DVR Alert!!! Marc Maron on "Ferguson" Tonight

I will be on The Late Late Show w/ @craigyferg tnite. Help him break in the new studio.
— marc maron (@marcmaron) August 30, 2012

Bach's Greatest Role

Sebastian Bach and The Trailer Park Boys

Never was much of a Skid Row fan, but there is no way I will ever make fun of its former lead singer, Sebastian Bach. Not after his star turn in the final season of The Trailer Park Boys. And he continues to reunite with his cigarette smuggling comrades to this day. Love the photo!

Re-Cap of Alex Wagner on "Real Time"

Alex Wagner tries to restrain herself from strangling this guy

My lady, Alex Wagner, shined last Friday night on the season premier of Real Time with Bill Maher. Unlike her last appearance, where she was consistently shouted over by teabagging Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA), Alex stayed engaged with the panel throughout. Conservative columnist Reihan Salam did his able best to bogart the conversation - no matter the topic - but Alex gave as good as she got. Salam remained a robotic talking point reciter as he listed off the so-called failures of the Obama Administration, while refusing to acknowledge the Republican's sabotage of the president's jobs and economic plans, and the sometimes racist motives behind the right's actions.

The always confusing mega-billionaire Mark Cuban was the third person on the panel. He appears to be liberal in nearly all instances, except when the topic is unions. Like most wealthy people, he sees no need. 

Oh, and Chelsea Handler was on, too. She didn't contribute much to the discussion, even though I basically agreed with her on most of her points.

Too Much Sexiness For One Photograph

Katy Perry and Rashida Jones

Casual Thursday

Alex Wagner Rejoins the Real Time Panel

My lady, Alex Wager, announced today on her show that she is returning to the panel of Real Time with Bill Maher on this Friday's season premiere. Last time she was on, Rep. Darrell Issa bogarted the discussion. This time around, Alex will be appearing along with Peter Byck, Mark Cuban, Reihan Salam, and Chelsea Handler. Should be great.

And praise Jeebus that Bill Maher is back!

Great On So Many Levels

Starbucks at Starbucks

Epic "Louie" Last Night

Not sure if you caught last night's episode of "Louie," but it was one for the ages. A few hours before the episode aired, Louis C.K. tweeted that the guest stars for it were Maria Bamford, Sarah Silverman, and Marc Maron. "All Jews, except Maria," read the tweet. I was going to watch anyway, but now that Maron and Silverman were going to be on...

I have been listening to Marc Maron's WTF podcast for a year and a half or so. I hate to admit that I am not as cool as everyone else, but I only "discovered" the podcast after Maron appeared on Bill Maher's show. Have been hooked ever since. My love for the podcast prompted to me to do a little "research" on Maron, and I realized that I had seen him many times in the past on Comedy Central, Conan, and elsewhere. I also came upon numerous references to some sort of feud or falling out between Maron and Louis C.K. None of the articles explicitly said what the two were feuding about, so it remained a mystery. I was content to just leave it there, but after last night's Louie, I just had to know more.

Though Louie is a fictional show, writer/director/star Louis C.K. does incorporate elements of his real life into each episode, and often has his comedian friends appear - as themselves - on the show. In last night's episode, Louie is at home watching TV when a young comedians special from the late 80s / early 90s comes on the air. The special features a very young Louie, as well as Sarah Silverman and Marc Maron. Louie calls Silverman to tell her to turn it on, and after a brief trip down memory lane, Maron comes on the screen. Louie is silent while watching his old friend, and then relates to Silverman that he hasn't spoken to him in 10 years. Sarah urges him to call Marc and to get over whatever issue has kept them apart for a decade. That "issue" is not specified.

What transpires next is hilarious, and I won't spoil the whole thing by giving a play by play. Suffice to say, that in this version of events, Marc and Louie's issue is not totally resolved. Forgiveness is offered and accepted, yet somehow, the two are pretty much in the same boat as they were before. 

After the episode was over, I decided that I just couldn't retire for the evening without finding out more of what caused the rift between these two in the first place. I had been told that everything came out into the open on an early episode of WTF. So, I went ahead and bit the bullet and signed up for the premium WTF, which allows access to the entire history of the show. At $1.99 for a month, it hardly breaks the bank.

I scrolled through all the old episodes that I had never heard until I found the two part Louis C.K. episode. Now before you start thinking that this post comes to a great point of resolution, let me disavow you of that notion. I only got through Part One before falling asleep, mildly baked, in my chair in front of the computer. At that point in the show, their "issue" had not been addressed. Most of what I heard was two old friends recalling their early days and reminiscing about the people they used to know. It was great, but where was the confrontation? Where was the controversy? Where was the yelling, the shouting, the crying? 

I guess that's in Part Two. I'll post more later (after I listen to the show). In the meantime, if you haven't seen the episode of Louie yet, go to the FX website, and watch last night's show. My next post on this topic will make more sense then.

What Do Gitmo Prisoners and Me Have In Common?

We both enjoy old episodes of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

Lots of Jews on Tonight's Episode of "Louie"

Tonights episode of LOUIE (FX 10:30est 9:30cst) guests: Sarah Silverman Maria Bamford Marc Maron. All jews, except Maria.
— Louis C.K. (@louisck) August 9, 2012

I'm playing the role of 'Marc Maron' on @louisck's Louie tnite. It took a lot of preparation.
— marc maron (@marcmaron) August 9, 2012

Re-Discovering "Deep Space 9"

Because watching TV occupies about 80% of my time, I occasionally find the time to re-visit shows I have already seen. I'm currently in the midst of a major marathon of Star Trek: Deep Space 9. I am a sci-fi fan, and a trekkie or trekker or whatever the term is; so naturally, I watched the show when it aired in the early 90's. But I had always been under the impression that I didn't really like it. At least, that's how I remember it.

I remember thinking that DS9 was too slow, and that was largely due to the show being based on a remote space station. You can't boldly go where no man has gone before when you stay in one place. That seemed like a major flaw. I also remember thinking that the actor who played Commander Sisko (Avery Brooks) sucked. Something about him just annoyed me. (On a side note, if you ever see the documentary, The Captains, you will see that Brooks is a pretty weird guy in real life. Babbled on and on in some incoherent fashion while playing the piano and singing. Yes, that weird)

Before I decided to give DS9 another go around, I tried really hard to remember the main story-lines of the series. I remembered the Bajorans and the Cardassians, and that there was a shape-shifting character. I think that was about it. Now, re-watching it, I don't think I even made it into the second season.

As of this writing, I have just started Season Four. This time around, Star Trek: Deep Space 9 is fantastic! The space station concept is not as bad or boring as I had remembered. With a stable wormhole to a largely uncharted quadrant of the galaxy nearby, the possibility for exploring is nearly endless.

While the Bajorans are a largely religious and boring people, their enemies, the Cardassians are very interesting. Sure, they are sort of Nazi-esque and all that, but their evil is so consistent that it makes for very compelling viewing. The greedy, non-stop profit seekers, the Ferengi, are prominently featured on DS9, and they are pretty hilarious. Ferengi women are not allowed to wear clothes, they cut and chew food for men, and they are forbidden from leaving the home. Watching the males deal with non-Ferengi women is always entertaining.

My feelings on the acting abilities of Avery Brooks are largely the same as I remembered. There's just something off about him, and I don't know how to describe it. But any issues I may have with Sisko are overshadowed by a character I had completely forgotten about...Dax.

Terry Farrell in "Back to School"

The beautiful Trill woman, Jadzia Dax (played by Terry Farrell), would make the show worth watching even if the stories were lame (which they are not). Farrell's character is sexy, smart, and shares the memories and experiences of seven other people (it's a long story). Not sure how I could have forgotten her since she was in one of the greatest films ever, Back To School. Seriously. (And how is Dax not included in the "Sexiest Women in SciFi" lists that are all over the internet?)

So, beyond my lust for Dax, I am now seeing that the writing on DS9 was pretty great. One episode I watched the other day, Past Tense, was extremely compelling and seemed almost prescient. The episode had some of the cast members being transported back in time to San Francisco in 2024. In that time, the mentally ill, the sick, the poor, the undocumented, and the unemployed are forced to live inside "sanctuary districts" in major cities. The districts are walled off and largely out of the sight of the wealthier citizenry. Without I.D., Sisko and Dr. Bashir are thrown into a sanctuary district and left to fend for themselves. Dax, on the other hand, was found by a wealthy man who helped her avoid that fate (her being so hot had nothing to do with it, of course). Long story short, the sanctuary citizens stage a violent revolt and make the city wake up to exactly how inhumane it is to simply lock away "undesirables." I thought the episode was telling because of the way conservatives in America have been attempting to eliminate the social safety net here. If you listen to the rhetoric of the modern right, it's not much of a leap to think something like a "sanctuary" area to "help" those who are sick or mentally ill is not too far off. Paying for walls and cops is easier than dealing with the problem, right?

Oh, yeah, and when in the hell did TNG's Worf join DS9? Another detail I had forgotten. My last comment on this show is that the shapeshifter, Odo, was a brilliant addition. The actor who played him, René Auberjonois (who I loved as a kid when he was on Benson) is very talented, and he made the role much more than it could have been. What I like about the shapeshifters - beyond the obvious coolness of being able to become pretty much anything - is that they don't seem like a terrifying enemy. Their organization, the Dominion, rules the Gamma Quadrant of space. Though Odo is one of them, he chooses to stay with the "solids" rather than with his own people. Previous enemies like The Borg and the Vidiians were truly terrifying. On first look, the Dominion don't seem that scary. Naturally, that is misleading. Their subtlety can be oft-putting. The fact that anyone you meet could, in theory, be a shapeshifter makes fighting them extremely complicated.

I look forward to seeing how the next few seasons play out. I might have watched it back in the day, but I have zero recollection. Live long and...well, you know.

Great Bill Maher Interview

Nice interview with my hero, Bill Maher, from the Galesburg, IL local paper. Probably done in advance of an upcoming stand-up performance. Money quote:

"I don’t mind if someone has genuine ideological differences. But I do take offense when people have their own set of facts. I’m not the only one to point this out, but it is amazing the way the Republicans can run against a completely fictional Barack Obama. I saw it on the news just yesterday, something like half the country –– and I don’t mean just Republicans –– half of everybody thinks he’s a Muslim. Forty-nine percent say he’s a Christian. Now this is not something that’s really in dispute. You can easily look this up. And yet they are stubbornly ignorant, they refuse to let any air into that bubble."

Disney Star or Porn Star?

Raven Bay. Is she the newest Disney star or the newest porn star?

My Fix

My Alex Wagner withdrawal has come to an end. My lady is filling in for Lawrence O'Donnell this week on his show, The Last Word. It's good. I'm glad to see her. But when will these stupid Olympics be over so I can get Alex on a consistent basis?!

Hmmm...knowing the way MSNBC operates, could this week be a trial for a possible Wags move to prime time? People are wondering. Well, this person is.

Will Mainstream America Finally Embrace Olivia Munn?

Olivia Munn, being her usual sexy, funny, self-deprecating self, appearing on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon to promote her new show, The Newsroom.

No Olympics in...