Mark Darling

@annbauerwriter I'm very sorry to hear that, Ann. ♥️

My father, Irwin Isaac Boris, has died at 90. This is a loss for my family of course. But also for you. Dad was one of the few remaining native Yiddish speakers in the general population. It makes me sad that none of you will ever hear him gruffly say 'tsuris' or 'plotz.' ♥️🙏✡️

@ElectroRhino @20th_Centurygal "Hey Nineteen, that's 'retha Franklin'

@20th_Centurygal “Everything You Did” by Steely Dan mentions The Eagles. “Hotel California” contains their (oblique) response.

Name a song that mentions a band or artist in the lyrics... 🎶

@alonzolerone @conormurrayTM I can't believe I missed that

@conormurrayTM Why everyone always skips over the fact she called Jan “JaM” ?? Lol

“That’s funny, I’ve never heard of a George Glass at our sküle” is the greatest line delivery of all time.

@mikeroweworks I was close to tears several times throughout this doc. Authentic humanity dies that to me every time!

Late one night, on a snowy evening in 1982, my brothers and I were watching PBS at my parent’s house in Baltimore. It was a Friday, which meant The Avengers at 11 pm, followed by Monty Python’s Flying Circus at midnight, and then, our favorite - Second City TV. It was snowing on this particular evening, and my brothers and I were stretched out on the floor next to the wood stove with a couple of dogs who never wandered too far from the heat, quietly coveting Emma Peel, and laughing uproariously as John Cleese tried to buy some cheese from the proprietor of a cheese shop that didn’t carry any cheese. And then, five minutes into SCTV, an inexplicably dressed man-child armed with a musical triangle and gelled hair slinked onto the set in a pair or trousers pulled up to his sternum and made us laugh so hard we woke up the parents. That was my introduction to Ed Grimley, the first of many characters to spring from the mind of Martin Short, a comedic genius that I finally got to know last night, thanks to a film called Marty: Life is Short. This is the best documentary I’ve seen in years, and I’m recommending all of you watch it this weekend. The director, Lawrence Kasdan, captures the essence of his subject – and his dear friend - in a way that feels utterly authentic. The movie is filled with famous people who don’t come off as famous, partly because their fame is secondary to their obvious affection for Marty, and partly because they are captured almost entirely in home movies. Tom Hanks, Steve Martin, Steven Spielberg, Kathreen O’Hara, Eugene Levy – all the Second City players, in fact, and many of the SNL alum – appear in hundreds of clips, filmed mostly at Snug Harbor, Marty’s lakefront cottage in Ontario. It’s through their eyes that we really get to know Martin Short in a deeply personal way that never feels mawkish or manipulative, in spite of all the tragedy he’s endured. In large part, Life is Short is a love story between Marty and his late wife, Nancy Dolman, who died from cancer at 58. I knew their marriage was special, but I didn’t know how completely devoted they were to one another, or what a singular talent Nancy was, in her own right. What a pleasure to get to know her in this way. Of course, Marty’s grief at her passing was profound, but so too was his resilience. It’s one thing to “get on with life,” as we all must to do in the wake of a tragedy. But it’s another to do so in the public eye, as a comedian. Marty persevered, without a trace of self-pity, just as he did as a boy, when his beloved older brother died in a car accident. And just as he is doing today, in the wake of his daughter’s tragic suicide. In his first public comment on that particular tragedy, Marty quoted George Eliot. “The dead are never dead until they are forgotten.” Who knew Jiminy Glick was made of such tough stuff? Life is Short is also full of wisdom for anyone crazy enough to try and make a living in the entertainment business, and Marty is very candid about his many professional disasters. “98 percent of this business is failure,” he says. “Nothing works and then something works.” And then again, later in the film, he says something similar to fellow actor John Mulaney, who was devastated by the low ratings and terrible reviews for one of his projects. “90% of everything you try creatively is going to fail, John. Get used to it. That’s the job.” I’d never compare my own career to Marty’s or juxtapose whatever creativity I might possess to his immense and sprawling talent. But I understand the importance of failing and take great comfort in knowing that on that score, we have both excelled. Anyway, I’m not sure why this movie stuck such a chord with me, or why I feel compelled to recommend it. Maybe it’s the nostalgia of seeing Ed Grimley on my screen all these years later, and recalling those late nights with my brothers at my parent’s house alongside the dogs and the wood stove, and all the belly-laughter that Marty and his Second City pals inspired. Or maybe it’s the passing of my Aunt Janet last week, and seeing my mother cope with the loss of her sister with such dignity and grace. Or maybe it's those other sisters from Greece that have been on my mind all morning - Melpomene and the Thalia. The famous Muses of Tragedy and Comedy, whose dramatic masks are forever entwined, and destined to worn by us all. Whatever the cause, Marty made an impression, and the film is worth your time. Maybe not as relevant this weekend as Band of Brothers or Saving Private Ryan, but a fine reminder that another Memorial Day is upon us, and that life is indeed, short.

@WhiteFunk89 @ChHouseBooks That's what I meant. He synthesizes his influences expertly, but those influences are still exclusively just other movies.

@RalphWGoethe @ChHouseBooks No. He references the very opposite of high culture.

The best pop culture was always downstream of high culture. Meyer, George Lucas, and the original writers of The Simpsons drank from deeper waters. Now, pop culture writers are exclusively consumers of pop culture and the water has become much thinner.

@ThatJunkman @MattLovesVinyl Fast Times is a great candidate too, but it was rated R, so unless your family had HBO in your house, you might have missed it.

@RalphWGoethe @MattLovesVinyl i can see that, as for myself i wasn't a high school student went I saw it, so I felt it captured my brother and sister gen-x years better, but I could still relate to it for sure.

What movie do you think was the first to really capture Gen-X teens? At first I was gonna saw Fast Times, as they seem to capture it for an older Gen-X like my siblings .However the first one I think that got “my Gen-x” era, spoke to me & my friend was Pump up the volume. You?

@MattLovesVinyl @ThatJunkman I agree with this. Sixteen Candles preceded it and was also a pretty big deal, but this felt like a more serious statement that got at the heart of our experiences.

@ThatJunkman Easiest question ever. It's The Breakfast Club.

How did the Looney Tunes writers assume their audience would get Of Mice and Men references? Was a movie adaptation really popular, or was Steinbeck a lot more widely read back then?

@Arcane_Opinions It's true. As a kid I felt like cartoonists respected their audiences' intelligence with such references.

Pop culture used to reference things all the time and not really care if you got it. Things weren't treated as easter eggs. It was just part of the culture, and you might not even know it was referencing anything.

@Mk13042 @daveweigel #MakeNewFilms

@daveweigel I prefer the George C Scott version personally

@DavidJHarrisJr I wouldn't

How would you respond to her?

@MikeBinderjokes @GarofaloNation Damn, she was funny. Had a crush on her all through the nineties.

A scene from THE SEARCH FOR JOHN GISSING with the great @GarofaloNation

@maggiewestrum Huh, bigger deal than I realized.

@maggiewestrum ESB was a blind spot for me in the 80's, but Little Steven had a radio show I used to catch now and then in the 2000's. Garage Rock or something like that?

when you don’t know Little Steven or the E Street Band 🤷‍♀️

@charlesmurray Given a choice between angry or amused, I choose aloofly dismissive.

I never know whether to be angry or amused by posts like this. Fortunately, a lot of the replies are spot on. The show’s self-awareness of its characters defects was a central part of its charm. I will add one of few true things that Freud said: “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.” Seinfeld was funny.

@glukianoff This fella is incredibly sweet looking. But you def don't want one near a chicken coop.

Don’t tempt me

@daveweigel Got this on CD when I was abut twenty. (Long time ago.) Jazz perfection.

@annbauerwriter @SenAdamSchiff The principle of lying in human form. No politician has ever given me a bigger case of the creeps.

@SenAdamSchiff This is just outlandishly tasteless, even for you

My thoughts go out to Tulsi Gabbard and her family, as her husband battles this serious health problem. I hope and pray that he makes a speedy and full recovery. While the circumstances around her departure are deserving of our sympathy, let’s be clear: Tulsi Gabbard’s only positive contribution to our nation's national security is her resignation. She politicized intelligence. She dismantled critical agencies keeping Americans safe. She weaponized the IC to pursue baseless election fraud claims. And more. We must ensure that her tenure — marked by a devotion to the person of the president and not to the security of the country — represents a terrible exception at DNI and not the new normal.

@CDisillusion Blender. Nice.

...In a news studio (or a commentator's living room), you're gonna have some sort of basic top lights at ~45º, which on their own, no matter how soft, create some shadows. Note the one touching the collar. It's cast by the jaw... 🧵

Ok, Imma explain the admiral neck shadow thing. (Spoilers: it's not a rubber mask, ya weirdos)... 🧵