I am So Angry

So, I've been slowly rereading the Sandman series.  I have all ten trade paperback collections of Neil Gaiman's series.  And I started rereading when the first season dropped.

I was so impressed with the adaptation, and I wanted to recapture my feelings of the series and when I first read Sandman.

Last night, I finished book IX - The Kindly Ones.

This arc is about the revenge of a woman who thinks she was wronged by Dream, and she engages the Erinyes for her revenge.  For a while they go through the Dreaming killing various residents. And [spoiler alert], Dream dies at the end of the arc.

I remember the first time I read this and how sad it was.  I cried over the deaths of the residents.  And I cried over the death of Dream.

Last night, while I shed a few tears, I just got more and more angry.

Because since Gaiman is accused of some horrible things, Netflix has cancelled their Sandman series after the second season.

I don't know how far the second season will get into the series.  Maybe on through the arc of finding Destruction, if we're lucky.

But what made angry was that the amazing arc of emotion I felt will never be adapted.

And his whole legacy is forever tainted.

I am more angry about this than I was Bill Cosby.  I haven't been able to listen to any of Cosby's stand-up since the allegations against him were made public, and getting out on a technicality only makes it worse.

But the impact Gaiman's writing has had on me...

We've all imagined that Dream is an avatar of Gaiman's with hsi look and style.  So now when I look back at the series and remember Dream's treatment of his lovers both during and after their relations, it makes me wonder if the series were a bit of confession.  And for Dream to be finally brought down by a woman and the Erinyes as well feels like he's telling everyone what happened and that he wants to be punished.

Now sure, I could be making all of this up in my head, but the parallels are disturbing.

And my last though last night when I closed the book was, "Terry [Pratchett] would have been disgusted by Neil's behavior."

Be Cos, Be Cos, Be Cos, Be Cos, Be Cos....

I just read this, and I am so happy.

There's nothing up yet at Comedy Central, but this is exciting news.

I can remember my parents talking about getting to see Bill Cosby live at one of the Chevron conventions.  They even have a picture of them together.

My first exposure to Bill Cosby was through "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids".  It was a show right up there with Looney Tunes, and I loved watching it.  It wasn't until a few years later that some other Chevron kids introduced me to his stand-up.  They had to albums: "The Best of...", and "When I Was a Kid".  And when I learned about then, I listened to them whenever we were over at their house.

Then we moved to Kentucky, and the charity my parents were volunteering for had an auction.  I bought two things at that auction (live too, not silent).  I got a black, baseball mitt which I would use for a good 20 years and a promotional LP copy of "Bill Cosby: Himself".

That's when I stared looking around, and soon found out that some libraries had records you could check out.

So I began to grow my Cosby collection.  TDK SA90 all the way.

It was at this time that my physics class partner in my Maryland high school and I used to run whole routines back and forth during Physics lab.

As I worked my way back and around, I heard the evolution of the Cosby kids, and that Fat Albert's car with a Cessna airplane engine was originally attributed to someone else (whose name I am ashamed to say, I cannot remember right now).  Then there were the routines that I recognized as having been turned into Cosby Kids episodes (the Chicken Heart, the hernia, the game of buck-buck).

Not long after my parents saw and met Bill Cosby, his son Ennis was killed in a shooting.  I thought he would stop performing because it was obvious that while he loved his four daughters, Ennis had a special place in his heart for his son.  He did take some time off, but he returned and kept providing humor to all of us who have enjoyed his work for years.

I am certainly looking forward to November, and a new show.

Take the J Bus

When I had first moved out to California in the 70s, two guys who became my best friends at the time were two other Chevron kids who had moved from Kentucky the same time we had.

They had a couple Bill Cosby LPs, and I got my first real introduction to that comedian beyond the Saturday morning cartoon.  And one of the bits that he did was on Street Football.

It’s all about the planning stages that kids go through for playing football in the street.  There are so many lines from that one that can stand alone.  One of my favorites is:

“Okay now, Shorty, you’ll be the Coke bottle top.”

“I don’t wanna be the bottle cap, coach.”

“Okay, what do you wanna be?”

“I wanna be the piece of glass.”

But then this morning as I’m coming out of Emeryville, and getting on the freeway, I’m behind an AC Transit bus.  I look at the designation and I see it’s the J bus.

“Cosby, you go down to 3rd street.  Catch the J bus.  Have them open the doors at 19th… I’ll fake it to you.”