MORE GIANT THAN THE REST: The blogosphere is saddened today -- well, I am -- that our colleague in the online world David Mills has closed down his Undercover Black Man blog to focus on his tv writing career, which already has included creating Kingpin and serving as a writer for NYPD Blue, The Wire, The Corner, Homicide: Life on the Streets and creating the character of Rocket Romano on ER.

Among the best aspects of his blog were his pieces on race and society, whether his series on Giant Negroes in the Media or Misidentified Black People or his from-back-in-the-day interviews with Chris Rock, Oprah Winfrey, Elvis Mitchell and others. [Thing I didn't know until looking at his Wiki page: David did the interview with Sister Souljah that brought her to Bill Clinton's attention.] The Giant Negroes series was typical of the solid cultural/historical understanding he brought to the table -- see The Vice President and His Mulatto, or his roundtable on the N-word, for example.

[His Vox blog is a remarkable resource, including the Dratch-Fey "Wicked" skit from their Second City days.]

Alan Sepinwall has more. David has commented here in the past, and he will always be welcome. In the meantime, we all look forward to Treme, the New Orleans-based series he and David Simon are hoping to present on HBO in 2010 ...

YES, BUT DID CLARENCE HAVE HIS ROTISSERIE CHICKEN BREAK? We've certainly had our share of Springsteen reviews from East Coasters named Adam; it's about time to change things up. Maret checks in from two recent shows in the City of Angels, which I've been remiss in not posting until now:

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Last week I spent two nights in a row at Bruce Springsteen concerts. I should point out from the start, that while a big Springsteen fan I am not a fan in the way the ultimate fans are. There are many songs I don’t know, many songs I know but I don’t know all the lyrics to, etc. I have never flown to another state to see a show (yet.) And until last week I was never one of those people who would buy tickets to back-to-back shows in the same city.

We were at the LA Sports Arena (to quote Bruce, “the joint that don’t disappoint!”) and kicking things off with “Badlands” the whole place was screaming and singing along at full energy from the start. Having seen Bruce five or six other times live, this show on the 15^th was probably my favorite. His energy was unparalleled…he spent more time than I’ve ever seen playing with the audience – running down to the pit, letting them play his guitar, running down the aisle on the left side of the arena at one point, a mild attempt at crowd-surfing, laying down on the stage with his head in the audience’s lap at one point – it was phenomenal.

It wasn’t just about the songs he was playing (as always a great mix from the new album and their classics), it was the energy of the band, of the audience, and of Bruce. Personal highlights for me were: “Waitin’ on a Sunny Day” -- couldn’t find a link to the actual performance I saw, but I love the audience sing-along he does with this song; “Born to Run” --c’mon, how can you NOT love the Boss singing this song, especially since he turns the lights on in the arena so everyone can rock out together; and this scorching version of “Ghost of Tom Joad” he did with Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine. You can download that duet from itunes since they sang this together before on the Magic tour, but I hadn’t seen or heard it before and it just blew me away. The entire encore set was terrific too (we got to hear “Rosalita” to close out the show, who doesn’t love that?) but “Hard Times Come Again No More” which was part of the show both nights, was the one that stood out most for me from that set.

The next day at work, a friend who had also been at the show told me that she and her husband were going again that night, and they had floor seats, and I should go with them. It took all of ten-minutes of persuasion for me to search online, buy a ticket, and be ready for night two. Also, since I didn’t know I was going to the concert when I got dressed that morning, I ended up standing, dancing, and rocking out for about three hours in heels. I want extra-credit points for my dedication.

I was so glad I went the second night. I never have had tickets on the floor before so that was awesome. We weren’t in the pit, but we were close to it and could see the band up close and it was SO GREAT. A little less energy than night one, but apparently Bruce had a cold. When I have a cold I stay home from work and act pitiful on my couch; when Bruce has a cold he does 3 hour concerts that are only slightly less energetic than when he’s healthy (although at the end of the night we did get a “I’m ready to go have a cheeseburger and put on my pa-JAMMIES!” comment which I found hilarious. The Boss says ‘pa-jammies’. Heh.

Instead of Tom Morello as guest, night two had Mike Ness from Social Distortion, who Bruce did a duet of “Bad Luck” with. It was great, although I preferred the Tom Morello duet. Among the 11 songs that were different on night two from night one: “Thunder Road,” “No Surrender” and “Glory Days” (during which we got a lot of fun with Little Stevie – “Little Stevie, what time is it?!” “It’s BOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSS time!”) Also on night two, Max Weinberg’s son Jay played two songs on drums (including “Born to Run”) and it was announced he’ll be playing some shows on the tour his dad can’t make. Drumming talent must be genetic, because the kid was fantastic. My favorite moment of the night was during the “request” portion of the evening, when Bruce heads into the audience, takes a bunch of the signs people have brought with song titles on them, sorts through them on stage, and plays a couple of them. It’s always a lot of fun, and you never know what you’ll end up hearing. So on night two, Bruce holds up a little yellow sign to the band, turns to the mic and says “You think you can stump the band with THIS?!” and shows us the sign which says, “Proud Mary.” SO FREAKING AWESOME.

It’s comparing apples to oranges, but out of two incredible shows I think I liked the set list from night two better than night one, but the energy and audience interaction from night one better than night two. Set lists for both nights are here. I will likely go to both shows every time Bruce comes to town from now on. As he would say, I spent two nights in a row with “the heart-stopping, pants-dropping, hard-rocking, booty-shaking, earth-quaking, nerve-breaking, history-making, legendary… E-STREET BAND!”

TRANSCRIPT FROM X-MEN LEGENDS: WOLVERINE STORY MEETING:

Studio Suit #1: So, writer, whatcha got for us?

Writer: Well, we have a tale of brother against brother, spanning a good century and several wars, and how they are torn apart by the love of a woman. And there's a big fight at the end when the claws come out for the first time--it's more of an emotional journey.

Studio Suit #1: Great! Great! How much does it have in the way of explosions?

Writer: Explosions? You mean emotional explosions? Because they have a couple of big arguments.

Studio Suit #2: Well, we're really aiming for the 18-25 male demographic, so we need a bunch of explosions. Ideally, at least one should involve an exploding helicopter. That demographic loves that.

Studio Suit #1: And, to make sure we get the chicks too, can we have a lengthy, but nonsensical, sequence that serves basically no purpose but to keep Hugh Jackman naked for 15 minutes?

Writer: Um, OK, Ican work on that.

Studio Suit #2: We also got a bunch of folks signed for roles. Ryan Reynolds is going to do it.

Writer: Great! There's a comic book character that's perfect for him!

Studio Suit #1: One little catch. He'll only film for a week, and has only agreed to have like 10 lines of dialogue. Dating Scarlett Johansson has made him kind of a diva.

Writer: Let me see what I can do.

Studio Suit #2: Also, we have that guy from Lost.

Writer: Ooooh! Terry O'Quinn? He'd make an interesting young Xavier!

Studio Suit #2: No, not that guy, the annoying guy with the beard.

Writer: Matthew Fox?

Studio Suit #2: No, the one who plays the singer. You know, "You All Everybody!"

Writer: That guy? Um, I can try.

Studio Suit #1: Yeah, he's said he wants to play a mutant with unclear powers that don't make any sense.

(Stunned silence.)

Studio Suit #2: And, we've got this kid, he plays some character named Tom, no Tim, Riggins? All the ladies say he looks just like that Gambit character from the comic books, and they love him.

Studio Suit #1: Also, we get a tax incentive for filming in New Orleans, so two birds with one stone, right? You can work that in.

Writer: OK, Gambit's a great character and he's a solid actor, but he doesn't really fit into the story.

Studio Suit #1: We also have Liev Schreiber. But he has a contractual requirement that he be allowed to chew at least four pieces of scenery per scene.

Studio Suit #2: But we have a clause that makes that literal. If his character is gnawing on something in a wolflike manner, that's one of the scenery chews required! So work that in.

Writer: Mmmmkay. What about an effects budget?

Studio Suit #1: Oh, there'll be a big one, but we really want to aim for "cheap looking." We know we got the Wolverine claws right in the prior movies, and we're really shooting for "worse" this time.

Studio Suit #2: Oh, and can you have a big fight sequence at Three Mile Island? Because the nuclear power industry will subsidize the film if we have a sequence there that suggests there never was a meltdown, just a big coverup.

Writer: OK, I quit. Here's my current draft. (He walks out, tossing a script on the table.)

Studio Suit #1: Good enough! This, plus our ideas, and whatever we make up as we go along, can't miss.

Studio Suit #2: After all, it's a comic book movie! It's not SUPPOSED to be any good.

(To summarize--a lot of really nice casting--Jackman, Schreiber, Kitsch, Reynolds--wasted on a half-baked, if that, script.)

AND JOHNNY AND SCOTT ARE FRIENDS: Were we Gen-Xers just too easily amused growing up? The all-singing, all-dancing, popping-and-locking TVLand Awards tribute to Sid & Marty Krofft (parts 1, 2), may bring back some memories.

Related: Mr. Show, "The Altered State of Drugachusetts".

PREVIOUSLY ON ... "THE BACHELOR": It has been a tradition on this blog -- and don't ask me why, it just is -- to bypass this blog's most long-standing tradition and acknowledge whenever a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States leaves the bench. And so with his retirement letter now transmitted to the White House, we mark the impending end of Justice David Hackett Souter's service to the Court and to the Nation, and do so with the following notes:

1. The Simpsons, "Homer Goes To College" (writer: Conan O'Brien).

Homer: We played Dungeons & Dragons for three hours! Then I was slain by an elf.
Bart: Listen to yourself, man: you're hangin' with nerds.
Homer: You take that back!
Marge: Homer, please! These boys sound very nice, but they're clearly nerds.
Homer: Really? But nerds are my mortal enemy!
Lisa: Dad, nerds are nothing to fear. In fact, they've done some pretty memorable things. Some nerds of note include popcorn magnate Orville Redenbacher, rock star David Byrne, and Supreme Court Justice David Souter.
Homer: [gasp] Oh, not Souter! Oh, no!

2. The limited edition David Souter bobblehead doll, via The Green Bag, crafted just in the nick of time.

3. From Jeffrey Toobin's The Nine.

It was ... a running joke at the Court that outsiders frequently mistook Souter and Breyer for each other. No one could really understand why this happened, because the two bore little resemblance. One day when Souter was making his usual solo drive from Washington to New Hampshire, he stopped for lunch in Massachusetts. A stranger and his wife came up to him and asked, "Aren't you on the Supreme Court?"

Souter said he was.

"You're Justice Breyer, right?" said the man.

Rather than embarrass the fellow, Souter simply nodded and exchanged pleasantries, until he was asked an unexpected question.

"Justice Breyer, what's the best thing about being on the Supreme Court?"

The justice thought for a while, then said, "Well, I'd have to say it's the privilege of serving with David Souter."

THAT LAST POST? JUST IN TIME: I am delighted to announce that about two hours ago, our co-blogger Alex Gordon and his wife welcomed a baby girl into the world, 6 lbs, 11 oz, 19 inches. All are healthy and well, and we will update with a name when they figure it out.

[In case you missed his update from the comments last night, at 11:23 PM CDT: "Went with the Mino tonight (had some Best Buy gift cards) and good thing, bc/ I am charging it right now from the hospital--my wife's water broke tonight."]

edited.to.add: Happy born-day, Samantha Rose Gordon!

YET AGAIN, THE LEADERS OF ASIAN DAWN MISSED THE CUT: Time Magazine has released its annual list of the world's 100 most influential people, with essays on each by other noteworthies. While I'll ask you to skip the "Leaders and Revolutionaries" and half of the "Heroes & Icons" section for this site's purposes, the rest is fair game for your commentary.