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Obit watch and a bit of personal indulgence: December 1, 2012.

Saturday, December 1st, 2012

This has not been a good week for various reasons. Add another one to the list.

Jeff Millar, columnist and former movie critic for the Houston Chronicle, and also writer of the “Tank McNamara” comic strip, has passed away.

Millar’s time as a HouChron columnist and film critic overlapped my childhood and teenage years. I’ve written before that he was one of three people (Siskel and Ebert being the other two) who made me love movies. (My teenage years were a time when teen slasher flicks were approximately every third movie in the theaters. It was so bad, Millar came up with the “teen scream checklist” format for his reviews of those movies; I laughed every time I saw he’d done one of those.)

(And I’m glad somebody mentioned “Murray the Wonder Publicist”. I had almost forgotten about him.)

“Tank McNamara” was a hoot in those years, too. It still is, but sports have become so ridiculous that they’re hard to satirize any more. And I was a big fan of “Second Chances”, too: it was often funny, but also deeply moving (and I wonder how much of it was autobiographical). (Somebody should do a complete collection of that comic, damn it.)

I even saved up my pennies and purchased a copy of his novel Private Sector. (I had to wait for the paperback, because I was a broke kid. Sorry, Mr. Millar.) I still think that’s a pretty spiffy thriller; even though it was published in 1978, the core concept doesn’t seem that far-fetched to me today.

And the columns. Most of them were side-splittingly funny. But the one that I remember best right now was one he wrote about his first wife (the legendary “Spot” of his columns) after her death. I’d love to find a link to that, but the HouChron doesn’t go back that far.

I had it in my head that, at some point, I was going to write Mr. Millar and thank him for his influence in my life. I met him once, when I was a teenager, at a book signing. But I was too shy and intimidated to talk with him much. We had a brief email correspondence shortly before he retired as a reviewer, and that was the extent of my contact with him. I tried several times to see if he had a presence online, and couldn’t find any contact information, so I gave up on it.

Too late now. I guess this has to be my thank-you note.

Domo arigato, Millar-sensei.

Posted in Books, Clippings, Movies, Obits, Sports, Theatre | 1 Comment »

Random fun: October 24, 2012.

Wednesday, October 24th, 2012

Remember our old friend Randy Adams, former police chief of the California city of Bell, who was seeking a $510,000 a year pension based on his contract with the city?

Ask not who the fail whale tolls for: it tolls for Randy Adams.

The chief, the judge wrote, also wanted to keep confidential an agreement that would have eventually granted him a disability retirement, meaning that half his pension would have been tax-free. His decision included an email that Adams sent to Spaccia during contract negotiations. “I am looking forward to seeing you and taking all of Bell’s money?!” he wrote. “Okay…just a share of it.”

Adams still has the option to appeal the ruling. In the meantime, instead of collecting $510,000 a year, his pension will be a mere $240,000 a year.

Glen Berger is writing a book. “Who?” Glen Berger, one of the writers of “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark”. Mr. Berger’s book currently bears the title “Song of Spider-Man: The Inside Story of the Most Controversial Musical in Broadway History”.

Mr. Berger is by no means an impartial observer in the troubled gestation of “Spider-Man,” the most expensive show in Broadway history. He was brought onto the project by Tony winning director Julie Taymor, with whom he co-wrote the book, but he and Ms. Taymor had an ugly split when she was fired in 2011, and a new writer and director were brought in to make the musical more family- and tourist-friendly.

And in other news, the NYT would like for you to shed some tears over the death of poor pitiful Dan Fredenberg.

What did Mr. Fredenberg do?

It was Sept. 22, and Mr. Fredenberg, 40, was upset. He strode up the driveway of a quiet subdivision here to confront Brice Harper, a 24-year-old romantically involved with Mr. Fredenberg’s young wife. But as he walked through Mr. Harper’s open garage door, Mr. Fredenberg was doing more than stepping uninvited onto someone else’s property. He was unwittingly walking onto a legal landscape reshaped by laws that have given homeowners new leeway to use force inside their own homes.

Harper shot and killed Fredenberg. The DA declined to prosecute, stating that the shooting was justified under Montana’s “Castle Doctrine”. This greatly upsets the NYT, and many of the morons who read the paper and leave comments.

But there are some inconvenient facts.

  1. Mr. Fredenberg was drunk at the time he was shot.
  2. Mr. Fredenberg entered Harper’s home; he wasn’t standing in the driveway or out on the sidewalk.
  3. Mr. Fredenberg and his spouse had a history of mutual spousal abuse (physical and verbal), according to the local DA.
  4. Mr. Fredenberg’s spouse was having a relationship of some sort with Harper. She denies it was sexual, but states that they were “intimate”.
  5. Mr. Fredenberg and Mr. Harper had “once clashed at Fatt Boys Bar & Grille in Kalispell”.
  6. Ms. Fredenberg and Mr. Harper were driving around the block that evening shortly before the incident; they were pursued by Mr. Fredenberg, which led to the shooting.

“You don’t have to claim that you were afraid for your life,” Mr. Corrigan, the county attorney, said. “You just have to claim that he was in the house illegally. If you think someone’s going to punch you in the nose or engage you in a fistfight, that’s sufficient grounds to engage in lethal force.”
It was immaterial that Mr. Fredenberg was unarmed. What mattered was what Mr. Harper — who declined to comment through his lawyer — later told investigators: that Mr. Fredenberg was charging toward him, angry, “like he was on a mission,” and that Mr. Harper was scared for his life.

Was Mr. Harper supposed to wait until he was attacked by a drunk man who he’d previously had an altercation with, in the privacy of his own home? Apparently, the NYT thinks the answer to this question is “yes”.

Castle Doctrine didn’t kill Mr. Fredenberg: poor judgement killed him.

Posted in Books, California Über Alles, Clippings, Guns, Law, Theatre | Comments Closed

Random notes: October 17, 2012.

Wednesday, October 17th, 2012

This is just breaking, and I’ll probably have more to say about it later: Lance Armstrong is leaving his position as chairman of the Livestrong charity.

(I still haven’t had time to go through the USADA report. Sorry.)

Meanwhile, we have a couple of interesting things from the NYT:

There’s a longish piece about the “Rebecca” case, focusing on Ben Sprecher and how he claims he got taken.

Mr. Sprecher, 58, said he had done a cursory Google search of Mr. Hotton’s name before they first met in February, found that he had worked at a well-known brokerage house and noticed nothing else.
The Internet reflects a host of civil fraud lawsuits against Mr. Hotton, and the federal authorities say Mr. Sprecher is one in a long line of people from California, from Alaska, and from Mr. Hotton’s own neighborhood who say they have been swindled by him.

More:

Nor did he consider it unusual, he said, that he had never met or spoken with Abrams or that the investor’s passing was not marked by any obituary or death record. Indeed, federal authorities say Mr. Hotton mistakenly sent e-mails supposedly from one fake investor via an address he had already associated with another of his inventions.

Somebody really wanted to believe. Either that, or there’s more going on here than meets the eye.

Have you ever wondered where escargot come from? If you order them in many restaurants, they were probably imported from France in a can. But if you order them in a higher-end restaurant…

…the NYT has a profile of Mary Stewart, snail rancher.

Mary “the snail lady” as we like to call her, is passionate about her mollusk’s. She forages & collects these wild snails in the Sierra Nevada mountains, then feeds them a strict diet of basil before blanching and packing them in basil water for shipping. When cooked, they become tender and infused with the flavor of the herb and are unlike any mollusk you’ve ever tried. Although they are pre-cooked, for best results they should be simmered for 30 to 45 minutes in a stock or wine of your choice, It’s often best to finish the snails by sautéing them with butter and fresh herbs.

J. Peterman, call your office, please.

($39.75 a pound.)

Posted in Clippings, Food, Sports, Theatre | Comments Closed

Random notes: October 16, 2012.

Tuesday, October 16th, 2012

As expected, the NYT has a longer story on the “Rebecca” arrest.

The stockbroker, Mark C. Hotton, collected $60,000 for his efforts before his arrest early Monday by federal authorities, who described the scheme as a complex fraud that was “stranger than fiction.”

It looks like Hotton was using some of the same phony “investors” to scam other people as well. And:

…Mr. Hotton and several accomplices, including his wife, Sherri, had secured $3.7 million by creating sham invoices for companies they controlled and selling that debt at a discount to unsuspecting companies.

I’d never thought of that kind of scam before. That’s clever.

George Whitmore Jr. died a week ago Monday.

(waits for the cries of “Who?” to die out)

Whitmore was at the center of a famous criminal case in 1964. He was picked up for “questioning” by the police for an attempted rape; by the time the police finished their interrogation, he’d confessed to three murders (including the murders of Janice Wylie and Emily Hoffert, aka the “Career Girls” murder case).

Whitmore later recanted his confession, and the police developed evidence showing someone else was responsible for the Wylie/Hoffert murder. Ultimately, all the charges against Whitmore were dismissed.

The Supreme Court cited Mr. Whitmore’s case as “the most conspicuous example” of police coercion when it issued its 1966 ruling in Miranda v. Arizona, establishing a set of protections for suspects, like the right to remain silent. Mr. Whitmore was tried several times in the Edmonds murder, with each trial ending in a hung jury.

The city of Eagle Rock, California, had an election over the weekend. Eagle Rock is engaged in a fight over medical marijuana dispensaries: the neighborhood council passed, and then repealed, a ban. On the pro-dispensary side is the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which has “organized workers at more than two dozen dispensaries across the city”.

Here’s interesting thing #1:

City rules allow anyone who does business in a neighborhood to cast a ballot as an “at-large stakeholder.” [Rigo] Valdez [of the UFCW union] urged supporters to “go into Eagle Rock and purchase gas, coffee, or whatever … and keep a receipt as proof” of doing business in the neighborhood.

And here’s interesting thing #2:

Most disturbing to some neighborhood activists were fliers circulated before the vote that promoted pro-dispensary candidates and offered $40 of free medical marijuana to those who could show evidence of casting ballots.

Only two of the pro-dispensary candidates won, but I can’t tell from the LAT article how many seats were open, or what the pro/anti-dispensary breakdown on the council was before the election.

James Kwon is the “Maritime Director” of the port of Oakland. James Kwon was in Houston for a conference in 2008. James Kwon decided to take “about a dozen shipping industry executives” out for a party.

James Kwon decided to take them to Treasures. I probably don’t need to tell you what Treasures is, as I imagine you can guess. Strippers. Always with the strippers. Mr. Kwon spent $4,537 on this “drink and dinner” reception. (If you figure 13 people, including Mr. Kwon, that’s about $349 per person. That seems like a lot for strip club food, but I’ve never been to Treasures. Maybe they have Beef Wellington. And who knows what they paid per drink for strip club drinks.) Now port officials are asking questions, four years after the fact.

Kwon’s strip-club spending spree didn’t come to port officials’ attention until just recently. The timing is especially terrible for the port, which is in the midst of a protracted labor fight with maintenance and other workers over terms of a new contract.

As the HouChron notes, Treasures also has a colorful history of “prostitution, drug dealing, weapons crimes and sexual assaults”.

I’ve written previously about the strange and sad case of Robert Middleton, and the legal wrangling over whether the boy who set him on fire can be tried for murder. New development:

…[Montgomery County attorney David] Walker has dismissed the murder petition he had filed against [Don] Collins seeking to have his case transferred from juvenile to district court and plans to refile it as a felony murder. This charge requires the murder to have occurred in conjunction with the commission of another offense – in this case the alleged sexual assault.

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Cops, Law, Theatre | 1 Comment »

Last night I dreamt I went to Rikers again.

Monday, October 15th, 2012

Deadline Hollywood Daily is reporting the arrest of Mark Hotton, the man who allegedly faked four investors for a Broadway production of “Rebecca”, the musical. (Previously. Previously.)

This hasn’t been picked up by the NYT yet, from what I can tell, but the arrest only took place a few hours ago; I expect more coverage later in the day or tomorrow.

(Subject line explained for those who don’t get the reference.)

Posted in Clippings, Law, Theatre | Comments Closed

Quick followups.

Monday, October 8th, 2012

Remember the rapist HPD cop? The jury handed down his sentence: life in prison.

He’ll be eligible for parole after 30 years.

And the latest update on the “Rebecca” front: those four investors, including the one who supposedly died of malaria, never existed. At least, according to the producer’s lawyer. Still unclear: what was the motivation to make these people up?

(Darn shame that “Law and Order” isn’t on any longer. This story is starting to read like an episode of that series. And I can’t really see how you’d fit this into “Kinky Sex Crimes” – er, I mean, “Special Victims Unit”.)

Posted in Law, Theatre, TV | 3 Comments »

Random notes: October 5, 2012.

Friday, October 5th, 2012

Our pals at the NYT have an interesting update on the “Rebecca” front. (Previously. Previously.)

It is starting to look like a certain gentleman basically invented four investors, and the $4.5 million they were supposed to put into the show, from scratch. This gentleman has not been charged with a crime as of yet, but has a colorful history that includes bankruptcy, civil suits, and an unrelated federal investigation.

But why would he do this? What’s his motivation?

Mr. Hotton was to receive commissions of 6 percent on money he raised for “Rebecca,” according to the person with knowledge of the matter. It is unclear why anyone who had agreed to raise money in exchange for commissions might want to fabricate investors and the false promise of $4.5 million in investments when the commissions would not be paid until the funds were turned over.

In other news, the Pine Ridge reservation is considering legalizing alcohol, because prohibition isn’t working. I missed the fact that the reservation’s suit against the beer dealers in Whiteclay had been dismissed. (Previously.)

Noted:

Abraham Joseph, 28, was found guilty of two counts of aggravated sexual assault.

Mr. Joseph was a Houston police department officer at the time he raped the woman, who was a waitress (and, for the record, was an illegal alien at the time; she since has been granted asylum).

The aggravated sexual assault charge required the jury to find that a weapon was used during the rape. Joseph was in uniform and had his Glock .40 on a belt during the January 2011 attack but did not remove it. The jury did not choose the lower charges to sexual assault or improper sexual activity with a person in custody.

I’m not convinced the Austin nightclub trial is going well for the prosecution, though I only have the Statesman‘s account to rely on. The government’s primary witness is a cousin of the two brothers who are on trial. The feds have paid him $340,000 to date, and he seems to be having memory troubles.

Posted in Clippings, Law, Theatre | 2 Comments »

Maybe they should have done “Gaslight” (and more random notes for September 25, 2012)

Tuesday, September 25th, 2012

Ben Sprecher is a theatrical producer. Most of his work has been off-Broadway, but he’s trying to put on a Broadway musical version of “Rebecca”. (I know what you’re thinking, but according to the NYT, this was done in Vienna in 2006, and played well.)

Anyway, Mr. Sprecher estimates that he needs $12 million for this. Mr. Sprecher had an investor – a man named Paul Abrams – who was putting up $4.5 million. That’s a lot of money for one person to invest in a Broadway show. But wait, it gets better!

Reports in August of his sudden death in Britain of malaria — yet no obituaries, no death notices. A representative for the Abrams estate surfaces, a person identifying himself only as “Wexler” who refuses to speak by phone and uses an e-mail address created just last month.

But wait, it gets even better: Mr. Sprecher never met or spoke to Mr. Abrams at all. There are questions as to whether Mr. Abrams ever even existed.

“I’ve never heard of a situation where you didn’t at least meet the person raising 30 percent of your show budget,” said Robert E. Wankel, president of the Shubert Organization, one of the big three Broadway landlords and a six-figure investor in “Rebecca” as well as the owner of its intended theater, the Broadhurst.

Mr. Sprecher is trying to raise money to fill the gap. But if he fails and the musical doesn’t open, he’s on the hook to his other investors.

Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, bat cave!

Obit watch: Edwin Wilson. Remember Edwin Wilson? Former CIA guy? Convicted of shipping plastic explosives to Libya? Spent 20 years in prison?

A federal judge threw out his conviction in 2003, ruling that prosecutors knowingly used false testimony to undermine his defense.

Yeah. That guy.

Debacle? That seems strong. But I didn’t watch the game. “Debacle” may not be strong enough.

Donuts. Is there anything they can’t do? Well, they can register domains. But Donuts, Inc. has close ties to Demand Media…

Industry watchdogs have long criticized Demand Media as a leading provider of services to spammers and a host to sites that commit “cybersquatting.”…
Garth Bruen of the industry watchdog group KnujOn said Demand Media has not replied to any of the many spam complaints he has submitted to the company.
“They are looking the other way,” he said. “I’ve sent them tons of information. They never respond. They have this one address, legal@enom.com, and you never get a person.”

The current theory on convicted sex offender and fugitive from justice Prakashanand Saraswati seems to be that he’s in India now, having been spirited out of the country by his followers. And the US Marshals don’t have an office in India.

Maybe they could send some BATF guys from Reno to India.

Posted in Clippings, Geek, Guns, Law, NFL, Obits, Theatre | 1 Comment »

Apropos of nothing in particular…

Monday, September 17th, 2012

There was a time in my life when I was listening to the original cast recording of “Evita” (or, at least, certain tracks off of it) pretty much every day. I’d forgotten how much I liked some of those songs (and, for that matter, how good Mandy Patinkin is) until now. Especially “And The Money Kept Rolling In (And Out)“.

And the money kept rolling out in all directions
To the poor, to the weak, to the destitute of all complexions
Now cynics claim a little of the cash has gone astray
But that’s not the point my friends
When the money keeps rolling out you don’t keep books
You can tell you’ve done well by the happy grateful looks
Accountants only slow things down, figures get in the way
Never been a lady loved as much as Eva Peron

This guy’s no Patinkin, but he’s pretty good, and this is the best video I could find on YouTube. (There is one video that claims to be Patinkin performing the song, but it is almost unbearably poor quality.)

Actually, I take back the “apropos of nothing in particular”, because what got me going down this path was the “Stuff You Missed in History Class” podcast, and especially the “Why did it take more than 20 years to bury Eva Peron?” episode. There is a comment in the liner notes to that cast recording that the story of Eva’s body is almost as fascinating as the story of her life, and I’ve agitated for Rice and Weber to do a musical about the saga of Eva Peron’s body.

Posted in History, Music, Politics, Theatre | Comments Closed

And we’ll have fun, fun, fun until Daddy takes the newspapers away…

Friday, August 31st, 2012

The street finds its own uses for things.

Oh, look! Julie Taymor and the “Spider-Man” producers have settled their lawsuit out of court.

Terms of the settlement were not disclosed and representatives for Ms. Taymor declined to comment further on Thursday. A press representative for “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” also declined to comment.

Quel frommage!

The worst Division I football program in history?

Over 11 seasons, Savannah State, the self-proclaimed University by the Sea, in a charming city distinguished by oak trees that sprout Spanish moss, has won 17 games, just five against Division I teams. It has changed coaches six times — once because of a death — and had nine athletic directors, including interims. It has been placed on N.C.A.A. probation twice and faced a pair of embarrassing lawsuits that claimed racial discrimination.

Savannah State is playing Oklahoma State and Florida State in the first two games, and will collect $860,000 (“which represents about 17 percent of the Tigers’ modest athletic budget”) for those games.

By the way, last year was a “1-10 season that included losses by scores of 63-6, 41-6, 47-7, 45-3 and 59-3, in addition to a defeat at the hands of a team that had lost 29 conference games in a row.”

There’s an interesting piece in the LAT about George Perez, former city manager and city councilman in Cudahy. (Previously.) Perez has not been charged with any crimes, yet, but is a major figure in the criminal cases against other Cudahy officials:

…court documents repeatedly refer to a top city official identified as “G.P.” orchestrating much of the alleged wrongdoing. Two law enforcement sources said “G.P.” is George Perez.

Perez started out as a janitor in Cudahy and worked his way up to the city manager position

…despite his populist persona, rumors of corruption long flowed from Cudahy City Hall, where nothing seemed to happen without Perez’s blessing.

And this is kind of interesting:

By 2000, Perez, married and with four children, was serving on the City Council and working at a building materials store. Then he lost his job. The council changed city laws so it could appoint Perez city manager. A group of Southern California city managers were so disturbed by Perez’s elevation that they asked for a criminal investigation. County prosecutors launched a conflict-of-interest probe, but investigators were met with silence at Cudahy City Hall, they said. In a memo produced by the prosecutors, they wrote that it was “clear that Perez liked politics and power more than the building materials business.”

So there were concerns twelve years ago, but nothing happened? Quel frommage, again!

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Geek, Law, Loser, Sports, Theatre | 1 Comment »

Not since “Carrie”.

Tuesday, April 10th, 2012

The off-Broadway revival of “Carrie” closed Sunday night…

…two weeks earlier than scheduled, as a result of poor ticket sales after the show opened to mixed to negative reviews. The production by MCC Theater did not earn all its money back. A cast album recording — a theatrical measure of success — has not been announced, though one is said to be in the works

The NYT asks: is this just a fundamentally unworkable idea?

“I see no reason to remount ‘Carrie’ at all,” [theater writer and critic Peter] Filichia said. “I have no advice on how to make it better. I can’t think of a thing. Mind you, I don’t hate it. I just don’t think it’s worth the effort.”

Posted in Clippings, Theatre | Comments Closed

Your “Spider-Man” update for March 5, 2012.

Monday, March 5th, 2012

Just in case you haven’t had your fill yet, Patrick Healy in the NYT covers the latest filing in Julie Taymor’s court case.

Healy links to the actual filing, but unfortunately that link is blocked at my office, so I haven’t been able to read all of the emails Taymor submitted. Healy quotes some interesting bits; for example

An e-mail written by Mr. Berger alleged that one late-night meeting with Ms. Taymor and Mr. Cohl was derailed because Bono “showed up in our room with Christy Turlington and a couple other supermodels, and he had already had a few beers, rendering him useless.”

Of course, these are carefully selected emails representing one side of a lawsuit, and should be taken in that context.

Posted in Clippings, Theatre | Comments Closed

Headline of the day.

Friday, March 2nd, 2012

From the Statesman:

Julie Taymor claims there was a ‘Spider-Man’ plot

Sadly, when you read the article, it turns out she means there was a conspiracy to kick her out of the production, not that there was actually a plot to the musical.

Posted in Clippings, Theatre | Comments Closed

Not since…

Friday, March 2nd, 2012

This is a little old, but I only just stumbled across it:  a revival of “Carrie” has opened in NYC.

Here’s Ben Brantley’s review for the NYT. Spoiler: Brantley makes it sound less like a fiasco, and more like an exercise in tedium.

Posted in Clippings, Theatre | 1 Comment »

Obit watch: January 26, 2012.

Thursday, January 26th, 2012

Legendary actor Nicol Williamson passed away on December 16. However, his death was apparently not reported until yesterday.

…during the Broadway run of Paul Rudnick’s 1991 comedy, “I Hate Hamlet,” in which he played the ghost of John Barrymore, he criticized the play in interviews, audibly offered coaching to his fellow actors onstage, and finally, during a staged swordfight, ignored the choreography and smacked the actor Evan Handler with the flat blade of the sword, prompting Mr. Handler to leave the stage and resign.

And:

A young actress who shared the stage with him in 1965 and who spoke to The New York Times said of him: “Drinking, fighting and wenching — God, he’s fabulous!”

(In addition to playing Hamlet and Macbeth, he was also Sherlock Holmes in “The Seven-Per-Cent Solution”.)

Posted in Clippings, Movies, Obits, Theatre | 1 Comment »

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