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Muchachos, Muchachas, Tovarichkis and Leibe Kameraden!

Time to close the books on another wild year. If you will permit me a moment to get personal, its been a time of change.

I directed a season of Biker Mice and wrote several scripts,
Ended my connection to Gang of Seven and struck out on my own.
Traveled to Taiwan and directed a CGI short for Digimax.
Published my first book DRAWING THE LINE and did signings in several cities including NYC, San Francisco and San Diego.
My second book, Jews and American Popular Culture, is out today.
My Parents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary.
Got Pat a roomba i-robot and she's following it around the house watching it chase the cats.
Went to some cool parties, emcee'd the Little Mermaid Reunion
Had a tribute given in my honor at UCLA last Oct 23rd.
Starting a new project.
Made new friends, hooked up with old friends.

Mostly, I'm glad you've enjoyed reading my little blog.I hope you find it as much fun as I do writing it.
Have a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year, See you in the 07!


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Birthdays: Henri Matisse, Odetta (real name Holmes Felicious Gordon) , Simon Weisenthal, Val Kilmer, Pola Negri, Anthony Hopkins, Jules Styne, Ben Kingsley -real name Khrishna Banji, Sarah Miles, Donna Summer, Patti Smith, Elizabeth Arden, Tim Matheson, John Denver

1879- Thomas Edison did a public demonstration of his new invention the Light Bulb. Special commuter trains brought people to Menlo Park New Jersey for the show.

1905-6- ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO- THE FIRST BALL DROPPING CEREMONY- The New York Times hosts the first of it's giant news years party's from it's new office tower at #1 Longacre Square, now renamed in their honor Times Square. Midnight was signaled to the crowd outside by the lowering of a lantern on it's roof. In 1907 a ironworker created a large ball covered with electric light bulbs that was lowered from a flagpole. The Ball-dropping ceremony was only interrupted twice in 1942-43 for World War Two blackout rules. The Times Building was later sold and renamed the Allied Chemical Building, the Sony Building and in 1996 was purchased by Time/Warner.

1923-24-BBC overseas radio service first broadcast the Chimes of Big Ben around the world.

1929-30- New York's "21" Club opened as a speakeasy. Barkeep Jack Kramer opened the hangout at 21 west 52nd street. With a wine celler hidden behind a two foot thick stone wall door. The feds raided 21 once and found nothing after hours of searching. When they went back outside all their cars had been towed away by NYPD traffic cops. It seems the Mayor of New York Jimmy Walker was having dinner in the wine celler and was annoyed by the intrusion. In subsequent years it was normal to see movie stars, Lucky Lucciano, J.Edgar Hoover and John F. Kennedy eating side by side. Richard Nixon loved their tater-tots called potato souffle.

1929- Guy Lombardo and his big band the Royal Canadians first played Auld Lang Syne at midnight for New Years. He kept playing it every New Years until 1976.

1940-41- Avant Garde artists John Sloan and Marcel Duchamp break into the Washington Square Arch in and declare Greenwich Village the Republic of New Bohemia. Like coool, daddy.

1941- A Warner Bros memo dated this day from producer Hal Wallis office announced that the movie to be made from a play by Murray Bennett called “Everybody Goes to Rick’s” has been renamed “Casablanca”.

1943-44- In occupied Europe U.S. Navy frogmen sneak over to the future Normandy beachhead and take sand samplings to analyze if the beach could take the weight of heavy tanks. As the frogmen swam back to their midget submarine they could hear the Germans celebrating in their bunkers. One frogman yelled out "HAPPY NEW YEAR !"

1943- Four hundred policemen are called out to control frenzied crowds of bobbysoxers as Frank Sinatra played the Paramount Theater in Times Square. OOHH FRANKIE !!

1946- The first Pismo Beach Clam Festival.

1947- Roy Rogers married Dale Evans.

1958-59- As Fidel Castro's guerrillas closed in on Havana, dictator Fulgensio Batista slips out of a New Year's Party and boards a plane for Miami.

1962- Romanoffs closed. One of the premier hot spots on the Sunset Strip, it was the preferred hangout of Humphrey Bogart, who liked to play chess in the afternoon with Nick Romanoff when he was between films.

1985- Singer Ricky Nelson died when his band's converted old DC-9 airplane crashed near DeKalb,Texas. Nelson it was said had been living on a diet of cheeseburgers and Snicker's bars.

1995- Oh No!!The last Calvin and Hobbes comic strip by Bill Waterston

1997- Will Smith and Jaeda Pinkett marry.

2001-2002- The European Union currency exchange went into effect. Adieu, Adios and Ciao to the French Franc, Belgian Franc, Italian Lire, German Deutchmark, Austrian Schilling, Dutch Guldin, Greek Drachma, Irish Pound, Portuguese Escudo and Spanish Peseta. Welcome the Euro.