Tusk

I'm beginning to think they chose last Friday to release "MacGruber" just so that people have something to contrast against the intensity of a character like Jack Bauer in "24". I personally am no fan of SNL's "MacGruber" sketches, though am open to the possibility that the movie will have something stronger going for it. I will wait until it shows up on TV, which, who knows, could be in several months?

It's been two days and 18 minutes since "24" ended, and unlike my blog posting six minutes after it ended, I have now truly allowed enough time for all the wisdom of the ages to seep in and inform my perspective on what else they might have included for my benefit. Yes, there is more than I told you of last time.

If you research various blog postings of mine (try volumes 1, 2 and 3 of the collected postings of my blogs - text only - at archive.org, do word searches, try to keep up), you will find that I've made a certain number of references to a former CalArts classmate of mine who was a friend of Senator Ted Kennedy. You will not get me to divulge this person's identity, I shall regard it as a certain kind of secret. However, I will mention here that they named the Hart Building in Washington D.C. after his father, who co-sponsored innumerable bills with Kennedy.

When they brought the Hart Building from Washington D.C. to New York City for the "24" series finale, it did make me think of this person. There were no visible senators in the building as there would have been had it remained in D.C., yet I recognized the reference just the same, as I'm sure every Senator did as well, not to mention every Congressman, and also, I imagine, my former classmate's brother, cousins, etc. Perhaps others as well. One often hears of the Hart Building, and as no building with that name actually exists in New York City, one is confronted with the fact that "24" is entitling itself to copy and paste a little, or maybe cut and paste, not that actual Congressmen had to go along for the ride. It's the thought that counts.

In my previous blog I observed how the series finale of "24" brought to mind (my mind) another former CalArts classmate of mine, Henry Golas. I therefore had to stop for a moment and think. What did Henry ever have to do with this other person, if anything? Is there some well known project they both worked on together, and am I meant to go there? Something that will sooner or later surface in my thoughts "of itself" as a result of "24" bringing both of them to mind on this most important episode? Yes. Several years ago, two of the three CalArts Alumni heading the CalArts Alumni Association were these two people. Okay, where exactly does that lead, if anywhere? (Nowhere, at least, not if you can't believe me, despite all the things I am able to prove in my blogs, because, here we have something that requires the average reader to take my word.)

Alumni Association spells reunion (by the way, I do not plan on attending the upcoming CalArts reunion, so worry not, all ye who fear elephants in the room who are secretly super-important in relation to Spielberg and McCartney yet go unacknowledged and therefore might fit the profile of dangerous malcontents demanding justice from those in a position to take action). That's kind of what alumni associations generally bring to mind: reunions.

And it so happens that "24" therefore brought something very specific to mind (my mind) - a "Saturday Night Live" contribution I had sent in (to my secret SNL sorta kinda connections). The email went to Stuart Cornfeld and Sean Daniel, it was dated 9/28/07, and the subject line was, "How I Learned To Stop Worrying". SNL always seems to find something to do with what I send in, which tended to compel me to keep sending in stuff. In those days I felt more compelled than now, in fact, it helped me work on stuff that I later did stuff with on my own.

"'Jack Bauer Ditches His High School Sweetheart'"
"a comedy sketch idea, copyright 9/28/07, Jonathan D. Steinhoff"

"A man goes to his high school reunion. Everyone is instantly put in mind of his legendary romantic drama of many years before, wherein he and his high school sweetheart had a big falling out, leading to all kinds of romantic and dramatic stuff. But he is not going to his high school reunion because of this, he is on a mission to save the world from blowing up. It is very complicated and impossible for anyone to believe that his going to this high school reunion can exist in relation to something larger than a romantic experience, and so he has no shortage of obstacles to overcome in making his circumstance understood. Then the band plays 'their song', he succombs, dances with his high school sweetheart, and the world blows up."

Detecting a reason to believe that this did not go unnoticed (as I always do with these things), on October 8, 2007 I responded to SNL's response to this idea with another email to the same two people (whom I had sorta known at certain times during the '70s before they were among the world's biggest film producers and Spielberg inner circle folk), and provide here the following excerpt:

"I actually pre-anticipated that this would get translated by SNL into a 'McGruber' sketch. On the second SNL episode of the season there were a set of 'McGruber' sketches, and so I immediately anticipated one would feature McGruber getting sidetracked by a high school romance-type concern. Sure enough, in one of the 'McGruber' sketches McGruber insists he be referred to as extremely young, that his team pretend to be his parents, and then a high school-type girlfriend is all excited about getting tickets for Dave Matthews, which is enough to sidetrack McGruber and the place blows up."

In other words, the secret agent character's return to his younger self caused his older self to take its eyes off the ball.

It was a more obvious use of my "suggestion" when a week or two before the opening sketch of the first SNL of the season was about an auction, after I had sent in an auction sketch just weeks before. The masking of the reunion idea was nevertheless obvious enough to me, even with Jack Bauer turned into MacGruber.

Simmer, Cool, Simmer Again, Whatever

Julie, Julia, Clerp, Jerp, and Amy
The following videoclip, which includes our first introduction to Amy Adams' Julie character in the 2009 movie, "Julie and Julia" (now available on TV for the first time on "Starz On Demand-Early Premieres"), should be filed under my March 21st blog (two blogs ago), in the section, "Pavlov's Chef":




Out Of The Frying Pan, Into The Fire
A person I've referred to here and there in previous blogs, Kiefer Sutherland, again drove past me. It was while I was on my way to work Friday, March 26th. I am nearly certain it was he, despite the sunglasses and semi-upbeat expression.

His face divulged nothing about a bombshell that was about to be dropped on the world later that day, not that the explosion would have been preventable even if I had foreknowledge: "24" has been canceled. Jack Bauer will not live forever - at least in terms of new episodes of "24" (after this season). I also read that there may be a movie. I think back to the expression on his face for some indication of exactly how dead Bauer might be for Sutherland, but as I find myself unable to visualize ketchup splattered about, it is difficult for me to envision death and Jack Bauer next to each other to the extent that it is now so.

We have been left with a serious void on the landscape of our shared, common focus on matters related to terrorism against the U.S. Do not underestimate the value of a singularly iconic fictitious character of this variety at this point in the history of the world, particularly when one considers the degree to which we as a society have come to use the medium of theater to digest events that would otherwise be too difficult, perhaps even impossible to wrap our hearts and minds around.

We can come together over nobody in particular when we say here comes the sun, we may never need a sun king to say "here comes the" about, but we are not so good at not having a human to focus on when real events turn us towards this side of reality, and occurrences that could conceivably lead to the end of reality itself. I don't see anyone coming close to a Jack Bauer, just a whole lot of James Bonds, Sherlock Holmeses and what not.

On the bright side, Sutherland is now free to do a sequel to "Dark City" - though I have the feeling I'm alone in thinking along those lines.

It's Just Another Vote
Several days ago on my way home from work, at about 5:30pm, about 30 minutes before the final reconciliation vote on healthcare reform (after the House passed the healthcare legislation and after the Senate then passed the agreed-to reconciliation amendments and then the amendments went back to the House - I believe this was Thursday, March 25th), "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart may or may not have driven past me. The show has been on vacation this past week, so it was definitely possible for him to be in Southern California. Also, as occasionally referred to in previous blogs, over the years I have occasionally been an influence on his and Colbert's show, sometimes to no small degree. He appeared very serious. And his hair was not slicked down as one normally expects when looking at Jon Stewart. I don't think his was searching his mind for a punchline just then. Then again, it could have just been someone whose job it is to bring Jon Stewart to someone's mind at the precise right moment. I get a lot of that.

One On One
Ben Stiller, whose appearance at the recent Oscars was largely in relation to my "Gosk 2" video (see my March 13th blog), drove by me yesterday (March 27th), while his two recent late-night talk show appearances made no inside-references for my benefit (of which I am aware). I think that puts things where I'm supposed to.... no, can't say I know exactly.

The late-night talk show appearance in February by Helena Bonham Carter, Tim Burton's wife, on Craig Ferguson's show did make inside "Gosk" references for my benefit. These references to "Gosk" were not even close to being as clearly delineated as Burton's "Gosk" references in "Alice In Wonderland" (see my my March 16th and March 21st blogs). I do not feel that husbands and wives should be considered contractually obligated to be identical in the degree to which they make references to "Gosk", nevertheless, I will not permit Carter's references to dilute the intensity of Burton's references, and will therefore confine myself here to this general a description of her action.

Regis Philbin's recent late-night talk show appearance on Ferguson made absolutely no inside-reference for my benefit of the variety I have come to expect, though Ferguson isn't Letterman, which is where/who this normally can be relied upon. Is this non-relationship over? If so, I do not yet feel the void, and for now will make no assumptions.

Face To Face
Immediately after I emailed someone (a fellow CalArts alumni, aka a "CalArtian") asking what gives with Tim Burton and his Steinhoff references in "Alice In Wonderland", where's my $11.23 (I did the math and decided I was at least entitled to enough money to purchase 9.2 chocolate bars), I received an invitation to be the Facebook friend of someone else, someone I hadn't spoken with in about 30 or more years, and a non-CalArtian. Adding this person as a Facebook friend required that I logon to my Facebook page for the first time in about half-a-year. This caused me to see that another CalArtian I knew (different CalArtian) had visited my Facebook page, indicated to me by way of that privacy-violating way Facebook has of showing Facebook users this like it or not. This led me to feeling inclined to look up that particular CalArtian on Facebook and the listing of her Facebook friends - which included Tim Burton. I suppose it is a given that when Tim Burton uses your material in a big way in "Alice In Wonderland", trails of breadcrumbs are headed your way. Now send me a trail of breadcrumbs I would want to follow more directly, please.