Time's Up, Pencils Down

robmichaelhugel: I’m falling in love with the internet all over...

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 23:01:21 -0400

I’m falling in love with the internet all over again.

I cannot explain why I love this so much.

“I like that I stick out. I was watching ‘Valentine’s Day’ on...

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 02:02:31 -0400

“I like that I stick out. I was watching ‘Valentine’s Day’ on the plane recently. I have a tiny part in that movie. I was watching all the women — Jessica Biel, and Emma Roberts, and Jennifer Garner and Julia Roberts. They are gorgeous women, and I don’t want to take anything away from them, but they all do have a very classical look, with a very thin nose. I’m watching this parade of these faces and then, boom, it was my face, and I was taken aback. I was like, ‘Oh, my nose is so big!’ I have never in my life thought I had a big nose, but, well, there it was. The first time I was on TV, on ‘Flight of the Conchords,’ someone put up a YouTube clip and said, ‘You’re too ugly to be on TV.’ And I was like, ‘That is exactly why it’s a good thing that I’m on TV.’”

williebhines: coming soon Sneak preview! Today was a...

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 01:56:44 -0400

williebhines:

coming soon

Sneak preview! Today was a ridiculous day.

amyohconnor: I love this. I weirdly also wrote to John Waters...

Sun, 27 May 2012 18:29:17 -0400

amyohconnor:

I love this. I weirdly also wrote to John Waters when I was about fourteen years old and he sent back a postcard signed, “Dear Amy, I’ll pay to see your film. Best, John Waters”. So, he is pretty much the best.

believermag:

FRED ARMISEN ON FILMMAKER JOHN WATERS

It’s interesting, the little threads of connection between artists that we don’t necessarily know about; like who is friends with whom. Below, Fred Armisen talks about his childhood mentor, John Waters, the director of immensely beloved and influential cult films featuring an odd array of characters, including Hairspray, Cry-Baby and Cecil B. Demented. He lives in Baltimore, where he was born.

/

Fred Armisen is best known for the sketch show Portlandia on IFC that he created with musician and writer Carrie Brownstein, and for his contributions to Saturday Night Live over the last ten years — although he initially planned to make it to TV by being in a band. When music didn’t pan out in the late 90s, Fred began to pursue comedy by creating guerrilla-style videos that he screened at rock clubs. His willingness to feed off an audience’s confusion drew comparisons to Andy Kaufman. The Chicago-based recording engineer and musician Steve Albini described Fred’s ascent from punk drummer as an exercise in drive: “Fred is the only person I ever knew who was not famous, then tried to become famous and did it. Truly amazing willpower.” He brings a likably subversive quality to a wide variety of characters on Portlandia — from Candace, the middle-aged co-owner of a feminist bookstore, to Spyke, a heavily pierced bike activist with perpetual road rage. He’s always convincing, yet also always Fred. – Damian Rogers

THE BELIEVER: I find it impressive, the way you’ve managed to participate in larger institutions — SNL is part of American cultural history; it’s not just a popular comedy show, it’s the comedy show we grew up watching — yet you continue to make things independently as well.

FRED ARMISEN: When I was growing up, the people I admired, the stuff they did, once I grew up, I thought, I could do it as well.

BLVR: What was it that made you think that door was open to you, when so many people can’t imagine doing what their heroes do?

FA: I have no idea. I think it’s maybe that I believed in all those people. All those bands I liked, all of those people, I really believed in them. I thought it was just agreed, common knowledge that everyone should try to be like them. Like John Waters or Devo — we need to try to be like the people we admire. It never occurred to me that you could look up to people and not try to be like them.

BLVR: I recently read John Waters’ book Role Models. Did you read it?

FA: Oh, no, I haven’t read it yet. But I’m actually literally looking at it right now; it’s on my shelf.

BLVR: It’s great. I remember you told me years ago that you reached out to him as a kid.

FA: I was really young, I must have been 14 or 15. I was listening to the radio, to like a rock station on FM radio — I think it might have actually been a Sunday morning — and all of a sudden there was an interview with John Waters, and I just thought, This guy is fascinating, who is this guy? He was so interesting; everything he was saying about shock value and violence and grossing people out and stuff — there was something really funny about him. And he was answering a lot of questions and problems I was having.

BLVR: Like what?

FA: I got sent to the school psychologist in junior high school because we had an assignment in English class, and the assignment was “What would you do if you only had one more day to live?”

BLVR: Yeah…

FA: And I remember talking to the other kids, and they were just the lamest — how do I describe it? It was things like, “I would visit my grandparents,” “I would see my family,” and I was just like ughhhhhhhhh! I don’t even know if I was trying to be funny or what it was, but I wrote this paper that said, “I would destroy everything, I would go into every store and burn it down and smash the windows.” It was just my reaction to all of that. My teacher graded it by giving me a question mark and then I had to go to the school psychologist for the day, and it panicked my mom. It was really traumatic.

BLVR: What was it like?

FA: I had to take all these tests with questions like, Do you see animals other people don’t seem to see? Do you feel a tight band wrapped around your head? It was very embarrassing for me, you know what I mean? No kid wants to go into some room with a psychologist while everyone else is having their day at school. It made me feel very alone. I was just being funny — it wasn’t real. Then hearing John Waters talk about shocking people made me feel like, Oh, there’s a grown-up who’s doing the same thing. So I went to the mall and I bought Shock Value and I read the whole thing, cover to cover. And that brought it to another level, because it’s all about the reaction he wants to get from his audience — and by the way, I didn’t read any-thing then, ever. I wasn’t a reader. I didn’t care about literature. I’d read maybe a couple photo books on The Beatles, that’s it. But that book was everything I believed in, and I didn’t even know it yet. The book opens with a line like, “If someone in my audience throws up, it’s like getting a standing ovation.” So I wrote to him. And the way I wrote to him is: he says that he stays with his friend Cookie Mueller—

BLVR: Oh, wow, I love her work.

FA: You do?

BLVR: Yeah.

FA: Well, I went to my phonebook in my house and I looked up “Cookie Mueller” in Manhattan. Her phone number was in the book. I grew up on Long Island. I don’t know why we had a Manhattan phone book. We just did. But there it was in the White Pages, and I called her. I said, “Hi, I just read John Waters’ book and do people call you all the time?” And she said, “No. You’re the first one.”

BLVR: Was she nice to you?

FA: Totally nice! I explained that I wanted to get John Waters’ address, and then she got my address, and she wrote his address on a postcard or something, and sent it with an autographed picture of herself! So then I wrote him my whole story. I said, You’re this filmmaker and you get to go to Europe and stuff, and I have these crazy ideas and I get sent to the school psychiatrist.

BLVR: And he wrote you back?

FA: He wrote me back this postcard! I had told him I was his number one fan and that someday I was going to take over his Pukedom, because he’s the Prince of Puke, and we started writing to each other. He’d send me a postcard, and I’d write him a letter. He really saved my life. He explained to me that it wasn’t just about shocking people, but that it had to have a point. It has to be funny. He was giving me lessons on why to do it. He also gave me this piece of advice that I didn’t compute until recently; he said to buy Variety Magazine, you know, Variety, show biz. He told me that ages ago, and that’s another thing: to embrace all the aspects of making things, the business side as well. It wasn’t just [whiny voice] “Destroy everything and be underground!” No. Know the business so you can get somewhere. And he’s a success. Even though he’s considered a cult favorite, he’s a success.

BLVR: For sure.

FA: He was giving me a blueprint of what to be, without being preachy. It was incredible.

Oh man, this is terrific.

dangurewitch: Recently it came to my attention that the word...

Sat, 26 May 2012 12:17:29 -0400

dangurewitch:

Recently it came to my attention that the word “YOLO,” an acronym standing for “You Only Live Once,” has become popular with the kids (as in “Fine, I’ll do another shot - YOLO!”). I did some research and I found out that YOLO is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of hip 2012 lingo. Get ready to feel really old, because I had never heard of any of these, but apparently they’re being used everywhere:

YOLO: You Only Live Once

YOLOLO: You Only “LOL” Once

YOTROLOLOO: You Only “Trololo” Once

YOLOLO NOHOMO: You Only “LOL” Once, and I don’t mean that in the gay way

YOWO SOSOPOLOS: You Only Wear Orange So-So Polos
“You’ll never win the fashion competition. YOWO SOSOPOLOS.”

YOWO SOSOPOLOS SOHOMO: You Only Wear Orange So-So Polos, and I do mean that in a very gay way
“You’ll never win the fashion competition, sweetbuns. YOWO SOSOPOLOS SOHOMO.”

YOYOKO ONOSOCO: You’re Only Yoko Ono, So Chill Out
“You don’t have to create world peace by yourself. YOYOKO ONOSOCO.” (Must be spoken only to Yoko Ono.)

YOHOHOHO BOSODOCOCOA: You Only “HoHoHo” But Once, So Drink Our Cocoa (Must be spoken only to Santa Claus.)

YOLOMOFO HELLOMOTO: You Only Live Once, Motherfucker (Must be spoken only by Samuel L. Jackson in a Motorola commercial)

YOYOYO OSO YOYOSOLO OWO LOCO PO-PO: You Only Yo-Yo Once, So Yo-Yo Solo, Obviously Without Crazy Police Officers

This is a favorite thing.

spolikeluzhate: SHANNON O’NEILL IS… EPISODE 3: Eating An...

Wed, 23 May 2012 09:34:41 -0400

spolikeluzhate:

SHANNON O’NEILL IS…

EPISODE 3: Eating An Apple

Written by: Elaine Carroll, Rachael Mason & Shannon O’Neill

Directed by Will Hines

Featuring Elaine Carroll

Secret appearance by Rico the Dog.

Episode 3! It will take you 30 seconds to watch this. WATCH THIS!

I was an inexplicably huge Lydia Lunch fan in my teen years. Saw...

Wed, 23 May 2012 00:40:58 -0400

I was an inexplicably huge Lydia Lunch fan in my teen years. Saw her more then once at weird underground places. Also, I love this poster. That is all.

spolikeluzhate: If it’s not raining in your city, pretend it...

Mon, 21 May 2012 12:04:49 -0400

spolikeluzhate:

If it’s not raining in your city, pretend it is, sit back and enjoy a cup of hot disgusting liquid while catching up on “Shannon O’Neill is…”

Tomorrow we drop Episode 3!

Episode 2: Teaching Improv is above

Episode 1: Running can be found RIGHT HERE, CLICK ME!

Watching both episodes takes less than 2 minutes of your life.

And if you have already watched both, then click on this and watch an iguana fart in a bathtub.

Thanks for the support, I enjoy the internet people of earth.

Dan Harmon Poops: HEY, DID I MISS ANYTHING?

Sat, 19 May 2012 11:36:26 -0400

Dan Harmon Poops: HEY, DID I MISS ANYTHING? :

danharmon:

Kids:

A few hours ago, I landed in Los Angeles, turned on my phone, and confirmed what you already know. Sony Pictures Television is replacing me as showrunner on Community, with two seasoned fellows that I’m sure are quite nice - actually, I have it on good authority they’re quite nice, because…

Dan Harmon Is No Longer Showrunner on 'Community' | Vulture

Sat, 19 May 2012 03:25:06 -0400

Dan Harmon Is No Longer Showrunner on 'Community' | Vulture:

popculturebrain:

Dan Harmon will not be returning as showrunner of NBC’s Community, and whether he’ll remain involved at all with the series he created at remains very much in doubt. Sony Pictures Television, which produces the series with Universal Television, has closed a deal with Happy Endings writers David Guarascio and Moses Port to join Community as showrunners and exec producers.

This is very disheartening news. Vulture also explains that Sony hired new showrunners without discussing with Harmon, which leads to the notion that he won’t be in a minor consulting role either.

Vulture hears that now that Sony made its deal with Guarascio and Port, it plans to ask Harmon to remain involved as a writer and consultant — but not as the person in charge of the show. (He’s expected to remain a “consulting producer” no matter what). Given Sony’s decision to make a deal for Harmon’s replacement without telling Harmon directly, it seems a longshot that Harmon will agree to a diminished role.

Click through for Joe Adalian’s full, detailed write up.

Oh yeah. THAT MAKES SENSE. Jesus.

spolikeluzhate: Catch up on “Shannon O’Neill is…” Episode 2:...

Fri, 18 May 2012 09:22:43 -0400

spolikeluzhate:

Catch up on “Shannon O’Neill is…”

Episode 2: “Teaching Improv” is embedded above

IT'S ALL THE SAME

Wed, 16 May 2012 20:52:28 -0400

Rules posted in Merce Cunningham’s Studios, written by John Cage. This is about dance. But seems applicable to other things!

THE RULES

RULE ONE: Find a place you trust, and then try trusting it for awhile.

RULE TWO: General duties of a student - pull everything out of your teacher; pull everything out of your fellow students.

RULE THREE: General duties of a teacher - pull everything out of your students.

RULE FOUR: Consider everything an experiment.

RULE FIVE: be self-disciplined - this means finding someone wise or smart and choosing to follow them. To be disciplined is to follow in a good way. To be self-disciplined is to follow in a better way.

RULE SIX: Nothing is a mistake. There’s no win and no fail, there’s only make.

RULE SEVEN: The only rule is work. If you work it will lead to something. It’s the people who do all of the work all of the time who eventually catch on to things.

RULE EIGHT: Don’t try to create and analyze at the same time. They’re different processes.

RULE NINE: Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It’s lighter than you think.

RULE TEN: “We’re breaking all the rules. Even our own rules. And how do we do that? By leaving plenty of room for X quantities.” (John Cage)

HINTS: Always be around. Come or go to everything. Always go to classes. Read anything you can get your hands on. Look at movies carefully, often. Save everything - it might come in handy later.

Flash mob plays Peer Gynt in Copenhagen subway. This is a truly...

Wed, 16 May 2012 11:55:43 -0400

Flash mob plays Peer Gynt in Copenhagen subway. This is a truly wonderful thing. Truly.

spolikeluzhate: Shannon O’Neill Is… Episode 2: Teaching...

Tue, 15 May 2012 11:43:57 -0400

spolikeluzhate:

Shannon O’Neill Is…

Episode 2: Teaching Improv

Written by Elaine Carroll, Rachael Mason & Shannon O’Neill

Directed by Will Hines

Effects by Ed Mundy

Featuring Alan Starzinski*

*The best casting choice we’ve ever made.

I wrote this and have watched it so many times, and it STILL makes me laugh every time I watch it. YES I AM BRAGGING ABOUT A THING I WROTE DEAL WITH IT.

Also, watch it.

spolikeluzhate: IN CASE YOU MISSED IT! Episode 1 of “Shannon...

Fri, 11 May 2012 12:16:03 -0400

spolikeluzhate:

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT!

Episode 1 of “Shannon O’Neill Is…” is above for your enjoyment again, or for the first time.

Written by Elaine Carroll, Rachael Mason & Shannon O’Neill.

Directed by Sir William Hines

Music: Eric Gersen

(Lots of other people helped make this happen)

Episode 2 drops on Tuesday May 15th

You will not understand Episode 2 if you don’t watch this!*

*This is a lie.

spolikeluzhate: TONIGHT’S SHOW FEATURES! Megan Neuringer -...

Thu, 10 May 2012 11:06:14 -0400

spolikeluzhate:

TONIGHT’S SHOW FEATURES!

Megan Neuringer - Stand-up

Kelly Hudson - Singer/Songwriter

The Ladies of SKOMP - Sketch

Rachael Mason - Story Telling

Some Random Dancing

Plus one lucky Audience member joins us on stage, and another gets to perform a talent! It could be you! It is random!

Thursday May 10th, 11pm at The UCB EAST

CLICK THIS LINK OR THE PHOTO ABOVE FOR RESERVATIONS

I am in this show tonight. You should be in this audience tonight.

spolikeluzhate: I’m excited to release Episode 1 of a silly...

Wed, 09 May 2012 15:50:35 -0400

spolikeluzhate:

I’m excited to release Episode 1 of a silly little web series called:

“Shannon O’Neill Is...”

Written by Elaine Carroll, Rachael Mason & Shannon O’Neill

Directed by Will Hines

Music by Eric Gersen

Lots of other wonderful people helped and they are in the credits.

As stated above, I wrote this with Elaine and Spo. It was super fun to shoot this. I am late on the reblog cuz I was away from things like computers, but if you have not already watched it and loved it, please do.

"He gives us exactly what we want or need exactly when we can’t wait any longer for it. It’s like his..."

Wed, 09 May 2012 15:44:54 -0400

“He gives us exactly what we want or need exactly when we can’t wait any longer for it. It’s like his presidency is being directed by Joss Whedon.”

- Sebastian (via nicolemarietherese)

spolikeluzhate: This months show features!! Megan Neuringer -...

Tue, 01 May 2012 01:45:30 -0400

spolikeluzhate:

This months show features!!

Megan Neuringer - Stand-up

Kelly Hudson - Singer/Songwriter

The Ladies of SKOMP - Sketch

Rachael Mason - Story Telling

Cocoon Central Dance Team - Dance

Plus one lucky Audience member joins us on stage, and another gets to perform a talent!

Thursday May 10th, 11pm at The UCB EAST

CLICK THIS LINK OR THE PHOTO ABOVE FOR RESERVATIONS

I am real excited about this show! I plan to tell a story involving rock stars in a hot tub, but I will have just gotten off a plane from Berlin, so perhaps new stories will abound.

poupak: sussybuckets: DONE. williebhines: YES. The maniacal...

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 09:23:44 -0400

poupak:

sussybuckets:

DONE.

williebhines:

YES. The maniacal and obsessive mind of Connor Ratliff presents us with a practical plan! I am doing this NOW.

connorratliff:

HOW DO YOU SAVE A TV SHOW?

…

This is a long rambling way of saying: one thing you can do to help save Best Friends Forever, if you are so inclined, is to buy a season pass on iTunes. It’s like 13 bucks for the whole first season, which is basically the same price as if you were to individually buy the 4 episodes they have for sale individually.

It might sound like a dumb idea— after all, if you like the show, you’ve presumably seen the 4 episodes that are already up, and they’re available for free on the NBC website or hulu. The idea of paying money for TV shows that are available for free already is ridiculous. I feel dumb typing this.

BUT: it is one way of showing support for the show, and it’s basically like paying for a movie ticket (if you live in a big city where movies are crazy expensive) or a pizza or some other thing that costs as much as a pizza. And if the goal is to convince NBC that there is a devoted audience that wants this show on the air, then maybe BFF selling a lot of iTunes downloads is one way to get their attention. It’s like voting with your dollars to say “keep making more of these, please. Here is some of my money!”

I know if FOX had put Arrested Development episodes for sale on iTunes back when it was on the bubble, I would have happily bought them all if I though it had even a small chance of saving the show. It worked for The Office. Maybe it can in some small way contribute to keeping BFF on the air long enough for more people to discover it…

AGAIN: GO HERE IF YOU WANNA BUY A SEASON PASS OF “BEST FRIENDS FOREVER” ON iTUNES!

#SaveNBCBFF