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I haven’t caught up with this week’s episodes of the Colbert Report yet, but I saw the news item about Stephen and his facial injury. Colbert hasn’t said what exactly happened but speculation has run the gamut from he got tangled in a Pier 56 brawl (and lost) to smashing watermelons with his head to “practicing for a walk-on role in Cirque du Soleil and overestimating the number of French Canadians my forehead would support.”

But I know what really happened.

Come closer.

Lemme tell you.

Stephen was trying to fly.

No, really. See, Mr. Colbert was driving on a desolate section of New Jersey highway last Saturday and his car broke down. Unbeknownst at the time another driver had a disabled vehicle not far away.

Their paths would cross as Stephen, trying to get to a telephone (because his iPhone wouldn’t work), would come upon this other disabled driver. The driver was an FBI agent and he grumbled something about “damn gubmint equipment…”

Then, out of the sky, came a strange light.

An alien light.

A spaceship.

Panicked, Stephen and the FBI man sought cover in the Federally issued Crown Vic, where the doors locked on their own. Trapped in the car, the two men could do nothing more than watch as this spaceship decended down before them.

The aliens, however, meant no harm. They had a gift that they wished to bestow upon Stephen Colbert. A supersuit, which would grant Stephen access to unearthly powers. Powers to be used to save humanity and fight the good fight with the specially chosen FBI agent.

As if Stephen isn’t doing enough of saving humanity with his television show, now he has a supersuit to go with it.

After delivering the suit, the aliens departed. The Federal agent, sufficiently spooked, took off like a shot once his car started again, leaving Stephen alone in the middle of a desolate section of New Jersey highway carrying the special black box the suit was in. It even had an instruction book….

Which Stephen promptly lost.

But a supersuit! Unearthly powers! Wait a minute…does that mean…?

Yes.

Stephen could fly.

And knowing this, Stephen had to try it out for himself.

He crashed landed a few times, thus the injury to his handsome face. But he’ll get the hang of it in no time. And with help from that specially chosen FBI agent, humanity will be saved.

There’s no doubt as to the potential and possibilities having this suit will bring. The only question that remains is…

Stephen Colbert: Great American Hero? Or…

The Greatest American Hero?

As mentioned in a previous post, along with Hawaii Five-0 I’ve been on a Robert Culp bent. Only this has gone from just a bent to full blown fanaticism. (As in, damn this guy is good. How come I’m just finding his stuff now?!). It started with watching his appearance on Columbo and it snowballed from there. I have watched various YouTube clips repeatedly. (See below). It got so bad, however, that I broke one of my semi-cardinal rules: Don’t buy any DVDs prior to my birthday, which was this past week. The idea being, that the odds are, that somebody might get me the same DVD.

Well, I broke down and bought the first season of The Greatest American Hero last weekend. And no, nobody got me that DVD for my birthday more or less because nobody really knew that this bent took such a turn. Heh! Anyway, ever heard the expression “You had me at hello?” Bill Maxwell had me at “If you’re looking for trouble, you just found the West Coast distributor.”

Kheeehaaa….

I’m also itching to get I Spy on DVD…which comes out later this month. There’s three episodes on YouTube (although not totally complete. Pieces are cut out between the various parts) and I like what I saw. I especially love this segment from the episode “A Cup of Kindness.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32q_pNpdmJw

My personal favorites are when he goes sliding down the length of the countertop, the guy getting stuffed into the desk, the hammer toss and the swinging from the overhead light. Khee!

Other Robert Culp YouTube favorites include…

Guest appearance on Get Smart…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgS6bO8g0Dg 
BAHAHAHA!  “No more booze for you…”

A “trailer” if you will, for the 1973 made-for-tv film “Outrage”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msQDaf6hwZI 
Apparently, from what I’ve read, when he “takes matters into his own hands” he burns the hotrods to the ground! Now I love cars but the kids in this movie look like real jerks. I think I gotta find this movie just to watch him go berserk and cheer him on!

Greatest American Hero “Promo” Video 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2URTFhzOhc 
“You can’t do that.” “I can’t?!”

And it’s that GAH vid that basically sent me right over the line.

And, in addition to finding the YouTube stuff, what would the point of having a bent go into fanaticism if I didn’t try to find pics?! Do you have any idea how frustrating it is to find decent, good sized images of Mr. Culp on the web?! Blaugh! There either too small, or they’re grainy or they’re distorted or they fall under the “WTF?” category. I’ve seen better photos from a old Polaroid than what I’ve found on the web. Then, a friend of mine sent me a link to a GAH forum board and I found somewhat better images there. However, the images in this post were done by me. Of course, I’ve only done caps from one GAH episode. And I practically capped every second he was on the screen! See? This is bad! And did I mention this is all Jack’s fault?!

But oh so much fun!

Well I have no idea what the hell I was going to do for a Part Two in my More Catchup With That? series. I think I was gonna yap about getting a new laptop and basically complaining about the speed at which technology changes. It’s too damn fast. I’ve had this new laptop now for a month and I’m sure there’s something about it that’s already obsolete.

Anyway, been awhile since I last posted, although I did update my other blog. And I realized that I never introduced y’all to my other blog! You can click on the icon on the right there that says “livejournal blog.”

Basically, it’s going to be a blog about writing, while this one will continue to be about various topics. I posted a few rants about the writer’s strike to it and now that the strike is long over I have to find more important writing related things to blog about. So I wrote an entry about muses and trying to find the actor or actress who could be or could have been a created character.

In the meantime, I seem to be totally lacking in focus lately. And I can’t blame Jack on this one, I don’t think.  It might be because I had a cold last week and although I’m pretty much over it I can’t seem to get back into the swing o’ things. I haven’t updated this blog for awhile, I haven’t worked on any of my various projects, writing or otherwise. It could also be because of this new laptop computer. I’m still getting used to it and getting all the appropriate programs set up on it and everything and I guess I still feel a little “off” with the machine. I love the machine, don’t get me wrong, it’s super fast and now I can do things a little quicker than before. Which will be great…when I think of something to do!

Ah well, I’m sure I’ll get back into the swing of things soon. In the meantime, as evidenced by the other blog post I’ve been on a Hawaii Five-0 bent lately. Also Robert Culp, but I’ll save that for the next blog. (Hmm…but I haven’t been able to focus on much else and I ended up on those bents because of Jack. Whattya know, I can blame him afterall!) So where do you go when you wanna see clips of a show that you ain’t got on DVD or isn’t currently on television? YouTube of course!
 
Buuuuut…YouTube, unfortunately, hasn’t much for Five-0 vids. Most of it’s the show’s intro/theme song. There’s a good portion of an episode called “Highest Castle, Deepest Grave” but the segments are posted up with weird “titles.” For example, one segment of the episode is titled “Steve & Danno” by the contributor. Danno ain’t in the scene at all.

So I’ve seen most of the episode, out of order. I found the beginning, then I found the end, then I found a couple of pieces in the middle.

The complete randomness of Five-0 clips that are posted is especially frustrating in the following clip. This is the intro to the two hour premier of the 1976 season.

WTF?! McGarrett?!?! AHHHH!!!!!

Man! I wanna know who the hell thought it would be funny to post that lil’ teaser. I think they posted it just for the theme music, to which I say “You coulda just posted the theme music!” It’ll be awhile before that shows up on a DVD (I believe that’s the 9th season, 4th season is to be released in June of ‘08) so you can imagine I’m a little preturbed. I shouldn’ta even watched.

Then there’s some fun Five-0 themed vids. Such as this one, taking the show’s intro and using the Miami Vice theme song instead.

Woah. Now I dunno about you, but I think that is cool the way the music lines up with the footage so well! Now somebody just needs to put the Five-0 theme music with the Vice intro footage.

Here’s one for Brian. Supernatural Five-0!

Then there’s this vid….

BAHAHAHAHAHA!!! No wonder McGarrett threw himself off that boat in that first clip above.

One thing is obvious after all of this, however. I’m gonna have to start getting the DVDs…

Stay tuned for more distractions, this time from Robert Culp!

Argh, man where does the time go? Tons o’ stuff to catch up on here and I’m way behind and most of this, unfortunately, is kinda old news. They say one of the key things to having a successful blog is frequent updating.  They’re probably right. 

However, since I’ve mentioned some things in previous posts, it’s only proper that I follow up with the conclusion of the latest Colbert shenanigans, even if I’m weeks late on it.

Stephen didn’t get his portrait into the Smithsonian. But he did get it into the National Portrait Gallery….which is still part of the Smithsonian.

It’s hanging in a true place of honor. Check it out here: Colbert Exhibit. I don’t want to spoil it by telling you here. Also, if you happen to be in the Washington DC area, check it out in person as it’s only there for a limited time!

Meanwhile, A Colbert Coincidence MAY be in the works as I write this. Check this out…

Back on Tuesday January 22, Stephen had Ambassador Aaron Young (former Mayor of Atlanta) as a guest on the program. Ambassador Young is one of the original of Dr. Martin Luther King’s Inner Circle and in 1969 helped negotiate a settlement between striking black hospital workers and two Charleston, South Carolina hospitals. As I’ve mentioned before, Colbert is from Charleston and come to find out, one of the hospital administrators at the time that Ambassador Young worked with to settle the strike was none other than Dr. James Colbert. Stephen’s dad. Yes, really!

The best summary of what went down on that particular Colbert episode can be found at the Huffington Post .  Additional reading can be found at the Atlanta Journal Constitution  and Wikipedia.

Anyway, after getting the history on that, Ambassador Young came on and he and Stephen talked a little about the current writer’s strike and the Ambassador suggested that perhaps Stephen could do something about all this. Given the family history, ya know…

Hmm… On Wednesday, Jan. 23, talks resumed between the writers and the producers. As of yesterday, February 8th, it looks like the strike could be close to ending.

Coincidence?

In all seriousness, this particular episode of the Colbert Report was serious in it’s acknowledgement of the strike and support for it’s writers and was especially poignant in the connection to a part of history that involved Stephen’s dad and was an excellent tribute. (His father, along with two of Stephen’s brothers, were killed in a plane crash in 1974.)

It’s obvious this strike has gone on much much too long. I’ve bitched and complained about the strike on another blog. As much as I’ve sympathized with the writers, I have a hard time supporting the “Guild” in it’s decision to strike. Yet, I’m not fan of the producers either and they way they handled this. People who aren’t even writers, are out of work. This thing has just gotten ridiculous.

In fact, it’s now come to the point that perhaps the WGA is realizing it’s about to hang itself. A recent article in the NY Times put it quite well and speaks of a possibly cold reception awaiting the writers once this strike ends. It kinda echoes some sentiments from Brian’s blog a month or so ago.

Don’t say you weren’t warned.

Okay, that’s all I gotta say about Stephen….until I catch up with this past week’s episodes.  In the meantime, additional news to catch up on will be forthcoming.

None of those three things are related other than having an S at the beginning of each word. Heh heh! Just a handful of things here to comment, rant and rave about.

First, commentary:

I spent my Sunday afternoon with Stephen and caught up on last week’s episodes of The Colbert Report (now pronounced with the hard Ts). Stephen just ruled his show. Seriously! Granted, the bulk of his “material” is talking about the elections and all but he kept the pace going well and he was funny as ever. He even danced. Twice. And boy can that guy move! Heh!

Ahem. Anyway, the media has also graded his performance as excellent as well, citing of course his background in improv. (Did I tell ya? Did I tell ya? Huh? HUH??). Obviously there’s some degree of preparedness on his part (somebody’s gotta find all those vid clips he refers to in various discussions) but otherwise, he’s going out there confident and ready to change and fix the world. He feeds off the energy of the audience and they happily give as much as they can to keep him going. WOO! His first broadcast they gave him a near three minute standing ovation. He could NOT get them to HUSH! =)

On that same first broadcast he referred to the strike several times (each broadcast has had a reference to the strike) and his character boasted about not *needing* any writers. Stephen himself would never say that, and I’m sure preparing for a 30 minute show and not being able to write a damn thing before hand is not a cake walk and it’s nice to have several writers with several different ideas and input but ya know what….he really *doesn’t* need any writers! (Take that WGA! Pthpbhphtpt!!)

Anyway, despite the strike, Stephen is attempting to instigate some new shenanigans. His latest? Trying to get the Smithsonian to accept the potrait of him that hung over his fireplace on the set, recently replaced with a new potrait. (Each year since the show started, a new potrait has been done of him standing by said fireplace with previous potrait behind him. If he’s on television for the next ten years, that painting is gonna be really bizarre looking!). He went to Washington DC at somepoint in the last 10 weeks, the painting strapped on his back and he was shown walking around the Mall with it. He looked like a Hobo Picasso. In a Brooks Brothers suit.

It looks iffy at this point if the Smithsonian will accept the painting (Part Two of the saga aired last night, I don’t know what happened yet). But they have a Prince display, complete with one of Prince’s guitars and a selection of music (this was one of those dancing Stephen segements. He had to press one of the buttons) so I really don’t see why they wouldn’t take the painting!

One of the other items on display that he looked at was Lincoln’s top hat. Yes, really. Stephen, in commenting on the fashion of the hat, said something to the effect of “If I am ever caught wearing a hat like that, somebody better shoot me.”

This coming from a man who once described himself as “Lincolnish.”

Anyway! Moving on to the rant:

It’s snowed again in New England. Again. AGAIN!! Ten freakin’ inches of White Death once again covers our landscape! We had a mini-January thaw, which got rid of some of the 40+ inches of snow that’s already on the ground from December. Are we gonna have another 30 inches of snow before January is up?

Mother Nature, look, I know you’re mad. Really, I do. BUT NONE OF THIS IS MY FAULT!! I don’t drive a Hummer or an SUV! I know my Firebird is 22 years old and is probably not the most fuel effecient or cleanest vehicle out there but there’s worse! And I don’t drive it really all that much. I recycle! I–

Okay. Yes, I know, we’re all responsible in some way shape or form. And short of packing up and moving South, I should just shut up, put on the big girl panties and deal with it. Gotcha.

When’s spring?

And now, the rave:

I was so excited to post my DOH slideshow yesterday that I forgot to post this post that you’ve been reading! Previously in this blog I talked about making slideshows set to music. In the summer of 2007 I made a DOH slide show and it basically took me the rest of the year to figure out how to save the file in a correct format so the quality would be good when I uploaded it to YouTube. Also, the rest of the year was spent finding time to do this as it took 20 minutes for my computer to save the file and another 20 minutes for the file to upload to You Tube. But I made it! Check it out in the post below!