Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer Wav
Live From New York
I picked up Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live for only $5.99 in the bargain section a few months ago. After I finished writing my own book last month, I finally had time to read it. I have always been interested in Saturday Night Live as a social phenomenon as well as for its entertainment value, which has varied widely over the years. During SNL's classic early years in the late 1970s I was too young to be allowed to watch it, which only made it more intriguing. By the time I was in high school (late 1980s), SNL was the one weekend event sure to be discussed in the hallways on Monday morning. My Spanish teacher was an SNL fanatic, and he used to blurt out hilarious lines from characters like "Ed Grimley." In my second job out of college (circa 1994), we often quoted SNL characters such as Phil Hartman's "Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer." Soon after I lost interest in television altogether. But enough about me...
I thought I would only be interested in the years when SNL was a part of my life, but I enjoyed the entire book. It is written in an oral history style using extensive quotes from cast members, executives, hosts, writers, and others involved directly with the show. The words from authors Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller (Miller is incorporated as Jimmy the Writer, which makes me feel that my own company name isn't quite so lame after all) are more like those of a narrator in a play, limited to providing background and transitions. The only problem I had with this format was keeping all the names straight, particularly for the early years. Aside from that, it worked well and moved along quickly. My only quibble with the organization of the book was the last chapter. After chapters for each "era" of the program, the last section was simply "Lorne," a disjointed, chronologically scrambled character sketch of SNL originator and producer Lorne Michaels. The end matter includes a list of cast members by year, but I wish they had included a list of hosts and musical guests (Wikipedia has one).
Live From New York is fascinating for its behind-the-scenes look at how the show is put together. Surprisingly little has changed in the weekly routine. The legendary Tuesday up-all-night writing marathons were probably a lot easier when almost everybody was doing drugs. More recent cast members like Janeane Garafalo have criticized the outdated, stressful schedule. She comes across negatively in the book, as does Chevy Chase. Chase was the first big star to outgrow SNL, but he became increasingly hard to work with each time he returned to host. There are enlightening nuggets to be found throughout the book. First person accounts give insight into controversies such as the Sinead O'Connor incident. Julia Sweeney explains how her androgynous "Pat" character developed because of her inability to be convincingly masculine in drag. Cast members talk about the deaths of many associated with the show, including Chris Farley, who idolized John Belushi. Regarding Belushi, there is harsh criticism of Bob Woodward's biography, Wired.
Ultimately, this book should have been longer. I would have liked to read more about some of the popular characters portrayed in the show. The jacket claims that "they're all here," but I suppose that was better copy than the more accurate, "They're mostly here but barely." As someone who wore a "Mr. Bill" T-shirt in his youth, I was crushed to see his name appear only twice in the whole book. Incredibly, Don Novello is quoted in the book but his "Father Guido Sarducci" is nowhere to be found. Adam Sandler's "Opera Man" is never mentioned, and "Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer" is only named once (oddly as "Frozen Caveman Lawyer"). Many of my favorite moments were omitted, too, such as the episode where the Church Lady disciplined host Rob Lowe. And there was very little about Dennis Miller anchoring "Weekend Update" although he did it longer than anyone else. I suppose everyone has his or her own favorite sketches and characters, so maybe it was considered impractical to get into anything beyond the most famous or controversial ones.
Live From New York left me begging for more, and its format hints that there are lots of snippets from interviews that didn't make the final cut. It is a good introduction to the madness behind the scenes of this program. Now I really understand how much preparation goes into pulling off the 90-minute show every week, and why everyone in the cast looks so tired and "glad it's over" as they hug and wave goodbye at the end.
Labels: books, television
by Bartle Bogle Hegarty. The song playing is Look good in leather by Cody ChesnuTT
artistic, simple:
joyous, uplifting, hilarious:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMvqfxsyYQs&feature=player_embedded
position: absolute - the ultimate web developement movie
sweet bruce lee vs iron man stop motion clip:
I think the fight choreography mostly came from the Matrix (Neo vs. Morpheus)
Dilbert:
Moe comics:
Basic instructions:
SMBC:
tyson the skateboarding dog (on OPRAH):
his homepage here
Superpunch:
so much good stuff that I had to put it all in a separate post
useful:
Startup Manager: How to select a startup volume
Apple Remote Desktop: Connecting through a firewall, NAT or VPN
Disk Utility: Unable to format disk 500 GB or larger
Sydney Wifi:
list here and here
most 'installations/visualisations' basically take an array of objects with flip-flop capability (on-off modes) and turn them into a 'screen'. I've seen similar large scale displays with fire, leds, shades of wood, etc.
King of RX8 Homebrew:
iPod touch controlled RX8!
another doomsday weapon/cheap energy source:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/31/nif-scientists-set-the-controls-for-nuclear-fusion/
Didn't they learn anything from the Large Hadron Supercollider?
DLSR stuff:
camera reviews
canon eos 450D deal
eos 450d review
nikon d300 review
Canon EOS 450D wiki
Nikon D300 wiki
EOS 450D popphoto review
Nikon D60 popphoto review
In case you haven't figured it out by now, I'm looking to get a Canon EOS 450D.
engadget:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/29/mac-friendly-houseport-usb-to-z-wave-adapter-shipping-soon-en-ma/
http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/29/piezoelectric-nanowires-could-lead-to-blood-powered-ipods-cellp/
http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/02/googles-data-center-secrets-revealed/
AVDPJUB9
papercraft tank:
little red riding hood retold:
Slagsmålsklubben - Sponsored by destiny from Tomas Nilsson on Vimeo.
something special:
interesting post about how Google makes design decisions here.
Without conviction, doubt creeps in. Instincts fail. “Is this the right move?”
hilarious web design egotism
bring down IE6
zeldman's web validator
awesome anti-IE6 splash screens:
click here for more from Hugs for monsters
watch-mcbess-draw
video-of-underwater-vocano-erupting
seven-simian-samurai
yellow-submarine-juice-boxes
how-to-make-stop-motion-anmiation
voltron-munny-and-more
http://community.atom.com/Post/The-5-Most-Disturbing-Animals-On-Earth-Vol-IV/03EFBFFFF0182C7B8000800B4D02B/
http://www.asylum.com/2009/04/03/giant-sea-worm-terrorizes-aquarium/
http://www.wififreespot.com/aus.html
http://blog.photos2view.com/2008/03/16/free-wifi-in-sydney.htm
http://blog.freesydneywireless.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_ATP_World_Tour
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/04/07/2537559.htm
http://www.mirror.co.uk/life-style/2008/08/14/doctors-don-t-know-why-my-legs-are-getting-bigger-115875-20697469/
http://www.favicon.cc/?action=icon_list&order_by_rating=1
http://www.realtechnews.com/posts/1625
car custom
http://www.snotr.com/video/2104
spidey in xmen
weirdly wonderful
http://wellmedicated.com/inspiration/an-ode-to-criterion-box-art/
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=357454
http://www.gamepro.com/article/features/107258/the-9-biggest-moments-in-pro-gaming-page-3-of-3/
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/a_bestofyoutube?page=2
http://beastdaigo.jp/
in news:
enough is enough! I've had it with these muthaf#ckin' snakes on this muthaf#ckin' plane!
Engadget goes legs-on with Honda's walking-assist devices (with video!)
Cyberdyne said to be mass producing $4,200 HAL robotic suit
oh shi...this is me now.
kawaii-ne!
cool 3d commercial for Phillips' new 21:9 tv
http://cowbell.typepad.com/forty_deuce/2008/10/robin-soderling.html
hilarious write up abour tennis player Robin Soderling
work for Apple? Sure, why not?
http://www.apple.com/jobs/us/apply.html
Rafa Nadal's crazy clay-court playing record
awesome parkour-with-bike: here
the song playing is Band of Horses' the funeral, awesomely free on their site.
detailed breakdown of why HDTV ruins classic gaming here
unfrozen caveman lawyer
sneezing captured in 1000 frames per second
Sneezing In Ultra Slow Motion - Watch more Funny Videos
cracked:
http://www.cracked.com/article_17276_5-scientific-ways-make-water-do-magic.html
http://www.cracked.com/article_17199_7-most-horrifying-parasites-on-planet.html
mordant orange:
