[Television] I find this tv...acceptable

My new favorite TV show-- Acceptable.tv

The above video is just one of nearly two dozen similarly brilliant short videos made for this new show.

It's a filmed-comedy-sketch show that premieres on VH1 every Friday night (9Central) and replays numerous times throughout the week and is also available on their website, acceptable.tv (it's just acceptable.tv, no dot com) What makes this show particularly interesting to me is that it's attempting to wrangle this viral video phase the world is going through and bring some order to it.

The premise of the show is that each week, they debut five short "pilots" for new continuing sketches, each one about two and a half minutes long. Of those, you can go to the website and vote for the two you like best, and new episodes of those will be filmed for the next week's episode.

These 'official' pilots are produced by the Acceptable.tv repertory company, but each week, they play one user-submitted video, also voted on by the website visitors (actually, you have to be a registered member to vote... it's free though).

It's a really neat concept, and so far I'm loving it. Of the skits that the official group have produced, I've really liked almost all of them. In fact, out of 21 current skits, there are only two that I'm lukewarm on.

The people behind this show are executive producer Jack Black, and the group from Channel101, the people that have been doing stuff like this before they started getting financed by VH1/Viacom. Previous Channel101 alums are the Lonely Island guys, of which three of them are now SNL writers/performers. They're living the dream all us video producers nurture.

I could tell you about the funniest videos, but thanks to embeddable flash video, I can just show you. There's a bunch of them, and they are all funny. Enjoy. And if you like these, there are many, many more at the official website.

[Movie Review] Curse of the Golden Flower

Curse of the Golden Flower may be the most beautiful movie I've ever seen. It's certainly not the best movie I've seen, and there's a lot about it that left me scratching my head afterwards, but one thing that's not in doubt is that you've never seen anything like this.

Like most movies in this genre ("Hero", "House of Flying Daggers", "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"), the movie itself had lots of inscrutable parts. In fact, I had trouble scruting most of the second half of the film. You think you have an idea of what's going on, but then people start flying and balancing on top of a flower, and armies start popping up out of nowhere and you realize you probably missed a key bit of explanation twenty minutes earlier. The plot of this movie concerned secrets and revenge and the repression of women in 10th century China, but none of that mattered.

No, all that matters is that from the first frame to the last, this movie is a feast for the eyes. The image included at the top of this post is just one example of the orchestra of color you will experience. At no point do you ever really feel that you are seeing something real, or that this is in any way a true representation of the period, but I'm sure it's exactly what that period FELT like.

Here's a link to a gallery of still photos from the movie, which really don't do any justice to seeing this stuff in motion.

http://imdb.com/gallery/ss/0473444

I don't have an HDTV yet, but I may have to get one just to watch this film again, to see it in even richer detail.

"Curse of the Golden Flower" is Chinese director Yimou Zhang's third wire-fu, period film, coming on the heals of the almost-but-not-quite-as-beautiful films, "Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers." After this unofficial trilogy, I'm not sure what ground is left for Zhang to cover in this genre. I'm sure there are hundreds of other Chinese legends yet to be filmed, but are any of them unique enough for him to spend his time on? Fortunately, he's just as well-known (in Asia) for his non-genre films, and I'm eager to check some of those out.

In addition to the stunning art design and cinematography, I have to also commend the acting in this (despite the sometimes bewildering directions the story would take). Gong Li and Chow Yun-Fat were both mesmerizing and prove once again that foreign actors and actresses should stick with films that allow them to speak their native language. Gong Li was forced to speak English in "Miami Vice", and as a result, her entire performance was awkward and stilted. In a similar vein, I've never liked Penelope Cruz, but I'm curious to check her out in "Volver" (for which she was nominated for Best Actress) since she speaks in Spanish in this movie, rather than English.

So, to sum up, Curse of the Golden Flower is a mesmerizing movie, beginning to end. If you're one of the lucky few that is able to follow the plots of these Chinese "Wuxia" legends, then you'll really like this movie. As it is, I'm looking forward to seeing this movie again, in the highest resolution possible.

Story: Five Teeth. Overall: Eight Teeth.

Getting into Gear 2007

So, thanks to the flurry of activity by the writing group I'm a part of, I'm re-inspired to get off my butt and get creative again. Even though my job actually requires me to be creative on a daily basis, it's not the sort of creativity that leaves me with any sort of satisfaction at the end of the day. Well, sometimes...

Anyway, I've ideas for countless screenplays, short films, novels, essays, graphic designs, photographic composites and artwork, etc etc etc. I just need to stop procrastinating and DO them. At least ONE, anyway.

So hopefully this blog will act as a sort of accountability partner for me. Something that will guilt me into increasing my creative output.

Next really big project coming up is 48 Hour Film Project 2007. We did really good last year (link to the video "Eternal" on our Irony Coast YouTube page should be on the sidebar on the right), and we have every intention and expectation to win this year... That's coming up the weekend of May 18th. Should be fun.

Still need to finish my NaNoWriMo novel. I'm only 17,000 words from reaching my target, and I still really like my story, so I have no excuse not to work on it.

I also need to pick which screenplay I want to work on. "Paper Heroes" has the most work done on it, and the one I think has the most potential to be made into a film. "Sword of Texas" has a lot of work done on it as well. "Camp David" is the one most easily filmable by my film group, and the one that has gotten the most positive feedback and requests that we actually produce. Plus, there are a few ideas I've come up with over the past month or two that are jumping up and down trying to get my attention. Tentative titles for these are "The Royal Family", "The Lion and the Lambs", plus my untitled Vegas heist film, and my untitled serial killer movie.

Plus, there's still the "Zombie Wrangler" short film that's percolating, and the "Flunkies" webisodes we need to produce before half of our cast moves away.

Lots to think about. Lots to do.

Iiiiiiit's Groundhog Day!

And by Groundhog Day, I of course mean the movie, not the day itself. I could care less about a rodent seeing its shadow. No, today is the day to celebrate the greatest American (or otherwise) comedy of the 20th century.

There are very few movies I can watch more than once (I've really only seen the Star Wars movies about ten times each, and only once each in the last decade), but Groundhog Day is the one movie I can watch again and again and never tire of. Which is ironic since the movie is essentially the same set of scenes played over and over again.

Groundhog Day remains my favorite comedy (it falls anywhere from number 3 to number 5 on my list of all-time favorite movies) fourteen years after having first seen it. It's exactly the kind of movie I like, and one I wish I could have made.

One one level, it's just a very funny movie. The jokes never drift into absurdity, always fitting the scene and moving the plot forward.

On the second level, it's the cleverest movie I've ever seen. More than any other movie with a gee-whiz idea, this movie takes it and explores it from every angle, really pushing the concept to its limit. What WOULD you do if you had to repeat the same day over and over again?

And if that's all the movie wanted to do, it would have been a comedy on a level with Ghostbusters. But Groundhog Day's launch into the comedy pantheon occurs because it seamlessly makes the movie ABOUT something deeper. It adds my personal favorite life-theme, redemption.

It's never too late to start appreciating the people around you and the things that happen to you and near you. Even if you've lived the same day over and over again for 10,000 years (as the filmmakers sometimes imply), you can still start fresh and make a change.

There's a lot more to it than that, of course, but that's what resonates so strongly within me. My life often feels like a Groundhog Day, with themes (rather than days) repeating over and over again. Every once in awhile I open my eyes and appreciate all the things around me, and/or learn from my mistakes, and then like Phil, I get to move on to the next great stage of my life.


There's a great article in New Republic (I don't read it, I found this online this morning) that discusses the enduring popularity of Groundhog Day (the movie) and its surprising cultural impact. Even though I've seen and read about the movie countless times, just like the movie, I was able to discover something new. Enjoy the article here.

So Happy Groundhog Day. And make sure you bundle up, cause it's cold out there.

Movie Review - Children of Men

Children of Men is one of those movies that could very easily have been a confusing mess, but fortunately, it successfully achieved my current movie criterion buzzword-- Clarity. A few times, the movie threatened to fall off the tracks of clarity, but each time, it managed to refresh me on the key points I needed to continue on.

The basic plot of Children of Men is that in the year 2027, the world is falling apart and women have been infertile for about 16 years. A young girl is discovered to be pregnant, and she needs to be delivered to a secret group of scientists dedicated to restoring worldwide fertility. However, there is a group that is pushing for an uprising and wants to use the existence of this baby as their rallying point. The movie is essentially a chase, with Clive Owen's character attempting to successfully deliver the pregnant girl to the scientists, avoiding the uprising people.

The movie does a great job of setting up the world through background images, such as TVs, newspapers and graffiti, rather than than an overabundance of expository babble.

The movie's been called a 21st century Blade Runner, and in a lot of ways it's pretty apt. The tone, the grittiness of the world, the bleakness of the story, the humanity of the main characters are all from the same DNA as Blade Runner.

But best of all, the movie achieves clarity at every point, allowing the full tension of each moment to effortlessly shine through without my having to wonder, "Now why is that guy shooting at them again??"

8.5 teeth out of ten.

Movie Review - Elektra

This was on the stack of "Movies that I want to watch that I know won't be any good, but I want to watch them so I can figure out why they didn't work."

I was only marginally impressed with Daredevil, and thought Jennifer Garner was miscast as Elektra. I wasn't looking forward to Elektra when it came out, and less so when almost all the reviews were harsh. But it popped up in the list of movies coming on HBO, so I went ahead and set it to record with my trusty Time Warner (soon to be Comcast) DVR. And there it was sitting in my recorded list as I sat down to eat some grub last night so I opted just to watch Elektra for as long as I could tolerate it.

Turns out I could tolerate the whole film. However, don't take that to mean I enjoyed it or give it a positive rating.

This falls in the category of movies that really didn't need to be made. It didn't bring anything to the action genre or the comic book genre. The story was basically a slight rehash of Terminator 2, where a villain must overcome their evil tendencies to help out a chosen one who has been marked for death. If you've seen a movie, you've seen Elektra. There weren't any surprises in this.

The best I can say about it was that I was never bored enough to stop watching. Some of the effects were neat. The characters were cardboard, but generally likeable. But surprisingly, there wasn't a whole lot of action, and only two scenes were Elektra worer her iconic red costume. There was a lot of talking and running.

Anyway, this movie would probably be better in a group setting with the intent being to ridicule the movie as it plays in the background.

5 teeth out of 10.

Movie Review - Series 7: The Contenders

Now this was a movie that I accidentally watched last night at about midnight. Granted, I had set it to record earlier in the evening, but it was as I was showing Tamara how to use some of the features of the new Time Warner DVR box that this movie started recording right in the middle of the lesson. We just started watching it and before long, we'd abandoned DVR lessons and settled in to finish watching.

The basic premise of this film is that we are watching the marathon of a reality TV show called "The Contenders, Series 7". This reality show randomly selects 6 people from a random town, gives them weapons, and forces them to hunt each other down until only one is left alive. This is apparently a government sanctioned and enforced TV show. So camera crews follow the various contenders around and presents their stories.

The film is shot and presented in video and looks like an authentic reality show. It's like a cross between Cops, Real World, and the Running Man.

What's most interesting about this is that this film was produced in 2001, predating (slightly) the success of Survivor. But it was prescient in its prediction of how reality shows would become more and more extreme. We haven't quite gotten to the point to where a deathmatch reality show is a, um, reality, but we're close.

The movie started off great and had our attention from the first moment. It didn't explain everything at first and just treated you basically as if you had just flipped the channel to a show that had already been on for years and you just hadn't ever seen it before. It seemed to have been done in a semi-improv style and this worked perfectly for most of the first part of the film.

It's only during the second half of the film when they had to steer the plot towards the more convoluted aspects of the story that it started to fall apart a bit. I find this is the case in most mockumentary-style shows is that the movement toward the pre-written story elements always come across as a bit clunky and forced. Such was the case with Series 7: The Contenders.

Overall, it was watchable, even during the contrived parts. An interesting experiment.

Final verdict: 6 and a half teeth

DVD Stack - Reds

Finally watched Warren Beatty's Reds. I have to admit that it wasn't at all what I was expecting. I knew it was about the Russian Revolution, but that's pretty much the extent. My assumption was that Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton played Russians caught up in the tides of the revolution. But I was completely wrong.

Instead, the movie is based on the lives of Jack Reed and Louise Bryant, two American socialist/communist activists/writers from the late 1910's who managed to be in Russia during the revolution and got caught up in it. It's really a love story between the two of them set against this backdrop.

I enjoyed it. It was suitably epic in its scope and intimate in its focus. What really added a lot to this film were contemporary (1981) interviews with people that actually knew Jack and Louise back in the day. It gave the film much more of a sense that this all really did happen, and made the dramatic parts seem more like these were the actual people.

Acting was superb throughout as was the cinematography. I'm sure as I watch (or re-watch) more period epics from the 70's and 80's I'll end up with similar opinions, but Reds felt like a movie that was produced within the last few years rather than 25 years ago.

I give it 9 teeth out of 10.

NaNoWriMo - Update

Okay. Here it is, mid-January. I got sidetracked in November by work and life in general, and am currently stalled out at 33,000 words. I hope to get it kick-started tonight or tomorrow and try to get to 50,000 by the end of the month. Not likely, but I'm going to go for it. In any event, I should be able to finish the rough draft of Word War III over the next month or so at the worst.

But before I do that, a couple of movie reviews.

NaNoWriMo - 7 - Day 5/6 - Back on the Horse

Now it's really starting to get fun. After three days of feeling practically helpless to get any traction on this story and to get myself out of the rut I was already in, I had a really good writing night tonight. Nearly 3000 words. I made up a whole day today, almost. Now I'm only 2200 words off pace, and with two good days, I can be right where I need to be.

The story is really starting to take some shape. I have a vague idea of where I want it to go a chapter or two ahead of time. Characters are starting to take shape and tell me things about themselves that I didn't know. More eloquent words and phrases are starting to flow from my fingertips rather than the typical "he glanced" or "he replied".

This is really fun.

I think I can actually do this. After Thursday and Friday I had serious doubts, but now... it's entirely possible.

Can't wait to see what happens next with this story.

And I never in a million years thought I'd be writing a political thriller...

NaNoWriMo - 6 - Day 3 - Chugging to a Halt

Okay... I am/was starting to get worried. I'm getting NO momentum going on this story. I spent all day working on emergency print ads and making some changes to the Global commercial. Then I had to go buy some wireless networking gear for my mom and then go to her house and set it up, and (this was the good part), eat some fantastic gumbo. After that I went to my sister's house and enjoyed their hot tub and spent a nice evening with my sister and her husband (Ryan and Tamara were both home sick tonight). And then I came home and watched a great episode of Battlestar Galactica.

So it was after midnight when I finally sat down to maybe think about writing. I almost just called it an evening, but managed to get in a fair amount of writing. Not a huge amount, but enough so that I feel like it wasn't a total waste of a day, NaNoWriMo-concerned. I'm now up to 1867 words, which is WAY behind where I need to be, but I was able to get back on the horse which is good. Saturday really SHOULD be a good day where I catch up. We'll see.

And I did pretty good today about not bogging myself down with editing and rewriting as I go. I came thisclose to grinding to a halt while looking up the actual geography of downtown Washington DC. That can all wait, and I successfully just plopped something down quickly. I think I'll get better at just going with the flow the longer I do this.

Okay... time for bed again, and a bit of "No Plot, No Problem" reading. Tamara is going garage saling in the early morning and I will try to wake up to join her. It's the mega-neighborhood sale, so there are usually good things to be found.

Out.

NaNoWriMo - 5 - Day Two

So it's 11:45 and I'm just finishing up work for the day (a major commercial for Global Industries). I haven't had a chance to write a single word today, and I'm totally wiped out. I think I'll try to go to bed early tonight (midnight) and wake up really early tomorrow and start writing to catch up.

One good thing I did last night before I went to sleep, was I read a good chunk of the "No Plot, No Problem" book written by the guy that started NaNoWriMo. There was a ton of good stuff I learned because I almost didn't read it, thinking I knew what he was going to say. The main thing that was re-iterated to me was that this month-long contest isn't about quality.. it's about quantity. If I'm going to edit and proofread and rewrite as I go, I'll never finish. Yesterday, I was so caught up in trying to make Craig's first chapter have a different voice that I got bogged down...in chapter one. I just need to WRITE it, as fast as I can, and really get it in my head that I'll be able to edit it later and rewrite it later.

So hopefully, tomorrow will be a more productive day, novelish-speaking. I might have a commercial to produce, but if I don't, then I'll be able to spend a good part of the day working on the novel. I should be able to catch up and maybe even get ahead. We'll see.

One really positive note, Tamara really likes the idea of the book and what I've written so far. It's the first time I've ever seen her interested in, much less excited about something I've written. So if SHE likes it, I might just have something.

Okay... on to sleep.. after a bit more reading of the "No Plot, No Problem" book.

NaNoWriMo - 4 - Day 1.5

Okay.. today wasn't a good day. I haven't felt good all day and I just want to go to bed. However, I did manage to get a few words done. I'm up to 1335 words. Tomorrow should be better.

In spite of my low word count today, I did manage to get some backend work done on the story. I have a much clearer idea of how the chapters will play out and how the duel will be constructed like a game of chess. Each writer will have to plan several moves ahead and anticipate what the other writer is doing, and try to determine what the other writer thinks he knows about

I also think I know who the main antagonists are-- I'll hold that back for now.

Okay... falling asleep at the keyboard. Be back tomorrow.

NaNoWriMo - 3 - First Report

Alrighty... it's 2am. I've got 930 words in my prologue. Not bad. I'll have to pick it up just a bit tomorrow night.

I've settled on a title for my story: Word War III. This is the third writing duel between these two writers. In the prologue, I opted to tell it first person from one of the writer's points of view. He's lost the previous two Word Wars, and vows to win this time.

My only quandary at this point is do I continue this first person view throughout the novel? Do I have this character comment on the other guys chapter, interspersing the commentary within the text of the chapter? Do I have him scour the text looking for clues as to what his opponent is intending and potential ways of countering him? Or do I just stay wholly within the narrative from this point on? Or do I have a mini-section at the beginning of each chapter as the POV character comments on what he's just read and ponders what he has to do when writing his next chapter? I kinda like that better. A bridge between each chapter. It might be fun to sprinkle in all sorts of external things happening to the POV character that are then reflected in the next chapter. There can be periods of panic as he struggles to write the next chapter. Periods where he feels he clearly has the upper hand. I like this. These bridges will have to be short so they don't break up the narrative flow of the story itself. With any luck or skill, I can turn this into a deep, multi-layered story with extra layers of meaning behind what happens on the page.

We'll see.

For now, it's sleep.

NaNoWriMo - 2 - My Plan

Okay... so here's how I'm going to go about this. I've got my basic idea for the skeleton of the story, such as it is. Then each day I'm going to write another chapter (or two, depending on how I ultimately decide to structure it). I have no intention of fully plotting out the story, or even partially. As I type this, I intend to use my Idiot Box game cards to dictate what the next chapters will be about. That way, I have no pressure to have everything line up logically all the way to the end.

This will also allow me to approach this more like the writing exercise it is, rather than WRITING A NOVEL. It will be a fun, creative challenge every single day, and that's got me excited, rather than dreading it. Because I KNOW that if I'm given a few random elements that I can come up with an interesting story in no time at all.

So here's the premise:

The overall story is going to be the duel between two writers who have been co-writing a book. They have had some sort of falling out and have decided to sabotage the story. What they will do is each day, they will alternately write the next chapter of the novel, putting the main character in such a horrible situation that there's no way the other writer can extricate the character from it. This will constitute "winning" in the eyes of the writers.

The rest of the story will be the chapters as "written" by the two writers, told through the eyes of the main character, and with each chapter ending in a cliffhanger.

The ending will be determined, I'm guessing, by whatever themes, plot, and concepts that develop throughout the month.

As I type this right now, all I know is that the main character is named Bernie (as named by Ryan), he works as a car salesman (Ryan) in Lake Charles, Louisiana (Me). He's living a boring life, and something happens at the dealership to propel the rest of this story. I'm guessing there is a hold-up, or someone steals a car with him in it. Hey.. it's a test drive. That works.

One thing I think is that the tone of the two writers should be very different. They should have distinct enough 'voices' that the reader should be able to know who's writing the chapter just by how it sounds. But even still, the character has to be consistent regardless of which writer is at the wheel. I can kind of see one of them being more jokey while the other is more grim. That should provide a wide enough contrast.

At first I was going to make this a battle between the two writers, where they each attempt to sabotage the other's story, but I think it works better as a contest between the two. The first chapter can be the two of them setting up the ground rules for the contest, and the conditions for winning.

At this point, I'm unsure if I'm going to attempt to come back to the two writers during the story. I may not even come back to them at the end of the story. It would be nice to be able to make it work within the context of Bernie's story.

A potential title (and definitely a working title) just came to mind. Word War I.

One other idea I'm toying around with (actually, it just came to mind not ten seconds ago) is making this something like Betrayals in that each chapter is also a completely different style of story, such as newspaper article, blog entry, etc. That might make it more fun for me, but also more difficult, as in addition to coming up with the story, I'd also have to determine a style as well. Probably not, as that would make it more difficult to leave each chapter with a cliffhanger. Okay.. executive decision... same 'novel' style throughout.

Okay... just a little bit longer. I think I'll start a bit early on it.

Updates later.

NaNoWriMo - I'm Gonna Do It

So in three hours, at midnight, National Novel Writing Month begins. I think I've decided to participate. The members of the Barnes & Noble writers group I attend have been talking about it since the first meeting I attended, and until just a few hours ago, I had no intention of taking part. It's going to be a bear to get through.

The way it works is you have until November 30th to write a 50,000 word novel. That averages out to 1667 words per day. On Microsoft Word, that translates to about three full pages per day. Every day. If I miss a day, that means I have to write six pages the next day. It's a tall task.

But... I know I can easily write that much every day. I wrote my Camp David treatment in six hours (from scratch) and that was 6500 words and 13 pages. So 1700 words a day shouldn't give me too much trouble.

The good thing about this is that ultimately, what I write doesn't matter. The whole point of this contest is not to write the next great American novel, or even a passable novel. It's just to get all of the hundreds of thousands of would-be novelists to get off their butts and WRITE something. At the end of the month, you won't have a masterpiece, but you WILL be able to say "I'm a novelist". "I have written something."

While I know that I have several dozen different projects going at the same time, and work, and on and on, I think more than anything, I NEED something like this to get me going.

A short while ago, Ryan and I talked briefly about what my novel will be about. I have a neat idea for a story that really works well with something like this contest. So we'll see....

I'll check back in later.

[ blogarati bulletin ] Yet Another Blogger Fooled by Fake News Story

That's right, another blogger gets caught in the fake news web, this time, niche blogger, Corey Bond, author of a Simpsons cartoon blog. His earnestness about posting this blog is matched only by his apparent ability to cut and paste news articles with the best of them.

In this new era of Truthiness-awarenessness, this comes as yet another black mark against the liberal humor media's loose interest in the truth. Who knows how far and wide this continuation of the mistruthiness will extend? Will this indeed cause legitimate Allah-fearing terrorists to now add Mr. Bond to their fatwahs? And by extension, will that list also now include me? Is it okay to even type the word 'fatwah' anymore? I don't know.

But what I do know is that Corey Bond has been PUNK'D by Australia!

Click below for the link.

Crisis on Infinite Springfields: If I Can't Watch The Simpsons, the Terrorists Win

[ movie review ] Dark Water aka "The movie that soured me to Japanese horror"

That's right. I've had enough. No more horror movies based on Japanese horror movies.

I'm not sure what's going on over in Japan, but apparently there is an alarming rate of child murders taking place, because it seems nearly every horror movie coming from over there is about a dead kid seeking revenge. I think Japanese Dateline needs to do some sort of expose on that or something.

Anyway, Dark Water, starring Jennifer Connelly, was the most suspense-free horror movie I've ever seen. While some may find that refreshing, I was bored. The acting is good, just judging based on its own merit, but the characters didn't have anything interesting to do.

The ads made it look like it was going to be some sort of Amityville Horror sort of movie, but all the scary-ish stuff from the trailer came from one dream sequence in the movie.

(spoiler alert!)


The dark water in question, is really just the result of a dead kid stuck in a building's spiritual plumbing. Yawn.


It was a mess, and I'm not talking about the icky water.

[ humor alert ] Filliam H. Muffman

I've enjoyed The Colbert Report immensely up until now, but this past Thursday, they finally took it over the top for me and made it something I'll have to watch every day, for fear of missing the next big funny thing. Case in point: Filliam H. Muffman.

The sketch was a rather innocuous little thing called "Stephen's Laws of Love", using celebrity couples idiosyncrasies as the basis for forming successful relationships. They brought the funny when they demonstrated that you have to have a great marketable name by combining your names. Examples used were Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, "Brangelina". Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner, "Bennifer II". And William H. Macy and Felicity Huffman, "Filliam H. Muffman".

I died laughing, and it was the first time I saw Stephen Colbert lose it on the show. He barely made it through the segment. I can't think of the name without laughing, and I certainly still have a hard time saying it. Go ahead. Try it out. Let the name roll off your tongue.

I know I can't wait to follow along on the splendiferous adventures of Filliam H. Muffman.

Actually, I'll be curious to see if this gets picked up in real conversation. The people that write the news watch the Colbert Report, and I know I'D try to work the name in somewhere.

[ tv review ] SNL Steve Martin (live review)

I'm going to try somethign a bit different. I'm going to comment on the show as it happens, skit by skit. Here's hoping that Steve Martin can save the show. I thought it was interesting that a few days ago, Lorne Michaels apparently released some sort of statement (or maybe it was in an interview) talking about how SNL is in a state of 'transition'. Translation: The show is going to be bad for a year or two until we get some funny people in here.

Anyway, on to the show.



Opening skit. Pretty good. Brought an air of importance to the festivities. Kelly Ripa made an interesting appearance. Alec Baldwin in it as well. Funny. Shot on 24p HD it looks like. Good start to the show.

Monologue. enh... it was okay. Viagra clock was kinda lame.

Commercial. Teddy Bear Holding A Heart. A little too obvious. Started off good, but didn't go anywhere you weren't expecting.

Pink Panther commercial. I'm realllly not looking forward to this.

Burger King dumping Gatorade on Don Shula. I love that commerical.

Gillette Fusion. Gillette continues to make these super hi-tech commercials. It's a razor. How exciting can a razor be?

Beniana commercial. I'd never seen that one before. Anime. Odd.


Oprah. Some sort of James Frey story. A skating book parody. It's Steve Martin. I'm thinking this is going to be really obvious. Probably lots of outrageous claims. "Oprah-tunity". That's amusing. Here come the obvious 'lies'. This isn't funny because the real thing was much more ridiculous. They should have gone with more of a direct James Frey parody skit. Hopefully it will end soon. It ended quickly. Good. That wasn't good, especially for a first skit.

Don't Buy Stuff You Cannot Afford book. Funny premise. But how far will they take it? That was kinda okay.

Natalie Portman coming up in a few weeks. March 4th. Are they serious that it's going to be another month before a new episode? They've only had one new ep since Christmas. How can they have SO much time to work on this stuff and not come up with anything funny?


At least the skits haven't dragged on too long so far.


Hamas meets with Steve Martin. Steve Martin appparently has agreed to be a speaker at the Hamas victory party. That was over quick. Almost funny.

SNL Digital Short. Steve is in it. Two guys almost kissing, but just talking. It's uncomfortable, but funny. Enh.... it was okay.

Quick Zoom Theater. This is a one joke skit. Not getting any funnier. A no-zoom at the end. Don't know if that was on purpose, or an accident. I think it can go either way with the way the show has been lately.

New iPod commercial. Jazzy. Looks neat.

Caramel Reeses. "You got your caramel on my Reeses." Amusing.

Apparently Prince is coming on next. Will it be something new? Or something classic? And will be be good either way?

New song. It's not bad.. but it's not something I think I would want to hear again. Something about No fury like a woman scorned. I'm guessing that's the title. Prince is still prince, and he's managed to pull himself out of obscurity, but he's now just another aging rocker. He did do a cool helicoptery-sounding thing with his guitar as left it on the stage.

Bud Light Daredevil commercial. I haven't thought this was funny.

Doom DVD. Ryan and I saw this at the theater. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't something I'd ever want to see ever ever again.

Will and Grace. I'm more glad than ever that I've never watched even half an episode.

Some sort of special news sweeps story about young girls meeting older guys through the internet, through something they like. I'm guessing it's going to be about MySpace.com.

Weekend Update.
-state of the union. enh.
-mangaroo. enh.
-parent-terrorist conference. enh.
-brownback mountain jokes. enh.
-alito. abortion, hop to it, amy. enh.
-greenspan retires. enh.
-african american memorial. large black monument. Amusing.
-kate moss. flew without airplane. amusing.
-barbie. enh.
-congressional black-eyed peas. baamp.
-James frey - should be classified as diet book.
-Britney spears on Will and Grace. Kevin Federline janitor. enh.
-HSBBall girl breaks record. playing knicks. enh.

At least it ended quick. Wow, that was the shortes weekend update, maybe EVER. No special guests. No special segment. Nothing.


Firewall. Looks like another Harrison Ford generic action thriller. I'll pass.

Looks like some sort of superbowl skit coming up.

Mcdonalds commerical for fifty nuggets looked cool. Reminded me of the Hitchikers Guide graphics (I just finished watching the DVD, so I have it on the brain)


Superbowl. Aaron Neville singing national anthem. And Aretha Franklin. They are both singing about being hungry. Dr. John. Horatio Sans does a good Aaron Neville, but it's going a bit obvious and too long. Yawn. It's over. Good.

Final Destination 3 commerical. Haven't seen the other two yet, so I doubt I'm going to see this one. Interesting that they are releasing it right before Valentines Day. It's like horror movies are deliberately targeting all major holidatys to open.

Venus de Milo beer commerical. Amusing.


So far, the only good parts of the show were the pre-recorded segments.

Steve wants to renegotiate his contract during the show. Lorne gets 12 million per show. Steve has to make a choice. HA! Alec Baldwin is back, and there's Jimmy Fallon. "I want pie." That was okay.

It's Fred Armeson doing the Prince show. I've heard about this skit, but have never seen it. Pretty good impression. Beyonce is also there. Steve Martin is personal chef. Will the real Prince make an actual appearance in this skit? I have a feeling that when they cut away and cut back that the real prince will be in the chair. Drew Barrymore. Very good impression. Mirror of reflection. You'd think that's where they'd bring him in.. like in the Mick Jagger skit. They keep cutting away. He sure does sound like him. Nope.. no real Prince. I can't believe they didn't go for it. Oh well. The skit was almost amusing.

Gillette Fusion again. I'm guessing five blades.

Brian Wilson 3000. State of the Galaxy address. Chris Matthews hologram. Not looking good for this skit. Darrell Hammond and Seth Myers first appearances tonight. "We're very close to capturing Osama Bin Laden." Hey.. it's a Rachel Dratch sighting. Bad skit.

SNL digital short. A SECOND one... hmm... Fred Armeson won't stop talking. Scarlett Johansen. TRL. NBC news. Conan Obrien. That was amusing! Not bad. It was a coherent story with a beginning, middle and end. Lots of guest stars. It reminded me of a Saturday TV Funhouse skit.


Surfing. Steve Martin's character doesn't fit in with the other surfers. But the joke is going to be it's someone besides Steve. Okay. It is Steve. Yawwn.... I didn't have to waste any energy even thinking about chuckling.

Nissan Murano commercial is really neat looking. Neato.

Why DQ commercials at 11:45? They're not open even if I wanted to go get a steak finger basket.

Prince apparently has a new female protege. One of the backup singer-dancers from earlier is now singing. Prince is playing guitar and singing backup. It's apprently a duet. My bad. This song isn't that bad. It might sound a lot better in recorded form rather than live. She looks like a young Angela Basset crossed with Beyonce. Song might be called "Beautiful".

Cici's Pizza. Making it look like a sitcom. kind of amusing.

New Orleans Mardi Gras commercial. Sounds really desperate. And what they AREN'T saying is significant.

IBC Bee banking. Amusing that it's airing during an SNL.

Okay... the last chance for laughter.

Naturally Crafting. Rachel Dratch. It's steve, with a ponytail. Steve screwed up his line. Wow.. that was lame.

And... it's over. whew.

So not even Steve Martin can rescue the show.