Inhuman Swill

At last! A web site that proves I'm not alone in remembering that obscure but wonderful classic of lost '70s television—Cliffhangers! What? A television series that ends every episode on a cliffhanger? Unthinkable!

God, I hope some enlightened soul puts this on DVD someday. I didn't miss an episode of this as a kid of eleven, at least until my sisters won an argument about what program we were going to watch one night, and I'm still bitter about never having seen the endings of "Stop Susan Williams," "The Secret Empire," and "The Curse of Dracula." (Cliffhangers! was cancelled before "Stop" and "Empire" were concluded.)

I really thought I was the only one who had ever seen this show (which would explain why it vanished without a trace), and sometimes I wondered if I had only imagined it.

Since I forgot to burn a promised DVD for David Bowie fan steelbrassnwood before the episode vanished from our DVR, I went digging through YouTube to find this hilarious scene from the BBC/HBO series Extras. (rajankhanna, I know you're a Bowie fan too). I knew it had to be there somewhere.

Do you watch Extras? If not, you should. To set the scene, Ricky Gervais plays the star of a popular new lowbrow sitcom, but he can't enjoy his success because he knows he sold out. He and his entourage have just had to leave the VIP area of a trendy club to make way for David Bowie:

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This song has been stuck in our heads for weeks. (Pug, pug! Pug, pug!)

Funniest fucking thing I've seen all goddamn day long.

In these troubled, divisive times, at least the internets still have the power to make us laugh our fucking asses off:

A clip representative of Japanese game shows

My stomach hurts.

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Update:  Perhaps I should have made clear from the outset that the clip involves guys getting whacked in the nards.

Laura reined my fuckin' attention around to this screed from those well-favored cocksuckers at Salon. The string of fuckin' words that sets my heart, and the lady's, to dancin' a fuckin' jig goes thus:

That said, and while I'm not normally a partisan in territorial rivalries, I'm no bought-out cocksucker either, one who'll lift her skirt to remain in the good graces of a reckless capitalist as forward-looking as a dog next to a plate of unattended gizzards. Thus I'd be remiss if I didn't strongly encourage the rest of you to cancel HBO as soon as the fine third season of "Deadwood" has concluded, so that those big-city fucks might feel their position weakening.  [full fuckin' article]

A-fuckin'-men, and don't let the cocksuckers tell you otherwise.

This post is really only an excuse to use my new icon. Funny story, though. I took Laura to the set of Sesame Street early in our relationship to watch an afternoon's taping. Of the many Muppeteers on set that day, Marty Robinson was either by far the most voluble or by far the least busy. (Probably the former.) Between takes, he and his special friend Telly hung out with us at the edge of the set, and he even convinced the rather nervous Telly to pose for some pictures with us.

Laura took my picture with Telly pressed close behind my shoulder. Then we switched places, Telly put his fuzzy purple arm around Laura, and I took this snap:



The instant I lowered the camera, Laura's mouth become a stunned O. She said, almost in wonder, "Telly just grabbed my ass."

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Update!  Click me!

I got the best Valentine's Day present from Laura. I couldn't wait to try it on and have her take a picture. (All I got her was a lousy iPod.)



If you don't know the provenance of this tasty truism, wake up, son, and smell the cupcakes.

Double true!

(Posted as promised to asphalteden.)

There's a new series called "Parking Lot" on the cable network Trio. Loosely based on a short documentary from the '80s called "Heavy Metal Parking Lot," which was shot in the parking lot outside a Judas Priest concert, the series interviews hardcore fans and other bystanders hanging around outside various odd events.

Last night's episode visited parking lots outside a Motörhead concert, a Cher concert, and a science-fiction convention—I-Con 22 at SUNY in Stony Brook, NY, to be exact. Bob Howe and I happened to have dropped by the con for half a day to have lunch with Scott Edelman, and all three of us ended up being interviewed at length by the TV crew. A few snippets from our interview were interspersed through the I-Con segment, amongst conversations with pookas, plushies, and one precocious little girl in angel wings who couldn't stop using the word "inappropriate."

Anyway, if you get Trio and want to catch it, the episode is running again this evening at 9:30 pm EST:

http://www.triotv.com/schedules/sched.php3?sdate=01/26/2004