This American Life Is Now on Video

Check it out on Showtime. Episodes (video and audio) are available on-line as well as a podcast.

They've done an excellent job of translating the audio program to a video one. Well done.

Obama Apologizes for Blocking Shot at Girl

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. (...), in a phone call to reporter Nicklaus Lovelady of the Daily Herald that aired on National Public Radio's "Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me" program, apologized to the reporter for saying he had a "baby face" at a news conference in southern Illinois two years ago, the Chicago Tribune reported Tuesday.

Lovelady wrote earlier this month that Obama's comment prevented him from impressing a woman he was speaking to.

"Thanks to everyone's favorite new senator, I lost big time,(...) Obama owes me a public apology for making me look like a court jester and for blocking my shot."

"I'm calling to publicly apologize for messing up your game," the senator told Lovelady. "I read that. I felt terrible. I didn't know there were any ladies around. I just wanted to let you know that I'm deeply sorry. But if she was that superficial, she wasn't worth it."

More.


Hilarious, I heard the call on NPR, although one can tell Obama was sincere he definetly knows how to take himself not too seriously, which is great.

From Darth Vader to Reagan's Brain in Schwarzenegger

Really funny stuff. Check out alt.NPR Benjamen Walker's Theory of Everything, especially The MasturVader installment:

This piece was truly a collaboration, the sort I hadn't been a part of before. Ben called me and said he was doing a show called "The Dark Side" in two weeks and would I want to write something with him. He had a sketch of an idea about a Darth Vader impersonator who was pathologically obsessed with the character, even after his obsession had alienated the people who allowed him to live his dream. He wanted to write it as a mock public radio news report which is also something I'd never done before. After a couple of phone conversations just brainstorming different plot twists and details, Ben hammered out a rough, partial outline and I e-mailed him back with the first few minutes of the story. Ben e-mailed me back with changes. I changed his changes and e-mailed back more script. It went on this way for a week until I was sitting on Ben's couch reading the final script into his mini-disc recorder. (And even then we argued about the ending until we came up with some writing we both agreed on.) I recorded the "tracks" first, then me-as-interviewer asking "Darth" questions, then me-as-"Darth."

Thanks to Senta M.

Police Sketch Experiment

In July of 2006, JibJab invited more than 50 sketch comedy teams to submit a short, comedy script based on a 'Police' theme. John Landis, director of classics like 'Animal House' and 'Blues Brothers,' chose six of the scripts in August and these selected troupes were brought together in Los Angeles to begin filming The Great Sketch Experiment.


Over three days in September, the six films were shot and now (...) the audience, will decide the winner.

The movies were directed by John Landis. Yes, you know him: Animal House, The Blues Brothers, Three Amigos!, An American Werewolf in London, Michael Jackson’s Thriller music video, Michael Jackson’s Black and White music video (the first to use CG "digital morphing" where one object appears to seamlessly metamorphose into another). I clearly remember all of these. The Michel Jackson videos were absolutely groundbreaking. Thriller basically created the music video as we know it now. Black and White caused a huge impact on special effects in general. This guy is huge.


The videos are loads of fun, check them out.


Thanks to Jan G.


P.S. Speaking of Animal House, Paul and Young Ron threw a Toga Party last Friday, including Otis Day and the Knights (a.k.a. actor DeWayne Jessie) playing. Landis' legacy still holds strong.