Month: May 2009

Flashback Friday: Jumpin’ Jack Flash

~ lobablanca
We never did tell her what Squiggy did to Booboo Kitty that night...
We never did tell her what Squiggy did to Booboo Kitty that night...

Thank the entertainment deities, wherever they may reside, for making certain that Caryn Johnson didn’t stick with putting makeup on dead people. Even though she very well could have had quite a steady career putting the “fun” in “funeral,” we would have been denied the unparalleled joy that is Whoopi Goldberg.

This is one of my all-time favorite Whoopi movies. This is my number one favorite Whoopi movie. I was 10 years old when I first saw it, and, yes, before you even ask, I probably was too young to be seeing this for the first time. I think I turned out all right, though, for being subjected to such filth at such a young age 😉

I don’t know how to explain why I love this movie so much, but it’s been making me laugh for almost 23 years, and I really don’t see that ever stopping. It’s an incredibly silly story and, really, it’s more of a vehicle to show off Whoopi Goldberg’s sometimes raunchy, sometimes slap-sticky comedy style. It’s also Laverne’s first go behind the camera on something bigger than her own television show.

More than just making me laugh, though, I think at some point in my impressionable young mind, I made the choice that, when I grew up and got a “big girl” job, I was going to emulate Terry Dolittle. I have horrid fashion sense, but I still dream of aspiring to the color-coordinated-down-to-her-Reeboks style that Whoopi’s character sported throughout this movie. Plus, if you’ve ever seen my work desk, you’d think that I had pilfered every toy and sticker from the set before they were able to strike it. Same goes with my home decor choices in many regards.

Other things that can be attributed to Jumpin’ Jack Flash: my introduction to Benny Hill, Jonathan Pryce, Tracy Ullman, and the Rolling Stones, as well as some of the most wonderfully offensive additions to my mental “favorite movie quotes” database. I still will zing out some of the less-shocking lines (“I got MOTHS. Giant, mutant, junkie MOTHS!” or “Dogs barking; can’t fly without umbrellas!”) at the most random moments. Few understand, but I just don’t care. Those who love me appreciate my Cinematic Tourette’s and that’s all that matters.

This is also one of the rare movies that has been with me long enough to have gone from my Betamax collection to my VHS collection to my DVD collection. Whenever the digital revolution spikes into full swing, it’ll follow me there as well. I don’t care that Whoopi would later find herself in the middle of that cacophony of cattiness known as The View (although she also has a special place in my geek heart for asking to be on Star Trek, where she

Holy Creative Literacy Campaign, Batman!

~ lobablanca
Best. Resolution. Ever.
Best. Resolution. Ever.

So Dutch Ruppersberger, a U.S. Representative here in the great state of Muralynd (pronounce it as it’s spelled and you’ll sound like a local!) has proposed a resolution for “Free Comic Book Day.”

Actually, I think this was just his version of yelling “First” to all his other representatives, because Free Comic Book Day has been going on since 2002. But that’s okay. It’s not like Congress has a lot of other things on their plate right now.

Actually, this concept is pretty cool. My grandmother used to always encourage my voracious need to read by saying, “It doesn’t matter what you’re reading, just as long as you’re reading.” She might have had a different opinion had I been reading something like To Serve Mankind for the tasty recipes, but that wasn’t the case. Comic books can be quite the awesome gateway drug to other reading adventures. Or they can stand alone. There are some amazing comics…excuse me, graphic novels out there, that carry as much weight as “serious literature.”

So tomorrow is Free Comic Book Day 2009. Looks like there’s a nice selection from which to choose this year, including X-Men Origins: Wolverine, in honor of the movie hitting theaters today. I’ve never gone to this event before. Comics have never been high on my Collector radar. I’ve had the pleasure of reading other people’s collections, and that has satisfied me. But I might check this out.

I’m also going to put in a plug for one of my all-time favorite illustrators in the game today: Frank Cho. He’s going to be signing books from 1-4 at the Cards Comics & Collectibles here in Reistertown. He is an illustrating god and I have had the distinct pleasure of witnessing his talent from the very beginning (he did a deliciously bawdy strip for The Diamondback at UMCP). He’s also a cheeky little Monkey Boy TM and seems like he’d be really awesome in person. So check him out, check out Free Comic Book Day, and say hey to Comic Book Guy from me.

Tip of the paw to A2 for bringing this to the lair’s attention 🙂

My 2 Cents on the Stamp Hike

~ lobablanca
To boldly lick where no one has licked before
To boldly lick where no one has licked before

So the U.S. Postal Service is bumping the price of first-class stamps by 2 more cents. The new price, 44 cents, will go into effect on May 11. The reason they are hiking the price from 42 to 44 is that they wanted to pay special tribute to Barack Obama, the 44th President.

I kid, I kid. The real reason is the simple fact that the USPS is struggling. They’ve been struggling for a very long time. There’s also been talk recently of cutting a day of delivery from the current 6-day delivery schedule. Then there are the salary freezes, hiring freezes, district office closings, restructured delivery routes. Lots of rumbling throughout the organization.

See, the USPS has always sort of been the government’s equivalent of the red-haired stepchild. You’ll notice it’s one of, if not the only government Web site that ends in “.com” rather than “.gov.” For a long time, the government actually wanted to “spin off” the postal service to stand on their own. They wanted to make them a viable commercial competitor to FedEx and UPS. Bottom line: They wanted to not have to give the USPS federal funding anymore.

But then a funny little thing happened: online bill pay. See, it wasn’t bad enough that the fine art of epistolary communication was dying a slow death at the hands of e-mail and “OMG txt spk 2 my BFF!” But then one of their strongholds began turning against them. Credit card companies and utilities like PEPCO, WSSC, and Comcrap…er, Comcast began accepting online payments. They, in fact, were encouraging online payments. From their standpoint, it was more economically feasible. If more customers paid electronically, they’d need fewer mail room staff and fewer data entry staff to process the tangible payments.

Of course, what’s good for the goose is kicking the gander right in its sack. Which is why the price of stamps keeps going up with greater and greater frequency. Now I know lots of people out there are grumbling over the steady price hike. Never mind that the United States continues to enjoy some of the lowest postage rates in the world. And we’re also able to buy “forever stamps,” which are just stamps that don’t show the postage rate anymore. This is so we can continue to use up our old stamps without having to find 1- or 2-cent stamps to meet the increased rate.

Personally, I’m a big fan of the forever stamp. I’m also a big fan of the USPS. That’s because my father was a faithful employee of the postal service for almost his entire working career. I have him and that gorgeous blue and white eagle for whom he worked to thank for everything ever purchased for me throughout my childhood and adolescence, including my ability to be a bronze-turtle-rubbing liberal arts dilettante.

So to all you perpetual gripers who want to complain about yet another postage hike, I say stick it…stick it right onto an envelope and mail it. You want the hikes to slow down? Start using the service more frequently. Stop using online bill pay. Mail your payments like they did in the “old days.” The more people who use the service means the more revenue…which means they might actually be able to pull back on future hike plans.

I guess all I’m saying is, give the postal workers a bit of a break. The government rarely does (all those big government salary increases you hear about all the time? My dad and his coworkers never saw any of those increases in their checks). Yes, this is a dying industry, thanks to all the technological advances we’ve made in recent years. One day, maybe, there will be no USPS at all. But for now, they are still needed (who else is going to bring me my Netflix movies and Amazon packages?), so go easy on them when they have to charge a little more for postage.

And that’s my 2 cents on the matter.