Sometime ago I had a brief e-mail confab with Amid Amidi, a cartoon historian and writer who also worked for Spumco, John K's animation studio. We talked about a book he was working on titled Cartoon Modern: Style and Design in Fifties Animation. That book is now available for purchase, and I recommend it to anyone interested in this particular era of animation and design. The book is filled with wonderful production stills and sketches from the television age, and Amidi goes into great details about the production studios (Hanna Barbera, Terrytoons, etc.) as well as all the great artists of that era who took a new direction from the animated images of the 30s and 40s and introduced a brand new modern aesthetic: Tom Oreb, Maurice Nobel, and the recently deceased Ed Benedict, who was able to create distinct characters for Hanna Barbera on a low budget that are still admired today. Amidi also has a Web site called Cartoon Modern, and he runs the Cartoon Brew site with fellow animation buff Jerry Beck.

Hey, how's your weekend going? Pretty good? Got any plans? Did you say just say "yes?" Why did you answer me out loud? It's not like I can hear you. Anyway, I like to occasional toss random tidbits your way on these lazy weekends, so I invite you to click over to News from me, which has a very funny clip from Sid Caesar's seminal comedy variety series, Your Show of Shows. This was the serious that featured the talents of some of the greatest actors and writers in the business such as Carl Reiner, Woody Allen, and Neil Simon. In this clip, Caesar, Reiner, Howie Morris and Imogene Coca play mechanical figures on a town clock that slowly begins to go haywire. Sit back, laugh, and watch how the pros used to do it.