Tuesday, April 1, 2003
MEET ME TONIGHT AT THE TRUMP TAJ MAHAL: As reported today by Backstreets Magazine:
COME ON UP FOR VERIZON: SPRINGSTEEN LICENSES SONGS FOR TV ADS
With Bob Dylan's "Love Sick" now heard in commercials for Victoria's Secret, Springsteen has finally chosen, after decades of holding out, to follow suit. "As always, Bob paved the way," Springsteen said while strumming an acoustic guitar. "He really took that leap. The Beatles and Nike: not their fault. With Sting and the Jaguar thing, yeah, y'know, that's Sting. But with Bob gettin' out there, I'll be damned if I'm gonna stay off the gravy train." First up is "The Rising" for Verizon; watch for Carnival Cruise Lines' "Waitin' on a Sunny Day" spot this summer.
Monday, March 31, 2003
THE NEW BEST HOUR OF TELEVISION YOU'RE NOT WATCHING, NON-NASHVILLE STAR DIVISION: Wednesday nights, 10pm-11pm eastern, Comedy Central.
At 10pm, South Park -- yes, that South Park, has come out of the gates running with two wickedly funny episodes to open the spring season, "Cancelled" and "Krazy Kripples". Yes, there's still the usual share of fart jokes and other coarse, scatological humor, but as with the best SP episodes (which, in truth, are rarely more than half of them), there's a good level of sharp satire going on in this quiet mountain town. Yes, actual ideas in a poorly-animated show about foul-mouthed eight year olds.
"Cancelled" had the kids discovering that our home planet was just the set for a reality show concocting by aliens who thought it would be amusing to see how people of different races would interact. But since life on Earth was getting boring, the aliens were set to cancel the show -- and the planet -- until the kids convinced the aliens that if they gave our world time, we would become even more outrageous and violent than ever before. It was good, smart, sustained humor, riffing off the classic "Cartman Gets An Anal Probe" episode from season one but integrating in some nice jokes on our own reality tv-drenched culture.
Now, that was good, but "Krazy Kripples" was even better. Or worse. I'll just describe the episode and state that it's a matter of taste. We learn that Christopher Reeve has gradually regained the use of his legs by sucking out the stem cells from aborted fetuses, to much public acclaim. But Jimmy and Timmy are jealous that Reeve has been getting so much attention, because they've been crippled for life while Reeve only recently became crippled. So Jimmy and Timmy start a new club, "The Crips", for only the hardcore true Crips, which is all well and good, until they meet another club in Denver, also called the Crips -- yeah, those Crips, and....
It's a wonderfully offensive episode. We were cringing and cracking up at the same time. It was not for everyone, but, man, it was good -- skating over the edge of good taste in such a way that even when it went overboard, you were glad people as bright as Trey Parker, Matt Stone and Norman Lear were the ones piloting the ship. Too much comedy these days is safe -- it's one of the criticisms levelled repeatedly against Chris Rock's new movie -- so I'm glad to support something that's willing to alienate large blocks of people.
Then, at 10:30 pm comes Chapelle's Show. Dave Chappelle, featured as Conspiracy Brother in Undercover Brother, has this laid back, nasal way of communicating indignation in this fast-paced sketch show. Almost all the skits have something to do with race, and while they don't all work, a lot of them do, from film and television parodies (Roots, The Matrix) to "Wu Tang Financial" and "Redman Potty Fresh". Chappelle's an angry, funny man, and I'm glad he's got this chance.
Watch some clips and judge for yourself.
(Did You Know: You probably first saw Chappelle in Mel Brooks' Robin Hood movie as Ahchoo. Yes, "We didn't land on Sherwood Forest! Sherwood Forest landed on us!" was a nineteen-year-old Dave Chapelle.)
At 10pm, South Park -- yes, that South Park, has come out of the gates running with two wickedly funny episodes to open the spring season, "Cancelled" and "Krazy Kripples". Yes, there's still the usual share of fart jokes and other coarse, scatological humor, but as with the best SP episodes (which, in truth, are rarely more than half of them), there's a good level of sharp satire going on in this quiet mountain town. Yes, actual ideas in a poorly-animated show about foul-mouthed eight year olds.
"Cancelled" had the kids discovering that our home planet was just the set for a reality show concocting by aliens who thought it would be amusing to see how people of different races would interact. But since life on Earth was getting boring, the aliens were set to cancel the show -- and the planet -- until the kids convinced the aliens that if they gave our world time, we would become even more outrageous and violent than ever before. It was good, smart, sustained humor, riffing off the classic "Cartman Gets An Anal Probe" episode from season one but integrating in some nice jokes on our own reality tv-drenched culture.
Now, that was good, but "Krazy Kripples" was even better. Or worse. I'll just describe the episode and state that it's a matter of taste. We learn that Christopher Reeve has gradually regained the use of his legs by sucking out the stem cells from aborted fetuses, to much public acclaim. But Jimmy and Timmy are jealous that Reeve has been getting so much attention, because they've been crippled for life while Reeve only recently became crippled. So Jimmy and Timmy start a new club, "The Crips", for only the hardcore true Crips, which is all well and good, until they meet another club in Denver, also called the Crips -- yeah, those Crips, and....
It's a wonderfully offensive episode. We were cringing and cracking up at the same time. It was not for everyone, but, man, it was good -- skating over the edge of good taste in such a way that even when it went overboard, you were glad people as bright as Trey Parker, Matt Stone and Norman Lear were the ones piloting the ship. Too much comedy these days is safe -- it's one of the criticisms levelled repeatedly against Chris Rock's new movie -- so I'm glad to support something that's willing to alienate large blocks of people.
Then, at 10:30 pm comes Chapelle's Show. Dave Chappelle, featured as Conspiracy Brother in Undercover Brother, has this laid back, nasal way of communicating indignation in this fast-paced sketch show. Almost all the skits have something to do with race, and while they don't all work, a lot of them do, from film and television parodies (Roots, The Matrix) to "Wu Tang Financial" and "Redman Potty Fresh". Chappelle's an angry, funny man, and I'm glad he's got this chance.
Watch some clips and judge for yourself.
(Did You Know: You probably first saw Chappelle in Mel Brooks' Robin Hood movie as Ahchoo. Yes, "We didn't land on Sherwood Forest! Sherwood Forest landed on us!" was a nineteen-year-old Dave Chapelle.)
WELL, HE DIDN'T POSE NUDE, AND HE DIDN'T STEAL ANYTHING: No, American Idol finalist Corey Clark has been arrested for something that's actually, legitimately horrifying: he beat up his 15-year-old sister last October. Oh, yeah: and he's been sued for passing bad checks.
Bring back Frenchie. C'mon. It's the only thing that stands in the way of a Ruben-Clay-Kimberly final three.
Bring back Frenchie. C'mon. It's the only thing that stands in the way of a Ruben-Clay-Kimberly final three.
OPENING DAY: Let The Scorebard get you started with twenty-nine team preview limericks (and one haiku). Here's three:
In this blog's humble opinion, fyi, there's no better blog for catching up on the most interesting baseball news, analysis and discussion of the day than Clutch Hits, a Baseball Primer production.
Philadelphia Phillies
With Thome and Millwood and Bell,
There's no excuse not to do well.
For if they play poorly,
I can say surely
That Bowa will give them some hell.
St. Louis Cardinals
With Izzy and Edmonds and Drew
Hurt and replaced by a crew
Of Palmeiro, Marrero,
Kline and Fassero,
It's tricky to guess how they'll do.
Cleveland Indians
Add talent, a new generation,
To a veteran hitting foundation
Of Burks and Vizquel--
Oh, wait! What's that smell?
The stench of the starting rotation!
In this blog's humble opinion, fyi, there's no better blog for catching up on the most interesting baseball news, analysis and discussion of the day than Clutch Hits, a Baseball Primer production.
Sunday, March 30, 2003
TIL DEATH DO US PART, OR, AT LEAST, UNTIL HOWELL RAINES CHANGES HIS MIND: Back in August 2002, the New York Times made its much-pubicized decision to start printing announcements of same-sex commitment ceremonies in what we here at Bonin-Weiner HQ generally refer to as "The Section", with same criteria — "the newsworthiness and accomplishments of the couples and their families" — which had been applied to its other announcements. (The submission guidelines are here.)
And so, in September 2002, the announcements came, once per week -- each gay couple more fabulous, more accomplished than the next -- the first couple, Daniel Gross and Steven Goldstein, had lobbied the Times for inclusion -- one, a Fulbright scholoar now Vice President at GE Capital, the other a co-campaign manager in U.S. Senator Jon Corzine's 2000 election race and former attorney for the U.S. House Judiciary Committee. The next couple, both women, was comprised of the physician in charge of the emergency room at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital and the emergency room’s attending psychiatrist.
The power couples kept coming. Clearly, the Times wanted you to be hit over the head with the notion that Gay People Can Be Just As Accomplished As Everyone Else, And Sometimes, More So. Nothing wrong with that message, even if it meant excluding (perhaps) some more terrestrial gay couples just to make a point.
But now it's late March, and today, there were no same-sex commitment ceremony announcements in the Times. There were none last week either, or the week before that -- not one in March at all, across five different Sundays.
February, the month of Valentine's Day? None.
Indeed, if my extensive search is right (and Jen and I have been tracking this informally for weeks anyway), the Times hasn't run a same-sex announcement since January 19, 2003. In the ten following weeks, there have been 165 male-female couples, zero same-sex. And I want to know why.
In bluntest terms, this is either an input or output problem -- either gay announcements aren't being submitted anymore, or they are, and they're not being printed. As to why, I'm in pure hypothesis territory. Here's a few:
Are Jen and I the only people who've noticed what's been going on? Anyone else with a theory? Please email me if you've got any insight, hypotheses, or valid explanations as to this odd, odd absence. (If you're from the Times, even better. All responses kept as anonymously as you'd like them to be kept.)
And so, in September 2002, the announcements came, once per week -- each gay couple more fabulous, more accomplished than the next -- the first couple, Daniel Gross and Steven Goldstein, had lobbied the Times for inclusion -- one, a Fulbright scholoar now Vice President at GE Capital, the other a co-campaign manager in U.S. Senator Jon Corzine's 2000 election race and former attorney for the U.S. House Judiciary Committee. The next couple, both women, was comprised of the physician in charge of the emergency room at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital and the emergency room’s attending psychiatrist.
The power couples kept coming. Clearly, the Times wanted you to be hit over the head with the notion that Gay People Can Be Just As Accomplished As Everyone Else, And Sometimes, More So. Nothing wrong with that message, even if it meant excluding (perhaps) some more terrestrial gay couples just to make a point.
But now it's late March, and today, there were no same-sex commitment ceremony announcements in the Times. There were none last week either, or the week before that -- not one in March at all, across five different Sundays.
February, the month of Valentine's Day? None.
Indeed, if my extensive search is right (and Jen and I have been tracking this informally for weeks anyway), the Times hasn't run a same-sex announcement since January 19, 2003. In the ten following weeks, there have been 165 male-female couples, zero same-sex. And I want to know why.
In bluntest terms, this is either an input or output problem -- either gay announcements aren't being submitted anymore, or they are, and they're not being printed. As to why, I'm in pure hypothesis territory. Here's a few:
1. The barrier has been broken, and gay couples no longer feel the need to be validated by inclusion in The Times, and are no longer submitting announcements. (Intriguing.)
2. Gay couples, for whatever reason, just don't get married during the winter doldrums. Come springtime, they'll return. (Doubtful.)
3. The Times has higher standards for gay couples than straight couples, and those couples submitting announcements over the past few months just aren't meeting those initially-set higher standards. (Possible.)
4. The Times changed its mind. (Doubtful, but with each passing week, more likely.)
Are Jen and I the only people who've noticed what's been going on? Anyone else with a theory? Please email me if you've got any insight, hypotheses, or valid explanations as to this odd, odd absence. (If you're from the Times, even better. All responses kept as anonymously as you'd like them to be kept.)
"PHILADELPHIA IS GETTING A GOOD MAN." Meet Jim Thome, ours for the next six years at the bargain price of $85 million.
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