Saturday, February 14, 2015

THE SEASON ENDING BIG QUIZ:  So, I spent last weekend in Albuquerque, NM, at Geeks Who Drink's annual Geek Bowl event, which they advertise as being America's largest pub quiz, with my team (5, rather than the maximum 6, who'd never played together as a single unit before), finishing tied for 15th out of  134 teams (the winning team was fronted by Philly Quizzo kingpin Johnny Goodtimes).  And while they call it a "pub quiz," I was deeply impressed with the presentation.  A fuller recap after the break.

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

HE SAVED THE FRANCHISE:  James Andrew Miller on Eddie Murphy, SNL, and his return to 30 Rock this Sunday:
The running start is, remember, Eddie is 19. Remember that when he first came on, I don’t think, quite frankly, there were too many people in the executive halls who understood what they had with him. I do think you’ve got to give Ebersol and a lot of the writers a lot of credit because they went heavy with Eddie. He carried the show. This is not, he would appear once and you’d never see him again. He took that show on his back and ran with it. I think that, when you think about, not only his versatility but so many sketches that became iconic in the SNL world: James Brown’s hot tub, Mr. Robinson, they were sensational. I think a lot of people were tuning in to see him. And because SNL is such a collaborative group, [this was the only time in] history of the show where a specific cast member has had that kind of wattage around him, where there was such a disparity between the star quality with one cast member and the rest of the cast. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler and Will Ferrell and Phil Hartman, they were all really great cast members, but they had other great cast members with them.
IN A SEA FAR, FAR AWAY:  Select 2016 Disney Cruises will include a Star Wars day, featuring character meet and greets, movie screenings, a special evening deck party with fireworks, and the ship's nightclub re-dressed as the Mos Eisley Cantina for the evening.

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

FAKE NEWS DESK:  Despite Rosewater failing to be a big hit, Jon Stewart apparently wants to do something else, and announced at this afternoon's taping of The Daily Show that he will be leaving the anchor desk, and Comedy Central has confirmed he'll be leaving later this year (no specific date).
IT ISN'T FAIR. IT ISN'T NICE:  What A Straight Man's Favorite Musical Says About Him, for McSwys, by former child actress Mara Wilson.
WOOD DRAMATICALLY UNDERESTIMATES whether you want to see Steven Hyden analyze who out-acted whom in a certain Good Will Hunting scene, though no one would blame you if you skipped this link. No one would blame you. No one would blame you.

Monday, February 9, 2015

IT'S A GOOD TIME FOR US TO TELL OUR STORY:  I'm not sure if this will be the best movie of the summer or the worst (and it may be both), but the first trailer for Straight Outta Compton is out. (NSFW, of course, with ample language, nudity, and usage of Paul Giammati.)

Sunday, February 8, 2015

THESE SONGS OF MINE, THEY'RE LIKE MYSTERY STORIES, THE KIND THAT SHAKESPEARE SAW WHEN HE WAS GROWING UP:  Bob Dylan's MusiCares speech from Friday night, transcribed:
All these songs are connected. Don't be fooled. I just opened up a different door in a different kind of way. It's just different, saying the same thing. I didn't think it was anything out of the ordinary.  
Well you know, I just thought I was doing something natural, but right from the start, my songs were divisive for some reason. They divided people. I never knew why. Some got angered, others loved them. Didn't know why my songs had detractors and supporters. A strange environment to have to throw your songs into, but I did it anyway. 
Last thing I thought of was who cared about what song I was writing. I was just writing them. I didn't think I was doing anything different. I thought I was just extending the line. Maybe a little bit unruly, but I was just elaborating on situations. Maybe hard to pin down, but so what? A lot of people are hard to pin down. You've just got to bear it. I didn't really care what Lieber and Stoller thought of my songs.