Conan

I'm gonna try to "live" blog during the premiere of Conan. I've recorded it and I'll typy-type my thoughts while watching it.

It starts with "Last Season on Conan" and Conan refusing on a phone conversation to move to 12:05 then he's shot like Sonny Corleone at the studio entry gate. Then he's sitting in a wife beater with 14 kids running around and his wife telling him to get a job, then he is not hired at Sterling, Cooper, Draper, Price by Jon Hamm. Then he's doing a monologue as a clown at a kids party. About ready to jump off a bridge, Larry King with wings tells him not to do it.

Nice colorful opening credits with the guests and Andy Richter announcing. It is now Jimmy Vivino and the Basic Cable Band. Requisite string dance. Much applause, he hugs an audience member. "Welcome to my Second Annual First Show." "People asked me why I named the show Conan. I did it so I'd be harder to replace." They're having a hard time keeping his hair in frame. Clip of masturbating bear on a local news channel shaking up the lotto balls in his underwear while the anchor man draws them out. I like the set so far, though the desk area is dark during the monologue.

They come back from the monologue with Andy in the chair next to the desk with Conan. They're now taking a moment to look at the set. They have a nice view of the ocean with a full 3 dimensional moon moving by remote. It's now wobbling. His summer low point was the Conan O'Brien mask that due to legal reasons was called the Ex-Talk Show Host. After putting them on, Andy says it's authentic because the inside smells like tears.

Guest video from Ricky Gervais. He congratulates Conan on the new gig while offering condolences for what happened previously. After his message, he looks off camera and says that while he's here he might as well bang out a few more. "Hi Conan, sorry things didn't work out at TBS, but I'm sure Food Network is a great fit for you." You know Conan, Food Network didn't know how well they had it. You're gonna be great on Good Morning Dayton. Don't worry about Dayton, now you have the national audience you deserve, and I'll be tuning in just as soon as I get satellite radio.

Third segment recaps the voting contest for first guest. "The deliberately rigged results are in and" it's the curator of the nutcracker museum. She just paraded through with a guy pushing a giant nutcracker behind her and out the studio.

Second first guest is Seth Rogen promoting Green Hornet, which doesn't open til January. Second guest is Lea Michelle, the brunette from Glee.

Music guest Jack White. Conan performs a song with Jack, a rockabilly type thing. Very fun. They apparently recorded a live album together in Nashville this summer.

Jack gets a desk interview after the song.

"We'll see you tomorrow. Byeeverybodybye."

Monitor Lizard Part I

They were right when they said DVRs would change the way you watch tv. Now, I watch a lot more at any hour of the day. Before, I watched a lot at very scheduled hours of the day.

I forget why I added HBO to my DirecTV package. I think it was for Flight of the Conchords and then they kept adding great new programming like The Pacific, and I started watching True Blood, and How to Make It in America. Now I watch Boardwalk Empire, Eastbound & Down, and Bored to Death. I added Showtime again for Dexter and that's it for that one, though in January they'll have Californication again. I'm a big fan of AMC too with Breaking Bad, Mad Men (which I just started watching this Spring, so I'm three seasons late to that party), Rubicon (which has two actors from The Pacific), and they just started The Walking Dead (which I checked out the first 10 graphic novel volumes of to get in on that).

Then for Network TV I watch Rules of Engagement, Modern Family, The Office, and Fringe. Though I also record 30 Rock and SNL. I forgot to mention the FX shows It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and The League (and not airing now but thoroughly enjoyed was Justified).

My reality competition watching is limited to cooking shows Top Chef, Top Chef: Just Desserts, and The Next Iron Chef.

Next is Adult Swim/Comedy Central. I watch Venture Bros., Metalocalypse, Mary Shelley's Frankenhole, and Nick Swardson's Pretend Time on Comedy Central.

For sports, I have my daily Pardon the Interruption on ESPN, my weekly Bo Pelini Coach's Show and Big Red Wrap Up, and then the Huskers' (even if I attend the game, I record it) and Bears' game, plus any other intriguing football match ups.

A quick tally gives me around 17.5 hours of programming plus six for the two requisite football games and more for any others I catch. So this averages out to 4 hours a day of TV each week (though I do fast forward through commercials which shrinks that number negligibly).

Theme Songs

Justified, Trueblood, The Life and Times of Tim, The Ricky Gervais Show. These are shows that I started watching this Spring whose theme songs I really enjoy. I've since stopped watching The Life and Times of Tim, but the others are good. I've linked to the songs in each title.

Late With Daniel

I'm not sure if I went on the record here about my tastes in late night talk show programming (there will be another post discussing programs vs. shows).

I used to catch Conan every wohniclee (sorry but that is once in a while) when he was on at 11:30. He had the hipper musical guests and there were often super funny moments during his guest interviews. I never enjoyed Jay Leno, so I watched Letterman if I was watching a show, but normally it depended on who the guests were, musical and otherwise. I usually like Craig Ferguson, but don't watch him. I like his email segment and the "What Did We Learn on the Show Tonight, Craig?" at the end.

This brings us to the big shift when Leno was bumped for Conan. I have the new Tonight Show on season pass since the beginning. Conan's monologue usually isn't that great, but he understands this and isn't below mocking it to get laughs. He still has fun moments with his guests, but probably not as outlandish as before.

When I first saw Jimmy Fallon's show, I was not impressed. He still can't keep a straight face, and his interviews are either sycophantic, or with his cast mates from SNL and very buddy buddy. I do appreciate a couple things about his show though. The Roots are a really great house band. And from the little I've seen from The Steve Allen Show, mostly from PBS documentaries on the Pioneers of Television, Fallon has a lot of similar games and fun with his guests like Allen did. I admire this. I think if Fallon is given the freedom to explore this goofy side he might be more comfortable, and you'll get a better overall show.

Celebrity Pivot Questionnaire Answers (or me clearing space on my DVR)

I'll provide the sets of answers and you match with the celebrities that answered during their Inside the Actors' Studio interview with James Lipton.

Here's the questions for a refresher:
1. What is your favorite word?
2. What is your least favorite word?
3. What turns you on?
4. What turns you off?
5. What sound or noise do you love?
6. What sound or noise do you hate?
7. What is your favorite curse word?
8. What profession other than yours would you like to undertake?
9. What profession would you not like to attempt?
10. If heaven exists, what would you like to hear god say when you arrive at the pearly gates?


A. 1. Laugh.
2. Hell.
3. My (spouse).
4. Arrogance. Arrogance, definitely.
5. My daughter laughing.
6. I think a lot of people have said this before, but I think the sound of a child in distress.
7. Bollocks.
8. When I was younger, I always said, if it didn't work out for me, that i would have been very interested in being a make-up artist I think. I just always loved painting faces.
9. I would not like to attempt being one of those poor people who are forced to work in factories filleting chickens and things like that. That would just be horrendous.
10. Care for a glass of champagne?

B. 1. Panache.
2. Should.
3. Food.
4. The dentist's drill.
5. I love the sound of an auditorium, like when the curtain goes down and the orchestra are tuning up. I love that sound
6. The dentist's drill. Any guess where I was today?
7. Bullshit. I think curse words should all be two syllables. A little more to get your mouth around.
8. I would like to be like the host of a variety show, you know like a Dave Letterman.
9. Chef. I've been a waiter in too many places, and I've seen how they . . . no. Chef for me.
10. The food is excellent.

C. 1. Honor.
2. My least favorite word is the n word no matter who says it, what context it's said in. I've known all my life that it was a word that was only meant to do harm. I hate it.
3. Words, not mine, but words.
4. Humiliation, especially toward a defenseless child.
5. It's the most precious and underrated sound in our lives, and that's silence.
6. The din that passes for pleasure and joy in public places like restaurants where people think that the only way they can show that they're enjoying themselves is to scream.
7. Mine is very dull because it is neither scatological nor obscene, it's profane, but it's offensive to some people and I apologize when I say it, Nowbut you can really tell I'm upset when I say it, Jesus Christ.
8. I would like to be a premier dancer. I would like to be a classical dancer, but with this provision, forever young and never injured.
9. That is very easy, one word, executioner.
10. You see (name), you were wrong, I exist, but you may come in anyway.

D. 1. I am fascinated with reality, the word reality.
2. Reality.
3. I like to see people happy. I like the feeling of community, it makes me feel safe.
4.
5. I guess when my kids laugh. That feels good. When a crowd laughs, that feels good. Laughter, I like laughter. But not that humiliating "ha-huh."
6. Anything that will intentionally inspire fear.
7. I don't know if I have a favorite, like if someone was cursing me out and I go, "I'm really glad you used that one 'cause it's my favorite." But I usually start with golly and it gets progressively worse.
8. After seeing Ironman I thought maybe being a crimefighter, but in all honesty, employing the skills I already have. These hands have not done a hard day of work, all my heavy lifting in life has been psychological and emotional so the inside of my mind looks like Denzel's back in Glory.
9.
10. Good job, congratulations. Something welcoming.

E. 1. Chambers, you know, "let's retire to chambers."
2. Bowel.
3. Enthusiasm.
4. Snobbery.
5. An egg dropping in milk.
6. A ringing phone in 1970s television
7. Motherfucker, is the best, just cuts through everything.
8. I'd love to be a rockabilly singer for like a year.
9. I think pornography.
10. (name), how did you do it?

Celebs:

Hugh Jackman
Kate Winslet
Conan O'Brien
Dave Chapelle
James Lipton

Afrienda

I've really enjoyed the most recent season of Flight of the Conchords on HBO. The most recent episode their manager, Murray, takes it to another level by becoming friends with them like he already has in his best friend Jim, played by Jim Gaffigan (also very funny by himself). At their first get together as friends, Murray has a friend agenda he calls an afrienda.

When Jim meets Bret and Jemaine he asks them lots of questions, because that is what a friend does. I'll now appropriate it for a meme.

1. Do you like music? Yes.
a. rock? yes
b. funk? no
c. country? yes, older and about four current artists
d. hair bands? no
e. synth? no
f. blues? no
g. jazz? early, yes
h. jazz fusion? no

2. What do you call your style of hair cut? half inch buzz cut with taper down sides

3. Do you like sports? yes, wrestling, football, rugby

4. Do you workout? no, but I'd like to.

5. How many stairs does your apartment have? five, for me, for others more

6. How many people have you met? 15,000 (Jim's answer to this was 285,621)

7. Do you read? yes

8. What is your favorite part of the newspaper? Comics

9. Do you have any questions for me? no

Okay I'll flip it back then.

10. Have you ever tried to grow a mustache? yes, and failed miserably

11. Ever been stung by porcupine? no

12. Do you like the color light blue? yes

13. What color do you call your hair? brown (Jim call his top White Gold and his beard Rust Belt. Murray calls his Electric Copper)

14. Favorite sauce? balsalmic reduction or scotch (Stephen Colbert says that Scotch tape should either change its name or get him drunk.)

15. Paper or plastic? Plastic

16. Where do you buy your markers? I steal them from work.

Victory!

That is the answer to the previous post's cliffhanger. The oak branch on the dime symbolizes victory.

I was looking up the word fritter, to reduce or squander little by little, and came across frith. While it can be a woody place, or an alteration of firth, an inlet of water, the definition I gravitated to was peace, security, protection.

I really like the moral ambiguity of greys and pinks.

Last week my grocery store had like 6 varieties of pear on sale. So after trying Forelle, D'Anjou, Red D'Anjou, Comice, and Bosc pears, I have decided that my favorite was Comice.

Running dangerously low on Irish whiskey, for my Irish coffee (what can be better than alcohol, coffee, sugar, and cream?) on Sunday morning, I grabbed a bottle of Jameson. This allowed me to compare it to the other (I know they aren't the only two anymore, but really why bother with any others) Irish whiskey I already had, Bushmills. I first got Bushmills last year sometime, because it was cheaper and had been the first distillery to receive a license from England back in 1608. My main use for it has been Irish coffees. But comparing it on the rocks with the Jameson helped me to realize it is pretty solid all alone, and I prefer it to Jameson (actually Scottish distillers who moved to Ireland).

My favorite commercial right now is for Skittles. I love how the Skittles bag is appropriately reflected, and the tailor is in all three mirrors. I think from concept to execution the whole thing is brilliant.

My favorite Shepard Fairey picture is this.

Going through my "name" dictionary (the one that has lots of entries for first names), I came across Mary, from Miriam--to rebel. I like that Jesus was born of rebellion. Then I was looking up Maroon (name for group of people from escaped slaves in the Caribbean) and came across marid -- a powerful and evil djinni in Arab and Indian lore. It also comes from Aramaic -- to rebel.

Lincoln has been fortunate enough to have temps in the upper 40s and lower 50s the past few days (don't worry our projected high for the next few days is in the 20s), and I had some boxes of shirts at work sitting on the dock in the sun. It has been a while since I've worked with something that was warmed by the sun, and it is nice. Plus it helps me to remember how powerful and hot the sun's energy is.

Some more names that have caught my fancy: Linus, Olyphant (not Oliphant)

Weapon of Choice

I was watching The Fuse 20 (Fuse is a music video channel) last night with the theme of celebrity cameos. Number one was Christopher Walken in Fatboy Slim's video for Weapon of Choice. I'd heard the words before but it hadn't sunk in until last night that there is a reference to Frank Herbert's Dune. The repeated line is something like: "Don't walk in rhythm and you won't attract the worm."

So if you haven't figured it out yet, I spend a lot of time watching tv. I did also make some more chocolate chip/morsel oatmeal cookies last night, but that wasn't my main deal.

(voice of Jerry Seinfeld impersonator) What is the deal with chocolate morsels? Does some global nutritional industrial complex own the rights to the phrase chocolate chip that Nestle calls their chocolate bits morsels?

Stewart Copeland is a Tool

She had a body as hard as 9th grade Algebra.

I had always thought the meaning of "People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones." was that you could damage your own home. Then while driving and thinking ill of my fellow commuters, I realized it could also mean to not throw stones because you are particularly susceptible if your enemy retaliates in a similar fashion. So which is it? or is it both?

It seems like there are a bunch of Australian actors in American television right now. Rose Byrne in Damages, Anna Torv in Fringe, and Simon Baker in The Mentalist to name those that come to mind. I don't mind this, and they are generally attractive and talented, which doesn't hurt. What bothers me is that every time I see them on a late night talk show, namely Late Night with David Letterman, he insists on them performing an American accent. This usually gets an applause from the audience. My question is whether there are regional accents in Australia. Does a sheila from Sydney sound different from a bloke from Brisbane?

About ten days ago, the comic strip Pearls to Swine had a character named Frank Lloyd Rat.

Some names I like: Pendragon, Mondragon, Moncrieff, Ignatieff, Shaughnessy, Sigourney, Orson, Gascoyne.

Friday Favorites

Billy Stewart, 60s singer whose rendition of Summertime is one of my favorites.

Spectacle: Elvis Costello with . . . This is Elvis' new talk, performance, music history show. The first guest was Elton John, and Sir Elton referred to the aforementioned Billy Stewart as a "30 stone man." That is quite hefty.

Ed Ruscha, one of the pop artists from the LA scene. He and Stella McCartney were featured in the Iconoclasts episode on Sundance Channel last night.

Sundance Channel, Spectacle is another of their original shows, along with Iconoclasts, and Live from Abbey Road. If Robert Redford had done nothing else, I would still appreciate him for giving me the Sundance Channel.

Bespoke tailoring, I'm not quite certain what this is in its entirety, but Stella McCartney said her shops are some of the few remaining that do bespoke.

328, My favorite three digit number. When I registered my car in August, I had the choice of three digit numbers at the end of my license plate. I wasn't expecting to have a choice, so I said any would do (and ended up with 171). But now I realize that I do prefer 328; it doesn't hurt that is is my birthday. What is your favorite three digit number?

The Sham Wow! Guy. I've seen this commercial a few times, and I'm always impressed by the pitch man. He's not too attractive, but his charisma and presentation carry him quite far.

Good Eats

Maybe one of my favorite shows on all of television is Good Eats. The host is Alton Brown. Each show he takes a food topic like Macaroni and Cheese or Egg Nog or Water. He has quirky characters that propound various myths he dispels with his arsenal of food experts, scientists, nutritionists, chemists. He usually executes two or three recipes during the show.

Even better than all that information that he provides, the recipes actually work. I've gone to his recipes frequently, and I have yet to be disappointed. My most recent delight from him was his eggnog recipe. So even if you don't watch the Food Network, or Good Eats, if you are looking for a recipe, go to foodnetwork.com and then choose what ever Alton Brown is offering because it will be . . .

Good Eats.

Happy 65th Birthday Cassius.

One customer's name today was James Crow. Yes, James, as in Jim, Crow. I don't know if he is a legislator. But during the same week as the commemoration of Martin Luther King Junior's and Muhammad Ali's birthday: James Crow tops the cake.

Speaking of cakes, I like the TV show Ace of Cakes. It is mainly a reality show in the vein of American Chopper, where you just see the goings on of a business that happens to make very creative artistic cakes. In the episode I'm currently watching Duff is delivering a cake of Wrigley Field to an eightieth birthday party in Chicago. Duff is from Baltimore. So he drives a cake 700 miles. What dedication: to pay someone a lot of money to make a cake and drive so far, just to eat cake.

Dinner Takes All

Tonight on TLC I caught a show I haven't seen before: Dinner Takes All. The concept seems to be that they take four people who take turns hosting a dinner party for the other three. Each of the participants then rates each evening and the winner, I guess takes all, there are still thirty minutes left. The third contestant is hosting as I type. Her name is Megan and she was a Girl Scout from 1st grade to high school, graduated from the CIA, Culinary Institute of America, and now works editing professional recipes for use by hoi polloi. The first hostess was Katelyn, a model with a nice loft. The second was Leo, who in the tour of his apartment had the obligatory "Here is where the magic happens" comment when sitting on his bed. Interestingly enough, when Megan was giving the tour of her apartment she used this comment to describe her kitchen. I think they might have been refering to different types of magic. The winner gets a thousand dollars.

Another show that I enjoy and find really well done is America's Game. It is on NFL Network, and I think produced by them too. They polled a lot of people, writers, players, coaches, and had them rank their top ten Super Bowl teams. From those rankings they took the top twenty. Now they are doing a count down from 20 to 1 each week. Each show is narrated by a famous male actor, like Martin Sheen, Donald Sutherland, Bruce Willis, and then they interview three people from the team while covering the season and environment in which that team won the Super Bowl. They do a good job of getting different perspectives by their choice in interviewees. I think even if you don't like football you could be drawn in by the stories of the men involved.

I'm out.

Thursday Morning 3AM

My dream epiphany of the day is that The Simpsons and The Sopranos start their show in essentially the same way with the patriarch driving home from a day of work through their respective communities. Amazing, I know.

In other news, it isn't a good habit to bed down after 4 in the morning. I acquired this habit this past week between Christmas and New Year's Day. Culminating with my 11:30 rising on Sunday not ending til 10:40ish on Monday. The problem is going back to a sleep schedule that includes you waking up and attending work before noon. It was fine last week because while AdventSource was open, we weren't answering the phones to take orders, so I just had to process orders from the web. Now, however, the phones are back up, and I'm still on the same schedule, which is complicating when I try to break out of it by going to bed at 11:30 and wake up at 3. My other bit of advice: Share sparkling wine.

"OJ Simpson . . .

not a Jew. But guess who is, Hall of Famer Rod Carew; he converted."

While I liked the previous radio station more, when a Lincoln station changed formats a few years back they played the Turkey Song, by Adam Sandler, continuously. The opening line is from another Sandler song, the Hanukkah Song. I had a happy turkey day. There were over twenty-five pies to choose from, this is a good thing. My favorite pie was my mother's raspberry pie, so delicious. And what I really liked about it was that it wasn't ashamed of being raspberry. There was some tart to it, which is what raspberries taste like. There is also some comfort in knowing the raspberries came from our own patch.

I watched a lot of football over the weekend. At one point on Saturday night, I was keeping fairly close tabs on three different games. I know I have a sickness. Most symptomatic of my illness is that I woke up at 6:50 am Sunday to leave SD so that I would be back in Lincoln for the Bears game.

The only travel drama came fifteen miles from home in Redfield where we got a flat tire. Then, of course, our limp-along tire also went flat. This was a very fortunate instance, all things considered, because we could have gotten stuck along the interstate somewhere; instead we just waited for Denny to pick us up. No big deal.

May the only things you consume this holiday season be conversation with friends, homemade food, and (some other good thing, suggestions welcome in the comments section). Don't worry about stimulating the economy; it's doing fine.

Latrobe, PA*

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor. Would you be mine? Could you be mine?

Michael Douglas worked for KQED in Pittsburgh, PA. He even worked on Mister Roger's Neighborhood and got to run the trolley. Later he changed his name to Michael Keaton. He was the host of a documentary on Fred Rogers that I rented from Netflix. Great stuff. What became quite apparent, aside from his mission to help children accept and express all their feelings, is the importance of and his dexterity with music and lyrics. A couple songs the documentary highlighted are "Everybody's Fancy" and "It's You I Like." Fred shared this song during congressional testimony that resulted in $20 million dollars for NET, a precursor to PBS.

*Fred was born there.

I hope each of you has a special Thanksgiving this year. Enjoy your time with friends and family and food.

It's such a good feeling to know you're alive. It's such a happy feeling: You're growing inside. And when you wake up ready to say, "I think I'll make a snappy new day," it's such a good feeling, a very good feeling, the feeling you know that I'll be back when the day is new, and I'll have more ideas for you. And you'll have things you want to talk about. I will too.

Vesper's

Tonight I went to Casino Royale. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I will give it a 4.5 out of 5. I would watch it again in the theatre, Wendy. All the acting is spot on. The action is spot on too. Those who enjoyed Crash, with Matt Dillon, not James Spader, might appreciate that Paul Haggis contributed to the screenplay.

This is a wonderful beginning for Bond, and Daniel Craig as Bond. And as the end of the credits promises: JAMES BOND WILL RETURN. What a surprise! I was thinking they might settle with their second largest weekend opening in the franchise's history and call it a day, never to return.

One of my favorite finishing touches on the film is the casting of Jeffrey Wright. I first appreciated him in Syriana; however, I've also seen him in The Manchurian Candidate, Broken Flowers, and Lady in the Water. He reminds me a bit of Michael (take that as you will).

A quick update on my television watching for those who care: I like Bear Grylls. First, I like his name. Second, I like his TV show Man vs. Wild. The first episode I saw was in the Moab Desert, the second in the Costa Rican rainforest. In the first episode he urinated on his head dressing to keep his head cooler. I'm in the process of finishing the second episode and right now he has diarrhea and stomach cramps, probably from the river water he drank. He's "hoping it's not dysentery." (British pronounciation)

The second show I've picked up since my last monitor lizard update is Top Chef season 2. The first season had some really unwatchable participants, but this year is much, much better, with a better hostess and some seemingly very quality cheves. That is all for now.

Go Big Blue!

The Prestige

I saw this film Thursday afternoon after a seminar I attended for work. I think the reviews I read about it were accurate. The main characters are flat emotionally, but I don't think that is a bad thing, and actually fulfills the requirement of the role. One thing I liked even more as I was walking home was the layering of the story. This I attribute, not to Christopher Nolan and his brother, but to Christopher Priest who wrote the novel of the same name. I just want to say here that I think Scarlett Johansson is overrated. This is the sixth movie with her I've seen, and I haven't noticed improvement or versatility, only increased publicity.

One woman I have taken a liking to is the woman in the red striped shirt in the new Intel commercials. She's cute, and she can dance, and she can wink, something I've never been able to do. I probably have an official crush on her.

In other film watching news, I saw Layer Cake last night. This is one of Daniel Craig's many auditions to become the newest James Bond. He was also in a Tomb Raider and played a secret agent in Munich. In Layer Cake, he is the reluctant thug, having to do one last deal before getting out of the business. His role as jealous son of Paul Newman in Road to Perdition probably wasn't included when considering him for Bond. TTFN

They ARE Who We THOUGHT They Were!

And we let'em off the hook!

Those are Denny Green's words after my favorite team the Chicago Bears came back from 20 points down to win the game with 15 minutes and 3 seconds left. The Bears had 6 turnovers in the game and managed only three points from the offense, yet they still won the game. The comeback was keyed by two forced fumbles returned for touchdowns, by the defense, and, with less than three minutes left, a punt return for a touchdown.

I was watching the postgame press conference live on ESPN News when seemingly with no build up, Green exploded. Here is the video. Here is an article about the game with the best quote of Green's comments.

In other news, Wendy mentioned that my city-league flag football team is playing the other SDA team on Sunday. I find this great because October 22nd is the anniversary of the Great Disappointment. Going by our previous games against other teams in the league, the other team will be experiencing the disappointment.

The TV shows that have made my schedule this season are Amazing Race 10, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Friday Night Lights, South Park, Freakshow, Top Chef 2, My Name Is Earl, The Office, and Grey's Anatomy. These are on top of the football. Grey's is on ABC; Amazing Race is on CBS, but most of the others are on NBC, with Top Chef on Bravo, an NBC affiliate.

Leon Battista Alberti

I read once that a Renaissance man was such a man in every way. It was said that he could, with feet together, jump over a standing man (something like that). I was trying to relate this to someone tonight on the sideline of our flag football game. I thought maybe it was Descartes, but wasn't sure. So I came home and Googled it. Eventually, I came up with Leon Battista Alberti. I realize I was way off on Descartes. Do you know what Moliere had to do with commedia dell'arte?* [you would if you saw Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (which happens to be one of two shows NBC is basing on the behind-the-scenes of a sketch comedy show; I guess this is a slow death for SNL, satired by your parent network) tonight] Here's the salient quote from the preceding link:

He is credited with inventing the cypher wheel, and it was said that from a standing position, with his feet together, Leon Battista Alberti could jump over a man's head.

I don't know if this is true. Obviously it could be; these are 15th century men we are talking about (John Smith was big at 5' two hundred years later--granted the Italians probably had better sanitation/nutrition than the English) they could be short. And the quote says over a man's head. I know the Medici's had big noses, but how big can a head be? This might be a fun exercise, get a friend to lay on the ground and stand next to their head. Then, with your feet together from a standing position, jump over their head. Sounds like a full evening of fun if you ask me. What I really like about the great jumping Alberti is that six hundred years after he was born, I'm web logging about this incredible physical feat. What feat would you like to be remembered for?

*nothing.

Daniel Xisto