June 10, 2008
10:56 am
I have a $4 bridge to sell you
So, the media is all about four dollar a gallon gas. Talk about behind the times — there’s an article in the Washington Post today talking about $4 a gallon and how it is changing behavior, but the AP photo (by Mark J. Terrill) accompanying the article tells us that they’re way behind in their reporting:
I was too optimistic with my prediction of $5 gas by July 4. I should have said “By Tuesday.” That photo was taken in Arcadia, California.
This afternoon it occurred to me that I should have been graphing gas prices here in my neighborhood all along; I love making little graphs. I’m geeky that way. Anyway, here’s a graph of the price of high-test (do people still use that term?) at the gas station on the corner over the last two weeks, based on my Twitter complaints as I drive by.
I know I’m preaching to the choir and we’re all witnessing this phenomenon; it’s just an excuse to create a spreadsheet, that’s all.
So, the media is all about four dollar a gallon gas. Talk about behind the times — there’s an article in the Washington Post today talking about $4 a gallon and how it is changing behavior, but the AP photo (by Mark J. Terrill) accompanying the article tells us that they’re way behind in their reporting:
I was too optimistic with my prediction of $5 gas by July 4. I should have said “By Tuesday.” That photo was taken in Arcadia, California.
This afternoon it occurred to me that I should have been graphing gas prices here in my neighborhood all along; I love making little graphs. I’m geeky that way. Anyway, here’s a graph of the price of high-test (do people still use that term?) at the gas station on the corner over the last two weeks, based on my Twitter complaints as I drive by.
I know I’m preaching to the choir and we’re all witnessing this phenomenon; it’s just an excuse to create a spreadsheet, that’s all.
posted by Gene Cowan | category The War with the Customer
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06:30 am
Hey, bigots: hold your nose and take the cash
Told ya this would happen. It’s a good thing.
Told ya this would happen. It’s a good thing.
(06-09) 18:31 PDT San Francisco (AP) —
Same-sex weddings could create hundreds of new jobs and pump hundreds of millions of dollars into California’s economy, according to a new study released Monday.
Gay couples are projected to spend $684 million on flowers, cakes, hotels, photographers and other wedding services over the next three years — so long as voters don’t put a halt to the same-sex marriage spree, according to a study by the Williams Institute at University of California, Los Angeles School of Law.
During the three-year period, the researchers project that about half of the state’s more than 100,000 same-sex couples will get married and another 68,000 out-of-state couples will travel to California to exchange vows. The nuptial rush is expected to create some 2,200 jobs.
The study estimates that over the next three years, gay weddings will generate $64 million in additional tax revenue for the state, and another $9 million in marriage-license fees for counties.
“This is clearly a win-win situation,” said Lee Badgett, study co-author and research director at the Williams Institute. “It’s good for the larger economy, there’s a trickle down to state and local governments, and people get to celebrate their relationships.” [AP via SF Gate]
posted by Gene Cowan | category Right = Wrong
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June 09, 2008
03:13 pm
AT&T gets richer
Here’s some news you probably didn’t hear today underlying the iPhone 3G announcement: in its bid to change the way mobile companies work, Apple lost.
When the iPhone was launched, Apple and AT&T entered into an unusual agreement. The iPhone was sold at normal price, unlike every other device (in the US, at least). Apple then took a cut of every service plan AT&T sold. But it seems that the old way of doing business proved the winner: iPhones will now be sold like any other device — subsidized by the carrier, which then recoups the money by locking users into a 2-year contract. Apple no longer gets a cut of the service fees. Even with the subsidy, AT&T stands to make more money from this deal, since they aren’t giving Apple a cut and they’ve raised the service charges.
This actually seems to work out better for users than the previous deal, where we still had to sign a 2-year contract but didn’t get a discount on equipment. The only way that other deal would have worked out for the customer is if they sold us an unlocked device.
Apple’s learned the lesson that other handset manufacturers learned long ago: first, you can’t easily trump the service providers; second, sell the device cheap and make up for it in volume and market share. Apple seems to be content being a premium computer manufacturer, but when it comes to the iPhone, they’re going to go for the market share however they can.
Here’s some news you probably didn’t hear today underlying the iPhone 3G announcement: in its bid to change the way mobile companies work, Apple lost.
The new agreement between Apple and AT&T eliminates the revenue-sharing model under which AT&T shared a portion of monthly service revenue with Apple. Under the revised agreement, which is consistent with traditional equipment manufacturer-carrier arrangements, there is no revenue sharing and both
iPhone 3G models will be offered at attractive prices to broaden the market potential and accelerate subscriber volumes. The phones will be offered with a two-year contract and attractive data plans that are similar to those offered for other smartphones and PDAs. AT&T anticipates that these offers will drive increased sales volumes and revenues among high-quality, data-centric customers. Currently, less than 20 percent of AT&T’s postpaid subscribers have integrated devices capable of voice, Web and data applications. Based on the company’s experience, average monthly revenues per iPhone subscriber are nearly double the average of the company’s overall subscriber base.
With a two-year contract, the price of an 8GB iPhone 3G will be $199; the 16GB model will be priced at $299.
Unlimited iPhone 3G data plans for consumers will be available for $30 a month, in addition to voice plans starting at $39.99 a month.
Unlimited 3G data plans for business users will be available for $45 a month, in addition to a voice plan.
When the iPhone was launched, Apple and AT&T entered into an unusual agreement. The iPhone was sold at normal price, unlike every other device (in the US, at least). Apple then took a cut of every service plan AT&T sold. But it seems that the old way of doing business proved the winner: iPhones will now be sold like any other device — subsidized by the carrier, which then recoups the money by locking users into a 2-year contract. Apple no longer gets a cut of the service fees. Even with the subsidy, AT&T stands to make more money from this deal, since they aren’t giving Apple a cut and they’ve raised the service charges.
This actually seems to work out better for users than the previous deal, where we still had to sign a 2-year contract but didn’t get a discount on equipment. The only way that other deal would have worked out for the customer is if they sold us an unlocked device.
Apple’s learned the lesson that other handset manufacturers learned long ago: first, you can’t easily trump the service providers; second, sell the device cheap and make up for it in volume and market share. Apple seems to be content being a premium computer manufacturer, but when it comes to the iPhone, they’re going to go for the market share however they can.
posted by Gene Cowan | category The War with the Customer
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02:39 pm
Reporters are about as good as analysts
First it was a ridiculous report from the Dow Jones Newswire claiming that because the iPhone uses flash memory it must be getting ready for Flash content:
Now, the San Francisco Chronicle reports this:
Um, guys — even a 10 year old knows that it doesn’t upload web pages (per se), it downloads them.
If the news media is constantly riddled with this sort of stupid, idiotic errors in tech reporting, who can say what huge errors they’re making when reporting, oh, politics and government?
First it was a ridiculous report from the Dow Jones Newswire claiming that because the iPhone uses flash memory it must be getting ready for Flash content:
Apple appears to be making room on the iPhone for flash memory, which means an end to Apple’s standoff with Adobe (ADBE) that’s kept iPhones from easily viewing a plethora of Internet videos.
Now, the San Francisco Chronicle reports this:
Um, guys — even a 10 year old knows that it doesn’t upload web pages (per se), it downloads them.
If the news media is constantly riddled with this sort of stupid, idiotic errors in tech reporting, who can say what huge errors they’re making when reporting, oh, politics and government?
posted by Gene Cowan | category The War with the Customer
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June 08, 2008
07:51 am
Analysts don’t know nothin’
Get this:
They’re wrong. Totally, completely, dead wrong.
I’m here to tell you that I paid $4.68 on Friday (for premium — all these gas prices that people quote are averages based on regular all over the country, which has absolutely no resemblance to what it actually costs). The calculated national average is just under $4 according to the AAA. Here, it’s just under $5.
My prediction is that my corner station will hit $5 by July 4. We’re only 30¢ away, and every time the price changes it goes up by 10¢. Check back in a few weeks. If I’m right, I’m just gonna hire myself out as a high-paid analyst.
Get this:
Without a doubt, $5 gas would pose yet another significant psychological milestone forcing Americans yet again to look for ways to scale back their consumption.
Still, most analysts don’t think we’ll see $5 gas this summer. Americans have been so stunned by this decade’s run-up in prices that they’ve finally started driving less, and the drop in demand for gasoline should keep prices from passing the $5 milestone, analysts say.
They’re wrong. Totally, completely, dead wrong.
But no one wants to sound too sure. Not after watching California’s average gas price cross $3, then $3.50, then $4 in just three years.
“Five dollars? I don’t see it happening,” said Denton Cinquegrana, who tracks West Coast gasoline markets for the Oil Price Information Service. “Demand is just so crappy right now. But I’ve been wrong before.”
Even if it doesn’t hit $5 this year, it’s possible in 2009 unless oil prices drop.
“Maybe not by the end of the year, but certainly within a year we’ll get there,” said Rod Diridon, head of the Mineta Transportation Institute at San Jose State University.
I’m here to tell you that I paid $4.68 on Friday (for premium — all these gas prices that people quote are averages based on regular all over the country, which has absolutely no resemblance to what it actually costs). The calculated national average is just under $4 according to the AAA. Here, it’s just under $5.
My prediction is that my corner station will hit $5 by July 4. We’re only 30¢ away, and every time the price changes it goes up by 10¢. Check back in a few weeks. If I’m right, I’m just gonna hire myself out as a high-paid analyst.
posted by Gene Cowan | category The War with the Customer
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June 06, 2008
11:55 am
Heresy, he said
Can it be? The often reactionary right-winger Charles Krauthammer advocating higher taxes to modify consumer behavior? Are you freakin’ kidding me? No, there it is, right there in black and white in today’s Washington Post:
I had no idea that Krauthammer has been in favor of such a strategy; it only seems like common sense to me but one so often finds that common sense goes out the window in politics. It’s worth noting that his fellow right-wingers, in power for a dozen years or so, never considered a tax hike and certainly never voted to increase efficiency, either. At least a misguided and bureaucratic effort to increase mileage is something.
The British have been paying twice as much as we have for gas for ages, but it doesn’t seem to have curbed their car habit. Despite a pervasive and relatively cheap public transport system, walkable cities and towns, high fuel costs, and congestion charging, the UK is still awash in cars. Here in US, we have really poor public transport and cities designed around the car. I think that $4 is still not the point where we’ll see real, wholesale change. Yeah, people are suddenly waking up to the cost of SUVs, replacing them with smaller, leaner vehicles — but they’re still replacing them with cars and I see to movement from any government to expand public transportation. And I think it may be too late to spend the money necessary to create a transportation infrastructure that makes sense. All our eggs are in one basket: personal vehicles. And the problem with a personal vehicle is that it must carry around portable fuel of some type, whether it be oil-based, ethanol, hydrogen, or electricity. There’s a reason the San Francisco cable cars are still working today: they don’t have to carry around fuel. (Of course, one problem with the system can then shut the whole thing down. There are always tradeoffs.)
We were short-sighted generations ago when we gambled on oil and cars. Is it too late to make a huge shift in another direction? It’s certainly too expensive.
Can it be? The often reactionary right-winger Charles Krauthammer advocating higher taxes to modify consumer behavior? Are you freakin’ kidding me? No, there it is, right there in black and white in today’s Washington Post:
Some things, like renal physiology, are difficult. Some things, like Arab-Israeli peace, are impossible. And some things are preternaturally simple. You want more fuel-efficient cars? Don’t regulate. Don’t mandate. Don’t scold. Don’t appeal to the better angels of our nature. Do one thing: Hike the cost of gas until you find the price point.
Unfortunately, instead of hiking the price ourselves by means of a gasoline tax that could be instantly refunded to the American people in the form of lower payroll taxes, we let the Saudis, Venezuelans, Russians and Iranians do the taxing for us — and pocket the money that the tax would have recycled back to the American worker.
This is insanity. For 25 years and with utter futility (starting with “The Oil-Bust Panic,” the New Republic, February 1983), I have been advocating the cure: a U.S. energy tax as a way to curtail consumption and keep the money at home. On this page in May 2004 (and again in November 2005), I called for “the government — through a tax — to establish a new floor for gasoline,” by fully taxing any drop in price below a certain benchmark. The point was to suppress demand and to keep the savings (from any subsequent world price drop) at home in the U.S. Treasury rather than going abroad. At the time, oil was $41 a barrel. It is now $123.
But instead of doing the obvious — tax the damn thing — we go through spasms of destructive alternatives, such as efficiency standards, ethanol mandates and now a crazy carbon cap-and-trade system the Senate is debating this week. These are infinitely complex mandates for inefficiency and invitations to corruption. But they have a singular virtue: They hide the cost to the American consumer.
Want to wean us off oil? Be open and honest. The British are paying $8 a gallon for petrol. Goldman Sachs is predicting we will be paying $6 by next year. Why have the extra $2 (above the current $4) go abroad? Have it go to the U.S. Treasury as a gasoline tax and be recycled back into lower payroll taxes.
Announce a schedule of gas tax hikes of 50 cents every six months for the next two years. And put a tax floor under $4 gasoline, so that as high gas prices transform the U.S. auto fleet, change driving habits and thus hugely reduce U.S. demand — and bring down world crude oil prices — the American consumer and the American economy reap all of the benefit.
Herewith concludes my annual exercise in futility. By the time I write next year’s edition, you’ll be paying for gas in bullion. [WaPo]
I had no idea that Krauthammer has been in favor of such a strategy; it only seems like common sense to me but one so often finds that common sense goes out the window in politics. It’s worth noting that his fellow right-wingers, in power for a dozen years or so, never considered a tax hike and certainly never voted to increase efficiency, either. At least a misguided and bureaucratic effort to increase mileage is something.
The British have been paying twice as much as we have for gas for ages, but it doesn’t seem to have curbed their car habit. Despite a pervasive and relatively cheap public transport system, walkable cities and towns, high fuel costs, and congestion charging, the UK is still awash in cars. Here in US, we have really poor public transport and cities designed around the car. I think that $4 is still not the point where we’ll see real, wholesale change. Yeah, people are suddenly waking up to the cost of SUVs, replacing them with smaller, leaner vehicles — but they’re still replacing them with cars and I see to movement from any government to expand public transportation. And I think it may be too late to spend the money necessary to create a transportation infrastructure that makes sense. All our eggs are in one basket: personal vehicles. And the problem with a personal vehicle is that it must carry around portable fuel of some type, whether it be oil-based, ethanol, hydrogen, or electricity. There’s a reason the San Francisco cable cars are still working today: they don’t have to carry around fuel. (Of course, one problem with the system can then shut the whole thing down. There are always tradeoffs.)
We were short-sighted generations ago when we gambled on oil and cars. Is it too late to make a huge shift in another direction? It’s certainly too expensive.
posted by Gene Cowan | category Right = Wrong
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June 05, 2008
08:47 am
Alien Incursion
Who says San Jose doesn’t have culture? Okay, so they’re live cultures, but hey. Take a look at what’s wriggling around over at City Hall.
“Incursion 37:20:15.71 N - 121: 53:09.51 W” is a projected artwork, part of the 01SJ Arts Festival happening this week in San Jose.
Hope it doesn’t get out of that dome. It looks slimy.
Who says San Jose doesn’t have culture? Okay, so they’re live cultures, but hey. Take a look at what’s wriggling around over at City Hall.
“Incursion 37:20:15.71 N - 121: 53:09.51 W” is a projected artwork, part of the 01SJ Arts Festival happening this week in San Jose.
Incursion 37:20:15.71? N - 121: 53:09.51? W continues a series of large-scale projection installations by Australian artist Craig Walsh, which occupy specific sites and responding to contrasting environmental contexts. These urban interventions provide surreal visions of organic forms dominating architectural sites and altering their perceived function.
On December 4,1965 the first appearance of the Grateful Dead as the Grateful Dead took place in a house where the San Jose city Council Rotunda now exists. Whilst this event is best known for its mass consumption of LSD, the event also embraced many art forms in a collective search for enlightenment. Of specific interest in relation to new media practice is the exploration of interactive technologies, spatial installations and projection. These events also experimented with possibly the earliest examples of ‘VJ’ s in the form of liquid oil projections, physically controlled to respond to the sound of live music and projected at scale over the musicians.
Incursion 37:20:15.71? N - 121: 53:09.51? W embraces traces of this history and re-establishes a psychedelic presence within the current architectural site.
Hope it doesn’t get out of that dome. It looks slimy.
08:21 am
Under the radar, controlling Sesame Street
I post this because I’m certain that most people are unlikely to have heard about it or realize that it’s news at all.
I post this because I’m certain that most people are unlikely to have heard about it or realize that it’s news at all.
White House nominates three for CPB Board; two are big political donors
Posted on Current.org, June 2, 2008
By Steve Behrens
A Hollywood attorney and a Florida educator, both sizeable donors to political campaigns, and a small-city broadcast journalist who covers elections but doesn’t donate, were announced last week as Bush administration nominees for the CPB Board.
The newcomers nominated May 29 are:
- Lori Gilbert, news director of both KELK-AM and KENV-TV in Elko, Nev., would serve for the remainder of a term expiring Jan. 31, 2012.
- Bruce M. Ramer, a prominent Beverly Hills lawyer and board member of public TV station KCET, would also serve until 2012.
- Liz Sembler is director of Jewish studies at the Pinellas County Jewish Day School, a former chair of Tampa’s WEDU and now a board member of the Association of Public Television Stations, would serve until 2014.
Like many of earlier presidential nominees to the CPB Board and other appointive federal posts, Ramer and Sembler have given generously to political campaigns.
- Ramer has given $57,000 to federal political committees since 1997, nearly as much to Democrats as to Republicans, plus $12,000 to national party funds for nonfederal elections, mostly to Democrats, according to reports to the Federal Election Commission.
- Sembler has donated $28,800 to federal campaigns since 1997, more than $25,000 of it to Republicans, according to FEC data.
The White House also nominated two incumbent, Republican activist Cheryl Halpern and former Democratic Arkanasas governor and senator David Pryor, for new six-year terms.
The three newcomers would replace CPB Board members whose terms have expired, though observers could debate whether the Senate will take the time to hold hearings and confirm them during an election season.
President Bush has not been shy about using recess appointments, however. He could put the nominees on the board for a year if the Senate hasn’t acted before Congress adjourns in September.
Will Republicans maintain control over the CPB Board? The White House is required by law to appoint a bipartisan board, with no more than a one-vote margin favoring a single party, but it’s not clear how all three newcomers would be counted.
posted by Gene Cowan | category Right = Wrong
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June 02, 2008
05:20 pm
McAngioplasty
So, I read today that Kelsey Grammer has had a mild heart attack.
He was hospitalized for a few days for observation.
Hmm.
When I had my heart attack — which by all accounts was not “mild” and nearly resulted in open-heart surgery — I was in the hospital overnight. I went from the emergency room to another hospital where I waited in a row of beds with a bunch of other fat- and cholesterol-laden couch potatoes were lined up for surgery. The next day I was off to the airport to pick up my parents, who, I’m sure, were expecting to visit me in the hospital.
Is this an indictment of Kaiser Permanente, or a testament to the power of celebrity?
So, I read today that Kelsey Grammer has had a mild heart attack.
He was hospitalized for a few days for observation.
Hmm.
When I had my heart attack — which by all accounts was not “mild” and nearly resulted in open-heart surgery — I was in the hospital overnight. I went from the emergency room to another hospital where I waited in a row of beds with a bunch of other fat- and cholesterol-laden couch potatoes were lined up for surgery. The next day I was off to the airport to pick up my parents, who, I’m sure, were expecting to visit me in the hospital.
Is this an indictment of Kaiser Permanente, or a testament to the power of celebrity?
posted by Gene Cowan | category Gotta Have Heart
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12:26 pm
Robert Justman
The front page of this blog is littered with sad news of great people who have left us in the last week or so. The sadness continues:
I read Bob Justman and Herb Solow’s book about the origins and making of Star Trek, and laughed throughout — despite the stress and craziness of the work, Justman was obviously the laughing soul of that team and I felt glad to have known him through his writing. Wish I’d known him in person.
The front page of this blog is littered with sad news of great people who have left us in the last week or so. The sadness continues:
Robert H. Justman, who helped bring the original “Star Trek” as well as “Star Trek: The Next Generation” to the small screen, died last week as a result of complications from Parkinson’s Disease at his home in Los Angeles, according to TrekWeb.com. He was 81.
Leonard Nimoy, who has brought Spock to life, said, “In quick succession we have lost Joe Pevney, who was one of the best directors of Star Trek episodes along with Marc Daniels who passed some time ago. Both brought a rich theatricality to the work which made their episodes shine.”
“We have also lost Bob Justman, who was a treasure to me,” the actor said. “He would listen wisely, with an honest ear, and respond helpfully whenever there were creative differences of opinion. Also Alexander Courage who wrote the now-unforgettable original theme music.”
Justman’s long association with Star Trek began back in 1964 when Gene Roddenberry made him associate producer and assistant director for the initial pilot episode, “The Cage.” NBC rejected that pilot, but wanted a second version. Roddenberry again asked Justman to help with “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” which NBC accepted, making “Star Trek” into a weekly series. Justman was hired as an Associate Producer on the show.
Justman became an important part of Trek, managing the show with Gene L. Coon and Herbert F. Solow. Justman served as an associate producer, technical consultant and finally co-producer for the show. He participated in decisions regarding casting, set and prop design, along with story and script revisions.
Years later, when Roddenberry began work on “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” Justman was again brought on board. Justman again had a lot of influence on the program, including his desire to cast Patrick Stewart as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard.
Near the end of Next Gen’s first season, Justman retired. He was listed as a consulting producer during that year’s last eight episodes.
“I can’t tell you how nurturing this guy was to me,” Rick Berman, who would become TNG’s executive producer, told the Los Angeles Times. “He was like a mentor and a father. He was extraordinary.” [SyFy Portal]
I read Bob Justman and Herb Solow’s book about the origins and making of Star Trek, and laughed throughout — despite the stress and craziness of the work, Justman was obviously the laughing soul of that team and I felt glad to have known him through his writing. Wish I’d known him in person.
posted by Gene Cowan | category Life… Don’t talk to me about life.
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May 31, 2008
03:33 pm
Lorenzo Odone
Subject of film ‘Lorenzo’s Oil’ dies at 30
By Sarah Brumfield
Associated Press
05/31/2008 01:40:42 AM PDT
WASHINGTON - The man whose parents’ battle to save him from a nerve disease was told in the movie “Lorenzo’s Oil” died Friday at his home in Virginia, having lived more than 20 years longer than doctors had predicted.
Lorenzo Odone, who doctors had predicted would die in childhood, died one day after his 30th birthday, said his father, Augusto Odone.
Lorenzo Odone had come down with aspiration pneumonia recently after getting food stuck in his lungs, his father said. He began bleeding heavily, and before an ambulance reached their home his son was dead, Odone said.
“He could not see or communicate, but he was still with us,” Odone said Friday. “He did not suffer… . That’s the important thing.”
Mr. Odone was found at age 6 to have adrenoleukodystrophy, or ALD. His doctors told his parents the disease - caused by a genetic mutation that causes the neurological system to break down - would lead to death in two years.
The disease leads to the accumulation of substances called very long chain fatty acids in cells, which damages the material that coats nerve fibers in the brain.
Susan Sarandon and Nick Nolte starred as Michaela and Augusto Odone in 1992’s “Lorenzo’s Oil,” which recounted their efforts to formulate the oil they said helped their son fight the neurological disease, despite lacking scientific backgrounds.
Sarandon earned an Academy Award nomination for her performance.
A study published in 2005, based on research with 84 boys, showed that a treatment made from olive and rapeseed oils - patented by Augusto Odone - can prevent onset of the disease’s symptoms for most boys who receive an ALD diagnosis.
Odone plans to take his son’s ashes to New York to mix them with those of his wife, who died in 2000. Then, Odone said, he will sell his home in Fairfax, Va., and move back to his native Italy.
Odone also plans to write a book memorializing his son, “to tell the story of Lorenzo as a way to make him live on.” [AP]
posted by Gene Cowan | category Life… Don’t talk to me about life.
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May 29, 2008
04:51 pm
Harvey Korman
This is a sad, sad week for comedy. Right now, my blog front page has four obituaries on it. This one is perhaps the most stinging of all.
This is a sad, sad week for comedy. Right now, my blog front page has four obituaries on it. This one is perhaps the most stinging of all.
(05-29) 16:28 PDT Los Angeles, CA (AP) —
Harvey Korman, the tall, versatile comedian who won four Emmys for his outrageously funny contributions to “The Carol Burnett Show” and was seen to hilarious effect on the big screen in “Blazing Saddles,” died Thursday. He was 81.
Korman died at UCLA Medical Center after suffering complications from the rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm four months ago, his family said in a statement released by the hospital.
His daughter, Kate Korman, said in the statement that it was a “miracle” that her father had survived the aneurysm at all, and that he had several major operations.
“Tragically, after such a hard fought battle he passed away,” she said.
A natural second banana, Korman gained attention on “The Danny Kaye Show,” appearing in skits with the star. He joined the show in its second season in 1964 and continued until it was canceled in 1967. That same year he became a cast member in the first season of “The Carol Burnett Show.”
Burnett and Korman developed into the perfect pair with their burlesques of classic movies such as “Gone With the Wind” and soap operas like “As the World Turns” (their version was called “As the Stomach Turns”).
Another recurring skit featured them as “Ed and Eunice,” a staid married couple who were constantly at odds with the wife’s mother (a young Vickie Lawrence in a gray wig). In “Old Folks at Home,” they were a combative married couple bedeviled by Lawrence as Burnett’s troublesome young sister.
Korman revealed the secret to the long-running show’s success in a 2005 interview.
“We were an ensemble, and Carol had the most incredible attitude. I’ve never worked with a star of that magnitude who was willing to give so much away.”
Burnett was devastated by Korman’s death, said her assistant, Angie Horejsi.
“She loved Harvey very much,” she said.
After 10 successful seasons, Korman left Burnett’s show in 1977 for his own series. Dick Van Dyke took his place, but the chemistry was lacking and the Burnett show was canceled two years later. “The Harvey Korman Show” also failed, as did other series starring the actor.
“It takes a certain type of person to be a television star,” he said in that 2005 interview. “I didn’t have whatever that is. I come across as kind of snobbish and maybe a little too bright. … Give me something bizarre to play or put me in a dress and I’m fine.”
His most memorable film role was as the outlandish Hedley Lamarr (who was endlessly exasperated when people called him Hedy) in Mel Brooks’ 1974 Western satire, “Blazing Saddles.”
In their ’70s, he and Tim Conway, one of his Burnett show co-stars, toured the country with their show “Tim Conway and Harvey Korman: Together Again.” They did 120 shows a year, sometimes as many as six or eight in a weekend.
Harvey Herschel Korman was born Feb. 15, 1927, in Chicago. He left college for service in the U.S. Navy, resuming his studies afterward at the Goodman School of Drama at the Chicago Art Institute. After four years, he decided to try New York.
“For the next 13 years I tried to get on Broadway, on off-Broadway, under or beside Broadway,” he told a reporter in 1971.
He had no luck and had to support himself as a restaurant cashier. Finally, in desperation, he and a friend formed a nightclub comedy act.
“We were fired our first night in a club, between the first and second shows,” he recalled.
After returning to Chicago, Korman decided to try Hollywood, reasoning that “at least I’d feel warm and comfortable while I failed.”
For three years he sold cars and worked as a doorman at a movie theater. Then he landed the job with Kaye.
In 1960 Korman married Donna Elhart and they had two children, Maria and Christopher. They divorced in 1977. Two more children, Katherine and Laura, were born of his 1982 marriage to Deborah Fritz.
In addition to his daughter Kate, he is survived by his wife and the three other children. [AP via SF Gate]
posted by Gene Cowan | category Life… Don’t talk to me about life.
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02:42 pm
(Headset) too little (patent) too late
Sometime in the last 4 months or so, I lost my tiny but expensive iPhone Bluetooth Headset. Now, a little late, Apple files a patent:
Hmm. I wonder if I looked in the couch cushions?
Sometime in the last 4 months or so, I lost my tiny but expensive iPhone Bluetooth Headset. Now, a little late, Apple files a patent:
[The filing] describes a method and system for locating objects using Bluetooth, such as the tiny Bluetooth Headset it sells for iPhone that almost everyone has lost in the crease of their couch or car seat one time or another.
Similar to the discovery feature of traditional cordless phones, the concept would allow iPhone users to ping paired Bluetooth devices, which could then emit a high pitched sound or light.
Again, however, Apple takes the concept a bit further by suggesting that it could also sell and market a tiny Bluetooth device that could be attached to almost anything, from a set of keys to a household pet, that would similarly aid in locating those objects in the event they become lost. An interface on the iPhone (master device) could manage several of those devices (slaves) at once, according to the filing. [AppleInsider]
Hmm. I wonder if I looked in the couch cushions?
02:06 pm
Joseph Pevney
Another obituary today, this time for Joseph Pevney — another name you know but don’t realize that you know. You know?
You’ve seen his name many times in the credits of a certain television show which seems this month to carry a curse.
Another obituary today, this time for Joseph Pevney — another name you know but don’t realize that you know. You know?
You’ve seen his name many times in the credits of a certain television show which seems this month to carry a curse.
Palm Desert, Calif. (AP) —
Joseph Pevney, who directed some of the best-loved episodes of the original “Star Trek” television series, has died. He was 96.
Pevney died May 18 at his home in Palm Desert, said his wife, Margo.
Pevney directed 14 episodes of the 1960s series, including “The City on the Edge of Forever,” in which Capt. Kirk and Spock travel back in time to the Depression, and “The Trouble With Tribbles,” in which the starship Enterprise is infested with cute, furry creatures.
Pevney loved the series, said his son, Jay.
“He was surprised at the longevity of it because it was not a popular series at the time; it hit its real popularity (in syndication) after it was over,” he said.
Pevney directed with precision and was highly organized “but he was very relaxed — in fact, jovial — in the way he directed,” said George Takei, who played Sulu. “I enjoyed working with him.”
Pevney had made his movie debut playing a killer in 1946’s “Nocturne.” As an actor, he made several other film noir appearances but then turned to directing with 1950’s “Shakedown.”
Pevney went on to direct more than 35 films, including two memorable movies from 1957: “Man of a Thousand Faces,” which starred James Cagney as silent star Lon Chaney, and “Tammy and the Bachelor,” a romantic comedy starring Debbie Reynolds that spawned her No. 1 hit record, “Tammy.”
In the 1960s and ’70s Pevney turned to television, directing dozens of episodes of series such as “Wagon Train,”“Fantasy Island,”“The Incredible Hulk” and “Trapper John, M.D.”
He retired in 1985.
Born in 1911 in New York, Pevney began his entertainment career as a boy soprano in vaudeville. For several years in the 1930s and ’40s, he acted in or directed Broadway productions. He came to Los Angeles after serving in the Army in World War II. [AP via SF Gate]
posted by Gene Cowan | category Life… Don’t talk to me about life.
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May 28, 2008
06:37 pm
Alexander Courage
This has been a bad couple of weeks for Hollywood. Word comes today of the passing of Alexander Courage, the composer best known for the theme for “Star Trek.” Imagine having created a piece of music that literally billions of people know in just a few signature notes; imagine having that legacy. Still, since his death wasn’t really front page news anywhere — he died on May 15 — perhaps his work will be remembered but his name will be forgotten. That’s just a tragedy, because he was a gifted composer and his work speaks for itself.
This has been a bad couple of weeks for Hollywood. Word comes today of the passing of Alexander Courage, the composer best known for the theme for “Star Trek.” Imagine having created a piece of music that literally billions of people know in just a few signature notes; imagine having that legacy. Still, since his death wasn’t really front page news anywhere — he died on May 15 — perhaps his work will be remembered but his name will be forgotten. That’s just a tragedy, because he was a gifted composer and his work speaks for itself.
Alexander (Sandy) Courage, composer of the original Star Trek theme and an Emmy-winning, Oscar-nominated arranger for TV and movies, died May 15 at the Sunrise assisted-living facility in Pacific Palisades, Calif. He was 88 and had been in declining health since 2005.
Courage’s fanfare for the Starship Enterprise, written in 1965 for the first of two Star Trek pilots, was heard throughout the three original seasons of the show and has been reprised in all of the Trek feature films and several of the TV series, especially Star Trek: The Next Generation in the 1980s and ’90s.
Courage’s eight-note brass signature for the Enterprise may be the single best-known fanfare in the world. When told that more people know it than know Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man, Courage – in his typically self-deprecating fashion – said that must surely be an exaggeration.
Much of Courage’s 1960s output was at 20th Century-Fox, where Newman assigned Courage to write music for Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Daniel Boone, Lost in Space, Land of the Giants and other series. He wrote a dramatic theme and over a dozen scores for the Carl Betz legal drama Judd for the Defense in 1967-68. It was his only other TV theme besides Star Trek.
In addition to his adaptation work on The Pleasure Seekers and Doctor Dolittle, he contributed orchestrations to such ’60s musicals as Hello, Dolly! at Fox and My Fair Lady at Warner Bros. He also orchestrated dramatic and comedic scores for composing colleagues including Adolph Deutsch (Some Like It Hot), Andre Previn (Irma La Douce) and Alex North (The Agony and the Ecstasy).
Star Trek, which went on the air in 1966, became his most famous work. In addition to the fanfare, series theme and scores for two pilot episodes, Courage composed the music for just four other hours of the sci-fi classic (two in the first season, two more in the third). He did far more work on The Waltons, scoring over 100 episodes in the 1970s and early 1980s, plus four Waltons TV-movies in the ’80s and ’90s.
He also composed music for Apple’s Way, Eight Is Enough and other series in the ’70s and ’80s, receiving an Emmy nomination as composer on a Medical Center in 1973 and another as arranger for ABC’s Liberty Weekend ceremonies in 1986. He also served as music coordinator, and appeared onscreen as a conductor, in Luciano Pavarotti’s 1981 film Yes, Giorgio.
As composing work in TV waned, Courage returned to orchestration for old friends including John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith. For Williams, Courage orchestrated several scores including Fiddler on the Roof, The Poseidon Adventure, Hook and Jurassic Park. He also adapted Williams’ themes for Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, and wrote many orchestral arrangements for the Boston Pops during Williams’ 1980-93 tenure as conductor.
For Goldsmith, Courage orchestrated numerous films including Basic Instinct, First Knight, The Mummy, Air Force One, Mulan and, ironically, Star Trek: First Contact and Star Trek: Insurrection.
[The Film Music Society]
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