Sterling Structures (Deconstruction Function Edition)

 

Peter S. Lewis Building, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio

I am obsessed with architecture. It is true, I am restless, trying to find myself as an architect, and how best to contribute in this world filled with contradiction, disparity, and inequality, even passion and opportunity.

--Frank Gehry

 

1929-2025

 

Under the Radar: Dick Shawn

 

Shawn was born on this day in 1923. However, it's his death in 1987 that remains noteworthy (albeit in a morbid sort of way):

Apparently, no thought it all that unusual when the Shawn fell face first onto the stage right in the middle of his act. After all, he had a very physical, manic comedy style noted for its utter unpredictability. As far as the audience was concerned, it was a supreme act of slapstick that put Dick Van Dyke's trip over the ottoman to shame. Except in Shawn's case, Mary Tyler Moore and Morey Amsterdam didn't run out and help him to his feet. Shawn just laid there for a few minutes until a stagehand (who at first also thought it was part of the act) came out to check on him. Someone in the audience, thinking the stagehand was part of the act, yelled out, "Take his wallet!" Soon a doctor showed up, and then paramedics. The audience was asked to leave, though a few in the theatre stuck around a little while longer, maybe thinking there that, sooner or later, there must be a punchline.

At this point you may be thinking, "Well, if I were in that audience, I would have known something was wrong right away." Well, you know what they say, hindsight is a TV newsmagazine. Meanwhile, here's Dick Shawn sometime in the 1950s. And don't worry. He survives this one:

  

Watching that, it's hard for me to know if he was parodying old-time show biz or in fact embodying it. One person reportedly influenced by Shawn was Andy Kaufman (whose own death from cancer was thought by some to be a put-on.) After viewing this clip, I can believe it.

Their paths crossed?! I luv it!

Growing up I was unaware of Dick Shawn's stage act. Instead, I knew him as someone who kept popping up in 1960s comedies. It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World was one. What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? was another. And then there this much more briefly titled 1967 film:

If you squint at the row of pictures at the bottom, you'll see Shawn, third from the right.

Years later, in this interview conducted by Eight is Enough star Dick Van Patten (?), Shawn was asked about Brooks first directorial effort: 

The character of Lorenzo St. DuBois (LSD) was jettisoned from the 1990s Broadway adaptation. I don't know why, but it's just as well. Shawn was gone by then, and I think he may have been the only one who could have done the role justice. Watch:

 

Funny, sure, but how will it play in Nuremburg?

Graphic Grandeur (Supply and Demented Edition)

 

It's a truism in American politics that people vote with their pocketbook.

Sometimes to confusing effect:

Cartoon by Drew Sheneman.

Vital Viewing (Tails from the Darkside Edition)

 

With all the turmoil taking place here on planet Earth, you'd at least think the heavens above could offer a bit of serenity. No such luck! On July 1 of this year an Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) telescope in Rio Hurtado, Chile took notice of a comet newly arrived from outside the solar system. That it's acting a bit different from other known comets has scientists puzzled, and at least one scientist thinks it may not be a comet at all. Watch:

You heard that guy. If it turns out to be just a comet, don't worry. If it's a spacecraft, worry. 

Actually, I worry even if it is a comet, especially as I recall this movie from way back when:

Well, maybe there's nothing to worry about after all. That '80s teen slang is much too dated to make a comeback.  

Not that there aren't ominous signs elsewhere:

Better get out the tinfoil. 

 

Quips and Quotations (Roaring Twenties Edition)

 

I couldn't forgive him or like him, but I saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified. It was all very careless and confused. They were careless people...they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made....

--F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby 

Vital Viewing (And Now for Something Completely Diabolical Edition)

 

Halloween is almost here, the time of year when we take perverse delight in getting the hell scared out of us, and what better way to get the hell scared out of us than by a creature from Hell? Of course, I'm talking about the Devil, a.k.a., Satan, Lucifer, the Prince of Darkness, Mephistopheles, Beelzebub, Belial, Old Nick, Old Scratch, the Evil One, the Arch Fiend, the Serpent, and the Antichrist. 

Did I leave a name out? Oh, yes. Blair:

Scary, huh? But is it fair? Can there be another side to the Devil? Can Satan be misunderstood? 

John Cleese offers this perspective:

 

So you might want to consider chipping in a few dollars. It will do your soul some good. Assuming it hasn't already been sold.

Graphic Grandeur (A River Runs Through It Edition)

 

OK, you've seen all the news coverage, but what was the President's reaction?

Cartoon by Nick Anderson