From the Fridge Magnet Collection #2

The second selection from the gallery is part of a sub-section on our fridge, "Final Panels of Recent Beetle Bailey Strips, Out of Context."


Since Mort Walker's son (?), Greg, has taken over the strip, the stodgy, reliably inoffensive and enjoyably unfunny Beetle Bailey has at times just gone slightly . . . weird. Often this manifests in a final panel of a singularly surreal quality, which is, however preceded by a first panel that (in an attempt to keep the classic "form" of the strip intact) makes the finale "make sense" (Greg Walker appears to prefer a two-panel layout for his strips, a less-traditional, though not unknown, format for a classic strip). The first panel however, is just a ruse, a commercial tactic to allow the final punch its place in newsprint.


And in this case, even having first seen the preceding panel, which "explains" this unsettling image, this panel still stunned me when I encountered it in the New York Daily News:


The Passion of The Beetle



Unfortunately, I may have started with the finest of this series, but there will be more to come.

Blogging and Criticism

George Hunka requests that us fellow theatre bloggers (I guess I still am that) post the following announcement for a very interesting and worthwhile event going on tomorrow.


I can't imagine anyone interested in this who reads this journal who doesn't also follow George's essential Superfluities, but just in case, here ya go:


Here's the lineup for the panel discussion on blogging and criticism
that I'll be moderating tomorrow at CUNY's Segal Center:

* For a little international flair we can't do better than Alison Croggon of theatre notes, who will join us telephonically from Melbourne, Australia. Alison's an accomplished, prize-winning poet and playwright; she also edits the Australian literary magazine Masthead.

* From the associate producer's desk at Performance Space 122 and wearing his editor-in-chief hat for culturebot.org , Andy Horwitz will join us (in person) about the challenges of running a blog for the downtown theatre community, and his (and others') visions of what the blogosphere can do to support and energize this community.

* Also in person will be Matthew Johnston, whose theatre conversation and political frustration seeks to stress "the creation of a dialogue and encourage multiple perspectives in theatre and performance." Matt also writes reviews for nytheatre.com . He's directed plays by Sheila Callaghan and many others; most recently he was most cruelly abused by director, playwright, and cast as the stage manager for In Public.

Please join us at 6:30pm tomorrow, Wednesday, November 15, at the Graduate Center's Martin E. Segal Theatre, 365 Fifth Avenue at 34th Street. Admission is free – even as we run up the Segal Center's long distance bill to new astronomical heights.


I probably won't make it as I'm spending a couple days mostly off from the Havel Festival attending to those essential parts of life that get ignored for weeks as you put up a show, but I'm still very tempted to hear this group speak.