Saturday, January 17, 2015

SOONER OR LATER: In case you haven't been reading Dick Tracy lately (and, honestly, who has?) it's apparently been bonkers, with the new creative team retconing prior retcons (bringing back sci-fi elements retconned out of the strip in the 60s), and setting up bizarre crossovers including one which resolved the cliffhanger that ended the comic strip of Little Orphan Annie, and a forthcoming crossover between Dick Tracy and Funky Winkerbean.

HT: Finn.
TELL ME MORE, TELL ME MORE:  Not content to let NBC occupy the "Live Musicals" front, Fox has now confirmed that its version of Grease: LIVE! will air on Sunday, January 31, 2016 (that's the Sunday between the AFC/NFC championships and the Super Bowl) and will star Julianne Hough as Sandy and Vanessa Hudgens as Rizzo.  Additional casting TBD, but that gives you an idea of the age they'll be looking at for the leads, and I'm sure you'll have suggestions.

Friday, January 16, 2015

YA GOT TROUBLE. RIGHT HERE IN EMERALD CITY:  NBC's next live musical will either be The Music Man or The Wiz.
WOOD FOR SHEEP?  WHO'S GOT WOOD FOR SHEEP?  How does the Green Bay Packers Offensive Line relax?  With The Settlers of Catan, of course. No word on whether the Colts have plans to adopt The Cones of Dunshire.

Thursday, January 15, 2015

AND THE NOMINEES ARE ... WHITE:  No, not everything is awesome with this year's Academy Award nominations, which finds Selma nominated for Best Picture but no other major categories (Argo did have adapted screenplay too), The Lego Movie skipped in Best Animated Feature, Steve James again snubbed in documentary (Life Itself), and no Wormtail in Best Actor.

Still, if Boyhood is going to be the favorite in a lot of major categories, there's a limit to how much I can complain. Because that is an amazingly wonderful movie.

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

DOES DAVID KELLEY GET ROYALTIES?  Given that her film appearances in recent years have been sporadic, it's kind of odd to see Michelle Pfeiffer getting a moment of shoutouts in two hit songs (Riptide and Uptown Funk), right?
I LOVE YOUR MOTHER'S COOKIES:  Linda Holmes delights in the cuckoo bananas trailer for J-Lo's upcoming gender-swapped Fatal Attraction to a Young Hot Stud.
MALTERNATIVE DESK:  Do you want to make your own Zima?  Now you can!

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

WHAT ABOUT THE WEREWOLF ATTORNEY?  In the category of "Things You Didn't Know You Needed," a mashup of "Single Ladies" and the theme from Night Court is right up there.
MY JOB IS NOT TO DEFINE WHAT A WORD IS. THAT IS YOUR JOB:  Stefan Fatsis, author of the books Word Freak and [HU&L listeners know the rest], does a deep dive into the modern dictionary, and whether it's still needed:
... a 200-year-long commitment to chronicling the state of American English, a commitment that, hokey as it might sound, Merriam takes very seriously. 
“The interesting thing about walking around this floor is that you’re actually watching knowledge get created,” Morse says as we tour Merriam’s editorial department. “Some editor is sitting down with a bunch of citations and is drawing conclusions about the meaning of a word that no one has drawn before. Every day here the editors contribute to the sum store of human knowledge. They didn’t aggregate stuff that other people did. They actually created a new piece of knowledge. For me, that’s just as cool as it gets.”

Monday, January 12, 2015

I DON'T KNOW:  Vox answers more questions than you probably had about Nickelodeon's famous slime.
GET TO THE CHOPPAH!  Have tickets to tonight's big College Football Championship game, but not sure how you're getting there?  For $350, Uber will take you from your home to Dallas Love Field in a private car, chopper you to the game, and take you home in a car after the game.