March 17, 2004
Wednesday Miscellenia
Today I went to the post office and had McDonalds for lunch. Exciting, no?
OK, I also spent some time online gathering links. First up is this way-cool Speak 'n Spell emulator (via Idle Type). I liked this arrow-shaped sign gallery. The evocative scene above comes from another gallery of IBM's vintage business fashions. Both come via J-Walk, who never ceases to amaze me with his prolific bloggitude. I also peeked at the Toho Tokusatsu movie poster gallery (via Dublog), which would be a lot better if the posters were bigger. Scrubbles reader Jeff pointed me to his page showing why John Kerry is hung like a horse, no comment needed.
Mercedes McCambridge recently died. She did the voice of the possessed Regan in The Exorcist. I'll remember her best for the fiesty cowgirls she played in Giant and Johnny Guitar, roles that made her into a sort of butch lesbian icon. She rocked in those movies. R.I.P.
Finally I have to mention The Koala Brothers, a kiddie show we stumbled onto. Insanely cute stop motion animation from England, although it looks very repetitive. It might be something like Rolie Polie Olie where if you've seen one episode, you've seen them all. I already have the Koala theme song tattoed on my cerebral cortex.
Posted by mhinrichs at March 17, 2004 02:51 PM
I've been looking for a Koala theme song lately, and was stoked to see you mentioned this, but can't find the song on the site.
As I am having my Koala themed kegger party next weekend, I hope you can direct me before then.
Cheers!
I have to tell you, I had a private, lovely lunch with Mercedes McCambridge when I was 12. She was in my hometown to "star" in the local University's summer production of The Little Foxes. I was a determined young actress...and somewhere my Father met her, and asked if she would meet me to discuss my future on the stage. And, she did. We shared a lovely lunch full of anecdotes and advice at the Holiday Inn in Florence Alabama. My parents sat in the lobby to give us proper privacy. She was a gracious, charming, and very intimidating presence...and I will forever be grateful for my afternoon with her!
She was also fabulous in the Little Foxes, as you can imagine. That voice ---those Lillian Hellman lines! It was great!
Farewell, Ms. McCambridge!
I had no idea McCambridge did voices in the Exorcist! She was awesome in Johnny Guitar.
I am glad to see McCambridge's radio work has been mentioned in her obits (briefly, but at least mentioned). Orson Welles said she was "the world's greatest living radio actress," and she was very active in radio from (at least) the 1940s.
So, given that and my huge love of dramatic radio of that era, you can imagine my excitement in meeting her in Scottsdale in the early 1990s during her tour in "Lost in Yonkers." I was able to get a few minutes with her backstage (due to my newspaper connections) and was able to tell her how much I loved her radio work. She was rather gruff and did not seem pleased to meet any member of the media, but who cares? I got her autograph and am so thrilled to have met one of the great radio talents.
Of course, Matt and I were also thrilled to see her in the film Giant in Los Angeles at the Cineramadome on the event of the 40th anniversary of the film. That was the same trip where we took one of those exclusive tours of the Warners Brothers backlot. Of course, WB made Giant, so there was a nice little commemorative display in the main WB lobby. Wow!
