Pop Culture

How old is too old for Halloween?

Tootie (Margaret O’Brien) in Meet Me in St. Louis

Hold old is too old to trick-or-treat?

I say you’re never too old. There’s a thing where certain cities have age limits, I don’t know how they enforce that. Do they ask 12-year-olds to show I.D. to be sure they are not 14 and over the limit? And what sort of I.D. do 12-year-olds have?

If a 16-year-old wants to go through the trouble of dressing up and walking around trick-or-treating, so what? What if a 50-year-old wants to do that? So what?

If you’re gonna be cheap about handing out candy, then turn the lights out at your house and don’t participate.

I don’t think as many people as in the past trick-or-treat. I know when I was a kid the whole neighborhood was out and it went till late. Now I don’t see as many people, but maybe it’s just around where I live.

One of my favorite parts of one of my favorite movies, “Meet Me in St. Louis,” is when the kids are doing Halloween in 1903. So Halloween has been a long-standing thing in the U.S., and many other countries.

Adults have parties, they dress up at banks, schools, even the car dealership, so if these people want to trick-or-treat after work – so what?

I dressed up for years, my whole town did. I didn’t trick-or-treat, but I did go to parties and things. I think I only ended it because I didn’t want to be bothered making a costume every year. But I enjoy seeing everyone else dressed up and enjoying the day.

Give everyone candy if they are dressed up and come to your door. Full bars if possible!

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New York Comic Con

Went to NY Comic Con yesterday, opening day.

The usual cosplayers were there, but this year I didn’t see Spider-man, Superman or Batman, at least not many. In years past, there were so many of them.

But still it was fun. It seems to be more about video games and movies and tv, not so much about comics, as was the original premise.

I ran into my cousin, who is there all the time, at the booth for the company where he works, it’s an auction house for original cartoon art. I’ve purchased some things from their auctions.

We kibitzed for a bit and then I walked around to check out some other comic booths.

It’s sold out for the year, but if you ever get a chance to go to a comic con in any city, I highly recommend it.

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Watching the Olympics on and off

I’ve been watching the Olympics occasionally, depending on when I catch it. I am feeling FOMO of not being in Paris, it looks like it’s the place to be this summer.

When I was a kid, I watched it all – from opening ceremony to closing ceremony. I knew every Olympians life story if it was reported on tv and I watched hours and hours of it. Of course we didn’t have 1000 tv channels back then, so since there weren’t many choices, I watched the main event for two weeks.

I did catch the men’s gymnastics and I stuck with it because one of the guys is the spitting image of one of my neighbors. He could be his brother. They look so much alike. I’ve seen still pictures of this Olympian online and he doesn’t look like my neighbor in still shots, but on tv, moving, he looks just like him.

I haven’t told my neighbor because I don’t know how he would take it, sometimes when people tell you that you look like someone it isn’t a compliment. My neighbor is much younger than me, more like a son, and I yelled at him one day, as a father would yell at a son, only he isn’t my son, and it caused bad feelings. He’s back talking to me, so I don’t want to be stupid by saying anything that might be stupid.

For years I’ve said things out loud that I think I am only thinking in my head. I’m not sure how or why that happens, but really, I think it and I think I am only thinking it, and I end up blurting it out.

I’ve been having fun with Ollie And Jacomo, setting them in Paris during the Olympic games. It’s given me lots of ideas and themes to work with.

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Tommy the pinball wizard

A bunch of us went to see The Who’s Tommy musical on 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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Madonna

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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How comics were made

I donated to the Kickstarter for “How Comics Were Made: A Visual History from the Drawing Board to the Printed Page,” by Glenn Fleishman.

Glenn has put together his research and collections of comics and cartoon artifacts, along with interviews he’s done with cartoonists and other to put this book in print.

There are many examples of what’s to come at the Kickstarter page here: kickstarter.com/projects/glennf/how-comics-were-made along with photos and videos of interviews along the way.

It’s more than just a reprint of comics, although there should be that, but it explains everything about the history of comics and comic strips from 1890 to present and explains how certain techniques were done and includes info on newspaper comics along with webcomics.

The project is almost funded but of course you may still want to order now. Publication is planned for October 2024.

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Larry Fine isn’t fine

I wasn’t sure if everyone would get today’s cartoon, mostly the younger generations. Do people know who Larry Fine is? If you don’t he’s one of The Three Stooges. You know, Moe, Larry and Curley, or Moe, Larry and Shemp. When I was younger, The Stooges were all over tv. I remember in high school I worked in the stockroom at Sears and at 3 pm, everyday, we took our break to watch The Three Stooges on tv in the break room.

I noticed this image online, after I drew this cartoon and it made me feel a bit better, especially since I hate to explain cartoons. It’s a large mural of Larry somewhere in Philadelphia.

Not too long ago I was towed. I should have been fined/ticketed, but the City of Miami thought it was a good idea to tow me.

I was in a parking space that I had parked in for years. I paid the meter and wandered off. Apparently the city changed the parking hours at that space and rather than just ticket me so I would know the new rules, they felt a towing was in order.

I had visions of Parking Wars, the tv show, where people are towed and eight hours later they are still at the towing location, trying to get their cars out. But I was pleasantly surprised. I Ubered to the car lot and I was the only one there, which was surprising, since Miami tows anything at any time for no apparent reason. But it was just me. I was in and out in three minutes! Really! It made the whole experience less painful.

One thing did bother me though. On Parking Wars, a lot of the hold up is that people don’t have their insurance card with them. When I asked the attendant if she wanted to see my insurance card, she told me that was not needed. That explained Miami drivers in a nutshell. No car insurance proof needed?

As for the cartoon, I’m not sure where I came up with the concept of “Larry fine isn’t fine, etc.” It just popped into my head. I didn’t see Larry on tv or hear his name or anything, like where a lot of my ideas come from. It almost reminds me of these memes that show why the English language is so difficult for foreigners trying to learn English.

Like too, two and to, and he’s fine with the fine and read and read (Read to me, I read it).

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Labeling the work

Some people call my cartoons memes. I don’t know why, and I’m not crazy about that, but I have been known to use #meme as a hashtag at times. But it’s a comic or cartoon. Not a meme.

I also have been described as having an “old school” or “old fashioned” style of cartooning. It’s called drawing, not A.I.ing or computer generation. I guess the future is that – A.I. generated or some sort of electronic design. Like an NFT-type image.

Then there are the people who don’t get some of the cartoons. That’s a whole different category. But I do find that different gags don’t work in different parts of the world, even if we speak the same language , things come across different or confusing at times.

I mentioned in a previous post that my method was called drawing in an “exposition box.” I looked exposition box up and it says: “An explosion box is an origami box that pops open and “explodes” as soon as the recipient takes the top off, revealing pictures, messages, and even gifts inside. It’s a bigger version of our Explosion Cards project.”

I hardly think I fit into that category.

Must we label it? If so, it’s a cartoon or a comic or a comic panel or a comic strip. That’s it. People used to call online comics “online comics,” now they are just “comics.” But there are categories for them when it comes to awards. The National Cartoonist Society Ruben Awards (like the Oscars for cartoonists) has categories like, “newspaper strip,” “newspaper panel,” “online long form,” “online short form,” “gag cartoon,” and so on.

The gag cartoon is a panel cartoon like mine. Online long form can be a comic strip or longer and online short form is usually a single panel like mine.

Categories and labels all for basically the same thing.

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Seeing celebs

I saw this random picture on Facebook the other day – Carol Channing, Ethel Merman, Ann Miller, and Lauren Bacall, and I realized I saw two of these ladies in person – in real life situations.

Carol Channing was in front of me in Gristedes once, in NYC and Ann Miller was leaving her Broadway musical called “Sugar Babies.” With Ann Miller, I was walking down the street and a door opened and two white poodles ran out the door, across the sidewalk and into a waiting limo, and right behind them was Ann Miller. I hadn’t seen the play, I was just walking by.

With Carol Channing, I didn’t realize who she was until she opened her mouth and I recognized the voice. I didn’t say anything to her, she just did her thing and left.

I was watching Beat Bobby Flay the other day and Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Carla Hall were guests. Here they are with Bobby. And oddly enough, I’ve seen all three of them in person. Not together, but I’ve seen them.

I saw Bobby coming out of store a few years back, I saw Jesse in a one man show on Broadway and I saw Carla at the Union Square Green Market a few years ago. All three in NYC!

Another supermarket person I saw was Mary Wickes who was in front of me in line at a Grand Union in Miami some years back. She spoke to me, mentioned something about what I was buying, just small talk. The thing about her was that we usually picture her with jet black hair, but it was snow white that day.

I was thinking of all the people I’ve seen in person, you know, people from tv and movies, but what about everyday people? How many thousands of people do we see in our lifetime (millions?) and we just pass by them? But when we recognize them it’s a whole different experience. But so many people we pass are probably so important, but they aren’t celebs, so we don’t notice them.

We might have passed and brushed elbows with guy who is on the verge of curing cancer, or an astronaut who may go to the moon soon or someone who invented something that we use every day. It reminds me of those old American Express commercials – “Do you know me?” Where you know the name, but not the face.

I’ll tell you about the time I had a mini traffic altercation with Madonna or the experiences I would have almost daily with the Burn Notice guys, who filmed the show in my town. And some others . . .

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