Will Hines Dot Net

What are the most American books? I was catching up on Mad Men episodes, and got to the point where one of the British managers of Don Draper’s ad firm says “I have been reading some of your American literature” and I knew that it’d be Mark Twain because whenever someone says they are reading American literature it’s Mark Twain. I remember an Atlantic Monthly profile on Saddam Hussein years and years ago which said “He even reads American literature — the complete Mark Twain sits on his bookshelf” (the profile was not complimentary, despite what that sentence implies).

Separate from that, on the documentary shoot we were watching an episode of Jeopardy while waiting for some lights to be set up and Moby Dick was one of the categories. I was surprised that most people in the room knew the answers to most of the questions even though few had read the book. But maybe that’s because Moby Dick is one of the Great American novels so we all hold onto whatever knowledge we glean because we know it’s “important?”

I certainly don’t mind Mark Twain being the first guy people think of when trying to think of an American author. But what others do people think of? What are the most American books? Or authors?

The Cornish Game Hen Maneuver. A shamelessly ridiculous Star Trek-inspired sketch written by and starring John Frusciante. Directed by me. Also starring Devlyn Corrigan, Cody Lindquist and featuring the voices of Mike Still and Greg Tuculescu. Edited by Carmen Angelica. Crew: Brett White, Ben Ragheb, Mike Fallek, Ian Carr.

I’ve been watching episodes of the original Star Trek series on Netflix recently. Great fun! I love that everyone who worked on that Enterprise was 40 and had a gut.

New Star Trek tonight!

Is this scene of sexy, evil Uhura going to be in the movie? (from “Mirror, Mirror” — thx Transbuddha)

I’m not even gonna check IMDB or anything but I ask you, dear readers: am I remembering it right that one of the main characters on Happy Days was called “Potsie?” That is silly.

If you using Final Cut 6 on your new iMac G5 (intel chip) to import footage and having trouble with log and capture — try disconnecting all external drives. Use only one firewire port and that’s for your camera. It seems to help.

Jaime Hernandez interview (thx Dyna).

What the frak has happened on Battlestar Galactica? (8 minute seasons 1-3 wrapup) (thx Mike Still)

MC Frontalot raps about text advenutures. (thx Tony)

Finished the Wire, as did America! I watched episodes 5, 6 and 7 on Saturday — then 8, 9 and the finale on Sunday. Loved it. Ptolemy’s scene was great I thought — a really tough part to play, and he nailed it. Strongers performed last night also, so I did improv with him while the episode was playing, then went home and watched it on DVR. Surreal and fun.

It’s a strange mixture of “reality” (or what feels like reality — hard for a white honors student from Danbury Connecticut to know) and heightened moments of drama. They pull it off, though I wonder how they found a balance.

Edited to add: I am predictable.

I enjoyed the finale as an episode, a season finale and series finale. Definitely the best ending to a narrative show that I’ve ever seen. (I’ll take Newhart for the best ending to a comedy show). Any better?

Maude Night is tonight at UCBT. Four shows by the four “house sketch teams.” I’m directing Mix Tape ‘98 (second half of the 8pm slot). Do come out if you’re available. I’m watching all four. Collect them all!

Dan Hopper of AWOK has an terrific entry on the BestWeekEver blog about how people are so quick to complain that “things used to be better” (Super Bowl Ads, SNL, etc) without really considering that it just might be that they are no longer 12 years old.

Also, Channel 102 happened — a rousing success, I’d say. Pianos, our new locale, is promising and excellent. Yeah, there were a few snafus but nothing I wouldn’t expect from settling a new frontier. One show I loathed with the pits of my being, but the rest were pretty damn good, and I think the audience made the smart choices. Connery and Danza went over well but did not get renewed, and I agree with both of those outcomes.

Today I am searching for clips on YouTube of American Idol judges making catty comments. I can’t use audition segments — has to be about the contestants. It’s harder than you’d expect. Not you would have before this moment made an estimation over how difficult that particular task would be.

Edited to add: Here’s what I got: http://news.aol.com/newsbloggers/2008/01/30/democratic-debate-idols/

Sunday morning. So far my day’s accomplishments are this: I have set my DVR to record Garth Merengi’s “Darkplace.” It’s all gravy from here, folks!

[funnyordie 8212431415 nolink]Kevin and I made this video (thank you Cat for filming) and showed it at our Cagematch two weeks ago. Previously, our videos had been deliberately overly-cute montages of our childhood photos. This was more of a sketch and even though it went over well, it’s probably not as appealing as photos of Kevin at the age of 12 holding a model of a solar system in our kitchen.

Still, I was glad to do it. For Christmas, Kevin had received a DVD of the He-Man Christmas Special. Brilliantly, they include a montage of the morals that ended each He-Man episode. Watching just the morals — all stilted and weird — was hilarious! I really wanted to do a Brothers Hines version of it, which is what led me to push for us to do the above video. I added in the overtly aggressive religious manipulation because it makes me laugh, because I was baptized Catholic and I associate Catholicism with ham-handed moralizing and maybe also run-on sentences?