TwoPennies

Nerd Humor

So if you're a fan of the original Star Trek TV show, AND a fan of Will Ferrell's Old School, AND a fan of The 40-Year-Old Virgin, AND a fan of Stephen Colbert, AND a fan of more cowbell (and hey, who ISN'T a fan of all those things?) you're gonna love this (some NSFW language in here...)

(Hat tip to SciFi Wire)

Quote of the Day

"Thanks to TV and for the convenience of TV, you can only be one of two kinds of human beings, either a liberal or a conservative."

-- Kurt Vonnegut

More on the iPhone

Steve Jobs describes the capabilities of the new iPhone on SNL's Weekend Update:

Local (Portland) News Videos

A friend of mine sent a video link to a local news story about a small plane that crash-landed in his neighborhood.  Interesting story, but the "crack" local news team did the usual job of completely misunderstanding aviation issues.  I know from personal experience, it ain't the very easiest thing in the world to land a light plane under the best of conditions, and without power it can be a challenge.  But looking at the (relatively) wide streets in the Fairview neighborhood, the weather, and other factors -- it's hardly a miracle that the pilot managed to land without major catastrophe.

And is there some rule that local TV crews have to pick the most photogenic/most clueless available bystanders to provide their inane "insights" into the story?  Wouldn't commentary from, I dunno, an expert of some kind better serve the public's interest?

Anyhow, the plane crash video was OK, but I was understandably distracted by this other video clip for the day.

Now that's news I can use!!!  I am positively ashamed that Seattle has such a business while Vegas does not...

30 Rock Update

I mentioned the new NBC show 30 Rock a while back (which post, thanks to a spelling error in one of the comments, is now the #1 Google hit for "Rachel Dresch", a surprisingly common search term).  It premieres this Wednesday, but you can watch the whole pilot online now.

Jane Krakowski is definitely a better fit for that role than Ms. Dratch, but they changed one of my favorite jokes from the trailer involving that character, and it just wasn't as funny.  In fact, the show overall looks to me like perhaps the network is messing with it too much.  There are segments in the show that are really clever and funny, then there are segments that seem like perhaps they were written by committee.  I hope that Tina Fey is able to get more control over the show as time goes on, otherwise I predict that it'll be one season and out for 30 Rock.

But the pilot may be worth watching just for the scene with Tina Fey working the strip club stage.  And Tracy Morgan is better than I expected him to be.  He was never a favorite of mine on SNL, but his over-the-top clown antics actually fit the role of a mentally unstable movie star quite well.

One little wardrobe note... if you look carefully, you'll see some Trailblazers apparel on one of the extras.

Jumping the Gun

I loved The West Wing, and long before that SportsNight, both brilliant creations of Aaron Sorkin.  And I'm very excited about his latest project, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, which premieres on NBC this fall.

So I was a bit surprised to see Studio 60 available on Netflix.  Naturally I had to check it out.  It's a DVD that NBC released with the pilot for that show as well as another new fall show, Kidnapped.

Brilliant bit of marketing.  Generate buzz (and presumably a little revenue too) for the new show by making the pilot available before it airs.  Seems like it would only really be effective for shows made by proven talents with an existing, perhaps even cult-like, fan base (Sorkin certainly fits the bill, Chuck Lorre also comes to mind).  But if you have a show like that, you can piggyback other new shows as well (such as Kidnapped) to hopefully ride those coat tails.

Of course, I didn't bother watching the Kidnapped pilot, having recently been exposed to (and unimpressed by) the show during one of those inane ad fests that theatergoers are now assaulted with prior to the movie previews.

Anyhow, Studio 60.  It is classic Sorkin:  smart, funny, very well-written, with deep characters and interesting story lines.  There are recognizable elements of The West Wing and SportsNight, but this is a different show.  I expect this will be much edgier and funnier than West Wing, given the subject matter.  And Sorkin has toned down his rapid-fire style of dialog dramatically since SportsNight and the early seasons of West Wing, so this has a much more natural conversational feel to it, but it retains the sense that most everything anyone says is important.  There's a lot of weight to Sorkin's writing, but his gift is that it rarely feels heavy to the viewer.

Bottom line, it looks like another must-see show.  I'll be setting the DVR for Monday nights for sure.

By the way, it looks like NBC is loading up on the fictional-SNL shows with the premiere of Tina Fey's new project, 30 Rock.  From the trailer, it looks like this show will be pretty much a straight-up half-hour sitcom.  I'm excited about this show too, because Tina Fey is one of the smartest comedy writers around.  She can find the "smart" punchline in toilet humor (look for it in the trailer).  That takes talent, my friends.  ;-)

Save the Crab!

So there's this Honda Element commercial, right?  And it shows the Element having a chat on a beach with a little crab, who spends the entire commercial saying, "I pinch."  I have absolutely no idea why I find the commercial so very funny, but I do.  (Perhaps it's the accent.  For instant humor, just add accent!) 

You can view the commercial on the crab's MySpace Page, and maybe you'll laugh too.  Actually, I thought the commercial was only mildly amusing at first, but once I saw the extensive back story that they posted on MySpace, particularly the blog entries, I was really impressed.  Sure it's basically just a corporate shill site, but there's plenty of non-corporate humor thrown in too.

Am I a gullible consumer, or just someone who appreciates new art forms?  Who knows...

Well, I know, actually.  I'm not about to consume a Honda Element, no matter how fun the advertising.  I think they're terrible, boxy, ugly little things.  Cute commercial, ugly car.  Just a step or two above the abject automotive abomination that is (was) Aztek.

Anyhow, apparently there are no plans for an encore of "Gil" the Crab in Honda's ad campaign.  So naturally there's a web campaign to bring the little guy back.  I've signed the online petition, won't you?

Who's Watching?

So thanks to the folks at YouTube, we can now view rejected sitcom pilots online.  This one is sort of an interesting premise, definitely a little quirky (from the people who brought you Scrubs and The Family Guy), though I can see why the execs at WB wouldn't pick it up.

Note:  The pilot is split into 3 clips, about 10 minutes each.  The link above will take you to the first clip, and you'll be able to continue on to the other two segments from there.

Too good to pass up...

So I'm scanning through various blogs using BlogLines (ehh... it's an "okay" feed reader... easy to use at least) and I happen upon a notice:  George Carlin and Ann Coulter to square off on The Tonight Show!

Except that they aren't, necessarily, they simply happen to both be booked on the same night.  So there's a bunch of drivel in the comment section about the relative merits of the two as representatives of their respective political viewpoints.

And then I got to this gem of a comment.  It was posted by a Coulter supporter, with absolute sincerity as far as I can tell, but could as easily be the motto of the Blogosphere in general (emphasis mine):

Of course, I haven’t read the book [Coulter's latest] myself, so I don’t know how far out of or in context it all is.

But then, like most people, who needs to be familiar with the facts in order to have an opinion on them?