Conan Is Here

That was fun.

Thanks to NBC11, I was able to avoid the massive line that stretched from the Orpheum Theater to, apparently, the Ferry Building (or so it seemed) and instead just had to stand around in the "V.I.P" area of the theater for an hour. An area that had a bar that was, alas, closed, although it was fully stocked, and just sitting there, taunting us. The seats for this particular group of V.I.P.s were on the mezzanine level which, while not the floor, were still pretty good and allowed full view of the action.

It was a tight show, and it's always amusing to see what goes on when it's commercial time. The band plays, lots of people wander around the stage, and Conan just kind of mills about, at least when he didn't have Dana Carvey sitting next to him. They had some technical difficulties with the fake San Francisco backdrop (which was a video image of the skyline) so it will be interesting to see how they cover that, if at all, in tonight's broadcast. I won't give away too much about the show, but there's a pretty funny video bit taken around the City, as well as a little cameo as featured in the above picture. You can guess the joke...

Hopefully I'll be able to attend Friday's taping, which would be great--taking in both the opening and closing night shows, how very circular. I'll keep you posted. And if you want to freeze your TiVos and look for me in the crowd shots, like I said, I'm on the mezzanine level, in the middle, wearing a red sweatshirt. And a rainbow wig.

Photo copyright 2007/Dana Edelson/NBC

Karma

This week's reality TV locals post is now up on SFist.

Today's my Conan day, and I'll be leaving for the show in a couple of hours. I'm not sure if I'll be posting about it on SFist or not (someone else might) but if I don't, I'll be sure to post a rundown here as soon as possible! In either case, be sure to watch the show tonight at 12:30!

But You ARE In That Chair!

On Friday I dined once again at the Nob Hill Cafe, this time with the full intention of sitting near the twins and eavesdropping. Things worked out perfectly, and we were seated right behind them. I wasn't quite close enough to hear what they were talking about, but my friends were, and man, oh man. What you think in your wildest dreams that those two sisters would talk about after a few glasses of wine is, indeed, what they talk about. And fight about.

"I could have had a baby!"
"Oh sure, you WOULD want something like that, wouldn't you??"

"When you're gone, that's it for me. That's it."

"I just want to see this tiramiSUUUUUUU they keep talking about!!"

Truly awesome. I highly recommend it. Go on a Tuesday or Friday around 7, and request a table in the room away from the kitchen. It's the real San Francisco treat.

In the Year 2007

I've got a post up on SFist about the Conan O'Brien show coming to SF next week. I snagged a "VIP" ticket for Monday's taping, and I'm pretty excited about going, although when I heard about the guests they've got scheduled for other shows, I got kind of jealous. I know, I know, beggars can't be choosers and all that. But still!

Couches Will Be Leaped In a Single Bound

Here's a kind of interesting article about the supposed similarities between last night's episode of "Heroes" and the comic book "Watchmen."

I took two things away from it. First, I'm pretty tired of Tim Kring's pulling out the "I don't even read comics!" card every time something like this comes up (although in all fairness, they couldn't actually get him to comment on this article). We all know if he wasn't reading comics back when he first created the show, he's at least glanced at some since.

And secondly, Tom Cruise as Ozymandias?

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

[via TV Tattle]

Bevin? Will You Accept This Tacky Timepiece?

This week's reality TV locals post is now up on SFist!

I can't believe it's already Monday.

This Is Garry Shandling's Face, Garry Shandling's Scary Face

Quick! If you didn't watch the Letterman show last night, go over to their Web site and click on the show highlight featuring Garry Shandling. He has had some of the worst plastic surgery I've ever seen. It even looks like he has trouble opening his mouth wide enough to speak.

What is wrong with these people?!

Stop It. NOW.

In the past two days, as part of my job, I have had to look at over 1,000 different Web pages, and I have come to the conclusion that anyone who creates a Web page--be it on MySpace, or an entire Web site for some band, or even a lame little Angelfire page (who knew those still existed?)--and has it play any kind of music automatically when it loads, well, those people should be banned from the Internet.

Permanently.

You Bastards!

I was incredibly bored by last night's "Lost," and I'm not entirely sure why.

I was hopeful during it's first few minutes when --SPOILER ALERT!--Charlie got that arrow through the neck. But then it turned out to be a fake-out, so it was really NOT A SPOILER, and I groaned and the episode went on, and I found myself staring at my toenails, realized they had gotten a little too long, so I trimmed them, and that was a lot more exciting than anything that was going on on screen.

But maybe that's just me.

Bewiched

I just saw Russell from "I'm From Rolling Stone" eating a sandwich with a lady friend at 'wichcraft. Thrilling, no? Perhaps not, but there was something so very meta about seeing a reality TV "star" inside a restaurant that was plugged on a reality show, and features a sandwich created by a contestant on said reality show. If I were braver and a tad more obnoxious, I would have taken a clandestine cameraphone pic. Alas, I am not, and did not.

But speaking of 'wichcraft, I finally decided to give it a try. It has certainly been much maligned since its opening, and every time I walk by, its cavernous space is virtually empty. Having ventured into the mall to pick up a book and, of course a cream puff, (I can't be within the same building as a Beard Papa, and NOT get one!) I realized I could probably use some dinner, and 'wichcraft was on the way to the bus stop, so why not. I got a chicken salad sandwich that's supposed to come on whole grain bread, but they were out of that, so I got it on some kind of "country bread." I opted for a cold sandwich, even though the hot sandwiches were more appealing, because I wasn't going to be eating it there, and was afraid a hot 'wich wouldn't travel well.

The total was over 10 bucks. Just for the sandwich, (well, and the tiny bag of chips that come with it) and while I balked at the price, I reserved judgement until eating. Once I got home, I was a little disappointed to see it wasn't the size of my head, or at least larger than the average sandwich. As for taste, it was...fine. There was way too much pepper on it (although I will admit I am a pepper wimp) but the pickled onions were tasty, the chicken wasn't dry, and the frisse soaked in vinaigrette was a nice alternative to lettuce. But it was not the most amazing sandwich I've ever had, and wasn't even terribly memorable. I'll probably give one of the hot sandwiches a try before writing the place off completely, but I really think they'd do a lot better if they either made the sandwiches just a little bigger, or cut a buck or two off the price.

I Want My Money, Bitch!

As seen everywhere on the Internet right now...



(I embedded the YouTube version because the embedding provided by the site this originally appeared on sucks. But if you want to see it there--the quality is a bit better--here's the link.)

Yau-Man, Will You Accept This Rose?

This week's reality TV locals post is now up on SFist!

I want a sandwich!

Netflix, You're Begining to Piss Me Off!

Way back when Netflix first launched, I joined and cancelled about two months later. I hated that it was taking them days and days to actually ship my movies to me. After about a year, I decided to give them another chance, and for the most part I have had a two-day turn around with their movies (they get the ones I return the day after I send them; they ship to me that day; I get my movie the day after that). But I've had a few instances where they have decided to ship me a movie that's higher in my queue, but from a facility not in California. The last time, one was shipped from Las Vegas, and I got the movie three days after they reported it shipped. This week they decided to send me "Volver," but shipped it from Louisville, Kentucky.

Louisville, Kentucky? Do they even HAVE mail there?

It didn't ship until today, even though they got my return yesterday, and that means I won't be getting it until next week, when normally I try to watch my three-movies-a-week over the weekend, and return them all on Monday. They are throwing a wrench into my weekend plans, here! And to top it all off, it means the movie will come with a return envelope addressed to Kentucky, which means further turn-around time.

But homie don't play that. I'm just going to stuff two movies into one envelope, addressed to San Francisco, and they can deal with getting the movie back to Kentucky themselves. What really bugs me is there's no way to request in your account that you only have movies shipped from your closest vendor. A simple, "I'd rather have movies lower in my queue that are available locally than a movie higher in my queue from non-local facilities." In fact, there's precious little you can change about your account, aside from your mailing address and membership plan, and their "Help" section is totally lame. Don't make me switch to Blockbuster, people!

I'm not going to bother complaining directly to them, though, because I know they have a blacklist file on me already from years ago when I finally did just cancelled my account. I also think that's why they never even bothered to acknowledge receiving my resume when I tried to apply for a job with them about three years ago. ("'Rain Jokinen?' Oh she's that crazy lady that kept complaining about how long her movies were taking to get to her. Uh-uh. No way!"...Cut to a guy shoving my resume into a red return envelope addressed to Anchorage, Alaska.)

Gabba, Gabba, We Accept You

What I liked about this week's episode of "Lost":

-- Finding out why the others kidnapped Claire and what the hell was up with the injections.

-- Learning that Juliet was NOT bumping uglies with Ben.

-- Evil Juliet.

What I didn't like:

-- That we might not actually know why the Others kidnapped Claire and injected her with stuff; it could all be part of Juliet's lie.

-- Jack's continued stubborn ignorance.

-- That Claire did NOT die.

March Round-Up

These round-ups are getting harder to post at the beginning of the month, and I have no idea why. No matter, really, since these aren't really for anyone else but me and my OCD ass, so I don't think I'm disappointing anyone but myself with their lateness.

March was chock full o' nuts, though. And by nuts, I mean fun.

Movies Seen: Fourteen, with two in the theater. Again! For whatever reason, I can't seem to get out and see more than two in a theater a month. One was "Zodiac," which I really enjoyed, but I could tell its audience would be limited. The girl next to me, who obviously didn't know anything about the history of the Zodiac killer, was so prepared to be scared that she kept practically jumping into her boyfriend's lap. Thing is, she was doing this way into the second hour of the movie, and all of the Zodiac killer action takes place in the first 45 minutes or so. I bet she was pretty disappointed when none of that suspense really paid off. Then again, maybe if I didn't know that the killer basically stopped after 1969 and was never caught I would have been able to enjoy some moments of suspense later in the movie, too. As it was, it felt like a really long episode of "Cold Case," or "CSI." Which isn't to say it wasn't enjoyable--I really appreciated Fincher's attention to detail and seeing all the San Francisco locales (including a digitally rendered Embarcadero freeway!) but I don't think it's a movie that lends itself to repeated viewings, and the most common comment I overheard while leaving the theater was "Wow. That could have been shorter!" and, "So, he basically spent 30 minutes of the movie on a dead end?" And I can't say I disagree.

The other film was "The Host," the Korean monster movie. Once again I was presented with a film that could have been truly great if it was about 30 minutes shorter. The beginning is awesome, with the introduction of the monster in full daylight running amok amongst a bunch of picnickers, and a totally amazing moment of mourning that turns into seriously black comedy occurs soon after that. But it eventually felt like the director wanted to do every scene twice, and a film like this needs good pacing. I still think it's worth seeing, but it's not the giant-monster-movie to end all giant-monster-movies.

Books Read: Four. Up a little from last month. I think the most interesting book I read was "Children of Men" by P.D. James. It was interesting in that I was surprised how much better I thought the movie was than the book. They're quite different; the movie is a lot more politically charged in a "see how this compares to life today" kind of way. And while the book and the film share some characters, the movie has them related in vastly different ways. I don't think I'll be spoiling anything by revealing that in the book Julian is the pregnant woman, and she and Theo don't have any previous relationship with each other, and I just thought that felt all wrong. I don't want to say much more without giving too much away to anyone who wants to read the book or see the movie except that the ending of the book lays on the Christ imagery really, really thick, and I found it incredibly cheesy.

The other book which-was-turned-into-a-movie-last-year I read was "Little Children." (Apparently, I will only read books which have been turned in movies if they have the the word "children" in the title. Next up: "Children of the Corn." Although that was just a short story, wasn't it? And besides, I've already read it.) Anyway, "Little Children." I liked it just about as much as I liked the movie, which is to say, not too much.

Fancy Dinners Out: Two. One was just OK, but they have some really good cocktails, and the atmosphere is fun. The other was at an old standby, and was great as always.

Nerd Conventions Attended: One, but for two days. And I think I might face the horror and cringe-inducing nerds again this year by attending the Comic-Con in San Diego in July. Horrors!

Live Shows Seen: Once again, none. Color me "L" for "Loser."

Shoes Bought: None! Wow...how is that possible? I better get to shopping before the month is out!

Andy Barker, D.O.A.

Poor Andy Richter. He just can't win when it comes to sitcoms, can he? His latest, "Andy Barker, P.I.," has been cancelled by NBC. The remaining two episodes will be "burned off" this Saturday night from 8-9pm.

While I didn't think the show was as good as, say, "30 Rock," I still enjoyed it, and felt if given a chance, it could build up a level of lunacy it sorely needed. But it was still better than the likes of ABC's "In Case of Emergency," which, for some unknown reason, is still on the air.

Charades

Larry Birkhead is a baby daddy.

OK. They've proven who the father is and how Anna Nicole died. Now if only her psycho mother would crawl back into her cave so we can finally put an end to this sad and ridiculous drama.

P.S. OF COURSE Larry Birkhead is that kid's father. Look at him. He looks just like her! Then again, he has that unformed look of any infant, so I guess we couldn't base it all on that.

Reality TV Locals: Now Bachelor-Sized!

This week's reality TV "locas" post is now up on SFist, and it includes the addition of "The Bachelor: Officer and a Gentleman." I gave up on the show several seasons ago, but the presence of two local gals compelled me to check it out again. It sucked, as usual, but at least there were some drunken shenanigans, and some genuinely crazy looking women this time around.

Seven Minutes In Heaven

Once again, just in case there's someone out there who hasn't seen this yet, it's that "Sopranos"-in-seven-minutes video.

And some comments from the NY Times.

To Grind Or Not to Grind

Do I need to see "Grindhouse" or not? I know it's going to be both an entertaining and painful experience. For one, it's almost four hours long. I don't care how exciting the movies are, I don't know if I'll be able to stay awake that long. The fact that my fears of Tarantino's film being chock full of his always annoying pop culture reference-spewing characters talking talking talking appear to be valid means I'll most likely be taking my nap during the first half of his movie. So, perhaps, I should be thankful for him giving me the opportunity to sleep.

Also, seeing the thing in a clean, stadium-seating theater just doesn't feel right. Too bad the Strand or St. Francis Theaters on Market Street are closed down. There you could be guaranteed an underlying urine smell, as well as some trenchcoat-wearing patrons throughout the theater. (While junior high-age I took in a showing of "Quadrophenia" at the Strand with some friends, and someone came up to us in the middle of the movie and tried to sell us various personal hygiene goods, like deodorant and hairspray. NO idea what that was about.)

I've also come to the realization that I don't really like Robert Rodriguez that much. I like some of his films a tad more than Tarantino's (or, at least, I find them a tad less annoying) but I still feel they're both nothing but a couple of emotionally-stunted nerds with major woman issues. They both bug. And I find it a shame that Rodriguez's film seems to use so much CGI. Back in the old grindhouse days, if you wanted a chick in your movie to sport a machine gun leg, you'd have to hire an actress with one leg and stick a machine gun on the end of it. Now THAT would be awesome.

But who am I kidding? I may not be there on opening night tonight, but I doubt I'll be able to get through the month without seeing it.

He Finds Hii

This week's reality TV locals post is now up on SFist!

Hiiiiiii!

Fancy!

Hey! Look what happens when you go to MustyTV.com! Snazzy!

No one has to change their bookmarks or feeds or anything. I just decided to finally do something more with the domain name I've owned for years and years and set it to forward here. I haven't the skills or energy to devote to actually creating a real Web site for it quite yet, though. Someday!

A "Talking Like This" Contest

Don't forget, "30 Rock" returns tonight with a new episode, and Will Arnett from "Arrested Development" is a guest star. (And later you can see Tony "Buster" Hale on "Andy Barker, P.I."!)

"30 Rock" is on at a goofy time, 8:44pm, so if you don't have a TiVo and aren't watching the 44-minute long episode of "The Office" beforehand, turn on that TV at 8:43. Just in case.

Six Degrees of Cancellation

Oh, poop. After just two weeks back on the air, ABC has officially cancelled "Six Degrees." Once again, I was really digging this show, even more so with its "revamping," which I thought would doom it. They were finding new ways of connecting the characters; Hope Davis and Campbell Scott finally shared some screen time; and it looked like those two characters were headed towards a possible romance with each other, which would have been perfect. But now, we may never know if that was to pass. I just hope ABC decides to put the remaining episodes up on their Web site.

I've Got to Go Save Jack...Again!

I'm not going to complain about this episode, lest I bother some people, so I will just say that I welcomed the return of the smoke monster, but was initially nervous when Juliet acted like she had never heard of or seen the thing before. Needless to say, I was relieved when she fessed up to the lying about that. One thing, though: Couldn't the monster just, I don't know, float OVER the sonic fence?

So...where did the Others go? And why? And if they've abandoned camp, shouldn't all the Losties just move on in?

Sad...Happy!

I still don't have my PowerBook back here at work (any minute! They promise!) so I have been forced to use a PC all day. I've already cursed the thing a dozen times and had three programs crash on me. PCs are SO AWESOME!

Anyway, here's some brief news of interest: In the sad department, Bob Clark, the director of "A Christmas Story," was killed in a car crash today.

In happy news, "30 Rock" was renewed for a second season!

Me MacBook Got

So, today, my work PowerBook went crazy and suddenly decided it wouldn't let me connect to the Internet in any way, shape or form. I couldn't even access my network settings. It was whack. This time I can't place the blame on myself and my butterfingers; I didn't drop the damn thing, it just...happened. So I had to relinquish it to IT and do without my own computer for the majority of the day.

Which also meant I wouldn't have a computer once I got home, since my iBook still sits sadly in its broken state. NO COMPUTER ALL NIGHT? How could I possibly get through an evening without any Internet access? What am I? An ANIMAL?

So, the temporary loss of my work computer finally drove home the point that I really shouldn't rely on or use my work computer for anything but work. I needed my own computer again.

And those new MacBooks are so shiny and pretty...

And BART practically exits right inside the Apple store...

And Chuck graciously accepted my request for some Apple consumer enabling.

I HAD to do it!

I didn't go crazy and buy the more expensive MacBook Pro, instead opting for a white MacBook. I figure I've got the work PowerBook for anything I might need a larger screen for (which isn't much, and usually only happens for work things anyway) and the main things I'll be using the MacBook for are Internet writing and crap like that, so I didn't REALLY need all the bells and whistles the Pro offered.

Of course, a year from now, when this computer is obsolete, I'll probably kick myself for my choice, but for now, it's just fine.

Now I need to get a back-up drive, AND bring the iBook to a recovery place to see if they can save anything on it...which won't be cheap either.

Computers. Can't afford 'em! Can't live without 'em!

In a related humorous note, while I was trying to configure my email account, I realized I couldn't figure out the names of my Pacbell account's email servers, so I went to their Web site to try and figure them out. I was met with this bit from their FAQ:

You can configure AT&T Yahoo! Mail to retrieve messages from any external mail account to which you have POP access. An account with POP access is one that you are able to access through an external email client such as Outlook, Eudora, or Netscape Mail.

To configure an external mail server, you must enter your external (POP) mail server's name, your user name for that POP account, the password for that account, and the mail server's port number.

Unfortunately, AT&T Yahoo! Mail Support doesn't know and can't provide you with any of this information. For further assistance, you need to contact your Internet Service Provider or Network Administrator.

Thanks! That solves everything!

What. The. Hell?