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Sorry Allison, but I beg to differ

I really think the creators of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report drastically underestimate just how important their work is. I don't want to overdo it the other way, but these truly are the best, most intelligent and subversive shows on television right now.

You don’t think your work on Late Night, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report has affected people in positive ways?

I am exceedingly thrilled when people tell me those shows make them happy, but I don’t think it’s the same as dedicating one’s life to bringing more knowledge to the world. Or being a social worker and directly helping people. Or being a teacher.

Via David Jacobs, a great interview with Allison Silverman, former head writer for Stephen Colbert.

Katy Perry, who knew?

I was on YouTube looking at some SxSW music videos and came upon this early video of Katy Perry playing one of her own songs solo on guitar. She’s actually really good, I had no idea. My only knowledge of her came post “Kissed a Girl” in her synth-pop tart mode. I guess we have to wait until this career runs its course before she pulls out the guitar again and gets back to country/folk singer/songwriter mode.

By the way, turns out Astrid knew. When I mentioned it to her, she was all “no duh” on my ass. Ah kids.

Brian Williams rules

I know this story went around a few days ago but I finally actually watched the whole video and it's much funnier than the stories let on. Flash artisinal market, OMG! He's always hilarious on Jon Stewart, so no surprise on the sense of humor. But I love it when media makes fun of media. They do it best.

The King's hair... as in Elvis

Although I haven't bought anything yet, I've been interestedly following the memorabilia auction market on Heritage Auctions. It (not surprisingly) started with a sports auction, I followed a link to the site to see the auction of a letter to Babe Ruth that I found fascinating — the letter had elements of media, baseball and fame and but for the fact that I've never really been a fan of the Babe, I might have bought it. But I got on Heritage's mailing list and have been tracking various sports and celebrity auctions of late. I was never much of an eBay-er back in the day, but I could see getting into collecting memorabilia.

But this is kind of ridiculous:

From the King's Personal Barber: A Large Quantity of the Hair That Fascinated the World for Decades. An incredibly rare opportunity for the serious Elvis Presley collector. We offer not just a strand or two, not just a small lock, but uncounted thousands of strands cut from that trademark Presley pompadour by his personal hair stylist, Homer M. Gilleland. Elvis Presley's hairstyle, though it evolved a bit through the years, was as much a part of his "brand" as the swiveling hips, curling lips, and versatile vocal stylings. At the beginning of his career, he made the decision to die his mousy blond hair a deep black and fashion it in a ducktail with a long pompadour front and long sideburns. This style was instantly copied by millions of young men worldwide.

Who knew he was originally a blond?

Bummer of the week: Heroes is cancelled

yesterday nbc announced that heroes is officially cancelled.  as much as we have been aware of this possibility for a few weeks - it remains surreal to consider that the decision has been made.  the action has been taken.  and this chapter (or volume) is really over for all of us who worked on the show - and for all of you who watched it.  i want to extend myself in a huge swell of gratitude to all of the fans.  for investing in the stories we told.  for engaging in the characters we created.  and for standing by us through all the ups and downs of what was at times a rocky road.

via zacharyquinto.com

David Byrne on collaboration and a lot of other stuff

You must read the amazingly great new piece from David Byrne on his (TypePad!) blog. I could easily grab 4 or 5 pull quotes and not do it justice. Lots of insights into his writing process, in collaboration and alone, with an in depth discussion of his current project with Annie Clark. My favorite parts are the descriptions of the tools they use to write songs while not together: mostly Macs, GarageBand and email. 

I am going to pull out one quote though, on the power of constraints:

The fact that half the musical decision-making has already been done bypasses a lot of waffling and worrying. I didn’t have to think about what to do and what direction to take musically — the train had already left the station and my job was to see where it wanted to go. This restriction on one’s freedom — that some creative decisions have already been made — turns out to be a great blessing. Complete creative freedom is as much a curse as a boon.

via David Byrne's Journal

Johnny Depp on Keith Richards

“I was almost afraid to meet him for a long time, because there is always a fear that your heroes are going to be shitheads.”

Johnny Depp describing his movie dad, Keith Richards via Rolling Stone

I'm on Team Oprah too

There were some fascinating exchanges between Oprah and Jay, who sounded as though he thought Winfrey was going to be more sympathetic than she proved to be. Winfrey said, “David Letterman called you, I think, the ‘Big Jaw’ Leno… and you hit back by talking about his infidelity.” 

Leno said, “Well, I did a joke about that, yes.” 

”Even the audience went, ‘Ooo!’” noted Winfrey.
”But it was a good joke,” squeaked Leno. “Did you laugh when you heard it?”

“No,” said Oprah firmly, “I did not. I did not laugh. You know what, I thought that was beneath you.” Leno tried to defend himself. “But how many jokes like that have I done? I did one joke in the middle of the week and I never did another one. I had a cheap shot thrown at me, I threw one cheap shot back and I moved on.”
Oprah asked, “So you thought one cheap shot deserves another?” 

Leno said, “Yeah, it’s OK.” Then 
Oprah asked, “Do you feel you’re being unfairly portrayed by the media?” Leno said, “Yeah, I think so.”

via Ken Tucker's TV

Trying too hard for the Dude

I've been using the holiday to catch up with some of my older favorite movies. The Big Lebowski was first to be re-watched last week and it's still one of my all-time favorites. As Renee well put it when she forwarded me this link, journalism about Big Lebowski has become "a bit too precious reporting on the too preciousness of it all."

When putting the book together, Mr. Comentale said, he and his co-editor “immediately cut out all the papers celebrating the Dude as a hippie hero in a postmodern landscape.” That’s a sober choice. Admirers of the Dude are already dangerously close to becoming Internet-age versions of Parrotheads, the weekend-warrior Jimmy Buffett fans who tip back margaritas — and embarrass their children — while wearing flip-flops, board shorts, Hawaiian shirts and coconut bras.

“Trying to impress your academic colleagues and also make a dent in the popular market, that’s a fine line to walk,” Mr. Comentale added. “We wanted these essays to press the connection between the goofy and the profound.”

via www.nytimes.com via Renee

(On a separate note, I'd forgotten just how close to perfect Royal Tenenbaums is... but that's another story.)

Jeff Bridges has the best website ever

I've been spending a fair bit of time lately looking at and working with websites for celebrities, but Jeff Bridges absolutely rocks beyond anything I've seen. Renee gets props for forwarding me the site, it's amazing. Almost completely hand drawn by Jeff, don't miss his blog.

The dude abides indeed.