Blogcritics Author: Cameron Archer

TV Review: My Life and a Movie - "Deadly Weapons" and "She-Devils on Wheels"

Cameron Archer — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 19:28:14 EDT

"How big would the bedroom have to be to roll one of these bodybags out?"
I guess My Life and a Movie (CBC/Adjacent2Entertainment, 2005) was left on the shelf for almost three years before CBC gave it a belated airing on July 10, 2008. The promotion was such that I only found out about the show while going through the Bell ExpressVu program guide. Thursday seems to be CBC's dumping ground for stockpiled comedies...

Comics Review: Groo: Hell on Earth #1 (of 4)

Cameron Archer — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 00:44:04 EST

As long as the Groo fundamentals exist, the mendicant can err for as long as he wants.
Now that Cerebus the Aardvark is dead and its creator set on tackling the fashion industry, Groo the Wanderer is the world's pre-eminent active Conan the Barbarian parody. The Groo staff hasn't changed in years - Sergio Aragonés draws and writes the comic, Mark Evanier tries to make sense of Aragonés, Stan Sakai letters and Tom Luth...

Comics Review: Toxic Shock Comics #1

Cameron Archer — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 15:16:46 EDT

It's not like this is threatening established alternacomics for readership, but it's surprisingly good for what it is.
I know, the title is almost a year old and there's in existence a Toxic Shock Comics #2. That's one of the pitfalls of requesting something for review and not following through with said review until almost a year later. Thing is, this comic has a lot of marijuana-related references (the title being one) and... you know, mellow and... I...

DVD Review: Finesse Mitchell - Snap Famous

Cameron Archer — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 20:03:32 EDT

Finesse Mitchell's stand-up act doesn't blow his SNL stint completely out of the water, but it's better than I expected.
Finesse Mitchell is one of many cast members who were on Saturday Night Live for a few years and never really did much while there. In Mitchell's case, his main claim to fame was as Starkisha, a character I always thought was one-note and pointless. His style while on SNL reminded me of a poor man's Tracy Morgan. Mitchell wasn't...

Announcement: Short-content feeds

Phillip Winn — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT

Sunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding.

Interview with Matt Watts of Canadia: 2056

Cameron Archer — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 09:04:27 EDT

Matt Watts has been responsible for some of the better CBC Radio comedy programs of recent years. Steve the First and its sequel Steve the Second used the concept of random schlubs surviving standard-issue Mad Max-like dystopias to some degree of success. While the two Steve series were uneven in spots, Watts has at least proven that he can do satirical science fiction. Canadia: 2056 is his most consistent effort to date and has already been renewed for a fifteen-episode second season.The two Steve series will be given a second airing on CBC Radio One starting July 23. Both Steve the First and Steve the Second are being rerun weirdly -- Monday through Friday at 11:30 AM until August 1, which is of course the best way to air limited-run niche series. That's still better than the fate of The Adventures of Apocalypse Al, which is sitting in CBC Radio archives despite J. Michael Straczynski's involvement.This email has been in my archives since July 4, 2007. At least you get to read this interview before everyone involved with it is dead.How well has CBC Radio promoted Canadia: 2056 and the two Steve series? Should there be more promotion for CBC radio dramas overall or is it worth it considering the smaller audience for radio when compared to television? How could podcasting/"the INTERNET®" help, since the MP3 player is not going away any time soon?No comment (read into that however you like.)Why have you picked sci-fi themes and parodies as fodder for your radio dramas? Such a thing is atypical for CBC Radio considering shows like Monsoon House, Man, Woman & Child, and Madly Off in All Directions tend to be more typical of CBC Radio's comedic output. I know you're influenced by science fiction and "zany madcap humour" but it's almost out of place compared to giving established Canadian stand-ups a half hour to play with. Not that I hate Man, Woman & Child, but I've been familiar with John Wing Jr. since the early 1990s and it's sort of sad that I've been aware of his work since I was twelve.I picked science fiction as a genre for radio because I figured that I might as well make the most of the medium. You can take the audience anywhere with radio. Why not do something you couldn't do on television? With that in mind, I've tried to keep things fairly simple in terms of the storylines. To me it's about the relationships, not about the "flash" of science fiction. When it came to Canadia, I really wanted to do something about US/Canadian relations and I wanted to use a war as a backdrop. I wanted to explore more general themes of how these two countries interact without getting into a political debate about the current (or recent) war, so that meant I could set it in the past or the future. I get really bored with historical dramas.You think my stuff is "zany madcap?" Huh... I never looked at it like that. I guess Canadia has a farcical quality to it, and Steve was definitely absurd. Zany Madcap it is![NOTE: That "zany madcap" bit was referring to the fact that Matt Watts was influenced by radio comedies like The Goon Show. You can tell I was having a Ron Obvious moment there.]How do you feel about science fiction, arts-wise (film, television, softcore porn etc.) and/or as a literary genre? How popular a niche is science fiction in Canada, in your opinion? You don't think CBC wasted its money helping bankroll Doctor Who and Torchwood and thereby indulging Russell T. Davies' wildest fantasies, do you?I love science fiction but I think it can be alienating when it puts the emphasis on the "science" and not on the "fiction." The story always has to be engaging, regardless of the genre.I think its popularity as a genre is fairly consistent throughout the world. Canada hasn't produced a lot of science fiction television or films, but we've produced a lot of written sci-fi. I honestly don't know if there'd be an audience for my kind of sci-fi in Canadian television. If Canadia was a television show, would it have a big audience? I'm sure it would have a loyal audience; I just don't know if that's enough. Look at the nightmare the Red Dwarf guys are having trying to get funding for their film.As for Doctor Who, I'm biased. Sci-fi or not, it's my favorite show, and it has been since I was about four years old. I can't even give you an honest criticism of the new show, because I cry every time the credits start and don't stop until about half an hour after it's over. It strikes some kind of weird nerve with me (no one hugged me as a child, all I had was TV.) I love the show. I'm glad CBC is putting money into it. I wish they had some kind of say in the production.I wish they could get me over there. I think writing on that series would be the greatest job ever. It's my dream. It'll never happen but it's nice to dream.Embarrassing child-like reaction aside, I think the CBC should be doing a lot more co-productions with the BBC. Less American influence, more UK, I say. Team up with Auntie Beeb! Let's face it, our tastes are more in line with the UK's, aren't they?How do you compare your CBC radio dramas to your other work? Your most well-known roles outside of CBC Radio are for your involvement in Ken Finkleman's sitcom The Newsroom and Don McKellar's film Childstar. How important is "know someone in the business" in comparison to "make sure what I'm writing doesn't suck shit?"The Newsroom was great. Although I was a creative consultant the third year, I was really just an actor for the two years I was on the show. Those two years were probably the most fun I've had in my life. With my radio stuff I have a lot more control and a lot more pressure. I write the episodes, then go in and record them. It's totally different. I'm a lot more concerned with the final product than I was on The Newsroom.As for knowing people in the industry? Someone can open a door for you, but once you're in there you'd better have a fucking great script. The most important thing is always the writing. Otherwise, you're just going to look unprepared and foolish, and that "friend" in the industry is likely to never help you out again.How does it feel getting people like Mark McKinney (Kids in the Hall; Saturday Night Live) and Peter Wildman (The Frantics) to be involved with your radio dramas? How does the "marquee name" - well, as much as CBC budgets will allow for radio drama - attract casual interest for the dramas, or are listeners there because CBC Radio isn't just rebroadcasting routines from the Winnipeg Comedy Festival?I don't know what the listener numbers are, or if having marquee names actually increases listenership. Having Mark on the Steve series came about because we'd been looking for a project to work together on for years, and he really liked this idea. It was never about landing a name - he was involved in the project since pretty early on.I love Peter Wildman. My producer actually brought him in for the part [of Captain of the USS Pickens] not because of his name, but because he thought he'd be good in the role.I was pretty excited to have Peter on because I was a fan of his as a kid. Mark I've known for years, so it was nice having a friend around who had a better idea of what was going on than I did.I'm against trying to get marquee names in general, only because it's distracting. Why bother? Just make it good.I got pretty excited when Donnelly Rhodes [Battlestar Galactica's Doctor Cottle] agreed to be in Canadia - he plays the president in the opening credits. I didn't try to get him because I thought it would help gain listenership - I'm just a fan. His voice was perfect.What's next for Matt Watts? What sort of subjects do you feel you'll go to once (or if) you ever exhaust making fun of Canadian cultural mores through a sci-fi based comedy radio program? Does the idea of making veiled jabs at CBC programming decisions through the sci-fi conceit seem subversive to you, or do you not believe in that "subversive" crap and need the money?Yeah, I do love poking fun at the CBC. I really love the place, so it's never done out of malice (just to be clear.) I assume that the jokes are relevant to anyone that works in any kind of large corporation. If Canadia continues there'll be plenty more of that kind of stuff.I don't know if I feel the need to comment on Canadian culture so much. I feel like Canadia has been that outlet for me.I loved writing Steve the First because its premise was simple: a bum like me saving the world after an apocalypse. I knew exactly how this one character would react to all the absurdities and hell that he'd encounter.I'm working on a feature that will hopefully move beyond my computer. It's in keeping with the tradition of most of my stuff in that it's about a boy and a girl (I know it's not always clear, but ultimately everything I write is about a boy and a girl.) Unlike everything else, it's set on Earth and there are no apocalypses or aliens. It's not science fiction at all. It's the least sci-fi thing I've written. It's 100% sci-fi free!Joe Mahoney [producer, Steve the First and Steve the Second; story editor on all Matt Watts' radio dramas] has been pushing me to novelize the first Steve series, and I've been tinkering with that over the last few years. Maybe that's what will be next, although it's the scariest and most daunting thing I've ever tackled.I just keep writing and hope that someone will be interested in it.For more reading, visit Matt Watts' page and the CBC Radio Canadia page (or at least a vague simulation).

Cameron Archer does some stuff for some people. Here's some of that stuff.

Comics Review: Tank Girl - The Gifting #1 (of 4) by Alan Martin and Ashley Wood

Cameron Archer — Wed, 9 May 2007 03:21:33 EDT

It's hard to say when Tank Girl died, and in the comics doesn't count. Some people point to the failure of British mag Deadline in the mid-1990s when it placed all its faith in the Tank Girl film and American expansion. Some point to later efforts like Tank Girl: The Odyssey and Tank Girl: Apocalypse, with Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin phased out in favour of writers Alan Grant and Peter Milligan and writer/artist Philip Bond.What is clear is that Tank Girl fell off the comics map around 1996. Hell, it never received a "reimagining" for more than ten years, and this is a world where Mister Mind became a universe-eating monster for a cup of coffee. Comics were not helped by Tank Girl's absence.With Tank Girl: The Gifting (May 2007: IDW Publishing, $3.99 US) Tank Girl co-creator/writer Alan Martin seems to be going back to the basics. Original artist Jamie Hewlett's not back as -- well -- Gorillaz, but Ashley Wood makes for a credible replacement. The cast seems to be scaled down - the stories mostly centre around Tank Girl, "mutated" kangaroo/former toy designer Booga and escaped mental patient Barney at this point, although Jet Girl cameos.Most importantly, the visual style that defined Tank Girl has been replaced. The colourful and vibrant look that defined the comic when it went all-colour in the early 1990s has been replaced by a more stylized, muted colour scheme. The art style is still visually dense, but in a different way (read: no notes about what Jamie Hewlett was listening to at the time.)Tank Girl has replaced her cluttered, skinhead look for a more "retro" (not hip retro, since it's Tank Girl) style. It's a calculated risk by Wood and Martin. In understanding that interest in a Tank Girl series is at least partially fueled by nostalgia, Martin's focusing on the fundamentals of whatever passes for story in Tank Girl. He understands what draws people to Tank Girl and pretty much allows Ashley Wood free artistic reign.As for the stories, they're enjoyably inconsequential as per Tank Girl standard. "The Dogshit in Barney's Handbag" and "The Gifting" focus around the central theme of the mini-series (sample non-story: Booga buys a too-small bra for Tank Girl so as to get laid) while "Kill Jumbo" and "The Funsters Will Play" focus at least partially around Tank Girl mainstay television.The nostalgia that fuels "The Funsters Will Play" is interesting - Tank Girl loves a Monkees-like gestalt led by "Ginster" (the hairy one.) She ends up fronting the band in a way I'm not spoiling, but it's a recognizably Tank Girl way. It might be old hat by now since Tank Girl is almost two decades old, but the story is both nostalgic and irrelevant at the same time. It's the story one should expect from Tank Girl at this point in time.I'd like to know if Alan Martin can keep this pace up for all four issues of Tank Girl: The Gifting, but the initial outing gives me hope that he can. Frankly, Tank Girl was MIA for too long and it's good to see her back.Variant CoverAnother Variant Cover

Cameron Archer does some stuff for some people. Here's some of that stuff.

TV Review: SNL in the '90s - Pop Culture Nation

Cameron Archer — Sun, 6 May 2007 17:35:26 EDT

Let's get this out of the way. SNL in the '90s: Pop Culture Nation (May 6, 9-11 PM, NBC) has the same problems as SNL in the '80s had, albeit not as noticeably. Clips and musical guests still don't match the seasons. Not everyone from the 1990s versions of SNL offer interviews for the documentary, although some of the most notable cast members (Norm MacDonald, Mike Myers, and Will Ferrell) are prominently featured. There's too much backstage stuff to adequately cover ten seasons of Saturday Night Live.These are just minor gripes. Kenneth Bowser's third in a trilogy of SNL retrospectives fit their own SNL-like formula, but this second sequel to Live From New York: The First Five Years of Saturday Night Live doesn't follow diminishing returns protocol like the typical SNL recurring character. It's not as good as Live From New York, but SNL in the '90s is better than SNL in the '80s. The documentary is better paced than SNL in the '80s, covers its chosen decade more equally and features more than "greatest hits" clips.There's a Suel Forrester clip in the documentary, which surprised me - one of Chris Kattan's more underrated characters appears? Neat. I also wasn't expecting to see Norm MacDonald lambasting cue card and camera crews during a "Weekend Update" segment, but it appears here and I appreciate that.Chris Rock and the "token black guy" problem is talked about and covered in a surprising manner. Rock was at best a minor part of SNL when he was there, but those "Nat X" sketches weather well. SNL has always had its problems with tokenism, so it's nice that SNL in the '90s doesn't shy away from SNL's problems with regards to depicting black culture accurately. An "I'm Chillin'" clip has Chris Rock talking about how it was essentially a black "Wayne's World." It's a bit disconcerting to see a "Ladies Man" clip appear during a segment ostensibly about the 1993-94 season since "The Ladies Man" was a mainstay of the 1995-2000 years. A "Perspectives" clip would have made more thematic sense, since that and O.J. Simpson best marked Meadows' first five years on the show.Adam Sandler is put over by Robert Smigel and other contemporaries as quite intelligent for the style of comedy he did. I don't actually disagree with that assessment - a lot of his material (Happy Gilmore, Billy Madison, They're All Gonna Laugh At You!) deals in stupid humour and he knows it. He can do more dramatic roles, but it's with concepts like the uninhibited Buffoon/Pedro and the manchild Canteen Boy that he made his name. I wouldn't go so far as to call Sandler a genius (for instance, Opera Man has not aged well), but some of his stuff is quite good for its utter lack of pretense. Like him or hate him, he's made his mark.The Wayne's World film is given its proper credit for renewed interest in Saturday Night Live during the early 1990s. While it would have been nice for Kenneth Bowser to talk about subsequent SNL films spun off from other recurring characters (see Coneheads, The Ladies Man, It's Pat!, A Night at the Roxbury), Wayne's World could have been ignored and I'm glad it wasn't.What amazes me about the 1994-95 season is that the documentary couches that season as quite heavily attacked by the critics (which it was - sample headline: "Dear Saturday Night Live, It's Over. Please Die.") but appealing more to the baby boomers' kids as opposed to the boomers themselves. Unlike with SNL in the 1980s, where the 1980-81 and 1985-86 seasons were given fairer assessments, 1994-95 is cast as a decent season weighed down by bad press.I'm amazed SNL in the 1990s focuses on this and skims over its own internal turmoil during 1993-95. Janeane Garofalo left after half a season, considering SNL a "boys' club." Mike Myers left before the end of the 1994-95 season. People like Garofalo, Morwenna Banks, Chris Elliott, Mark McKinney, and Michael McKean were drafted to fill Hartman- and Carvey-sized gaps in the cast. When Al Franken is using his Stuart Smalley character to complain about people preferring what he called "Dumb and Dumber... and dumber ...and DUMBER" over Stuart Saves His Family, that's not a good sign. The assessment of 1994-95 isn't all bad, though - the New York magazine article is lambasted as a smear job, and the press did have a field day tearing SNL new ones from 1994-96.The post-1995 run of SNL is treated respectfully. Proper credit is given to Ferrell, Cheri Oteri, Molly Shannon, Ana Gasteyer, and the show's late-1990s reliance on Monica Lewinsky jokes. Christopher Walken, Alec Baldwin, and John Goodman are mentioned as favoured guest stars during the 1990s. The deaths of Chris Farley and Phil Hartman are properly treated.Norm MacDonald's "Weekend Update" run is given fair treatment - there's an assessment by NBC executives Don Ohlmeyer and Rick Ludwin that MacDonald's last year at "Weekend Update" was subpar, and their opinions are not unfounded. MacDonald didn't seem to want to be at SNL his final season as he ended a lot of later "Weekend Updates" abruptly and his role on the show was drastically reduced. Considering it's easier to say "Norm MacDonald was fired for too many jokes at Ohlmeyer's friend O.J. Simpson," Bowser escapes coming across as a "fake news" fanboy. No mention of "Conspiracy Theory Rock" or MacDonald's F-bomb, though?A lot of notable things came out of SNL between 1995 and 2000, loved and hated - Darrell Hammond's Bill Clinton (with requisite thumbs-up), "TV Funhouse," "Delicious Dish," "Dog Show," Mango and Mr. Peepers, Ana Gasteyer's Martha Stewart impression, Mary Katharine Gallagher, "Celebrity Jeopardy!" and Bill Brasky. It prepped writers like Robert Smigel and Adam McKay for future success with essentially offbeat shit. The Ferrell run was also critically lambasted at one time - cue a possibly-tongue-in-cheek Time article putting over Norm MacDonald while bashing both the rest of SNL and MADtv - but time seems to have been kind to Saturday Night Live during those years.The documentary ends with some SNL ass-patting. I don't see Kenneth Bowser doing an SNL in the 2000s - at least for another two-and-a-half years, anyway. It'd be untoward for an official SNL documentary to call the current show crap, but the heavy pro-Lorne slant frankly comes across like a WWE documentary talking about how Vince McMahon is a genius. It's distracting and gives objectivity to what is essentially subjective opinion.The current version of Saturday Night Live has its share of problems like every other version. No show can last in perpetuity, but time will tell if SNL regains critical praise and popularity like it has in the past. Time always has.

Cameron Archer does some stuff for some people. Here's some of that stuff.

Radio Review: Q

Cameron Archer — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 06:57:35 EDT

Q, meant as a general and wide-ranging arts and culture show, has displaced shows like Freestyle and The Arts Tonight on CBC Radio One schedules. This is part of a general restructuring of CBC Radio to assess the fact that the average listener is over the age of 65. CBC Radio, as an organization, is correctly assessing that some things about its networks have run their course - too much of a classical music focus on CBC Radio Two, for instance.At the same time, the new shows often come at the expense of shows that didn't need to be sacrificed, Brave New Waves being the most notable of the shows that recently went defunct. The questions are: is Q a good show period, and is it better than the shows it replaced, most notably Freestyle and The Arts Tonight?The second question, at least for me, is answerable. Q is better than Freestyle, the show it's directly replacing. What annoyed me about Freestyle was the format of two hosts making idle chatter and then playing music being flimsy at best. None of the hosts were able to transcend such a bad format. Q has some structure to it - its promise to cover the whole of culture is already being met. Lame title aside, Q knows why it's on the schedules.As for the first question, the show's a little too uneven to properly gauge at this point. Q is a mixed bag. Pieces have already ranged from the essentially meaningless (an interview with Harry Connick Jr. where Connick shilled his New Orleans tribute CD) to the truly interesting (a piece about the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts' Once upon a Time Walt Disney exhibition).A few pieces came across as spillovers from Definitely Not the Opera - the deconstruction of Beyoncé songs from an "armchair therapist" being one piece best left untouched. Shows like DNTO and Go! are sometimes hard to take due to that sense of humour, and I'd hate to see Q fall into that trap.Thursday's opening, where host Jian Ghomeshi actually addressed Q's perceived Toronto-centric bias (that's where the show is located, so of course it's going to reflect Toronto culture to a certain extent), gives me hope that bad pieces will be the exception for the show. I love that a CBC Radio show addresses its shortcomings instead of ignores them. It's about damn time!Speaking of Ghomeshi's hosting style, it's at least credible. As CBC Radio personalities go, he's professional enough. He genuinely seems to enjoy his job and doesn't come across as forcing the pace or being obnoxious like other CBC Radio personalities (Sook-Yin Lee, I'm looking in your direction.) This being CBC Radio One, there's not much deviation from the standard CBC arts show template - contributor's pieces, interviews with Canadian artists, and music. It's the format most shows on CBC Radio use. Hopefully Q will become more diverse in the weeks to come, because two pieces on Loreena McKennitt in five days really isn't that adventurous.Overall, Q is what I expected it to be - a few mistakes here and there, rough around the edges, and not without dodgy interview subjects (Suzie McNeil from Rock Star: INXS and the Toronto performance of Ben Elton's We Will Rock You, although that interview had good insight into how reality shows actually work). Still, as debuts go, Q shows some promise. It doesn't stray far from the CBC/public radio mandate, but I like that the show has potential to cover territory unfamiliar to CBC Radio and I hope Q exploits that in the near future.If only Q didn't tell me how many letters are in its name, it'd be set. That tagline is aging faster than Ra's Al Ghul when he stops feeling the effects of the Lazarus Pit.Q, CBC Radio One 04/16/2007, Monday-Friday, 2:00-3:30 PM; repeat at 10:00-11:00 PM

Cameron Archer does some stuff for some people. Here's some of that stuff.

The Peacock Inside Pandora's Box: NBC News and the Virginia Tech Shootings

Cameron Archer — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 12:29:52 EDT

By now people have heard about NBC News and other television news organizations airing Cho Seung-Hui's video manifestos and then deciding to "dial back" coverage when people considered airing such material questionable. The media as a whole are analyzing the television medium, asking whether it was right for at least one member of the television news community to broadcast material that could be seen as promoting Seung-Hui and his rambling manifesto at the expense of the Virginia Tech students he killed. The usual suspects come up -- should the media self-censor, what qualifies as newsworthy, is this a further victory for Seung-Hui, will this promote copycat crimes?The real question is why do these questions need to be brought up in separate news pieces? Does asking such questions really solve anything, or does the newsworthiness of the Virginia Tech shootings need to be stretched as far as it will go?I wouldn't ask questions like this except for last week's media frenzy about Don Imus and the comment about "nappy-headed hos" that made Imus potentially unsalable -- or salable, it's all in the spin. Last week's hot-button issue was replaced by this week's hot-button issue. An outlet of NBC Universal was featured in both stories.Frankly, it seems like the entire NBC News division is gaining a little too much publicity for itself, both intentionally and unintentionally. The whole question of whether NBC News was right to use the package Cho Seung-Hui sent the news division is a smokescreen. Seung-Hui sent a Pandora's Box to NBC News. The temptation for an exclusive was just too strong. Even though the local authorities were contacted and everything was okayed before the video was disseminated, NBC News should have recognized what the package was: a PR campaign for Seung-Hui. That's all his videos really amount to in the end, B-roll.It's obvious NBC News is airing Cho Seung-Hui's videos for publicity. Does anyone really need to know what was in his mind, given the established fact that he had a history of mental illness? Cho Seung-Hui is responsible for the largest mass shooting committed by a single person in American history. That's enough. He shouldn't need to make any more of a mark.NBC's news pieces did what they were meant to do. Ratings went up and NBC Nightly News received some publicity from competing news organizations (who at least could have not identified NBC News by name). It's hard to see how any news organization in NBC News' position would act differently. Even CBC News' decision not to air any part of Seung-Hui's ramblings can be interpreted as a business decision, moral underpinnings notwithstanding. News is a business, like anything that can potentially make money. What the brouhaha with regard to NBC News really illuminates is that the media can take the bait and then feel sorry for themselves for doing so, and that they do it often. It's a duality that should never exist in the first place.

Cameron Archer does some stuff for some people. Here's some of that stuff.

Comedy Review: Scharpling and Wurster, The Art of the Slap

Cameron Archer — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 08:12:24 EDT

I was a bit skeptical about Scharpling and Wurster's The Art of the Slap when I first heard about it. Tom Scharpling's day job is as a writer/executive producer for Monk while Jon Wurster has involved himself with bands like Superchunk and the Mountain Goats. Together they have contributed voices to Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Squidbillies (good) and have involved themselves heavily with Tom Goes to the Mayor (bad.) Their pedigrees include a mix of the great and the forgettable.Nowadays, I often reference Philly Boy Roy routines without knowing. Scharpling and Wurster have that effect on people.The type of comedy The Art of the Slap deals in is hard to pull off. Considering the level of difficulty in trying to make the ridiculous believable, S&W acquit themselves very well. This won't be everyone's type of comedy - hell, I didn't even think it was that funny on first listen. Still, S&W have taken the Simpsons/South Park tack of building an entire self-contained universe out of a volunteer show on famed free-form station WFMU.Ten years after Jon Wurster pulled a prank on WFMU listeners by pretending to shill the worst music reference book ever (well, the worst fake music reference book ever), Scharpling and Wurster can make something outlandish easily seem like it's happening right now. They can mix a realistic, down-to-earth routine with robots and magic powers. The joke is on the listeners for buying into all this even when they're in on the joke. It's quite a proactive, dynamic paradigm - with zazz!Caution: this contains spoilers. Then again, if you're familiar with Scharpling and Wurster and/or have gone to recidivism.org you would realize that I'm spoiling at most 5% of the routine. S&W's routines are just that involved - and long.Disc OneJock Squad (October 11, 2005) - That isn't much of a premise, frankly. A parody of Geek Squad but with jocks? Way to aim high, S&W! The standard Scharpling & Wurster buildup is established for the neophytes: the Jock Squad turn out to be 'roid balloons, spending most of their time working out (sometimes with the computers they're supposed to be fixing - the Jock Squad even shoot .mpgs of themselves destroying computers) and taking thirty minutes of their time each day to actually learn about computer repair. Well, they don't really learn about computer repair, but they tune up Scharpling's computer by rinsing it out. Scharpling has bodily harm threatened on him, setting up the denouement that listeners will be familiar with after listening to more than one S&W routine. Kind of obvious, but "Jock Squad" does have its moments.The Auteur (March 4, 2006) - "The Auteur" Trent L. Strauss defends his films (You're Soaking in Her, Entrails 2: The Gouging, Face Peelers 1-4 and 6, The Hacksawist, Gut Bomb 2003) as morally uplifting, and then describes at length his latest opus The Tool Belt Killer. He sells "Belty," the rich son of the town's mayor and Strauss' apparent Mary Sue, as the hero of the film. Somehow Viking strength, omelettes, a love interest, and attempts at product placement feature into the film. This is in every way better than "Jock Squad" - the premise is better, the opening relatively realistic (Scharpling argues against Hollywood being socially responsible, leading to Strauss' defending it via the worst possible examples) and the buildup more bizarre overall.The Tool Belt Killer, which seems to be The Driller Killer but more Lowe's-centric, is something I'd like to see. As with many S&W routines, it ends with the Jon Wurster character threatening Scharpling's life. How? Watch the upcoming documentary Kill the DJ to find out.Philly Boy Roy (July 11, 2006) - Philly Boy Roy is a recurring character within the S&W framework. He appears often enough that it's one of the most recognizable S&W routines - hell, PBR threatens to swallow 2007 where it stands. This outing features the manipulative Roy Jr. convincing his father that he's psychic, leading to PBR believing that he has switched bodies with his son. His son then spends money on a mini-catamaran while PBR gets caught smoking while attending summer school. PBR also wins the Running of the Cheesesteaks ("little people" ride four-wheelers and swing shellacked cheesesteaks at race participants), leading to PBR eating sixty-five pounds of his 200-pound cheesesteak prize in a day.I'm not even going to explain the backstory behind Laser Allin. Yes, there is mention of laser shows set to songs like "Expose Yourself to Kids," "I Don't Give a S***" (the lack of profanity on The Best Show is such that "S***" is actually pronounced "s") and "Watch Me Kill." It all sounds so stupid, but the PBR guy is damn near endearing even when talking about GG Allin. I can't explain why someone who burned down a Quizno's franchise is appealing to any degree, but he is and I'll leave it at that.Disc TwoAndy from Lake Newbridge (October 18, 2005) - Another relatively weak routine from S&W. Andy from Lake Newbridge is a carp. He talks shit about Aquaman, hinting that "Aquadouche" and Namor the Sub-Mariner are a thing. Andy also crashes on Aquaman's pad when Aquaman isn't there. Andy's life is like a more literal version of Spongebob Squarepants, Andy fronting a band called The Hey Now and phoning through a headset. One can just see the fish-based jokes in one's head, and they're prevalent here. Scharpling actually ends the interview by picking a fight with Andy. It's not much of a sketch, but that seems to be the standard with the first track on both discs.Tornado Todd (April 5, 2006) - "Wait... whuuut?" is one of the catchphrases familiar to Scharpling & Wurster routines. It doesn't sound like much, but you have to hear Jon Wurster say it. Here he plays Tornado Todd Hutchins of non-profit organization LifeChanges. Tornado Todd, who appeared on a previous edition of The Best Show, shills his line of products - Grand Theft Auto ripoff Pimp City (Todd is the voice of the rail-lovin' ferret Pippin), dyed, scentless weed called Faux Nuggs and Tornado Todd's Sorority Skank Patrol Volumes 1 through 17.Tornado Todd, having survived being in a tornado with only minor injuries, has gone back to illicit business dealings. At one point Hutchins blackmails Scharpling, Scharpling acting the part of Pimp City's Ving Rhames/Hulk Hogan gestalt Big Money under threat of his alleged "sick act" appearing in Tornado Todd's Sickest Celebrity Sex Tape (guest panelists include Danny Bonaduce.) It makes a nice change-up from the usual "Scharpling is dumbfounded by his callers" routine, although it ends in the usual "you gonna get killed" fashion. This time, Scharpling faces the wrath of dismembering Siberian Yuri. The best routine thus far on The Art of the Slap.Postal Slap Fight (April 18, 2006) - The most outlandish routine on The Art of the Slap and one that veers off into many different directions. Keith Garfinkle is the blackmailing nephew of United States Postmaster General Edmond T. Garfinkle (not the real Postmaster General, by the way - S&W routines aren't supposed to be that realistic, after all.)Garfinkle also steps into the nonagon for the Newbridge Redfaces of the Northeastern Slap Fight League, has won many Wayne Knight lookalike competitions and is very ill-informed. He's also seen President Baseball and ties that into why Dick Cheney ("Lon Chaney" to Keith Garfinkel) is being scouted by Major League Baseball. Throwing that many disparate references into the routine shouldn't work, but somehow it does and tops even Tornado Todd in its ridiculousness. Surprisingly, Scharpling isn't threatened with bodily harm here.Bonus DiscMother 13... The First Rock Band on Mt. Everest! (May 2/9, 2006) - S&W refer to past routines a lot. Mother 13 first appeared on a 2002 episode shilling their album on RCA and their appearance on the Earthlink/Pringles Summer Slam Jam. Kern Pharmaceuticals, the makers of Summit Cola and a longtime Scharpling & Wurster running joke, have convinced Mother 13 to get back together and climb Mount Everest with assorted random music figures - the Polyphonic Spree, Buddy Guy, Art Alexakis of Everclear, Bruce Springsteen stalwart Clarence Clemons and blink-182's Travis Barker. Other assorted hangers-on include Trent L. Strauss and Darren Cook (better than his "brother" Dane Cook since Dane Cook is real and all.) The objective is to play a concert at the summit of Everest, which Mother 13 lead singer Corey Harris gets ready for by climbing a rock-climbing wall drunk and doing a lot of situps. He's totally cut!As expected, most of the people attempting the Mount Everest climb "die" - the Trent L. Strauss character somehow survives (although not on this CD set) and Corey Harris manages to tell the sordid details of his Mount Everest concert to Scharpling.I found "Mother 13... The First Rock Band on Mt. Everest!" suspended disbelief to such a degree that it didn't work comedically. It's "epic," but the concept of having anyone climb a mountain with an entourage for a publicity stunt is too unbelievable even by S&W standards. The two-part saga is overlong and it's hard to believe any of the musicians mentioned in the routine would even bother to support a minor "new rock" band, never mind climb Mount Everest with them. "Mother 13... The First Rock Band on Mt. Everest!" has a good first half (the May 2 show), but that May 9 show just falls off a cliff.Wait, I don't mean that. Uhh... Summit Cola roxx! SOG?Amazon.com does not currently list The Art of the Slap. For more information about Scharpling and Wurster visit www.stereolaffs.com, Fotpedia and The Best Show playlists at WFMU.

Cameron Archer does some stuff for some people. Here's some of that stuff.