Author: Richard

Leno vs Letterman nostalgia

With the current NBC behind the scenes wars, I thought this was interesting to look back on..

Here is Leno’s last appearance on Late Night with David Letterman in 1992 right before he took over the Tonight Show. Letterman had done that show for 10 years and was always the assumed Tonight Show heir, as well as the one Johnny Carson preferred to carry on his legacy. Soon afterward Letterman of course accepted an offer from CBS and went on to host The Late Show with David Letterman and Conan O’Brien took over as host of Late Night on NBC.

Since that departure, Letterman has grown to hate Leno in what I suspect is the natural tendency to be gracious in the wake of shock and only come to your senses of rage later on. We saw it when that guy squirted Tom Cruise with the fake microphone/watergun – at first for a second Cruise smiles, but then does a “wtf” and calls the guy a jerk in an earnest voice. That’s what happened with Letterman… watch this video below from a time when the two hosts were still friendly and perhaps you’ll find it as interesting as i did…

Compare that to Lettermans current feelings about “Jay ‘big jaw’ Leno” as he keeps calling him in this clip…..

Leno goofs on NBC over cancellation rumors

hmmmmmm

NBC is mulling a scheduling shakeup that would put Jay Leno back in late-night and put an end to the experiment that brought the talk show host to prime-time.

A person familiar with discussions held Thursday said the network is considering a scenario that would include a half-air Leno show at 11:35 p.m., pushing “The Tonight Show” with Conan O’Brien to 12:05 and Jimmy Fallon’s “Late Night” to 1:05 a.m.

The person wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about the discussions and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Leno’s nightly 10 p.m. talk and comedy show has drawn lackluster ratings and complaints from NBC affiliate stations that the show has been a weak lead-in for local late newscasts and hurt their viewership.

The proposed new lineup could go into effect after NBC concludes its Olympics coverage at the end of February.

Princess and the Frog

Princess and the Frog isn’t nearly the heaping pile of shit it looks like it would be. Someone gave me a bootleg and I enjoyed the crap out of it. Disney returns to hand drawn animation, Broadway style musical numbers, actually developing fkking characters within a coherent storyline and flavors it with a spicy blend of humor, drama and – yeay! someone dies! – thumbs up.

Plus they can finally inject some personality into Disneylands New Orleans Square now that they have a movie that takes place there.

FrogPrince does look a lot like Prince Eric but I don’t think there’s much of a template to the Disney dudes outside this comparrison so I let it slide.

The villains had a little more depth to them as well: Lawrence didnt start out with bad intentions but was tempted into villainy which he later had doubts and regrets over and Dr Penis/Phallus/ShaddowMichaelJackson seemed to me to stay within a reasonable character profile.

I liked how there were nice people and cruel people, heart warmers and skeptics, charitable people and greedy people – of both races and it never appeared forced. you never, as you do with Pocahontas, see a jerk with X skin and know its just a matter of minutes till they balance it out with a jerk with Y skin. They even cleared the “work hard and don’t wait for handouts” + “womanizers outta settle down” + “think outside of your current view” + the all the other little anecdotes sprinkled about without sounding preachy and forced. the more i think about this movie, the more im so proud it wasn’t an embarrassing Fail.

If you have an ear for voices though, watching a dude with Goliath from Gargoyles voice doin a soft shoe (Dr F) and hearing Tigger (Ray the fly) with a Cajun accent could get distracting here and there.

Disney World Fantasyland expansion & makeover concept art

Cindarella and Sleeping Beauty’s cottage. Some kind of Ariel castle thing that isn’t really described. Gastons hunting lodge style pub and a “Be Our Guest” restaurant set in the Beasts dining hall. Lots of injections of more activities and character interaction (which i think is a little overdone. you go to the parks to ride rides, meet the characters and move to the next ride, not so much to spend lots of time with the actors in character.

A much needed doubled up Dumbo with a series of circus games for kids to go through instead of waiting in line. John Lassater said at a separate convention Q&A type thing I saw that the “the smallest customers wait in the longest lines for the shortest rides”.

Man Cleavage rules

A history of bare chested manliness from America’s most trusted source in boy-tits news and coverage: the Wall Street Journal…

Male cleavage, particularly on the silver screen, has long played a prominent role in popular culture. Douglas Fairbanks Sr. had his chest on display throughout the 1920s in films like 1924’s “The Thief of Bagdad” and “The Iron Mask” in 1929. A dashing Errol Flynn showed man cleavage in the 1930s, most memorably in 1938’s “The Adventures of Robin Hood.” These actors made skin-flashing practically de rigueur for certain swashbuckling roles.

The aesthetic continued well into the 1950s and the 1960s, says menswear historian Robert Bryan, author of the new book “American Fashion Menswear.” Among those celebrated for their heavage were Marlon Brando (in the 1951 film version of “A Streetcar Named Desire”) and Sean Connery as James Bond in the 1960s.

Buzzkill, Melissa Clouthier is not amused…

It is interesting to me that during the Bush administration the men’s fashion designers were designing for the slight and the androgynous male, but now that the slight and metrosexual male is residing in the White House, designers are trying to butch things up — just like they did during the namby-pamby Carter era.

Well, no amount of chest hair or weird NFL United We Serve commercials where the president is catching a football with smiling children, is going to make this administration suddenly macho and manly. Nancy Pelosi is the toughest politician in Washington, and it’s safe to say she’ll keep her necklines from plunging.

Real men need to fight the cultural scourge of swing fashion trends. Real men are not trendy. They’re classic. No one wants to see lithe and androgynous men. And no one wants to see a man’s chest hair, either.

Read her full article here.

Glenn Beck Riding Around On A Scooter, Having Fun With Stossel

I wish Glenn Beck wasnt such a hated figure, cuz this segment was both fun and funny and I’d like to share it with a wider audience. oh well. I enjoyed it.

Glenn Beck riding around on a scooter for “fat people”, having fun and at times getting a little too close to John Stossel. Glenn also talks about the mysterious lights seen in the skies of Norway yesterday.

Sports Illustrated – Tablet Demo 1.5

Time Inc which owns Sports Illustrated released this demo of what they’re working on for some reason. I say for some reason because… why? whats their angle for showing people this? It would make sense in conjunction with the announcement of a product release – like an Apple Tablet for instance or some major freaky update to Amazon’s Kindle, but no. we got nothin.