C.M.Croker Dies.

R.I.P. Clay Martin Croker, Adult Swim animator and voice actor

By Sam Barsanti@sambarsanti

Sep 18, 2016  1:59 PM

As reported by various sources, including rapper MC Chris and Adult Swim creative director Jason DeMarco, longtime Adult Swim animator and voice actor C. Martin Croker has died. Croker was best known for playing both Zorak and Moltar on Cartoon Network’s talk show spoof Space Ghost Coast To Coast—the series that essentially established the template for what would become Adult Swim. Details haven’t been released, but the tone of DeMarco and MC Chris’ posts suggest that Croker’s death was “sudden.” He was 54.iew image on Twitter

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RIP C. Martin Croker

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Croker reportedly worked animating promos for TNT in the early ‘90s, and he transitioned over to Cartoon Network a few years later to work on its big rebranding. Around this time, Cartoon Network had also enlisted producer Mike Lazzo to create a cartoon show for adults, which ended up being a total reimagining of ‘60s-era Hanna-Barbera action series Space Ghost called Space Ghost Coast To Coast. The series placed intergalactic superhero Space Ghost in a talk show setting, with the animated character conducting weird and intentionally hostile interviews with real-life celebrities who never quite seemed to be aware of what kind of show they had agreed to appear on.

Croker was the animation director on Coast To Coast, and it was reportedly his idea to add longtime Space Ghost foes Zorak and Moltar to the show, with Zorak as the bandleader and Moltar as the director and editor. Croker voiced both characters for the entirety of the series, with the two of them constantly antagonizing Space Ghost and openly expressing their intense hatred for him. Often, the interplay between Space Ghost, Zorak, and Moltar was more involved and crucial to the show than anything the actual guest said, with celebrities left awkwardly looking from side to side while the animated characters had absurd adventures that didn’t involve them at all (and which they couldn’t see, since the animated stuff was produced later and wasn’t real).

Over the years, Croker reprised his role as Zorak on The Brak Show and Cartoon Planet, and he played the mad scientist Dr. Weird on Adult Swim super-hit Aqua Teen Hunger Force. He also provided the voice of Moltar when the character “hosted” Cartoon Network’s Toonami block and cameoed in a few other Adult Swim productions.

These days, its virtually impossibly to (legally) get all of the episodes of Space Ghost Coast To Coast, but the show lives on thanks to YouTube clips ripped from Adult Swim broadcasts and the old DVDs.

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AVAM "The Big Hope Show"

I went to the American Visionary Arts Museum yesterday to see the "Big Hope Show". Always fun.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

The Big Hope Show opens on the eve of the American Visionary Art Museum's 20th anniversary celebration and is an original and unabashedly idealistic, art exhibition that champions the radiant and transformative power of hope. Over twenty-five visionary artists, among them many "super survivors" of enormous personal traumas, exhibit soulful creations reflecting their personal transcendence, and, often, a heightened or newfound creativity and sense of humor.

In playful tribute to this national museum's much-in-need-of-hope, beloved hometown of Baltimore City, Maryland, Bobby Adams will share never-before-seen photos, scrapbooks and assemblages as he documented his mid-century Baltimore upbringing and multi-decade immersion in filmmaker John Waters' band of inclusive renegades, the "Dreamlanders."

A hopeful look as to what constitutes community policing at its best is spotlighted in a video tribute to Kevin Briggs, the California trooper who so caringly connected with would-be suicide jumpers on the Golden Gate Bridge, and successfully helped save upwards of 200 lives. The Big Hope Show also addresses justice at its worse, with a visceral depiction of the life and artistry of the late Herman Wallace, an innocent Louisiana man who spent more than four decades in a solitary confinement cell measuring just 6' x 9'. Jackie Sumell powerfully conveys Wallace's experience with the remarkably humane and hopeful installation of Herman's House.

In another public first, The Big Hope Show unveils the fiercely blissful art of psychedelic rock pioneer and Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne, who survived a harrowing robbery attempt while working as a fry cook at a Long John Silvers restaurant. Coyne's near-death trauma somehow catapulted him to explode with new talents and wildly unbridled creative endeavors. At AVAM, Coyne will provide visitors a peek into what really fuels his hope and happiness with a feel-good, visitor immersive, art installation titled, King's Mouth, and more.

Also in this exhibition: colored pencil master, Margaret Munz-Losch displays her life-sized, mind-boggling, intricate work Early Bird, cancer survivor, artist and performer Chris Roberts-Antieau shares her most elaborately embroidered fabric story pieces to date, and Nancy Josephson takes center stage with her 10-ft tall, beaded Bird Goddess sculpture. Film-documentarian Lisa Revson artfully observes the "why" behind a strangely hopeful societal phenomena in her installation, The Lost Earring Project: A Ritual of Hope, that asks: "why do so many of us keep holding onto the single mates to long lost earrings?"

2nd Orioles Game of 2016

 Karen, Matthew, Kirstie and I went to the Orioles game tonight. It was the exact opposite of the first game we went to on April 7th. Then, I wore my winter coat, tonight we baked. It was incredibly hot. And we lost, 6 - 3, to the Colorado Rockies.

By Peter Smuck from the Baltimore Sun

Orioles right-hander Chris Tillman came into Tuesday night’s start with a chance to become the first 15-game winner in the major leagues, but the Colorado Rockies would not cooperate.

Tillman (14-3) had been dominating in July, with four straight victories and a 1.29 ERA, but he faltered in a four-run third inning and the Rockies notched a 6-3 victory before 23,677 at Camden Yards.

The whole game hinged on that third inning, because Tillman was one strike from getting out of it without giving up a run when Carlos Gonzalez doubled down the left field line with the bases loaded to drive in the first two runs. Tillman also had two strikes on rookie slugger Trevor Story before he followed with a single to left for two more runs.

The Rockies extended the lead to 6-0 in the fifth when Nolan Arenado doubled home a run and eventually scored on a wild pitch by Tillman, who gave way to reliever Tyler Wilson after giving up nine hits and striking out four over five innings.

Tillman didn’t spend a lot of time second-guessing himself afterward.

“You’ve got to give credit to them,’’ he said. “They put some huge at-bats together and made some really good swings. I wouldn’t change anything. I missed with a couple, but I also made some really good pitches today.”

Adam Jones finally got the Orioles on the scoreboard in the bottom of that inning with his 18th home run of the year, a two-run shot that followed a two-out single by hot-hitting J.J. Hardy. Jones also scored the Orioles’ third run of the game after he drew a leadoff walk in the eighth and scored on a wild pitch by Colorado reliever Boone Logan.

If there was a silver lining in this game, it was the performance Wilson, who was recalled over the weekend to fill in while Ubaldo Jimenez was on paternity leave. Wilson pitched the final four innings of the game and did not give up a hit or a walk.

“I thought Tyler was outstanding,’’ manager Buck Showalter said. “He really gave us a blow down in the bullpen. But Chris, the pitches he elevated they didn’t miss, but he was very close to having a better outing. But he got through five and we just didn’t do much offensively.”

The loss ended the Orioles’ winning at five and evened the series heading into Wednesday night’s homestand finale, which features the third major league start by O’s rookie Dylan Bundy.

Two-strike rally: Tillman couldn’t seem to throw that third strike by anyone in the Rockies’ four-run third inning. The Rockies slapped five hits in the inning and every one of them came after there were two strikes on the hitter. Four of them were singles that came on a 1-2 pitch. Carlos Gonzalez’s two-run double came on a 2-2 pitch.

Tillman’s streak ends: The Orioles’ ace came into the game riding a string of four consecutive starts in which he worked seven innings and gave up exactly one run. The club record for consecutive starts of seven innings or more and one earned run or fewer is held by Jim Palmer, who did it eight times in a row in 1978. In the third inning, of course, Tillman equaled all the runs he gave up in those previous four games.

Jones' 18th: Things were looking pretty grim at that point, but the Orioles finally answered in the bottom of the fifth. Hardy lined a two-out single to left field for his second hit of the game and Jones launched a first-pitch homer into the left field bleachers to whittle the Colorado lead back to four runs.

Kim jumps right back in: Hyun Soo Kim was activated from the disabled list on Tuesday and re-entered the starting lineup in his usual No. 2 hole. In his first at-bat, he plopped a bloop single into center field and finished the game with a hit and a walk in four plate appearances.

Photos by Nick Wass and Matt Hazlett

1st Orioles Game of 2016

Mom, Mike, Matthew, and I went to the Orioles game last night. We won, 4 -2, sweeping the Twins in the Orioles 2016 opening series. There was a 20 minute rain delay in the 7th inning and it seemed to get a lot colder after that.

From The Baltimore Sun by Peter Schmuck

For those fans who were wondering if they were going to get the good Ubaldo Jimenez or the bad one on Thursday night, they got both in the course of the Orioles’ rain-delayed, series-sweeping  4-2 victory over the Minnesota Twins before 11,142 at Camden Yards.

Jimenez got off to a rocky start, allowing a run in each of the first two innings, but he worked out of another jam in the third and then settled down to overpower the Twins over his last four innings of work. He was charged with just one earned run and piled up nine strikeouts, but would not be in line for the decision until the Orioles scored twice in the bottom of the seventh to take the lead.

That was the inning that was interrupted by a 21-minute rain delay, which came after Mark Trumbo and J.J. Hardy opened up with back-to-back singles to bring Twins manager Paul Molitor out of the dugout. He was going out to get starter Phil Hughes just as the sudden cloudburst convinced the umpires to call for the tarp.

Hughes pitched well, giving up three runs over six innings, but reliever Trevor May could not hold a one-run lead, allowing Trumbo to score on a wild pitch and giving up a go-ahead single to Jonathan Schoop.

Rookie Joey Rickard, a Rule 5 draft pick, put the cherry on top when he led off the eighth with his first major league home run and was rewarded by the small crowd with a curtain call.       

Darren O'Day struck out the side in the ninth to get the save.      

Reimold’s 2016 debut: Outfielder Nolan Reimold got his first opportunity to start this season and made the most of it. He batted second behind Rickard and hit safely in his first two at-bats -- grounding a single up the middle in the first inning and pulling a sharp double down the left field line to lead off the fourth. The Orioles had runners at first and third with no outs in that inning but Twins starter Phil Hughes worked out of trouble against the dangerous middle of the O’s lineup.

Manny’s happy returns: Third baseman Manny Machado had just two singles in his first 10 at-bats this season, but he doubled his hit total with a single in the fourth inning and a solo home run in the sixth that got the Orioles on the scoreboard for the first time.

Mauer’s first mash: Twins first baseman Joe Mauer greeted Jimenez rudely, going deep with two outs in the first inning for his first home run of the young season. It could have been worse, but catcher Caleb Joseph threw out Danny Santana attempting to steal second just moments before Mauer’s blast. Joseph also would throw out pinch runner Eduardo Nunez in a key eighth-inning situation.


Santana’s revenge: Santana didn’t let the caught stealing ruin his night. He singled in each of his first two at-bats and succeeded in stealing second off Joseph in the third inning. He also got to the center field fence just in time to rob Schoop of a possible home run in the fifth inning. It’s unclear whether Schoop’s towering drive would have cleared the fence, but Santana went a long way to make sure it didn’t.

Following Photos by Karl Merton Ferron from The Baltimore Sun