Conan Says Farewell

 

It's the "end of an era" or whatever... I don't know.

If you'd like to see the remote where Conan met his wife, it's this one:

The Song Remains the Same Review

 

According to him, the highlight is "Dazed and Confused" but for me, it's "No Quarter." And I forgot all about the gangster shootout - I always skip to the music.

RedLetterMedia Makes It Onto 3 Emmy Ballots

RedLetterMedia reports that they have made it onto 3 Emmy Ballots. 

I don't know the full process of how people are nominated and how those nominees are whittled down or anything. I expect they probably won't be a finalist even though they're better than the other nominees.

The Best of the Worst episode that's up for nomination is the Halloween episode. You can see that here:

Interestingly, the Half in the Bag nomination doesn't list a specific episode. That doesn't make sense to me but like I said, I'm no expert.

Never Been Kissed

"Never Been Kissed." Have you seen this movie, I mean, have you SEEN this?

I had never seen this movie. I vaguely remember when it came out and I never saw it on tv reruns or at a friend's house or anything. I recently decided to check it out since it stars Mike Stoklasa and Rich Evans.

This movie is insane. It's not of this world. It's like aliens tried to make a romantic comedy using fragments of knowledge gleaned from watching other movies, not knowing how human society actually functions. It's like the latter works of Adam Sandler if they were filled with real actors. "Adam Sandler" is probably the best way I can describe it - it's like no one in the movie acts like a real person and nothing that happens would really happen. It's like a dream.

I was completely unable to watch this movie in one sitting, which is not as bad as it sounds. See, I watched it in 10 minute increments across many days as if it was a fantastic tv series and I didn't want to run out of episodes. Many days I wouldn't watch it at all because I didn't want it to end. And 10 minutes was about all I could take at any given time before my head would explode. Nothing in this movie made sense to me and I was completely entertained.

I wanted to know, is it just me, was I in a weird mood, is it just the era of the 90s? I mean, I don't remember specifically, but I remember this being a standard 90s movie. If I watched "Edtv" or "Miss Congeniality" will they all be like this? I'm almost afraid to find out. What did Roger Ebert say? Roger Ebert gave this a positive review! I'm so lost.

There isn't a "How Did This Get Made" episode about this movie but there needs to be.

Old Man Cries at Clouds

 

I've gone down the rabbit hole of "People Seeing Color for the First Time" videos. Youtube keeps suggesting and I keep clicking. In case you haven't seen them, there are two rules: 1) it's (almost) always a man and 2) they always cry "get emotional".

This guy telling everyone how much of a tough guy he is is perfect... a little too perfect. But I don't want to be cynical. I have to assume it's genuine.

The idea of crying at the blue of a sky or the green of the grass is so novel that it's entertaining. But I suspect (and it can only be a suspicion) that they are correct and it's the rest of us who are wrong. But it does seem impossible to reverse world-weariness. It's very difficult to not take things for granted when we so lack the imagination to picture them being any other way

A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. - G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

RLM - Looking Back at The Jerry Springer Show

 

I'm still waiting on the definitive study of the Daytime Talk Show Era. Well, for all I know it's already been written but I don't know of one. It was such a cultural phenomenon - it was so a product of its time as well as a huge influence of its time.

It was very much a democratization of television. Whereas experts and authorities can be seen throughout the history of television, daytime talk shows showed everyday people both in the guests of the show and especially in the studio audience's asking questions and making comments.

But it was also a democratization or crowdsourcing of morality. Is it right for a couple to have a threesome? Well, let's ask a group of people. If enough people yell or boo the person on stage, I guess it's a bad thing. If enough people applaud after "you need to get a real man!" it must be right. As politically incorrect as all the shows were, it was the very definition of political correctness - morality based on popular appeal.

It was also post-modernism. The guy on stage would say "I'll sleep with whoever I want!" and would say it with complete certainty but the girl in the crowd yelling "You can't cheat on your wife!" would be just as sure. It would take about one or two "Why?" questions to completely break either of their arguments but fortunately that never happened on these kinds of shows. Your argument has emotion, no need to bring thinking into this.

They could also be contrasted with today in the fact that people of that era still held debate and discussion dear. You have a point of view, I disagree, let's talk about it. People don't value discussion anymore, there is even a rising belief that discussion is counter-productive.  The Jerry Springer Show's transition from people talking to people talking for a while and then fighting to people coming out of the green room and fighting immediately was prophetic in some ways of how society was progressing.

The "Mister T" Show That Never Was

 There is a "Hanna-Barbera Fanon Wiki" dedicated to "Mister T: The Animated Series" which is the sequel to the 80s cartoon "Mister T". There are descriptions of the characters, the theme song, a cast list and synopses for every episode of its 7 season run.

The interesting thing about this, of course, is that none of it is true. It's all made up.

A few episodes worth highlighting:

• Season 2, Episode 19 which is based on Robert Klein's first HBO Special.
• "Mystery of the TV Attack" in which David Letterman guest stars.
• "Mystery of the Crazy Man" - Mr. T and the team find themselves helping Jerry Seinfeld when he is attacked by a crazy man. Who is responsible for this?
• Episode 88 "Mystery of the Innocent Man" based on the O.J. Simpson trial.
• Episode 127 "Mystery of the News Network" - Rachel Maddow calls Mr. T and the team for help when a string of sabotages occurs at MSNBC. Could the guys at Fox News be behind this?
• Episode 154 "Mystery of the Chemistry Teacher" - Mr. T and the team join forces with the Clue Club when a chemistry teacher is acting suspiciously. It turns out, he is making meth for the purpose of providing money for his family. Can the team convince him to give himself up before it too late?
• And on, and on.

Also worth noting the "Controversy" section. 

The show generated controversy for some mysteries revolving around murder, attempted murder, prostitution, attacks, and other things that would not usually be suitable for a children's show.

LGIO - The Weave

 In this episode, Mr. Let's Game It Out plays Satisfactory, which I think looks to be right up my alley, and invents a concept called "The Weave."

Enjoy.

The Band on Ed Sullivan

 

A couple things here. I'm glad that videos like this, which I've never been able to see before, are being uploaded and in such high quality. That's exciting. But, man, the acoustics of the Ed Sullivan Theater are terrible. And who shoots a musical performance entirely in close-up? In the words of Jack Packard, "How about you get some wides?"

JonTron - The Juiceman Jay Kordich

 

This isn't JonTron's strongest work but the subject is strong. There was an era there where I was watching the Juiceman informercial on a regular basis. 

The one I loved most isn't covered in the video and I haven't found it on youtube either. The one I was obsessed with was the one in a seminar-like setting where he's basically delivering a juice sermon and excitedly getting in people's faces. He was kind of a proto-Don Beveridge. This clip is the closest thing I can find to give you some of the idea:

I loved his infomercials so much I used to juice with my grandfather's juicer, and then later I'd do it with my dad and I own a juicer to this day. I really should use it more. I also need to learn more about that master class. I will pay that tuition if I can obtain some sort of official rank in the Juiceman hierarchy.

Tribal People Watch Bob Ross

 

Diet Soda

 
In college I was made aware of a study that had one group drink regular soda for a certain amount of time and another group drink diet soda. At the end of the study they had found that the people drinking the regular soda had lost more weight (or gained less weight, I don't remember) than the people drinking diet soda. I remember thinking it was an interesting example of experiment proving counter-intuitive results.

One of the ways the apparent paradox could be explained is psychologically - yes, the diet soda is technically better but people are prone to thinking "I'm drinking the diet soda so I might as well have two slices of pizza" etc. and in the end they ruin the gainz.

Aside from thinking it was a fascinating experiment, it never had much effect on my life because I just don't see the point in drinking diet soda. 

Fast forward to today.

Recently I ordered caffeine-free coke and what actually got delivered was caffeine-free diet coke. As someone who drinks caffeine-free coke this is an annoyingly common occurrence. I don't know what it is but for some reason people confuse the two with reckless abandon. To me, diet coke is cheap swill but I didn't want to be wasteful and also figured I'd re-check my assumptions.

To my surprise, I've found it to be a tastier beverage than I had anticipated but here's the thing... Switching to diet soda and keeping everything else constant, I've found that I'm eating more and the reason I'm eating more is not because I'm lying to myself. I don't count calories and I don't make bargains about what I can eat and what I can't. No, I'm eating because I'm insanely hungry almost all the time now and it's a pretty clear direct relationship to the soda itself.

So, I don't have a scale and haven't measured my weight and so maybe I'm hungrier and eating more but have some how lost more weight than I would have otherwise. I'm not suggesting anything about this experience is purely scientific and, in case you're wondering, some studies have shown diet soda increases appetite though there are conflicting studies. Still, the contrast has been so stark and so surprising, at least in terms of subjective experience, that the conclusion is clear - sugar tastes better than artificial sweetener and I don't enjoy being hungry so it's regular soda or water and that's it.

Late Night - Ghost of Christmas Past

 Sure it's not Christmas but... uh..... I don't know.