Drop Pants, Fire Rocket

Don Rickles was on the Late Show yesterday night. Classic stories and quips as always.

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Classic Roots Choice #8: Introduced comedian Eddie Izzard with "Walk on the Wild Side" by Lou Reed.

And Now For Something Completely Different

Yesterday night when Jimmy Fallon mentioned who would be on the show tomorrow, I did an audio double-take. "I think he just said... what did he just say?" Rewinding and watching it again confirmed that he just said that tomorrow night he would have "the guys" from "Monty Python". "What does that mean?", I thought. "Ooh, probably from the musical on Broadway."

The reality of the situation is what I dismissed in my mind automatically. He was going to have - in one show - John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones and Eric Idle (all living members of Monty Python except Michael Palin).

The show was amazing. A particular highlight was "Wheel Of Carpet Samples" where the usual Pythonesque silliness was joined with an appearance by John Cleese himself. Then Fallon and Cleese were unable to keep it together and giggled like school children midway through.

Other highlights: The Roots performing "I'm a Lumberjack" and backing Eric Idle on a live performance "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life". And the first 5 minutes of the "interview" is about the zaniest 5 minutes you'll see in any interview ever. They even started the show with the old man climbing out of the sea routine ("It's...").

Wheel Of Carpet Samples 1 + 2:

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"Interview": Parts 1-4. Note: The members were introduced and came out one at a time. John Cleese, being introduced first, quickly hid one of the chairs before the others came out. The last one out, Terry Gilliam found that he didn't have a chair. That's the situation we find ourselves at the beginning of the clip..... Let's watch..... 

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"Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" 

The Tom Hanks Button

The Late Show - Following his monologue, David Letterman went to his desk only to discover a strange device that he doesn't remember seeing before. Lying there is a black box with a red button and no label or information of any kind. Out of curiosity, Dave presses it a few times. Momentarily, Tom Hanks bolts on stage and sits down at the desk, out of breath and ready to chat. Dave apologizes and explains that he already has a booked guest, he only pressed the button out of curiosity. Annoyed, Tom Hanks walks away to thunderous applause.

Having been away for a while, Letterman giggles to himself and explains that now he really wants to press the button. He does and an out of breath Tom Hanks runs on stage and sits down. A false alarm again.

When this happens a third time towards the end of the show, Tom Hanks is fed up. He scolds Dave, violently rips the Tom Hanks button off the desk, throws it into the audience and storms off. This move backfires later when an audience member presses the button and Tom Hanks has to run back in.

That's Ajay Bhatt, He's So Hot Right Now

In a classic interview, Conan talks to the real co-inventor of USB, Ajay Bhatt. Topics include emerging technologies such as the bleeding edge Jub Jub Port.

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We Suck Young Blood

It's time for some angst, baby! Apparently there will be a new "Twilight" movie and it will feature a Thom Yorke song on its soundtrack. "New Moon" is expected to be out October 20th and will feature a Thom Yorke track "Hearing Damage". Get out your pale makeup and feel like no one understands you! CHOO-WOO!

You can listen to the new song here:

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I don't know what to make of any of these new tracks that keep popping up and this one especially. Should I instantly like it because I'm such a fan or should I instantly hate it because it's associated with "Twilight"? So much conflict. On first listen, it is really catchy and has a cool "dance" vibe to it. It actually reminds me a little bit of Joy Division though don't quiz me on that.

In related news, (anything to keep this post from being entirely devoted to Twilight) the online music magazine Gigwise have voted "Idioteque" the best song of the 2000's. I don't know, seems like it doesn't fit. A great song though, no argument about that, but the best song of an entire decade is so hard to judge and in my opinion this wouldn't even achieve "best song on the album" . But it's particularly good live where every performance, around the same time, one of the variations of "the crazy dance" makes an appearance. Never get tired of it, never get tired of the song.

Here's a really good version. I remember a friend of mine taped it off MTV for me a long time ago:

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See the full top 50 list here.

The Best Show on TV That You're Not Watching (And Nor is Anyone Else)

In order to determine whether a car should include a certain safety feature, an auto company breaks the decision down in monetary terms. On one side is the cost, in dollar terms, of manufacturing, testing, assembling the safety feature and including it in the car. On the other is the dollar cost of the deaths that the safety feature would, otherwise, have prevented. By merely comparing the two dollar values, the company has decided which is the right thing to do: the dollar values summarize utility, the lesser cost is the greater good.

Is this right? Can everything be summed in dollar values? If so, what is the dollar value of a single life? $One million? $10 million? $3,409.55? If no, what criteria should be used to make such business decisions?

Such large questions are just a few of the questions raised within the space of a few minutes of the show "Justice: What's the Right Thing To Do?". The show's format is the following: film Michael Sandel's lectures at Harvard in which he surveys significant philosophies and then show them on TV. That's it.

There are no actors, there are no plot twists, there's no comedy or celebrity interviews, no special effects, flashy editing or catchy music. "Justice" merely presents the moral and logical arguments made by philosophers (particularly as they relate to the world today) and asks, "Do you agree?... Why?", often with surprising results. Such are the reasons why almost nobody is watching the show and such are the reasons why the show is so amazing. In short, it forces the viewer to learn, it forces the viewer to think, yet still leaves it up to the viewer to decide. In spirit, it reminds me of the series "Ethics in America" (also fantastic) though with more emphasis on formal philosophical history.

From the show's website: "Is torture ever justified? Would you steal a drug that your child needs to survive? Is it sometimes wrong to tell the truth? How much is one human life worth?"

You may be able to find "Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?" on your local PBS station.

You can buy the series on DVD here.

But you can watch the episodes online here.