I’m Jamie Foxx. And I want to win another Oscar. As my costar Robert Downey, Jr. says, I may even go “full retard” to do it. Whatever it takes to get up on that stage again and get everyone to be a part of my really cool trip. Just wait ’til you hear the call-and-response I have worked out for this acceptance speech. Let’s get to the nomination worthy particulars:
Real-life story of character that’s had a rough go at it? Check.
A tremendously bad hairdo? Check.
Funky, self-made visor that flat-out proves I can act quirky?
Check.
Musical instrument to be “learned” that makes for great copy about the “lengths I went to for this role?” Check.
With Roger Ebert’s poignant remembrance of Gene Siskel today, our thoughts turn to one of the best “outtakes” videos on YouTube. Watch the following and tell me there’s a comedy team that could do this better. The timing, the ruthlessness, the camaradarie — and neither of them walks off the set in a huff. It’s simply par for the course.
I love how they go right back into the promo without a hitch at the end. You can’t teach that stuff.
“I knew Gene couldn’t sustain that string for long without a grammatical error.”
Seriously. We’re STILL doing this whole “sky-lights-up-and-everyone-travels-back-and-forth-in-time” thing 14 times an episode — after 5 friggin’ episodes!!!! What a convenient excuse for not writing. Just in case we need to get someone out of a tough situation, we always have a backup plan. Things go wrong, we turn the sky white, screech the ears up and, presto, we move somewhere else, easily getting us out of that hairy situation. Then, guess what happens? We get into another hairy situation! But, no worries, the sky will go white any second now! Ooh, my ears are screeching. Oh boyo, luckily it’s happening again. Ain’t Lost grand?
I hereby impose a full ban on the sky going white on Lost. And if you hear a giant screeching noise ever again, the show should end because they’ve officially run out of ideas.
And, by the way, can we focus on 5 characters instead of the 78 that we’ve had the pleasure of not caring about each week? Streamline!
We’ve seen you do the best and most original show on television before without the gimmick of time travel. Do it again. Keep the sky black!
Otherwise I’m gonna hope that my sky turns white and I go back to season 4.
Someone get this man an Emmy. Kyle Chandler – through his work as Coach Taylor on Friday Night Lights – is the picture of a man’s struggle for values, dignity, fairness and community.
Friday Night Lights is about real people with real problems on the way to redemption. It’s not about some idiot who wraps his court case in a bow every week and then has a celebratory scotch and cigar. Coach Taylor’s scotch is well-earned and for that, he deserves a little recognition. The scene from last week’s episode in which he gave Smash the quintessential pep talk was Exhibit A in Chandler’s ability to play the big moment with understatement, while still producing the waterworks.
If you’re not watching this show, start. With Lost limping out of the gates this year, FNL is the best show on television. And Chandler is the biggest reason why.
A jump-the-shark season 6, a writer’s strike and a jail stint later, 24 has somehow reversed course and become a good show again. Sure, the whole enterprise is preposterous (The First Gentleman is temporarily paralyzed! The main villain is having an affair with a D.C. waitress! Torture works!) but suspension of disbelief has always been a prerequisite for the show.
Now that we’re 8 solid episodes in, it’s officially safe to rejoin Mr. Bauer and crew as they unravel a government conspiracy in the final 2/3 of the season. This quasi-Alias angle was a smart one, as it allowed Bauer to regroup, literally. The team of Bill Buchanan, Chloe and Tony Almeida brings 24 back to the characters we loved in the first place. Most importantly, the focus is where it belongs — on the action. Because if 24 doesn’t work first and foremost as an action show, it’s too easy to mock the House of Cards that is the plot.
As long as they don’t resurrect Wayne Palmer, Chloe’s ex-husband Morris or Jack’s evil father from Babe: The Pig, we should be just fine.
With the news that Pearl Jam is once again hitting the studio to produce original material, we become the adjective “eager.” So, in which direction do they head on this, their 9th studio album? Well, from the Defective vantage point, the hope has been [and will be] for a decidedly experimental direction. Which brings us to Pearl Jam’s great missed opportunity.
2000’s Binaural was the unconventional album that never quite was. The whole idea was to record with a new producer [Tchad Blake] who employed a different method of production. “Binaural recording” approximates the ears of a listener in the room with the band. An audiophile’s dream, it was to be the headphone record par excellence. While some tracks committed to this idea, the band seemed to get cold feet as the release date grew nearer, eventually bringing in stalwart Brendan O’Brien to remix tracks and make them sound more Pearl Jam-y.
The result was something of a mixed bag. If you look at the tracks that stayed dedicated to the binaural style, they’re the most intriguing songs on the album: Nothing As It Seems, Rival, Sleight of Hand, Of The Girl.
Some other great songs were left off the album entirely, later to surface on the B-sides collection Lost Dogs [Education, Sad, Fatal]. Looking back, it was their aborted chance to be Pearl Floyd. They followed Binaural with the downtrodden Riot Act and the solid-if-unspectacular Pearl Jam — two more detours on the route to truly different.
In sum, it’s always best to follow the immortal advice of the great Joe Cabot via Reservoir Dogs: “Shit your pants and dive in and swim.” Or in the less vulgar words of the Tom Petty album cover, “Damn the Torpedoes.”
Pants should be shat. Water should be swam in. If you fail, fail big. Art rock big.
There’s the gauntlet. More to come.
P.S. In case you forgot why Eddie Vedder is the Everyman’s Frontman, head here.
Christian Bale was right. There’s something to be said for perfectionism. Craftsmanship. Technique. When the stakes are high and you’re ripping yourself apart to get something right and some f*cking guy f*cking doesn’t do his job, it deserves a rhetorical beatdown of sorts. Everybody has their breaking point. Shane Hurlbut, you just met his.
After all, we’re talking about a guy who does stuff like this for a role:
Of course, Bale could have taken the high road. He could have even continued with the scene. But we can’t all be Tom Hanks. Some of us need to be taught like dogs every now and again. Step over the invisible fence and get zapped.
In a world of ever-cheapening standards and long-forgotten principles, it’s high time for rearrangement. Christian Bale is the Howard Beale of order. This isn’t a rant, it’s a clarion call to the lazy pigs among us. Get in line. Put down that bacon double cheeseburger. Step away from the TV. There are worse things than exercise. Take yourself seriously. Appreciate fastidiousness. Sloth is a deadly sin.
Fresh off his stint as a war correspondent in Gaza, Joe the Plumber is now doing political strategy with Republicans.
When GOP congressional aides gather Tuesday morning for a meeting of the Conservative Working Group, Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher – more commonly known as Joe the Plumber — will be their featured guest. This group is an organization of conservative Capitol Hill staffers who meet regularly to chart GOP strategy for the week.
