Hestika

Sunday, September 14, 2008

UPDATE: Got the full-length one. "And I can see Russia from my house" has got to be one of the funniest lines ever.

The opening was fantastic. Tina Fay rocked Sarah Palin, right down to the voice/accent.

After that, it was fucking terrible until a fake T-mobile commercial (excellent) and one of Samberg's insane digital shorts (even more insane than usual; I liked it).

We went through entire skits without even a grudging giggle, and I couldn't help but wonder how did they got past Wednesday's review, much less to the actual show? I mean, I've read behind-the-scenes accounts of a typical week at SNL, and it's a brutally competitive environment. You start the with 100s of ideas that get pitched, and they slowly get whittled down to the ones that will make Saturday, and even then fully fleshed-out skits get axed at dress rehearsal just hours before the broadcast. So how the fuck are these duds the winners?

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Plans for next summer

Must go to TAM.

That sounds like my cup of tea... and it's in Vegas!

We're all gonna die

Hey, the LHC has webcams!

Heh.

I'm dying over here

A little UB40 faux-reggae, a little Bosstones bass-line, a bit of Madness in the rhythm, and you have... this?

They call me... Angelos Tzelepis Smith

Your Gubmint - A Farce

A Quebec businessman whose name is one of the many that have erroneously landed on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's flight passenger watch list has decided to change his name to avoid lengthy security hassles at the airport.

Mario Labbé, an executive with a Montreal-based record company, says his Canadian passport triggers a red alert on the computers of U.S. customs agents every time he tries to board a flight to the U.S. — which is about once a month for the past seven years.

"I was pulled aside in a room ... and you have to wait your turn to finally be released," Labbé said. "An hour, an hour and a half, two hours, whatever it is after. Once I was caught in Miami like that for six hours.

"It's always the same questions, about if I've lost my passport, if I've been to Japan — I don't know why Japan, but in their file it was something to do with Japan."

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security wrote a letter to Labbé in 2004, saying he had been placed on their watch list after falling victim to identity theft. At the time, the department said there was no way for his name to be removed.

Although Labbé wrote letters to the U.S. department, his efforts were in vain, prompting him to legally change his name. "So now, my official name is François Mario Labbé," he said. "Then you have to change everything: driver's license, social insurance, medicare, credit card — everything."

Although it's not a big change from Mario Labbé, he said it's been enough to foil the U.S. customs computers.

I look forward to one of my wingnut acquaintances trying to tell me how we're safer in any way.

UPDATE: Needlenose gives us this work of art:

If you don't vote, you're a moron

Craig Ferguson rocks. His 20-30 minutes of riffing to open the show is definitely the best part of any of the late-night programs. I really want to see one of his cue cards, if he even has any. It seems like there are two or three ideas written down, and after that, who knows what's going to happen.

I'd never seen him get remotely serious though, until Wednesday night. Here it is.