Joanna Newsom in Armani; image courtesy of wmagazine.com

So W just dropped news that Joanna Newsom has a proper follow-up to Ys and the subsequent Joanna Newsom and the Ys Street Band EP, the particulars to which twentyfourbit.com elaborated, all of which I know about thanks to GRCA’s Emily Marks.

Now, I’m not sure why it’s taking her so long to make another full-length, which I’m assuming Drag City is releasing. Some might speculate that her hiatus might be due to her relationship with SNL’s Andy Samberg. And while I have no problem with giving Samberg a good feminist hard time, I’m not entirely sure if her absence can be attributed to playing house. With recent appearances in trendy fashion magazines like W, much as she did earlier in her career with publications like PAPER, I think it might have something to do with playing dress-up.

The boys of Lonely Island with their dates at the 61st Annual Primetime Emmy Awards; image courtesy of aceshowbiz.com

Yikes! I realize those last two sentences might have infantilized the singer, something choruses of music critics do any time they call her voice “child-like.” What I mean is that Newsom has been mingling in the fashion world. Perhaps it’s no surprise that a long-haired, full-lipped, leggy white lady recording artist can get designers to take notice. However, I find it particularly interesting who she’s syncing up with, how this might help construct her image, and what all this might suggest about the commodification of indie. Because she’s not just putting on Armani. She’s friends with Rodarte, waxing pretentious about the collaborative process and wearing their designs to in-the-know, downtown fêtes. 

Joanna Newsom representing Rodarte's Fall 2008 collection; image courtesy of obsoleteantics.blogspot.com

Sisters Kate and Laura Mulleavy, who created a label honoring their mother’s maiden name, Rodarte, have made quite a splash in the fashion world and on the red carpet over the past few years. They seem like cool ladies with whom I’d definitely want to watch some movies. Yet I’m still on the fence about their decidely avant-garde design aesthetic. I almost like a lot of it, but it gets way too drapey and twee at times — particularly when factoring in the cost.

Natalie Portman and Reese Witherspoon’s dresses for the 2009 Oscars were vivid shades of pink and blue, but the knotty bodice patterns and woozy detailing made me a bit nauseous. Similar situation with the dress Tilda Swinton wore for a premiere of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – loved the color palette, wanted to rip off the sleeves. And in theory, I like the Rodarte sweater Kristen Stewart wore in last January’s Teen Vogue, but in actual practice, I have a hunch that I could find some moth-eaten angora free of charge if I just brave the family attic. 

Cute sweater or is Kristen Stewart just wearing the empress's new cardigan?; image courtesy of flickr.com

That said, I like that Rodarte work with retailers like the Gap and Target to make their clothes more accessible and affordable. And they have made some killer, coveted items that I’d snap up if I had the money.

Reese Witherspoon's minty fresh Rodarte minidress; image courtesy of girladvantage.com

Michelle Obama wore a 2007 Rodarte dress to meet with Queen Rania in April 2009; image courtesy of paulrfrost.blogspot.com

But Newsom and Rodarte seems an interesting match. Though musicians pairing up with designers is nothing new (see also: Cher and Bob Mackie, Madonna and Jean-Paul Gaultier, Courtney Love and Christina Aguilera representing Versace, M.I.A. representing Marc Jacobs), something seems pretty perfect with the alignment here. Perhaps with the three ladies’ talk about collaborative processes, we’ll get to see a Newsom-designed collection, as we did with Chloë Sevigny’s 2008 collection for Opening Ceremony.

Chloë Sevigny models her own designs for Opening Ceremony, convincing this blogger that t-shirts can be successfully paired with strapless dresses; image courtesy of stylefrizz.com

This pairing might be read alongside what commercial ventures Newsom has entertained. In an era that has seen many independent artists rely upon advertising and television shows to get their music heard, Newsom’s music has been featured in several places. Often she has elected that her music be used in documentary work. However, The Milk-Eyed Mender’s “Sprout and the Bean” was featured in Victoria’s Secret’s Dream Angels ad campaign. Note that her voice is not heard in this spot.

Or it could be that a dress is just a dress. Which is fine too. But while I’m excited about hearing Newsom’s new album, I’ll have two labels on my mind when it comes out: Drag City and Rodarte.

I stopped thinking these were funny after the “Iran so Far” one with the dude from Maroon 5. They seemed like they were trying to hard and it just wasn’t working for me. I decided to watch this one this morning and I actually liked it. Hilarious if you ask me.

After a, somewhat, disappointing season of SNL so far, the show has been able to crank out some amazing things like the Digital Short below.

Update: Video works now. NOW GO WATCH IT!

This video and song makes my heart happy. I wish the writers can make quality skits like that all the time.

“Hangin’ like my nuts” makes me laugh every – single – time.

Enjoy

The Lonely Island are awesome! They yet again threw down a sick beat!

Hulu

After the disaster that was the January Jones Saturday Night Live debacle, Joseph Gordon-Levitt swooped in and hosted a truly legendary show. It was clear from his opening monologue that we were in for an evening of delight. I implore Lorne to invite “Joe” back for hosting duties as soon as humanly possible.

Here is one of the classic skits from last Saturday’s episode featuring a shockingly believable Ozzy Osbourne played by the famously mellow Dave Matthews:

Hemp Necklace.

Andy is just wrong for this one.  I would like to now what Reba Mcentire’s thought are about Kenan Thompson impersonating her in this digital short.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW

Inspired by Ron and Judi Barrett’s beloved children’s book of the same name, CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS follows inventor Flint Lockwood (voice of Bill Hader) and brainy weathergirl Sam… Inspired by Ron and Judi Barrett’s beloved children’s book of the same name, CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS follows inventor Flint Lockwood (voice of Bill Hader) and brainy weathergirl Sam Sparks (voice of Anna Faris) as they attempt to discover why the rain in their small town has stopped while food is falling in its place. Meanwhile, lifelong bully Brent (voice of Adam Samberg) relishes in tormenting Flint just as he did when they were kids, and Mayor Shelbourne (voice of Bruce Campbell) schemes to use Flint’s latest invention–a device designed to improve everyone’s lives–for his own personal gain. Mr. T. voices by-the-books cop Earl Devereaux, and James Caan voices Flint’s technophobe father, Tim.

Space Chimps è un film d’animazione del 2008 diretto da Kirk De Micco.

Leggi altre notizie su: | Kirk De Micco | Andy Samberg | Cheryl Hines | Patrick Warburton

So, apparently people are freaking out a little bit that unfriend is the 2009 Oxford Word of the Year. I suppose that it is a little disappointing that we have to refer to Facebook in order to find new words. But the criteria for the Word of the Year was just that it had to to be new or newly popular, and that it had to have some longevity and linguistic currency. I think unfriend fits well (although I usually use the derivation defriend). It is quite popular, considering the upwelling of individuals on Facebook (my mom, my pastor, Dustin’s grandmother…You name it). It is quite demanding to expect that the Word of the Year is going to be some beautiful new adjective or verb, considering that the vocabulary of the language is pretty much set, with the exception of new technological terms. However, I don’t know if friend has ever been chosen as a Word of the Year or a finalist…I think that friending someone is a more popular verb than unfriending them. The Christian Science Monitor just put out an article entitled, “‘Unfriend’ as word of the year? Is 2009 so cold?”. It’s true…we have gone cold. I occasionally go on Facebook “de-friending” sprees, where I delete all of those people I felt bad about not accepting to be my friends, but I don’t really know them and never interact with them on Facebook.

Oh, and can I just quickly state something about Facebook etiquette? I don’t care that you play Farm-Ville or Uno, or take a bazillion quizzes…But could you please not post them as a status update? I don’t care who’s sheep you found or what your new high score is…It makes Facebook a very distracting place, kind of diluting its stalking-pleasurability. To find out if someone dumped someone else, I have to sift through a gazillion people’s posts! I have become a Twitter-convert.

Quite frankly, I got more joy out of the Oxford spokesperson using the word lex-appeal to describe why they chose unfriend. LEX-APPEAL IS AN AWESOME TERM.

And also related to the field of linguistics…Andy Samberg as Ras Trent. Hilarious. My friend Kim showed this in a presentation about Language and Crossing in my Language and Identity class.

As part of my quest to get nominated for world’s worst professor, last month I actually coached a group of students through a procedure I call “Business Stalking.” This is where you have a target (someone you want to speak with/stalk), determine where they are going to be speaking,  and then you rush the stage afterwards.  Since this time I’ve received many emails, specifically referring to “business stalking” which was probably five  minutes of a two hour talk.  And I realized, really, really clearly: It’s about packaging.

Below I list my top 5 observations about effectively packaging content based on:

• Doing it.
• Years of consulting and teaching to people who are/can be very picky (big organizations, 18 year-olds).
• My background as an award-winning curriculum developer…oh…wait…okay…they are telling me the scrawled crayon star from my kids does not constitute a real “award.” Dang.

Other sources of inspiration from this post are:  Writing for Maria Shriver’s site, advice from amazing mentors, the - The Four Hour Work Week, uber-talented designerDonald Bullach who recently – kid you not – did our high school reunion memory book in what is EASILY the coolest high school reunion memory book EVER.

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What is this, where I am, who are you? If this is your first time here, this is the insider’s blog for The Hot Mommas Project. We are a women’s leadership project housed at the George Washington University School of Business in DC and have an audacious goal of becoming a million dollar venture/organization…while being led by a mom working part time. Our big thing right now is the Hot Mommas Project Case Study competition. Click here to nominate someone.  Click here for about page.

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The Top 5 of Packaging Content

1. Credibility. And you are….and you’re with? The Law of Superlatives. Right out of the gate you’ve got to answer the question, “Why should someone listen to me?” Superlatives create credibility. In this new economy crowded with messages and free agents, it is critical to make sure you are REMEMBERED. And, no, it should not be for your criminal record. Here is an example: The Hot Mommas Project (aside from being named “The Hot Mommas Project”) is “The world’s largest library of teachable role models for women and girls.”  What’s the superlative one can associate with you?  In what area are you the best, fastest, biggest, etc.?   Another angle is to crunch some numbers for the wow factor.  How many clients have you successfully placed? How many thousands of dollars worth of media impressions have you generated for your client?  When I ran a consulting firm full of the original “Hot Mommas” consultants, I advertised our 94 perent success rate in helping clients plan their annual goals in one day. The bottom line is: If you’re not special, make a placeholder and go out and find something that makes you special. Yes, you can actually do that. Specific sections of Tim Ferriss’s Four Hour Work Week are very helpful on this topic.

For the ladies – special note: Superlatives may, at times, resemble bragging which can be a tricky one for women. There is a good deal of research indicating women  are not always strong self-marketers. (I teach about this in my class. Yes, it’s true and yes, it’s a big deal.)  So put on your big girl undies, move through the list below, and get pep talks from advisors and friends where you need them. Guys, you too (except the big girl undies part…not that there’s anything wrong with that).

2. Story –  ”Here to There.” Make the superlative even more impressive by pairing it with your story. Robert Tuchman is a great example of this. His book agent contacts me, tells me about the $70 million dollar sports marketing company his client built, and wants to know will I review Robert’s new book Young Guns? It’s a “go” for me when I hear: 1) Robert was 25 when he started the company and 2) His first office was a one-bedroom apartment. The “here to there” quality is great on a story like Robert’s. His PR person clearly understands this. What is your “here to there” story? What constraints were you under when you built the company, product, etc.? It adds to the story, and people like stories. For instance, I built the Hot Mommas Project case library in seven months while working part-time. I am still not sure anyone actually cares about this fact, but, the idea of it is inherently appealing. America loves underdogs. America loves people who triumph in the face of adversity.

3. Organization – Make Little Bundles. We love little bundles. Not just because it is such a cute little word combo, we love it for two real reasons that will make your life easier:

a. If you have too much information – making little bundles helps you scale the informational K2 so to speak.

b. If you have very little information – making little bundles helps package what you DO have.

Examples: The Hot Mommas Project right now is SWIMMING in data. It’s too much. We have surveys, cases, more surveys. So what to do? I devise a three hour class on mentoring. I lay out the class plan, and what will be covered in each class. Next, I structure each class with intro, wrap up, lecture, and interactive exercises in each one hour module. Last, I run it by someone who gives me feedback, and helps me make it better. Then I get with a free conference call service and market it (see #4).

Note: Another good way to create little bundles is to Q&A with yourself. For instance, I might ask myself “Self, why is mentoring important?” Then, depending on how things are going, I might ask myself, “Why is mentoring particularly important for women?” Then, if I am feeling very bold, I might ask myself, ‘So, why should I care?” And so on and so forth. In general, this type of approach is helpful not just for media training, but for devising REAL PowerPoint presentations. I especially advise this approach to presentation creation if you’re a “Rambler.”

4. Market. You may be in charge of marketing. Even if you’re not, your CMO and Director of Marketing and their brother and sister and dog were probably just laid off, so it’s good to know how to market. I break this section into “Guerilla Marketing” and “Walking Upright.”

Guerilla Marketing. Here is an example of how I approached Guerilla Marketing Hot Mommas Project content this summer. Once you’ve got your little bundles, it’s time to market them. Boy, that sounds really bad.

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Guerilla Marketing Case study: Hot Mommas Project Summer Teleseminars

Courses tested: Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership I  and II, Virtual Mentoring, and “Getting to 5: How to Quantitatively Raise Your Work Life Balance Score.” Two of these generated the most interest…which do you think they were?

Guerilla Marketing Steps (post-content development): Here is the brain dump – Titling, title testing (on Twitter and site based on adjix.com clicks), post on site, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, email it to the Hot Mommas Project database, print a schedule on the back of my business cards, and post a big decal on my car [Gotcha : -) I would never put a decal on my car, only my husband deserves that type of humiliation for leaving the seat up and other atrocities]. I also posted on Teleseminar Nation, but got nothing from that.

Did you know – the SEO bonus factor? EventBrite was recommended to me by digital media firm iStrategyLabs. EventBrite has a double benefit of good SEO, so The Hot Mommas Project will be using that for event registration going forward. Press releases on 1888PressRelease.com - of which I’ve spoken in previous posts – also provide traffic. It crashed our site last year, in fact.

This process worked. So, if I wanted to “rinse repeat” and do more of it, I could. In transitioning to “Walking Upright,” I have:

• Plans to research Alex Mandossian who I’ve heard is the teleseminar guru.
• Plans to partner with Information Experts, and possibly Learning Tree International, to pilot their web training platform.
• Making the content pretty, relying on the brilliant  Donald Bullach, an uber-talented designer, and ideas from  ReBrand.com. Here are some other cool web designs.
• Begun to seek out event planners to see “how it would work” for a larger Hot Mommas Project event which – to be honest – I have zero desire to plan but everyone seems to want one.
• Made a list of all the Guerilla Steps so my virtual assistant in India (not kidding) can help me with it.

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Walking Upright. Critically important is to have an eye on the big prize. Who goes BIG with content? How did that happen? Do you have any connection to them or people who know that model? I know from personal experiences with major business speakers that even THEY don’t always know the best model and are continually figuring it out. I’ll hear one famous speaker say “I need to get on Twitter and Facebook more” and hear another one say, “The book company is not doing a great job of making sure critical masses are at my speaking engagements” or “My PR company is not getting me the coverage I need.” So, just realize that even Goliaths struggle with it too. I am looking at the three models below in developing my “walking upright” marketing strategy.

5. Economics. This is where the walking upright crowd has it. For the economics to work with content, you must seriously have your act together. I certainly did NOT when I first started writing Hot Mommas Project cases. When we started winning awards people said, “Are you going to sell the cases like at Harvard Business School?” I tried that approach for about – ummm – 6 weeks and “threw it on the ground!”

Currently, I see three realistic economic models for expert content:

A. Publishing and Entertainment. This is what my mentor Amy Millman calls the Martha Stewart “Omnimedia Model.” It’s the job of people in publishing and entertainment to know: a. What people want and b. To give it to them. They push content out there to as many people as possible, and then sell advertising around the promise of reaching that customer base. Martha Stewart started with a magazine and worked up and out from there to the huge company Omnimedia. Magazine, show, product. What started as content has become a movement.

B. Conferences. If you’ve ever seen a top-notch event planner in action, it’s quite a sight to behold.  Business events and conferences typically get sponsors to cover the costs, and sell tickets to make a profit. Of course, it could go up or down in either direction with the sponsorship and ticket fees, but this is a good rule of thumb. Event planner calendars typically go out three or more years in advance. You’ve got to get up early in the morning if you’re going to run your own event. My personal preference is to let someone else run the event, and come in as a speaker. Look up the conferences and events in your area, contact them about speaking or being on a panel. In SXSW you can propose your own panel! In the massively walking upright category of conferences is HSM’s World Business Forum at which I was a featured blogger this past year. I am doing due diligence, behind my computer, and expect to be out from behind that computer speaking and making people less scared of women and our brains (us included!).

Note: For you perfectionists – Remember that even the pros experiment and test. Think “pilot” on TV, think “test market.” Don’t let doing things perfectly dissuade you from making progress. Even the big boys dip their toe in the water first.

3. Screwing everything up is the “Freemium” Model – Read more about that here in a  previous post. My friend in content management says, “Something for free, the rest for a fee.” This is pretty much the Freemium model.

PARTING THOUGHTS:

What is the difference between a cheesy salesman and you? Credibility. Use your brain and know your stuff.Learn and practice. Bring others into it at every step. As Hot Mommas Project case author Yana Berlin says, “A leader is nothing without her followers.”  Are your points resonating?

Not quite there yet? If you don’t have your supreme-being content yet, you can still become familiar with these guerilla tools: Twitter, Facebook, and SEO. More on press and buzz here.

The focus factor. Oh, yeah, BTW – I’m supposed to be writing a book right now. Yes. So, here is another rule of content development: FOCUS PEOPLE! I’m hoping to produce a little mini bundle like this, taking inspiration from Rohit Bhargava.

Related links:  Must-reads. Word on the street is this will change your thinking about the relevance of your voice.

Groundswell (Blog) – Winning in a World Transformed By Social Technology

33 Million People in the Room - How to Create, Influence, and Run a Successful Business with Social Networking

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Know a dynamic woman over the age of 18? Nominate her to be a role model and tell her story at www.HotMommasProject.org. Emailsupport@hotmommasproject.org with your nomination.

Want to let someone know you believe in them? Sponsor a case writer with your nomination. Every $25 allows a case to be permanently archived on our educational site. Mention your nominees name and email in the PayPal note.

Oddly enough, this week we saw another set of “so-and so-celebrity is totally irrelevant” jokes.  Last week it was Charlie Rose, this week it’s Adam Duritz of the Counting Crows.  Apparently Saturday Night Live and The League writers think alike, but the question remains Who Told It Best?

Andy Samberg, Saturday Night Live:

Ruxin, The League:

I wasn’t going to open this up for voting because like I’ve explained before, I don’t like The League.  But it’s a new show and I’ve only seen 1 episode, so I’m open to your thoughts.

So, Taylor Swift hosted SNL last weekend, and i just watched the entire episode. She’s AWESOME! (and Andy Samberg is AWESOME too )

Check out her SNL monologue song here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlm79jv5TIY

Check out the trailer for Fireligth here :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xupGGf18xPM

Check out her T.R.A.A.A.P.D (Teens Raising Awareness About Awful Parent Drivers) skit here :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw7RrJCHqZE

Personal Stylist
When you truly know you’re famous

(Andy Samberg)

Picture by: RamonaQ Caption by: meagimoo via Poster Builder

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This awful character — Penelope — encapsulates the wretchedness that is Kristen Wiig. A character who’s completely annoying for no good reason other than to show everyone how talented Kristen Wiig is because she can speak quickly or something. Just unwatchable and awful.

You know how really popular recurring characters on Saturday Night Live get a big cheer from the audience whenever they arrive (Matt Foley, Opera Man, Church Lady, Mary Catherine Gallagher)? Yeah, Penelope’s arrival barely gets a “Woo hoo!” on the audience meter. Pathetic.

SNL at it’s pretty funniest:

Music video and a sketch.. all rolled into one:

The past couple weeks I worked on commercials for SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE. Its been a cool experience with great people.

Week 1: Swine Fever.

Overall, I thought Taylor Swift did a pretty good job last night as both the host, and musical act on Saturday Night Live.

The opening monologue was a little goofy but the skits involving Kate Gosselin and Twilight (for those of you who love Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart) were actually pretty funny.

I was a little surprised at the lack of reference to the Kanye West incident because there were some great opportunities for sketches, but I’ll survive

What did you think of her performance?

From the Wall Street Journal:

Taylor took the stage for the opening monologue in a glittery black dress and, playing a guitar, performed a comic tune called “Monologue Song (La La La).” In the number, she took a lyrical swipe at Joe Jonas, her ex-boyfriend, and sang “and if you’re wondering if I might/ be dating the werewolf from “Twilight”/ I’m not going to comment on that in my monologue.”

The singer appeared in a segment sending up “The View”-she played guest host Kate Gosselin, complete with the reality mom’s famously asymmetrical hairdo. “My hairdresser was halfway through giving me ‘The Rachel’ when his blowdryer exploded on the back of my head,” Swift as Gosselin said, explaining the genesis of her hairstyle.

Swift appeared in a lot of skits, and she had her moments in most of them. She had a funny, crazy laugh in a bit about being interviewed by manipulative celebrity reporters. In another segment she played a teen, fed up with all the talk about “Driving While Texting,” who starts campaigning against the dangerous things that parents do, including “Driving While Arguing with the GPS” and “Driving While Singing Along To a Song You Don’t Know the Lyrics To.”

Last night Taylor Swift was nothing but cute and funny on Saturday Night Live. She started out the show with her monologue song where she took aim at Joe Jonas for breaking up with her over the phone, Kanye West for stealing her VMA moment and gave a shout out to rumored boyfriend Twilight hunk Taylor Lauttner. The majority of the monologue was pretty much an ‘In You Face” to Joe Jonas, letting him know that yeah you broke with me, but as you can see I’m doing just fine.

Taylor also portrayed Kate Gosselin on a The View sketch which was alright. Kristen Wiig was the highlight of that sketch. But it was 3 sketches that Taylor was just bringing the laughs.

The SNL Digital Short was a spoof of the Twilight movies. It was a trailer for the upcoming movie called Firelight. Taylor portrayed the Bella character who fell in love with Franken played by Bill Hader who accidentally choked people and was terrified by fire.

Taylor joined SNL’s most under used cast member Kenan Thompson in his Scared Straight sketch. Kenan and Taylor both played convicts from the men’s prison who the police use to get teenagers to see what the potential consequences of their actions would be if they kept on the path they were currently on. Taylor didn’t really have much dialogue in this http://wompwompwomp.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post-new.phpsketch but her corn rows and goatee were enough for me. Kenan, as always, was hilarious. Even Bill Hader thought so.

Taylor stood out on the Bunny Business sketch. This sketch was promoting the soundtrack for the upcoming movie Bunny Business which had musical acts singing songs for the movie. Fred Armisen portrayed Randy Newman, Kristen Wiig portrayed Natelie Merchant, Kenan Thompson portrayed Jennifer Hudson, Bill Hader Abby Elliott and portrayed Eddie Veder and Christina Augillera and Andy Samberg portrayed Adam Duritz, the lead singer of The Counting Crows. But it was Taylor Swift that stole the scene with her amazing impression of Shakira.

SNL strikes again! This time, with a brilliant and hilarious parody of twilight, with Taylor Swift as Bella. Words cannot describe, one just must watch.

As good a comedy about male friendship as I’ve seen, I Love You, Man captures the essence of relationships with brilliant comic timing and hilarious dialogue. Directed by John Hamburg, this is a movie that pokes fun at what it means to be a grown-up male in a time where strong friendships are hard to come by. The plot is actually quite original, too, and the performers have tremendous chemistry together.

Connection is important, of course, and it works in spades with I Love You, Man. Stars Paul Rudd and Jason Segel have worked together in two Judd Apatow projects and have displayed natural chemistry, especially during those hilarious surfing sequences in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. And Hamburg worked with Segel on Apatow’s Undeclared TV show, furthering the behind-the-scenes connections. Due to the comfort the performers have with one another, the film itself naturally becomes a very snug prospect.

Rudd stars as Peter Klaven, a real estate salesman in the high end of the business. He has just gotten engaged to Zooey Rice (Rashida Jones) and has got things working quite well. Zooey, naturally, calls all of her friends with the news of the engagement and, as the process carries itself out, Peter realizes that he has a shortage of friends to call his own. It turns out that he has dedicated all of his time and energy to his relationships with women in life and, as Peter’s brother Robbie (Andy Samberg) explains, his friends have “fallen by the wayside.”

Thus begins a hilarious mission to find some friends. Peter hits all the angles searching for a platonic relationship and ends up in some interesting predicaments, proving that it’s actually pretty difficult to make friends in this day and age when there are no strings attached. He eventually gives up on the whole thing, only to meet Sydney (Segel). Peter and Sydney strike up a friendship almost immediately and go through all of the awkward complications of getting close as two heterosexual males. This leads to, of course, a bit of trouble that all gets resolved neatly by the time the credits roll.

Rudd knocks this movie out of the park as a charmingly clueless guy trying to be cool to gain friends. There’s nothing wrong with Peter, of course, and his reason for not having other close male friends is simply by accident of circumstance. Opportunities for male companionship have vanished in favour of Sunday HBO nights and other special experiences with Zooey and other women in his life, which is something I found myself personally relating to.

I Love You, Man makes great comedy out of the awkwardness felt between two men pursuing a new platonic relationship. There is this strange societal implication that we are supposed to be set in our friendship ways by the conclusion of high school and that we are damned to a life of acquaintances and office pals after that. It’s strange how hard it is for a straight man to walk up to another straight man for a conversation and maybe a beer, but what this film delivers actually rings true.

Segel is the perfect match to Rudd’s uber-sincerity and matches everything with this sort of freedom-laced comic timing. There are no rules in his world: his tiny dog shits where it wants to and he’ll take on the Hulk if he so pleases. Interestingly, though, the friendship that blossoms between Segel’s Sydney and Rudd’s Peter is delicate, natural and interesting beyond the typical “buddy” sort of way and it feels good, for once, to see a film depict straight male relationships without resorting to stereotypes.

In the end, I Love You, Man turns out to be a very funny, very heartfelt comedy just perfect for guys and girls trying to understand their guys. Friendship, especially in these days, is a hard thing for a man to wrap his head around sometimes. And as the advancing tide of life pulls us into different relationships and away from lifelong connections, it can be a vital shock to the system to find that one guy who, by hook or by crook, just showed up for the panini.

8.8/10

Trailer:

First things first, Julian Casablancas’ solo album, Phrazes for the Young came out this week, and amongst the amazingness is his cover of “I Wish it Was Christmas Today,” which is one of the better things to have happened on SNL in the last ten years. A clip that, sadly, because NBC is well-known for erasing it’s presence from YouTube, I can’t show you. But you CAN hear the song (and the album!) by clicking here.

Anywho, it was the song that Horatio sang with Jimmy Fallon, Chris Kattan and Tracy Morgan. It also spread to Easter and other holidays. I was fortunate enough to see it in person once (the Janet Jackson episode), and I almost died laughing.

Speaking of that episode and dying laughing: Remember the cork soakers sketch?

To the show! Taylor Swift is America’s sweetheart these days, so I guess it makes sense, but I never would have thought of her as someone who should Host/MG. Though with SNL being worse than awful these days, why not?

Also, OMG GUYS, I FOUND THE CHRISTMAS TODAY VIDEO! Don’t tell NBC!!! Considering Tracy’s recent comments about Chris Kattan (and Cheri O’Teri), it kind of makes that seem less cheerful.

Cold Open: We’re opening with Kristen Wiig as Greta van Susteren instead of an awful Fred as Barack impersonation, so already we’re up. Shep Smith is scary as hell. Even though this isn’t a Barack opening and that’s great, the intro to this sketch makes me think it’s going to be a very, very long and not so funny cold open. Obama is responsible for the death of Michael Jackson. Hee. Loving America is legal again! Thanks, Glenn Beck. I like this impersonation.

Monologue: Taylor Swift sure is tall. And wearing a really not cute dress. There is something oddly Demetri Martin-like in her delivery. She’s going to sing “The Monologue Song (La La)” She’s singing about things she’s not going to talk about in her monologue, like how she writes songs about ex-boyfriends. So, when is she going to bring up Joe Jonas? Oh, there she is. “Hey Joe, I’m doing really well.” Did she really just blow a kiss to Taylor Lautner in her monologue song? Ha. This is cutesy funny. This is like, Sonny With a Chance funny. And last time I checked, this was not the Disney channel. It was 11:30 on a Saturday. That’s okay! Because I enjoy both kinds of humour! Booyah! The suspect sketch looks more like T.I. then Kanye West. Hm. “We have a great show, Kanye West is not here.”

Carter N’ Sons BBQ: It’s important for everyone to know that this commercial was filmed in 2002 before the swine flu outbreak. Why? Because this is a commercial for Carter N’ Sons BBQ, where if you try their pulled pork, you’ll get SWINE FEVER! Swine fever IS NOT related to Swine Flu. It’s super contagious! Jason Sudeikis is all over this mother tonight. Don’t forget to try the Sausage and Ribs Combo! They recognize that this spells SARS. They regret the coincidence. Funniest commercial they’ve had all season.

The View: Taylor Swift is Kate Gosselin. “So what, who cares?” Nasim Pedrad is doing Barbara Walters. I like it. Gosselin also has a beautiful American hairstyle. There is a side view of the set right now, and Kristen (as Elizabeth Hasselbeck) is speaking directly to Kate Gosselin while not looking at her AT ALL, and maybe it’s part of the Hasselbeck impression that I just don’t understand as someone who has never seen an episode of the View, but if not, HOLY FUCK, KRISTEN, you’ve been on the show for a really long time now. GET USED TO CUE CARDS. (I recognize that I just wrote the longest sentence ever. Sorry.) I thought that the sketch was about to end, and instead they’re bringing out a guest. Andy Samberg as Nicolas Cage. And hey! Andy can do an impression!

Digital Short: This is very early in the ep for a digital short. It’s a movie trailer. And it’s mocking Twilight as Firelight. Twilight about Frankenstein. I would see this. Taylor Swift has the bad acting Kristen Stewart lip bite down pat. And now there are mummies! It would be awesome if that mummy were Taylor Lautner and not Andy Samberg. Oh well. I wish there was more of that.

Hollywood Dish Interview: Taylor is being interviewed by people with really exaggerated facial expressions. They nod like that so everyone knows their engaged and listening. Now they look frightened. Sight gags aplenty! Now they’re bringing up Kanye West and asking her to laugh more. Her crazy big fake laugh is scary. Bill Hader just spit taked all over Kristen Wiig’s face. That was fantastic. Spit takes are hilarious.

Next week January Jones with the Black Eyed Peas. As good as the Jon Hamm episode was last year, I think that January Jones is an extremely limited actress, and I’m not sure that I can handle watching her try to be funny for an hour and a half. And I DO NOT LIKE the Black Eyed Peas. Jones may pleasantly surprise me, though, as she was moderately funny in her Love, Actually cameo. Kind of.

T.R.A.A.A.P.D.: Oh yeah, I forgot about Abby Elliott. Taylor Swift is playing a gal named Samantha with a crazy retainer who wants everyone to know that teens who text while driving aren’t the only bad drivers. Teens Raising Awareness about Awful Parent Drivers is her organization. More Sudeikis and Wiig. They’re driving while giving the Birds and the Bees talk, racing to sweater sales at Nordstrom’s, arguing with the GPS, etc. Driving while having a sarcastic conversation with the car in front of you. Man, that’s me. All. the. time.

Taylor Swift “You Belong with Me”: I like this dress much more than her monologue dress. She can’t sing about how “She wears short skirts” when she’s wearing a short dress, can she? She is. Her voice isn’t as strong as I would expect. She’s singing very quietly, and it’s shaky. Lackluster, Taylor. Lackluster.

Weekend Update: Hi, Sethly. He just opened with perhaps my favorite WU joke this year. Let’s quote! “This week in a positive sign that the economy may be recovering, New Yorkers started buying big ticket items again, like elections and championships.” The health care reform bill passed the House vote. And.. Seth just said that. I’m glad that WU can break some news. I watched the vote. It made me feel all tingly inside. Nicholas Fehn! It’s been awhile.

Taylor Swift and SNL are trending right now on twitter. The teenies are mad!

hilsjonas Huh? RT @jonasnatasha Taylor Swift disses Kanye West and Joe Jonas ? And mocked Twilight ? What the fuck is going on with her ?

Teenies! Don’t curse!

Abby Elliott as Sarah McLachlan. Not shocking, as she played McLachlan in a sketch that was cut last year about the ASPCA commercials. And that’s exactly what they’re doing here. Reformat a sketch into an Update appearance. A woman has two vaginas and menstrual cycles? Oh geez.

OMG REALLY WITH SETH AND AMY OMG AMY WHAT AHHHHHHH.

I had stopped paying attention to read more Taylor Swift Twitter updates, so let’s rewind to find the premise. Ah, yes, the wonderful story of the CDC giving H1N1 vaccines to Goldman Sachs et al.

REALLY?! Are flu shots like bonuses now?

That wasn’t super funny, but it was still awesome. Ugh, I love them. Unabashedly.

Penelope: Oh God, not this character again. Why, why, why? Who would invite Penelope to a wedding? Will Forte, that is a crazy vest. Penelope has a salad bar in her car. It runs on blue cheese dressing. They keep saying really, and it’s distracting after “Really with Seth & Amy” just ended. The moon is made of honey! Swift’s Penelope impression was pretty on. She’s been really touch and go with the acting all night. But the sketches have been fairly amusing, and she’s not claiming to be an actress, so I’ll give her a pass.

Scared Straight: Ugh, ugh, ugh, another annoying recurring character. If Swift is not one of the kids, is she going to be a convict? Yes, yes, she is. She’s assisting Kenan’s McIntosh. And she has dreads. And lip gloss. Taylor Swift is so skinny. I just got really sleepy. I don’t think I can handle this right now. The movie plots he’s stealing tonight are Top Gun, Sound of Music and Back to the Future. How do you solve a problem like gonorrhea? Oh no, Bill is losing it. Bill always loses it in this sketch, doesn’t he? He has the best preventative face ever. It’s so hard to not laugh at Bill trying not to laugh. He instinctively goes to cover his mouth and realizes he cant do that, and it’s great. So great. 1.21 jizzawatts! Wow, now Jason is laughing. That came out of nowhere. And Bill is CRACKING UP.

Roommate: Nasim Pedrad is really close to her roommate. They don’t like to be apart for any period of time. It’s awkward. This sketch is so strange, and Taylor Swift has huge feet. Nasim Pedrad is kind of great. I hope she gets more to do. Cut some Kristen Wiig time.

Taylor Swift – “Untouchable”: Somebody just yelled “once again Taylor Swift!” even though the camera wasn’t on them at all and it seems like they weren’t ready. Was it Amy Poehler? Kind of sounded like her. Slow song. There are lit candles. I don’t like this song. Or her country prom dress.

Bunny Business: Bunnies with ambition! Randy Newman did the soundtrack, and now he’s singing the songs! Fred hasn’t been in the episode that much. Boo! Natalie Merchant. Randy Newman and Natalie Merchant. Old references for an episode that has played really, really young. Taylor Swift can do a pretty good Shakira. I’m impressed. She obviously can’t dance anything like her, though. Eddie Vedder and Christina Aguilera? Abby needs to stop singing. Seriously. Kenan as Jennifer Hudson. This is funnier than it should be.

Closing: This was the best episode of the season, which isn’t saying much. It played really young, which obviously makes sense given the host, but considering how genuinely awful the season has been, I want them to prove they can write sketches for adults again. Until then, impressing audiences with Disney Channel sketches doesn’t really fly. And not to sound too negative, because I actually did enjoy the episode. Taylor did a decent job. She was a much better host than musical guest. I hope that they can keep this up with January Jones. And maybe give Will Forte more to do.

Now I’ll go watch yesterday’s episode of White Collar. Anyone else think Matt Bomer is the poor man’s Jon Hamm?

“Taylor Swift”

November 7th, 2009

There was one question on everyone’s mind when it comes to Taylor Swift’s hosting stint on Saturday Night Live: Kanye. It’s really the only thing of any note, and to be honest it’s probably the only reason that she was asked to host in the first place. There is no question that Swift is charming, and that her confidence behind the microphone is beyond her years, but she isn’t a comedienne. While she is the kind of musical artist who could easily be integrated into a single skit (or even two), she’s not the kind of artist who could go beyond the typical list of hosting gigs (playing a celebrity with vague resemblance, playing herself, etc.).

So, as such, what works about this week’s episode is when the show plays to Swift’s strengths, placing her behind a microphone or in settings which don’t have the pressure of live comedy. When the show asks her to do much more, the stilted cue card reading rears its head, and you realize that beneath the glossy exterior she really is a teenage girl with a beautiful voice but without acting training.

Which isn’t a huge problem if the show around her is even the least bit funny, but that’s asking a bit much of SNL these days.

There are some hosts who create legitimate characters, people who are allowed into sketches as their own individuals. However, you can tell when a host is largely being protected, like in The View sketch. There is nothing really funny about her portrayal of Kate Gosselin outside of the hairstyle, which isn’t much of a joke, and the lines Swift are given are forced and never really connect. Instead, the sketch becomes a grab bag of bad jokes, excuses for Thompson/Armisen to play women, and a chance to get in a “Nicholas Cage is poor” joke in the end. There is no activity in the sketch, no moving parts that could alter our expectations: we were given The View with Kate Gosselin and Nicholas Cage, and by golly that is what we were given.

Swift was better when she was given more material (like in the Penelope sketch, where the June character was more simple but still clearly different from Swift’s personality), or when she was allowed to be either far away from her comfort zone (like her crazy eyed Scared Straight Counsellor) or directly within it. Her monologue, which was the real danger zone in terms of a tired Kanye West joke, was charming because it let her have her guitar on stage, and it had her singing as opposed to reading. “Monologue Song (La La La)” was self-aware (acknowledging the former loves of her life along with her current rumoured one in Taylor Lautner), charming (both in the self-awareness and in the cute joke in the opening about staying up late at night to watch the show during the era of Bill Hader and Andy Samberg), and legitimately catchy (La La Laaaa). And when they got to the Kanye joke at the end, she delivered it with just the right balance of being above the event but also wanting to get in a dig at the fact that the joke was necessary in the first place. It was a sharply written piece to open the show, and was perhaps the episode’s (live) highlight.

Meanwhile, the episode’s other highlight (as per usual) wasn’t live at all. The Digital Short, “Firelight,” was only one joke, but like many Digital Shorts it separates itself by being entirely committed to that gag. The integration of Taylor Swift and Bill Hader (in Frankenstein monster getup) into Twilight was legitimately impressive, and as someone who just recently watched Twilight (it was on, I was bored) the way they took the various lines and only made them funny by changing vampires to Frankenstein monsters was clever. Swift was also really impressive here, really capturing the breathlessness of Bella and the false romanticism of many of the film’s lines. It was simple but well-executed parody, which is more than I’ve come to expect of SNL these days.

As for Swift in the rest of the show, playing herself was where she seemed most comfortable, but that sketch (Hollywood Dish) was largely Hader and Wiig overacting and Swift reacting, which seemed more comfortable for her. Similarly, the TRAAAPD sketch was a fine example of a scenario where she was more a narrator than an actress, although she got to play the physical reactions to the various gags as well. There was no moment where Swift made a bad SNL host, but there was also no point where she was able to fade into the cast other than in the “Firelight” Digital Short. There was just no point where it wasn’t Taylor Swift playing a part, and no point where she was able to exude the sort of confidence that makes her live performances so engaging (if not that close to the original recordings). She’s got enough energy to fit in with the comic setting (the final skit was silly and unfunny but she was totally game), but she’s not going to sustain the show on her own.

The rest of the show felt about as limp as SNL has been as of late. The opening sketch had some great line readings by Bill Hader and the clever mouth-shift (from left to right) from Kristen Wiig, the Swine Fever gag was overdone but clever enough, and Weekend Update had the always welcome return of Amy Poehler for “Really?! with Seth and Amy,” but nothing felt even close to fresh or relevant. Kristen Wiig is still able to sell Penelope (who always needs to out-do everyone), but the character has been played out to the point of actually frustrating me as opposed to not just not making me laugh. The one sketch that I thought was actually pretty clever was the “Scared Straight w/ Movie Plots” skit that at least had a fun concept even if the execution was a bit uneven (and got repetitive around Back to the Future). Plus, I won’t lie: it wasn’t a sketch, but “Bunny Business”‘ collection of musician parodies worked because of how perfect Kristen Wiig’s Natalie Merchant was and how a few (like Armisen, Hader, and Swift) gave it their all even if the impressions were uneven.

Overall, though, it’s just another episode of SNL: generally uneven, highlighted by a Digital Short, and failing to reverse the show’s continued irrelevance in a non-Election year. But yet, who can’t help but be warmed by how darn earnest Swift is when she talks about how this is the best week of her life? I can’t hate the show now. Thanks a lot, Taylor.

Cultural Observations

• Weekend update had a couple of good jokes (the opener about the Yankees and Bloomberg stimulating the economy by buying a World Series and an Election was clever), but it was dragged down by two legitimately terrible guests in Fred Armisen’s stupid headline guy and an awful Sarah McLachlan impression.
• I think my favourite thing about “Firelight” is how it actually makes sense: if you extended the parody out, you’d find a Doctor at the center of the family of monsters who is in some way different from the rest. So it was even more logical than it might have seemed at first (although I’m kind of ashamed to know enough to discern this).
• I know Swift was likely in heels, but she really does Tower over people – Andy Samberg looked really short by comparison.
• Speaking of Samberg, he had a busy night, playing straight man in two separate sketches and pulling the Nicholas Cage impression off.
• On a completely random aside, since it was brought up on Twitter that Swift sort of reminded them of Lauren Graham, considering that Graham is starring in Parenthood in the new year NBC’s synergy police would be smart to get her a hosting gig on SNL: irrelevant or not, I’d be watching.