Chock-A-Blog

The most important meal of the day

2008-09-28T23:33:00.009-04:00

Here it is, served up English-style on Flickr.

And if you’re ever looking for lots and lots of Flickr thumbnails dished up all at once, try Comp Fight. It “uses Flickr's API to search the database of photos (including the option to do full-text search on titles and descriptions, and to limit searches to Creative Commons licensed works only) and then feeds back the results as live clickable thumbnails,” according to BoingBoing. “[T]he large quantities of search-result thumbnails per page makes this the ideal choice for playing photo-editor.”

A Muppetastic Comeback?

2008-09-07T19:28:00.014-04:00

The British newspaper The Telegraph writes:

The Jim Henson-created characters may be on their way back thanks to a new Disney Film. In the movie, written by...Jason Segel, the Muppets reunite to save their studio with one last variety show. Should the film go well, it opens up the possibility of a television programme, also written by 28-year-old Segel.

Variety elaborates on how the writer/actor lined up the gig.

In “[Forgetting] Sarah Marshall” Segel’s character writes a “Dracula” musical performed by puppets. Those cloth creatures were custom-made by the Henson puppeteers, and the experience emboldened Segel to pitch his concept for a Muppets movie when he was invited in for a general meeting with exec Kristin Burr. Segel got a deal in the room and enlisted [Nick] Stoller to co-write and direct the project.

Fingers are crossed this project gets done and done right. No word on when production might get underway or when the movie could hit theaters. In the meantime, watch Statler and Waldorf as they bring their balcony curmudgeonliness to the Internet: below, here and here.

UPDATE: The Hollywood Reporter says:

NBC is getting into the holiday spirit with “Letters to Santa -- A Muppets Christmas.” Whoopi Goldberg, “The Sopranos” alums Tony Sirico and Steve Schirripa, “Harry Potter” regular Richard Griffiths and Madison Pettis are set to star in the special alongside Kermit, Fozzie, Gonzo, Miss Piggy and the rest of the muppets gang. “Letters” is set on Christmas Eve when Kermit and company mistakenly avert three letters en route to Santa Claus, which triggers a race against time to bring a happy Christmas to the kids whose wishes were lost in the mail.

But why would Disney, which owns both ABC and the Muppets, sell this to NBC? Why, Bob Iger, why?

MUPPDATE: The New York Times on the planned comeback: “[T]his time the Muppets are getting the “Hannah Montana” treatment, being blasted into every pop-culture nook and cranny that the company owns or can dream up.” The Hannah Montana treatment? Uh-oh. Well, at least Statler & Waldorf are weighing in on the Presidential debates. Harrumph.

They’re related? (Vol. 1)

2008-08-31T18:51:00.004-04:00

Introducing a new, periodic featurette entitled: “They're related?” It’s a quick connect-the-dots to show how two or more public figures are related. For the inaugural posting, meet Alan Greenspan and Andrea Mitchell, husband and wife. She’s the Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent for NBC News (and survivor of a RNC balloon avalanche). He’s the former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. The two were married in 1997 by Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Read their wedding announcement in The New York Times here. Buried at the end of the article are some interesting details about the usually taciturn Greenspan: He studied at the Juilliard School and plays the clarinet and saxophone.

Hamlet: The Facebook Newsfeed Edition

2008-08-17T20:19:00.011-04:00

Sarah Schmelling recently wrote a terribly clever and funny piece for McSweeney’s, condensing Shakespeare’s tragic story about the Prince of Denmark into a series of status updates, apps and group memberships.

How does “to be or not to be” fare? The existential question is reduced to: “Hamlet wonders if he should continue to exist. Or not.” Here’s how the whole thing opens:

Horatio thinks he saw a ghost.

Hamlet thinks it's annoying when your uncle marries your mother right after your dad dies.

The king thinks Hamlet's annoying.

Laertes thinks Ophelia can do better.

Hamlet's father is now a zombie.

- - - -

The king poked the queen.

The queen poked the king back.

Hamlet and the queen are no longer friends.

Marcellus is pretty sure something's rotten around here.

Hamlet became a fan of daggers.

Read the rest here. For more literal, and funny, takes on Facebook utilities, check out this video from The Idiots of Ants on BBC. For more rottenness in Denmark, there’s Hamlet 2.

Word on the street

2008-07-20T16:29:00.017-04:00

So Sesame Street is gearing up for its 39th season, which starts on August 11. (Who knew the show even had a season, right?) And from the looks of this trailer – who knew it had trailers? – it’s going to be a very clever, entertaining and fresh season. (This blogger’s optimism might just be a side effect of the detritus passing as “original” and margin-managed programming this summer.) According to its press kit – who knew it had a press kit? – this season will feature: Will Arnett, Feist, Jessica Alba, David Beckham, Heidi Klum, Brian Williams, Neil Patrick Harris, Sandra Oh, Jack Black and Jenny McCarthy.

Also lined up is a parody of NBC sitcom 30 Rock entitled: 30 Rocks. Its leading lady? A lemon named Liz Lemon. There’s a game-show spoof called: Are You Smarter Than an Egg Layer? (Its host looks a lot like this guy.) And beating the Disney Channel at its own game, there’s – wait for it, wait for it – Pre-School Musical. Rounding out the offering, the Children’s Television Workshop is debuting a redesigned sesamestreet.org on August 11 as well.

Also making the rounds is a musical number from the upcoming season. Leslie Feist reworks “1-2-3-4,” for the pre-school crowd. The Sesame Street version even pays homage to the choreography and the one, long camera take of the original video, directed by Patrick Daughters. (No sequined jumpsuit, though.) The lyrics might even be better than the original. “It’s one less than five and one more than three. Whoa-oa-oa. Counting to four. Whoa-oa-oa. Let’s cou-ount some more.”

Seeing all these chipper muppets twisting pop culture into something fun and useful, makes this blogger wonder if it’s time to bring back The Muppet Show in some shape or form. Probably not a full 22-episode season. Maybe just a 30-minute episode once or twice a month – to keep the content sharp and the concept special. The property is owned by Disney, which has plenty of broadcast and rebroadcast outlets – its namesake channel, ABC or even ABC Family. Think about it, Bob Iger. Just think about it.

Fun with inflation

2008-07-16T22:03:00.012-04:00

Artist Joshua Allen Harris turns plastic bags and subway ventilation into delightfully animated street art. New York magazine tracks down Harris in the well-executed video piece below. A cursory Internet search doesn't yield any gallery affiliation for Harris. (Are you paying attention, Marianne Boesky?) But work like this deserves a much bigger, er, platform.

And last month, Conan O'Brien got into the inflatable act, albeit for more commercial – and comedic – purposes. Supposedly, the owners of 30 Rockefeller Center won't put his name on the marquee. So he borrows a tactic from car dealers around the country.

And somewhere in France inflatable tentacles are emerging from a building, courtesy of Filthy Luker and Pedro Estrellas.

Tous les memes

2008-06-04T08:59:00.008-04:00

So Weezer packed their latest video with some of the Internet’s biggest memes. Making the greatest hits list are: Diet Coke & Mentos, the Numa Numa kid, Chris “Leave Britney Alone” Crocker, Dramatic Chipmunk, Will It Blend?, Chocolate Rain, the Evolution of Dance shoe-obsessed Kelly and even “All your bases are belong to us.” Matthew Cullen of Motion Theory directed this video equivalent of a stuffed burrito. And Weezer has posted some super-casual behind-the-scenes clips on its YouTube page.

UPDATE: In an oddly unsportsmanlike move, Weezer's official YouTube channel disabled the embed function for this video. Talk about a meta buzzkiller.

Free Wi-Fi at Starbucks. Kinda. Sorta.

2008-06-03T21:00:00.003-04:00

Today Starbucks launched free wireless at its coffeehouses. Like most things that are free, there’s a catch. Actually, there are several catches. First, you need to buy a Starbucks card with at least $5 on it and then register the card at this AT&T site. You need to use the card to buy something at least once a month. And your free wireless is capped at two consecutive hours per day. Get the full FAQ here.

This is a major change from the exceedingly annoying service operated by T-Mobile, which required $9.99 day passes, monthly plans or pre-paid cards (which never seemed to be available).

Surprisingly there hasn’t been any noticeable marketing behind this gesture of goodwill. Certainly, technical rollouts are prone to glitches. Perhaps SBUX is running the system in a nationwide beta before it goes public, not wanting to risk any ill will if there are any IT issues. But the coffee roaster did make a big deal back in March about its new Web site slash suggestion box: My Starbucks Idea. And free wireless had to be the most frequently suggested idea.

So why now? USA Today explains: “[T]he move is an attempt to entice its shrinking customer base — cutting back on pricey treats during the economic downturn — to return. Traffic and sales have been shrinking for months as founder Howard Schultz searches for a way to revive the brand.” Sure, the hoops (buying a pre-loaded card, registering online, using once a month) are a bit of a hassle, but the new wireless set-up is an improvement. Hopefully, in the near future Schultz & Co. can figure out how to make free, unlimited wireless pay for itself.

Teaching an old phone new tricks

2008-05-31T21:03:00.004-04:00

Let’s say you don’t have the latest smart phone and the data plan to go with it. And let’s say you don’t like calling 411 for phone numbers or locations. Just text a name and a ZIP code to Google at G-O-O-G-L (46645). In seconds, text messages will start hitting your phone with the phone number and address.

Text the name of a movie and a ZIP code, and showtimes as well as locations appear. Got a hankering for nearby sushi or pizza? Just type the kind of food and the ZIP. Of course, you have to pay for the text message. But it’s definitely less than the cost of directory assistance.

But that’s not all, people. Get weather reports by keying in the word “weather” and your city. Check flight arrivals and departures by typing in the word “flight” and the two-letter airline code and flight number. Type “stock” and the ticker symbol to get market quotes. Additional mobile functions include: currency conversions, sports scores, simple translations, calculators and even a dictionary. Now why is Google providing this nice app, for free? Are they collecting data? Are they still figuring out how to monetize SMS? Who knows? In the meantime, start answering questions with your phone.

UPDATE: David Pogue just wrote about a few more freebies that’ll make any cell phone smarter. Call ChaCha (800-2CHACHA), ask a question and you’ll get the answer in a text message. Dial 800-GOOG-411 and you get free directory assistance, connecting automatically. Jott is a 21st century dictaphone. After pre-registering, call 866-JOTT123 and leave a message. A transcription of your message lands in your phone’s inbox moments later. Reqall (888-9REQALL) works in a similar fashion.

London calling, Gotham answering

2008-05-30T22:03:00.005-04:00

There’s a new way for folks in New York City and London to communicate with each other, at least through June 15. “Hardly anyone knows that a secret tunnel runs deep beneath the Atlantic Ocean. In May 2008, more than a century after it was begun, the tunnel has finally been completed. An extraordinary optical device called a Telectroscope has been installed at both ends which miraculously allows people to see right through the Earth from London to New York.” Well, that’s what the official Web site says. And the whole set-up has a definite 19th century, Jules Verne, retrotech look to it.

In reality, the installation is the work of artist Paul St. George with able assists from fiber-optic cable and the übercreative production company Artichoke. The official Telectroscope site describes St. George’s m.o.: “His practice as an artist has always been concerned with questioning the relationship between the viewer and what is being viewed. His work is also often associated with different realities, spectacle and viewer participation.”

The New York Times elaborates further: “Mr. St. George hopes that people will use his device in surprising ways — to hold dance-offs, say, or propose marriage via placards. (The Telectroscope has no audio component ‘because I thought then people would just stand still and use it like a telephone,’ he said.)” His production partner Artichoke is the supertalented bunch of people who produced the Sultan’s Elephant spectacular on the streets of London two summers ago. Grants from the British government and private-sector sponsorships are footing most of the bill, which is running about $787,000. Viewings are free in Brooklyn. But in London, where everything is always more expensive, it costs £1.

An evening with Philip Glass

2008-04-28T08:02:00.010-04:00

Just an evening? Well, seven performances actually. The Metropolitan Opera is currently staging Glass’s opera Satyagraha, which depicts Mahatma Gandhi’s life in South Africa from 1893 to 1914. The title means “truth force” and describes Gandhi’s early efforts at non-violent resistance and civil disobedience that he would later use in India. Audio clips are a little tricky to track down, but a piano version of the finale plays here. And the Met has posted “Evening Song” here.

Like Glass’s other bio-opera, Einstein at the Beach, the narrative is incidental. And in this case, it’s actually passages from the Bhagavad Ghita – sung in Sanskrit. The production is a beautiful and surprising piece of theater filled with unexpected elements. A jail created in real time from packing tape, for example. Or a human assembly line functioning as a newspaper’s printing press.

The production is an import from the English National Opera and is directed Phelim McDermott with a big assist from designer Julian Crouch. Key to the whole production is talented troupe of performers from a group aptly called Improbable. On stage, they turned baskets into monsters and newspaper effigies into an out-of-touch elite. The New York Times provides a good look behind the scenes below.

The creative team explains their choice of media for props and scenery: “We decided we wanted to use very humble material in the making of the opera...Mostly what you'll see is baskets and newspaper and corrugated iron...We wanted to take the materials associated with poverty and turn them into something beautiful.”

Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times gives the production a generally favorable review. “Ultimately, despite its formulaic elements, “Satyagraha” emerges here as a work of nobility, seriousness, even purity.” The Guardian was more generous when reviewing the original production at the ENO last year.

Phelim McDermott's staging, undertaken in collaboration with the theatre company Improbable, is also a thing of wonder. The gods of the Hindu pantheon rub shoulders with ordinary humanity. Hope is born from deprivation as sheets of corrugated iron and vast quantities of newsprint are transformed into the symbols of a new order...[T]he whole thing serves as a monumental affirmation of human dignity at a time when many have begun to question its very existence - and for that, we must be infinitely grateful.

Glass describes the impetus for writing the opera in 1980 here. Meanwhile, a new documentary profiling the composer – Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts – is playing in New York and preparing to hit theaters in San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Minneapolis and Washington soon.

Badges of honor

2008-04-27T16:39:00.026-04:00

A thoroughly fun, new cartoon debuted on Nickelodeon this weekend – The Mighty B. Each episode follows the hyperactive adventures of Bessie Higginbottom, who is nine and three-quarters and an enthusiastic member of her Honeybee scout troop. Bessie’s m.o. is to earn every badge possible, thinking that’ll give her the power to become a superhero, the Mighty B. See video clips here.

If the show looks a little like SpongeBob Squarepants and Fairly Odd Parents, that’s because two of its three creators – Erik Wiese and Cynthia True, respectively – worked on those shows. The third co-creator is Amy Poehler, who also is the voice behind Bessie. Certainly, Bessie is reminiscent of Kaitlin, the reoccurring pre-teen character Poehler plays on Saturday Night Live. (“Rick! Rick! Rick! Watch this, Rick!”). But Poehler tells Entertainment Weekly, it goes back even further.

I’ve been doing that kind of kid character for a long time. I did that character at Upright Citizens Brigade before I came to SNL, the Brownie kid named Cassie McMadison. [Bessie] was an amalgamation of a lot of different voices and things that I had done. I really liked the idea of playing that kind of optimistic, super-intense, go-get-’em spirit combined with being a little bit of an outsider. I am really drawn to girls of that age in general, who believe they can be a waitress, scientist, actress, a dentist, a zookeeper...and who really aren’t boy-crazy.

Visually, the show is incredibly engaging. Set in San Francisco, the cartoon makes ample use of the city’s acute angles and steep streets and, to a certain extent, evokes the beautiful and sharply drawn children’s books by Miroslav Sasek. Straight out of the Haight, there’s even a resident hippie who calls to mind Captain Caveman. And Bessie’s dog and cohort, Happy, looks like he could be a grandpuppy of Hanna-Barbera’s Huckleberry Hound.

The show doesn’t reinvent the format; each episode is still two 15-minute stories. But the episodes are relevant to kids without being preachy. In “Sweet Sixteenth,” Bessie gets all worked up to ride the grown-up roller coaster – even readying a bucket in case there’s a “vomiting incident” – only to learn that she’s too short for the ride. Welcome to disappointment, kids. Of course, being a cartoon, she finds a loophole. In “Bee Afraid,” Bessie realizes during an overnight camping trip that she’s more afraid of being afraid than anything that’s actually worth being afraid about. (Does FDR get a co-writing credit?) Not to mention she makes smoothies for woodland creatures. There must be a badge for that, right?

Tweet spot

2008-04-25T20:52:00.006-04:00

This is a post about a cartoon. It’s not an editorial. (Just want to make that clear for any readers who love to twitter.) The cartoon is from Hugh MacLeod and his blog Gaping Void. Last year, he stopped twittering to draw more cartoons – on the back of business cards – and write more. But the news hit the blogosphere, and he got hundreds of e-mails about going cold twitter. So he picked the habit up again. Read his tweets here. MacLeod used to live in Manhattan, working as a copywriter. Now he lives Texas and uses the Web as a marketing tool for his clients, including a Saville Row tailor and a South African wine seller. And when he’s not twittering, he continues to blog. One of his most popular posts: How to be creative.

Getting out front with an Infront?

2008-04-08T21:39:00.018-04:00

Last week NBC announced a full year’s worth – 65 weeks actually – of programming at an event dubbed an “Infront.” Traditionally, NBC has unveiled its fall line-up in glitzy Upfront presentation at Radio City Music Hall during the same week in May when the other networks announce their programming. (CBS is usually at Carnegie Hall. ABC at Lincoln Center.)

So why the toned-down presentation? The writers’ strike basically kill e d the pilot season. And NBC is in last place.

But is a 12-month slate of programming really anything new? Not really. In the past few years, networks have been serving up new programming during the summer months. The operative word here is new, not quality. A quick look at the proposed summer schedule, and there’s more of the same: America’s Got Talent, Last Comic Standing, two hours of Dateline and some shows that seem like they escaped from the Discovery Channel (Shark Taggers and America’s Toughest Jobs).

However, the way the network pitched the schedule is interesting. NBC bills the 8 o’clock hour as family fare. “Blockbusters” are reserved for 9. (Full disclosure: NBC considers Deal or No Deal a blockbuster.) And at 10 are the dramas for grown-ups. (Noah Wyle’s coming back to ER for the final season.)
NBC caveated that it might still shuffle some specific shows, but said it would stick with certain genres for certain time periods, i.e. action-adventure on Wednesdays at 8. That certainly makes it easier swap out duds, and advertisers will like that.

What about the shows? There’s a spin-off from The Office in the works. To NBC’s credit, network co-chair Ben Silverman says, “We're only going to bring [the spinoff] to market if it's ready for market and up to the quality of the original.” The Office Executive Producer Greg Daniels will also be in charge of this one, so its in capable hands. With tongue planted firmly in cheek, blogger Televisionary suggests an advertiser-ready title and a location: That Was Easy and a Staples store.

The best drama on television, Friday Night Lights, will be back, in an unusual cost-sharing arrangement with DirecTV. The dish network gets first dibs on the episodes which will air four months later on NBC. The best sitcom on television, 30 Rock, will also be be back for a third season. The network ordered to series My Own Worst Enemy, headlining Christian Slater without even shooting a pilot. And far-too-often underutilized Molly Shannon will co-star in Kath & Kim with Selma Blair. Get Variety’s detailed wrap-up here.

Attention Zach Braff fan(s): Scrubs is not on NBC’s schedule. Says NBC’s Silverman, “I don't know where Scrubs is going. It's finished its run on NBC, though.” There’s a chance ABC might pick up the hospital laffer since it’s actually produced by ABC’s TV production arm, the former Touchstone Studios. As they say on 30 Rock, there’s probably a way to synergize backward overflow in that.

Post-it notes on the fridge

2008-03-31T20:16:00.026-04:00

In the opening lines of an article about new chat-room interfaces, New York Times reporter Brad Stone makes a very succinct comparison.

People visit each other’s MySpace pages and Facebook profiles at various hours of the day, posting messages and sending e-mail back and forth across the digital void. It’s like an endless party where everybody shows up at a different time and slaps a yellow Post-it note on the refrigerator.

The “notes on the fridge” analogy is spot-on. Not so sure about the party part. Right now, it’s more like the afterparty. It’s where the mementos of real life – photos, video and even anecdotes – set up house.

But sometimes social-media spaces are more like board games. Some days it’s checkers. Other times it’s chess. A new conversation is akin to the opening move of a new game. A reply is a response to someone else’s move. And for anyone who plays Scrabulous, Facebook literally is a board game.

The main piece of news in Stone’s article is a new 3D chat application called Vivaty. It looks curiously like Second Life, but it’s a platform-agnostic app. And i t’s backed by some deep V.C. pockets. Whether or not it will bring some life to the aforementioned party, that’ll depend on its functionality and how users respond to it.

Honk, honk. Beep, beep.

2008-03-28T19:29:00.005-04:00

Pardon the noise. Just a little congratulatory horn tooting going on here. Friend of the blog, Supergeekery, said some very nice things about Chock-a-Blog in a recent post.

Supergeekery is a great source of news for all things digital. Ever wondered how to back up everything the right way with an external hard drive? How do you download a YouTube video? What’s the Web news from SXSW? What went down at the PSFK conference? Does anyone have a Kindle? How is YouTube influencing the election? Can you make a video go viral? Enquiring minds want to know. Be sure to check it all out at Supergeekery.

Follow the money

2008-03-11T21:45:00.003-04:00

The folks at the Huffington Post have come up with a terribly interesting – albeit slightly invasive – widget bringing a lot of financial transparency to this year’s Presidential election.

Dubbed FundRace 2008, it’s a mash-up of Federal Election Commission filings and Google maps. Curious about who in your neighborhood donated to whom? Want to know how much Republicans raised, compared to Democrats, in Beverly Hills 90210 or Manhattan’s tony 10022? Just enter an address or a ZIP code and connect the dots.

You can even search by last and first name, if you’re dying to know how much Jennifer Aniston donated to whom. (Let’s just say, yes, she can to the fullest extent allowable by law.) FundRace was originally created by the smart people at Eyebeam.

If it’s showtime, it’s Trajan.

2008-02-18T20:28:00.004-05:00

Go to the movies, and there’s usually one typeface getting more than its share of screentime. The folks at Goodiebag put the Trajan mania in perspective.
However, if this year’s crop of best picture nominees for an Oscar are any indication, the tide may be turning. Juno uses hand-drawn lettering that matches its animated title sequence. There Will Be Blood features a calligraphic font that, well, bleeds. The original theatrical poster for Michael Clayton uses Eurostile Bold Extended to spell out the title character’s name. Atonement goes retro with a typewritten font, a generously kerned, all-caps Prestige Elite. The folks at Linotype take a look at other movie fonts here.

It’s hularrefic!

2008-02-12T22:43:00.005-05:00

Some infomercials are funny and don't even know it. “Hawaii Chair while answering phones, using the computer, balancing books or filing paperwork.” How about while performing Lasik surgery? Even Ellen gets into the hot seat with this one.

What to expect when you’re expecting an end to the writers’ strike

2008-02-05T19:05:00.000-05:00

It’s only been three months, but it seems so much longer. Finally, an end to the writers’ strike appears imminent. (Even Cindy Adams has written about it, kids.) No word yet on what was the tipping point. Fatigue? The upcoming Oscars? The DGA settlement?

So what’s changed? Of course there’s a potential new deal, which may or may not resemble the package the Directors’ Guild ratified a few weeks ago. And The New York Times speculates writers may experience some grudges when they return to the set. In fact, several high-profile development deals (Joan of Arcadia producer Barbara Hall, Brothers & Sisters creator Jon Robin Baitz, among others) have already been axed, with studios citing force majeure.

When are existing shows coming back? Some ABC titles – Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty – expect to crank out scripts for four to five episodes which would then air in April and May. Newer shows, like Pushing Daisies, will likely send its writers back to the table but won’t have new shows on air until the fall. (Sigh.) The handful of multi-camera sitcoms on the air nowadays (Back to You, Two and Half Men and The Big Bang Theory) could be on the air sooner, thanks to shorter production schedules. Mindless reality programming will continue to be a staple until scripted content is available. And maybe even longer, as long as episodes of American Gladiators pull in twice as many viewers as Friday Night Lights. (Double sigh.)

CBS is bringing back living-room voyeurism this month with another edition of Big Brother. However, Black Rock execs are borrowing from premium-cable sibling Showtime for Dexter, which will make a sanitized debut on CBS on Sunday, February 17.

Daily comedy shows – The Daily Show, Colbert Report, Late Night with Conan O’Brien – have been trooping along admirably, mocking the fact that they’re officially writerless yet still churning out an entertaining product every night. Those shows should see an uptick in both laughs and general tenor once they’re reunited with their writers. And hopefully it’s not too late for an Andy Samberg digital short on Saturday Night Live about Chuck Norris’ support for Mike Huckabee. (Goodness knows we've been denied the comedic stylings of Kristen Wiig for too long, while off-the-air Amy Poehler has gone stir crazy.)

As far as the business of show business goes, the pilot season has changed forever. Traditionally, networks would sink millions of dollars into filming pilots that programming execs would use to determine their slate of shows for the fall. Only a handful of those shows ever saw the light of day. Expect more “backdoor” pilots spun off of existing programs, much the way Private Practice emerged from the, er, loins of Grey’s Anatomy. And get ready for pilots masquerading as TV movies. Cue the Knight Rider music. And expect just fewer pilots in general. The three-hour extravaganzas in April that unveil the fall schedules – the Upfronts – will change. Probably smaller and less puffy.

And last but not least, fingers are crossed and double crossed that we’ll still get a few more episodes of 30 Rock – “the best show on TV” according to NBC’s Co-Chairman of Entertainment Ben Silverman – this season.

Huckabee Grudge Match

2008-02-05T18:32:00.000-05:00

This blog isn’t typically a forum for antics reminiscent of the Three Stooges. There are, however, notable exceptions.

It’s a Macworld...

2008-01-18T08:03:00.000-05:00

...and we get to live in it. Apple unveiled the ultra-thin MacBook Air at San Francisco’s Moscone Center on Tuesday. Watch the keynote address here. (Or read Engadget’s live play-by-play.) New York Times’ columnist and CNBC contributor David Pogue sums up the major announcements here.

1) A one-terabyte, wireless back-up drive called Time Capsule that sells for $500
2) New software for the iPhone that pinpoints your location using cell towers and wireless hotspots
3) Movie rentals from iTunes for $4; movies last 24 hours but can be started on one platform – such as a laptop – paused and then picked up on another – such as an iPhone
4) A 23% price drop to $230 on Apple TV and software enhancements
5) the three-pound, super-slim $1800 MacBook Air

“One of the most significant things in this MacBook Air was that they’re introducing a lot of gesture-based user interface,” says Walter Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal.

“If you have a picture...you can do what they call pinching. You do it on the touch pad, not on the screen...That in some ways may end up being the biggest legacy,” Mossberg adds. ”All thin notebooks have compromises...It only has one way to get on the Internet – wirelessly. It doesn’t have an ethernet jack...Now that may be okay. Sometimes Apple moves ahead of the industry dropping features.”

The slenderella laptop won’t hit the stores for another two weeks. And Mossberg hasn’t taken the laptop for a test drive yet, so it’ll take a few weeks before he writes his first review. But the machine already has one grumbler. A hrrumph from Slate, natch. However, MacBook Air already has some third-party accessories, namely a vinyl laptop sleeve that looks just like an inter-office envelope.

Pogue further reports on the hypnotic charms of a Steve Jobs keynote here. (Sorry, the Grey Lady doesn’t do embedable video yet.) But somebody did catch Pogue’s, uh, cabaret act at Macworld, posted above. It’s one part Mark Russell, one part Roberta Flack and two parts Cupertino.

Meanwhile, Gizmodo wonders if design cues to future Apple products can b e fou nd in Braun electronics from the ’60s. In a side-by-side comparison of Apple and Braun products, Gizmodo proposes that past performance will predict future results. But one could also argue that Braun’s Dieter Rams and Apple’s Jonathan Ive just share a great eye for clean, simple design with a purpose, no matter the decade. However, everybody can get the signature Steve Jobs look here.

Splitsville for One Laptop Per Child & Intel

2008-01-05T14:22:00.000-05:00

So much for staying together for the sake of the children. The unusual collaboration between non-profit One Laptop Per Child and for-profit Intel has fallen apart. The “frail partnership...was undone last month in part by an Intel saleswoman: She tried to persuade a Peruvian official to drop the country’s commitment to buy a quarter-million of the organization’s laptops in favor of Intel PCs,” according to The New York Times.

“They played another dirty trick in Peru,” OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte told The Times. “It’s a little bit like McDonald’s competing with the World Food Program.”

In Peru, where One Laptop has begun shipping the first 40,000 PCs of a 270,000 system order, Isabelle Lama, an Intel saleswoman, tried to persuade Peru’s vice minister of education...that the Intel Classmate PC was a better choice for his primary school students. Unfortunately for Intel, the vice minister is a longtime acquaintance of Mr. Negroponte...The education minister took notes on his contacts with the Intel saleswoman and sent them to One Laptop officials... Until Intel surprised him by quitting on Thursday, Mr. Negroponte said he had still held out some hope that the relationship could be saved. The Intel XO was supposed to be introduced next week at the Consumer Electronics Show in keynote speeches to be made by Mr. Negroponte and Mr. Otellini, but the prototype will now be set aside.

Intel told the Wall Street Journal it was breaking up with OLPC and pulling its representative from the OLPC board. “We've reached a philosophical impasse with OLPC,” said an Intel spokesman. Intel favors offering many solutions to developing countries, not just the OLPC laptop, according to the spokesman. Intel markets a competitive product called the Classmate.

Negroponte remains optimistic that OLPC can sell two to thre million PCs this year. In its recent holiday promotion, the foundation raised $35 million and sold 167,000 units. But for Negroponte sometimes geography outranks the numbers. “If I can sell 1.5 million computers in Iraq, Afghanistan and Ethiopia, I will feel a lot better than other sales we might make.”

Meanwhile over at CNET, Tom Krazit offers up a “teach a man to fish” approach. “Perhaps the best way to help developing countries get in on the technology revolution is to teach them how to design--not merely assemble--their own products, rather than coming to them from lofty perches in Cambridge and Santa Clara saying, ‘Don't worry, we know best.’”

A new museum for the New Museum

2007-12-15T17:16:00.000-05:00

“[T]he New Museum of Contemporary Art, on the Bowery at Prince Street on the Lower East Side, is the kind of building that renews your faith in New York as a place where culture is lived, not just bought and sold,” writes Nicolai Ouroussoff in The New York Times. The (recently renewed) critic points out a few architectural highlights in an interactive piece here.

The architects behind the space are Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of the Tokyo-based firm SANAA. “The Bowery was very gritty when we first visited it,” the architects explain. “We were a bit shocked, but we were also impressed that a contemporary art museum wanted to be there...The New Museum is a combination of elegant and urban. We were determined to make a building that felt like that.”

Paul Goldberger of The New Yorker hearts the building, too – for the structure and how it relates to its location. “Sejima and Nishizawa have designed a building that is just right for this moment of the Bowery’s existence. It is a pile of six boxes, stacked unevenly, like a child’s blocks. Sometimes the blocks mount up in a pattern of setbacks like that of a traditional New York building; sometimes they jut out over open space in a way that suggests the architects had something more radical in mind. The building is original, but doesn’t strain to reinvent the idea of a museum.”

For this blogger, one of the most striking features was the glass curtainwall at the street level. It allows the sidewalk to extend into the museum, and outside foot traffic is visible even all the way back in the rear gallery, near the café. The narrow staircase that connects the third and fourth floors is an intriguing passageway between galleries, and even affords room for a confessional-like exhibition space. And of course the building’s stacked-box silhouette lends itself to becoming an icon, like Frank Lloyd Wright's spiraling ramp for the Guggenheim. In fact, advertising created by Droga5 for the New Museum already uses the New Museum’s distinctive profile.

UPDATE: Nishizawa and Sejima give The Japan Times an interview here. They talk about how their partnership started – at first he (Nishizawa) was working for her (Sejima). And they elaborate on how the building got its distinctive shape. “First, with a plot of land as small as that 740 sq. meters, there was no alternative but to stack the galleries on top of each other. But when you put galleries on top of each other, you end up with a high-rise building, right? ...[A]ll the floors end up the same and...the building ends up looking more like an office tower than a museum. So we decided that each floor needed to look different from the others, and to achieve that we needed to vary their sizes,” says Nishizawa.

Konichiwa, Muji

2007-11-17T14:03:00.000-05:00

Japanese retailer Muji opened its first U.S. store yesterday, bringing its practical yet well-designed line of housewares, stationery and clothing to New York City. The first store is in SoHo on Broadway, just a few blocks away from another Japanese retailer, Uniqlo. A second Muji store reportedly opens next month in the office tower Renzo Piano designed for the New York Times. Gothamist and Racked weigh in with their takes on – and pics of – the downtown outpost.

Muji’s products are free of logos; the company’s name is a shortened version of “mujirushi ryohin” which translates as no-brand, quality goods. Catering to a well-traveled, international crowd, the store has just about every size of vial for all your emollients, collapsable travel bags, slippers as well as shirts and socks made of recycled yarn. (It’s not as gross as it sounds. They’re made from scraps.)

Prices on dishes, kitchen utensils and paper goods were reasonable while clothing seemed more expensive than what one would expect. (Perhaps a result of the w e ak dollar?) One curious item: a pair of men’s corduroy pants that seemed perfectly normal, except around the waist. Where beltloops would normally be, there was a large piece – about three inches tall – of forgiving elastic, like you’d find in a pair of pregnancy jeans. The price for these “Thanksgiving Dinner” pants? $89.50. (Write your own MasterCard “priceless” punchline in the comment section.) They’re probably just some comfortable pants for a long-haul flight.