Orange Grouch

So tonight I finally forced Jacob to watch the Sesame Street Old School DVD — or at least as much as he could stand — that features the very first episode of Sesame Street. A few notes based on the 20 minutes we watched:

1. The show has evolved a great, great deal since 1969. Although I did enjoy the graphic at the start offering that the show was "IN COLOR."
2. Wait a minute, Oscar the Grouch is Orange? WTF?
3. Ernie and Bert’s relationship is much less ambiguous than it became in later years. Ernie also has a stronger accent — Brooklyn maybe — and Burt seems even more quickly prone to anger.
4. I forgot there were two Gordons. The late  Matt Robinson was Gordon #1; and he had a pretty kickass afro-sideburn combination going on. Gordon #2, Roscoe Orman, was the more familiar, bald Gordon.
5. The human-human and even human-muppet dialogue seemed much less scripted. Also, I couldn’t help but think that Robinson might have been high during one of the skits, but that could just be me.
6. The first episode featured a nearly 12 minute educational film (it looks like some sort of DOE film they just spliced in in order to save some money on production costs) on where milk originates. Wow, I forgot how graphic that was. It also features some sappy early 1970′s folk music in the background about cows, grass and sunshine. Jacob was enthralled by this, however.
7. Remember the videos that would sing a song of a certain number, and ultimately end with a baker  falling down a flight of stairs ("10 Chocolate Layer Cakes!" Crash tumble crash)? That made me laugh every time I watched it. Unfortunately, it scared the crap out of Jacob, and ultimately led to us turning off the DVD.
8. I was impressed by the multi-ethnic makeup of the cast; it must have absolutely blown minds 38 years ago.
9. I will probably have the watch the other 2.5 DVDs by myself. I’m also guessing that Jacob isn’t going to take to the Electric Company DVD I plan to pick up.

(By the way, I still suck at swaddling. It only took me 25 minutes and 6 tries to get Colin comforted.)

Tonight on Fox …

The other night the local Fox station had a promotion up for their 10 o’clock news: "Controversy tonight at a local college as a porn star comes to talk (dramatic pause) about porn." Did they think Ron Jeremy was going to talk about John Nash’s game theory?

Controversy tonight as …

"an economist comes to talk … about economics"

"an electrician comes to talk … about electricity"

"a burglar comes to talk … about burgling."

Genie

I watched the Canadian SportsCenter, SportsCentre, on TSN, the Canadian ESPN, last night after arriving in Ottawa. It’s just like SportsCenter (right down to the music, graphics and overwhelming attempts by the anchors to be clever), except they talk about hockey a lot more. Go figure.

I’d write more but the Dukes of Hazzard is on now — episode 142, "When You WIsh Upon a Hogg":

Hughie Hogg’s latest scheme is to trick Boss Hogg and Rosco into thinking an antique oil lamp will grant them untold wealth, eternal power … and most of all, a way to get rid of the Duke boys once and for all. To make his scheme work, Hughie has added a new associate to his team of cronies – a seductively beautiful young mistress named Trixie to play the part of the lamp’s genie. It’s up to Bo and Luke to stop Hughie, before all Boss and Rosco are left with is a worthless old lamp.

Hoser

I am off to Ottawa tomorrow for a quick in-and-out meeting; on the morning non-stop, back in Boston by 7:25 p.m. This is truly how the Jet Set lives, if the Jet Set were flying on small regional planes from Air Canada’s "Jazz" commuter airline for "dry-run positioning meetings." I always thought that was an odd handle for an airline brand — are Canadians known for their love of jazz? (Well, I guess Utahans aren’t, but there’s a back story behind that.) Beyond that, why name an airline of "short hop" flights after a genre known for its long, improvisational noodlings? I don’t want my pilot improvising … or noodling, for that matter.

Speaking of jazzy noodling, I came across this interesting clip on YouTube, when sax great/free jazz pioneer Ornette Coleman was on SNL in the late 1970′s (the legendary episode hosted by Milton Berle that Lorne Michaels won’t allow to be aired, given what a royal pain in the ass Berle was to work with). I thought it was somewhat avant garde this past weekend when Arcade Fire was on (admittedly, I don’t watch SNL any more but got an e-mail newsletter from Merge Records letting me know; and the episode was actually fairly good; Arcade Fire were phenomenal, although Juliet hated them, calling them "a combination of Kenny Loggins and Simple Minds") but this clip is way, way out there … can’t imagine something like this making the cut on the modern-day SNL.

Rock and Awe

Caught up on some TiVo viewing last night — including the much blogged-about "axe" (in this case, axe means "guitar") battle between Stephen Colbert and the Decemberists. I can’t do it justice, so read this AP story. Perhaps the first time that Morley Safer, Henry Kissinger and the lead guitarists for Apples in Stereo (as well as Peter Frampton and Gov.-Elect Elliot Spizter) have shared the stage for *anything*. Wow. Great moments — Colbert weilding a five-neck guitar from Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielson; first prize being a copy of the The Decembrists’ album The Crane Wife; and Colbert apologizing to Nelson Mandela and JD Salinger, saying there just wasn’t time to have them on as they ran long, asking them both to "come back some other night."