Oh, and while I'm here...

Shark. Glee. Has jumped.

...And I will not be shamed

That's right, I love Aerosmith, and what could be more hilarious than watching Matthew Morrison and Neil Patrick Harris duke it out to "Dream On"? I'm late to the Glee bandwagon, but I have to admit, I do enjoy singing of almost any kind, and they are by turns hilariously campy or enjoyably sentimental. I absolutely love Jonathan Groff -- here's hoping that they find some way to bring him back next season.

On the other hand, it was a little sad to see the Tony Awards desperately clinging to other forms of art in an attempt to resuscitate box office. Let's see now: Tonys to Scarlett Johanssen, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Denzel, and Viola Davis? They even tossed the rock world a couple, with lighting and scenery going to American Idiot. And Matthew Morrison and Lea Michele's "return" to Broadway from Glee teased until people under rocks knew that they were going to be performing.

There has to be a better business model for Broadway that doesn't involve hauling in Hollywood stars or alternately selling rush tickets and ridiculously overpriced full-price tickets. Far be it from me to suggest that the Great White Way rethink its practices, but they're having a tough time now, and it shows just as clearly at the Tonys than it does with all the dark theaters and early closings and postponed openings.

The pleasure of agreement

I haven't been watching much late-night TV lately -- the time for practicing and studying guitar has to come from somewhere! But I did tune in again the other night in time to catch a delightful rant by Craig Ferguson that went something like this:

"Young people of America. I finally decided to listen to the Jonas Brothers, and oh my lord, they SUCK! (audience cheers) Young people! I'm begging you! They don't even suck in an interesting way!" The delight was in the delivery. There's a crap vid on YouTube of an old rant of his about their appearance, but apparently the music pushed him over the edge.

As I always say: they will live to regret this, much like NKOTB fans.

Only Arsenio?

I just watched a kind of politicians' wrap-up on the Tonight Show, all the pols that Jay has had on in his seventeen years. And... no Bill Clinton. That's odd. Was that before presidential candidates were really hitting the talk shows? Perhaps Clinton and his sax on Arsenio were really the first of that wave.

I also wonder if Clinton for some reason didn't like Leno, maybe some of his jokes, etc., because I know he's been on Letterman since his presidency. It would have to be very specific, though, because Letterman also did so many Clinton jokes that he ran a 'Clinton Classic' every day in the days leading up to the end of his presidency.

Based on nothing

Or next to nothing... I don't follow American Idol, but I did hear that Queen (visualize the air quotes that I always have around the present-day version of the band) was on the finale, so I YouTubed it. Based on this three minutes, there's simply no comparison between the two finalists. Adam and his eyeliner all the way, man.

It was a simpler time

I've gotten quite addicted to YouTube clips of the CBS game show What's My Line?, which ran through the fifties into the sixties. MCed by John Charles Daly, who was also a reporter and anchor on ABC, this game show featured a panel of four who had to guess the occupations of regular joes as well as blindfold themselves and identify a mystery guest, based on yes or no questions. The panel itself changed over the years, but mostly featured Random House editor Bennet Cerf, Broadway actress Arlene Francis, reporter and gossip columnist Dorothy Kilgallen, and a fourth spot filled over the years by Steve Allen, Fred Allen, and famous guest panelists.

I stumbled on it looking for specific people; they had a wide range of celebrity guests, mostly Hollywood and sports types but also politicians and artists. I was absolutely staggered to see that Salvador Dali appeared on it:



I have to say that I also found it rather awkward to watch appearances of lauded African American guests at a time before civil rights, particular this one of Jesse Owens, when Daly lauds him for ramming his medals "down the throat of Adolf Hitler." Still wouldn't have been able to sit at the front of the bus everywhere in his own country, though.



Once you watch a few of these, you start to get the humor of the time period and the personalities of the panel. I admit that Arlene is my favorite. This is the point at which the regular guests are good to watch, particularly because things were just funnier back then. The hysteria over the scandalous occupation of this gentleman, a girdle designer, is a real insight into that era for me.

Noooooo!

I am so mad that I missed last night's House. So mad that I won't spoil it here, in case anyone has TiVoed it. Would you believe that it doesn't go up on hulu or even FoxTV's website until 8 days after the episode airs? I'm sunk. I'll poke around hoping that it repeats on Friday or something.

Esteban! Zia! Tao!

Did anyone else watch The Mysterious Cities of Gold on Nickelodeon as a child? It was a cartoon, and to my great shock, I find that it was anime. (I just remember thinking of it as a cartoon, like David the Gnome or any other Nick favorite.) I'm happy that it's finally coming to DVD. As you can probably guess, it's about the Spanish exploration of the Americas and the legend of the cities of gold (and it has some vague resemblance, at least in the use of character names, to Scott O'Dell's wonderful YA novel The King's Fifth). I really liked that show, and so did my brother. I still remember that we were watching an episode, and they advertised that the three-hour finale would play that weekend... when we were being hauled off on a car trip of some kind, maybe for a piano recital or something. In any case, I can't believe that our parents would have let us watch it, but I've always remembered it. I can barely remember how the series went now, so the urge to find out how it ends is dimmed, but I'm looking forward to it all the same.

I am a bit nervous, though, because the intro theme is nothing like I remember:

Hail to the late-night chief

As a devoted late-night hound, how could I miss Obama's appearance? I'm watching it even as I type. Leno's actually doing quite well at both asking questions and being entertained, and it's actually striking to me how little Obama's demeanor has changed. To me, it makes perfect sense that he should be the first president to appear on a late-night show; there's nothing wrong with it. If it's good enough for the candidate, it's good enough for the president, and lord knows other politicians make use of them often enough as entertaining, safe means of communication.

Remember how Rachel Maddow said very early that Obama had not perfected the art of the sound bite? He still tends to take the long intellectual view. When Leno asked Obama about the AIG bonuses, he began his answer with the structure of AIG, rather than the bailout. A small but interesting insight into his approach, I think.

ETA: I knew the second I heard it that he was going to get in trouble for joking that his current 120 bowling average was like the Special Olympics. Yup, I was right. And justly so, I suppose. I don't doubt that Special Olympic bowlers could probably kick his butt, and it's only right that people know that these athletes are formidable.

Sue me again

You all know I'm addicted to late-night, so how could I fail to watch Jimmy Fallon's first night? I presume he's going to be just fine, if not exactly revolutionary. Technically, however, you'd think they could have figured out some things in the YEAR they had to prepare. He's got the old-fashioned setup where he walks out and does jokes in front of the curtains, and the curtains are too bold a blue. Plus the folds form vertical stripes, and when Fallon bobs around, it gets kind of dizzying. Maybe as he gets less nervous, he'll bob less, but I'd change the damn curtain. I'd also like to see him look more at the camera. They've got to move his teleprompter to a better focal point, or else he has to memorize more.

On the other hand, the collage-like set where his band, The Roots, plays, is pretty cool, with fake brick and windows. God knows they're a welcome addition to late-night music (Craig Ferguson still has no band, just some canned library music). Fallon did a reasonably funny and charming 'slow jam' of the news before popping over to a cookie-cutter interview set, with the desk and couch in front of the obligatory skyline backdrop.

Well, that's all he's done so far, nothing egregiously terrible, and I might check in on him later, but for now I'm either switching over to Ferguson or else going to bed early. Over and out.

ETA: I checked back in on him, and was kind of sorry I did. His interview with Robert DeNiro was breathless, incoherent, and overscripted. However, 1) nerves and 2) interviewing is a skill that CAN be learned (cf. Conan).

Late-night no more

You all know that I love my late-night TV. What better way to wind down the work day than with the six million internet errands and emails I have to take care of while (hopefully) interesting people talk and play music? Being in Central Time, late-night TV starts at 10pm with Jon Stewart. Imagine my surprise, then, to see that NBC is going to retain Jay Leno by giving him an hourlong weeknight show at 10pm (EST).

I always thought that NBC was nuts for retaining Conan by promising him the Tonight Show without OKing it with Jay. I simply couldn't see what they were going to do with him. This is seen as a cost-saving measure, since his show will cost so much less than an hourlong drama and fill up five days to boot. The exact format will be worked out in the three months that he will take to format the new show, incidentally retaining his studio, though not the Tonight Show name. Sorry, Conan, there goes part of your historical cachet. (God only knows what Conan, who is characterized as fiercely competitive, thinks of all this -- I remember reading that he hit the roof when Stewart was raking up the Emmys a few years ago, considering the hours that he fills up while Stewart does a half-hour show fewer days per week, fewer weeks per year. Can't imagine he's delighted to have someone crashing his party).

I'm also shocked at Leno's workaholicness. Any other person might want to take some time to travel, or at least I personally would have bargained for Fridays off like Stewart/Colbert, and less weeks of work (46 weeks, according to the heavily leaked bargain). I guess he really does love what he does.

This is probably the only way a show like this can break into prime-time: an established name with the connections to bring in other established names (assuming that he continues to interview) and the heft to lean on NBC brass to keep going if the show doesn't take off like a rocket in the first few weeks. All I can say is, if Jimmy Fallon was hoping for any real buzz around his Conan replacement debut, I think it's just officially been killed.

Barackometric pressure

Just a clever title. (Not that clever.)

What I was really thinking of was the academic job search (MY search, of course) as a barometer of the economy as a whole, like anything else. Watching searches slowly get axed is about as disheartening a thing as you can imagine; talk about things being totally out of your hands.

But Barack's upcoming infomercial made its way into my consciousness and my title. I'm seriously worried about backlash; it's a show of excess wealth at a time when I think a lot of people are going to bristle at the slightest show of excess. If you have read any of the comment strings on articles about the planned Grant Park rally, you'll know what I mean.

Stephen in the World

How could I forget to post the vid of my old prof, Stephen Greenblatt (famed Shakespeare scholar and author of the best-selling bio Will in the World), on the Colbert Report? The dueling Stephens traded quips, quotes, and political analysis in a really fantastic segment that ended with Colbert saying to Greenblatt, "Don't f___ with me, man." Awesome.

Tone poem

I quite enjoyed this arts feature in the NY Times on Julian Schnabel painting Placido Domingo's portrait. As the author said, a lot of ego in one room!

Of course, I also enjoyed the SNL intro. Fit in your bits of media whenever you have time, say I.

My House

Arrived home last night to find that it is already fall in Chicago, and also to find my newly arrived DVD of season two of House, M.D. I love Hugh Laurie, whose pinnacles of ridiculousness in Blackadder you'll never find surpassed anywhere. Season two has some really great episodes I want to rewatch, including "Humpty Dumpty," in which the hospital chief Cuddy's Latino construction worker falls off her roof but then has a more serious problem -- why are his hands gangrening? My favorite from this season is probably "Failure to Communicate," which features House working his way back into his ex-girlfriend's affections while diagnosing an aphasia-stricken journalist over the telephone. Seriously. No sophomore slump here.

TDS live!

I went to a taping of the Daily Show today! Long story on how I got the ticket, but I did, and it was a "VIP" ticket, which means that you are on a separate line and get seated first. Of course, this doesn't matter a ton in the long run, because you are put in seats by the interns, and have about as good a chance of getting a front row seat by chance if you're on the long line. The first section is closer to Stewart himself; the others probably have better views. I'd say the audience size is around 400, maybe less.

After waiting on line outside forever (you're supposed to be on line by 4:10pm), you go through security (metal detector; guard digs thoroughly around in your purse) and get penned up in a tiny lobby, which is probably great if the weather's bad. There you wait even longer, till we actually got let into the studio well after 5:30pm. Then, of course, you wait for everyone else to be seated, which takes a while because once the lobby is clear, they have to let people through security and then into the studio. A producer comes out to warm you up, which sounds idiotic but the cheering really does get louder as he exhorts the crowd. Then Jon Stewart came out and took a very few questions before taping started.

These questions ranged from the dumb (What's your favorite diner in NJ?) to the weirdly funny. One woman asked about Berlin's longitude on the wall, which reads W rather than E. She thought maybe it was on purpose. Stewart grumbled, "I hate it when the audience is smarter than me," and then deadpanned, "Yeah, it was on purpose. It's a really funny joke we put in for... cartographers."

Great show today, but you can see that just from watching it on TV (Rob Riggle's last Beijing report, Ben Stiller). What you can't see is that before the check-in with the Colbert Report, Jon and Stephen kind of screw around over the satellite link. Today's conversation was mostly about Stephen's little boy, who is coming back from his first summer camp. It's one of those fancy camps where they can look at photos of the kids online, but no cell phones. They are allowed to write home, though "apparently he hasn't," Colbert observed.

Last highlight: one older lady shouted at the end, after the show, "Just elect Obama!" Stewart looked at her and said, "Ma'am, I don't elect people. How would that work? 'I elect you,'" and mimed a magic wand or knighting ceremony gesture.

Taping was very quick, not quite real-time but almost. We were out before 7pm, after Stewart thanked us sincerely for standing outside for "like eleven hours. Really, we should just beat you with clubs when you come in here. Wouldn't that be great?"

Quick follow-ups

1) Oscars. Long. Mostly boring. Short acceptance speeches, thankfully. The few little surprises along the way didn't add up to any huge surprise a la Crash, but the biggest of the little was definitely Tilda Swinton. I assume that it was a tight race and she slipped through between Ruby Dee and Cate Blanchett.

Interminable clip shows, but what I minded most were the dreadfully bland musical numbers. That was some fairly lackluster choreography and costuming.

2) Raisin in the Sun was very good (I didn't quite catch all of it), though I wish that the camerawork had been a tad more creative. I know, confined space, TV movie budget. Wonderful cast. I'd like to see Sean Combs do more in the future with his vocal inflection, but his timing and emotion are definitely in place. I look forward to seeing what he does next. And yes, to the hilariously enraged John Stamos fan who posted below and all others out there, he was very good indeed. There are many ways to play that little role, but I liked the idea of making him oily and quietly offensive rather than a pompous old man.

The best for me was Audra MacDonald, whose intensity and suppressed rage and hurt just can't be beat, even when it's channeled through the soapy Private Practice.

24-hour watch

A few quick Oscar predictions:

1) Jon Stewart will look less nervous than he did two years ago.

2) Best Actor: This is the closest to a shoe-in, if you ask me or just about anybody. What is it with all the bouquets for Day-Lewis this time? Has he just reached that age where as a British Actor he qualifies for worship? A few years ago, with Bill the Butcher in Gangs of New York, he was viewed as kind of crazy. Maybe it was just the character, but there were also all these rumors about how he was found making shoes in Florence or something (which he actually did take up for a few months, apparently). This character is not less frightening, but the movie's being better received, and so is the man himself after his quite dignified Heath Ledger tribute at the SAG awards. I think it's in the (gift) bag.

3) Best Actress: You know, I just don't know enough about the Academy to call this one. Kind of like two years ago when it surfaced afterwards that power players and academy voters had been making all kinds of homophobic remarks about Brokeback Mountain. So much for liberal, open-minded Hollywood. Anyway, here it's probably veteran Julie Christie, fresh face Ellen Page, or lovely foreigner Marion Cotillard. I'm inclined to say Christie, but I'm really not sure. I really thought Ellen Page's nomination was her award, but I hear that there's buzz for her...

4) Best Picture: Eh... No Country, probably, though I'm going to wait to call it as the night goes on. Again, referring back to the Crash surprise, I thought I could see that one coming because awards were peeling off and going in scattered directions all night (Memoirs of a Geisha picked up three Oscars. Three. That's as many as Brokeback).

5) Ryan Seacrest will be everywhere.

6) Not seeing any love or opportunity for Atonement, unless it's for Best Cinematography for the Big Tracking Shot. I'm sure its stars will be presenting something or other. I sure hope it doesn't win Best Score. It wouldn't kill me if it won Best Costume Design, though I am a little tired of the media going on about Keira Knightley's green dress. It was a beautiful dress, yes, move on.

7) Poor Joe Wright didn't get nominated for Best Director, either. I'll go with the Coen brothers here.

That's enough. Not feeling a ton of energy for these awards, though as always, I look forward to Stewart. And pretty dresses. Let us hope that the Heath Ledger mentions are few, short, and tasteful.

To the TV stars

I've been reading like a maniac for my latest dissertation chapter, and I don't usually post about what I read for 'work' on here. But I found myself reading something that required some considerable explanation when a friend found me reading in a spare moment: George Takei's autobiography, To the Stars. There's a picture of him on the cover, looking off into space. I don't know how recognizable he is, but between the uniform he's wearing and the fact that the bottom of the cover says "Star Trek's Mr. Sulu," I think people get the general idea.

Why was I reading it? Well, not for the seemingly obvious reason; I have seen exactly one Star Trek (The Original Series) episode in my life. Takei, being a Japanese American of a certain age, lived through the unconstitutional, racist, and generally shameful internment during WWII. As a matter of fact, because his parents answered 'no-no' to the double questions of serving in the military and swearing a loyalty oath to the very government that was quarantining them, the Takeis were sent to Tule Lake, where all the rebels and 'no-nos' were segregated. I'm working on memoirs of the internment right now.

The book was very useful from this point of view, because the internment is almost Takei's first memory. He was four when they went to the camps, seven when they came out. He also talks about living in a mostly Mexican American area afterwards, and then his early days as an actor, moving from bit part to bit part. I didn't even know that he was in some fairly major films like John Wayne's Green Berets and Ice Palace with Richard Burton. Nor did I know much about his political work in more recent years.

And yes, there's Star Trek. It's not a pretty account. He constantly had to lobby to advance Sulu and his salary, and he clearly detested Shatner and his huge ego. From what he recounts, so did many of his fellow actors, who Takei loved very much. The little snubs and credit-grabs that he remembers are sad--I understand his resentment, of course, but it comes across as a little sad, too. Takei seems particularly respectful of Leonard Nimoy's acting skills, which might be odd to people who have only seen him as Spock. It certainly is to me!

A surprisingly good read in an unexpected place. Oh, and in case you were wondering, no mention of his sexuality at all; there's a little smokescreening when he mentions kissing one of his female castmates in an early play. It's a long journey from there to this.

Life post-SatC

I don't think I'm exactly going out on a limb to say that the Sex and the City movie will be vastly more popular and successful than either of its two follow-ups on TV, Cashmere Mafia and Lipstick Jungle. I watched the pilots of both and barely made it through for CM. To my surprise, I vastly enjoyed the Lipstick premiere, but then found myself wondering why -- and kind of judging myself for falling prey to its Knight on a White Jet character (Andrew McCarthy, all growed up).

Both have quite stellar casts featuring people I'm quite fond of from other assorted venues. CM boasts Miranda Otto of LOTR fame and Frances O'Connor, who I liked very much in Mansfield Park (she also played the bitchy girlfriend in Bridget Jones). Also Lucy Liu and Bonnie Somerville, who I had to look up to realize that she played one of Ross's girlfriends on Friends. She's one of those actresses who has been kicking around various projects forever.

So is Lindsay Price on Lipstick, that poor beautiful woman who was part of the train wreck o'crassness that was the American Coupling. She's half Asian, by the way -- interesting, isn't it, that both shows went for a token minority and made it an Asian? (Bonnie Somerville has a black girlfriend, but I don't know if that'll be long-term.) Her costars are much more famous, Kim Raver from 24 and Brooke Shields. McCarthy likewise needs no introduction. Really lots of good acting all around on both shows, with very slight scripts.

They're really identical shows in a lot of ways; lots of pretty clothes, high-powered careers all emphasized heavily this time (no Charlottes), dysfunctional relationships with good-looking men, and feeling put upon. All the time! I think that was why I could barely make it through CM. These women just didn't look like they were having any fun to me, unless they were enjoying strutting around in Patricia Fields' designs.

I don't think either show really has a point right now, which is a serious problem. Ally McBeal, much as I hate it for many reasons, introduced a new modern archetype: the neurotic, high-powered career female, who is still nothing without a man. SatC at least improved this by making it strong career females who were romantics at heart (well, though extremely deep down in Miranda's case). It also celebrated sisterhood as the strongest bond. These two new shows offer nothing new yet; CM could do well by going the deliciously evil route, if they're brave enough. Well, we'll see. The SatC pilot was no prize.