IJBFC Chat - December 10, 2017
(Name of message originator appears right after the timestamp)
[4:57 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: well, I
wouldn't want to be a member of any club that would have me, and being the first
one on line feels like that, hahaha Hi folks
[4:58 PM] Brad Strickland: Hi, Kathy~
[4:58 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: Hey Brad,
happy December!
[4:59 PM] Brad Strickland: And to you, too.
We have snow on the ground....
[4:59 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: our 1/4 inch
caused a panic, hope you are digging out
[4:59 PM] Brad Strickland: We got about 3
inches. Up in Oakwood, where we lived until 2014, they got six. The University
closed down.
[5:00 PM] Theodore Michael Konek: Hi
Everybody!
[5:00 PM] Brad Strickland: Hi! How are you,
TMK?
[5:00 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: whoa, you
would think it was December, Brad!
[5:01 PM] Brad Strickland: You probably
remember--in Georgia we get snow in late February through early April~
[5:01 PM] Brad Strickland: I keep hitting
the tilde instead of the exclamation point!
[5:01 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: but usually
not in downtown Atlanta (panic!) and almost never in Austin (triple panic, haha)
[5:02 PM] Perri: good evening, y'all!
[5:03 PM] Theodore Michael Konek: We had 5
inches of snow in Allentown, PA
[5:03 PM] R.Hookie: Hi folks!
[5:03 PM] Laura Leibowitz: Hi folks!
[5:03 PM] R.Hookie: Hi Laura
[5:03 PM] Brad Strickland: Our problem was
that I came down with my end-of-term ailment--sinus infection--and just as it
was getting bad, Barbara had to drive me to the Urgent Care center. I had a
fever of 102.8, and they gave me an IV, Ibuprofen, and an antibiotic. The drive
home was gnarly, but luckily only a mile and a half.
[5:03 PM] Brad Strickland: Hi, Perri, Hookie,
Laura!
[5:04 PM] R.Hookie: Hi Brad
[5:04 PM] Laura Leibowitz: Hey Hookie
[5:04 PM] Laura Leibowitz: Zowie...I thought
you were retired, Brad!
[5:04 PM] Laura Leibowitz: Or is your health
still on the school year?
[5:05 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: oh gosh Brad,
I am sorry! I hope you got a zapping dose of drugs to make it stop
[5:05 PM] Laura Leibowitz: So other than
Brad's fever, how's everyone doing tonight?
[5:05 PM] R.Hookie: Yeah, sounds like a
rough time
[5:06 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: VERY glad
that one of my busiest semesters ever is nearly over, hooray!
[5:06 PM] Laura Leibowitz: Kathy - Why so
busy? And how is the Benny book selling?
[5:06 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: Laura, you
sound busier than a one armed paper hanger, yourself!
[5:06 PM] Brad Strickland: I'm retired but
they talked me into part-timing this semester. I'm definitely hanging it up
after this one, though!
[5:07 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: well, thanks
to everyone for their interest in the book, its doing great!!!!
[5:07 PM] Laura Leibowitz: Yeah, it's been
pretty busy between all my endeavors and a new job that is making me drive to
South San Jose more often than anticipated.
[5:07 PM] Brad Strickland: YAY!
[5:07 PM] Laura Leibowitz: Kathy -
Fabulous!!!
[5:07 PM] Laura Leibowitz: Brad - Mazel tov
[5:07 PM] R.Hookie: I got notification that
it shipped today
[5:07 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: Oh, I was
teaching a grad class on audience studies, and a junior-senior class on Gender
in the 1960s. both were grading-intensive, but came out great!
[5:08 PM] Brad Strickland: Our daughter is
currently having contractions, and not the ones with apostrophes. Baby is due on
the fifteenth but may arrive early.
[5:08 PM] Laura Leibowitz: Hookie - Thanks
for supporting the IJBFC with your purchases!
[5:08 PM] R.Hookie: Of course!
[5:08 PM] Laura Leibowitz: Brad - Yow!
[5:08 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: wow, Brad, is
this your first grandbaby? Best wishes to your daughter
[5:08 PM] Laura Leibowitz: Kathy - I bet
you're a great professor.
[5:09 PM] Brad Strickland: No, this will be
our second, our first's little sister. Elora is with us tonight, just in case
Mom and Dad have to go to the hospital. Elora told me solemnly a few minutes ago
that her sister Stella will have "chubby cheeks" because "they
did a magic picture of her."
[5:09 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: I like to
make my teaching subjects fun to trick the students into learning something.
They LOVE Jack Benny when I bring the subject in!!!
[5:10 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: oh that is
wonderful, Brad, a magic picture!!!! I will remember that
[5:10 PM] Brad Strickland: I've been
listening to a lot of the shows on XM radio. They tend to favor the fifties, but
I've heard one or two as far back as the thirties.
[5:10 PM] Brad Strickland: Kathy--that's
toddler for "ultrasound."
[5:10 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: so, Laura, do
I need to ask your/the estate
[5:10 PM] Laura Leibowitz: Kathy - What, to
play Jack Benny in your classes?
[5:11 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: the estate's
permission if I start a "hey perform this rare Benny script on podcast and
win a prize" offer?
[5:11 PM] Brad Strickland: Oh, a
re-creation!
[5:11 PM] Laura Leibowitz: I hereby give you
permission to do that. You're not making money off of it, and
you're spreading the good news about Jack. :)
[5:11 PM] Laura Leibowitz: Feel free to
print this page for your records.
[5:12 PM] Laura Leibowitz: OK...shall we get
to the show?
[5:12 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: The Sixties
class LOVED Jack as "Gracie Benny" as a way of showing that
representations of gender/sexuality and playfulness were OK but got much
stricter by 1960. I also play them the "Betty Girl Engineer" episode
of Father Knows Best, to show that girls could ONLY be domestic. I was lucky to
have very smart and engaged students this term
[5:12 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: yay! what are
we going to watch/listen to?
[5:13 PM] Laura Leibowitz: Harris/Faye show,
12/19/48 by request. Jack plays Santa.
[5:13 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: yay!!!
[5:13 PM] Brad Strickland: BTW, the week
before Thanksgiving, I got to dance with Cate Blanchett and met Jack Black and
Kyle MacLachlan. Had coffee with the latter.
[5:13 PM] Laura Leibowitz: OK, let's do it!
[5:13 PM] Laura Leibowitz:
https://www.watch2gether.com/rooms/ijbfc-mbrm7osc3l5p85x3t9 Here's
the link to the Watch2gether page
[5:13 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: oooh, Brad,
and we know you...... that must have been so amazing!
[5:14 PM] Laura Leibowitz: For anyone
joining the chat room after this, please join us at the above link to hear the
program already in progress!
[5:14 PM] Brad Strickland: It was on the set
of "The House with a Clock in Its Walls," a movie being made in
Atlanta based on a John Bellairs novel (after Bellairs died, I continued the
series, and was invited as a kind of involved observer. They interviewed me for
a DVD extra).
[5:44 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: what a
great choice, Laura, thanks for the program!!!
[5:44 PM] Laura Leibowitz: So...thoughts on
the show?
[5:44 PM] Brad Strickland: ....and here we
are again. Wonderful show!
[5:44 PM] Laura Leibowitz: Hey, I have to
credit whomever requested it last time.
[5:44 PM] Perri: Fun! I've
never heard it, and as always learned a lot from you guys!
[5:45 PM] Brad Strickland: When did
Christmas Seals stop being a thing?
[5:45 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: sad to say,
the little girl voices grate on me, but Phil and Alice make up for it!!!
[5:45 PM] Laura Leibowitz: Great
question...I have no idea.
[5:45 PM] R.Hookie: Aren't they still a thng?
[5:45 PM] Laura Leibowitz: I think of Easter
Seals more than Christmas Seals. But maybe they're still active in
certain areas.
[5:46 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: they need an
email and text version, stick those seals on our electronic messages
[5:46 PM] Laura Leibowitz: Ork ork ork ork
[5:46 PM] Laura Leibowitz: The little girl
voices are pretty typical of the time, though. And they enunciate
their lines well without sounding fake.
[5:46 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: well, I had
not heard one of these shows before, and Alice Faye's voice entrances me
[5:47 PM] Brad Strickland: Haven't seen any
in years. Wikipedia indicates they're still around, especially in Canada. And
the Nazi Party issued them in Europe....
[5:47 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: Alice is a
huge benefit to this show
[5:47 PM] Laura Leibowitz: Seriously?
[5:47 PM] Laura Leibowitz: That was to
Brad's comment about Europe
[5:47 PM] Brad Strickland: Laura--Yep. Sad.
[5:47 PM] R.Hookie: Well
[5:47 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: omg seals,
sad
[5:47 PM] Brad Strickland: But that ended in
1945.
[5:47 PM] Laura Leibowitz: I guess they
preferred them to Chanukkah Seals
[5:47 PM] Laura Leibowitz: And Passover
Seals
[5:48 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: but Alice,
yay!!! What a great way to give a finger (pardon me) to Fox movie studio, to
have a successful career after your movie studio dumps you
[5:48 PM] R.Hookie: Is that one of the 8
correct spellings?
[5:48 PM] Laura Leibowitz: I'm kind of
surprised that the band on the show isn't more impressive. I guess
they're not there to stand out.
[5:48 PM] Laura Leibowitz: Kathy - Well
said!
[5:48 PM] Laura Leibowitz: Hookie - Well,
Seth and I both spell it that way. So I know it's got two votes at
least.
[5:49 PM] Brad Strickland: There's a joke in
the Atlanta Center for Puppetry Arts' "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"
(which uses the script of the Rankin-Bass TV special) about two animal-type
seals being Christmas Seals. Nobody gets it these days. We saw the show back in
November, and I was the only one in the theatre who laughed.
[5:49 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: really, all
the 1930s actresses had terrible times after world war 2, and most of them were
NOT willing to go to radio or television. Bravo to Alice!
[5:49 PM] Laura Leibowitz: Brad - I've often
been the only one in the theatre laughing at a gag.
[5:50 PM] Laura Leibowitz: Kathy - Per Phil,
he said that Alice didn't want to go into television, which is why they never
transitioned their shows and he started taking on a lighter load.
[5:50 PM] Brad Strickland: Eddie Carroll
complained that after I'd seen his show four times I started to laugh five
seconds before the punch line.....
[5:50 PM] Laura Leibowitz: At least, that's
what I recall he told me.
[5:50 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: yeah, as Jack
found out 1948-1952, television was a HUGE hassle that meant going to New York
[5:50 PM] Laura Leibowitz: You know,
speaking of Eddie, Seth and I saw Herb Alpert last Tuesday. So I
had to show him Eddie's bit with Alpert afterwards.
[5:51 PM] Laura Leibowitz: Kathy - At least
until the transcontinental coax was installed.
[5:51 PM] Brad Strickland: Aw! Hope he
enjoyed that! "The Lonely Bull," right?
[5:51 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: Phil was one
of the first actors to make it BIG in voice acting (in Disney movies)
[5:51 PM] Laura Leibowitz: Brad - Starts
with The Lonely Bull, but is a medley of many Alpert hits.
[5:51 PM] Laura Leibowitz: Look for the Bare
Necessities...
[5:51 PM] Laura Leibowitz: Dennis didn't do
badly with that either, as Johnny Appleseed.
[5:52 PM] Brad Strickland: "Yes, the
Lord's been good to me."
[5:52 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: so envious of
you getting to see/hear Herb Alpert, hope he's still going strong'
[5:52 PM] Laura Leibowitz: He's doing
great. And I didn't realize his wife was one of the Brazil 66
vocalists.
[5:52 PM] Laura Leibowitz: He's lost maybe
10% of his lip, but the core of the sound is still very much
there. Just don't ask for powerful high notes.
[5:53 PM] Laura Leibowitz: Kathy - Look on
my timeline and you'll see a short bootleg of him.
[5:53 PM] Laura Leibowitz: So other requests
for next month?
[5:53 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: so, Joseph
McBride has a huge new book out about Lubitsch, which looks like it will have a
chapter on To Be or Not to Be, will report as soon as I get the book
[5:53 PM] R.Hookie: Doc can't hit those high
notes anymore, either
[5:53 PM] Laura Leibowitz: Cue the "New
Tenant" vs. "I Hate New Tenant" arguement.
[5:54 PM] Laura Leibowitz: Hookie - Not
surprising.
[5:54 PM] Brad Strickland: Well I have a
photo of me dancing with Cate Blanchett. And Kyle MacLachlan and I had coffee
together. No ie, though.
[5:54 PM] Laura Leibowitz: Kathy -
Cool! would love to know about that.
[5:54 PM] Brad Strickland: 'No pie, either.
[5:54 PM] Laura Leibowitz: I have a lot of
respect for Cate Blanchett as an actress.
[5:54 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: wish me luck
on the book awards circuit, and consider inviting me to a book talk if you are
in a city I can get to!!!
[5:55 PM] Brad Strickland: Luck! You comin'
to Atlanta, gal?
[5:55 PM] Laura Leibowitz: Kathy -
Indeed! Here's to it!
[5:55 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: I showed Cate
Blanchett in "Revolutionary Road" to my Sixties students, as a first
film -- they loved it!!!
[5:56 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: oooh Brad,
let's see what we can put together, can I shake up the folks at Agnes Scott to
do something for an alum.....
[5:56 PM] Laura Leibowitz: So any thoughts
for next month, or is it at my discretion?
[5:56 PM] Brad Strickland: I told her I
loved "The Missing," and she lit up. She loved making the movie and
was disappointed it wasn't a bigger performer at the box office.
[5:56 PM] Brad Strickland: I say we trust
the boss. Leave it to Laura!
[5:56 PM] Laura Leibowitz: :D
[5:56 PM] Perri: Yes - love the surprises
you bring us!
[5:56 PM] Brad Strickland: That would make a
great radio show title.
[5:56 PM] Laura Leibowitz: OK, you got it!
[5:56 PM] Brad Strickland: Thanks!
[5:56 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: yay!!! you
find such amazing things, Laura
[5:57 PM] R.Hookie: Ditto
[5:57 PM] Laura Leibowitz: Funny...I was
telling Seth today about seeing Jerry Mathers at Canter's and casually thinking,
"Oh look...it's the Beav!"
[5:57 PM] Brad Strickland: I'm gonna go. Not
awfully sick any longer, but I'm on antihistamines and they make me dopey and
sleepy. And at least two other of the Seven Dwarfs, I think.
[5:57 PM] Laura Leibowitz:
Cool. What other Benny-related items on your mind tonight?
[5:57 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: many grad and
undergrad students are all about podcasts, radio will have a resurgence, yet!
[5:57 PM] Laura Leibowitz: Kathy -
Hallelujah!
[5:57 PM] Laura Leibowitz: Turn them on to
Buck Benny
[5:58 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: Laura, I
wanted to second and third your idea about building a research website!
[5:58 PM] Brad Strickland: I'll leave y'all
to your discussions. Kathy--push my son Jonathan's podcasts at howstuffworks.com.
He's incredibly popular. Check out "Why Do People in Old Movies Talk
Funny?" People love that one.
[5:58 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: I need to
start populating the website I created for the book, but your idea is
fantastic!!!
[5:58 PM] Brad Strickland: Good night!
[5:58 PM] Perri: and get that Leave It To
Laura podcast going...
[5:58 PM] Laura Leibowitz: Kathy - Thank
you! I just have to determine if I want to build it, or try and
have someone more recent with programming do it.
[5:59 PM] Laura Leibowitz: Perri - Ha!
[5:59 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: we can talk
further about this, and I look forward to that and many other conversations...
[5:59 PM] Laura Leibowitz: Kathy - Amen and
amen.
[5:59 PM] Laura Leibowitz: OK, sounds like
we're good for this month. Thanks everyone for stopping, and have a
wonderful holiday!
[5:59 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: will check
out, and will be in touch soon, Laura! goodnight
[6:00 PM] R.Hookie: Same to you! Good night,
folks!
[6:00 PM] Perri: Good night and best wishes
to all!