What better place to grow up with an appreciation for the absurd than Los Angeles? There is goofiness everywhere. For example:An actual home in Beverly Hills:
And this is a Japanese restaurant.
No wonder comedy writers gravitate here. It's one sprawling funhouse.What caught my eye recently were some VERBATIM headlines I read in HuffingtonPost.com. Clearly, they were meant for the 310 area code crowd. They're supposed to be taken seriously. And I'm sure for anyone who has had too much Botox they were. But for you and me, you can't make up these punchlines.
She Was Born With A Tail?
How Hollywood Helped Hitler
Producer Bashes 'That Little Prick' Bieber
Naya Rivera's Abs Are Unreal
Great News! Lindsay Gets OK Review
Take The Catholic Church Gay Art Tour!
Simon Cowell Allegedly Expecting Baby with Friend’s Wife
Why the Drag Queen’s Mouth Was Literally Sewn Shut
The Many Faces Of Hemingway Look-Alikes
No, She Isn't A Vampire...
Guess Who’s Doing Another Muscian…
10,000 Tiny Rabbits Are Hiding In Cities Near You
Justin Bieber Rubs His Junk All Over Fan's iPhone
Watch Robert Downey Jr. Sing A Police Song
Renown Satanist Looks A Whole Lot Like ...
The Most 'Cheat-Worthy' Celeb Is ...
WATCH: Tom Hanks Peeing.
15 comments :
Ken, the "How Hollywood Helped Hitler" entry does not belong on the list. It is anything but fluff. Here's the sub-head from the article:
"In devastating detail, an excerpt from a controversial new book reveals how the big studios, desperate to protect German business, let Nazis censor scripts, remove credits from Jews, get movies stopped and even force one MGM executive to divorce his Jewish wife."
The story is here: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/how-hollywood-helped-hitler-595684
This list is a perfect summation of why I haven't visited Huffington Post in at least a year. Either they want to be taken seriously as "journalism" (of a sort), or they don't. Huffington herself has seemed to want to be taken seriously at times, but you wouldn't know it from the sorts of page views she's chasing.
God bless the Doo Dahs! (first picture)
That Beverly Hills house could be right out of Steve Martin's L.A. STORY (a favorite movie).
wg
I've always wanted to visit LA. I'll get there someday. The goofiness doesn't turn me off at all.
Well I for one found "She Was Born With A Tail?" to be an uncompromising piece of investigative journalism.
Ken, isn't this a case of shooting the messenger? :-)
WATCH: Tom Hanks Peeing
What, you thought "Splash" was named after the mermaid?
Wasn't that Dr. Seuss' house at one time?
For me the mist bothersome Huffpo headline of all you've listed is "Renown Satanist..."
That should be "Renowned"....
Poor grammar drives me insane.
Love it. The first time i went to LA I ended up getting a personal tour of the Scientology Museum. A very nice woman took me round and showed me some truly whacky stuff - I even did the "personality test" where you hold two tin cans wired up to an old altimeter (or something like that).
Then I got a cab ride with an old Russian guy who gave me a very interesting lecture on why Opera was the pop music of its day. He didn't have a clue what any of the streets were called but he knew a lot about Opera. I love the place, I've never had a dull moment there.
The Hollywood and Nazis book, slated to be released next month, is "The Collaboration: Hollywood's Pact with Hitler," by Ben Urwand. It's said to be pretty explosive on how many studios and moguls not only looked the other way for much of the '30s, but let Nazi Germany have final say on potentially controversial films.
Earlier this year, another book on the topic, Thomas Doherty's "Hollywood and Hitler, 1933-1939," was released; it reaches many of the same conclusions, albeit in a far milder fashion. Both camps are attacking each other in the blogosphere, a la the Socialist Labor and Socialist Workers parties in Union Square back in the day.
On the subject of absurdity, thought this might be right up your alley.
Minor League Baseball Player Strikes Out On One Pitch
http://deadspin.com/minor-league-baseball-player-strikes-out-on-one-pitch-1014450914
Very off topic (sorry!). But I thought this is a kickstarter campaign you could get behind. http://www.collegehumor.com/video/6906153/detroits-kickstarter-needs-your-help
If you think that Japanese restaurant is odd, when I was in Cincinnati two years back for my niece's wedding the girlfriend and I saw not one but two former Mexican restaurants, all stucco exteriors, that had become Chinese buffets. We had fun making up "fusion" dishes like General Tso's Pollo.
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