I'd like to welcome Lisa Ciurro to the PCR writing staff! She is one of the two new columnists I talked about last week joining PCR. Lisa is a virtual blogging celebrity in Tampa with several websites containing her terrific writing on books, TV, and film. I am proud and honored she's here. Check out her newest column!
ED Tucker's Retrorama will debut next week with a special introductory segment. This column should appeal to a huge segment of our readership into classic TV/toys/movies!
Similar to last week, I'm starting the front page with a couple sad passings from our plane of reality:
László Kovács, ASC
A brief mention of this was made in last week's Readers Comments section just a day before archiving, so I decided it needed some additional attention here.
Alternate spellings, "Laszlo Kovacs" (no punctuation), "Laslo Kovacs" (dropped "z"), "Leslie Kovacs" (mostly early '60s work).
After first cutting his teeth on several early '60s Nat'l Geographic Specials, László Kovács went on to helm the photography on the famous classic Steckler schlockfest The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies (1964). His growth as a cinematographer expanded greatly as the D.P. in Easy Rider (1969), Five Easy Pieces (1970), Shampoo (1975), 1977's Close Encounters of the Third Kind (DP assist along with William A. Fraker to Department Head Vilmos Zsigmond), Ghost Busters (1984 -- 20 years after "Mixed-up Zombies"), Radio Flyer (1992) a personal favorite, to somewhat less classic fare later on such as Free Willy 2, Jack Frost and Miss Congeniality.
Originally from Budapest, Hungary, eventually winner of several awards, and an esteemed member of the American Society of Cinematographers, he was 74.
Tammy Faye (Bakker) Messner
Once married to televangelist Jim Bakker of the PTL club ("Praise The Lord"), Tammy Faye tried to etch out her own niche in the TV world with mixed results.
In 1974 they started the PTL Club, and I became an avid fan of the show later in the '70s, but not for the expected reasons (I was an atheist even then). It played in Tampa late at might when most other regular fare was over and before sign-off (yes, kids, at one time TV went off the air in the wee hours). I regarded the PTL Club as a freakish cross between a tent show revivial and The Johnny Carson Show with Bakker as Carson. Bakker even had an overweight jovial side-kick as his personal Ed McMahon. Tammy Faye was notorious for wearing garish facial make-up and had a high squeaky voice when addressing the audience. I watched in rabid amusement as they'd bilk the studio audience out of what looked like thousands of dollars a night by asking them to literally throw their money in the air!
Bakker later had an affair with church secretary Jessica Hahn and was convicted of fraud (he used millions of dollars he had raised from followers) and conspiracy. Removed from PTL in disgrace, he spent six years in jail. Jim and Tammy divorced in 1992. Tammy Faye married fellow evangelist Ron Messner in 1993.
Larry King Live was horrifying, showing the near corpse-like Tammy Faye weighing only 65 pounds. She was dead only days later. Tammy Faye Messner was 65.
Will The Internet Help Decide the Next President?
Although I did not see this live, I saw clips of the Democratic Presidential Candidate debate on YouTube, where an estimated 2 million others also saw it (it was also broadcast on CNN). Questions were sent in from regular folks via YouTube videos they uploaded themselves.
The value of this goes beyond the silly home video stunts (a snowman asks the candidates about global warming; a musician sings about being taxed to death). It suggests that the next groundswell of public support for any candidate is going to be represented on the internet, typically on sites like YouTube.
Example? If all you do is surf YouTube you'd think there is no other candidate running for President than Ron Paul (R-Texas, wants to eliminate the IRS among other things, his YouTube videos are enormously popular). If you watch only TV, you'd never hear of Ron Paul! (OK, OK, this was a sneaky endorsement of my personal favorite, but the facts remain.)
I've heard mixed reviews of the Democratic Debate, so the dubious distinction of being an internet simulcast may take a back seat to the low-grade performances.
In the '60s, a popular slogan was "the revolution will be televised". I'd like to submit an updated version for 2007 that says "the revolution will be streamed".
Tampa's Public Access TV Threatened
Florida's property tax and insurance rate crisis is headline news almost daily. Governor Charlie Crist, to his credit, signed emergency orders that saved homeonwers from runaway insurance rates and from randomly terminated policies (yours truly's among them).
The property tax rollback mandate, while welcomed by voters, has had some undesirable consequences. While we were foolishly expecting wasteful programs to be eliminated, and service jobs like police and firefighters to be safe, such has not been the case.
Without getting into a line by line discussion of how screwed up this is (no time for that today), I would like to discuss the ridiculous proposition that the total operating budget of Tampa's Public Access TV (The Tampa Bay Community Network) be eliminated this year. I thank TBCN associate Louise Thompson for the information provided below.
While the recommended budget cuts off funding to TBCN, it contains $900,000 in increases for the Tampa Sports Authority and Tampa Sports Commission as well as a $1.6 million increase to the Tampa Convention and Visitors Bureau and more than $300,000 over the next two years for the Tampa Convention Center.
Just like the Education Channel, TBCN has not received an increase in funding from the County for seven straight years. The budget has been stagnant at $355,443 although they have asked for increases during every two-year budget cycle. Keep in mind that cable subscribers, including memebers of the TBCN, are contributing a portion of the $27 million the County receives from communications services taxes.
If the County does not reverse its position on funding TBCN, they will not be able to serve Hillsborough County residents beginning October 1, 2007. Public-originated programming is a precious resource of free speech as well as its last refuge. We cannot let this shutdown happen.
Budget workshops will take place over the next 60 days and a final budget approved before the end of September. See www.hillsboroughcounty.org for dates.
Please consider making a donation to help support Crazed Fanboy! Click on the "donate" link below and give whatever you can. I sincerely thank you for any and all consideration.---Nolan
A Tribute to Elizabeth Haslam: Memories of Haslam's Book Store
Bakker later had an affair with church secretary Jessica Hahn and was convicted of fraud (he used millions of dollars he had raised from followers) and conspiracy. Removed from PTL in disgrace, he spent six years in jail. Jim and Tammy divorced in 1992. Tammy Faye married fellow evangelist Ron Messner in 1993.
"Hairspray"
This Week's Issue .... Happy Birthday .... What About The Shat?... Going To The Hall .... Whatever Happened To--? Chapter 25: Joe Pantoliano