See, what'd I say?!
Today's NYT has an article about the new TV network, Fine Living, and their new plan for advertising to fool Tivos (and I suppose viewers) into watching commercials. They are offering sponsorships of their shows and also integrating 'commercials' into the programs themselves.
Sounds great, eh?
Heat Vision and Jack
Last night I attended the final show of the Other Network series - it was a fun time, but I have to complain about the setting: the Knitting Factory, while a fine place for most performances is pretty shitty for watching video. They way oversold the show in terms of how many seats they had, and then they put the chairs almost on top of each other so you have no leg room, which means you are smack behind the person in front of you allowing their big ol' head to be in the way during the whole thing.
Next time, they really need to do it an a place that is bit better suited to viewing movies.
The highlight had to be Heat Vision and Jack...The pilot for the series was commissioned back in 1999 and centers around Jack Austin. An astronaut "exposed to inappropriate levels of solar energy." To put it simply, "sunlight makes him the world's smartest man" giving Jack the catch phrase "I know everything." He travels the world with "Heat Vision", a motorcycle with "the mind of Jack's unemployed roommate."
dangerousuniverse.com
Wonderfully funny and cheesie. Owen Wilson was awesome as Heat Vision the motorcycle. And I am slowly beginning to like Jack Black, even after me and the missus had a less than pleasant run-in with him one night on Delancy Street (I think she said either, "Who the f*ck are you?" or "F*ck off" - I can't remember).
Lawton went to Vegas
Our pal John (aka J-dubb, J-dogg, J.W.) went to Vegas for the weekend. He says he is going to write up a clever review of the city and the adventures he had.
I look forward to it.
When in Rome, should one actually do as the Romans do or is it all a farce?
Flaming Lips review from EricS
(Reprinted without permission)Saw the show last night and thought you FL fans would be interested in what transpired.
Lips came out at 7:30 (early theater show) and cranked through 7 songs in about 45 minutes. They had their typical stage set of smoke machine, sirens, dancing people in fuzzy animal costumes holding flashlights, disco mirror balls, megaphones, films, strobes, and Wayne's mic-cam. They played mostly newer material (all "Transmissions" era thru present): Race For the Prize, Fight Test, Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots (Pt. 1), Lightning Strikes the Postman, She Don't Use Jelly, 35,000 Feet of Despair, and Do You Realize?.
Then there was a very looong break.
Beck came out and did about seven songs (mostly off the new record) on his own with acoustic guitar. The last song was "Golden Age", which the Lips came in on at the beginning of the second verse. Pretty fantastic how everyone was so focussed in on Beck on a dark stage, then the lights flare and there's the Lips kicking in, each member on their own riser (kind of a cross between a Star Trek and Lawrence Welk look). They continued to play through an expansive set including stuff off all records (a nice portion of Mutations and Sea Change) with smatterings of stuff from the rest. Most of the tunes sounded great. The Flaming Lips' playing of the songs lended a sort of sloppy, sluggishness to otherwise tight arrangements (Nicotine & Gravy, Where It's At), but in other places (Get Real Paid, Devil's Haircut) they took it to outer space, like some futuristic techno. Get Real Paid was a highlight with all the vocals. Great show, but the Lips didn't play nearly long enough.
