Superestorations

This collection of the seventeen Fleischer/Famous Studios Superman cartoons appears to have been ripped from the Warner Bros. Blu-ray release, rather than being a fan’s AI restoration of Warner’s earlier DVD release.

By coincidence, the first cartoon in the playlist, ‘Showdown’, happens to be the first one I recall seeing as a child, in black & white. This link shows the playlist, which is something that YouTube’s embedded player used to do.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOkQQ2CR4rZw

For sticklers, here is the correct order for the titles, listed by their release dates:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superman_(1940s_animated_film_series)#List_of_films

Late for the End Times

Somehow, until now I hadn’t watched the 2019 Amazon Prime 6-episode adaptation of Good Omens, the 1990 novel by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. At heart, it’s a very entertaining and amusing bromance, with exquisite production quality. The actors were quite obviously having a very good time.

I wanted to watch the series because this week I’ll be seeing Colleen Doran (DOR-an) at the National Cartoonists Society annual meeting and Reuben Awards dinner. This year it’s being held in Columbus, Ohio, in association with the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.

Colleen wrote and illustrated the graphic novel adaptation of Good Omens.

https://goodomens.com/products/good-omens-graphic-novel

Regarding certain allegations against Neil Gaiman, all I can say is that Colleen had and has absolutely nothing to do with any of that business.

Giving Lori Some ❤️

Every so often, BBC Radio 2’s Sounds of the Seventies, now hosted by Shaun Keaveny, surprises me with a song that was a big hit in the UK, but wasn’t in America. Here’s an example.

In 1977, the Alessi Brothers had a #8 hit in England with ‘Oh Lori’. I was working as an AM radio DJ that year, and ‘Oh Lori’ is a song that would have been a perfect fit for our Adult Contemporary format. Nonetheless, it wasn’t on our playlist.

I’ll correct that oversight right now. If the Beach Boys did Jazz, it would sound like this.

Flaxy the Floosie

HBO streaming has gone through a series of name changes. A remnant of that same confused thinking can be seen in HBO Max having “Categories” in addition to “Channels.” I can’t figure out the distinction, especially because the Channels are also found under Categories.

To further add to the confusion, TCM is a “Brand Spotlight” within the Categories. Clearly, somebody isn’t thinking very clearly at HBO. What they’re doing right is including some TCM introductions for their movies. Most notably, Eddie Muller’s Noir Alley.

Here is one of my favorite things to do on this site. A reconstruction of a Noir Alley presentation. This one is Flaxy Martin, a by-the-numbers late 40’s picture. Take it away, Eddie!