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On March 6, I had the immense pleasure of attending the opening night of Buster Keaton's Bluffton: A Graphic Novel by Matt Phelan, a new exhibit at the Muskegon Museum of Art.

Here's to more laughter in 2013.

This is a tune called the Laughing Rag by Roy Smeck from the 1920s. Buster Keaton would have certainly known this one and probably could have played it better than I can. Anyway, here's a version recorded during the packing and moving from my old studio. I'm using my 1930 Reed/Regal ukulele purchased from Antebellum Instruments.

Happy New Year, everyone!

While the Los Angeles Review of Books won’t officially launch until late 2011, the literary criticism publication unveiled a preview site today.

The site opened with “The Death of the Book” by Ben Ehrenreich. The site will be updated with daily content, including Geoff Nicholson writing about silent film star Buster Keaton, Jane Smiley exploring the work of novelist and biographer Nancy Mitford, and Jefferson Hunter writing about private detective novelist Ross Macdonald and oil spills.

Here’s more about the new site: “The complete Los Angeles Review of Books site, launching in late 2011, will be much more complex and multidimensional, featuring reviews and essays, reader discussion forums, video of author interviews and events, an IMDB style archival reference database for the book world, and much more, taking full advantage of the latest web technologies. Reviews of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, memoir, philosophy, art, science fiction, young adult, children’s and more, will have multiple links leading through the site, allowing readers to follow their inclinations into new territories, finding new books, authors, and genres.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Buster Keaton was a master at physical comedy but I felt sadness that he was still at the same antics so many years after have made his claim to fame. He could have progressed into another acting form or retired from the acting. I hope that I will continue to evolve in the art that I do so that I do not become static. There is no doubt he was a dynamic man until his later years when physical comedy is stressing even to young healthy guy, I just think he could have dedicated his time into cooking up something else than the proverbial gag or comical feat that he was known for all over the world.

There are others who don’t change their art form and ride on the coattails of an earlier success. Physical comedy takes precise timing something that Jerry Lewis used to incorporate in his movie the errand boy. The antics of him putting up a billboard poster when he would fall over himself was his mark, he was the clumsy  poster boy and also clumsy on the Hollywood set he got himself into. But after many years Jerry has had some guest appearances and largely taken up his time with fund raising. Recently I saw him chewing on a pencil as a guest on a talk show, and although I remember him doing something similar years ago, it was funny then. I thought he could have done something more fitting with the times. I don’t think he got much of a laugh from the audience on that count. Maybe it was a question of timing or the gag was out of place.

So physical comedy is somehow ageless. Keaton did a comical sketch of a trip across Canada in his later years on in Canadian National emergency train car. He did not have to move around as much by being limited to a small space  so one could not see that he did not have he same energy he had when he was in his prime. Then he would be climbing engine cars and going from one car to the next while it was in motion in an escape scene. 

Today there are artists who emulate Keaton, Lewis and the others and are making short films for the web and short film festivals. I wish them well in their endeavor to keep this art form alive; the gag in itself will never age.

Buster Keaton was a master at physical comedy but I felt sadness that he was still at the same antics so many years after have made his claim to fame. He could have progressed into another acting form or retired from the acting. I hope that I will continue to evolve in the art that I do so that I do not become static. There is no doubt he was a dynamic man until his later years when physical comedy is stressing even to young healthy guy, I just think he could have dedicated his time into cooking up something else than the proverbial gag or comical feat that he was known for all over the world.

There are others who don’t change their art form and ride on the coattails of an earlier success. Physical comedy takes precise timing something that Jerry Lewis used to incorporate in his movie “The Errand Boy.” The antics of him putting up a billboard poster when he would fall over himself was his mark, he was the clumsy  poster boy and also clumsy on the Hollywood set he got himself into. But after many years Jerry has had some guest appearances and largely taken up his time with fund raising. Recently I saw him chewing on a pencil as a guest on a talk show, and although I remember him doing something similar years ago, it was funnier then. I thought he could have done something more fitting with the times. I don’t think he got much of a laugh from the audience on that count. Maybe it was a question of timing or the gag was out of place.

So physical comedy is somehow ageless yet the actor’s physicality peaks in his younger years. Keaton did a comical sketch of a trip across Canada in his later years on in Canadian National emergency train car. He did not have to move around as much by being limited to a small space  so one could not see that he did not have he same energy he had when he was in his prime. Then he would be climbing engine cars and going from one car to the next while it was in motion in an escape scene. 

Today there are artists who emulate Keaton, Lewis and the others and are making short films for the web and short film festivals. I wish them well in their endeavor to keep this art form alive; the gag in itself will never age.