It's a Trainwreck

Every week at SNL, the writers and cast put together hours worth of material- way more than can fir in the allotted time. Then, Saturday night, everything gets put into the dress rehearsal, and an hour's worth of sketches- anything that doesn't work in front of the audience- is cut right before showtime.

This video is from the Justin Bieber-hosted dress rehearsal, with a sketch that was way too bizarre for the audience of "prepubescent girls" that had come to see Bieber. It's decent, not great (though the Back to the Future line at the end caught me completely off guard). What really makes this video worth your time, though, is the commentary that Bill Hader and the writers give, explaining just how awfully the sketch went:

...You Know What I Mean?

I can't say what I love so much about this:

A Modern Roundabout... For John

As the fear of Cheyenne's Pershing /Converse Ave Roundabout starts to become a reality... many of us are left terrified to use this intersection... but the Cheyenne Metropolitan Planning Organization (who knew this even existed!!!! I sure didn't!) is here to help.

What is a modern roundabout???

Accoridng to CMPO "A ‘modern’ roundabout is a circular intersection that provides a safer and more efficient operation than standard traffic signal controlled intersections. Traffic speeds entering a roundabout are typically 15 to 20 mph. Roundabouts move traffic safely and efficiently through an intersection because: lower speeds (15-25 mph). Fewer Traffic Conflicts (8 versus 32),Easy Decision Making."

That's right! Easy decision making!!!! Unless you are unsure if you should be in the out side lane or the inside lane... and do you yield when entering the roundabout or when you leave the roundabout... and what happens if there is a pedestrian!?!?!?!

Now if you are paralyzed with fear don't worry... there is an interactive, role playing video available for you from the CMPO! You can choose to be a car, a commercial vehicle, a pedestrian a bicycle, or even and emergency worker (just don't let you boss catch you making siren noises while you are playing)!!!!

Watch This Video – Roundabout At 19th St/Converse Ave/E. Pershing Blvd (you'll need to open this in internet explorer)

Now I'm not sure that there will only be four cars on the roundabout at any given time (as the video portrays)... and I think one of my favorite parts is the instruction on how NOT to use a roundabout!

But ready or not here it comes! Check out the CMPO's Roundabout Page and learn what to do and not to do in a roundabout!

Two Sketches... One Person

I ran across this online... I'm sure several people have. Being a woman who has self image issues this really struck home. Below is a project done by Dove on how women percieve themselves... I find it fasicinating and it gave me so much the think about. It's something maybe a little more "serious" than what we normally post... but something that I wanted to share!

 

Sure, but... Mad Men, Am I Right?

Among the best jobs that I can imagine, television critic is up there. One of the most respected critics out there, Alan Sepinwall, explains how his job has gone from casually watching the three or four major networks to a constant barrage of quality television. One telling portion talks about how many shows are now on cable (and not the five major networks):

In 2007, there were 42 original dramas and 17 comedies. By last year, that number had ballooned to 77 original dramas and 48 comedies. And in the first four months of 2013 alone, there have been 34 dramas and 19 comedies. And that's on top of everything that ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC and the CW are doing. That pace will slow down somewhat as we shift into summer, but I'd still expect 2013 to top the 2012 numbers, and to keep rising. Netflix is making its own original shows now, and releasing all the episodes at once. Amazon has pilots in development. The amount of television expanding, but so is our definition of what counts as "television."
 

It's a good point- in the last few years, I've certainly gone from knowing at least something about any show people talk about, to sounding like my parents (What's the name of that show? Do we get that channel? How come I've never heard of it?)

You can read the whole thing here.

Friday Video

Okay. That's funny.

Roger Ebert

Three links for the recently deceased Roger Ebert:

The Onion's fantastic Roger Ebert Hails Human Existence as 'A Triumph';

An short essay written after 'Knowing', the another Nicolas Cage movie that got worse the more you thought about it;

Roger's rememberance of Gene Siskel.

Who needs sleep???

It's not like I didn't already have a very full list of things I'm terrified of....

Sigh. 

"Hi.  I'm the size of your face!!"

New Species Of Giant Tarantula Discovered...omg.

And so are TJ and Dave

This week's Radiolab is a conversation with TJ Jagodowski and Dave Pasquesi, two of the nation's best improvisors. They do a weekly show at one of Chicago's best improv theaters in which the two of them build a two-man, hour-long play out of nothing. The discussion centers around how they deal with that level of uncertainty each week, and how they are able to provide such a high quality show despite that uncertainty. If you have fifteen minutes, it's well worth a listen.

...That It Be Totally Believeable

If things have been slow here, it's because the May Ozy scripts are being written now, or at least they should be. One of the things I really like about our process is the way our scripts are seen as a rough draft. From the night we share them until show night (and sometimes the next show night,) we constantly move things around, add jokes, take out lines that aren't working. It's all about collaboration and feeding off of each other.

Looking at someone else's process is always interesting to me- seeing where we're the same, what we can steal, what we excel at- but this may be, if you'll excuse the reference you don't know I'm making for another five seconds, the Holy Grail of seeing someone else's process.

Some kind, brilliant soul recorded the 1978 planning sessions between Kasdan, Lucas, and Spielberg for Raiders of the Lost Ark, and a transcript is available online. It'll take me a while to get through- it's 90 pages- but it's a great read.

Lucas — There's also the thing you can do which is your famous "Jaws", or what I call the hand on the shoulder trick, which is not only skeletons, but we can have skeletons that aren't that old, they just have drawn skin all over them, that are lurking in the shadows.

 

Spielberg — Falling into their arms. A skeleton comes out of the cobwebs, and just embraces the guy. The guy eases him to the ground.

 

Lucas — At the more tense moments in that whole thing. We'll work on that more specifically. Anyway, he goes through a series of really spooky scary things.

 

Spielberg — What we're just doing here, really, is designing a ride at Disneyland. 

Kareem's Insight

According to IMDb, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has appeared in 147 different TV shows and movies (He was a suspect on Mannix in '71!) That's as good an entrance as any, I suppose, to have a monthly entertainment column in Esquire magazine. Some lines from the first two columns:

I was a teenager when I first read Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If”

One of the best models for male behavior in shows aimed at teens is ABC Family’s Bunheads, which features a group of ballet students and their charming teacher.

And that makes Django [Unchained] melodrama, not literature. It offers no insights, only the most familiar observations.

I have a vast collection of Wild West paraphernalia and have read extensively on the era.

Goes to show you can't judge a book by his purple-and-gold cover.

Casting the Justice League

As successful as the Avengers was, DC Comics (and parent Warner Bros) are desperate to get a Justice League movie off the ground. Unfortunately, for every step forward they make (The Dark Knight) they take a step back (Green Lantern). High, high hopes have been put on this summer's Man of Steel, and Henry Cavill (Superman) is signed on for a JL movie. Warner Bros is including Christopher Nolan in the planning, though that has been seen as an attempt to get Christian Bale to come back as Batman.

Frankly, I think they should hold out there and do a World's Finest movie before continuing on, but that's not how Marvel did it, so neither will DC. The next problem, then, is what to do about Green Lantern. On the positive side, there are a couple different Earth-based Green Lanterns, and a JL movie could use any of them. Hitfix has a gallery of suggestions, the best of which is Idris Elba as John Stewart, though his part in the next Thor movie may exclude him from consideration. Maybe Jason Clarke as Guy Gardner?

I may spend too much brainpower on these things.

The Buck Stops....um....somewhere.

I cannot wait for The Lifetime Network to get to work on this political drama.

Dept. Of Education Problems? Shocking....

Sitcom March Madness

For the past few weeks, Vulture has been running a bracket to determine the best sitcom of the past 30 years. This morning they declasred a winner. Before you see who that winner was, take a minute and run through the 4 rounds they set up, and come up with your own opinion:

Cheers
The Office

Arrested Development
South Park

Friends
Golden Girls

Roseanne
Malcolm in the Middle

Cosby Show
Simpsons

Larry Sanders Show
Community

Sex and the City
30 Rock

Seinfeld
Louie

BA in Comedy

Damn....

If I were only 18 again.

Take a listen:

http://wgnradio.com/2013/03/17/comedy-studies-degree-with-columbia-college-and-second-city/

There is an agreed upon game

This will be longer than most, but explains what improv is all about very nicely, if you're interested in reading that sort of thing.

A book that I'm reading (More Baths, Less Talking) mentions a book the author is reading (The Conversations) which talks about a game called Negative Twenty Questions.There's a long excerpt from it, and a description of how it relates to improv, after the jump (Click on Read more):

The Real Happily Ever After

After Ever After.....
This made me just giggle... not that I'm looking to hate on happily ever after... but this is brilliant!  Enjoy and HAPPY FRIDAY!!!!  

I Can't Go On Forever, And I Don't Really Want To Try

Alex Trebek has been hosting Jeopardy! since 1984, and it only makes sense that at some point he would be interested in not hosting Jeopardy!. Trebek has made clear that time will be 2016, when his latest contract with Sony expires.

But there's money to be made with Jeopardy!, so the search has begun for someone to play Ryan Seacrest to Trebek's Dick Clark. The New York Post says the front runner is Matt Lauer, whose contract on Today will be over by then. I imagine the contestant interviews being five minutes of Lauer saying, "Wow, you're smart," over and over.

A better choice would be Anderson Cooper, who the Post says is runner-up. Not mentioned? Ken Jennings, who would be the obvious choice in my mind. When you win 74 straight, you inherit the Chocolate Factory, pure and simple.

Conan Hates Elitists

Old School Public Service Message

Buckle up Wyoming...