I will be spending my Memorial Day (and then some) working on the first edit of our fabulous pilot. So don’t expect to see me around the barbecue.
Don’t cry for me, ardent Tina. It’ll be worth it. The shoot, this Monday, went fantastically well. And though I can’t share any actual footage yet, I can give you these two “publicity stills,” and a sneak peak at me (Spats Henderson) and my new album (with my deepest apologies to Herb Alpert).
Have a great weekend, everyone - may your entire trip be downhill both ways, resulting in unprecedented gas mileage. And take at least a moment to pour one out for the people who, by definition, can’t be there to celebrate their own holiday.
Fanny Roborat
44 comments
(nt) Pete
May 24, 2008 at 3:48 pm
1… and other delights indeed.
Tina
May 24, 2008 at 4:09 pm
2I hope I don’t come across as ardent, except for maybe O’bama (he’s part Irish, right?)
piglet
May 24, 2008 at 4:37 pm
3mmmm…spats…
hedera
May 24, 2008 at 7:34 pm
4Actually, the most peculiar thing about the album cover is the bow tie and the pleated dress shirt. This implies that at some point Adam will be in full penguin drag, wearing a tuxedo. Now, that would be weird.
Father Dougal
May 24, 2008 at 11:14 pm
5Barry O’Bama–A great lad!
SallyMutant
May 24, 2008 at 11:15 pm
6mmmmm–cigarettes
gillian
May 25, 2008 at 4:10 am
7Spats, if that turns out to be a really industrial case of dandruff, I’m going to be sick…. (and so will the girls sampling, I’ll wager).
gillian
May 25, 2008 at 4:15 am
8hedera, you’ve seen Adam “dressed” as a panda racing a tigress on Spike’s show. A penguin in drag should not come as a surprise.
Older than He David
May 25, 2008 at 6:16 am
9I have that album (the Herb Alpert one). If there is an album cover hall of fame somewhere (I’m thinking Salt Lake City, probably because it calls up Salt Lick City, which in turn calls up…)
Older than He David
May 25, 2008 at 6:21 am
10That was supposed to be Older than He Realizes David. But more importantly my Gator women’s fast-pitch softball team swept Cal, has now tied the NCAA record for most wins, is ranked #1, and is headed for the College World Series.
Dale
May 25, 2008 at 2:44 pm
11I was under the impression that helium was pretty old, David.
Boomer
May 25, 2008 at 4:14 pm
12Right you are, Dale. Helium’s been with us since the Big Bang. David, you’re certainly not that old. Feel better?
Dirk's Diary
May 25, 2008 at 4:25 pm
135-24-08
Dear Diary,
In a subtle, inexorable way, the destruction of the Endangered Species Act is up and running. Cheney realizes that he should have gotten on top of this plan sooner and fears he won’t have enough time to achieve total evisceration. He was right about the State of Alaska having shit-fits because DC is again trying to tell them when and where they can shoot their own damn polar bears.
“Yeah, Dirk, you can always count on Alaskans to raise holy-hell about Big Brother trying to shove limp-wristed, touchy-feely horse shit down their throats. Well, at least, you can count on the white Alaskans.”
Dirk
SallyMutant
May 26, 2008 at 1:48 am
14Hi ho Felberinos. This could be the start of something big. (Except you would never dis Steve-o-reno. He was the only man of his time who wasn’t slimey and loungy. )
Off topic but topical
I spend Sundays with huffpo like some people spend Sundays with the NY Times (or their local Sunday newspaper if doesn’t suck and/or take only 15 minutes to read because it’s so pared-down).
All over huffpo, WTF the Hillary “I can’t withdraw my candidacy because in 1968 Robert Kennedy wasn’t out of the race until June because he wasn’t assassinated until June.” Then she apologized to the Kennedy family but not to the Obama family.
Is she going insane?
Zee Man
May 26, 2008 at 4:37 am
15Sally, I don’t think Hillary is going insane. I do think she is desperate, in denial, and sleep deprived. Most politicians are “win-at-any-cost”; they are just better at hiding it than she apparently is.
It's Pat!
May 26, 2008 at 4:42 am
16Pour another one for all the people whose homes and cities are being devastated by storms. A tornado hit about 70 miles north of where I’m at yesterday, and killed a two year old and injured a 150. Nothing on the scale of China and Myanmar/Burma, but still.
It's another Pat
May 26, 2008 at 10:59 am
17I’ll second It’s Pat. I’m in Wisconsin and we were lucky to dodge the storms and tornado that killed 8 in Northeast Iowa. The storms seem to be worse than ever this year; either that or we are paying more attention. Back to the Lounge.
David
May 26, 2008 at 11:03 am
18I feel sooooooooooo much better now. I forgot to mention that I keep that album in a large ziplock in case when I have transported myself to the world of shit-eating grins (I do not have any idea where that confusing image comes from - anyone?), I don’t become confusedly overcome and try to lick the album cover. This is also a pre-emptive action in anticipation of early onset dementia.
I think Zee Man has it right regarding Hillary. A terrible sadness is setting in for me, because the woman has meant so much, and rightly so, for so many people. Please, Lobster, lend her a helping claw and lead her back from the wilderness to the warmth of the love and admiration so many of us felt for her for so many years.
And Dear John, get ready to have your duplicitous, utterly fictitious Straight Talk Express driven right up into your colon in the general election. A respectful campaign, my ass. You have no intention of any such thing - never did. Otherwise, you would have Karl Rove excommunicated and the clown responsible for the Willie Horton attack-on-civility ad sent to Elba until after the election.
At least Lee Atwater and George Wallace had the decency to apologize, and mean it.
cooper
May 26, 2008 at 11:42 am
19Since this blog seems to be populated with science groupies, I’ll leave this link to fill you in on the Phoenix Mission to Mars. I do think NASA should have considered changing the name of the Chinese spokesman in this clip. Or would that have been culturally insensitive?
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/05/26/mars-landing-successful/
Bob
May 26, 2008 at 1:15 pm
20While we’re on the subject of great TV show band leaders, who can forget the legendary Happy Kyne?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGlee4kzjjc
Lou Tally
May 26, 2008 at 2:31 pm
21Adam, sorry to post this here but just finished Schrodingers Ball and wanted to send you some fanmail–would be a bit long to post as a comment, not to mention off the current post. Suggestion? Thanks. Lou
Steve
May 26, 2008 at 6:09 pm
22Adam:
Don’t quit your day job.
Kjell Mikkelsen
May 26, 2008 at 6:15 pm
23Dat vas ja sure one pretty bad storm dat come through here yesterday! Yumpin’ Yesus! Nobody told me about dat twisters come through Minnesota! Maybe Norway is not too very bad after all. It is Pat!, how you stand dis weather, ja?
It's Pat!
May 26, 2008 at 6:44 pm
24And it will freeze north of the Twin Cities tonight Kjell, so maybe you will feel more at home, ja?
Bake up some lutefisk and have some lefse to help it go down. Then you will feel at home.
Lou, go ahead a leave a snippet of your comment here. Most of us have read Adam’s book (some have even purchased a copy!) and I think we all like it, at least the parts we understood. It’s either a very deep book, or a book of deepness. Can’t tell which. But I’m sure we would love to know what you think. It would be a nice distraction from the weather and the current state of the political race for me anyway.
Adam Felber
May 26, 2008 at 9:13 pm
25Lou - Thanks! And what Pat said - please feel free to post the comment, or if you’d rather, email me at adam (at) felbers.net Sorry for the cryptically written address, but those darn spammers must be foiled at all costs.
hedera - no actual penguin suit for this, but I assure you we’re all looking (previously) stylish.
Steve - I’m not sure what you’re reacting to, but rest assured that I haven’t quit anything yet. But honestly, I don’t think this project is what I think you think it is.
David - I’m glad I can bring back memories for you. Though that album is (literally) before my time, it was still somewhat notorious when I began combing the record racks. Getting what was sexy about it so horribly, weirdly wrong for my cover was a true “other delight.”
David
May 27, 2008 at 5:39 pm
26Lou Tally from Lake County? I was the theatre person at L-SCC back in the day.
And wonderful memories they are, Adam. Thank you.
gillian
May 27, 2008 at 5:42 pm
27Maybe that’s what it’s all about - Karl Rove hates America. And sorry Adam, I’m sure you look sexy in your penguin-in-drag get up, but Sparky is the real deal.
http://www.salon.com/comics/tomo/2008/05/27/tomo/
Lou Tally
May 28, 2008 at 8:45 am
28David? Yes, that’s me. How fabulous. I’ve been up in NYC since 2000. If you like, write me at lou_tally (at) hotmail.com (following Adam’s lead re spammers!). –Lou
Clive
May 28, 2008 at 9:01 am
29Bugguh, w’at a small world, innit?
gillian
May 28, 2008 at 5:00 pm
30Look, I’ve been trying to control myself here, but I gotta say… That exotic beauty on the right side of Spats’ album cover is SMOKING!!! OK, there! I’ve said it! I feel much better now. I simply had to say something about that scintillating goddess. But don’t mention anything about my harmless crush to Heather though, OK? (Psst! Adam, did you, by chance, get a phone number?)
Zee Man
May 28, 2008 at 6:15 pm
31I must say that the Chinese have handled their much larger natural disaster better than we dealt with Katrina, and continue to deal with, still to this day. Now compared to Burma, George Bush looks less like the ex-stumble bum/cocaine addict that he is, but then Burma sets a pretty low bar.
Boomer
May 29, 2008 at 3:40 am
32Mr. McClellan, just a suggestion - the standard American city bus weights quite a lot. Should you find yourself prone on the asphalt in the near future, with one of these beauties coming your way, stay low and do try to roll between the front wheels. Good luck and remember, tire tracks are a turn on to the ladies (well, to some of them, anyway ….. OK, biker chicks, but they can be great fun.).
Steve
May 29, 2008 at 8:51 am
33Adam sez:
I think one of us is thinking far too hard. At least that’s what I thought. What do you think? That’s what I thought.
I just hope it’s better than it looks.
Maybe it’s because I actually lived through the 1960s that I find no nostalgia about them. Yeah, there were a few good tunes but otherwise they were pretty dismal and depressing and I’m not of a mind to relive them, even comedically.
Mostly, I was just ribbing you to get a rise. Trolling for minnows, if you will.
I, of course, love your work on Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me and thought that Schrödinger’s Ball was quite good, especially for a first comic novel (most “comic” novels aren’t).
It seems to me that you’re wasting your talents in episodic television, though I guess you have to pay the bills somehow.
But what do I know about show biz? I’m just a computer nerd.
SpottedDog
May 29, 2008 at 6:28 pm
34Photos cheered me up tonight. Reminded me of the new Get Smart movie which I’m looking forward to seeing.
David
May 29, 2008 at 6:33 pm
35Steve,
My condolences that you found the 60s dismal and depressing. There was much to abhor, of course, most notably the Viet Nam War and the violent death throes of apartheid, something which should have ended much, much sooner in my beloved South. And there was the horror show called the Nixon administration.
But I experienced much to be really energized by and excited about, and I got to participate in some successful moves against racist business policies. Of course, the 60s encompasses the early 70s, and that is when I got to participate in some anti-war activities organized by smart people who knew how not to be counterproductive, including VVAW, even though I was not a veteran (that’s a whole other story).
And the actual 60s were bookended by the demise of Richard Nixon’s presidency. The thing to be depressed about, from my perspective, is that it reared its ugly head again in the Reagan and then the Bush/Bush Lesser years. But that is about to be bookended by a real first-Tuesday-in-November massacre of the neo-Republi-cons in Congress, along with the election of our first black president. I also think the neocon dream of endless war is about to get what it deserves. The horror, of course, is that none of what has happened because of those bastards can be undone. All we can hope to do is end the madness and try our damnedest from keeping it from ever happening again. You may say that I’m a dreamer, of course…
If the assassinations of JFK, MLK, Jr., and RFK are what make nostalgia for the 60s hard to embrace, I understand that. I truly understand that, having been a junior in college when the first of those sacrileges against the civil body politic, not to mention horrifying personal tragedies for their families, occurred. Those assassinations set the commonweal back at least two generations.
Imagine for a moment two terms of an RFK administration, with MLK, Jr. still alive and moving the poor people’s agenda forward. And now imagine the spirits of MLK, Jr. and RFK having a seat at the table in the White House.
President Barack Hussein Obama - it leaves a really pleasant aftertaste in the mind.
David
May 29, 2008 at 6:41 pm
36gillian,
I have to go with the hottie to Adam’s right. OK, so I did a shoulder to thigh take, with special emphasis provided by Adam’s right hand, or in faith-community terms, a Hebrew hand gesturing toward the universal non-sectarian Promised Land.
Oh, and I’m sure no Felbernaut would dream of mentioning your comment to Heather. How do I contact her?
gillian
May 29, 2008 at 7:02 pm
37David, actually Heather is out of the country right now and besides, she thinks this blog is just too silly. She is much too dignified to ever look at this website, so I’m safe.
The girl in the bikini - she’s a little young, don’t you think? Not to say she’s innocent, but still. Plus, my hottie looks like she has had a cavity in one of her upper right molars, which makes her pre-fluoride-in-the-water, and, therefore, more mature and closer to my age.
gillian
May 29, 2008 at 7:05 pm
38And she’s SMOKING!!!!
Steve
May 30, 2008 at 5:42 am
39David sez:
There we can agree.
I’m reminded of this recent item I found in Kevin Drum’s Political Animal blog:
As guest blogger Hilzoy put it, “It makes me smile just thinking about it.“
Jim (OJNTNJ)
May 30, 2008 at 6:09 am
40Gillian, neither of those womyn are smoking. They’re licking whipped cream from the top of Spat’s head…oh, you mean they’re attractive. Well yes, if like that sort of thing.
Personally I’m a bit put off by the objectification of Spats as a sex object. I mean whipped cream!!? Really, how misandronous. I’m sure there is much more to him than a cute smile and bow tie….
or maybe not.
H. Youngman
May 30, 2008 at 8:09 am
41Adam, don’t worry about what these people are assuming about your new pilot. These guys should have more confidence in your good judgment. (You are using good judgment here, right?) Anyways, I know it’s hard to believe, but I once was doing a show in the Catskills and I told a joke about “The Pope, an iguana, and a prostitute walk into a bar…” - You know that one, right? It kills, right? - and nobody laughed. Nobody!! I had to check my own pulse to see if at least someone in the room was alive. I was…barely.
R. Nixon
May 30, 2008 at 11:23 am
42Sock it to me?
David
May 30, 2008 at 3:02 pm
43You do have an eye for detail, gillian. But age is no deterrent to the male libido. Everyone knows that. Apparently neither are some really fundamental modern social norms for certain ultra-orthodox Mormons.
Primo quote, Steve.
ellen
June 2, 2008 at 6:28 pm
44Have you joined the rat pack???