Tales from the Corners

Melodi2/Morguefile With everything going on these days, what is your escape? I feel like using that phrase from the Capital One TV ads, “What’s in your wallet?” Hmm, maybe I ought to pose the question, “What’s on your playlist?” For me, I have been diving into the Rolling Stones’ 1978 classic titled, Some Girls . That one has always been great for me on my neighborhood runs. Of course I always suggest anything from The Beatles catalog to get things going. Some folks say, yes to The Beatles for a running playlist, but a big no to post-Beatles-Beatles. I wholeheartedly disagree of course. Anything from the Wings or Paul McCartney solo years is good with me. Just crank up 1979’s “Old Siam, Sir” and I’m off to the races. There are some tunes that I have been rediscovering of late. Tears for Fears’ greatest hits collections has been making its way back onto my playlists. Indeed we know about “Shout” and “Everybody Wants To Rule The World,” but there are a ton of singles that did...

Meet my neighbor Willie Jo Camp Willie Jo always takes center stage when he arrives for a meal. Willie knows it. In this recent montage, Willie shows that he means business when he's hungry. Anyone who encounter Willie knows that he is territorial. In this video Shiney (the black cat) makes a quick appearance. Shiney is perfect in the age of COVID. He refuses to come into contact with anyone. Summer seems to be tough on Willie. The heat makes him a bit cranky, just like the rest of us. 

On days that I work from home, I always have the need to get out into the Great Outdoors As the Peach State reopens, I’m starting to witness the traffic building. I’m not thrilled by this fact on one hand. On the other, common sense says that traffic is an unfortunate reality when the economy is humming along just fine. I’m hoping as we emerge from early 2020’s quarantine phase to living with what so many label, “the new normal,” that many businesses will continue to have a great deal of their employees work from home. As the economy comes up to full speed, perhaps Atlanta metro traffic will not come up to full speed -- not because many are not working, but many are working from home.  As is well known, many jobs that cannot be performed remotely. From service/hospitality/utility workers to healthcare employees/first responders, we know these people as society’s heroes -- and rightfully so. They keep the lights on, the Internet buzzing to making sure that we are all safe as...

We enjoyed paying tribute to those who inspired us. Oy Vey, It’s Mr. Goldstein! is one of those efforts. For those who are too young to remember, Mr. Bill was a recurring, clay-sculpted character on NBC’s Saturday Night Live within its first five seasons. While it can be labeled a blatant rip-off, it was fun to do this effort at parody.  As we shot this, I truly had some empathy with the original Mr. Bill creators. One could do anything that they wished to do with pieces of Play-Doh as it was proved on Saturday Night Live . My favorite moment was when Mr. Bill met then-cast member John Belushi. Mr. Bill asked for an autograph. Belushi obliged but the result was quite tragic. We somewhat created that moment in the film when Mr. Goldstein receives a true “knuckle sandwich” and is then, spoiler alert, doesn’t do too well with my childhood Mighty Casey train set.  As for the fullscreen titles, I’m not sure where Dan was going with those, but I think they still get ...

Friday The 13th What A Bad Day is one of those shorts obviously done on a lark. One afternoon we decided to do another experimental short without any pre-planning. I think we were well ahead of our time since zillions of productions have been done since without any pre-production.  This incredibly short Super 8mm silent film features an attempt at object animation. The one-frame option on Dan’s silent Bell & Howell camera was a function that we were truly discovering in those days. We read about mixing the regular 18 frames per second and the one-frame options in a short production.  This film is the first attempt at that “look.”  In our version of  ‘Friday the 13th,’I am coming into the house trying to pour some Pepsi, but the glass moves on its own. Yes, that’s the real product going all over Dan’s table. Like I wrote in this space: the place was our own funhouse.  Notice that I’m wearing a Coke shirt while pouring Pepsi.  Cl...

One of the benefits to having two older siblings when growing up is that they had the opportunity to “babysit” me, their younger brother. Oftentimes those nights fell on a Saturday which meant that I was treated to some fare on television that many other kids my age didn’t have the chance to enjoy in those days. On those Saturday nights, I watched the CBS-TV lineup which consisted of Mary Tyler Moore, All In The Family, The Carol Burnett Show and MASH. Legendary shows that, overall at the time, went over my head. Yes, I loved laughing at Ted Baxter’s and Major Frank Burns’ buffoonery on those shows, but viewing those same episodes years later makes me realize how many of the references and the context that I clearly missed as a kid. It didn’t take long for my sisters to introduce me to NBC’s Saturday Night Live , which aired at 11:30p Eastern, beyond late for a kid in those days. I loved laughing at a guy named Chevy Chase who made falling down an art, but I wondered to mysel...

As of this writing, Georgia will be re-opening on Friday, April 24, but with some restrictions. Gyms, bowling alleys, salons and other indoor venues will be open for business while complying with social distancing rules. There seem to be many questions. How will the social distancing rules be regulated and by whom?  Will folks who visit the bowling alleys be required to wear gloves, especially to pick up those bowling balls which have those holes in them. Am I wrong on that one or are those bowling balls a breeding ground for bacteria.  Are gyms a major petri dish? Certainly I can keep my hands off of the treadmills, but that is impossible with everything else in there including weights, weight machines, bikes and ellipticals.  Movie theaters might be a bit easier to operate in the post-shelter-in-place era, but what about hair and nail salons? There’s some close contact in those places so masks and gloves will need to be mandatory in some sense, right?...