Rush's Next Album Title: This is Bullshit

It's that time of year where the leaves change, a chill in the air, and I get cranky about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominees. Your Rock and Roll Hall of Fame finalists for potential induction in 2009:

Metallica, Run-DMC, Little Anthony and the Imperials, Chic, Iggy and the Stooges, Jeff Beck, War, Wanda Jackson, and Bobby Womack.

We see here acknowledgment of the rise of heavy metal and rap, and it's great to see punk godfathers The Stooges getting another shot. Chic, The Stooges, and Wanda Jackson all have been on previous ballots but not inducted.

Artists are eligible for nomination 25 years after their first album released. First-time eligible artists not nominated included Bon Jovi, the Smiths, Billy Bragg, Cyndi Lauper, Queensrÿche, and Howard Jones; artists eligible for a while now but not on their way to the hall include: Rush (who didn't get the call this year despite the "Colbert Bump"), Genesis/Peter Gabriel/Phil Collins, the Beastie Boys (who I wouldn't expect in their ahead of Run DMC), Duran Duran, the Replacements, John Cougar Mellancamp, The Cure/Depeche Mode/New Order, Cheap Trick, Journey, KISS, and on and on. (via ALOTT5MA)

Updated: other artists passed over Stevie Ray Vaughan

Eligible in 2009: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nick Cave, Pet Shop Boys
Eligible in 2010: Stone Roses, Whitney Houston, L.L. Cool J, The Flaming Lips
Eligible in 2011: Crowded House, Guns N’ Roses, Yo La Tengo, Poison
Eligible in 2012: Pixies, Public Enemy, N.W.A., Soundgarden, Sinead O’Conner, Jane’s Addiction
Eligible in 2013: De La Soul, Massive Attack, Fugazi
Eligible in 2014: Green Day, Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana, Pavement
Eligible in 2015: Smashing Pumpkins, Moby, Mariah Carey, Blur, A Tribe Called Quest
Eligible in 2016: Pearl Jam, Tori Amos, PJ Harvey
Eligible in 2017: Beck, Radiohead, Dr. Dre, TLC, Rage Against the Machine
(source: FutureRockHall.com)

"Let's read these funny lines they wrote for us" - 2008 Emmy Awards

The 60th Annual Emmy Awards sure spent a lot of time dwelling on the past, not enough time showcasing just why the current crop of nominees were nominated, and too much time with our 5 painfully unfunny hosts. The show drew the wrong type of attention on Monday morning, as the accomplishments of some deserving Emmy winners like Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, Bryan Cranston, and shows like “Mad Men” and “30 Rock” were overshadowed by the deluge of criticism: winner’s speeches cut very short, especially when they got even vaguely political; not enough clips showcasing this year’s nominated performances, many of which could use more viewers; too much time showing clip packages of the past; and yes, the poor performance of the hosts. Reality, in fact, bites.

Somewhere up the ABC food chain, someone had the idea to have the Emmy hosting duties shared by the inaugural Outstanding Reality Show Host nominees: Jeff Probst (who won that category), Tom Bergeron, Howie Mandel, Ryan Seacrest, and Heidi Klum. Like a group project in high school, they were assigned to come up with a way to work together and to do what they were nominated for: entertain the crowd while keeping the show moving. And just like high school, when presentation time came around, it became apparent that they hadn’t prepared, and were in fact, winging it. They claimed they couldn’t sort out who would do what, which isn’t really surprising given egos and the fact that they all tend to work best as individuals.

After the drubbing the Fatal Five of Hosting took this morning, they’ll be lucky if next year’s Outstanding Reality Show Host Emmy doesn’t get moved to the non-televised Technical Awards presentation. Their opening bit was an attempt at Seinfeldian humour with “The Nothing Bit”, which was 15 minutes of them talking over each other about how they had nothing prepared. It was awkwardly bad, like when you were watching those Muppet sketches where Fozzie Bear would do stand-up. And like those sketches on “The Muppet Show”, the humour came from the hecklers, as many of the celebrity presenters started using the opening as a punchline by presenters throughout the night:

"What if I just kept talking for 12 minutes, what would happen?" Jeremy Piven asked while accepting an Emmy for playing the "Entourage" agent, Ari. "That was the opening."

Neil Patrick Harris: “Thanks To Howie Mandel's Prattling, Our Bit Has Been Cut”
Kristin Chenowith: “Bitter, party of two.”

And remember, those hosts drew a salary for that. It's their day-job.

Probst and Seacrest looked embarrassed, Mandel came off like a blowhard who couldn’t let anyone get a word in, leaving Klum and Bergeron to flounder out there.

The bit where Tom Begeron and William Shatner stripped down Heidi Klum, pulling her tearaway tux to reveal hotpants and a halter top, was just as uncomfortable and tasteless as it sounds. It left a bad aftertaste, and still lingered there two hours later when Brooke Shields and the usually reliably funny Craig Ferguson did a bit about how much Craig respected Brooke’s body of work, which ended with Brooke’s “punchline” of “Is that your hand on my ass?” Nothing says comedy like sexual harassment? Just awful, especially on a night when Glenn Close commended the smart funny women she was nominated with, or when the accomplishments of remarkable women like Tina Fey, Christina Applegate, Chandra Wilson, and Laura Linney should be lauded.

It took 30 minutes before anything remotely funny or entertaining happened, as Tina Fey and Amy Poehler kicked of the presentations and demonstrated how to BE PREPARED AND BE FUNNY. On accepting the Emmy for Best Supporting Comedy Actor, Jeremy Piven kissed Tina and Amy, and then kissed Amy’s baby belly, a funny moment which distracted me from the fact Neil Patrick Harris from “How I Met Your Mother” and Rainn Wilson from “The Office” were both robbed, in a season where these second bananas each got to show some humanity and nuance from these characters this season, and 3-time winner Piven’s show “Entourage” had a pretty bland season last year. At least Piven seems genuinely appreciative when he wins.

Now the job of a host is to keep the show moving, and as Jeff Probst admitted in his acceptance speech for Best Reality Show Host, the show was running long because of them. It snowballed all night, as sometime around the second hour it seemed like they stopped showing clips of the nominated shows and performances, and most of the presenters cut there introductions to allow the winners more time to speak.

Add in that the Emmys were really playing off the winners quickly, even cutting luminaries like Glenn Close short, and especially when anyone got vaguely political.

Amidst this blackhole of freedom of speech and comedy, there actually were some genuinely wonderful moments:

The night took an absurdly funny twist when presenter Ricky Gervais, upon seeing the clip where Steve Carrell picked up Gervais’s Emmy last year, said “Look at his stupid face”. He then turned to Steve Carrell in the audience, haranguing him until he relinquished the Emmy back to Gervais “I sat through Evan Almighty: give me my Emmy!” When Gervais went into the audience and threatened to tickle Steve Carell into giving him his Emmy, the director should have jumped on Gervais’s ear piece and said “Mr. Gervais, this is great. Would you actually mind taking the hosting duties from here?”

Many shows got awards that were disproportionate to the ratings they received. My beloved “30 Rock” was the big winner last night. Alec Baldwin won Best Comedy Actor, and the submitted clip was the classic Therapy Session which, when Randy and I first saw we proclaimed “That’s the Emmy for him”. Tina Fey cleaned house, winning awards for both acting and writing, as well as winning Best Comedy:

Fey actually won three awards, for producing, writing and starring in "30 Rock," and she gave three perfect speeches. For the writing trophy, she said "It's great to be a writer, because if you're at a wedding or something and you tell people you're a writer, they're less interested in talking to you than if you tell them you're an actor -- which is great." For the acting trophy, she thanked her parents "for somehow raising me to have confidence that is disproportionate to my looks and abilities. Well done, that is what all parents should do!" For the third and final speech after "30 Rock" won for best comedy, she plugged the show's premiere date and all the platforms where you can watch it. – Alan Sepinwall, NJ.com

And I did let out a cheer when Bryan Cranston took the Best Drama Actor trophy, for his starring role on “Breaking Bad” (AMC) as a science teacher with terminal cancer, who becomes a crystal meth dealer in order to provide for his family after his death. He’d been nominated 3 previous times in the comedy category for playing Dad on “Malcolm in the Middle” with no wins, so it was sweet to see “the restraining order has been lifted” as he got near his golden friend.

With the exception of “30 Rock” (NBC), none of the major networks made much of a showing in the trophies last night, as basic cable ruled the night. HBO’s John Adams mini-series made off with a 13 trophy haul, AMC’s “Breaking Bad” and “Mad Men”, HBO’s “In Treatment”, and FX’s “Damages” were the big winners. ABC took a beating: they spent 3 hours showcasing shows on the other networks, and the only trophy to go to a show on their network was Jean Smart’s Best Supporting Actress win for “Samantha Who?” and Best Direction to Barry Sonnenfeld, for the first episode of “Pushing Daisies”, a show which ABC studio execs bounced him from directing due to the costs he ran up. Karma sucks, don’t it?

And yet another Emmy mis-step, as the show jammed in as many 60th Anniversary clip packages as possible, but couldn’t find time to show clips of “Mad Men”, “Breaking Bad”, or “30 Rock”, all shows that while critically acclaimed, could really use the exposure and ratings boost that could come from the Emmys showing why these performances deserved awards. I say move the retrospectives to a separate one-hour special and highlight the current crop of shows.

Two of the biggest highlights came from the old school. Steve Martin, who got his start as a writer on “The Smothers Brothers Variety Show” in the 60s, was on hand to present a commemorative Emmy for writing to Tommy Smothers. The story goes that the show was so volatile politically that CBS cancelled it, essentially blackballing Smothers. Tom elected to leave his name off the writers list when they submitted to the Emmys that year and the show won the award. So 40 years later, he got the award he should have been a part of, giving an excellent speech that gave showed the 71 year old hadn’t lost touch with the world:

“There's nothing more scary than watching ignorance in action, so I dedicate this Emmy to all people who feel compelled to speak out, and not afraid to speak to power, and won't shut up, and refuse to be silenced'' - Tom Smothers

Another truly stirring moment occurred when self-professed D-List celebrity Kathy Griffin and 82 year old comedy legend Don Rickles came out to present. “GEETTTT UPPPPPPPPP!!!” Kathy Griffin commanded, as the shell-shocked audience smartened up and showed Rickles the proper respect with a standing ovation. And Don Rickles, 80-plus years old, hasn’t lost a step, first moved by the outpouring of appreciation, then doing what he does best, showing his disdain for the material the Emmys had been handing out and adlibbing his way into the biggest laughs of the night. Eventually Kathy urged him to get back to the script, to which he replied sarcastically "Yes, let's read these funny lines they wrote for us”, cackling at a scripted joke from Griffin that fell flat. At that point the wheels came off the show and I don’t recall any other presenters really making an effort to follow the teleprompter. And it was a brilliant reward for saving the night (yes really) when Rickles won an Emmy for Best Performance in a Variety or Music Program for “Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project”.

Josh Groban’s performance of a medley of 30 famous TV theme songs was goofy and fun, with Josh doing a very convincing Cartman during the South Park theme.

Just reading various articles on the post-Emmy fall out, here are some popular suggestions for future hosts, most based on who was actually funny and charming on the show:

• Steve Carell and Ricky Gervais
• Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert
• Kristin Chenowith and Neil Patrick Harris
• 5 Late Night Guys – Conan, Stewart, Ferguson, Kimmel, Colbert
• Don Rickles and Kathy Griffin
• a block of wood

And the ever popular write-in vote for Hugh Laurie, an engaging performer who Fox decided not to use last year, as they didn’t think the audience would “get” Hugh Laurie being naturally British when they were used to his American accent on his show “House”.

At any rate, at least consider bringing Conan O’Brien back, who last brought the funny by hosting in 2006. One of my favourite bits involved Don Rickles best friend, the equally legendary Bob Newhart. To encourage winners to keep the speeches short and to keep the show moving, Conan brought out Bob Newhart in a Plexiglas box, claiming that there was only 2 and a half hours of oxygen in the box, so if the show ran long, “Bob Newhart will die”. Cut to the expression on Bob’s face of “um, pardon me?”

And with that, we cut to your regularly scheduled programming.

Full list of winners of the 2008 Emmy Awards

Backstage coverage from Entertainment Weekly including some funny stuff from Tina Fey and Jeremy Piven

Two weeks until Nuit Blanche

It's that magical time of year when Nuit Blanche is upon us. The annual sunset to sunrise all night culture, arts, performance, and general cool stuff to see while vibrating on Red Bull festival is happening Saturday October 4th. It's all night, and all over the city from east to west, north to south. And did I mention free?



I had a blast last year, as evidenced by my bloggie photo essay The Night Starts Here - the2scoops . I managed to go from 10pm till 4:30am, so this year I'm going later and longer. Some of the more popular exhibits were pretty crowded during "tourist" hours from 9pm til 1am, but there's so much to see, it's easy to find something else to check out. Yorkville and Queen West got crowded, so I spent time in The Distillery District and University of Toronto until the crowds died down. TTC subway runs until 4am that night, so getting around is no problem. Transit day passes last all night, but sell out on the evening of the event (2 adults ride on one pass). Buy one ahead of time.

I suppose it's too much to hope that some of the exhibition streets are being closed to car traffic, more frequent TTC shuttles between sites, or Starbucks is offering free coffee from 1am - 4am (okay that last one isn't so plausible)

Official Nuit Blanche website with schedules

Kickstart My Heart Will Go On

After work I walked over to the pub, a path that takes me along Front Street in Toronto. Along the way I saw an interesting cross-section as people were heading to the two big shows in town: Celine Dion at the Air Canada Centre, and Motley Crue heading a bill at the Molson Amphitheatre.

Here's the kicker: only one of those shows is going to be serving alcohol to patrons. And it's Celine Dion.

Due to a liquor infraction last year, the Molson Amphitheatre's liquor license is suspended for tonight's Motley Crue concert. The last time something like this happened to a big show was at the Air Canada Centre for a Nine Inch Nails/Queens of the Stone Age show back in 2005.

The liquor store near the ACC looked like they sold out of pocket size bottles of booze that night.

For those service charges, the least you could do is remember my name

Something to ponder - everytime I put my ATM debit card in and type my pin code, the first thing i enter is what language I want. How come my account doesn't remember what i pick EVERY time and default to that language?

Made 2 Good Movies and 1 Bad Movie

Chris Sims calls this "the single greatest origin recap in the history of comics", in 6 little words:

That would have eliminated an hour out of that first Spider-Man movie.

via Caleb at Everyday is Like Wednesday

Radiohead in Montreal: Everything In Its Right Place

I've been trying to see Radiohead for 13 years, but every time something would come up to interfere, but circumstances always stopped me from being able to go. This time I made it happen, and had all the elements to make my first Radiohead concert a memorable experience. The beautiful outdoor setting of Parc Jean Drapeau; a rain storm that let up before Radiohead took the stage; I got to meet up with one of my oldest friends to see the show; they played a nice long show with 25 songs over 2 hours including the entirety of In Rainbows; fireworks exploded in the sky and we ended up spending most of the night watching the show with Montreal band The Arcade Fire. That's a good night in my book.



A few factors influenced me to see the show in Montreal rather than Toronto, first of which was the fact the Toronto show soldout in a few minutes and now scalpers were getting $200 for lawns. The Montreal show still had tickets, so that plus a bus ticket and I was ahead of the deal.

After 8 hours on the bus, I arrived in Montreal and met up with Nicole, her hubby Trevor, and friends. The show was outdoors at Parc Jean Drapeau, so of course it rained for hours before the show. Being seasoned pros, we brought raingear. Being more seasoned then I am, Nicole brought her custom made Radiohead poncho and her rubber boots, a very popular fashion accessory that day.

The rain had been pouring as we came out of the subway. As we made out way in, the rain slowed. As we waited for Radiohead to take the stage, the rain slowed to a light drizzle, and a double rainbow could be seen. It seemed we were truly In Rainbows.

As the sun went down, Radiohead takes the stage and everything from start to finish was a favourite - great sound out there in the field and mud, and a fantastic light show. To the left and right of the stage were screens showing feeds from cameras all over the stage.

Radiohead are: (left to right) Ed O'Brien (guitar, backing vocals), Thom Yorke (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, piano, electronics), Colin Greenwood (bass guitar, synthesisers), Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, other instruments), Phil Selway (drums, percussion).

Nicole and I got separated looking for a good spot to view the show. She calls me on the cell to say she had a good spot farther back. A paradox, I know, but when I got there, there's Nicole and friends, standing next to Montreal's own The Arcade Fire, one of our favourite bands. They were keeping a low profile and were watching the show with the rest of us. We decided not to hassle them by fawning over them, praising how great their music is and how cool it is that musicians like Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, U2, Radiohead and Coldplay are fans of theirs. It’s the Canadian in me, I don’t hassle celebrities if they’re not drawing attention to themselves (drunkenly accosting Richard E Grant on Queen Street aside: "Ohmygod you're Withnail!").

I love every song on In Rainbows, and I whooped every time they dove into their back catalogue, playing a few unexpected tunes like "My Iron Lung" from The Bends. "My Iron Lung" is their answer to the over-exposure they experienced from "Creep", their first hit. It became an anchor around their necks. You’d get a bit sick of everyone demanding you “play the hit”, feeling defined by just the one song. According to Nicole they don't dip into their first album Pablo Honey much anymore. Shame, as I have a lot of affection for tunes like "Stop Whispering" and "You".

Some point around the 9th song of the set, a fireworks display started going off on the other side of the park (some international competion we think), as in "not part of the show". I remember at one point Thom said something along the lines of "They spent so much money on fireworks, the least they could do is put them at the fucking end darlings... and in time."


So at the start of the encore Colin and Thom played "Faust Arp" from In Rainbows. The fireworks were still going off every few minutes. This time they went off and Thom missed some lyrics while having what may have been a giggle fit. Nicole has the video up here.

I have to order one of their Tour t-shirts. There were a number of black t-shirts with faded multi-coloured lettering with different sayings. Two stand-outs were:

'/_ YOU'LL GO TO HELL /FOR WHAT YOUR DIRTY_MIND I/S THINKING'

and

'YOU/USED TO _BE A_LRIGHT WHAT /HA_PPENED ?'

They played classics like "Paranoid Android", "Fake Plastic Trees" and "Lucky", they played "National Anthem". By the time they got to "Karma Police", I was in heaven.

One of my favourite images from the screen, near the end of the concert a black and white Thom Yorke sings to us from the night.

Radiohead closed the show with "Everything In Its Right Place". And at the end of the night, it was, as we wandered off with smiles on our faces and humming songs all the way.

Links:
All videos and photos are under a creative commons license… attribution, no derivitives, noncommercial. Any other uses, drop me a line and we'll talk. Thanks!

Flickr Photoset of my Radiohead in Montreal pictures

YouTube links for some videos I took, plus the one Nicole got:

Faust Arp - Thom gets the giggles - Radiohead - Live in Montreal 08-06-08 (Nicole's):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_1c62M0Fq4

Paranoid Android - Radiohead - Live in Montreal 08-06-08:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFALQrYZ-1w

Lucky - Radiohead - Live in Montreal 08-06-08:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUVW71ETnsk

National Anthem - Radiohead - Live in Montreal 08-06-08:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKw9hC54Od8

Fake Plastic Trees - Radiohead - Live in Montreal 08-06-08:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ju84aF8BaI

Amnesiac

I'm home and sleepy after the Radiohead show - such a fantastic, funny night. I go to the show, wondering if Radiohead's friends, Montreal's own The Arcade Fire would make an appearance, and they did of a sort. Nicole, hubby, Allie and I were standing amongst Win Butler and most of the band all night, out in the middle of the crowd. They looked like they were there to enjoy the show and keep a low profile, so we didn't compare notes with them or anything. It's the Canadian in me, we don't tend to harass folks. Add in some ill-timed fireworks that caused Thom to have a bit of a giggle fit mid-tune and it was an amusing night.

I'll do a full write-up later, but for now care of ateaseweb here's the set list. It was so good, with some gems from each album (except for Pablo Honey - Nicole mentioned they don't dip into that first disc too much anymore) provoking many "Is that... it is! Whoo hoo!" moments.

http://www.ateaseweb.com/2008/08/06/radiohead-live-in-montreal-live-report/

Setlist:
01. 15 Step
02. There There (Thom “Sorry about the rain it follows us around”)
03. Morning Bell
04. All I Need
05. My Iron Lung
06. Nude
07. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
08. The Gloaming
09. The National Anthem (Fireworks going off at nearby festival)
10. Fake Plastic Trees
11. Reckoner
12. Like Spinning Plates
13. Jigsaw (Thom :If you’re feeling cold you can always grab someone next to you. Then Phil went to hug Colin)
14. Lucky
15. Optimistic
16. Idioteque
17. Bodysnatchers

Encore 1
18. Faust Arp
19. Videotape (Thom: “”There’s always money for fireworks, the least they could do is put them at the fucking end”)
20. Paranoid Android
21. Bangers and Mash
22. Karma Police

Encore 2
23. House of Cards
24. You And Whose Army?
25. Everything In Its Right Place

Kid A

As the bus passes the area where i was born, the beautifully
melancholy Tom Waits song "House Where Nobody Lives" plays. Ever feel
like you had a soundtrack?
(Note: maybe not. Next song was Summer of 69. That's pretty jarring.)

In Rainbows

We're pulling into Montreal as Radiohead's Reckoner comes on my
headphones. Just a few hour til the show. I'm a long time Radiohead
fan, but this is my first concert. Something always came up. Hope this
much effort makes up for all the other times.

O.K. Commuter

Bus makes a pit stop in Kingston. Timbits and iced tea to get me through the other half. Remembered that on any road trip, never pass a chance to stretch the legs. Last 2 songs on ipod are Nada Surf - Hi Speed Soul, Black Flag - Rise Above

Radiohead in Montreal

Why am i going to see Radiohead in Montreal? Toronto sold out quick,
and with scalpers charging $200 for lawns, a bus ticket and my show
ticket still keep me ahead of the deal. Bonus is a meet up with my
good friend Nikita. More later- sent from phone.

"Organic Firewood for sale"

I'm back from Hillside Festival, dry and happy. I can't begin to tell you how much fun it was - great performances, delicious variety of food, a community atmosphere. I'm tied up for today, bu