The Conchords Take Flight

When I first saw the preview for HBO’s new slew of shows in their post-”Sopranos” vortex era of shows that have no chance of living up to the hype of their predecessor, I immediately was drawn to this imported Brooklyn hipster duo/ Alt-folk band of New Zealand brothers (in the namaste sense of the word) Bret & Jemaine, who are trying to make a go of their musical aspirations in New York.

The 12-episode series is performed in the same deadpan, sardonic parody-style of a Ricky Gervais production (”The Office,” “Extras”) with moments of awkward tension and bone-dry humor that are comedically so subtlly timed and well-executed that they are probably lost on the general American public. Nonetheless, these moments are filled with silly musical tunes that play of the situational irony of a scene. As Bret and Jemaine are musicians (both on and off-screen) this set-up works. Read More…

Did He Use Too Much Toilet Paper?

“Curb You Enthusiasm” and “Seinfeld” creator Larry David and his wife, Laurie, of 14 years announced their split. The split is said to be “amicable” and the two will continue to jointly raise their daughters. While David has made quite a name for himself for being the genius behind our most memorable cultural neurotic icons since Woody Allen, his wife, Laurie, an active environmentalist has pursed more serious undertakings. Her most notable role being that of producer of the Al Gore documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth” and a recent college tour stint with Sheryl Crow. Of course the latter can only raise certain flags. Like, will Crow’s now infamous rationing of toilet paper inspire a future episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm”? One can only hope so…

What Would Politics Be Without Paris?

It’s a frequent complaint of foreigners living in the U.S. or visiting from abroad (not to mention esteemed culture critics) that the U.S. doesn’t know how to draw the line between “important national news” and idol garbage.

Alec Baldwin’s custody battle and David Hasselhoff’s bad parenting headlines trumped the VA Tech massacre. And our nation’s preoccupation with the superficial, even at its follicular base has us more attuned to Britney Spears shaving off her hair or Sanjaya making a spectacle of his than the new elected Prime Minister of France.

Are we such an insular nation that “world” events that happen thousands of miles away don’t interest us? Is so, then how does this account for the VA Massacre coverage? Or the fact that I couldn’t recall the specifics of the the Oklahoma City bombing, but I’ll most likely always have Anna Nicole’s lawyer Larry Seidlin floating around in my conscious mind.

So what is it about vacuous, gratuitous aspects of culture that reel us in for the kill? Why does anyone (aside from Cameron Diaz) care that Paris Hilton gets prison time (why should i sign some ridiculous petition to “free” her) and why does it make the news that Hilton called upon Governor Schwarznegger to pardon her? Or better yet that she switched her attorney last minute.

I felt the same sense of apathy to the OJ trial (although to a lesser degree since he was accused of violently murdering his ex-wife and her lover and was a father of two very impressionable kids who just lost the mother that their father was on trial for killing) as I did the Michael Jackson trial (who was also potentially guilty of endangering [and sodomizing] youth). And then there’s the absurdly wacky Phil Spector ongoing nightmare of a celebrity spectacle that oddly fuses hair, celebrity, and the legal system.

Simply put, the cult of the celebrity and the media’s fascination with them will always take precedence in U.S. culture over life’s deeper, more pressing concerns especially when/if it interfaces with the legal system.

As the brilliant cultural commentator Nancy Giles astutely called out on “CBS Sunday Morning” this past week:

What is news? It’s all a blur, run into the ground, with war, politics and pop culture given the same value. It’s like pulling all-nighters to cram for exams. Sure, you’ll pass, but did anything really “stick?”