The Holy Grail of Video

I've been looking for this video for years and never found it... until now. Every "Best Of" Late Night with Conan O'Brien compilation always includes a short clip of the early days when David Letterman came on as a guest. But it was always the same short clip, never a full interview. Online, any youtube upload would be deleted. In fact, I personally had a video deleted just because it contained about 5 seconds of the interview. With the short clip edited out, the video was allowed. For years, the best thing I saw was when someone posted a transcription of the interview online. Not quite the same and that, too, is gone.

But now, thanks to a tip off from someone on youtube, the clip is online. For me it's the Holy Grail of online videos, not because it's the funniest or best but because of the rarity and historical value.

Watch it or don't watch it. Choose. But choose wisely.

Late Night Homecoming from janeway529 on Vimeo.

For context, Conan explains the significance of this interview and what it meant to him and his career here (starting at 3:40).

Jimmy Fallon : WTF

WHAT... IN.... THE ..... WORLD?!

Or should I say, "WHERE... IN THE... WORLD?!"

Either way, I just don't know.

Fun With Area Codes

It has become tradition that within the intro theme song of "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" the Roots insert the current episode number. Starting with (I think) episode #209 they started adding something else - they also say the city which has that number as its area code. So, #209 was "2-0-9 Modesto!" and show #210 went, "2-1-0 San Antonio!".

Tonight is significant. Tonight is episode #215 - my area code. Ought to be interesting to see if my town gets a shout out.

Late Night: Boring Interview

Coincident with my previous post which centers on quiet boredom, Jimmy Fallon and Ted Danson decide to reprise the famous (infamous) "Whittle Interview" with a new "Boring Interview". It's very much an "art piece" but I think it works. I like it.

Tip: Double click the clip to watch un-embedded so that you get the full wide-screen.

Boring Interview

Spring and Harry Kalas

"Yet seemed it winter still, and you away,
As with your shadow I with these did play." - Sonnet 98

By calendar, the first day of Spring happens on between March 19th and March 23rd ever year. And yet for me the exact day of Spring has no set appointment. Spring begins on a Saturday afternoon when it's 70 degrees out and sunny. It's warm but not hot and it's the first day you open the windows and let the occasional breeze sift through the house. The best thing on tv is baseball. But not just baseball, pre-season baseball. If one were to take everything boring about the game of baseball and then subtract from that all the excitement, would you would be left with would be pre-season baseball. Calling the game is Harry Kalas. His rich baritone and the humming white noise of the non-crowd suggest that it might feel good to rest your eyes for a bit... Slipping back into consciousness again after an indeterminate amount of time, it's the 6th inning... Harry Kalas: "Walked 'im..." and Dave Hollins strolls lazily to first base. Nothing to see here, eyes closed once again...

And so it was... the exact moment when Spring had begun for the year, every year. And every year, every single detail - aside from Dave Hollins - could be counted on and looked back upon in each of the specific instances from last year, to being a teenager in high school to being 8 years old watching with my dad.

When Harry Kalas passed away last year, people said his voice was the soundtrack to their Summer. These weren't just kind words, they were the literal truth. When people said, "It won't be Summer without Harry" it was just an expression, it is the exact predicament I find myself in. How do I feel that Spring is here?

"Well," I figured, "if I could find a clip on the internet of sufficient mundanity and length, I could watch it as self-therapy and link it for others." But, alas, to the best of my internet searching skills, no such clip exists. There are tons of Harry Kalas tributes, there's Harry calling Mike Schmidt's 500th homerun, there's Harry making the calling 2008 World Series call, etc. Those are not just good, they're great but they're the essence of Fall, not Spring. I need a clip of Harry making calls when nothing is on the line and nothing significant happens. I need the sound of sweet monotony, when everything is completely ordinary in every way, when Harry's voice is the aural equivalent of a hammock with a sinky middle and a glass of lemonade on the ground.

Here's hoping that sometime before next year someone uploads old Phillies game footage which is completely ordinary in every way. Until then it won't be the same. We may spend 99% of our lives avoiding the dull, avoiding the monotonous, alleviating boredom, and yet here I am wishing it back - at least in this small measure. I think it's because it offers some comforting illusions that become increasingly rare as one gets older. Hearing Harry Kalas call baseball on lazy, sunny Saturday afternoons, life isn't hard, life is easy. Things don't change, things basically stay the same. Life isn't short, life is long. Time doesn't move fast, time moves slow... if at all.

MARCH MADNESS

It's March Madness time again and it feels good. Other than Christmas this just be my favorite time of the year. Time to fill out the brackets and watch them all get blown up for great justice.

Click on the image below for the brackets:

Here are my picks:

First Round Winners:

Dog Plays Dead

Dog Says I Love You

Dog Spins on Applause

Dog Trims Tree (Upset)

Bug Eyed Lady

Woman Spits Gum, Sucks It Back

Lady Scratches Eyeballs (Upset)

and Man Squirts Milk Out Of Eye advances easily.

Round Two Winners

Dog Says I Love You (Upset)

Dog Trims Tree

Woman Spits Gum, Sucks It Back over Bug Eyed Lady in a huge upset

Man Squirts Milk Out Of Eye

Final Round:

Dog Says I Love You vs. Woman Spits Gum, Sucks It Back

Champion: Woman Spits Gum, Sucks It Back

As you can tell, this year I thought I would go out on a limb and take a few chances here but as I always say, "Go big or go home."

Vote for a new matchup each day here.

JAZZERCISE...

Last night the Late Show had Snoop Dogg on to do a Top Ten list ("Top Ten Things That Sound Cool When Spoken By Snoop Dogg").

Typical "Top Ten" list. Not really anything to write home about. I'm still embedding it here because the first minute of the clip shows Dave in the midst of tweeting. But it reminded me of possibly the best "Top Ten" list of all-time.... "Top Ten Things That Sound Romantic When Spoken By Barry White".

Observe:

One of the best Top Ten concepts ever. It doesn't matter how many times I see the clip, I ALWAYS laugh at #10 and #9. Classic, classic, classic.

Jimmy Kimmel on Letterman; Twitter

Jimmy Kimmel was a guest on Letterman last night and it delivered exactly what I was hoping for: a discussion on the "Jay Leno Scandal".

The whole interview was funny and quite entertaining though. Last night felt like it should be called "The Twitter Show" as Dave fired up his "twitter machine" and sent tweets all throughout the night. Not during commercials though - he would be talking to a guest, go silent, turn around to the other side of his desk, hunch over the keyboard and type right in the middle of an interview. I almost feel like I subscribe to his tweets just by watching the show. The following were tweeted during the show:

2400 dollars for a wax figure? Hell, I got that on me. Ha Ha!

1:18 PM Mar 16th via web

"My nephew done ate six pieces of chicken already"

1:03 PM Mar 16th via web

"Everything's in slow motion"

12:52 PM Mar 16th via web

Testing. Testing!

12:49 PM Mar 16th via web

He has problems with slow typing though. Apparently they got him a left-handed keyboard.

Classic Roots Choice #18

Jason Sudekis - And The Roots play "Young Chuck Norris".

[Video Deleted]

Maybe not that obscure but still, when The Roots play it, it's awesome.

An interesting event happens tonight, (Tuesday) David Letterman welcomes Jimmy Kimmel to his show. Ought to be somewhat interesting since they're competitors and both talk show hosts.

Movie Title

Short description about a soon-to-be-released movie and my expectations. Reaction to the trailer.

Invitation to watch the trailer:

Final thoughts.

Classic Roots Choice #17

There have been a number of walk-on songs which were gray areas as to whether they deserved a blog post. For instance, Mike Meyers was on Friday night's show and the Roots played the "Halloween" theme (Mike Meyers/Halloween, yeah).

But the guest after Mike Meyers made it a "no brainer". Matt Lucas, of Little Britain fame was on to promote "Alice in Wonderland". For him, The Roots played "The Peanut Song" (unofficial title).

If you haven't seen heard it on the youtubes, it goes a little something like this:

Yes, it's just that stupid. That is one hot backing track.

It's possible they "cheated" and just did a youtube search for possible songs. But if not, I am extremely impressed. I'm a fan of "Little Britain" and, by extension, Matt Lucas, and I was only barely aware of this clip so if they genuinely knew about it, my hat is off to them... again.

Saved By The Bell: OUT. California Dreams: IN.

It's officially been over a year since Jimmy Fallon began hosting "Late Night" and for most of that time his dream has been to finally reunite the cast of "Saved By The Bell". He has failed and admitted defeat. But now, his new dream is to reunite the cast of the NBC Saturday morning show "California Dreams".

The attempt was not without controversy and not without a shirtless dude. Also, with the "California Dreams" reunion, I expected a great time at the beach... sans Mr. Belding... Let's watch...

Can I make a suggestion? The next show reunion needs to be, absolutely HAS TO BE the NBC Saturday morning show "Hang Time". Make it happen.

"SKEEZAS DISSIN' HOMEY SCRUBS!"

"CHICKEN HEEEAAAAADD!!!!!!!!"

Cranberry Saaaucccce

President and CEO of Toyota Akio Toyoda apologizes to the American people and David Letterman. But it raises more questions than it answers.

The video is not embeddable but you can see it here.

LATE - Episode II

I don't know if you've been watching the new drama "Late" but you should be. Jimmy Fallon stars in this nail-biter about a group of strangers whose elevator crashes on a strange and deserted floor. The first episode was kind of so-so but this second episode has me hooked.

We Are the World War II

The comments in my original post on "We are the World" parodies reminded me of Conan's own version. Unlike other benefit songs which help out people in Haiti or people in Africa, etc., Conan decided to go another direction: why limit yourself to just one cause or even just one region ... or even just one species? How about making a song that helps out people and animals with general problems in a general way?

This is from the earlier days when Carl "Oldie" Olsen was still around/alive. Now, HE'S a big star who I was surprised to see.

I believe that next internet meme may be the Sting facepalm.

We Are the World?... Really?

The cold open to this week's SNL pokes fun at the new "We Are the World". I actually haven't even seen the new one. I didn't even know it was released.

Like I said, I haven't seen the new one, so I don't know if the parody is accurate but I'm thinking it is. It isn't so much that there was a lack of effort or that stars just don't care about charity, it's that there aren't any stars anymore. Sounds weird to say, sounds like a stupid "things aren't like the old days", but think about it, who's the modern day equivalent of Michael Jackson? Who are the people that if you got them all in a room you would say, "I can't believe they got all these big names in one room, this is unbelievable!". Puff Daddy? Eminem? Black Eyed Peas? HA! At the moment I can't think of any group of modern-day pop musicians that would impress me.

Back in the day, SNL spoofed the original "celebrity cause anthem" trend by doing a pro-free-range chicken song called "Set the Chickens Free". There was one while after that that sought to explain the Whitewater scandal. Those were classics. I hope someone gets them on the internet sometime.