kevin barnett

I had to stop by the Union Square Barnes & Noble on my way home from work last night to catch a discussion between Michael Ruhlman and Anthony Bourdain. I’m a long time fan of Bourdain, specifically of Kitchen Confidential, his subsequent travel shows and rants about The Food Network and their personalities. I had been reading Ruhlman’s blog every now and then to catch Bourdain’s guest appearances until I started watching The Next Iron Chef, for which Ruhlman was a judge and commentator via his blog.

The introduction was a tad heavy on the fluffing but the two authors kept it real on travel, cooking and producing good television around those topics. They also had some funny and interesting comments on the celebrity chef. BN.com will have at some point has a video of the discussion.

Bourdain: Guy Fieri, you know…20% more gel…20% more Rastafari…can we put him on a skateboard…with the glasses around his head: ratings gold.

Ruhlman: Apparently, he’s very popular. I don’t know…

Bourdain: So is chlamydia.

Ruhlman: Did you really quit smoking?

Bourdain: Yes.

Bourdain: That’s what a pair of 7 1/2 month old lungs in the house does to you.

Ruhlman: You have some redeeming characteristics after all.

Bourdain: Shut the fuck up.

The cast of Saturday Night Live will be performing the show this Saturday at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theater. The cast of 30 Rock will do the same on Monday.

All proceeds will benefit the WGA Strike Fund. Break the man down.

I was just listening to Daft Punk - Rollin’ and Scratchin’

A New York moving landmark: the strike rat (photo: swissmiss)

The celebrities have come out and walked the picket lines. Very reasonable editorials, like this one by Lost head writer Damon Lindelof in the NY Times have been published. Writers have blogged, created viral videos and come up with un-memorable picket line chants like “Eva Longoria! — We write the story-a!”

Time to bring in the rat.

In New York, the inflatable union rat is a traditional weapon deployed when any given group of workers is striking. It gets setup outside the building in which there is a picket line. And it just sits there, looking disgusting and calling attention to the picketers’ cause. As much as I enjoy seeing Tina Fey on the street, I think I’d rather see the rat come out for the writers.

Where should the WGA East should deploy the giant rodent? How about next Monday and Tuesday, in front of 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Ellen DeGeneres is scheduled to tape her show there next week and I see that tickets are still available, which is odd considering the loot and swag she likes to give to her audience.

I am not sure if the writers’ strike will have an effect on the turnout, or if New Yorkers (who walk past homeless people on the streets on a daily basis) don’t care to see another show hijacked by the tyrannical bureaucracy of a private animal adoption agency in the greater Los Angeles area. Put another way, according to WGA East, she “spent an entire week crying and fighting for a dog that she gave away, yet she couldn’t even stand by writers for more than one day“.

The argument is her show is syndicated and therefore “contractually obligated” to maintain production on the shows. Yet, the show went dark for - as the WGA mentioned - one day, presumably breaking that obligation. And while it’s honorable to keep your commitments, I have a hard time believing that Letterman, Leno, etc don’t have similar contracts obligating them to a certain number of shows per year.

I know Ellen likes to wear suits, but I can’t imagine her as one of the greedy Hollywood suits. Maybe when there is an animal involved, Ms. DeGeneres will find the WGA’s picket line a more compelling cause to halt production on her show. So bring on the rat.

I was just listening to Public Enemy - Can’t Truss It

WTF? NBC removed their YouTube channel and are now offering their own un-embeddable and ad-pre-rolled “Two-minute Replays” at NBC.com. However, it appears they allowed Obama’s campaign to post the opening sketch of SNL this past Saturday in which he makes a brilliant yet stiff appearance. Yeah, stiff. Somehow, he resisted the urge to cross-dress unlike another ‘08 presidential candidate.

*Update: Obama’s campaign removed the video. NBC can suck it.

I don’t think I have ever laughed (and cried) from watching SNL as much as I did during this sketch… *update - for some reason, NBC removed this sketch from YouTube.  Perhaps the Sundance folks (lawyers) don’t have a good sense of humor.  That’s too bad.

“Let me root, root, root for the home team…”

I guess the experience hosting Saturday Night Live this past weekend had a big impact on Lebron James. Last night, I noticed - as I’m sure many Cleveland Indians fans did - Lebron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers wearing a Yankees hat. And then when the game is pretty much decided in the 6th inning, Lebron turns his hat backwards. Then he removes it.

Clearly, he’s not a hard and true Yankees fan so he’s presenting himself as a real tool to local Cleveland fans.  Why pull that in your hometown, dude?  Were you really that proud of your SNL gig? Other than the Digital Short and the return of The Ambiguously Gay Duo, it was a weak show. Not that athletes make great SNL hosts but Peyton Manning set the bar pretty high last year: