I never watch this show but it was fun to see how a live taping works and watch young singers have their dreams realized or crushed. Highlight of the show however was getting to sit 50 feet from Britney Spears! Here's a video of the judges walking out. They made us put our phones away after that.
People are not used to the snow here in Austin, Texas. The city gets half an inch and practically shuts down. That's partly because it has only 15 "snow trucks" (actually just dump trucks with sanders and plows slapped on). That's one per 47,000 residents. Here's some of the local TV news coverage of the "storm":
On Thursday night, everyone was waiting in anticipation.
Then the snow fell and people forgot ice was slippery.
A lot of people took the day off and went sledding on the "snow". (I enjoy this reporter's good ol' Texas gumption.)
And then it froze up last night and people were warned to stay inside.
Canadians are sometimes forced to wait for American TV shows or movies to appear north of the border. But the opposite is true for the epilogue of the long-running and totally fucking awesome Canadian comedic mockumentary TV/movie series: The Trailer Park Boys.
Countdown to Liquor Day was released in Canadian theaters last September. American fans have been waiting on edge for the US release date of the DVD, which just so happens to be THIS TUESDAY. It is available for pre-order on Amazon, but a customer service agent told me that means it will be shipped on February 23; it does not mean it would arrive on Tuesday.
Happily, the people at Best Buy are finally doing something right and stocking this thing on Tuesday. We'll be at the fucking door.
If you have not heard of The Trailer Park Boys, I urge you to give it a shot. You can buy the complete series or watch full episodes on YouTube (or find it another way). It all started in 1999, when Creator Mike Clattenberg wrote and directed a low budget mockumentary about a pair of liquor drinking, pot smoking, petty criminals and debuted in at Canada's Atlantic Film Festival.
Eleven years later, The Trailer Park Boys has spurned seven TV seasons, a couple TV specials, and two movies. It has also inspired a legion of rabidly loyal fans who obsess about the show on web forums.
If you've never seen TPB, you might think the show is based on laughing insensitively at the socioeconomically disadvantaged. And in a way I guess it is. But that's not all it is.
The characters are not one dimensional. They feel human. And they are relatable. Growing up in a small town in the mountains of western Canada, I felt like the characters on the Trailer Park Boys were an amalgam of people I actually knew, and maybe even included a part of myself. They are believable. And they have heart.
The Trailer Park Boys also boasts some great Canadian actors. Ellen Page, now famous in the US because of Juno, got an early start as a character on the show. Barrie Dunn, who plays the hard drinking cheapskate Ray on TPB, is in real life a Canadian TV producer, actor, and a practicing attorney.
One of my favorite characters is Jim Lahey, the uber-hammered manager of the Sunnyvale Trailer Park. Lahey is played by Canadian theater veteran John Dunsworth (his daughter Sarah is also on the show). Dunsworth proves his acting skills by turning a character who should be a depressing alcoholic into a hilarious clown:
But the main focus of the show is Ricky, Bubbles and Julian. They're just three friends looking to swindle enough cash to have an early retirement. And sometimes the law catches up with them.
Anyway, I could ramble on about this show forever. If you like Canadian trivia, drinking, and low brow humor, you should watch the last eleven years of The Trailer Park Boys from beginning to end. You can thank me later.
Tomorrow is Liquor Day in America.
My dad's friend sent me this. Canadian funnyman Michael Cera talks about his experience at a Vipassana meditation retreat. It's a practice my dad was into for decades. I used to have to hear about all the time growing up, so it's kind of weird to hear someone talk about an obscure meditation practice on this show.
I thought the show might include a huge stage production with sketches and elaborate costumes, but the Flight of the Conchords live show is really just Jermaine and Brett playing acoustic versions of the songs from their awesome TV show. They talk a bit and then play a song and then talk some more and then play another one. Their banter was particularly hilarious. Here's a taste of their show. Yeah, I know it's shaky video. It was being recorded surreptitiously.
Finally, the Canadians I laughed at through the winter get their revenge. After months of room temperature weather and clear blue skies, Austin is hot as shit and it's only May 8th!
Last Sunday, we didn't have much going on so we thought we'd go meet Rachael Ray at a local bookstore and have her sign our cookbook. The line was long as hell and contained exactly the type of middle America folks you'd expect would be fans of a chipper daytime talk show host who inspires seething hatred among sane people.
I had high expectations, that my prejudice against giggling robots would melt away once I experienced her warm personality first hand. My expectations were not met. And frustratingly, only children were allowed to take a picture with her. But I will confess, her cook book does contain some delicious recipes, even if many are needlessly complicated.
Canadian champions of low-brow comedy and marijuana advocacy -- Ricky, Julian and Bubbles -- are finally taking their movie south of the 49th parallel, hopefully to become a commerical explosion in America and permanently cement their legacy in celebrity famedom and cultural relevancy!
Dates and times have yet to be announced, but I pray they bring those 16 mm film reels to Austin. After all, the film made its U.S. debut right here at last year's South by Southwest festival. Alamo Drafthouse, are you listening?!
I'm heading to the Windy City for the weekend to visit my grandfather on his 80th birthday. I love Chicago, the few times I've been there at least, and one of the great opening scenes in television history captures the excitement of entering the city. I'm speaking of course of the intro to Perfect Strangers! Enjoy! I'll say hi to Barack for you.
I just found out the new season of what I consider to be the funniest show still on TV begins on September 9th! That's less than two weeks away. It will likely be available for download by September 10th. God bless HBO!
