Comments

I am surprised that as someone who should not care even a little, I was kind of offended by the Djesus sketch? I mean not really, and IANA(Christian), but I was weirded out by it.. Also, Tippy goes right into the hopper with Gilly and that other Kristin Wiig one-upswomanship character for me, so dislike. And of course Regine. Booooooo to you, Regine. Wasn't there some Fred Armisen sketch a million years ago where he and someone were off-putting characters because they lived in a stark white apartment and liked cutting edge art and such? They could bring that back, if they need an off-putting Fred Armisen character. On a positive note, Alabama Shakes and the aforementioned Kate McKinnon update thing were great!

Found a couple embarrassing bugs in the product (again), had to sit through a 2 hour "all hands" meeting, but one that was surprisingly informative and suggests that we might start doing things right, and now I have to leave work to go to other work (but we celebrated last night so that's fine) before heading out for drinks with 2nd job co-workers. Only one more work day before a friend's wedding on Saturday at which there will be Seriously Top Notch Food (Chicagogum: Uncommon Ground) and a Universal Life Church wedding officiant. So things are looking up?

My birthday is sometimes on Thanksgiving (like last year). It's not generally a problem, and as a small child there was a pretty epic birthday party game of "pin the feathers on the turkey". That turkey is the only thing I've known my dad to ever draw, other than a circuit diagram. It has to be somewhere in my parent's house still (because holy hoarders episode) and it's a 4 foot square turkey, in crayon, on a giant piece of brown cardboard.

So pretty much those goats were ROBBED. ROBBED I tell you. It's a good thing the office clears out at 5, because it's not great to lose your shit watching goat videos in an office full of people. Who admittedly already think I'm a weirdo, but still.

I had some focus group 6 months ago where we were shown some 85 minute version of the pilot, about which I was kind of "meh", and then I didn't watch it when it premiered, and so good story. However I did have a direct criticism that probably made the rest of the people in the room think I was a weirdo, which was, if you are going to have a dramatic music montage scene in the first episode of your TV show about how things are So 80s, YOU CAN'T deploy [mildest of spoilers] your Phil Collins-Miami Vice song that early. It's the epitome of crappy 80's action montage songs, thanks to Michael Mann. Using it so early is more than a little on the nose for a show that wants to be all reference-y. It could also be that I was being unreasonable and literally nobody else thinks that.

I have an idea...how about a Californians GAME SHOW you guys! Also, the monologue was funny, and I did not like "Glice" very much, I am sorry everyone. Please bring back Lord Cecil Wyndemere for all of the "awkward boyfriend" sketches. Oh, Paul Brittain, do you still think you made a good career move, now that your impending (singular) credit is "Male Cheerleader" in "Grown Ups 2"?

I think we probably have to wait an episode to see if that's the case. It's my hope that this episode was playing up the whole "people are going to be totally watching to see if it's different, so let's make it obviously different to poke fun at folks' obsessiveness, and then we can dial it back and make episodes of Community again" thing If that's a thing. I'm going to hope it's a thing. Also, I would have ALMOST have preferred a straight up soap-opera recast of Fred Willard into the Pierce role, rather than just having him in Abed's brain. And also, since when are Community Colleges 4 year institutions anyway? Aren't they getting Associates Degrees? What is this world coming to?

The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil is...a novella, I guess?

You guys are missing the most important part which is that George Saunders has a new book out and it is AMAZING. And, but, however, if you are feeling a little bit sad about the week, and want to relax with a good book, perhaps this is not the week for that book? I mean buy it, because George Saunders is a genius, but do not read it for a pick me up! He must have rejected the title "Further Disturbing Stories by Me that are about a version of this world we live in that is tilted like 11 degrees to one side and somehow depicts some sort of weird hyper-reality that touches my readers more directly than some glum Joyce Carol Oates stories ever could or whatever". Apologies to Joyce Carol Oates, and also, TGIF, can't wait for the hand-crafted ceramic whiskey jug art show opening and whiskey tasting tonight, woohoo!

I am annoyed that Mr. Jonny Greenwood seems to have gotten screwed regarding his score for The Master, just like last time with There Will Be Blood. http://www.vulture.com/2012/09/will-the-masters-score-be-oscar-snubbed.html seems pretty prescient, 4 months later. So next time, Jonny, make SUPER sure that not one note of music you use to score a PT Anderson movie has ever been used or recorded elsewhere, even a little, assuming you care about this sort of thing. I thought it was a great score.

There is this fascinating thing about Carver, in that his editor Gordon Lish is VERY MUCH the reason he's regarded as a sparse super minimalist. Lish cut the total word count in those stories by 40% to 70% ! And then the "restored" version was released a couple years ago so depending on how much of a project you want to make it, reading the alternate versions could be interesting. Here is one of the one million articles about the whole thing. http://www.themillions.com/2010/02/its-all-right-to-cry-restoring-raymond-carvers-voice.html Also I don't have a dog, but I love bassets. There is a fun "benched' dog show in Chicago coming up in February. This means you can wander around "backstage" and meet all the great dogs. I live vicariously through other people's dogs a little bit.

I think she's one of the few entertaining characters on that show, but holy cats was she bad at being interviewed by Letterman last month. Full on icky "Dave thinks this girl is dumb and she is not helping her own cause' territory.

Six maybe? Upvoted anyway.

What's that movie where the guy assembles his arsenal of fearsome weapons right before the climactic battle? I think it had maybe Arnold Schwarzenegger or Dolph Lundgren or Steven Seagal?

That's DEFINITELY what I logged out of facebook to log in here to post, and I DEFINITELY would have screwed up the whole including the image thing. So. Good job saving me actually finding the picture.

Pshhh, he is not a super great piano player. Neither am I, and even I could play the World's Easiest Beethoven Sonatina in G when I was like ten, and I never practiced more than half and hour a day. Plus, nice vest. So, feel free to Not be Favorably Inclined to him. There must be better prodigies out there somewhere, right?

Guys, guys, I was TOTALLY in a musical. This is a little something called "He's Packing His Trunk".