ONE-HALF WANDERING JEW:  I finally had a chance last night to watch Carrie Fisher's Wishful Drinking, her recent one-woman show currently in rotation on HBO, and I strongly recommend you find an hour and a half when you can to sit back and let Fisher tell you some stories.  It is a full, frank and funny as hell confessional, from mom and dad to George Lucas to ex-husband  Paul Simon (Fisher says that "Hearts and Bones," "Allergies," "Graceland," and "She Moves On" are each about her) to the gay Republican operative who wound up dead in her bed a few years ago.  She does not shy away from talking about her addiction and mental illness issues, either, and the overall impression you're left with is that indeed, tragedy plus time equals humor -- or, at least, when you've survived what Fisher has it's a damn good coping strategy.

Also, there's a Princess Leia sex toy involved.

TROUT MASK REQUIEM: Don Van Vliet, better known as Captain Beefheart, has passed away at the not-quite-ripe old age of 69.

Probably I'm not the guy to try to say quite what he meant to music, or America, or the line between art and pop-culture in the back half of the 20th Century, or whatever all else one might deem relevant, but if you keep an eye out over the weekend I bet someone with a superior sense of music history will do something like justice to the legacy of this singular and -- let's face it, strange artistic genius.

For my part, I tend to think of him as one of the seminal comparatively ingenuous and straightforward innovators that every subsequent prog-rock project failed to improve upon. This may be entirely invalid, either on its face or as a symptom of the fact that I do not, generally speaking, like or "get" prog rock. If challenged, I'd probably have to concede that I don't know quite where it begins, or ends, or what it was arguably doing in between. So, please, if any of you know better, do say something. Indeed, say as much as possible. Even if not inaccurate, that view is certainly inadequate. The shadow he cast is much longer, and wider, and it has weirder things slithering about in it.

In the language of my own generation, Beefheart was "alternative" a quarter century before it occurred to anyone that that word might be used to sell music. Something about his legacy -- his inventiveness, his audacity -- I don't know, something about his music allows me to hope that the effort to sell music did not after all succeed in evacuating that word of meaning.

Rest in peace.

HOLD THE CHUNKS 2 TILL NEXT YEAR: Perhaps it's just because Tracy Jordan has recently reminded us of the risks, but it seems like there are a large number of potential Norbitings out there for big Oscar contenders this year. Ones I immediately see:

• Natalie Portman, current frontrunner for best actress for Black Swan, has No Strings Attached, a romantic comedy opposite Ashton Kutcher in which she, a busy medical resident, pursues a "friends with benefits" relationship. I'm willing to bet complications ensue and they end up falling for each other. I actually have some hope for this, since it's directed by Ivan Reitman, but has definite Norbit potential.
• Jeff Bridges, defending best actor and best actor contender for True Grit, has Tron: Legacy. Yes, it's a safe bet that Tron will get some technical nods (production design, effects, maybe score), but remember, Norbit was Oscar-nodded for makeup.
• Justin Timberlake, potential supporting actor contender for Social Network, has Yogi Bear. Need I say more?
• Ben Stiller, extreme dark horse actor contender for Greenberg, has Little Fockers.
• Geoffrey Rush, supporting actor frontrunner for King's Speech, has The Warrior's Way.

Any I've missed?

LET'S ALL GO TO THE LOBBY:  Okay, moviegoers, what'll it be this weekend among the new releases -- Black Swan, How Do You Do? Know, Yogi Bear, The Fighter or Tron 2: Electronic Boogaloo?

If you're contemplating Black Swan please review the NSFW trailer below the fold, which suggests its ties to a favorite film of mine -- plus, below the fold, a new Yogi Bear trailer you'll appreciate:

DANCING DON'T CAUSE PROBLEMS, IT SOLVES 'EM! Justin Timberlake says that if SNL were to offer him a 1-2 year contract, he would "absolutely" take it.

Make this happen, Lorne.  Easiest decision since Will Ferrell showed up for an audition.

SO, WHO'S PLAYING SORKIN? With Law & Order Original Recipe no more, someone has to take up the "ripped from the headlines" mantle, and The Good Wife is going to make an effort with an episode that's in no way based on the idea of Mark Zuckerberg suing the folks behind The Social Network.

SCALLIBUT:  I don't have much to say about tonight's Top Chef All-Stars that you haven't seen from me in previous seasons -- I love me some technique competitions.  I appreciated the "go to a restaurant, now do their food" challenge, and found myself missing the extra 15 minutes (that I normally regard as padding) where I felt like we could have learned more about the chefs' cooking processes.  The eliminations ... one was unsurprising, the other disappointing but justified.

I am nowhere close to predicting a final four yet.  Richard Blais, almost for sure.  Marcel, probably.  The others?  Not. A. Clue.

added: Bourdain.  Colicchio: "Stephen has a solid knowledge of food. But cooking is something you have to practice. Repetition is key. You don’t forget how to do it, just as you don’t forget how to ride a bicycle, but you have to ride that bike a lot to win the race. Stephen might have all the knowledge in the world, but he didn’t have the chops to pull off his dish."