The Sound of the Crowd

Damn. Double damn. The day after we have the news that Paul Winchell, the voice of Tigger among many other varied accomplishments, has died, we get this:

John Fiedler, 80, Stage Actor and Film Voice of Pooh’s Piglet, Dies

Like Winchell, Fiedler had a long list of credits besides the wonderful Milne/Disney voice for which he is best remembered. I see by looking him up on the IMDB that he was in a couple of the first Disney movies I remember seeing “new” in the theater: The Rescuers (animated) and The Shaggy D.A. (live-action).

But the on-camera role for which I best remember him is in the episode of “classic” Star Trek, Wolf in the Fold, in which Fiedler played (and now I’m quoting from that Trekker web site):

Mr. Hengist; Originally a resident of Rigel IV, later employed as a city administrator on planet Argelius II. Hengist’s body was possessed by an evil energy lifeform that thrived on the emotion of terror and was responsible for several brutal murders. This entity, which traveled to Argelius Ii in Hengist’s body, was also known as Redjac, Beratis, Kesla, and Jack the Ripper.

Remember? Overcome by a powerful sedative, Hengist/Redjac is unable to act on his murderous rage, but can only mutter, “die, die, die…kill you all…” It’s beautiful.

And now he’s gone too. Damn, damn and triple-damn.

Or, goddamn, Sideways is a good movie…

Jesus loves me, this I know…cause he keeps giving me posts like this to play with. A right-wing pro-abstinence group, Just Wait, has put up a billboard which reads:

GIRLS
IF IT’S NOT FOR SALE
DON’T ADVERTISE

“While some find the message sexist in the way it targets girls, Scott Hughes, director of Just Wait, says it’s really more about teenage boys.

‘Guys are turned on visually by what they see, so it’s really saying guys aren’t men enough to control themselves, therefore you have to be careful on how you present yourself,’ says Hughes.”

Oh, that’s not too sexist or insulting. I’m not even sure if it’s more insulting to women or men. I’m gonna say women…marginally. But now for the fun part, boys and girls.

Can you guess where, oh where this billboard is located? Think hard. Stretch your mind. That’s right…

R.I.P.

Tigger
Sam-I-Am
Sneetch
Boomer
Chinese Cat
The Dread Baron

–and many more, AKA Paul Winchell. That’s a link to a tribute by Mark Evanier, who writes more about Winchell, and has a great story, here.

It’s a bad year for voices from my childhood. There have been times when I identified very much with Tigger, and looked at life as part of a massive attempt to “unbounce” me.

P.S….Oh, and also, Winchell invented the artificial heart. Seriously. He did.

ETA update: My friend Bob links to The Sound of the Crowd on his LiveJournal, and adds his thoughts.

Among the many seemingly counter-intuitive things about making the failed television series “Firefly” a big-screen movie is, well, just that.

At least there’s an obvious profit motive (if not exactly a creative one) for making a “Dukes of Hazzard” movie. But why throw good money after bad on a concept people have already shown they didn’t want to watch even when it was free?

The answer: To exploit the fanbase. As this article shows, “Serenity” is an experiment in seeing how much work the (unpaid) fans will do to put money in the pockets of Universal and Joss Whedon’s team.

The answer: Quite a lot, apparently…and they’ll even pay them for the privilege of marketing their movie.

The marketing plan rises to evil-genius levels when you realize all the ways the move from April to September pried open six months’ worth of free-publicity for the entire Firefly/Serenity franchise. Since the fan screenings began, Firefly DVD sales have shot up the genre charts at Barnes & Noble and Amazon. In July, a Dark Horse Serenity comic book, written by Whedon, will hit shelves, and the Sci-Fi Channel will soon start broadcasting the 14 Firefly episodes–all of them, in order.
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The Knight-Ridder Washington Bureau asked some Young Republicans a question…

(quotes in bold, my comments normal text)

Would you be willing to put on the uniform and go to fight in Iraq?

“Frankly, I want to be a politician. I’d like to survive to see that,” said Vivian Lee, 17, a war supporter visiting the convention from Los Angeles,

You know, if Bill Clinton made America’s youth obsessed with blow jobs, then surely George W. Bush has made chickenhawkery a rung on the ladder to political success.

Lee said she supports the war but would volunteer only if the United States faced a dire troop shortage or “if there’s another Sept. 11.”

“As long as there’s a steady stream of volunteers, I don’t see why I necessarily should volunteer,” said Lee.

Good news, Vivian. We’re facing a dire troop shortage. The stream of volunteers has dried up. See you at the recruiting office on monday, girlfriend!

“If there was a need presented, I would go,” said Chris Cusmano, a 21-year-old member of the College Republicans organization from Rocky Point, N.Y.

Good news, Chris…

And now, it’s time once again to play…

Who Said It?

We have a trifecta this time.

“Victory means exit strategy, and it’s important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is.”

“This has been an unmitigated disaster … Ask the…embassy. Ask all the people…that we’ve killed. Ask the refugees that we’ve killed. Ask the people in nursing homes. Ask the people in hospitals.”

“{The] President… is once again releasing American military might on a foreign country with an ill-defined objective and no exit strategy. He has yet to tell the Congress how much this operation will cost. And he has not informed our nation’s armed forces about how long they will be away from home. These strikes do not make for a sound foreign policy.”

Now, who said these things?

Howard Dean?
An editorial writer for USA Today?
A Democratic activist?

Or was it….(click below for the answers)
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In a recent interview, a tense-for-some-reason Tom Cruise called Today Show host Matt Lauer “glib.” Wow. Tom Cruise telling you you’re “glib”.

That’s like Tom DeLay telling you you have no class. Or being called ugly by a Tasmanian pus-toad.

(Glib: Marked by ease and fluency of speech or writing that often suggests or stems from insincerity, superficiality, or deceitfulness.)

The author of that book purporting to tell the “truth” about Hillary was on the Al Franken Show yesterday. Al and columnist and author of Big Lies (scroll down) Joe Conason basically tore him a new one.

You can read a transcript of it here. Or if you’re so inclined, and you’re in a good place to do so, you can listen to it here. Either way, you’re gonna want popcorn for this one.

Wouldn’t it be great if this were some sort of metaphor of hope for the future?