Groucho Marx

DVD on Groucho Marx:

	The Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection (The Cocoanuts / Animal Crackers / Monkey Business / Horse Feathers / Duck Soup) EDITION:  DVD MANUFACTURER:  Universal Studios RELEASE DATE:  09 November, 2004
	The Marx Brothers Collection (A Night at The Opera/A Day at The Races/A Night in Casablanca/Room Service/At the Circus/Go West/The Big Store) EDITION:  DVD MANUFACTURER:  Warner Home Video RELEASE DATE:  04 May, 2004
	A Night at the Opera EDITION:  DVD MANUFACTURER:  Warner Home Video RELEASE DATE:  04 May, 2004
	Groucho Marx: You Bet Your Life - 14 Classic Episodes EDITION:  DVD MANUFACTURER:  Pop Flix RELEASE DATE:  10 October, 2006
	Groucho Marx - You Bet Your Life EDITION:  DVD MANUFACTURER:  Echo Bridge Home Entertainment RELEASE DATE:  12 February, 2003
	A Day at the Races EDITION:  DVD MANUFACTURER:  Warner Home Video RELEASE DATE:  04 May, 2004
	Jayne Mansfield Collection (The Girl Can't Help It / The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw / Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?) EDITION:  DVD MANUFACTURER:  20th Century Fox RELEASE DATE:  08 August, 2006
	Room Service/At the Circus EDITION:  DVD MANUFACTURER:  Warner Home Video RELEASE DATE:  02 May, 2006
	Love Happy EDITION:  DVD MANUFACTURER:  Republic Pictures RELEASE DATE:  15 June, 2004
	Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? EDITION:  DVD MANUFACTURER:  Image Entertainment RELEASE DATE:  12 October, 1999

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Latest news on Groucho Marx

Internet

Freaky Forensics Friday

A strange and magical thing has been happening over the past few weeks. I've been getting email. Not the regular sort of email, mind you. I mean, I always get email. But the emails lately haven't been the usual old 'buy \/1agr@ 0nl1n3!!!1!eleventy' and 'Hot local singles want to rub peanut butter on YOU!' and 'FINAL NOTICE: Student loans overdue -- Vinny the Knuckles now handling your account' (Okay, to be fair, most of them are still that kind. Especially the student loans ones -- those people are relentless. Luckily, I was able to score Vinny some Viagra, and set him up with this nice local girl who's into long walks, jazz fusion, and extra-crunchy Jif. That oughta buy me some time.) No, the emails I'm talking about have come from people -- actual, honest-to-god people -- writing to me, specifically. About this site. Seriously. They're not from the FBI or anything. I know. It's weird. "If I can warp sully ruin shape the mind of just one young student, then I'll have done something meaningful here." Even more specifically, these fine folks have been writing to ask permission (unlike some shifty jackholes) to use one of my posts. And adapt it into a monologue. To be performed in high school. (Why do I suddenly get the feeling that the next email I get will be from the FBI?) Actually, it's not quite so scandalous -- but it is pretty cool, and until today, somewhat mysterious. Here's the story: In the past couple of weeks, I've received three separate requests from high school students to use the contents of my 'Oh, I Need a Clue, All Right... I'm Just Not Sure It's This One' post as a humorous forensics piece. For those of you unfamiliar with these sorts of high school competitions and trying to reconcile the apparent paradox of 'humorous forensics', I can tell you that it doesn't involve wearing a Groucho Marx mask while doing an autopsy. Nor fingerpainting knock-knock jokes on the wall with crime scene blood spatter. Nor giving David Caruso an atomic wedgie and dumping him in Biscayne Bay. (Not that it shouldn't involve that last one, if there were any justice in the acting world. I'm just saying it doesn't.) Instead, high school forensics has to do with public speaking, in its various forms. Giving extemporaneous speeches, debating hot topics, performing dramatic readings, and... if all of that sounds dreadfully dry and distasteful to you, 'humorous interpretations'. The last one being the only one, of course, that couldn't possibly assist you in any respectable sort of career down the road. Which is what makes it. So. Damned. Cool. As cool as forensics gets, anyway. The whole team is only a half-step above being the 'tuba kid' in band, anyway, so why not have some giggles? Story of my life. And as it so happens, I was myself a forensics fool, back in the day. My muse was a young Bill Cosby, who wrote a bit about a smart-mouthed Noah talking to God about some damned fool boat he was supposed to build. I even made it to the 1987 NCFL National Tournament, as a junior. (Sadly, the 'C' in NCFL stands for 'Catholic'. And backsassing Biblical belligerence doesn't go over too well with the yardstick-wielding nun crowd. So while I made it to the tourney, I daresay I barely made it back.) Now, it seemed, there was a new generation of fresh-faced young orators ready to take up the cause. And instead of Cosby's words, or anyone else's, they were asking me to provide the material to propel them into the prestigious national spotlight. (Insofar as it qualifies as a spotlight. Two decades ago, I experienced the 'prestige' of traveling to Buffalo, New York to compete. This year's competition? In Albany. Somebody needs to teach these Catholics how to shake off the habits and have a little fun. Sheesh.) Naturally, I was quick to agree to each of the requests. If I can warp sully ruin shape the mind of just one young student, then I'll have done something meaningful here. The children are our future. Ye gods help us all. My only question was... why? Not that I found it completely outside the realm of possibility that someone other than myself would be willing to repeat my words in public. Mostly, sure. But not completely. But they were all asking about the same post, which is now a little more than five years old. And at the time of the requests, I wasn't actively writing here, and hadn't for months. Google had likely forgotten all about me. The Blue's Clues bit was nearly as old as they were. Flattered as I was, I couldn't for the life of me figure out why the sudden hubbub was bubbling. Until today. Today, I found a video on YouTube starring a young lady, Chelsea, who asked for permission a few months ago to adapt the piece. I'd forgotten all about it, but the existence of the video -- and Chelsea's super (as in gold medal-winning in the state tourney super) performance -- easily explained the renewed interest. And was pretty interesting for me to watch, actually. The words in the piece are mine -- but the inflection, the gestures, the flair is all hers. I've never done any scriptwriting, so this is really the first time I've seen anything I've written interpreted onstage. Mis-interpreted, sure -- at family reunions, staff meetings, interventions, holding cells... but acted out, in front of an audience? Pretty damned cool. So I wanted to share the video below, for anyone interested in seeing Blue's Clues (or my/Chelsea's twisted take on it) come to life. Belated congratulations to Chelsea on her win, and many thanks for choosing a piece of mine to perform. Frankly, I hope it inspires more requests from forensics folks -- finding this version of an old favorite made my day. I wonder if there's any future in writing custom monologues that high school smartasses would appreciate? Come to think of it, I wonder if that's what I've been doing here all along. Dear lord.
Published: Mon, 01 Dec 2008 09:42:28 GMT - Source: Wherethehellwasi.Com - Read the article

Literature

Boing Boing's Holiday Gift Guide part five: Nonfiction

Here's part five of the Boing Boing Holiday Gift Guide, a roundup of the bestselling items from this year's Boing Boing reviews. Today's installment is nonfiction books. Don't miss the rest of the posts: kids' stuff, fiction, gadgets and comics. Tomorrow I'll wrap it up with DVDs and CDs. Good Calories, Bad Calories (Gary Taubes) Gary Taubes, whose NYT article on Atkins rekindled the low-carb eating movement, sums up his reserarch on low-carb eating Original Boing Boing post Transit Maps of the World (Mark Ovenden) Sheer subway-porn Original Boing Boing post Magic and Showmanship: A Handbook for Conjurers (Henning Nelm) Classic book about conjuring has many lessons for writers Original Boing Boing post Laika (Nick Abadzis) Graphic novel tells the sweet and sad story of the first space-dog Original Boing Boing post Mutter Museum Historic Medical Photographs (Laura Lindgren) Haunting book of Victorian pathological curiosities Original Boing Boing post Realityland: True-Life Adventures at Walt Disney World (David Koenig) The secret history of Walt Disney World Original Boing Boing post In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto (Michael Pollan) Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. Original Boing Boing post Clear and to the Point: 8 Psychological Principles for Compelling PowerPoint Presentations (Stephen M. Kosslyn) Cognitive science vs. crappy PowerPoint slides Original Boing Boing post Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations (Clay Shirky) Clay Shirky's masterpiece Original Boing Boing post The Pirate's Dilemma: How Youth Culture Is Reinventing Capitalism (Matt Mason) To get rich off pirates, copy them Original Boing Boing post Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found (Suketu Mehta) Exhausting and beautiful love-note to Mumbai Original Boing Boing post Urawaza: Secret Everyday Tips and Tricks from Japan (Lisa Katayama) Make Magazine meets Hints From Heloise by way of postwar Japan Original Boing Boing post China Shakes the World: A Titan's Rise and Troubled Future -- and the Challenge for America (James Kynge) Book captures the grand sweep of changes in the most populous nation on Earth Original Boing Boing post Punk House: Interiors in Anarchy (Abby Banks, Timothy Findlen, Thurston Moore) Communal homes of the anarcho-syndicalist lifestyle Original Boing Boing post The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need (Daniel H. Pink) Optimistic and iconoclastic career guide in manga form Original Boing Boing post Sound Unbound: Sampling Digital Music and Culture (DJ Spooky) Essays on the future of music edited by DJ Spooky Original Boing Boing post Arts, Inc.: How Greed and Neglect Have Destroyed Our Cultural Rights (Bill Ivey) How the DMCA, Clear Channel and copyright extension are killing culture Original Boing Boing post The Future of the Internet--And How to Stop It (Jonathan Zittrain) How to save the Internet from the Internet Original Boing Boing post The Best of 2600: A Hacker Odyssey (Emmanuel Goldstein) Best of 2600 Magazine anthology Original Boing Boing post A People's History of American Empire (Howard Zinn) Fantastic comic-book adaptation of Zinn's classic A People's History of the United States Original Boing Boing post Secrets of the Mouse: An Unofficial Behind-the-Scenes Guide to Disneyland Park (Alan Joyce) Insider Disneyland guide Original Boing Boing post Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School (John Medina) Oliver Sacks meets GETTING THINGS DONE Original Boing Boing post My Mother Wears Combat Boots: A Parenting Guide for the Rest of Us (Jessica Mills) Kick-ass punk-parenting book Original Boing Boing post True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society (Farhad Manjoo) The science, history and economics of self-deception Original Boing Boing post The Quirks & Quarks Guide to Space: 42 Questions (and Answers) About Life, the Universe, and Everything (Jim Lebans) Bite-sized answers to the massive questions of inquisitive astronomical ponderers Original Boing Boing post Content: Selected Essays on Technology, Creativity, Copyright, and the Future of the Future (Cory Doctorow) Collection of my infamous articles, essays, and polemics. championing free speech and universal access to information Original Boing Boing post The Baby Sleep Solution: A Proven Program to Teach Your Baby to Sleep Twelve Hours a Night (Suzy Giordano) The best parenting book I've read Original Boing Boing post How Children Learn (John Holt) Cllassic of human, kid-centered learning Original Boing Boing post The Hungry Scientist Handbook: Electric Birthday Cakes, Edible Origami, and Other DIY Projects for Techies, Tinkerers, and Foodies (Patrick Buckley, Lily Binns) Nerdy cookbook for kitchen hackers Original Boing Boing post Eat Me: The Food and Philosophy of Kenny Shopsin (Kenny Shopsin, Carolynn Carreno) Memoir and cookbook from Shopsin's, the best, most eclectic eatery in Greenwich Village Original Boing Boing post How Children Fail (John Holt) Angry lessons from failures to teach Original Boing Boing post Alan's War: The Memories of G.I. Alan Cope (Emmanuel Guibert) Extraordinary graphic novel memoir of a US GI who arrived in Europe at the end of WWII and stayed Original Boing Boing post Liar's Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street (Michael Lewis) A timely moment to revisit 20-year-old memoir of the rise and fall of a financial bubble Original Boing Boing post The United States Constitution: A Graphic Adaptation (Jonathan Hennessey) US Constitution in graphic novel form Original Boing Boing post Bat-Manga!: The Secret History of Batman in Japan (Chip Kidd) The lost Japanese Batman comics of 1966 Original Boing Boing post Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China (Leslie T. Chang) Amazing memoir by American-born Chinese journalist Original Boing Boing post Bound by Law?: Tales from the Public Domain (Keith Aoki, James Boyle, Jennifer Jenkins) The "Understanding Comics" of copyright, in a new edition Original Boing Boing post The Essential Groucho: Writings by, for, and about Groucho Marx (Stefan Kanfer) A book of fine grouchovian material that contains at least five guaranteed laughs on every page Original Boing Boing post Corrupted Science: Fraud, Ideology and Politics in Science (John Grant) The history, cause, effect and state of bad science Original Boing Boing post...
Published: Sat, 29 Nov 2008 08:41:46 GMT - Source: Boingboing.Net - Read the article

Literature

The Essential Groucho

I've finally gotten around to reading The Essential Groucho: Writings by, for, and about Groucho Marx, Stefan Kanfer 1990 book of fine grouchovian material that contains at least five guaranteed laughs on every page. The book opens with a series of classic sketches from the radio plays, plays and films, lightly introduced with context about each release, but focusing mainly on the transcendant moments of pure Groucho -- the Tootsie Frootsie Ice-a-Cream, the address to the college administrators, the war council of Freedonia. Then into the best of Groucho's correspondence, including the notorious and outrageous letter to Warner Brothers about "A Night in Casablanca" (including the ensuing volleys with the increasingly puzzled studio lawyers) and the warm and collegial letters between Groucho and TS Eliot (who was willing to make an exception to his anti-Semitism in Groucho's case). The next section, Freelancing, is filled with newspaper editorials and articles written by (and sometimes about) Groucho, and it's here that I found myself reading a lot of material that I'd never seen before, placed in context by Kanfer's snappy little intros. The book closes with a selection of howlers from You Bet Your Life (To a meteorologist: "Any little squalls running around at home with their barometers dropping?") -- starting with one-liners, then short excerpts, then long, sustained comic bits where Groucho seemed to catch fire. I'm a huge Groucho fan, and I've been collecting books, video and audio of his performances since I was a teenager. He was a true blade when it came to verbal swordfighting, and The Essential Groucho is a fantastic little anthology of some truly impressive material, whether you're a Groucho novice or an old hand. The Essential Groucho: Writings by, for, and about Groucho Marx...
Published: Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:39:47 GMT - Source: Boingboing.Net - Read the article

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Marx Brothers	Frank Sinatra	Art Carney	Alan Alda	Woody Allen