The Fall Guy
Football is back, I’ve put my fans away, and I’m wearing pants again.
How much do I love fall? I don’t even like football and still I’m glad it’s back. I’ll even put it on the television as I’m working. It’s oddly comforting.
What is it about September that makes it feel like fall? It didn’t technically become fall until this week, but when September first came around it was like a switch had been flipped, and the vise-like humidity that gripped us during the months of July and August loosened a bit. You can feel it. It’s not that it isn’t possible to have warm and humid days in September (or October), but you can tell that things have changed.
I went outside a couple of days ago and was greeted by the crunch of leaves under my feet. It’s such a great, positive sound.
I should clarify that I meant I’m wearing long pants again instead of the shorts that I’ve been wearing all summer. Get your mind out of the gutter.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Dead!
I don’t mean “dead” as in The Grateful Dead. I mean literally dead. Singers and bands that have passed away, kicked the bucket, joined the choir invisible. They’re touring again!
It’s all thanks to a company that creates digital avatars of deceased performers so they can perform again.
The company is already doing concerts featuring avatars of Abba. They’re still with us but they’re “performing” in “concerts” via a technology that projects a life-like image on a stage. That might be interesting to watch on TV, sort of like a concert you watch “via satellite,” but people are actually paying money to see the band live and that’s…weird.
But it does open up a world of possibilities. Now that supergroup consisting of Elvis Presley, Ozzy Osbourne, Dean Martin, and Dolly Parton you’ve always wanted to see can become a reality!
The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art
That’s Lucas as in producer and director George Lucas. It opened on Tuesday, and we have a feature on it in the current issue. On this week’s CBS Sunday Morning, Norah O’Donnell took a tour of the museum with Lucas and his wife Mellody Hobson. And yes, there’s a mention of Norman Rockwell and a look at his work that’s featured at the museum (Lucas is one of the biggest collectors of Rockwell in the world).
Uploaded to YouTube by CBS Sunday Morning
Headline of the Week
“I Built AI Clones of My Coworkers. Things Got Weird”
RIP Duncan Sheik, Rosalind Ashford-Holmes, James Sloyan, Gerrit Graham, Anjanette Comer, Jon Kyl, and P.C. Vey
Duncan Sheik was known for such songs as “Barely Breathing” and the music for the Broadway musical Spring Awakening. He died last week at the age of 56.
His album Daylight is one of the great albums of the 2000s.
Rosalind Ashford-Holmes was a founding member of Martha and the Vandellas, known for such songs as “Dancing in the Street,” “Heat Wave,” “Jimmy Mack,” and “Nowhere to Run.” She died last week at the age of 83.
Martha & The Vandellas “Dancing in the Street” on The Ed Sullivan Show (Uploaded to YouTube by The Ed Sullivan Show and Classic Motown)
James Sloyan was a veteran character actor who appeared in such movies as The Sting, Xanadu, and The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight. On TV, you saw him in many of the Star Trek shows, Oh Madeline, several episodes of Murder, She Wrote, and many TV movies. He was also the voice in Lexus commercials for two decades. He died in July at the age of 85.
Gerrit Graham was also a veteran character actor who appeared in such films as Phantom of the Paradise, Used Cars, and Home Movies, as well as TV shows like Now and Again, The Critic, The Pink Panther, and Dallas. He died last week at the age of 77.
Anjanette Comer appeared in such films as The Loved One, Guns for San Sebastian, The Appaloosa, The Baby, and Rabbit, Run, and in TV shows like Columbo, The Practice, and Love, American Style. She died in May at the age of 86.
Jon Kyl was a former Republican senator and congressman from Arizona. He died last week at the age of 84.
P.C. Vey was a popular cartoonist for such publications as The New Yorker, National Lampoon, MAD, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Funny Times. He died last week at the age of 70.
This Week in History
The Mary Tyler Moore Show Premieres (September 19, 1970)
She turned the world on with her smile for seven seasons.
F. Scott Fitzgerald Born (September 24, 1896)
The author of The Great Gatsby wrote several stories and articles for the Post, and at one point was rumored to be getting $4,000 for each one, which in the 1920s was (calculating…calculating) A LOT OF MONEY.
This Week in Saturday Evening Post History: Philadelphia Cream Cheese (September 21, 1929)
It’s still owned by Kraft, though they got rid of the “Phenix” part of the name a long time ago.
Saturday Is National Cream Cheese Day
Another thing that says fall to me? Bagels! Yes, you can put cream cheese on a bagel – and I do! – but there’s so much more you can do with it.
How about the classic Strawberry Pretzel Salad from Allrecipes or the Red Velvet Brownies from Serious Eats?
Family Food on the Table has an Easy Cream Cheese Chicken, Easy Family Recipes has this Cheeseburger Pasta, and The Pioneer Woman has a Snickers Salad. Note: here the word “salad” means it has candy bars, apples, vanilla pudding, cream cheese, and caramel sauce.
And since you’re probably going to be using Philadelphia cream cheese in these recipes, how about these Creamy Scrambled Eggs from their site?
Next Week’s Holidays and Events
Johnny Appleseed Day (September 26)
There are actually two dates for this holiday – the other is March 11 – but this is usually the one celebrated because it’s the birthday of John Chapman.
NHL Season Begins (September 29)
Here’s the complete schedule for every team this season.
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