Razor Burn
The ads worked.
Not that it was entirely the commercials. I’d seen ads online, too, and come across mention of Harry’s in the past when looking up potential alternatives to my usual razors of choice. The quality of Gillette’s Mach 3 and Fusion Pro Glide that I was now buying at CVS didn’t seem to match what Rite Aid was selling ere they went out of business, with the little strip of aloe that soothes your shave and lets you know when
it’s time to replace your blade falling off long before it faded.
So when spots in high rotation during the World Baseball Classic this March proclaimed that Harry’s was finally making a model — Harry’s Plus — with aloe strips and a detail blade on the back of its multi-blade head like I was used to, I ordered the starter set of that new model with one cartridge and a small can of shave gel for just $10, with tax, no shipping charge. The most fundamental aspect of advertising is to let you know that a product exists and how to get it; my need was not being invented here. I cop to having appreciated the streamlined, sharp yet scrappy image the brand projected when doing that earlier search.
A lot happened in the weeks and months since that order was placed to change my opinion.
Zoop e Zuppa
While I’m dealing with stuff that’s backing up posts in the pipeline, I figured I’d put
the soup can on display as I plug the Zoop campaign for Mark Waid & Barry Kitson’s Empire.
The effort has been funded, so you should be assured of receiving it if you pledge. Choose from a digital copy; the hardcover itself, collecting Empire’s original eight-issue story as begun under the Gorilla imprint and finished at DC with lots of bonus material; and a slipcased edition.
Arthur Bell Overture
I never actually listened to Coast to Coast or any other program hosted by Art Bell,
yet I’ve heard of “Mel’s Hole”.
This may sound like something far afield of what it is to those of you who haven’t. Arthur William Bell III “was a pioneering radio broadcaster … renowned for creating the most influential paranormal talk show in broadcasting history,” to quote a short bio on the Art Bell Archives site. Which of the sites about his life and work are more official and/or accepted by his devotees, I can’t really tell you, but it’s 2026 and I doubt you need my help searching the Interwebs beyond an exhortation to use DuckDuckGo rather than Google for privacy’s sake.
Bell didn’t only cover the paranormal and conspiracy theories but was certainly open
to discussing stories on those subjects with callers. One topic from nearly two decades past that has apparently continued to fascinate on Reddit and elsewhere is the aforementioned hole of unknown origin and mysterious properties located in Washington State described to Bell in 1997 by a man identifying himself as Mel Waters. A friend of mine who long worked for NASA shared an IFLScience post earlier today recapping the phenomenon. He did so for reasons other than promoting or debunking the details, but the context prompted me to adapt certain of those details to the chorus of the 1974 Doobie Brothers classic and personal favorite “Black Water”; here they are, with the usual apologies to singer/composer Patrick Simmons.
S Is for...
... Stephen Colbert, and the swan song of The Late Show, including the return of Strike Force Five.
I’m not taking stock of the wider state of late-night TV, at least directly, right now.
My aim is to gather some of the most interesting coverage of and content related to Colbert’s exit from the 11 o’clock hour after nearly 30 years, dating back to his days as
a Daily Show correspondent, over 20 of them as a host and 10+ broadcasting from the Ed Sullivan Theater.
Hey! Stephen recently led a tour of the Sullivan’s auditorium for Architectural Digest [14:29]. Known as CBS Studio 50 when it housed Ed’s “rilly big shew” and built a century ago as Hammerstein’s Temple of Music by Arthur Hammerstein in honor of his father, it’s possessed — as Late Show viewers have seen — of such remarkable features as a majestic dome refurbished and retrofitted with deft, modern graphic elements by Colbert’s staff.
The above, like all further video links in this post, goes to YouTube.
I had perhaps the coolest external look at the theater possible when visiting the
offices of DC Comics at 1700 Broadway across the street the week of New Year’s 1997. David Letterman was the latest tenant and, having already been designated a New York City Landmark, the Sullivan would soon be added to the National Register of Historic Places. Current owner Paramount Skydance Corporation’s plans for it are unclear.
The Quiet One
I’d wager that most of you visiting don’t remember the first live-action Spider-Man
on screen.
Clearly, based on the image above, I don’t mean Tobey Maguire. Or Nicholas Hammond, who starred as Peter Parker over 12 episodes of The Amazing Spider-Man on CBS starting in 1978, spun out of a TV movie the year before — or even the stuntman inside the costume for most of that show, Fred Waugh. Or, for that matter, Shinji Tōdō; he led Toei's スパイダーマン [Supaidāman], a very loose adaptation of the Marvel character, which aired in Japan during roughly the same span as its American counterpart.
No, I’m talking about Danny Seagren.
55 Favorites: #20
I first wrote about the Alice books here in early 2010.
While it was clear that they and discussion around them were things I loved, I’d not
yet begun this series of posts — although Martin Gardner’s Annotated Alice work got referenced in the debut installment later that year. So inducting them officially into my roster of 55 Favorites (and counting) didn’t feel necessary until a few recent events persuaded me.
The above pic came to light as I was going through some cloud photos. I had wanted
to provide a look at my Alice items on the shelf, unpacked from the boxes they’d been in; however, I’d rearranged and decided the best place for them was on a vintage dresser topped with a mirror — if you get it, you get it — and pieces set to hold small lamps but also good for teacups. Since the items have been sitting piled on that dresser with other stuff mixed in for too long now, I’m sharing the older incarnation despite having added to my modest collection and sadly not being able to revert the photo to the wider shot I must have taken back then.
Light over Dark
I’ve been holding onto an unusually intense dream that’s appropriate for today.
Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian President, was leading a very small tactical team including me on a covert mission deep within the Kremlin. We all were incredibly silent and the living quarters were eerily vacant as we breached them, so I figured there had to be help from the inside — which just got me even more worried that our mission was to, you know, take a certain someone out, quite possibly for the greater good of humanity but perhaps at a cost to my own since I was new to this stuff.
Once we arrived in a long, ostentatious dining room, a signal was given and a bunch
of children filed in. Then a film projector started up and unspooled Star Wars on an expanse of blank wall space to the kids’ delight. I can’t say if it was meant to be humanitarian relief for a group of hostages, soft propaganda to win over sheltered, indoctrinated young minds, or what, but it was apparently successful as the scene jumped to a few of us sitting in a dimly lit parlor with a woman who might have been the late Madeleine Albright offering congratulations on a job well done.
Worth a Cool Grand, Charlie Brown
I’m happy to report that the digital library of Peanuts books offered at Humble Bundle to mark Fantagraphics’ 50th birthday was extended.
Click on that link now — as long as it’s not yet 2 p.m. ET on April 23rd, 2026. I’ll be here when you get back. [Update #1: The campaign seems to have a rolling deadline, although that could easily change.] [Update #2: It has closed.]
I heard about this incredible deal a few weeks ago but neglected my note to self until
it was nearly too late. The sale had been set to run through yesterday. However, at this writing, you can still pay $25 or more and receive downloadable PDFs of a virtual passel of Peanuts tomes including all 26 volumes of Fantagraphics’ expertly designed The Complete ’Peanuts’, its 10 recolored ‘Peanuts’ Every Sunday editions, and various themed collections, which have a total listed retail value of $1,041. Smaller bundles of
4 or 8 items start at only $5.
Charles Schulz was quietly philanthropic and, per the Humble Bundle way, a little bit
of each purchase goes to a charity he supported, Canine Companions. Even if you own all these books in physical form — or simply all the ones you care to — I’m guessing you won’t have to think hard to imagine somebody you love who’d appreciate being gifted the whole bunch, and it’s fine if that somebody is you.
Go Fish
Not sure why I haven’t shared this here before. I put it up on Tumblr (man, I need to update and rework that layout) and Facebook (geez, I need to get the public Blamposts page there going) like a decade ago. Sorry if you’re not familiar with the French expression but at least I amuse myself.
Related: 5 by 5 • All I Needed Was the Laugh You Gave • Pyg’ Spy
Sounds Great
“I Wish” as put to vinyl by Stevie Wonder in 1976 contains your recommended daily minimum of joy. Yet the jazzy instrumental cover whipped up last year by Polish guitarist Marcin and Japanese pianist Hayato Sumino is so infectious, so irrepressible, that it almost renders the original tame in comparison. [3:17]
That’s among the more recent music links I’ve been sitting on for too long. I’ll round
out this post with another cover and another instrumental, both employed in a pivotal episode of Vince Gilligan’s brilliant Apple TV series Pluribus — a chapter loaded with songs, within and external to its narrative, as enumerated in a Decider article which you might not want to read if you get kitschy ’80s pop like Baltimora’s “Tarzan Boy” stuck in your head easily. (Oops! Sorry.)
First is the haunting rendition of “Aquarius” from Hair that plays over the end credits, produced by the mononymous Nasaya featuring his frequent collaborator Maro and her fellow Portuguese vocalist Ana Moura. Sony Music Portugal announced back in December that Pluribus’ Season One soundtrack would include the full piece, but it doesn’t, so I’m breaking my general rule of not linking to unauthorized content to share a bit of this exceptional sonic art that I’d like to just live inside for a while. [1:36]
Watching the episode, I mistook Hermanos Gutiérrez’ 2021 recording “Esperanza”
to be an engrossing passage in Dave Porter’s instrumental score. The image above is a screenshot of its animated music video as created by Maria Medem. [2:52]
“Esperanza” is available in a longer version as a single and on Hermanos Gutiérrez’ compilation Eternamente as well as on the Pluribus soundtrack album that is bereft of “Aquarius” dangit. The single and first album can be purchased on Bandcamp. All can be found in the Apple Music store, which also has the Marcin / Hayato Sumino
“I Wish” gem via Sony Masterworks.
Related: Mad Mix • 43 Favorites: #13 • Vuelvo
My Brain in Wayne
A recent dream that found me in the heart of lovely Wayne, PA, where I resided for a couple of years much longer ago than it seems, reminded me that I’d jotted down another one set there several months back.
The newer one: I’m walking on a side road that feeds into Main Street when I hear Dido singing “Thank You” during an outdoor photoshoot. I approach her because she’s an old friend and we catch up a little but she’s busy working — so after confirming that she still lives nearby I tell her that Em and I have a place in Manayunk now and we should meet for lunch.
Zero idea who Em’s supposed to be.
The older dream: I’ve gone to Minella’s Diner with someone whom, per my notes, I couldn’t place upon waking and in hindsight I would very much like to believe was the mysterious Em. Bruce Springsteen, the E Street Band, and their entire touring entourage are there and have taken up several tables. I hear another patron tell his server that any drinks they order under $55 are on him and, dear reader, I’m at least as curious about how my subconscious came up with that cutoff point as you are. Once my friend and I have been seated, Lex Luthor turns around from the next booth to speak to us — not a generic version, but Lex Luthor as voiced by Clancy Brown in the DCAU Superman and Justice League animated series, fleshed out in real life and threatening us with something I can’t recall.
Related: Of Was and When • REM Brands • HIVE Minded • Fight and Flight
Now Soup Radio
I’d meant to kick off this year on Blam’s Blog with optimism by displaying the
soup can.
You may recall the concept if you’re a longtime reader. And if not, or really either
way, you can scroll back through its dozen or so appearances here — several of which mention its ancient origins via the eminent and prolific Mark Evanier at News from ME. (I did swap in the bottle of Devil Tylenol from Hell that I cobbled together for a friend a couple of times, and the can also went up on a few occasions, transiently, in
the sidebar.)
The idea is to exhibit said can when there will be little or no other content for a while. So why optimism? Well, I’m hoping that material gets published regularly enough that any break merits calling out.
Vintage Radio: Jakkapan via Adobe Stock. Composite: BSL.
Hear, Say
I love music. A bold take, you must be thinking, made possible only by deep reserves of courage and conviction.
The problem is that, as I’ve mentioned here at least once before, I can’t easily read
or write or hold a conversation aloud if there’s chatter going on around me — other conversations, television, etc., sadly including music with lyrics — because my brain foregrounds all of it and I’m unable to focus on any one bit to the point of utter exhaustion.