Category Archives: The Catbird Seat: Friends & Guests

The Wavy Rule, a Daily Comic by Pollux: Feel the Beat of the Tambourine

Pollux writes of his Mamma Mia! and Iron Man fantasia, “I know this is a gross generalization, but in terms of media frenzy, it’s all about the Streep and the Stark.”
Here’s David Denby’s review of Iron Man; Mamma Mia! isn’t out till July 18, but you can be sure Anthony Lane will eviscerate it. John Lahr wrote of the stage version of Mamma Mia!, “In dark times, art can raise the pulse and lift the heart of a community. Unfortunately, ‘Mamma Mia!’ is nothing but hokum.” Danny Shanahan did a cartoon about the show (which I would link to, but I can’t track it down on the Cartoon Bank; it’s from 2001, too), and in 1939, there was a one-line Talk of the Town item (under “Incidental Intelligence”) that read simply: “The Mamma Mia Importing Company has headquarters in Brooklyn, where it imports something or other.”
Click to enlarge!
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Check out the “Wavy Rule” archive! More drawings by Pollux: his very funny webcomic “Arnjuice,” his motley Flickr page, and satisfying cartoon collections to download at Lulu.

Raymond Davidson, a Remembrance

Paul Kocak writes:
His New Yorker covers of the 1970s are quintessential reflections of urban complexity distilled to a serene and sober simplicity. A Zen focus of particularity, here and now. His spot drawings for The New Yorker, signed “R. Davidson,” celebrated Manhattan archways, doorways, a flowerpot on a windowsill, a wrought-iron fence. Raymond Davidson died just after midnight on July 7 at Tara Home, a hospice at Land of Medicine Buddha in Soquel, California. He was creative almost until his very last days, self-publishing poetry and reflections sprinkled with his pen-and-ink line drawings.
We met in the 1980s; he worked at Doubleday, I at Random House. Creativity was, in his view, a spiritual wellspring. He urged me to write haiku poetry as a spiritual exercise. I did.
In those years, fans of the New York Mets often saw a man with a long gray beard and glasses, wearing a seersucker jacket and bow tie, sitting in owner Nelson Doubleday’s box, right next to the Mets’ dugout. He was painting watercolors of the Mets players. These were exquisite depictions of light and shadow and color; balletic celebrations of form and grace and movement. They are gems.
They are New York.
They are Raymond Davidson, Brooklyn-born of Norwegian immigrants more than eighty years ago.
When the woman at the hospice told me of Raymond’s peaceful death, she said he looked like someone in an El Greco painting. Yes, majestic and heavenly.
She said he was “easy to love,” a fitting signature to his life and work. Raymond Davidson easily loved the ordinary right before our eyes.
I easily loved him like a father and a brother.
Paul Kocak
Syracuse, New York

The Wavy Rule, a Daily Comic by Paul Morris: Heaven, I’m in Heaven

I think Paul has outdone himself with this one. He writes: “Yes, that’s God. A collection of blue squiggly lines representing both the eternal aether and my own propensity to use Crayola markers to depict celestial beings.” I love it, and the portrait of Ross is, well, heavenly. Click to enlarge!
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Check out the “Wavy Rule” archive! More drawings by Paul Morris: his very funny webcomic “Arnjuice,” his motley Flickr page, and satisfying cartoon collections to download at Lulu.

The Wavy Rule, a Daily Comic by Paul Morris: Guzzlers

In honor of the ridiculous SUV that I was forced to drive this weekend, which I nicknamed the Sta-Puft Marshmallow Man (big, fast, friendly, deadly), a Wavy Rule all about our alarming fuel situation and the ways in which our lives are destined to change, any minute now. Click to enlarge!
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Check out the “Wavy Rule” archive! More drawings by Paul Morris: his very funny webcomic “Arnjuice,” his motley Flickr page, and satisfying cartoon collections to download at Lulu.

The Wavy Rule, a Daily Comic by Paul Morris: Really, Tilley

Owls are such know-it-alls, aren’t they? This one has a certain familiar charm, however, and seems to be playing a fiesty Brooklyn to Eustace Tilley’s neurotic Manhattan. Click to enlarge!
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Check out the “Wavy Rule” archive! More drawings by Paul Morris: his very funny webcomic “Arnjuice,” a populous Flickr page, and cartoon collections to download at Lulu.

The Wavy Rule, a Daily Comic by Paul Morris: Stealing Beauty

Paul writes, “Inspired by those silly ads about downloading music illegally, which compare it to stealing a car or purse. Hardly the same thing, in my opinion.” We agree, but still buy our friends’ bands’ CDs, just ’cause we feel sorry for them. (Although no one buys nothin’ from poets.) Click to enlarge!
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Check out the “Wavy Rule” archive! More drawings by Paul Morris: his very funny webcomic “Arnjuice,” a populous Flickr page, and cartoon collections to download at Lulu.

The Wavy Rule, a Daily Comic by Paul Morris: Hot Type, Baby

Everyone knows typography is sexy, and the Vox-talkin’ knockouts in the latest edition of Paul Morris’s daily comic for Emdashes, “The Wavy Rule,” prove it beyond a doubt. Click to enlarge!
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More Paul: the “Wavy Rule” archive; “Arnjuice,” a webcomic; his Flickr page; cartoon collections for download at Lulu. If you have a suggestion for a cartoon, New Yorker-related or otherwise, email us and we’ll pass it along.

The Wavy Rule, a Daily Comic by Paul Morris: You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’

In the latest edition of Paul Morris’s daily comic for Emdashes, “The Wavy Rule,” the states of relationships undergo a radical shift, and so do the relationships of states. Click to enlarge!
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More Paul: the “Wavy Rule” archive; “Arnjuice,” a webcomic; his Flickr page; cartoon collections for download at Lulu. If you have a suggestion for a cartoon, New Yorker-related or otherwise, email us and we’ll pass it along.