Saturday, August 8, 2009
NO WORD ON IF HE'LL BE SCOLDED FOR USING NAUGHTY WORDS: Nathan Fillion's Twitter indicates that to promote both the second season of Castle and Heat Wave, the tie-in book written by "Richard Castle," he will be doing at least some book signings and tour, possibly in character as Castle. Gotta say, that's a pretty ingenious tie-in for ABC.
BON APPETIT! Judging from comments in the prior thread, there's some desire for a spoiler thread to discuss Julie and Julia, which I saw last night. I'm not sure we really need one, since there ain't much of a plot in the film, and the parallelism of the two women doesn't really work. However, I think reviews on this one show an age gap. Yes, the praise for Streep's performance is all well-deserved (as is the praise for the Streep/Tucci pairing, which is amazing), but I think there's an age gap evident in reactions to the Julie side of the film. Yes, Julie as a character is more than a little self-absorbed and narcissistic, but Amy Adams' inherent likability overcomes that. I also think those of us on the south side of about 35 see a lot more of ourselves in her, especially those of us who live day to day in the world of blogs and blogging.
Friday, August 7, 2009
WHAT MADE SAMMY RUN: Budd Schulberg, author of What Makes Sammy Run?, which Defamer calls the "only classic movie business story never to be adapted to the screen," died Wednesday. As is probably fitting, we missed it while we were buried under a tide of 80s movie nostalgia and I fixated on how much underbutt you could show at 8:00.
Let's be clear about something: What Makes Sammy Run is my second-favorite book about Hollywood, and the first (The Grove Book of Hollywood) is cheating because it's an anthology. I've read a bit about the controversy over whether Sammy Glick was the product of anti-semitism or just a garden-variety monster, but to me that fight misses the point. I loved Sammy Glick. He had a view of who he wanted to be and the world he wanted to inhabit, and he made it happen. If he wasn't that great a guy, so what? He was both more realistic and less troubling than the controversy made him seem, a close approximation of virtually every titan of industry who built, rather than inherited, his role. It is a literary injustice that "Sammy Glick" is an epithet and "[Roy] Hobbsian" a compliment.
As for why the movie could never get made, I think it gets made all the time. There are more-or-less faithful Sammy Glick reproductions all over the place. Ari Gold on Entourage is the most obvious, but you could find more than a little Sammy Glick in guys as different as Tony Montana and both Don Draper and Pete Campbell, for example. So What Makes Sammy Run doesn't really need to be made -- and let's all take a deep breath and thank our lucky stars that it never got made by Ben Stiller, who I believe once optioned it. No movie means that Sammy remains a perfect novel unsullied in our memories by an imperfect adaptation.
ETA: I guess I'm supposed to mention that he was a communist, then a HUAC testifying informant, and that he wrote On the Waterfront.
Let's be clear about something: What Makes Sammy Run is my second-favorite book about Hollywood, and the first (The Grove Book of Hollywood) is cheating because it's an anthology. I've read a bit about the controversy over whether Sammy Glick was the product of anti-semitism or just a garden-variety monster, but to me that fight misses the point. I loved Sammy Glick. He had a view of who he wanted to be and the world he wanted to inhabit, and he made it happen. If he wasn't that great a guy, so what? He was both more realistic and less troubling than the controversy made him seem, a close approximation of virtually every titan of industry who built, rather than inherited, his role. It is a literary injustice that "Sammy Glick" is an epithet and "[Roy] Hobbsian" a compliment.
As for why the movie could never get made, I think it gets made all the time. There are more-or-less faithful Sammy Glick reproductions all over the place. Ari Gold on Entourage is the most obvious, but you could find more than a little Sammy Glick in guys as different as Tony Montana and both Don Draper and Pete Campbell, for example. So What Makes Sammy Run doesn't really need to be made -- and let's all take a deep breath and thank our lucky stars that it never got made by Ben Stiller, who I believe once optioned it. No movie means that Sammy remains a perfect novel unsullied in our memories by an imperfect adaptation.
ETA: I guess I'm supposed to mention that he was a communist, then a HUAC testifying informant, and that he wrote On the Waterfront.
COME MY LOVE, I'LL TELL YOU A TALE: Up there with the films of John Hughes as a shared cultural memory from the 80s has to be The Princess Bride, which got a total of one Oscar nomination, for the original song "Storybook Love," where it was nominated against "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" from Mannequin, "Shakedown" from Beverly Hills Cop II, and winner "I've Had The Time Of My Life" from Dirty Dancing. The song's composer and singer, Willy DeVille, apparently died last night of pancreatic cancer.
IF HE PUKES, YOU DIE: For some reason I do not entirely understand, some guy is hard at work building his very own Bill Paxton Pinball game.
NOW YOU KNOW WHAT'S AVAILABLE, AND KNOWING IS HALF THE BATTLE: It seems like there's something for everyone at the movies this weekend--mindless action in the form of GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra, horror/mystery in A Perfect Getaway, and summer chick flick Julie & Julia (which, based on reviews, seems likely to get Meryl Streep yet another Oscar nod) all in wide release, and some interesting indies--Paper Heart, the pseudo documentary starring Michael Cera and ex-girlfriend Charlene Yi about finding love in the modern world, Cold Souls, in which Paul Giamatti does the Being John Malkovich thing as "Paul Giamatti," an actor who sells his soul, and the widening of Asperger's Syndrome romance Adam. After a few weeks of studios opting out of releasing much (apparently out of fear of Harry Potter's strength), a pretty impressive slate of stuff. What's getting your entertainment dollar this weekend?
Thursday, August 6, 2009
YOU SEE US AS A BRAIN, AN ATHLETE, A BASKET CASE, A PRINCESS, AND A CRIMINAL: John Hughes, director of (among others) The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, is reportedly dead. Team coverage to follow.
Isaac: I had no idea that he wrote screenplays for Mr. Mom and Vacation, no idea that he was only 34 when he made Sixteen Candles, and no idea that he only directed eight movies in his career. I think his core body of work actually is Sixteen Candles, Breakfast Club, and Pretty in Pink, the movies set principally in high schools while I was in high school, since Ferris Bueller and Weird Science are focused more on things external to high school and Home Alone, of course, is something completely different. Hughes's window opened on a pretty narrow backyard -- that of an outsider born to and among insiders, and distinguishable from them only by some trait more subtle than appearance or wealth. If the resolution of those '80s movies -- mild individualists finding common ground or romance with people not actually much different from themselves -- was too easy, it was not less comforting, and it made for good parent drop-off date movies. To me, the greatest thing in any John Hughes movie was in the the scene where Sixteen Candles's Jake talks it out with a friend at the chin-up bars in the gym. In the background, there is a one-sided wrestling match between a hulking brute and a sickly-looking kid. The kid struggles, the brute clobbers him, and you get the sense that Hughes knew that the underdog's chances weren't as great as his movies would make it seem.
Adam: Worth noting – at a time when “teen movie” meant horny guys and gratuitous nudity, John Hughes gave us movies centered around Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy. With the possible exception of Sloane in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, women weren’t sex objects in his films or empty slates, but fully-formed central characters. Compare that to today’s Apatovian universe.
Alex: It's fall of my senior year in high school and distinguished alum John Hughes is on campus filming scenes for a new film starring the guy from "War Games." Interiors are being shot nearby at a shuttered high school, Maine North, which was also used for "The Breakfast Club." We are given permission to miss school to appear as extras in the film, but, unfortunately my football coach is not as understanding, and when I explain to the production assistant that I will have to leave early for practice, I am told it is either all day or nothing. I chose football over film, a decision I regret to this day whenever I happen upon "Ferris" and see dozens of my big-haired classmates roaming the halls of Shermer High School or sitting in Sloane's history class.
For a generation, Hughes was the cool uncle who still remembered what it was like to be a teen in a world full of Rooneys, Vernons, and Grandma Helens.
* * *
Adam: I'm stunned. There aren't many directors whose trademark is so noticeable, but every member of my generation knows what the phrase "A John Hughes Film" means. It will be warm, it will be funny, and you will identify with at least one of his teen characters, the kind of humanism I associate with James L. Brooks for grown-up films. In those teen movies, the adults were clueless but the teens felt real -- each insecure and fucked up in their own ways. Really, has there been a better depiction of depression in an adolescent than Cameron in Ferris Bueller's Day Off? (And is there a more rewarding post-credits sequence than that in the same film?) Yes, okay, he screwed up the ending to Pretty In Pink -- but it led him to make Some Kind of Wonderful to atone for it.
And let's not fail to give him credit for his sillier works -- there's a reason Home Alone made such a ridiculous pile of money; it's a Bugs Bunny cartoon perfect brought to life. National Lampoon's Vacation shows a bite he didn't reveal as much later on, and Mr. Mom is an unappreciated gem; at least, I remember it well.
But it's really about those core three films -- Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. When they're on, I don't change the channel. Thank you, John Hughes, for delivering such wonderful, empathetic movies to me at the right time in my life for them.
Matt: I'm a little too young to have seen the classic 1984-1987 Hughes films in the theater, but they were on basic cable every weekend (in admittedly sanitized versions), and The Breakfast Club in particular is an enduring film that might even earn the title of "classic." Yes, after that, it's a downslide--Uncle Buck? Curly Sue? Baby's Day Out? But those films in the mid-80s? It's hard to imagine a streak more significant than the Brat Pack series--Sixteen Candles, Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Pretty In Pink, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Some Kind Of Wonderful? Not all were great, but they endure.
But the Hughes-driven film with most relevance to my age group has to be Home Alone--still the highest grossing live action comedy of all time. But what made Home Alone, along with all the other Hughes movies, was not just the slapstick comedy, but that there was a heart there--be it Catherine O'Hara's desperate quest to get home to her child, Kevin McAlister's realization that he really does love and miss his brothers and sisters in spite of what they put him through, and the actually moving subplot with Old Man Marley reconciling with his daughter. Hughes had withdrawn from Hollywood in recent years, though a concept from him was the basis for the bomb Drillbit Taylor, but his influence goes on.
Occasional Guest Shonda (Via Twitter): "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stick around once in a while you could miss it" -- my teen years were Ferris and The Breakfast Club.
And let's not fail to give him credit for his sillier works -- there's a reason Home Alone made such a ridiculous pile of money; it's a Bugs Bunny cartoon perfect brought to life. National Lampoon's Vacation shows a bite he didn't reveal as much later on, and Mr. Mom is an unappreciated gem; at least, I remember it well.
But it's really about those core three films -- Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. When they're on, I don't change the channel. Thank you, John Hughes, for delivering such wonderful, empathetic movies to me at the right time in my life for them.
Matt: I'm a little too young to have seen the classic 1984-1987 Hughes films in the theater, but they were on basic cable every weekend (in admittedly sanitized versions), and The Breakfast Club in particular is an enduring film that might even earn the title of "classic." Yes, after that, it's a downslide--Uncle Buck? Curly Sue? Baby's Day Out? But those films in the mid-80s? It's hard to imagine a streak more significant than the Brat Pack series--Sixteen Candles, Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Pretty In Pink, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Some Kind Of Wonderful? Not all were great, but they endure.
But the Hughes-driven film with most relevance to my age group has to be Home Alone--still the highest grossing live action comedy of all time. But what made Home Alone, along with all the other Hughes movies, was not just the slapstick comedy, but that there was a heart there--be it Catherine O'Hara's desperate quest to get home to her child, Kevin McAlister's realization that he really does love and miss his brothers and sisters in spite of what they put him through, and the actually moving subplot with Old Man Marley reconciling with his daughter. Hughes had withdrawn from Hollywood in recent years, though a concept from him was the basis for the bomb Drillbit Taylor, but his influence goes on.
Occasional Guest Shonda (Via Twitter): "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stick around once in a while you could miss it" -- my teen years were Ferris and The Breakfast Club.
Isaac: I had no idea that he wrote screenplays for Mr. Mom and Vacation, no idea that he was only 34 when he made Sixteen Candles, and no idea that he only directed eight movies in his career. I think his core body of work actually is Sixteen Candles, Breakfast Club, and Pretty in Pink, the movies set principally in high schools while I was in high school, since Ferris Bueller and Weird Science are focused more on things external to high school and Home Alone, of course, is something completely different. Hughes's window opened on a pretty narrow backyard -- that of an outsider born to and among insiders, and distinguishable from them only by some trait more subtle than appearance or wealth. If the resolution of those '80s movies -- mild individualists finding common ground or romance with people not actually much different from themselves -- was too easy, it was not less comforting, and it made for good parent drop-off date movies. To me, the greatest thing in any John Hughes movie was in the the scene where Sixteen Candles's Jake talks it out with a friend at the chin-up bars in the gym. In the background, there is a one-sided wrestling match between a hulking brute and a sickly-looking kid. The kid struggles, the brute clobbers him, and you get the sense that Hughes knew that the underdog's chances weren't as great as his movies would make it seem.
Adam: Worth noting – at a time when “teen movie” meant horny guys and gratuitous nudity, John Hughes gave us movies centered around Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy. With the possible exception of Sloane in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, women weren’t sex objects in his films or empty slates, but fully-formed central characters. Compare that to today’s Apatovian universe.
Alex: It's fall of my senior year in high school and distinguished alum John Hughes is on campus filming scenes for a new film starring the guy from "War Games." Interiors are being shot nearby at a shuttered high school, Maine North, which was also used for "The Breakfast Club." We are given permission to miss school to appear as extras in the film, but, unfortunately my football coach is not as understanding, and when I explain to the production assistant that I will have to leave early for practice, I am told it is either all day or nothing. I chose football over film, a decision I regret to this day whenever I happen upon "Ferris" and see dozens of my big-haired classmates roaming the halls of Shermer High School or sitting in Sloane's history class.
For a generation, Hughes was the cool uncle who still remembered what it was like to be a teen in a world full of Rooneys, Vernons, and Grandma Helens.
Kim: I'm chiming in a little late, and so have already read many of everyone's comments. What's interesting to me is that while everyone here considers Hughes to have been personally seminal in some way or another, the subset of his work driving that view is so different for each of us. For me it's just Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller -- everything else is at best secondary. Along with just generally being the most perfect teen movie ever, Breakfast Club gave us the most fully realized "bad boy" of any film of my youth. For every girl who had the tendency to ignore the nice boy sitting next to her in class in favor of the guy cutting school to smoke under the bleachers, John Bender validated us. As for Ferris, it's not that it spoke to us all the way Breakfast Club did -- it's more that it provided us with a universe of common pop cultural experience to share together in the pre-look-up-all-the-funny-lines-on-imdb-and-find-lists-of-seminal-moments-on-random-blogs-like-this-one era. Each of us has seen the movie a million times, and we know that everyone else has as well. Who doesn't occasionally spout an "anyone? Bueller?" when faced with an unexpected silence? So that's how it is in their family . . . do you have a kiss for daddy? . . . pardon my french, but you're an asshole! . . . let my Cameron go . . . Ferris Bueller's on line two . . .
(Also: it is now 8:43 pm and no one has realized that Matt left "a princess" out of the tag line. For shame!)
YOU CAN CAN'T CAN CAN'T MIGHT OR MIGHT NOT DO THAT ON TELEVISION: There was an exchange between Bill Simmons and Seth Myers on a podcast a few months ago about how the old SNL sketch about the superhero party could not air today because of the drug use. That reminded me of Amy Heckerling's amazement on the Fast Times at Ridgemont High commentary that there was a time a director of a major studio movie could film a sex scene involving a 15-year-old character. That, plus the loosening standards on basic cable (non-fleeting waist-up nudity on that Denise Richards show; uncensored swearing after 10:00) and in the movies (penises seemed to disappear from R-rated movies after Groove Tube -- Crying Game and Wild Things excepted -- until Apatow brought them back) got me thinking: I have no idea what the current standards are on network television. 15 years ago a hit show could say "shit," show butts, and give fleeting glimpses of the parts of breasts that Barbie isn't missing. Today the linguistic prohibitions seem to be narrower but more stringently enforced, except that beeping cures all. Bare butts and breasts have vanished, I think, and there seems to be an inconsistent application of standards for partially-clothed posteriors. Thongs seem to be okay in beach montages, but Survivor pixellates underbutt, for example.
So help me out here. What exactly are the rules, not just for language and skin, but also for drugs, teen sexual activity, etc.? If I were a TV writer, I would have no idea what's okay and what's not -- which seems to be a common complaint among TV writers.
So help me out here. What exactly are the rules, not just for language and skin, but also for drugs, teen sexual activity, etc.? If I were a TV writer, I would have no idea what's okay and what's not -- which seems to be a common complaint among TV writers.
IF WE'RE ONLY GOING TO RUN ONE TENNESSEE TITANS ITEM A YEAR, IT BETTER BE A GOOD ONE: Which of these recent statements do you find less credible?
LenDale White, claiming to lose 30 pounds off-season based on one simple change in his diet: "I really got to be honest. It wasn't a lot of major diet changes. [It was] watching what I drink. I was a big Patron consumer. ... That's what it was. I was drinking a lot, drank a lot of alcohol. I cut that out of my diet all the way. I don't drink at all. I cut the drinking, I stopped drinking for six months. It started falling off."
Vince Young: "I will be the next black quarterback to win a Super Bowl. And I will be in the Hall of Fame."
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
THINK OF THE THINGS THAT YOU LOVE TO COOK AND JUST SAY "NO": Feck you, Zooey Deschanel and your twee vegan palate; yeah, okay, allergies, but still -- let's not have too much of it on my Top Chef. Bring back my proteins!
Anyone who's a veteran of this show knew during the shopping period just what this week's central question was going to be; while I was happy with its resolution, I couldn't help but wonder if the producers placed their thumb on the judging scales just a bit.
Meanwhile, here's the details on Hubert Keller's $5000 burger from The Burger Bar. (But from that, you make Phila's Good Dog burger?)
added: Judge James Oseland defends meat-free dining (and challenges); Scott Tobias recaps for the A.V. Club: "Over on the Twitter, Movieline (and erstwhile Defamer) writer Mark Lisanti and I have been exchanging alternative vegan titles for Zooey Deschanel movies. A few of my suggestions: (500) Days Of Sunchokes, Failure To Lunch, The Non-Food-Related Happening, Bridge To Arugula. A few of his: The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Carnivore Robert Ford, Vegan Elf, and (my personal favorite) Almost Flavorless. See how a social networking tool like Twitter can enrich your life?"
Anyone who's a veteran of this show knew during the shopping period just what this week's central question was going to be; while I was happy with its resolution, I couldn't help but wonder if the producers placed their thumb on the judging scales just a bit.
Meanwhile, here's the details on Hubert Keller's $5000 burger from The Burger Bar. (But from that, you make Phila's Good Dog burger?)
added: Judge James Oseland defends meat-free dining (and challenges); Scott Tobias recaps for the A.V. Club: "Over on the Twitter, Movieline (and erstwhile Defamer) writer Mark Lisanti and I have been exchanging alternative vegan titles for Zooey Deschanel movies. A few of my suggestions: (500) Days Of Sunchokes, Failure To Lunch, The Non-Food-Related Happening, Bridge To Arugula. A few of his: The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Carnivore Robert Ford, Vegan Elf, and (my personal favorite) Almost Flavorless. See how a social networking tool like Twitter can enrich your life?"
MARY, CAN YOU BE MORE OF A MAN THAN ADAM? Boy, that Kodak theater is big. Apparently the lighting designers got a little confused about where the cameras were going to be, unless the choreographers' aim was to blind the TV audience. Very little of true wow value in the choreography, to boot: um, Wade, football players and cheerleaders? Nasty boys? Thank heavens for Mia, who knows how to bring her A-game to the finale and who finally managed to come up with a way to choreograph the two-girl dance effectively. (One bit of constructive criticism -- I would have liked the dancing to skirt removal time ratio to have been slightly higher.)
Why Evan may win: Benji Schwimmer. Personality and polish can take you a long, long way in this competition. And the jidges could not have done more than they did tonight to galvanize Evan's fan base into voting.
Why Evan cannot win: He's no Benji Schwimmer. Even when he's gotten styles that should have been squarely in his wheelhouse, Evan has rarely nailed a dance outside of his solos. It's not beyond the realm of possibility that his obviously steadfast fans carry him to a win, but it's tough to make any legitimate argument that he deserves it.
Why Kayla may win: The jidges have been behind her from moment one. She has never flubbed a dance. And she is a truly lovely dancer.
Why Kayla cannot win: Jeanine. Jeanine has everything going for her that Kayla does and then some. And even when Kayla was dusting other dancers earlier in the competition, she still regularly found herself in the bottom three. Kayla, like last season's Will Wingfield, is the jidge-adored dancer who never quite connects with the audience. I think she is the #4 finisher tomorrow night.
Why Brandon may win: The strongest guy usually wins, and this year that guy is Brandon. He is powerful and graceful and explosive and contained. Plus he seems like a sweetheart, and although Evan has been getting all the lovability kudos, he is adored by many, especially after that fantastic winning-Mia-over edit he's been getting all season.
Why Brandon cannot win: There's such a track record of dancers like Brandon on SYTYCD, and the super-technically proficient contemporary dancer so rarely captures the hearts and souls of the voters. See, e.g., Danny Tidwell and Travis Wall. (And even though he outdanced Evan, he looked only marginally less goofy during that dopey pocket-sized Nasty Boys number.)
Why Jeanine may win: Girls don't normally win this show, and I bet the producers would love to see a girl win this one. Jeanine matched or exceeded the quality of her partner's dancing in all three of her partnered dances tonight (including both Kayla during that glorious onion striptease as well as Brandon during the paso matrix), and it's hard not to love a girl who dances to the True Lies tango. Plus she got the big cute personality edit and lots of discussion about peaking at the right time, both of which weigh in her favor.
Why Jeanine cannot win: Girls don't normally win this show. Sabra Johnson, the only female winner in the show's history, beat out Danny Tidwell, the previously mentioned super-technically proficient contemporary dancer who so rarely captures the hearts and minds of the voters. But both Brandon and Evan are loaded for bear with personality, and the tweeny girls like them some boys. Also, while Jeanine has been great most weeks, prior to tonight she has never really had any of those big memorable breathtaking moments (except for maybe the Travis Wall contemporary number with presumptive behind-the-scenes hookup Jason). Talk about peaking at the last possible moment.
I haven't cast a single vote all season, so I feel a little phony making predictions, but I'm going with Jeanine for the win and Kayla out of the money. I don't have a view as between Evan and Brandon for the two spot -- neither one would surprise me.
added: PopWatch lists and provides YouTube for its favorite 15 performances in SYTYCD history.
Why Evan may win: Benji Schwimmer. Personality and polish can take you a long, long way in this competition. And the jidges could not have done more than they did tonight to galvanize Evan's fan base into voting.
Why Evan cannot win: He's no Benji Schwimmer. Even when he's gotten styles that should have been squarely in his wheelhouse, Evan has rarely nailed a dance outside of his solos. It's not beyond the realm of possibility that his obviously steadfast fans carry him to a win, but it's tough to make any legitimate argument that he deserves it.
Why Kayla may win: The jidges have been behind her from moment one. She has never flubbed a dance. And she is a truly lovely dancer.
Why Kayla cannot win: Jeanine. Jeanine has everything going for her that Kayla does and then some. And even when Kayla was dusting other dancers earlier in the competition, she still regularly found herself in the bottom three. Kayla, like last season's Will Wingfield, is the jidge-adored dancer who never quite connects with the audience. I think she is the #4 finisher tomorrow night.
Why Brandon may win: The strongest guy usually wins, and this year that guy is Brandon. He is powerful and graceful and explosive and contained. Plus he seems like a sweetheart, and although Evan has been getting all the lovability kudos, he is adored by many, especially after that fantastic winning-Mia-over edit he's been getting all season.
Why Brandon cannot win: There's such a track record of dancers like Brandon on SYTYCD, and the super-technically proficient contemporary dancer so rarely captures the hearts and souls of the voters. See, e.g., Danny Tidwell and Travis Wall. (And even though he outdanced Evan, he looked only marginally less goofy during that dopey pocket-sized Nasty Boys number.)
Why Jeanine may win: Girls don't normally win this show, and I bet the producers would love to see a girl win this one. Jeanine matched or exceeded the quality of her partner's dancing in all three of her partnered dances tonight (including both Kayla during that glorious onion striptease as well as Brandon during the paso matrix), and it's hard not to love a girl who dances to the True Lies tango. Plus she got the big cute personality edit and lots of discussion about peaking at the right time, both of which weigh in her favor.
Why Jeanine cannot win: Girls don't normally win this show. Sabra Johnson, the only female winner in the show's history, beat out Danny Tidwell, the previously mentioned super-technically proficient contemporary dancer who so rarely captures the hearts and minds of the voters. But both Brandon and Evan are loaded for bear with personality, and the tweeny girls like them some boys. Also, while Jeanine has been great most weeks, prior to tonight she has never really had any of those big memorable breathtaking moments (except for maybe the Travis Wall contemporary number with presumptive behind-the-scenes hookup Jason). Talk about peaking at the last possible moment.
I haven't cast a single vote all season, so I feel a little phony making predictions, but I'm going with Jeanine for the win and Kayla out of the money. I don't have a view as between Evan and Brandon for the two spot -- neither one would surprise me.
added: PopWatch lists and provides YouTube for its favorite 15 performances in SYTYCD history.
CRITICVILLE DISPATCH: Replacing Frank Bruni as the NYT restaurant critic will be current editor Sam Sifton; Grub Street has compiled some of his existing food writing, and the talent is clearly there. Also, the Trib's Michael Phillips and NYT's Tony Scott to take over syndicated "At the Movies" from two Bens I never watched who took over for Siskel & Ebert.
On the Sifton thing: what's interesting about it is that photographs of him are readily available, while the Association of Food Journalists' guidelines advises:
On the Sifton thing: what's interesting about it is that photographs of him are readily available, while the Association of Food Journalists' guidelines advises:
Reviews should be conducted anonymously whenever possible. Critics should experience the restaurant just as ordinary patrons do. Reservations should be made in a name other than that of the reviewer and meals should be paid for using cash or credit cards in a name other than the critic. Take care to make reservations from telephones outside of work; many restaurants have caller identification systems. Just because a workstation telephone has a "blocked" telephone number doesn't mean the call won't be tagged as coming from the publication. Reviewers who have been recognized may want to make note of that in the review, especially if the treatment they receive differs markedly from what nearby tables are receiving. While anonymity is important when dining out, reviewers should write under their real names, not a pseudonym. Readers should also be able to respond to the reviews; a work telephone number or e-mail for the reviewer or the supervisory editor should be included with the review.Emphasis added, because that's the key, right? While there's only so much truffle oil a bad chef can employ to cover up his failings, a restaurant critic is most useful to his readers when there is no special treatment whatsover. Perhaps in this day and age it's impossible to find anyone under 35 whose photograph can't be found ...
SO WE KEEP ON WAITING, WAITING ON THE WORLD TO CHANGE: Going into tonight's final Season Five performance show, there's really only one question worth asking: do you care? I don't.
Sitting here contemplating my general degree of blahness (extremely high levels of blahness are being reported from all precincts), I can't help but think of the final round of AI for each of the last two seasons. The battle of the Davids and the Lambert/Allen showcase showdown each had infinitely more watercooler discussion potential than I'm expecting from this week's performances and outcome. But setting AI aside entirely and just thinking about SYTYCD, this is by far the least interesting finale the show has ever had.
I started out writing a post with lots of bullet points comparing particular aspects of this season to prior seasons, but just trashed the whole thing, because the problem with this season boils down to one thing: a lack of wow moments. I don't care how many times Nigel and Mary try to tell us that these are the most talented dancers the show has ever had -- the dances just haven't been that memorable. (Actually, this "examiner" reminds me that I liked more of the dances than I thought I did, although I'd add in the butt, the crash test dummies, and the cracked Chorus Line and excise anything having to do with Melissa or disco.)
You all know how much I love this show, and so it makes me a little sad to be snarking about it. I'm therefore going to stick with my sandbaggery theory and attribute all the blahness of this season to a dastardly plan by my once-and-future BFF Nigel to keep all the interesting dancers and the best choreography for the inaugural fall season of the show -- a season in which Tabitha and Napoleon will be sent on one of those 120-day world cruises along with Tyce Diorio and Doriana Sanchez.
But let me ask it again: do you care?
Sitting here contemplating my general degree of blahness (extremely high levels of blahness are being reported from all precincts), I can't help but think of the final round of AI for each of the last two seasons. The battle of the Davids and the Lambert/Allen showcase showdown each had infinitely more watercooler discussion potential than I'm expecting from this week's performances and outcome. But setting AI aside entirely and just thinking about SYTYCD, this is by far the least interesting finale the show has ever had.
I started out writing a post with lots of bullet points comparing particular aspects of this season to prior seasons, but just trashed the whole thing, because the problem with this season boils down to one thing: a lack of wow moments. I don't care how many times Nigel and Mary try to tell us that these are the most talented dancers the show has ever had -- the dances just haven't been that memorable. (Actually, this "examiner" reminds me that I liked more of the dances than I thought I did, although I'd add in the butt, the crash test dummies, and the cracked Chorus Line and excise anything having to do with Melissa or disco.)
You all know how much I love this show, and so it makes me a little sad to be snarking about it. I'm therefore going to stick with my sandbaggery theory and attribute all the blahness of this season to a dastardly plan by my once-and-future BFF Nigel to keep all the interesting dancers and the best choreography for the inaugural fall season of the show -- a season in which Tabitha and Napoleon will be sent on one of those 120-day world cruises along with Tyce Diorio and Doriana Sanchez.
But let me ask it again: do you care?
STRAIGHT UP, NOW TELL ME -- DID YOU REALLY WANT TO LOVE HER FOREVER? Our long national incoherent time-wasting nonsense which bore no resemblance to "judging" is over. I will not miss Paula Abdul one bit, even on the "so random she's compelling" front; she did not add value to the show (nor does Randy any more, but that's another story), and I believe this is one step forward for Idol, not two steps back.
OR A SLUGGING PERCENTAGE OF 2.144 AND OPS OF 3.144: After last night, Albert Pujols is now 7-9 in bases-loaded situations this season, hitting five grand slams and producing twenty-four RBI. Can it be argued that even with Matt Holliday batting behind him, we've landed on a player worth considering walking intentionally with the bases loaded? Apparently, this has only happened six times in the history of the game, most recently with Josh Hamilton being walked by the Rays last year with the Rays holding a 7-3 lead with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.
[In his career, he's 41-99 in such situations with 7 walks, 9 doubles, 0 triples and 11 HR, producing 136 RBI.]
[In his career, he's 41-99 in such situations with 7 walks, 9 doubles, 0 triples and 11 HR, producing 136 RBI.]
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
50 best duets ever - Telegraph
I'M GOING TO BEAT OFF...ALL MY DEMONS: The Telegraph from the other side of the pond makes its picks for the 50 Greatest Duets of all time, and while Dewey Cox's seminal take on the subject failed to make the cut (as an aside, much like Anchorman, Dewey Cox seems to get better on repeat viewings), give the Telly credit for some inspired picks, including King Louis and Baloo the Bear (otherwise known as Louis Prima and Phil Harris) combining on "Wanna Be Like You," Shane MacGowan and Kristy MacColl teaming for the greatest holiday song ever in "Fairytale of New York," Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush's mix-tape staple "Don't Give Up," and Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra's otherworldy old west meets psychedia "Some Velvet Morning," which occuppies the top spot.
YouTube - JK Divorce Entrance Dance
DOUBLE YOUR PLEASURE, DOUBLE YOUR FUN: Jill and Kevin, six months after the wedding dance.
MISS TEEN WOLF CALIFORNIA: Still emptying out the crap that accumulated in my head while I was home sick yesterday. This brief throwaway exchange from Teen Wolf jolted me awake and reminded me how long ago the 80s were. It wasn't the words, which you'd find in any number of movies today, but the offhandedness of them -- they weren't played for laughs or effect; they weren't there to help us understand the characters or the context. They just take up space. Very weird. Also weird: the guy who tosses out the epithet is the one with the floppy hair, skin-tight t-shirt, form-fitting crotch-hugging turquoise pants, and red belt. He who smelt it ...
E/I SANS: One thing I didn't admit a few threads back is that I've been using the summer TV lull to bring myself up to speed selectively on Degrassi. In the span of two or three weeks, I think I've seen a high-school rivalry stabbing, a hostage shooting, a terroristic threat, a pot-related peanut allergy crisis, a false molestation accusation, a true molestation accusation, a ball-ectomy, a near-prostitution experience involving a Toronto City Councilman, a spontaneous cocaine-induced singer/songwriter-accompanied septum deviation, and about 170,000 promos for Degrassi Goes Hollywood. And I swear I only watched about eight episodes.
My point is that I've been staring at the logo for the N a lot, which is relevant because The N's younger parent (wrap your head around that), Nickelodeon, just changed its logo. EW doesn't like it. But I have to disagree. True, the squat, rounded 80s-style fonts look better on shorter words, because the length of "Nickelodeon" tends to create its own straight edge. Still, it's a nice clean look, it goes well with the font for The N, and it was long past time to dump the old logo, which used one of those fonts that irritatingly half-parroted free-hand lettering, and the main feature of which was the old Nick splat. The splat really needed to be retired. How long has it been since the slime was Nick's calling card? The old logo looked dated, seemed to skew even younger than the network's target audience, and had the added detraction of looking like you parked your TV under a tree.
My point is that I've been staring at the logo for the N a lot, which is relevant because The N's younger parent (wrap your head around that), Nickelodeon, just changed its logo. EW doesn't like it. But I have to disagree. True, the squat, rounded 80s-style fonts look better on shorter words, because the length of "Nickelodeon" tends to create its own straight edge. Still, it's a nice clean look, it goes well with the font for The N, and it was long past time to dump the old logo, which used one of those fonts that irritatingly half-parroted free-hand lettering, and the main feature of which was the old Nick splat. The splat really needed to be retired. How long has it been since the slime was Nick's calling card? The old logo looked dated, seemed to skew even younger than the network's target audience, and had the added detraction of looking like you parked your TV under a tree.
VIDEO KILLED THE RADIO STAR, ITUNES KILLED THE VIDEO STAR? The announcement of this year's MTV Video Music awards nominees (led by Beyonce's "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)" and Lady Gaga's "Poker Face") leads to an interesting question--is the music video dead? As recently as 10 years ago, videos could drive someone to radio and multimedia superstardom--does anyone think Britney would have the career she's had without the "Hit Me Baby One More Time" video? Sometimes, now, things will go viral--sometimes mainstream ("Single Ladies" and its parodies and homages) and sometimes less so ("Here It Goes Again")--but it's hard to think of a bunch of recent artists who are defined and "broken out" by their videos the way Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, Madonna, and even some early 90s rockers like Green Day were. The last one I can think of where the music video was a big factor in breaking the artist was Pussycat Dolls taking "Don't Cha" up the charts. Given that YouTube has turned into a massive repository of music videos, it seems safe to say that the format isn't dead, but why does it seem to be? What's taking its place? Music video games? Use of music in TV shows? Something else entirely? I'm not sure, but I'm guessing you'll have some thoughts.
CULTURAL WASTELAND: Boy, a day in bed sick with a remote sure will remind you that, mid-summer, there's nothing on TV and you've already emptied the DVR. Good thing I have, on Adam's (and Rhett Reese's) recommendation, the Joe Schmo 2 DVD to tide me over until Mad Men starts on August 16. Nonetheless, yesterday's boredom reminds me to ask: what are you watching this summer? Tosh.0 and Better Off Ted? The Complete BSG on Blu-Ray? YouTube videos of Comic-Con panels? The pages of 1984 that you got to before Amazon deleted them from your Kindle? Pray tell.
IN THE ALPHABET SYSTEM, THERE ARE TWENTY-SIX LETTERS: PopWatch's question today is too good not to pilfer -- as long as Sesame Street is going to parody Mad Men, what other contemporary shows should they spoof? I can't be the only one rooting for Muppet Office with Prairie Pam doing cutaway interviews.
[30 Rock, L&O: SVU parodies linked here. And I didn't know that they had done A's Anatomy, RSI: Rhyme Scene Investigation (with Muppet Caruso/Proctor) and Meal or No Meal. Oh, and Pre-School Musical.]
[30 Rock, L&O: SVU parodies linked here. And I didn't know that they had done A's Anatomy, RSI: Rhyme Scene Investigation (with Muppet Caruso/Proctor) and Meal or No Meal. Oh, and Pre-School Musical.]
I HAVE ONE JOB ON THIS LOUSY SHIP: Man, it's been a long time since I've taken inventory of the state of the nation's celebrity baby names. Finally jolting me into action is the fact that not only did Amazing Survivor übersupercouple Rob and Ambuh (no offense to Ethan and Jenna, and we here at ALOTT5MA wish Ethan well on his road to a full physical and tonsorial recovery, but until Ethan starts convincing Racers to throw challenges, the title goes to Boston Rob) have their first baby almost a full month ago -- a little girl charmingly named Lucia Rose -- but I didn't even know that Amber was expecting. So clearly I'm way, way behind.
So, what else we got? Gratist tennis playir evir Roger Federer is now the daddy of twin girls Charlene "Yes, Dammit, I Cried When Eddings Died" Riva and Myla "I'm Home Again" Rose. (And if you think I'm Bermanizing any more of these names, you'd be wrong.) Tobey Maguire and Jennifer Meyer gave Ruby (resisting . . . urge . . . . ) Sweetheart a little brother -- Otis Tobias Maguire feels like they were trying just a leetle too hard to come up with something less trendy than Owen.
Matt already posted about little Tabitha and Marion Broderick -- proof positive that someone really liked to watch TV back when we were kids. Grey's Chyler Leigh is more of a 90s TV gal, naming her third baby Anniston Kae after dubbing her son Noah Wilde. (Yes, there's another daughter, Taelyn Leigh, which I realize kind of kills my effort at a TV theme.) There are other names we haven't discussed -- we could talk about Adele Georgiana and Roman Stylianos Gianopoulos (not to mention their big sister Mathilda Ereni Gianopoulos), but my lung capacity is insufficient to permit me to recite all of Molly Ringwald's kids' names at once, so I'm putting that one on hold.
But here's an odd new trend -- what's with people announcing baby names to the press months before said names will be attached to actual babies? Some woman who had the good fortune to hook up with Jude Law will be naming a baby Sophia come sometime around October. Um, ok. And the first Duggar grandchild will be getting an "M" name instead of a "J" name in October, giving me as long as three months to wonder why, with all the resources of a brand new initial at their disposal, the inaugural niece of John-David (cheating!), Jana, Jill, Jessa, Jinger (I've always felt bad for Jinger, who so clearly lost the J-naming lottery) Joseph, Josiah, Joy-Anna (cheating again!), Jedidiah, Jeremiah, Jason, James, Justin, Jackson, Johannah, Jennifer, and Jordyn-Grace (still more cheating!) couldn't get something a little less fakey-spelly than Mackynzie. Just think of the possibilities! Ah, never fear, they'll get through all of them.
So, what else we got? Gratist tennis playir evir Roger Federer is now the daddy of twin girls Charlene "Yes, Dammit, I Cried When Eddings Died" Riva and Myla "I'm Home Again" Rose. (And if you think I'm Bermanizing any more of these names, you'd be wrong.) Tobey Maguire and Jennifer Meyer gave Ruby (resisting . . . urge . . . . ) Sweetheart a little brother -- Otis Tobias Maguire feels like they were trying just a leetle too hard to come up with something less trendy than Owen.
Matt already posted about little Tabitha and Marion Broderick -- proof positive that someone really liked to watch TV back when we were kids. Grey's Chyler Leigh is more of a 90s TV gal, naming her third baby Anniston Kae after dubbing her son Noah Wilde. (Yes, there's another daughter, Taelyn Leigh, which I realize kind of kills my effort at a TV theme.) There are other names we haven't discussed -- we could talk about Adele Georgiana and Roman Stylianos Gianopoulos (not to mention their big sister Mathilda Ereni Gianopoulos), but my lung capacity is insufficient to permit me to recite all of Molly Ringwald's kids' names at once, so I'm putting that one on hold.
But here's an odd new trend -- what's with people announcing baby names to the press months before said names will be attached to actual babies? Some woman who had the good fortune to hook up with Jude Law will be naming a baby Sophia come sometime around October. Um, ok. And the first Duggar grandchild will be getting an "M" name instead of a "J" name in October, giving me as long as three months to wonder why, with all the resources of a brand new initial at their disposal, the inaugural niece of John-David (cheating!), Jana, Jill, Jessa, Jinger (I've always felt bad for Jinger, who so clearly lost the J-naming lottery) Joseph, Josiah, Joy-Anna (cheating again!), Jedidiah, Jeremiah, Jason, James, Justin, Jackson, Johannah, Jennifer, and Jordyn-Grace (still more cheating!) couldn't get something a little less fakey-spelly than Mackynzie. Just think of the possibilities! Ah, never fear, they'll get through all of them.
Monday, August 3, 2009
LOVE SHACK? I think there's pretty universal agreement that whatever equity there remains in the "Radio Shack" brand name is overwhelmed by its cruddiness. But it seems to me that "fixing" it by simply dropping "Radio" and moving to the name "The Shack" isn't going to solve any problems.
TTFN: The WaPo surveys the latest trends in email closing lines. I, for one, am increasingly a Best-er.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
YES, THE WHITE FLAG MAKES A CAMEO: Sure, to our generation the words "US Festival" get grouped with events like the Knoxville World's Fair in evoking a vague sense of yeah, that was that thing in the early 1980s that sucked, right? But VH-1 Classic has dusted off some footage this weekend (and of course is re-airing occasionally), so if you wanted to a 1983 bill that wedged in between Missing Persons and Quarterflash on "Rock Day some solid early U2 (how early? try "Bono in frosted mullet, and The Edge had hair" early), now's your chance.
Of more interest to Isaac will be that Van Halen's show-closing set from the night before -- an appearance for which Steve Wozniak paid them $1.5 million -- is also all online, including David Lee Roth calling out ... The Clash?
Of more interest to Isaac will be that Van Halen's show-closing set from the night before -- an appearance for which Steve Wozniak paid them $1.5 million -- is also all online, including David Lee Roth calling out ... The Clash?
LET ME CLEAR MY THROAT: Not only did Jay-Z fill the headlining spot for the Beastie Boys at All Points West this weekend; he also opened with an appropriate tribute to Adam Yauch.
Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch - NYTimes.com
THE END OF HOME COOKING? If you haven't had time to read Michael Pollan's NYT Mag cover essay, let me extract these thesis paragraphs from his comparison of the Julia Child era on tv to today:
We learn things watching these cooking competitions, but they’re not things about how to cook. There are no recipes to follow; the contests fly by much too fast for viewers to take in any practical tips; and the kind of cooking practiced in prime time is far more spectacular than anything you would ever try at home. No, for anyone hoping to pick up a few dinnertime tips, the implicit message of today’s prime-time cooking shows is, Don’t try this at home. If you really want to eat this way, go to a restaurant. Or as a chef friend put it when I asked him if he thought I could learn anything about cooking by watching the Food Network, “How much do you learn about playing basketball by watching the N.B.A.?”I dunno; I've definitely gotten some cooking ideas via Top Chef, and occasionally will try to recreate one of the show's recipes directly. But Pollan's more right than wrong, sadly.
What we mainly learn about on the Food Network in prime time is culinary fashion, which is no small thing: if Julia took the fear out of cooking, these shows take the fear — the social anxiety — out of ordering in restaurants. (Hey, now I know what a shiso leaf is and what “crudo” means!) Then, at the judges’ table, we learn how to taste and how to talk about food. For viewers, these shows have become less about the production of high-end food than about its consumption — including its conspicuous consumption. (I think I’ll start with the sawfish crudo wrapped in shiso leaves. . . .)
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