a concert at Miami Marine Stadium in 1985. (Photo courtesy: Beth Hodle / Parrot Head Handbook)
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I reworked this old cartoon I did some years back. It came to mind because all weekend I’ve been seeing this quick 15 second commercial for Walmart using the ac/dc Dirty Deeds song. You can see it here.
So after hearing it over and over I looked in my archives and there was Lucy at her doctor’s booth ready to do some dirty deeds. Usually it’s five cents for a doctor’s visit, right? So maybe it’s the same cost for a dirty deed or two.
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Depeche Mode has a new album out, I saw a segment about them on the CBS Sunday Morning, you can see that CBS segment below.
They were one of my favorite bands in the ’80s and ’90s.
I drew this cartoon in 2019. I’ve been holding on to it because I was thinking of redrawing it – having the guys in ice cream, you know, sort of lounging in a banana split or something. But I left well enough alone and just made it look like a new album, which, as I said, is now out. It’s called Memento Mori, which means “Remember You Must Die,” which is a bit morbid, because fellow band member, Andy Fletcher passed away in May 2022.
I redid my cartoon from yesterday, it seemed only right. I added Tina Turner up in heaven on a cloud, replacing the random guy from yesterday. What do you think?
I’m in mourning for Tina. Her death hit me hard, I don’t know why. I mean I know why – I loved her. But I don’t know why when some celebs die it hits me very hard. I sometimes believe it’s the state of mind you are in that day or week and that mood translates to the death of someone whether you knew them or not.
I saw Tina in concert many years ago, maybe 2008, around that time, she was of course already an icon. Our seats were great. I was looking for the photos I took, but can’t find them. She came up right over us on a crane. She was right there -feet from us.
I think I know every one of her songs and all of them from the 1980s are stuck in my mind – I can remember that time frame when I hear the songs. “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” reminds me of the summer of 1984 – one of my favorite years. I can remember that summer so clearly whenever I hear that. The video was all over tv, and you could hear the song in stores, on the street, wherever you were. You hear the first few bars and you know the song.
In 1984 or 1985 I stole a big Tina cutout that was outside a record store in the mall. I’m not sure where it is now, probably folded up in my parents’ garage. It was sitting right outside the entrance, I was with my cousin, and I just took it. I was possessed. I kidnapped Tina!
“Simply the Best” of course is iconic and it’s used in so many ways these days – at events, on tv commercials, it reminds me of HBO, which used it for many years as part of their brand.
I love “River Deep, Mountain High,” and “Rolling on the River” reminds me of my mother, she loved that. My mother also loved the Tina and Bryan Adams song, “It’s Only Love,” whenever that video came on we stopped what we were doing and watched.
I remember as a young kid seeing Ike and Tina Turner on tv and thinking, “what a funny name,” it just sounded funny to me. But she’s been part of my life, like so many of us.
We all know her story, how she escaped from Ike with nothing, made it to a motel, where the owner let her stay even though she had no money, and through it all, she reinvented herself and became a superstar.
Seeing the announcement of her death yesterday was a shock.
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My friend was saying it’s a thing that happens, things sound and look the same.
A few years back I wrote about a little book I have called Steal Like an Artist which says says that there are no original ideas – everyone steals from each other.
Over the years I was positive people were stealing my cartoon ideas. I was so admant about it until it happened to me and I looked as if I was stealing others’ ideas. It just happens, there are just so many ideas. I don’t call it stealing, I just call it life.
Recently a guy suggested I took one of his ideas, but I wrote about how I came up with the cartoon and it has nothing to do with his cartoon.
I saw a cartoon recently that I came up with years ago. Only thing is I never published it and never told anyone about it, but there it was, created and published by someone else, and now I feel that I can’t ever publish my cartoon. I had been putting off redrawing it to fit the format I use now and I wanted to freshen it up a bit, but putting it off just caused me to look as if I am stealing someone’s work, so I guess it will never see the light of day now.
Many years ago I sent cartoons to a syndicate and a month or so later, I saw one of my ideas in a famous comic strip. I was convinced that the cartoonist saw my work at the syndicate some way and used it. Never mind the fact that he published 365 cartoons a year, I was convinced that one was taken from my idea.
My cousin sent me the link to a movie called Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell, he was explaining it to me, he saw it the other night on tv. I told him that was Mama Mia! So it happens, whether the writers agree or not to the fact. In this case, the Mama Mia movie and play people say it isn’t the same thing.
So anyway, I’m glad Ed Sheeran was not convicted of anything. Things sound the same all the time and things look the same all the time. It’s the zeitgeist of life.
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Still lots of things going on this season. I missed the Lake Worth Chalk Festival last weekend and a few other art events, but managed to get to this past weekend’s Gifford Lane Art Stroll, which is a block party in our village. It’s a yearly thing – 25th year, this year and it brings out the whole village. It’s like a tv show where the full cast shows up for an event and they are all in one scene.
It was also “305 Day,” on Sunday, which is the area code for Miami and on March 5 (3/05).
The hit of the block party is cucumber punch which is delicious on a hot day, which always seems to be the case for this event each year – it’s been a cool winter, but Sunday was totally hot.
The first year I went, 20 years back, I didn’t know the cucumber punch had gin in it, and I really had my fill, I was feeling no pain. Now that I know the ingredients, I take it easy.
They used to serve the gin at a friend’s house where everyone lined up outside his green door and he and his wife and friends would serve it up to thousands. I guess after 23 years they felt enough was enough with the non-stop traffic through their house, so they have it out in someone else’s driveway now. So last year, I went to the driveway for the first time and got some punch and people started talking to me. But the homeowner was not having it, she started yelling, “Tom, you have your punch, now get out of here!” I couldn’t argue with her, because she is 97 years old! She’s a spry 97, but still.
This year while it was outside her house, she wasn’t around. She’s an avid bike rider at her age, so maybe she was out bike riding!
Anyway, it was a great day, I think I saw everyone I know there which is always nice. There’s a lot of food, live music and kibitzing. A perfect day for a small village.
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