Sunday, April 30, 2006

Colbert at the Correspondents Dinner

Some crazy idiot at the white house invited Stephen Colbert to the White House Correspondents dinner to perform in front of the president and the full white house press corps. Thankfully there's video. . .

Always Be Able to Kill Your Students

So says the last living Ninja. . .

Friday, April 28, 2006

Wii

Apprarently, The Nintendo "Revolution" has been given its official name: Wii.

If you think it's terrible, you're not alone.

On the upside, it's starting to look like Wii will launch as soon as July and cost only $200.

Jamie

Do any of y'all have Jamie Friedman's email address? If you do, please, send it my way.

Probably see some of you in Davis. I'll try to bring some folks (to fill out the audience, and such).

Thanks

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

At Dusk News - Record & California Tour

Hey Fellas-

No doubt you'll receive an email from me to this effect sometime soon, but I wanted to bring your attention to a couple of At Dusk news items:

Our third album "You Can Know Danger" is available in its entirety for free-or-donation download from our recently-Greg-redesigned website. We will get the lovely hard copies back from the press next week in time to leave for news item number 2, which is

We will be touring our native state of California May 5-15. We are very excited to do so and get our roadlegs back. We would love to see you at the shows and hand out afterwards. There's a few the details of which are still not pinned down, but what we know is as follows:

Ramone's - Eureka, CA 5/5/06
Cafe Roma - Davis, CA 5/6/06
Stanford University - Palo Alto, CA 5/7 or 8 (TBA)/06
Cafe Pergolesi - Santa Cruz, CA 5/9/06
Cal State Fresno - Fresno, CA 5/10/06
Giovanni's Pizza - Isla Vista (Santa Barbara), CA 5/11/06
Lava Lounge - Los Angeles, CA 5/12/06
The Knitting Factory (Alternknit Lounge) - Los Angeles, CA 5/13/06

Bring your grandkids, grandparents and grandpets. The details for these shows are posted on our MySpace page.

I hope everyone is well and that we'll see you soon!

Cat eats with a Fork

A kind of follow up to the two-legged dog, here's a cat that eats with a fork.

Monday, April 24, 2006

Mick Jagger vs. George Bush

I love this story.

(Via First Draft)

Monday, April 17, 2006

Two-legged dog

It walks upright like a person!

Sunday, April 16, 2006

Metzger Passes Into Shadow

While Cameron and I dodged his fearsome bullet, I know many of you did take Masterpieces, so this unfortunate news will interest you:

Sad News
2.28.2006
We are sorry to report that Mike Metzger, teacher at Harvard School, Westlake School for Girls and Harvard-Westlake School from 1989 until his retirement in 2002, passed away yesterday in St. Louis, Missouri.

According to Headmaster Tom Hudnut, "Mike taught math and Latin and Great Books and coached football. He did everything with a wry smile and an ironic wit and was a lovable, crusty guy of the Old School who had a heart of gold. He loved teaching and coaching, he loved his colleagues and his students. Among all his other interests, he was particularly passionate about what I would nebulously call the 'soul of the school.' He cared deeply about ethics and values and held himself and his students to the highest standards of integrity. Those of us who knew him as teacher, coach, colleague or friend are unquestionably the richer for it.

Letters of condolence may be sent to:
Judy Metzger
5009 Bellarina Drive
St. Louis, MO 63129

Saturday, April 08, 2006

Lee of Love has leukemia

From the Arthur Lee Messageboard:


> Arthur Lee from Love has recently been
> diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
> (ALL) and has undergone 3 weeks of aggressive
> chemotherapy. Doctors are hopeful for a full
> recovery, but Arthur still faces more chemo,
> extensive hospital stays, and a possible bone
> marrow transplant. Arthur Lee has no health
> insurance to cover his growing (over
> $100,000+) medical bills.



And from Coolfer:


To help cover his medical expenses, a group of industry folks in Los Angeles are putting together a benefit concert, and are said to be in talks with X, Calexico and Cake so far. A tribute CD is also in the works.

Thursday, April 06, 2006

The Zen of Tape Man

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Meta TV on NBC

So weird. Can you imagine caring about a show on NBC that isn't slated to die already?

And when NY Times select kicks in, here is the text:

In the sitcom, Tina Fey, a writer and cast member on "Saturday Night Live," plays a writer on a variety show.
He was playing a fictional character named Jack Donaghy, whose dual title at General Electric, the parent company of NBC, is vice president of East Coast television and microwave oven programming. At the moment, as the cameras rolled, he was dressing down Tina Fey, who was playing the part of Liz, the head writer on a live, prime-time variety show on NBC not unlike the old Carol Burnett program.

"Sure, I got you," Mr. Baldwin's character barked in quick staccato as Ms. Fey's Liz recoiled from across a desk. "New York third-wave feminist. College-educated. Single and pretending to be happy. Overscheduled, undersexed. You buy any magazine that says 'healthy body image' on the cover, but your kitchen's got nothing but SnackWells and expired yogurts."

The scene, which was written by Ms. Fey, could have easily been taking place on "Saturday Night Live," a program that features Ms. Fey as both co-head writer and a cast member, and one that Mr. Baldwin has been host of a dozen times. But instead, it was being filmed on a sound stage in Brooklyn on a recent morning as part of the pilot for a half-hour comedy that Ms. Fey and the executive producer of "Saturday Night Live," Lorne Michaels, are pitching for the fall prime-time schedule on NBC.

The pilot, in the tradition of "The Dick Van Dyke Show" of the 1960's, is a show within a show, in which Rachel Dratch, a castmate of Ms. Fey's on "Saturday Night Live," plays Jenna DiCarlo, the star of a fictional program known as the "The Girlie Show." Another "Saturday Night Live" veteran, Tracy Morgan, plays an emotionally unstable movie star — in one flashback scene, he can be seen running down a freeway in his underpants yelling, "I am a Jedi" — whom Mr. Baldwin's character desperately wants added to "The Girlie Show," over Liz's strenuous objection, to raise ratings among men.

With an all-star cast both behind the camera and in front of it, the pilot, which has the working title "The Tina Fey Project," would seem to be a sure bet for the NBC schedule next season. But it does face one significant hurdle: it sounds, at least on first blush, more than a little like another NBC pilot, "Studio 60," which also takes place backstage at a variety show (this one more like "Saturday Night Live") and features both an A-list cast (Bradley Whitford of "The West Wing," Matthew Perry of "Friends" and Amanda Peet of the movie "The Whole Nine Yards") and a creator with a track record at NBC (Aaron Sorkin, also of "The West Wing.")

Which raises a question: Will next year's NBC schedule be big enough to accommodate both shows, even if one is a half-hour comedy and the other is an hourlong drama?

The answer, as it turns out, is probably yes, though "Studio 60," which is produced by Warner Brothers, is expected to be first out of the gate, with NBC having all but committed to put it on in the fall or risk paying a stiff financial penalty to its producers. At the least, Ms. Fey's show is expected to be added at midseason next year, though it, too, could go on as soon as the fall.

"This falls under the category of a high-class problem," Kevin Reilly, the president of NBC Entertainment, said in a telephone interview in which he was supportive of Ms. Fey's project while remaining noncommittal. "I just can't imagine the audience would look at both shows, choose one and cancel the other out. In some ways, why is it any different than when there have been three or four cop shows on any schedule, or 'Scrubs' and 'ER,' which are tonally very different?"

"Will people really be flummoxed by that?" he added.

There is, of course, one other factor working in favor of both shows: the standing of NBC's current prime-time schedule, which ranks last among the four main broadcast networks. Or, as Mr. Michaels put it in a recent interview, "Right now, NBC has some openings."

Far below the surface of their similar premises, there are other fundamental differences between the two shows.

"Studio 60" is expected to have the intense, crackling backstage repartee of "The West Wing" (which ends its run next month), though with a twist: Mr. Whitford's character and Mr. Perry's, both head writers sent in to retool a show not unlike "Saturday Night," will vie for the romantic attentions of Ms. Peet, who plays a network executive.

"One of the fun things about doing stuff by Aaron is that it's kind of like my life," said Mr. Whitford, who in real life is actually happily married to the actress Jane Kaczmarek of Fox's "Malcolm in the Middle." "It's very serious and really silly."

In contrast, no romantic sparks are expected to fly between Ms. Fey's head writer and Mr. Baldwin's executive, who has been asked by his bosses at General Electric to apply an oven marketer's touch to a show that is actually quite successful.

When another writer on "The Girlie Show" observes to Mr. Baldwin's character, Jack, "I'm surprised you're renovating, this is such a nice office," Jack replies: "Sometimes you have to change things that are perfectly good, just to make them your own."

For viewers to see these scenes eventually on television, Ms. Fey and Mr. Michaels will have to navigate some logistical shoals beyond Mr. Sorkin's show.

Mr. Baldwin, a periodic guest star on "Will & Grace" who has never had a principal role on a prime-time series, has a thriving movie career and a young daughter who lives in Los Angeles, both of which frequently take him away from New York, where Ms. Fey's show would be filmed. Nonetheless, Mr. Baldwin said that should the show receive a standard, 22-episode commitment from NBC, he would work mightily to appear in as many installments as possible.

"What attracted me is that Tina is writing it," said Mr. Baldwin, whose number of appearances as guest host on "Saturday Night Live" is eclipsed only by that of Steve Martin. "Tina has a gift of knowing how to push things as far as she can and still be on a network."

Meanwhile, Ms. Fey has a frenetic schedule of her own. She is expected to return for at least another season of "Saturday Night Live," where her most prominent role is as co-anchor of "Weekend Update." She is also writing a movie, for Paramount, also produced by Mr. Michaels, that is based loosely on the true story of a Hasidic rap musician.

And she has a 6-month-old daughter with her husband, Jeff Richmond, the musical coordinator for "Saturday Night Live."

"I honestly think I'm not working any harder than any working mom anywhere else," she said, seriously. "I'm at least getting to work on things that are exciting and fun."

Among the most enjoyable aspects of the pilot, Ms. Fey said, is that it reunites her yet again with Ms. Dratch, who has created an array of quirky characters on "Saturday Night Live," including the self-explanatory Debbie Downer and a schlemiel named Sheldon.

Though Ms. Dratch and Ms. Fey are close friends who began their comedy careers together at Second City in Chicago, Ms. Dratch said she deliberately avoided approaching Ms. Fey directly about a role in the pilot, so as not to put her friend on the spot. Eventually, Ms. Fey asked about her friend's availability through her agent.

"If there's any good way to leave 'S.N.L.,' " said Ms. Dratch, whose status for next season on "Saturday Night Live" is not yet resolved, "it'd be doing a fake sketch show."

On "Saturday Night Live," Ms. Fey and Mr. Michaels have been nothing if not bold, though their pilot takes so many shots at NBC's corporate parent — by making fun of Mr. Baldwin's character and his signature product, the Tri-Vection oven — that it raises a question of whether they risk biting the hands that feed them, namely those of Jeffrey R. Immelt, the chairman of General Electric.

Mr. Reilly, who has been watching daily installments of the pilot as they are filmed, said there was no reason for concern.

"Jeff Immelt has a great sense of humor," he said. "He'll get a big kick out of it."

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

"Uh oh! We'd better get started."

Trailer for the Simpson's Movie. Apparently it's coming out "July 27, 2007". Though I've never heard of that specific a release date that far in advance. . .