George Carlin

George was one of the truly great ones. My brother bought his albums and I "borrowed" them and it was incredible and exhilarating -- he was innovative, mindblowing, and he thought about stuff (one of my favorite comedians, Eddie Izzard, owes something to Carlin). The hippy, dippy weather man, the seven words... it was all so fresh and brilliant in its time. Carlin died yesterday, after years of heart problems. He was 71.

More: 1967 newscast (audio), commercials (1965), wonderful wino (1966), the hippy dippy weatherman (1966) (and a reprise), on Carson (1972), the seven words, words (1974) - (1976), baseball and football, the sanctity of life, on language, the ten commandments, common experiences, religion is bullshit, on death, and Carlin on Olbermann last year.

UPDATE: from BoingBoing...

Here is a verbatim transcript of "Filthy Words," the George Carlin monologue at issue in the historic 1978 Supreme Court case of FCC v. Pacifica Foundation, prepared by the Federal Communications Commission.

Quote of the Day

"We've got to make it work in Europe. People are very worried about sovereignty and the loss of sovereignty. I think the stakes are if we don't make the European Union work, then the world is screwed. End of story.

-- Eddie Izzard, who hasn't ruled out getting into politics and is, in other news, voicing Reepicheep in the upcoming "Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian."

The Ri¢hes

This has a cast that I find very intriguing. The Ri¢hes starts tomorrow night on fx. It stars Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver, both delightfully quirky and over-the-top people who could make this show a bunch of fun. Tom Goodman at the SFGate and John Leonard at NYmag both liked it.

Proselytizers

This neighborhood is really big with the folks who go door-to-door trying to save us supposed heathens (we have no hills, lots of houses close together, and sidewalks to keep vehicles from running over the footsloggers). Today a couple of Mormons stopped by for a chat. We tossed things around for a bit and I found my visitors to be particularly well-prepared for an interesting discussion.

I'm still evolving spiritually, but at this moment, if pressed, I might claim to be an anti-authoritarian pantheistic secular humanist -- I like my religion à la carte, not necessarily on Sundays, and free of self-declared intermediaries. I love the architecture and (a lot of) the music, the ideas and ideals, but the self-righteousness and busywork, not so much. Perhaps I'd be more comfortable in Europe's churches than I am in the ones here in America.

Which brings me to Eddie Izzard, who I think is one of the more brilliant comics out there on tour at the moment. I love the way he's not afraid to let his education show when going for a laugh. Anyway, my visitors today put me to thinking about Izzard's Dress to Kill, which a friend turned me onto recently. So, I figured I'd share a clip, with a special shoutout to my brother, who is hobbling around on a broken foot lately and probably could use a laugh.