Quote: Lucas Admits Indiana Jones 4 Was Pointless?!
I came across this quote from George Lucas in The New York Times:
“I mean, why do we have to make another Indiana Jones? There was no point to it, other than, gee, this might be fun.”
I’m not even going to comment on the quote, because it already says everything I would like to say about Lucas.
New Single From Heidi! Awesomely Horrible!
A new single from Heidi Montag! Finally!
Only, initially we thought we’d been tricked. We clicked the link and the first thing we heard was what sounded like our computer telling us the file could only be played back on Soviet-era Tandys. Either that or our headphones had gone toward the light, which meant an office-wide hunt for a working pair might be at hand.
Turns out it was just the intro to “Fashion”…
The whole “accidentally discovering that GarageBand lets you make sound with the keys” effect doesn’t strike us as kitschy enough to be cool in popular music yet. So we didn’t focus too much on that. Instead, we chose to absorb the message in lyrics like “I live to be model thin.” Good call, New York Times, she is a feminist hero for a new generation.
Death a Joking Matter for George and Jerry
Jerry Seinfeld is going multimedia to honor his favorite monster, George Carlin.
In a New York Times editorial today and an appearance on last night’s Larry King Live, Seinfeld recalled his final conversation with Carlin, which devolved into a riff on mortality.
“The honest truth is, for a comedian, even death is just a premise to make jokes about,” Seinfeld writes in the Times. “I know this because I was on the phone with George Carlin nine days ago and we were making some death jokes.
“We were talking about Tim Russert and Bo Diddley and George said: ’I feel safe for a while. There will probably be a break before they come after the next one. I always like to fly on an airline right after they’ve had a crash. It improves your odds.’ “
Carlin died of heart failure Sunday at age 71.
Speaking to King, Seinfeld called the conversation with Carlin “very bizarre,” adding, “When I got the news [of Carlin’s death], it really, really threw me.”
And like all the other showbiz luminaries who paid their respects to Carlin’s unique talents, Seinfeld had only the most reverent things to say about the late comic’s place in the pantheon.
“He was the total package of what a comedian’s skills should be,” Seinfeld told King. “He literally could train his eye on something very kind of mundane and regularhe could talk about couch pillows or he could take on, you know, abortion or politics or religion. So there was no subject that his mind was not able to dissect and make fun…
“And, you know, he was funny with his face and his body was funny. Everything about him was funny…I don’t think we’ll ever see someone who, in their lifetime, creates as much comedy as this man did. He’s absolutely one of the untouchable giants of stand-up comedy.”
Then, in another nod to just how stunned everyone who knew Carlin was upon news of his demise, Seinfeld admitted that he knew his friend suffered from heart problems.
But still, he asked, “Who dies at 70 anymore? It’s so old-fashioned.”
Seinfeld, who had Carlin appear in his 1998 HBO special I’m Telling You for the Last Time, writes in the Times that Carlin “was a monster” of comedy.
“You could certainly say that George downright invented modern American stand-up comedy in many ways.
“Every comedian does a little George. I couldn’t even count the number of times I’ve been standing around with some comedians and someone talks about some idea for a joke and another comedian would say, ’Carlin does it.’ I’ve heard it my whole career: ’Carlin does it,’ ’Carlin already did it,’ ’Carlin did it eight years ago.’ “
Indeed, a week before his death, Carlin was tapped for the prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, honoring his contributions to the art.
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has announced that after conferring with and getting approval from Carlin’s family, it will still hold a ceremony in honor of the late comic, making him the first posthumous recipient of the Twain Prize. The ceremony will rely on tributes from colleagues and friends, and we’re guessing Seinfeld is on the invite list.
“I know George didn’t believe in heaven or hell,” he writes at the end of his Times piece. “Like death, they were just more comedy premises. And it just makes me even sadder to think that when I reach my own end, whatever tumbling cataclysmic vortex of existence I’m spinning through, in that moment I will still have to think, ’Carlin already did it.’ “
Suddenly, Mad Men is everywhere (and that’s a good thing!)
There’s a fantastic story in yesterday’s New York Times Magazine about AMC’s Mad Men. It’s actually the cover story (you don’t see many cover stories in the NYT Mag about a TV show) and is one of the best articles I’ve read about a TV show in a very long time.
Besides interviewing creator/producer/writer Matthew Weiner at length, writer Alex Witchel also sits in on auditioning sessions and script meetings for the second season, interviews advertising icons (George Lois, Jerry Della Femina, William Bernbach) about the show, and gets choice quotes from cast members such as Jon Hamm, John Slattery, Elisabeth Moss, and January Jones. It’s a beautifully written piece, really getting behind the scenes of the show, and includes this great paragraph to explain the show quite nicely.
Weiner’s achievements with “Mad Men,” which is produced by Lionsgate, are plentiful, starting with the storytelling. Setting it in the early 1960s, on the cusp between the repression and conformity of the cold war and McCarthy-era 1950s and the yet-to-unfold social and cultural upheavals of the 60s, allows Weiner an arc of character growth that is staggering in its possibilities. It also gives him the opportunity to mine the Rat Pack romance of that period, when the wreaths of cigarette smoke, the fog of too many martinis - whether exhilarating or nauseating - and the silhouettes specific to bullet bras only heightened the headiness of the dream that all men might one day become James Bond or, at the very least, key holders to the local Playboy Club.
But the NYT Mag article isn’t the only news about Mad Men recently. Besides the soundtrack coming out tomorrow and the first season DVDs coming out July 1, the show is being included in Emmy talk, recently received a Peabody Award, was on the cover of Entertainment Weekly, and is currently being honored by Bloomingdale’s with a store window display, which includes Mad Men-ish fashions and TV sets showing scenes from the show.
The second season debuts on July 27. AMC will have a marathon of first season eps on July 20.