Saturday, January 14, 2006
Saturday Night Asleep
Saturday Night Asleep
[CORRECTION: In this entry I have misidentified Scarlett Johansson as Iris Johansen. Iris Johansen, whose last name I suspect I've spelled wrong in this correction as well as in the entry, is a romance writer. I work at a book store, so I see her name a lot. I also confuse Scarlett Johansson with Charlize Theron, but that's only when I see pictures of them side by side. I love Charlize. I suspect I'd love Scarlett Johansson, but I don't know if I do, because I only watched the first four minutes or so of the SNL episode she hosted last Saturday, which is what this entry is about, and I'm not sure I've seen any movies with her--with her on the screen that is. If she's been in the audience I haven't known it. I also really like "Scarlet Tide," which is on the soundtrack to COLD MOUNTAIN and is sung by Allison Kraus, whose name I'm also mis-spelling and who is also, as are Scarlett and Charlize, blonde, which Elvis Costello, who wrote the song, is not, unless ol' Declan (which is his real first name) has been dyeing it brown, which is a thing I've read Charlize Theron has sometimes done. Or maybe Scarlett Johansson has done it. I don't know, but, since I just read Internet Move Database's biographies of both Scarlett Johansson and Charlize Theron just now, which I did in order to get the spellings of their names right, I can definitely say one of the two actresses has, at one time or another, dyed her hair brown, because the fact was in the trivia section of the biography relating to the particular actress who has done this. Apparently it's very rare for a blonde actress to do this, gentlemen and gentlewomen generally preferring blondes. But--to the point: I really doubt Declan McManus dyes his hair. --Fred Wemyss, January 19th, 2005]
It's 11:55 p.m. as I begin to write. Tonight's episode of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE has been on for a half-hour. It may be on everywhere in the world, but it's not on in my house. The worst Sunday morning feeling you can have is to wake up knowing you watched an entire SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE the night before. Tonight's innovation was that the opening was a cartoon. An animated Pat Robertson got to say "Live from New York, it's SATURDAY NIGHT." The opening clocked in at less than a minute, which has to be a record. It takes planning to create an animated cartoon, and clearly Robert Smigel planned on demonstrating that brevity is the soul of wit. The credits were, of course, tedious, but it is always great to hear Don Pardo reading the names. It was a treat to hear him, with his game-show announcer's perfect pronunciation, uttering the words, "Death Cab For Cutie." The opening saxophone is still the least inticing entertainment lure on the air, and it was especially reedy when the hostess was brought on. It was Iris Johansen, and I'm sure I've seen her in a lot of things. She came on stage and then Amy Poehler came up on stage dressed just like her. They spoke dialogue indicating the fear of things going wrong which every post-credit-roll segment on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE has as its main joke. I shut it off. I'm more curious than usual about how the musical guest will be, if only because I think the Barnes and Noble where I work plays the Death Cab overhead, between Coldplay and Ryan Adams. I need to see the faces behind the earnestness. But the cast-member wearing the same dress as the hostess bit polished me off. Once you've seen Rosemary Clooney and the other gal in WHITE CHRISTMAS sing "Sisters" in matching dresses, no post-Generation-X duo thrown together by commercial fate can charm you, especially when you hear that same bellowing laugh of some NBC Exec in the audience you've heard guffawing since just after Chevy Chase quit. To everything there is a season. SNL had a season and a half around the time of the Ford administration. When the scientists break the time barrier and Fatty Arbuckle gets to host, I'll uncork the champagne for him. But until then, SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE is dead to me. At least until next week, when I'm sure I'll take a peak and be as annoyed at myself as I am now.
[CORRECTION: In this entry I have misidentified Scarlett Johansson as Iris Johansen. Iris Johansen, whose last name I suspect I've spelled wrong in this correction as well as in the entry, is a romance writer. I work at a book store, so I see her name a lot. I also confuse Scarlett Johansson with Charlize Theron, but that's only when I see pictures of them side by side. I love Charlize. I suspect I'd love Scarlett Johansson, but I don't know if I do, because I only watched the first four minutes or so of the SNL episode she hosted last Saturday, which is what this entry is about, and I'm not sure I've seen any movies with her--with her on the screen that is. If she's been in the audience I haven't known it. I also really like "Scarlet Tide," which is on the soundtrack to COLD MOUNTAIN and is sung by Allison Kraus, whose name I'm also mis-spelling and who is also, as are Scarlett and Charlize, blonde, which Elvis Costello, who wrote the song, is not, unless ol' Declan (which is his real first name) has been dyeing it brown, which is a thing I've read Charlize Theron has sometimes done. Or maybe Scarlett Johansson has done it. I don't know, but, since I just read Internet Move Database's biographies of both Scarlett Johansson and Charlize Theron just now, which I did in order to get the spellings of their names right, I can definitely say one of the two actresses has, at one time or another, dyed her hair brown, because the fact was in the trivia section of the biography relating to the particular actress who has done this. Apparently it's very rare for a blonde actress to do this, gentlemen and gentlewomen generally preferring blondes. But--to the point: I really doubt Declan McManus dyes his hair. --Fred Wemyss, January 19th, 2005]
It's 11:55 p.m. as I begin to write. Tonight's episode of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE has been on for a half-hour. It may be on everywhere in the world, but it's not on in my house. The worst Sunday morning feeling you can have is to wake up knowing you watched an entire SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE the night before. Tonight's innovation was that the opening was a cartoon. An animated Pat Robertson got to say "Live from New York, it's SATURDAY NIGHT." The opening clocked in at less than a minute, which has to be a record. It takes planning to create an animated cartoon, and clearly Robert Smigel planned on demonstrating that brevity is the soul of wit. The credits were, of course, tedious, but it is always great to hear Don Pardo reading the names. It was a treat to hear him, with his game-show announcer's perfect pronunciation, uttering the words, "Death Cab For Cutie." The opening saxophone is still the least inticing entertainment lure on the air, and it was especially reedy when the hostess was brought on. It was Iris Johansen, and I'm sure I've seen her in a lot of things. She came on stage and then Amy Poehler came up on stage dressed just like her. They spoke dialogue indicating the fear of things going wrong which every post-credit-roll segment on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE has as its main joke. I shut it off. I'm more curious than usual about how the musical guest will be, if only because I think the Barnes and Noble where I work plays the Death Cab overhead, between Coldplay and Ryan Adams. I need to see the faces behind the earnestness. But the cast-member wearing the same dress as the hostess bit polished me off. Once you've seen Rosemary Clooney and the other gal in WHITE CHRISTMAS sing "Sisters" in matching dresses, no post-Generation-X duo thrown together by commercial fate can charm you, especially when you hear that same bellowing laugh of some NBC Exec in the audience you've heard guffawing since just after Chevy Chase quit. To everything there is a season. SNL had a season and a half around the time of the Ford administration. When the scientists break the time barrier and Fatty Arbuckle gets to host, I'll uncork the champagne for him. But until then, SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE is dead to me. At least until next week, when I'm sure I'll take a peak and be as annoyed at myself as I am now.
# posted by Fredwemyss @ 11:56 PM 
