Sunday, March 31, 2002

want some good news?

TOO BAD.



two articles to exercise your rubberneck and gnaw at your faith in human nature.
just what you needed, huh? don't mention it.



Something fishy about Salomon

This will give you someone else to hate besides Enron & Anderson--Salomon Smith Barney advised Worldcom employees to buy WCOM shares on margin (borrowed from SSB) and to hang on to their shares even as the market plummetted. I like this article because it gives the names of the 3 brokers responsible, so that if you see them in the street you can kick them.



Television and the Pentagon are strategic bedfellows

This article is about how the Pentagon consults on certain TV shows and how we WILL get a glimpse of the War Tribunals, after all, "Actors Portrayal" style. The show is called JAG (Judge Advocate General) and apparently it's been on for a couple years (I don't watch tv much, sorry if this is old news to everyone).



Here's a quote from the JAG's creator:


"I want to show people that the tribunals are not what many people feared they would be, which is that they would be nothing more than a necktie party, that they would have no foundation in law, that this was a way of taking these people and killing them," Mr. Bellisario said. "I wanted to show that we still have a system of justice." Personally, though, he said he believed "they should all be taken out and blown up."

and from one of the show's writers:


"War is terrible, conflicts are terrible, but somebody has to do it and so it's necessary — maybe not completely honest, but necessary — to imbue those things with glory," he said. "I don't shrink from it."


For him, soldiering is about comrades supporting each other, and writing a heroic script is his way of doing that. "I'm missing the conflict," he said. "This is the only way I can really contribute."


none of this is ANYTHING like propaganda, is it?



[note these are both New York Times articles, so you need to register to read 'em. I think you should, cuz it's free and pretty low stress as these things go. BUT I've just noticed that if the articles are more than a week old you have to pay like $.88 to read 'em, which is bogus and I don't think you should do. If you're reading this more than a week after I posted it, sorry about the incredible expiring links. But I bet there's more bad news today on their front page if you want some.]



happy easter.

Thursday, March 28, 2002

Great things upcoming


Engrave these into your unsuspecting calendar

Hope you can make them. Actually, we'll make them, you should just show up!!

Wednesday, March 27, 2002

COMEDY news


Two bits of great news and two very sad:


Robin Williams Is Making a Run for It, on a Rare One-Man Tour which sounds fantastic! Steve Martin takes a turn at a 90+ year old German Comedy.



In the sad news department make a little room in the afterworld, Dudley Moore has passed away. If by chance you don't know Dudley beyond 10 or Arthur (1 & 2), then for laughter's sake, seek out his film and British Television work with Peter Cook such as Bedazzled or Not Only...But Also!


What can you say about the death of the great Uncle Milty? Milton Berle, we're gonna miss you. 93 years? It hardly seemed like 92.

Wednesday, March 13, 2002

This THURSDAY: Absurd Night Live does Spiegelmania



After a successful run as part of the EXIT Theater's Classic Absurdism festival, ANL appears at Spiegelmania with a mix
of material from the EXIT show plus BRAND SPANKING NEW funny-bits and a special guest star!

Boredom Beware!



This Thursday, at Spanganga, Absurd Night Live and Spiegelmania join forces to battle the dreaded UNCOMEDY. Spiegelmania is a heroic weekly comic juggernaut, built of stand-up comics & sketch comedy, boldly entering the darkness that is Thursday night carrying the unrefutable light that is Hahahahahahahaha! Hosted by the only Mike Spiegelman officially endorsed by his Mom.



This week mikl-em's Absurd Night Live rides shotgun with Spiegelmania. After a sold-out run as part of the EXIT Theater's Classic Absurdism festival, ANL appears at Spiegelmania with a mix of material from the EXIT show and BRAND SPANKING NEW funny\
-bits with special guest star: Aaron Treat of Banana, Bag & Bodice and Popcorn Theater fame--he's in town for ONE NIGHT before returning to NYC. Also on the bill are comics Kevin Avery, Lee Levin, Steve Mazan, Dan Crawford, Bob Johnson!


Together Spiegelmania and Absurd Night Live will make the night unsafe for the UNFUNNY, at least at Spanganga from 10-11:30pm. If you are anywhere else at that time you may be bored, sad, or, worst of all, exposed to blatant John Ashcroft. Please, for all our sakes, come to Spiegelmania and get the hahahahahahahaha that you deserve!!



PS super-discount-info: if you tell 'em that 'the Squid List sent you' you will get in 2 for 1 on the already low-low $5 door price. so do that and spend the savings on drinks!

Saturday, March 02, 2002

For fans of the soundtrack to Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?, a great story about the singer of Po' Lazarus!
It turns out the song was recorded while he was in prison in 1959. TThey just tracked the singer down (who was unaware of the movie, and barely remembered the song) and gave him his platinum record and his first royalty check!