RIP Mr. Spock, 2230-2387?

We recently lost one of the true giants of science, space exploration, interstellar diplomacy and pithy observations of human behavior. The logic to counterbalance Bones McCoy's passions, he was the yin for Bones' yang, helping to make Kirk a more complete Captain. But he was much more. As a half human, half Vulcan, Mr. Spock was the ultimate outsider who made himself essential to those around him. By not fitting in with either of his cultures, he was able to stand outside of them and understand them better than they sometimes understood themselves. Spock refused to deny his human side and become the fully logical Vulcan, but he was able to suppress his emotions when it was crucial to the Enterprise's survival as Kirk spoke in dramatic pauses. Yet he shed a tear for V'Ger.

Spock was born to Vulcan diplomat Sarek and human school teacher Amanda Grayson. Spock blazed new trails early, being the first Vulcan to join Starfleet. This decision did not sit well with his father, however, and relations were strained between father and son for many years to follow. Spock first served under Captain Christopher Pike (along with his future captain, James Tiberius Kirk). By 2265, Spock had risen to the the rank of Lieutenant Commander, first officer and science officer on the U.S.S. Enterprise under Kirk for a five year mission. After the mission's completion, during which he saved Kirk and the Enterprise crew's collective ass many times, he returned to Vulcan to purge all emotions, but the presence of V'Ger spurred Spock to return to service on the Enterprise.

Perhaps most impressive of his many feats was sacrificing his life in order to repair plasma conduits (despite Scotty's hysterical objections), allowing the Enterprise to escape the detonation of the Genesis Device by the evil but sexy Ricardo Montalban. Just to screw with him, Spock chose Bones of all people to transfer his katra through one hell of a mind-meld. But no worries, because Spock actually CAME BACK TO LIFE due to regeneration on the new Genesis planet (it also may be related to the fact that some earthling named Leonard Nimoy was offered lots of money and a chance to direct Star Trek III and IV. I'm not sure if that has anything to do with Spock's sudden regeneration or not. Perhaps it was just coincidence.)

Anyway, Spock's later accomplishments were more in the field of diplomacy, where he negotiated a peace accord with the Klingons, and later attempted to make peace between the Vulcans and the Romulans. Mr. Spock was also a master three dimensional chess player, as well as an accomplished musician.

Live long and prosper, Mr. Spock. Live long and prosper.

ABOVE: Earth nation Canada has apparently honored Mr. Spock by placing him on their five pound note

RIP The Professor, 1924-2014

Fun With Bruce

From Jimmy Fallon's show...

Dez Reviews 'Johnny Carson' by Henry Bushkin, 2013

The title of Henry Bushkin's "biography" of television giant Johnny Carson is a bit of a misnomer. A more appropriate title would have been 'My Adventures With Johnny' or 'Two Decades of Hanging Out With Carson.' Not that it was a bad read. In fact, in general, it was quite good. But in many respects it is just as much about the author (Carson's lawyer, pseudo-manager, tennis partner, entourage and fixer all wrapped into one from about 1970 through the late 80's) as it is about Carson himself. But that is appropriate, because as most people know already from his reputation, Carson was one of the most unknowable and cagey personalities in the history of show business. A straight biography would never really work beyond just surface facts because Carson was impossible to know. The only real way to approach a book about the man would be like this one, describing someone else's interractions with him.

That is, of course, a supreme irony because his persona and easy manner hosting The Tonight Show from 1962 to 1992 made him a warm and witty late night companion for millions. I remember watching Carson a lot near the end of his reign on television, and no matter the stresses of the day, it was great to sit down with Johnny and unwind. But as Bushkin (and many others have as well) points out, Carson was completely at home chatting it up with celebrities separated by his desk barrier and 20 million viewers on TV, but he was ill at ease at a small dinner party.

In person, Carson was a difficult man, to say the least. Bushkin started his association with him in the early 70's, when Carson rashly decided to get rid of his representation and start over with a young, unknown, inexperienced lawyer to help him out with one of his many divorces. One of Bushkin's first encounters with Carson entailed helping to break in to Carson's second wife's apartment to gather evidence of infidelity (it turns out she was sleeping with Frank Gifford). One of the more interesting aspects of this whole book was how working for Carson, especially in the capacity that Bushkin did, was a full time committment. Bushkin blames Carson's demands that "he be top priority" for the dissolution of his own marriage. But it also brought him wealth and the usual amenities associated with hanging out with one of the most powerful men in showbiz.

Again to the unknowable Carson. Part of it was perhaps his stoic Nebraska upbringing. Some of it, according to Bushkin, was his emotionally abusive mother. But Carson was not really open to anyone. Not his four wives, not his own children, not the A-List celebrities that he seemed to be so comfortable with on his show. Bushkin describes an at times generous man, but strictly on his terms. And he hated to be "pressured," as in asked for emotional support when he just was not capable of giving it. Two stories told in the book exhibit this dichotomy. His own son descended into suicidal mental illness and was hospitalized. He asked for his dad, but Carson refused to visit him. Instead, he sent Bushkin (his lawyer) daily to visit his son and make sure he was alright (Carson weakly rationalized this by saying if he showed up, it would create a media circus). On the other side of the coin, when Carson heard that the owner of one of his favorite steakhouses was having serious tax problems with the IRS, he sent the guy a $100,000 check.

Bushkin is a bit vague on their falling out. Carson abruptly fired him over some business dealing related to Carson's production company. But perhaps that was the way it was with everyone in Carson's orbit. Easy come, easy go, and the person left behind is a bit dumbfounded. The book is good, with plenty of entertaining anecdotes (such as when Carson drunkenly lunged across the table at Tom Snyder for little other reason than Carson hated his show, or when president Reagan had to call Carson personally and apologize after Carson felt slighted for being given the standard tour of the White House vs. a private one after Carson had hosted an innaugural ball) and with some very interesting insight into the business dealings with the networks. Afterall, it was Bushkin negotiating on Carson's behalf, so he has some considerable knowledge.

Regardless of the complicated and often petulant man that Carson was, his talent remains singular. I'll leave you with an extended quote that captures how special Carson was. Bushkin is describing a dinner party at the house of Henry Mancini. Carson is supposed to be there, but he is uncharacteristically late. Bushkin is amazed at these A-list Hollywood players nervously awaiting the arrival of the King of Late Night:

"And thus I was surprised that so many of these people made it a point, when getting a drink or another canape, to detour to my side of the room and quietly ask...'so where's Johnny?'...what was fascinating was the eagerness with which they asked...none of them knew Johnny well. It struck me that most of them genuinely wanted him to come...hoping to get to know him better. You could see how Johnny's general aloofness from the Hollywood scene actually drew people to him, how his relative unavailability on the social circuit restored the mystique that his nightly presence on the tube corroded...

And that's when most of these people had met Carson, on the set of the Tonight Show, where they developed an incredible respect for what he did. Despite their enormous talents, none of these actors could do what Carson did...they played characters, inhabited invented identities, brought to life a carefully constructed script. But Johnny took the stage just as himself, reliant mostly on his own native gifts. Night after night, he performed live to tape in a medium that permitted no rewrites if a line didn't work or no do-overs if someone messed up...When guests like Stewart or Kelly or Lemmon came on the Tonight Show, they were naked - no lines, no characters, no costumes, no director - just themselves. Carson helped them by drawing out the qualities that made them seem interesting, glamourous, witty and fun...he played the straight man to their jokester, the pupil to their master, the fan to their stardom...Carson's nightly exhibitions of wit, intelligence, grace and sheer showmanship set [the] standard for entertainment.

And on that night at the Mancinis, after hearing the eagerness and even tension in the voices of Hollywood's greatest luminaries as they asked for Carson, I saw the singular respect he'd earned among his peers. He was indeed a star among stars."

ABOVE: Nobody was better

*** out of *****

The Kings of Jingaling

One of the joys of fatherhood is that I get to revisit the pop culture of my own childhood in my attempt to brainwash my children into liking the things that I used to like. This has been a fun holiday season so far because it is the first Christmas where my oldest daughter really has a grasp of what is going on. She has been incredibly excited about all things related to Christmas (well, at least the secular commercial version). We put up the tree and decorated it over the weekend, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen her have more fun. Granted, about 80% of the ornaments are in a small quadrant near the bottom of the tree, but she was having so much fun decorating that I just kept them there.

I have been introducing her to the classic Christmas TV specials of yore. In my mind there are six essential ones: ‘The Grinch Who Stole Christmas,’ ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ and the four canonical shows from Hankin/Bass: ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,’ ‘Frosty the Snowman,’ ‘Santa Clause is Comin’ To Town’ and ‘The Year Without Santa.’ Now, having viewed them all in recent weeks (and some of them over and over and over again), some thoughts (and of course, judgments)…

‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’:

This is clearly the king of them all. It has everything magical about nostalgia and the holidays. The primitive stop motion technology merely adds to the charms. My daughter is obsessed with all things Rudolph, and I’ve got to say that I enjoy watching this with her every time, even if it is the 86th run through it. Part of its charm, for me, is the anachronistic attitudes and the 'Mad Men' world in which it was made (1964). Check this scene out: when Rudolph runs away, and his father Donner decides to go look for him and Rudy’s mother wants to come too, Donner says sternly “no, this is man’s work.” Another nugget, after fighting off the abominable snow monster, Yukon Cornelius has supposedly gone over the cliff with the monster, thereby saving Rudolph and his family and friends, the narrator (Burl Ives as Sam the Snowman) says that although they wanted to stay and see if they could find Yukon, they “knew they needed to get the women back home.”

And Santa is a real jerk. He comes to visit Donner and wife to meet the new baby, and once Rudolph’s nose glows Santa recoils ("Great bouncing icebergs!") and tells Donner that he needs to take care of the situation asap. Then he turns around and sings a happy song about Christmas to Rudolph. Later, when Rudolph’s fake nose pops off during the reindeer games, Santa scolds Donner “you should be ashamed of yourself.” When the elves sing their song for Santa (“We Are Santa’s Elves”), he looks visibly irritated and bored, slumping in his chair, sighing and covering his eyes, and says “oh well, it needs work” and then storms off. The song was delightful, what the f**k, Santa?

ABOVE: Wonder what happened to the stop motion puppets used in the show? Sure you do. Apparently Rankin/Bass had no idea how popular 'Rudolph' and their other shows would be, and so when production was over they gave the puppets away to employees, secretaries, etc. Apparently one lady got Rudolph, Santa and others and gave them to her nephew as toys. Some of the puppets "melted in the attic," but as you can see above the nephew brought Rudolph and Santa to be appraised on 'Antiques Roadshow.' They were estimated to be worth about $10,000 at auction. Which I think is actually a little low, considering the pop culture value, and the Christmas collectors market is pretty big. But they are damaged (Rudolph doesn't have his nose and Santa is missing half of his mustache.)

My favorite character, by far, is Boss Elf. He’s the elf overseeing the toymaking process who is always shouting orders and who gets all over Hermey the Elf for wanting to be a dentist instead of making toys. “Now you get to elf practice and learn to wiggle your ears, chuckle warmly, say ‘hee hee’ and ‘ho ho’ and important things like that!!” I shout that at my daughter at least once a day now and she enjoys it.

ABOVE: Boss Elf scolds Hermey

All of that aside, it really is the gold standard. With timeless songs, a classic story of misfits who join together and end up saving the day because of their oddities…it doesn’t get any better. The primitive stop motion techniques are strangely effective and evoke a warm nostalgia for simpler times and simple messages that are incredibly powerful (mid-60's gender role attitudes aside). And such a cultural touchstone too. I was reading the Lou Reed remembrances in Rolling Stone, and Michael Stipe references the “Island of Misfit Toys” (with no explanation). Most people of my age, I think, would instantly know what he was talking about and what he meant to say regarding Lou Reed’s appeal to outsiders.

***** out of *****

‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’

Confession: I’ve never been a huge fan of the Peanuts gang. I have never (and still don’t) get why everyone picks on Chuck. He seems a nice enough guy and tries to do the right thing, yet everyone thinks he is an incompetent idiot. I don’t get it. Even their beloved holiday specials are overrated. The Thanksgiving one is just OK, and the Halloween ‘Great Pumpkin’ sucks. That being said, the Christmas special has a real magic that is lacking in every other Peanuts special. It has a languid but pleasant pace that just couldn't be pulled off today, accentuated by the absolutely wonderful jazz score from Vince Guaraldi. The story is simple, with the only things at stake a Christmas pageant and a rather pathetic tree. But the message tries to cut through the commercialism of the holiday and find real meaning. It does so effectively.

**** out of *****

ABOVE: Boris Karloff and The Grinch

‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas’

The original animated show is absolute perfection. It is Dr. Seuss at his most witty, and to have the voice of Boris Karloff as both narrator and The Grinch was a masterstroke. Other than as the iconic Frankenstein monster, it is Karloff's most lasting work. The prose is great (since it is Seuss) and the story is a wonderful lesson about what Christmas should be about. Although even my daughter has picked up on the fact that The Grinch violates multiple animal cruelty laws in his treatment of his poor dog, Max.

ABOVE: Look closely at the still from 'The Grinch.' A little dog should not have to carry a sleigh of that weight. Uphill. In the snow.

***** out of *****

‘Frosty the Snowman’

This took a few modern viewings to click with me again, but it really is fantastic. One of the things I enjoy is that many of the voices sound like Sopranos actors. Jimmy Durante narrates, and his voice is so warm yet rough that it sounds like he is telling the story of Frosty while you are seated next to him in some mob-run bar in Jersey over some bourbons and cigars. But the story is great, the message good, and Santa is actually quite kind in this one, and disarms the villain by threatening not to ever bring him any presents ever again.

***** out of *****

ABOVE: A young Santa

‘Santa Claus is Comin’ To Town’

Like all modern comic book heroes who get the big screen treatment, Santa Claus needs an origin story. This is it. Narrated with class by Fred Astaire (with Santa voiced by Mickey Rooney), it actually presents an interesting story of Santa’s roots. But the pace is a bit slow and the music forgettable. It did not hold my daughter’s interest, nor mine.

*** out of *****

‘The Year Without Santa’

Mickey Rooney is back as Santa, and in this one the Red One has a cold and decides that since nobody remembers the real meaning of Christmas anyway, he’s done. It is up to Mrs. Claus to save Christmas, sending two bumbling elves and a reindeer down to find traces of Christmas spirit. The music sucks, and the story is slow. The only cool thing is the Miser brothers, Snow Miser and Heat Miser, who are competing with each other for global weather dominance. In doing some research, I found that the Misers have become minor cult figures. Needs much more Misers, less everything else.

ABOVE: Considering global warming (or 'climate change'), it appears that Heat Miser has gained the upper hand

** out of *****

Did I miss any crucial holiday shows?

I Did It For Me

Spoiler alert: this post discusses the “Breaking Bad” finale from last night.

Refer to my previous post regarding series finales in general, and last night’s “Breaking Bad” finale was a textbook example of how it should be done. I should not have doubted creator Vince Gilligan and co. Even great shows usually dip here and there, even “The Wire.” What has been remarkable about “Breaking Bad” is that over the course of five seasons, there have been no dips in quality or storytelling. The vision always intact, the story and character arc of Bryan Cranston’s Walter White inexorably marched forward to his tragic yet satisfying end. The “Breaking Bad” finale was satisfying at almost every level. And in the dark world of “Bad,” it could even be considered a happy ending.

In my previous post, I compared some shows that were left open ended (“The Sopranos,” “The Wire”) to others that tried to tie everything up (“Big Love,” “Dexter”) Tying everything up was harder to pull off, and usually failed. What Gilligan was able to do was really tie up most of “Breaking Bad,” where each character got payoff or pay back, essentially got what they deserved in a most satisfying manner.

Walt, of course, is dead. There was no other way. Even if he got out of the biz cleanly, the cancer was going to take him anyway. That gave him a certain amount of freedom to take sweet vengeance. But it did not take the easy path of Eastwood-like Armageddon (like, say, a “High Plains Drifter”…Gilligan always said he viewed “Breaking Bad” as essentially a western). Jesse was not only able to take revenge on the sociopath Todd (how satisfying was that after all that Todd had put Jesse through!), he was also set free and saved by none other than Walt himself. The simple, wordless glance and nod between the two men spoke volumes and made everything OK between them. Jesse has a chance, and he certainly deserves one, as he was really the conscience of the show. I had predicted that Jesse would kill Walt, but how they actually ended it was much more satisfying to me. As Walt was “the one who knocks,” it makes sense that the only person that would kill Walt would be Walt himself (throwing himself on top of Jesse and taking the bullet to shield him from the ingenious trunk gun he had constructed to take out Jack and his minions.)

As much as the viewer relished the bloodbath of the finale, in typical “Bad” fashion, the most stunning scene was the brief, clandestine conversation between Walt and the long suffering Skyler. He had lied to everyone (including himself) from the very beginning. “If you tell me one more time that you did this for the family…” “I did it for me. I enjoyed it. I was good at it. I felt alive.” Finally came Walt’s most honest moment of the entire series. Circumstances were excuses, in that moment Walt admitted to Skyler and to himself, he chose to be bad (to be “Heisenberg”), because he wanted to do it. The fact that he could potentially leave millions of dollars for his family was mere justification, but in reality it was not the reason (at least after the first season). That was great, great stuff.

What was most impressive about what Gilligan accomplished in this final episode was that he gave us payoff and delivered what we wanted, yet it was still uncompromising and moving and great television. Walt’s family will be (most likely) taken care of, he exacted sweet revenge on those who had wronged him, he set Jesse free and he was able to go out where he was happiest – in a meth lab set up to his specifications.

ABOVE: After 5 seasons, Walt and Jesse came to an uneasy peace. While they were the main characters, what made "Breaking Bad" so rich were the supporting characters, like Mike, Gus, Hank, Saul...and of course, Skinny Pete and Badger

So ends one of the greatest shows ever grace the small screen.

All Good Things Must End

NOTE: Spoiler alert. This post addresses TV series finales. If you are not caught up with or plan to watch Dexter, Breaking Bad, The Wire, The Sopranos, Big Love or M*A*S*H, then you may want to skip parts of this post. I will bold the show titles, so you can see where I am coming to particular shows and then you can skip that paragraph, or skim over parts of it.

After watching the pretty horrible "Dexter" series finale last Sunday, and as I prepare for the end of "Breaking Bad" this Sunday, I started thinking about the nature of finales in general. I agree that we are in the midst of a golden age for television. Where much of the film world is stalled out in superhero sequels, tired remakes and the like, television has been blown wide open with cable channels putting their resources into series television. HBO, Showtime, AMC and others can go to places that the old networks never could (or would). But the art of a successful, satisfying and even surprising finale is still elusive.

You can't please everyone. Some people wanted Dexter to die for his sins, others wanted him to be able to turn his back on his serial killer urges and finally find happiness with his family and a "normal" life. But the lumberjack coda just made no sense at all, and almost all fans, however you wanted Dexter to end up, were not pleased with what happened. It would have even been better if they had faded to black as he drove his boat into the hurricane, as opposed to tacking on...that. I guess they left some ambiguity there, but what bothered so many viewers was that it just did not make sense, considering the journey the character had taken, it wasn't consistent with who he had become.

ABOVE: Dexter is now a lumberjack and left his son in the hands of another serial killer. Makes sense.

For television, it is even more difficult that coming up with a good ending for a film. Generally, films are self-contained stories that demand a beginning, middle and end. Endings are expected in films. But as television viewers, we have gotten used to it being open ended, to looking forward, year after year, to the next season. When they do decide to end a series, as a loyal viewer, there may be some anger and resentment there. I mean, a movie has to end. A TV series can go on and on, depending on ratings and financing. It is often a creative decision on when a series needs to end. "Dexter," for instance, went on about three seasons too long. It got repetitive, characters had gone as far as they should go seasons ago. They never recovered from having to top the brilliant John Lithgow season.

"The Sopranos" finale upset a lot of people. I didn't like it when it aired, but as time has passed, I find it more satisfying. The last scene was masterfully shot, where it could be a completely banal family meal made tense only by the viewer's imagination and knowledge of what had come before, as well as the expectation of "this is the last scene, something amazing must happen!" Creator David Chase was playing on all of that. Or, Tony really could have been moments away from being whacked. Without taking a stand either way, Chase let you decide what you wanted to happen when it went to black. Was that Tony dying from a gunshot wound and the world going to black? Did the producers run out of film? Did the cable go out? It was great, kind of like the old Choose Your Own Adventure books. Chase was almost like, "screw it, you decide what happened."

ABOVE: Is Tony looking down the barrel of a gun? Is he watching the waitress bring his pasta? We don't know, and I've decided that's great. This is the last shot of "The Sopranos" before it goes to black.

Or you could go the way of "The Wire," where other than McNulty and Freamon being forced into retirement (which, by the way, was not a bad thing for either character), the message of the end of "The Wire" was that things will go on in the streets and in the halls of power of Baltimore much as they had before. Maybe different faces, but same story. Depressing and futile for all of these great characters, to be sure (although Bubbles got to a better place), but true to the show. It almost had to be that way. What, are they going to end the drug trade in Baltimore? Are they going to clean up the city machine politics? I don't think so.

ABOVE: "The Wire" ended the only way that it really could.

Then you've got the finale that does try and be definitive, shocking and wrap it all up, like the unsuccessful series finale of "Big Love." A show that I loved for the first several seasons but then got progressively ridiculous (it went downhill after the death of Roman Grant). I don't mind that Bill died, but instead of dying at the hands of the nefarious powers of Juniper Creek, it is just a crazy neighbor that is pissed at one of his wives? Silly, and cheapened what had come before. I see what they were doing in a sense, that danger can come from more unexpected places, as you expected the Juniper powers to get him. But, it seemed tacked on, and there were also many other issues with the show by the end.

ABOVE: Don't kill Bill this way.

Reaching back further to the days of network TV mattering, the celebrated "M*A*S*H" finale worked for me. Yes, it was cheesy and had many tears, but they had earned it. And it was true to the direction of the show once the Col. Potter regime took over. Less slapstick and gritty (and cruel) humor, but a warmer, more sincere, less edgy "M*A*S*H." And after being on the air for over ten years (longer than the fighting of the actual Korean War), they had earned the sentiment. One thing from the finale that hit me was Hawkeye's breakdown (finally, after shielding his pain with humor and booze for ten years and dealing with other character breakdowns), when confronting the horror of being on the stalled bus in the Korean countryside, yelling at the woman to keep her infant quiet while they hid from a nearby North Korean patrol, and then she smothers the child to death trying to keep it quiet. For some reason, after all these years, that has stuck with me, maybe it was the impressionable age I was when I saw it. I'd be curious to view it again and see if it still has the same impact. Perhaps it was seeing Hawkeye finally hit rock bottom emotionally. He had gotten close at times, but always pulled out of it and then was fine the next episode. You got the feeling, in part because there was no next episode, this was different.

ABOVE: As cheesy as it was in parts, the "M*A*S*H" finale felt right

Anyway, here's hoping that this Sunday, "Breaking Bad" can maintain the almost unparalleled greatness of the last five seasons with ending it as darkly and as humorously as this whole journey has been. Walt's got to die, right? Either the cancer will get him, or Jack, or the authorities or (my prediction) Jesse. But then, we are expecting his death. So what if they let him live? But then we are expecting the unexpected. And letting Walt live would be the most obvious unexpected. So then he must die. But...however they end it, it has been probably the most satisfying character arc I have ever seen, over five seasons from meek high school chemistry teacher to ruthless meth kingpin, to finally breaking down completely.

ABOVE: What will happen to Walter White this Sunday?

So, what about you? Any finales of shows that have really stuck with you, either in a positive or a negative way?

The Bad Influence of The Street

I was playing with my older daughter today, and she reminded me of how impressionable young children can be and how they learn things from television. One of her current favorite children's shows is Team Umizumi (I think I spelled that correctly), which is a great show that teaches little kids some math basics. It teaches them to recognize number patterns, count and some basic geometric shapes. She has started to look for repeated patterns in our home, like the knives and forks set out on the table, and she will explain the patterns and say "like Team Umizumi." That's cool. It's not like when I was growing up, when I had the insidious Sesame Street that turned me into a hoodlum. Watch this shocking vintage clip from the Street...



Can't you see what terrible things this might make a young, impressionable child do? No? Well back in my early days (late 70's, so I was about 5 or 6), I watched this clip you just viewed of Cowboy X. We were getting our house painted at the time, and I was playing outside in the driveway and noticed some paint cans sitting out by the painters' truck. I thought Cowboy X was awesome (I always have liked the bad guys), and so I decided that I would be Cowboy X too. I took a paint can and brush, walked down our street, and painted X's on the street, sidewalk, neighbors' cars. (ANCIANT recently posted on his blog about the juvenile delinquents next door throwing mud at his house...I wonder if he would have liked having a young Dez living down the street!)

I guess I got bored or ran out of paint, so I returned home and proudly told my parents that I was Cowboy X and showed them an example of my handiwork. I was a bit surprised and disappointed that they were not pleased. I don't think they even got angry with me, as this was beyond even that. It was more shock and then fear of financial ruin. They turned on the painters for leaving the paint out unattended. I remember me, my parents and the painters all sneaking around the neighborhood in a group. I had to point out each X that I had painted, and they did their best to clandestinely remove them.

I can't really recall any repercussions, as I already realized it was pretty bad and even as a five or six year old, I was apologetic. My parents and the painters didn't want to get sued, so they were more concerned with the work at hand than being angry with me. Fortunately I think I had confessed quickly enough to where the paint hadn't dried anywhere yet.

The lesson here is to be very careful what you allow your children to watch on television. And for God's sake, keep them away from Sesame Street.

RIP James Gandolfini, 1961-2013

We finally know what happened to Tony in that ambiguous final episode of 'The Sopranos.' From 1999-2007 we were privileged to watch television being taken to a new level of quality and complexity. David Chase's 'The Sopranos' on HBO raised the bar. It showed that a cable series could be a hit, that it could have the production quality of a feature film, and not shy away from exploring familiar themes but in new, thrilling and complex ways. I think that 'The Sopranos' will go down as one of the most important, and one of the best, shows in television history. And the heart, the soul, the epicenter of that show was James Gandolfini's masterful portrayal of mid-level New Jersey mob boss, Tony Soprano. The Sopranos universe all revolved around Tony, and Gandolfini was able to portray brutality, kindness, love, anger, humor, ruthlessness, pathos, boldness, crippling fear and doubt, regret, insatiable appetites, shallow pettiness and oceans of depth. The show lived or died on Gandolfini's performance, and as creator David Chase said recently on what the casting of Gandolfini in the role meant for the show, it was simply "everything." One writer said today, all of the good and potential for good that we saw in Tony, despite his brutality and way of life, that was Gandolfini showing through the character. That is why Tony was such a rich and ultimately sympathetic character.

From everything that I have read, Gandolfini himself was (thankfully) quite different from Tony. He was generous, a great conversationalist, loved to sit down with close friends and smoke a cigar. He was uncomfortable with his fame, did not enjoy publicity, and he was not one of those actors who enjoyed talking about the craft. He was known as a tough interview, not due to rudeness, but he maintained that he was just a simple Jersey guy who happened to be on TV and in movies. But just watch 'The Sopranos,' and you will see a true master of the craft, one of the most talented actors of the last decade. If Tony had to go, I guess it was fitting that he died in a swanky hotel in Rome. Also of note, the next day Gandolfini was due to travel to Taormina in Sicily as an honored guest at a film festival. That is a nice thing to be looking forward to on your last day. Taormina is a gorgeous, seaside town in Eastern Sicily with stunning views and ancient Greek ruins. I've been there, and again it seems fitting. I can easily see Gandolfini sitting by the seaside, cigar in hand, enjoying an overflowing dish of Frutti di Mare. Fitting indeed. Goodbye Tony, and thank you Mr. Gandolfini for showing us what television, at its best, can and should be.

Oscar Thoughts

In the old days, I had a lot invested in the Oscars. I religiously watched them, I participated (or ran) Oscar Pools, I fervently rooted for my favorites to be victorious. Because out of all of the awards shows out there, the Oscars is one of the few that still means something. The Grammys have long been a joke due to tone deaf and historically laughable choices, the Emmys, the Tonys, the Golden Globes, Actors Screen Guild…meh. But the Oscars have still retained some of the glamour and awe that was originally intended. Although you could argue that they have been trying really hard to lose it in recent years.

I won’t really comment on the actually winners and losers. Why? Because I’ve hardly seen any of them. In fact, I have not seen a single one of the nine Best Picture nominees. I love movies, but due to child and family obligations, we just don’t get to the theater any more. And for whatever reason, the exciting world of television has supplanted the viewing of movies for us. Breaking Bad, The Wire, Big Love, Sopranos…a lot of the excitement in entertainment has been on the small screen in the past decade. I want to (and will) see "Argo" and "Lincoln," at least. "Silver Linings Playbook" has sparked my interest.

But I did watch the broadcast, so I can talk about that. First of all, hosting the Oscars is akin to playing the half time show at the Super Bowl. Any intelligent person would simply turn the opportunity down, no matter the exposure you get. It is virtually impossible to come out looking great, the best you can hope for is a draw. Seth MacFarlane was, how shall we say, not good. It is not the forum for him to really cut loose on what he does best, so it was all just watered down yet still inappropriate humor. They are trying to pull in a younger demographic, which is also why they did the disasterous duo of James “I wish I were anywhere else but here” Franco and Anne “please, please, please like me” Hathaway a couple of years back. (At least Seth wasn’t that bad). But the Oscars is one of the few things where the old timey, somewhat classy feel is actually a plus. We don’t tune in to the Oscars for humor and hosts we can relate to. We tune in for a bit of that classic Hollywood magic of yesteryear. That is why, although I didn’t actually watch them, the broadcasts from many years ago with someone like Johnny Carson or Bob Hope hosting, that just feels and sounds right.

Some of MacFarlane’s humor fell flat and was fairly cringe-inducing. White guys doing racial humor, at least on that size of a stage, I’d suggest just steering clear. It could work in a comedy club or even in a film or on cable, but not at the Oscars. Domestic violence jokes (“Django Unchained” as a date movie for Chris Brown and Rhianna), probably not good either in that forum. The Lincoln assassination joke, it wasn’t so much that it was inappropriate, it was that it just wasn’t really funny and looked like he was trying way too hard. He wasn’t the worst host ever, but it was not a great night for him. When they try to be hip and appeal to different demographics, like with MacFarlane, Franco/Hathaway (or Chevy Chase and Letterman when they did it)…it usually falls pretty flat. You need a seasoned professional who doesn’t really ruffle too many feathers but can still poke light fun, a deft skill harder than it seems. That is why, in my head, Johnny Carson fits the ultimate Oscar host bill. But he’s dead.

As far as everything else, no real shocking moments or anything. Daniel Day-Lewis’s speech was endearingly awkward and quite funny too. And surprise, Quentin Tarantino’s speech was one of the classiest of the night. Jennifer Lawrence recovered nicely from her (drunken?) fall. Was Kristen Stewart high? She looked like she just finished a five day bender in Vegas. The Bond tribute was underwhelming after so much hype. I think they did intend to gather all six actors together, but since they couldn’t get all of them to appear, they scrapped the whole thing and did the video montage. I enjoyed Shirley Bassey’s brassy rendition of “Goldfinger.” Some called it over the top, but that is like saying Jimi Hendrix’s albums have too much flashy guitar playing. Always a favorite moment for me, the In Memoriam segment, inexplicably left out Andy Griffith (“A Face in the Crowd,” anyone?)

Overall, not a very memorable Oscars. The entertainment segments were mediocre and forgettable, as were most of the acceptance speeches, and the all important host was a bust. I did quite enjoy the “Jaws” hook music to shut down acceptance speeches that went too long…

Some Music and DVD Quick Hits

The new Killers record Battle Born is good, but not great. I applaud them for their unabashed emotion and devotion to the soaring radio hook, but there is no "When You Were Young" in this batch. *** out of *****.

Bob Dylan continues his streak with Tempest. Honestly, I more admire his recent work than love it, but he has definitely solidified a late career legacy since the 1990's. No rating on this yet, since I have only given it a cursory listen.

I'm a little baffled by the negative reaction to the new Band of Horses record, Mirage Rock. Perhaps I don't have really high expectations to begin with. I never thought that they broke any new ground or anything, they were just a really solid band. I guess I just always took their debut, Everything All the Time, as sort of lightning in a bottle and never waited for it to be replicated. But the new one is pretty solid, definitely better than the snoozefest Infinite Arms. *** out of *****.

I also thought that with Rick Rubin turning the knobs, ZZ Top had a shot at capturing some of that old down home groove. Not the case. La Futura is just more of the same overdriven sh*t they've been lazily slinging since the mid-90's. Billy Gibbons can still shred on the guitar, but his voice is pretty worn. Dusty Hill actually sings better nowadays, I don't know why he doesn't take more of the vocals. Why can't they play anything as subtle as "Asleep in the Desert" or "Sure Got Cold After the Rain Fell" anymore? ** out of *****.

Looking ahead...

...Looking back, but remastered.

It is the 20th anniversary of Los Lobos's masterwork Kiko, and they have released the requisite remastered version with some bonus tracks tagged on. I didn't buy it, but I do have on the way from Amazon Kiko Live, a recent concert performance of Kiko from start to finish that looks really promising. Considering that the Lobos like to expand and explore their music in the live setting, it could be a great homage to Kiko without merely replaying it note for note. At least that is my hope, I'll let you know.

Speaking of anniversaries, it is the 25th anniversary of Peter Gabriel's commercial breakthrough, So. He is celebrating in similar fashion as Pink Floyd did recently, releasing it in three new versions. First is a remaster of the album. But since his whole catalogue was wonderfully remastered already rather recently (all of which I bought, of course), is this a remaster of the remaster? But what I am excited about is the Deluxe Edition which includes a full live show from the So tour. Now that is something to get excited about, live Gabriel from that period is awesome. There is also a $100 Immersion Box that not even I will be shelling out dough for (which, funny enough, doesn't even include the fantastic b-sides from that era. How immersive is it when you don't even have the b-sides?) Since Peter continues to disappoint with his recent work, I can at least get pumped about material from the vaults from better days.

Now, I am really pumped about the new Tragically Hip coming out October 2, Now for Plan A. Many Hip diehards were pretty disappointed with the glossy We Are the Same (I wasn't, "Morning Moon" is one of their most gorgeous songs, I actually really like it when The Hip go a little mellow), but the cuts I've heard definitely respond to that complaint with grit and drive. This new one sounds like it rocks hard. I am so pleased that "We Want To Be It" is finally getting an official release. It is a tune they've played for awhile live (known to fans as "Drip, Drip"). Such a great song. "Goodnight Attawapiskat" is also top shelf Hip. Still one of the greatest bands out there, people!

Neil Young's had a busy year. He released the wonderfully sloppy Americana earlier this year. He has a book coming out next week. And next month comes the double disc Psychedelic Pill, filled with epic length Crazy Horse workouts from the same recording sessions as Americana, but these are all originals. I hope the man never stops.

Question and suggestion: when Bruce Springsteen released his stunning concert from London in '75 awhile back, I thought that was supposed to be the first in a series of archival shows he was going to put out, like Neil Young has been doing with his Archives series. But there hasn't been any more clearing of the vaults. Bruce, PLEASE put out that show from the Winterlands in '78!! What the hell is wrong with you? Readers, do yourselves a favor and go to Wolfgang's Vault and listen to the boot of this '78 Boss show. The next time you've got about four hours to spare. It is worth the time.

On the DVD front, Steven Spielberg has just lost some of the good will he earned earlier this year for his superb Jaws Blu-Ray release. I have heard that the new Blu-Ray version of Raiders of the Lost Ark is equally impressive, but I won't get to see it. Why? Because it is not being released on its own. You can only get it in the box set with the other Indiana Jones Blu-Rays. I'm not paying $70 for one movie. I have no interest in the crappy sequel, the grossly overrated third film, and the completely forgettable 4th. Raiders is one of my very favorites, but f*ck you, Steven.

I cannot wait for Universal's deluxe Blu-Ray restoration treatment of their classic horror films from the 30's, 40's and 50's. The original Dracula, Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Wolf Man, Mummy, Invisible Man and Creature From the Black Lagoon are all being meticulously restored and from what I hear, will be absolutely beautiful. Can't wait.

Anything of interest that you know of?

Is 'Breaking Bad' the Best Thing on TV Since 'The Wire'?

Yes. I'm a little late to the 'Breaking Bad' party, but my wife and I are a bit obsessed with the show at the moment. It is currently in its 5th season on AMC, and over the past two weeks (through the glory of streaming Netflix on my PS3), we've watched the first three seasons and are into the 4th. For those of you who do not know, it is the story of Walter White (played brilliantly by Bryan Cranston, of 'Malcolm in the Middle' fame). White is a mild-mannered high school chemistry teacher. He is a genius chemist who could have done great things, but success passed him by and he spends his days teaching bored students and working part time in a car wash for extra dough. His world is rocked when he finds he has terminal lung cancer. In order to make sure his wife and two children are provided for, he does the logical thing. He becomes the most sought after meth cook in New Mexico and the Southwest, making the most chemically pure meth the world has ever seen. Joining forces with one of his drop-out former students, Jesse (played wonderfully and with much nuance by Aaron Paul), they stumble into the drug world. I haven't spoiled anything, as this is all laid out in the first episode of the series.

Two things make this show really stand apart for me. First, the characters are so great. Yes, some are played broad and for laughs at times (and the show is laugh out loud funny quite often), yet as the seasons progress these characters get more and more interesting. And it does progress. So far, each season has built on the last and is better than the last. One of the rare shows that seems to get better as it goes (at least so far, and I hear outstanding things about Season 4, so I'm excited to dive into it). But while Walt and Jesse remain the center of the show, I love Dean Norris as Walt's badass brother-in-law Hank, who happens to work for the DEA, and Walt and Jesse's sleazy beyond compare lawyer (Bob Odenkirk as Saul Goodman), who schools them on money laundering techniques, among other things. Hank is the perfect example of a character who seems to be played for laughs initially (and he is really funny), but gets much more depth as the seasons roll along.

Also, as creator Vince Gilligan puts it, he wanted to create a show where the "protagonist becomes the antagonist." Walt is incredibly sympathetic initially, but he becomes increasingly less so as he gets deeper and more proficient at navigating in this dark underworld. One of the key themes is how Walt reluctantly gets sucked into this dangerous world of competing drug lords and dangerous cartel killers, and he gets better and better at it and most crucially, starts to enjoy the thrill. He gets more and more reckless, yet is more rewarded for his behavior. At least so far.

I can't recommend this show enough. I have been exhausted at work for weeks now, because after we put our daughter to bed, my wife and I try and catch at least three episodes a night. Midnight rolls around and "just one more!"

Clint Eastwood is America

Did you see Clint Eastwood’s surreal 12 minutes of performance art in the guise of a speech on Thursday night at the Republican convention? If not, go here to see it all. I laughed, I stared at the TV with disbelief, I cringed, I said “yes!” and I wondered what the hell he was talking about…all within his 12 minutes of glorious crash and burn. Clint riffed, he let his mind wander and seemingly talked about whatever crossed his mind at the time. It was a dangerous and not altogether smart thing for the RNC to do. In a tightly scripted and controlled convention that had gone very well up to that point (so scripted that Ron Paul was not allowed to speak because he refused to let them vet his speech ahead of time), you’re gonna let Dirty Harry loose on the night Romney needs to try to win over more voters? It was not Clint’s finest hour. He rambled, seemed confused at times, and was pretty crude and unnecessarily disrespectful of our current president. But again, what did you think was going to happen? My understanding is that he was supposed to speak for about five minutes and had given his remarks to the RNC ahead of time. But once onstage he tossed his planned speech aside and just improvised for twice as long as he was given. Are you going to yank Philo Beddoe?

I think Republican leaders were so excited to get some star power on the conservative side of the Hollywood ledger that they didn’t quite understand what they were getting into with Clint. Had they never seen “The Good, The Bad & The Ugly”? “Every Which Way But Loose”? This dude does his own thing. He does not follow institutional rules. That is his whole persona! He is less a straight conservative than a libertarian. For a party that clings to traditional social values, why would they invite a prime time speaker who within this last year in an interview said about gay marriage: “I don’t give a sh*t about who wants to get married to anybody else. Why not?” Or a guy with seven children from five different women? Didn't conservative leaders criticize him for doing the voiceover on a Super Bowl commercial that seemed to praise Obama's auto bailout?

All you need to do is to look at his remarkable career as an actor and director to see that you cannot pin any neat and tidy ideology on this guy. He supports gay marriage and is known as a bit of an environmentalist, yet he also is a fiscal conservative. Who knows what he thinks about foreign policy? Could you tell what he felt about Afghanistan from his speech? I couldn’t. You could take what he said about it either way.

ABOVE: The chair doesn't have a chance

In an excellent article by film critic Carrie Rickey here, she points out that by looking at his filmography, Clint reveals a complex and rather ambivalent view of America. Not your typical convention speaker.

Take a look at his early Westerns with Sergio Leone and his own directorial debut, the bloodthirsty, revenge fantasy “High Plains Drifter.” He is in one sense the ultimate American archetype. Loner, ruthlessly self-sufficient, man of few words (read: not dithering European powers) but one of devastating action (America). His Man With No Name is who we’d like to be, a man with a set of ethics, but also ruthlessly efficient in getting what he wants. Consider “High Plains Drifter” through a 9/11 lens. He was done wrong and almost beaten to death, but he returns and reigns hell fire on his attackers with relish. What Clint’s character was able to do there is what we wish we could do after 9/11 in regards to those who attacked us and aided them. Many of his characters represent a certain strength (albeit flawed), that we collectively feel we have lost as a nation and as a people. Clint gave us a confidence through film like Reagan did through politics and leadership (whether you like Reagan’s policies or not).

He's been attacked from both sides throughout his career. As Rickey points out, in Nixon’s America when his early Dirty Harry films came out, Clint was called “fascist” by Lefties. (I don’t see it, the Dirty Harry films were expressing the angry, conservative backlash of too much mushy Great Society coddling. A vigilante fantasy, yes…fascist, not quite). But later, his films take a much more ambivalent look at the violence that he used to dispense so effortlessly. Conservatives may roar with approval as Dirty Harry blows away scumbags on the streets of San Francisco with his .44 Magnum (“the most powerful handgun in the world…now, you gotta ask yourself, do ya feel lucky? Well do ya? Punk?”), but they weren’t so comfortable with his dark ruminations on the consequences of righteous violence in “Unforgiven.” Red blooded patriots of the heartland were not comfortable at all with his brilliant and sympathetic look from the Japanese perspective in one of his finest films, “Letters From Iwo Jima.”

To quote Rickey: “The first half of Eastwood’s career he played men who shot first and thought about it later. The second half of his career, he’s largely devoted himself to exploring the consequences of that gunplay. Is that Republican? Is that Democrat? I think it’s American.”

Clint Eastwood did embarrass himself somewhat Thursday night. But that is American too. We stumble and make mistakes. And those mistakes are magnified because of who we are on the world stage. (If France makes a fool of itself, it doesn’t really matter, does it?) But Clint is also one of our finest popular film artists, both as an actor who personifies so much of our complexity, but also as a director who chooses to explore these complexities. He can be crude, yet explore issues thoughtfully and deeply. He is independent. He cannot be controlled or told what to do. I’d like to think that he planned it all along. “Yeah, I’ll give them (the RNC) a five minute speech to look at. But once I get up there, I’m going to do what I want. I’m Clint Eastwood.” Dumb move by the RNC. They should have known. Clint cannot be controlled or vetted. He cannot be contained, and he will do what he wants to do. He’ll try to be thoughtful and do the right thing as he gets his way, but things get complicated sometimes. Sometimes you gotta break things along the way. That’s Clint. That’s America.

Dez Reviews the Book I Want My MTV by Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum, 2011

I am the perfect age to remember and love the golden age of MTV (you know, the period when they played music videos and were about music). I remember coming home each day from elementary school, immediately running over to the TV and grabbing a healthy snack (bowl of ice cream, usually), and watching my MTV. Without fail, for about 5 months, they would play Spandau Ballet's "True" at the same time every day (approximately 3:30). Reading the 572 page oral history of MTV's golden years (1981-1992) was kind of like getting a backstage pass to my childhood entertainment, I got to see the inner workings of my many hours of viewing television during the 80's. It is an oral history, so aside from brief overview introductions to each chapter (which are very well done), the book consists of quotes from the actual players that are weaved together to tell the story. Executives, artists, video directors, bit players and main characters all are brutally honest in telling the sordid tales behind the cable channel that forever changed the music industry. Since it is divided into 53 digestible chapters that are clearly labeled topically, if you are not an obsessive like me you don't have to read cover to cover.

There is so much here. If you were fortunate enough to watch VH1 Classic over the summer, they aired the first hour of MTV to celebrate the 30th anniversary of MTV, you saw just how by the seat of their pants MTV was run in those early days. They had maybe 50 videos in their vaults, almost half of which were by Rod Stewart. Technical and editing problems galore, ad-libbing and ill-prepped VJs (of course, you cannot top those original five VJs, what kid in the 80's wasn't in love with Martha Quinn?)...it was a glorious disaster. (VH1, by the way, was created by MTV as a "fighting brand." It was created as a sacrificial lamb, to be a cheaper and dirtier vesion of MTV to run competitors out of business. Nobody expected it to last, in fact they were instructed not to be profitable).


ABOVE: Early ad trying to get cable companies to add MTV to their subscriptions. As this book reveals, the cable companies resisted mightily, so MTV ran these ads in markets where MTV was not yet available.

BELOW: Another of those great ads (featuring Mr. Bowie)...


MTV was funded and owned jointly by Warner Brothers and American Express, and neither company took their little channel seriously. That is why those early years were so glorious, they were completely ignored by meddling corporate hands. Budgets were shoestring, directors were creating a new artform with the music video that had no established rules yet, through some loopholes in the law the video shoots were not controlled by union rules so they could shoot for 48 hours straight and get it done in a couple of coke-fueled days...it was the wild west with no rules at all. Naturally, there are many tales of destruction, crazy behavior, sex, drugs and rock and roll (hell, even the purposefully annoying Pauly Shore got laid constantly, as per Pauly: "There were groupies, all the time. That was kind of my thing...In the back of the bus, which I called 'The Wood Den,' I had a basket of buttons that said GRINDAGE, and another basket that had condoms. I'd have sex with them with a condom, and they'd leave with a button. So it was win-win.")


ABOVE: MTV was so powerful that it even allowed the extremely irritating Pauly Shore to have prodigious amounts of sex

The book masterfully tells hundreds of humorous, sad, joyous or fascinating individual anecdotes, but it also tells an overarching story of a little start-up with a novel idea that was dismissed by an essentially conservative record industry, then that same channel came to change that very industry and call the shots on which artists would succeed and who would not. A television channel that changed the basic rules of the music industry, as video budgets grew from $10,000 in the early 80's to millions of dollars in the early 90's. A channel that had to eventually betray its own model and charter to survive in part due to a music industry that rebelled against the monster that MTV became (hello reality programming). The book is filled equally with interesting discussions of the business side of the network and rock and roll history during the 80's. While there are many great stories here, I'll mention two or three in particular that I enjoyed...

First is the chapter about what many consider to be the worst video ever made (chapter title: A Whopping, Steaming Turd). That would be Billy Squier's "Rock Me Tonite." Squier was a respectable rocker up to this point, but this one video killed his career. While much of this book focuses on how MTV made careers (Madonna, Duran Duran, even resurrecting ZZ Top), it also killed or diminished certain careers of artists who could not adapt or who made mistakes. Like the cringe-inducing "Rock Me Tonite" video. It is a hilarious and sad chapter, with Squier and others involved pointing fingers and blaming eachother for what occurred. Squier: "When I saw the video, my jaw dropped. It was diabolical. I looked at it and went, 'what the f*ck is this?' I remember a guy from the record company saying, 'don't worry about it, the record's a smash'...The video misrepresents who I am as an artist...The video had a deleterious effect on my career...[about director-choreographer Kenny Ortega] The guy crippled me." As another observer noted, "The lessons from 'Rock Me Tonite' are that fame can be oddly fleeting in show business - and that rock stars should always think carefully about wearing pink." Indeed. But as others point out in the chapter, maybe Billy should have thought about this while he was filming it, jumping on the feather bed in his pink muscle shirt. Enjoy "Rock Me Tonite" (as you watch it you can see a career dying over 5 minutes)...




ABOVE: The flipside to the Billy Squier tale. No band used MTV better or benefited more than Duran Duran. They would not have been nearly as big as they were without the iconic trilogy of videos from Rio: "Rio," "Hungry Like the Wolf" and "Save a Prayer" (above). It helped that they had pin-up good looks and that from the beginning they concentrated on mixing fashion and image with their music. These videos had a gorgeous style to them, and they were played incessantly. for the record, Duran Duran were/are also great musically, something often overlooked.

A story that is told throughout the book is MTV's complicated relationship with Michael Jackson. The racism issue is addressed in an entire chapter and it is a contentious issue amongst those involved (the popular wisdom is that Jackson's groundbreaking "Billie Jean" video broke the unspoken race barrier on MTV). Evidently MJ monitored MTV extremely closely, to see how often they played his videos and how they portrayed him. Jackson decided that he wanted to be called "King of Pop," so he threatened to withold his "Black or White" video from the channel unless they dubbed him King of Pop. It was all Jackson's idea. There was a memo that circulated around the MTV offices that stated, "I know this is a bizarre request, but..." and then outlined the rules that each VJ had to follow regarding Jacko's new title, calling Jackson "The King of Pop" twice per week on air, and "Please be sure to note which segments you do this in case we need to send dubs to the King of Pop himself." On a meeting with MJ for a video around the same period with MTV executives: "I met Michael at Sound Recorder Studios...The meeting was supposed to start at 6 p.m., but Michael - and Bubbles, his chimp - didn't arrive until eight. We started the meeting, and at 8:30 Michael suddenly says, 'Oh, we have to stop. The Simpsons is coming on.' We stopped the meeting and watched The Simpsons."

I would also recommend the great chapter about the Lost Weekend With Van Halen contest about how the band almost killed the contest winner with a debauched weekend of booze, drugs and strippers. I'll let the winner, Kurt Jefferis tell it: "They gave me a 'Lost Weekend' T-shirt and a hat. I met Valerie Bertinelli when I was backstage smoking a joint and drinking Jack Daniel's. They brought me onstage and smashed a cake in my face, then about a dozen people poured champagne on me, including two midgets. After the show, we went backstage and they brought a girl for me. She was a stripper in a short black leather skirt. David Lee Roth said, 'Kurt needs to meet Tammy.' They put on some music so she could dance and take her clothes off for me. David told her to take me into the shower. And I had Tammy in the shower." One of the MTV execs who was present added, "I could hear him howling from where I was sitting." Turns out the kid had a metal plate in his head and wasn't supposed to drink or do drugs. Exec Tom Freston: "They gave cocaine to the guy who won the contest. It turned out he had a plate in his head."


ABOVE: David Lee Roth loved MTV, and MTV loved David Lee Roth

If you love the 80's, if you are one of those people who look back angrily to the early 90's when MTV moved away from videos and music, if you want to know how the music industry was fundamentally altered in the 1980's, if you love tales of rock and roll excess and debauchery, then I Want My MTV is a must-read. Oh, and the fight between Axl Rose and Kurt Cobain is worth reading about too.

RIP Col. Potter (Harry Morgan, 1915-2011)

Fun For Toddlers and Potheads Alike

As a relatively new parent, I am still discovering all that there is to offer in children's entertainment. In meeting with several other new mothers, my wife noticed that many of them raved about this TV show called Yo Gabba Gabba on the Nick, Jr. network. We pulled up a few episodes On Demand, and my daughter went wild. Loved it. Immediately started dancing around the living room to the catchy music. Honestly, I could not tell who was enjoying the show more, my daughter or my wife.

It is nothing new to create children's entetainment that also has appeal for adults (go back to the Muppets in the 70's), But YGG takes it to a new level. It plays like a very pleasant acid trip, with strange but endearing characters...


ABOVE: Some of you non-parents may recognize these characters from a recent great car commercial.

In conducting a little research, I found that YGG is quite popular on college campuses as well. Not surprising. With the funky visuals, great modern sounding music, strange but child-friendly and instructive scenarios, and hip special guests (Jack Black, The Shins, Andy Samberg, Tony Hawk, The Roots, Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo, etc.), I can see the appeal. The show was co-created by lead singer Christian Jacobs of the band Aquabats, which explains a lot.


ABOVE: Here's "Party In My Tummy"

Last weekend we went to visit and stay with some friends in Houston (who don't have any kids), and once we started to tell them about YGG, they told us that they watch it all the time (usually while enjoying an adult substance). I guess that is the sign of a great kids show, adults and toddlers both get into it.

Day 6: A Riff So Massive

I enjoy late night TV on occasion. I'm not talking Letterman or Leno, I mean the shows on the upper reaches of the cable channels. I'm not even that much of a heavy metal fan, but lately, once the wife and baby are asleep, I have found myself flipping over to VH1 Classic (in the 200's somewhere) to That Metal Show. I don't watch it religiously, but I've seen a few episodes lately and find myself enjoying them. Like recently when estranged Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley was on, and his answer to almost every question went something like "I don't know, I think I was too [drunk, blitzed, loaded, trashed] to remember."

It is what you would think. Three dudes sitting on a set that looks like Bill & Ted's basement and a live studio audience where black metal t-shirts and long hair are part of the strictly enforced dress code. They get surprisingly high quality guests (for the metal/hard rock world). One host is a guy named Eddie Trunk who is the resident metal expert, and there is a segment called "stump the Trunk" where audience members ask metal trivia questions and if he can't answer, they get metal-related prizes. He is rather difficult to stump. The other two guys are wisecracking comedian/metalheads who do not take the proceedings nearly as seriously as Trunk does. Other features include pulling out a blackboard and debating/analyzing such issues as: Queen vs. Queensryche (Queen unanimously won that one).

Anyway, last night, one of their guests was Yngwie Malmsteen. Aside from having the greatest metal name ever, this Swedish born metal legend has been the butt of jokes from non-metal fans for years. Long regarded one of the most technically proficient guitarists of all time, he is also the poster child for souless noodling. Wikipedia's description of his technique is as follows: "Malmsteen is known for his technical fluency and neo-classical metal compositions, often incorporating high speed picking with harmonic minor scales, diminished scales and using sweep picked arpeggios...Also, Malmsteen favors the harmonic minor scale, and often uses diminished arpeggios and phrygian scales and draws an influence from Bach and Beethoven."

Personally, I've never listened to a note Yngwie has ever played, so I can't comment. But the criticism usually goes something like this: "I would rather listen to Neil Young's one note solo in 'Cinnamon Girl' over Yngwie Malmsteen any day." The classic example of what my friend over at ANCIANT calls "craft over art." Anyway, having heard the name for decades yet never having laid eyes on the legendary Yngwie, I was intrigued to at least see the guy.


ABOVE: Eddie Trunk (left) questions Yngie Malmsteen (right) on VH1 Classic's That Metal Show

One of my favorite exchanges in any interview anywhere went something like this:

Question: "Have you ever written a riff so massive, so awesome, that even you can't play it?"

Yngwie (dead serious): "Actually (dramatic pause) I have. I was able to get it down, but have never been able to figure it out again in all of its awesomeness."

Also, on why Yngwie usually tours as a solo act with hired hands versus working as a member of a band: Yngwie: "no band has ever been able to contain me." Trunk: "I mean, of course. You're Yngwie Malmsteen."

'Friday Night Lights' Is Still Outstanding

I have sung the praises of NBC's 'Friday Night Lights' since its first season, and I will continue to do so. For the neophytes, the show centers around a small West Texas town where high school football is king, although the show actually has very little to do with football at all. Now in its 4th season, the show gets richer and richer. What has impressed me the most is something that few shows can accomplish. With a turnover of about half of the cast, FNL has maintained its high quality. The old characters that are still there continue to evolve, and a group of new characters are proving to be just as intriguing. The older chatacters and new ones interact seamlessly. I have always said that FNL feels more like real life than almost any show I've ever seen, and the way characters have come and gone and new people come aboard and the show goes on is case in point. FNL is about high school, afterall, and people graduate and move on. I appreciate that the show respects the high school time table and moves characters along and introduces new ones. Kyle Chandler's Coach Eric Taylor continues to be the soul of the show, but he is surrounded by an incredible cast of ever evolving characters. Anyway, we are about five episodes into Season 4, and it is as strong as ever. You should be watching.


ABOVE: Zach Gilford's Matt Saracen has moved from star quarterback in previous seasons to delivering pizzas in his post-high school life this season. Sounds depressing, but the Saracen character has never been so interesting and well crafted than in Season 4 so far. Gilford was simply stunning in tonight's episode, "The Son," an episode that asks the difficult question of how do you grieve for someone that you hate? TV is rarely this great.

Waiting For Treme

Can't wait for the premiere next Sunday (4/11) of the new series Treme on HBO. What is most exciting is that it is created by David Simon, who brought us one of the greatest shows in history, The Wire. The setting is New Orleans, three months after Hurricane Katrina, in the culturally rich New Orleans neighborhood known as Treme. What a fantastic setting for a complex, character driven drama. From the reviews that I have read, the music is supposed to be awesome (not surprising for a show set in New Orleans). With a cast featuring John Goodman, Steve Zahn and several Wire vets, it promises to be high quality stuff.

Conan's Last Night

Last night was Conan O'Brien's last night as host of the Tonight Show. The last couple of weeks have been fascinating to watch, as he eviscerated NBC on a nightly basis. He did some of that again last night, but during the second half of the show, he seemed relaxed and reflective. And hey, he isn't exactly hurting with his $45 million settlement package he got from the network.

I like Conan a lot (much more than Leno), but I have to say that I never thought he was exactly right for the Tonight Show. His quirky humor seemed to fit better in that later time slot. I loved his last monologue. Very classy, a bit emotional. Also, I dug Neil Young coming on and playing "Long May You Run" for Conan. Awesome. Neil looked about 2000 years old, but still sounded great.

My hope and prediction for Conan O'Brien: once he is legally able to return to television by the terms of his settlement (September), he will sign with Fox (who is chomping at the bit to get him) and he will kick ass with a new, innovative talk show that will go up against Leno.