Speed It Up, Slow It Down, and Stacy Keach

As I sit here and have my daily dose of pudding I remember the great Kinky Friedman song, “(The Mail Moves Awful Slow-ter) Rapid City, South Dakota” it reminds me of something else that is moving awful slow….the Red Line.

I pointed out yesterday that the events and outcomes of the crash on Monday are very tragic and heartwrenching but I think we’ve learned two lessons now. 1) Don’t put any of these 1000-series cars in the front or back of the chain of cars (a lesson still not taken to heart as my entire train this morning from Shady Grove was 1000-series) and 2) let’s get back to the business of transporting people from point A to point B. And for the love of everything sacred to Stacy Keech (more on him in a moment) let’s get this damn train up above 30 miles an hour. I know that everybody is being extra cautious in the wake of the crash but if you combine slow speeds with less trains you end up with extra crowding and results in me standing the entire way in from Shady Grove (pre 7am!!!) Hopefully things will get better in the afternoon.

A few quick things:

1) Stacy Keach is back in town this time playing King “Norman” Lear at the Shakespeare Theater. While I’m not much for the Frank Rich set, the reviews I’ve heard are wonderful and they say that Mr. Keach is much better this time then he was as Christopher Titus’ father.

2) Russell, I feel for you that you can’t get rid of that extra ticket. Trust me…go over to Craigslist and try posting it for a “date”….You’d be surprised. Also thanks for my new rule of the day, “Members Only Passes (to a golf tournament) are always better then Members Only Jackets”

3) Damn…now I forgot what #3 is…however tomorrow I hope to have a full review of the making of Jerky. Beef that is (and sometimes turkey).

Out.

Shh...boy do you wanna get sued??? Plus my thoughts on Stacey Keech

I'm a bit disorientated this morning. On my drive to the Metro I heard a news story that the creators of Family Guy are being sued by the music license holders of When you Wish Upon A Star. I won't bore you with all the details (here's the CNN story), but essentially back in the show's first run (2000) McFarlane and company created an episode called "Wish Upon a Wienstein" in which Peter looks for a Jew to help Chris with his math homework and budget the family's finances. They parodied "Star" in a tune entitled "I Need a Jew".

Fox never aired this episode claiming that it was "not Fox material" (yet those years of Married with Children, Melrose Place, and all those Geraldo specials were!?!?!) and it got it's first airtime in 2003 on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block.

So answer me this, oh magic mirror on the wall, why did the music holders come out now with this lawsuit? Is it because they just "discovered" the use of the song in such a dastardly way? Or do they just not like funny television? Or is it because the stick that's wedged 24 1/2 ft up their rear end was removed a few inches allowing blood flow back to their brain?

Need I remind them that numerous courts have allowed Parody without getting permission. This was further solidified by the US Supreme Court case of: Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music (1994), where the Court declared that parody is allowed without music rights under the "fair use defense" of the US Copyright Act. A full analysis of that case and act can be found here. And yes, that is the Luther Campbell of 2 Live Crew Fame!

So this lawsuit (much like the lost pair of pants suit that raided the DC Courts earlier this year) will tie up the judicial system and force the payment of exhorbanent and unnecessary legal fees. So I ultimately blame this on the lawyers...you are all bad, very bad people indeed.

Before I forget I wanted to touch briefly on the career of actor Stacey Keech, which is of course different then touching Stacey Keech briefly, something that I'm not that interested in. A discussion this morning on whether or not actors watch their own shows and sometimes even DVR them the way fans do led to a discussion about the former FOX sitcom Titus. Which of course led to a discussion of Stacey Keech who plays Chris Titus' dad, Ken. Mr. Keech is a talented actor, perhaps best known for his role as TV detective, Mike Hammer. But when I thought about it, I could swear I've seen him in hundreds of movies, tv shows and the like. But to my surprise, when I went to his IMDB site, I knew virtually none of his work....strange.