It's a Great Day for America, Everybody!

If you've me for any length of time, you know that the recent late night happenings at NBC don't effect me, as my late night show of choice is The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. I've been a fan of the show since Craig was an auditioning guest host in late 2004, probably about the only time I've ever been happy to have been unemployed in that I got to watch his run from its beginning.

To be honest, I don't know why David Letterman went with Craig after the open auditions to fill the seat of Craig Kilborn, but I'm glad he did. What we've gotten in return is an intelligent show, which doesn't take itself too seriously, and provides consistently funny material. What other shows on late night television can say that? Should Craig still have this gig when Dave retires, I hope they give the Late Show to him.

Many times as of late, the cold open of the show has featured puppets doing routines to varied tunes, with overacting and lip syncing to boot. The recent 1,000th episode of the show was in fact hosted by a puppet, one alligator named Wavy Ranchero to be exact.

With an assist from the capable trolling of the interwebs by my good friend Alley (one word: pterodactyls. Really, just one word. The other word in the search term just makes it disturbing on so many levels), here is a collection of the puppet routines and some of the other great moments from the Late Late Show.

Puppet Musical Cold Opens (all of them to date)

As a side note, the guy in the leather outfit is on Craig's staff and wears that for every show.

• "Say Hey (I Love You)" by Michael Franti and Spearhead -
• "White Lines" by Duran Duran
• "Wonderful Night" by Fatboy Slim -
• "Istanbul" by They Might Be Giants
• "Oops!...I Did It Again" by Britney Spears
• "MMMBop" by Hanson
• "In the Navy" by Village People
• "Fireball" by Don Spencer
• "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz
• "The Lonely Goatherd" from The Sound of Music
• "She Taught Me How To Yodel" by Frank Ifield -
• "Fire" by The Prodigy
• "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head" --by B.J. Thomas (that's who originally did the song. Don't know who is doing this.)

Selected Non-Musical Puppet Intros

• Bob the Dragon--now with terrible ventriloquism?
• Shark--"Shark Week"
• Giraffe--who knew they liked Jagermeister?
• Pig--Craig ran a puppet popularity contest this past summer, but the leader in the polls had to drop out due to an affair with an Argentine woman. Sound familiar?
• Craig Ferguson--(this one's just a wee bit creepy.)

Wavy with Friends of the Show

• Lauren Graham
• Kristen Bell--from the 1,000th show.

Other Interesting Stuff (or "On a Very Special Episode of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson):

• Craig on voting--He became an American citizen in 2008 and voted in his first election that year. If my mom had a computer, I would send this to her (to my knowledge, she's never voted, and it's always driven me nuts). This episode originally aired September 10, 2008.
  
• Craig provides a history of apartheid in South Africa and then spend the balance of the March 4, 2009 show with Archbishop Desmond Tutu (three parts: A, B and C)
• Giving a eulogy for his dad. This show was later nominated for an Emmy (January 30, 2006 show) in two parts: A and B
  
• Craig on why he won't make Britney Spears jokes (this originally aired on February 19, 2007, around the time of her meltdown)
• Craig's Sept. 11 monologue from 2009.
  
• The theme song (this has always been the theme. It's just since the show went to HD that it got this production number)

Movies I'm Looking Forward to: N-Z

Here is the part three of the list.

Again, I've provided a brief description of the film, a list of it's stars and a release date, if one has been provided. That said, just remember that release dates are subject to change.

Paul
Cast: Nick Frost, Simon Pegg, Seth Rogen, Jason Bateman, Kristen Wiig
Director: Greg Mottola
Summary: Two British sci-fi fanatics on an American road trip find their conspiracy dreams coming true when they encounter an escaped alien near Area 51. As they try to reunite him with his mother ship, they find 'Paul' has many more opinions than your typical ET. This is the latest movie from the team that brought you Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.

Piranha 3D (April 16)
Cast: Elisabeth Shue, Adam Scott, Ving Rhames, Richard Dreyfuss, Jerry O'Connell
Director: Alexandre Aja
Summary: After a sudden underwater tremor sets free scores of the prehistoric man-eating fish, an unlikely group of strangers must band together to stop themselves from becoming fish food for Lake Victoria's new razor-toothed residents. But with only one chance to save her family from totally being devoured, our heroine must risk everything to destroy them.

Predators (July 7)
Cast: Adrien Brody, Laurence Fishburne, Topher Grace, Alice Braga, Danny Trejo
Director: Nimrod Antal
Summary: A follow-up to 1987's acclaimed Arnold Schwarzenegger-led sci-fi action classic. The story follows a group of elite warrior-types who are being hunted by members of a race of merciless alien trackers called Predators.

Red (November 19)
Cast: Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, Mary-Louise Parker, John C. Reilly
Director: Robert Schwentke
Summary: Frank Moses, a former black-ops CIA agent, is now living a quiet life until the day a hi-tech assassin shows up intent on killing him. With his secret identity compromised, Frank must reassemble his old team to figure out who is out to get them.

Red Dawn (November 26)
Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Josh Peck, Josh Hutcherson, Adrianne Palicki, Jeffrey Dean Morgan
Director: Dan Bradley
Summary: A group of students find their small American hometown suddenly becoming the foothold for a foreign invasion. Now under enemy occupation, they seek refuge in the surrounding woods and reorganise themselves into a guerilla group of fighters

Robin Hood (May 14)
Cast: Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Mark Strong, Matthew Macfadyen, William Hurt
Director: Ridley Scott
Summary: In 13th century England, a former archer in the late King Richard's army assembles a band of marauders to confront corruption in the local town of Nottingham and lead an uprising against the crown that will forever alter the balance of world power.

The Rum Diary
Cast: Johnny Depp, Aaron Eckhart, Amber Heard, Richard Jenkins, Giovanni Ribisi
Director: Bruce Robinson
Summary: The increasingly unhinged story of itinerant journalist Paul Kemp who left late 1950's New York City to start a more relaxed lifestyle working for a downtrodden newspaper in San Juan and becomes obsessed with the fiancee of a shady property dealer.

Salt (July 23)
Cast: Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofor
Director: Phillip Noyce
Summary: When a CIA agent is accused by a defector of being a Russian sleeper spy, she goes on the run to clear her name. Using her years of experience as a covert operative, she must elude capture or the world's most powerful forces will erase her entire existence.

Secretariat (Oct. 8)
Cast: Diane Lane, James Cromwell, Scott Glenn, Dylan Walsh
Director: Randall Wallace
Summary: The story centers around Penny Chenery who took over the financially troubled Meadow Stable from her ailing father and guided the thoroughbred race horse Secretariat through his Triple Crown winning season in 1973.

Shutter Island (Feb. 19)
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams
Director: Martin Scorsese
Summary: In 1954, two U.S. marshals are summoned to a remote island off Massachusetts to investigate the disappearance of a patient from a fortress-like hospital for the criminally insane. Once inside, one begins to doubt everything - even his own sanity. This movie was moved from November, then December 2009.

The Tempest
Cast: Helen Mirren, Russell Brand, Djimon Hounsou, Alfred Molina, Chris Cooper
Director: Julie Taymor
Summary: An adaptation of Shakespeare's play. Having been exiled to an island for over a decade, the witch Prospera manages to shipwreck those behind her betrayal and a tangled web of romance, forgiveness and magic play out.

The Town (September 10)
Cast: Ben Affleck, Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner, Chris Cooper
Director: Ben Affleck
Summary: After briefly being taken hostage, a female bank manager lets her guard down when she meets an unassuming and rather charming man... not realizing he is the same man who led the gang of thieves that terrorised her days earlier. Thank GOD Ben realizes he's actually a pretty good director. Thank you Gone Baby Gone!

Tron: Legacy (December 17)
Cast: Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, Bruce Boxleitner, James Frain
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Summary: The son of Kevin Flynn looks into his father's disappearance and finds himself pulled into the same world of fierce programs his father has been living in for 25 years. The pair embark on a perilous journey across a cyber universe that has become far more advanced and exceedingly dangerous.

Tucker and Dale vs. Evil
Cast: Tyler Labine, Alan Tudyk, Katrina Bowen, Jesse Moss, Christie Lang
Director: Eli Craig
Summary: Two good-natured hillbillies find themselves mistakenly accused of being psycho killers by a group of college kids camping at the same lake where the hillbillies have just acquired a dilapidated cabin as their "summer home."

Movies I'm Looking Forward to in 2010: H-M

Here is the second part of the list.

Again, I've provided a brief description of the film, a list of it's stars and a release date, if one has been provided. That said, just remember that release dates are subject to change.

Hot Tub Time Machine (March 19)
Cast: John Cusack, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson, Clark Duke, Crispin Glover
Director: Steve Pink
Summary: After a crazy night of drinking in a ski resort hot tub, four best friends who've become bored with their adult lives wake up in the year 1986. This is their chance to change their futures for the better, and in one case to ensure his existence.


Howl
Cast: James Franco, David Strathairn, Alan Alda, Jeff Daniels, Mary-Louise Parker
Director: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman
Summary: San Francisco, 1957. This interweaves the life of a young Allen Ginsberg finding his true voice, the obscenity trial that ensued when his poem 'Howl' was published, and animated segments that adapt the poem itself. Of course I find this movie interesting, I WAS an English major in college.

Inception (July 16)
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard
Director: Christopher Nolan
Summary: The Prestige and The Dark Knight director Nolan returns with the story of a CEO-type executive who finds himself becoming involved in a blackmailing scandal. The story is said to explore the architecture of the human mind.


Iron Man 2
Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Mickey Rourke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sam Rockwell, Don Cheadle
Director: Jon Favreau
Summary: Having revealed his Iron Man identity to the public, billionaire inventor Tony Stark is unwilling to share his technology with the military, but forces outside his control plot against him.

Jonah Hex (June 18)
Cast: Josh Brolin, John Malkovich, Megan Fox, Michael Shannon, Michael Fassbender
Director: Jimmy Hayward
Summary: Based on the titular DC Comics character. In the Wild West, a scarred bounty hunter tracks down a dangerous ex-Confederate soldier trying to reignite the civil war and ensure the South will win this time.


Kick-Ass (April 16)
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Aaron Johnson, Mark Strong, Christopher Mintz-Plasse
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Summary: The comic book adaptation centers on a high school dweeb named Dave Lizewski who decides to become a superhero even though he has no athletic ability or coordination. Things change when he eventually runs into real bad guys with real weapons. If you seen the trailer, you know that one of the heroes, Hit-Girl, uses some very "colorful" language, to say the least.

Knight and Day (July 2)
Cast: Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Peter Sarsgaard, Viola Davis, Olivier Martinez
Director: James Mangold
Summary: A lonely woman's seemingly harmless blind date suddenly turns her life upside-down when a super spy takes her on a violent worldwide journey to protect a powerful battery that holds the key to an infinite power source.


The Last Airbender (July 2)
Cast: Noah Ringer, Nicola Peltz, Jackson Rathbone, Dev Patel
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Summary: A live-action film based on the Nickelodeon animated TV series. In a fantastic world where civilisation exists as four great empires, a reluctant young child sets out on a perilous journey to restore balance to a world torn apart by war.

London Boulevard (July 30)
Cast: Keira Knightley, Colin Farrell, Ray Winstone, David Thewlis, Anna Friel
Director: William Monahan
Summary: A freshly released ex-con from South London attempts to stay out of the way of a ruthless loan shark by finding honest work at the Holland Park mansion of faded movie actress. As his violent past catches up with him and his disturbed sister is threatened, he is forced to act. Monahan, who won an Oscar for his writing work on The Departed makes his directorial debut with this film.

Machete
Cast: Danny Trejo, Jessica Alba, Robert De Niro, Michelle Rodriguez, Lindsay Lohan
Director: Robert Rodriguez, Ethan Maniquis
Summary: A renegade former Mexican Federale takes an offer to assassinate a corrupt Senator. Double crossed and on the run, Machete braves the odds with the help of a saucy taco slinger, his "holy" brother, and a socialite with a penchant for guns. If you saw Grindhouse, the trailer for this then fake movie ran before the "Planet Terror" portion of the film.


The Mechanic
Cast: Jason Statham, Ben Foster, Donald Sutherland, Christa Campbell
Director: Simon West
Summary: A highly-skilled but emotionally detached hitman is planning to retire when a young man asks to be trained up in the profession. Only problem is that this new apprentice is the son of one of the Mechanic's handlers and may have ulterior motives. Wonder if Statham's character drives in this film? Just a thought.

Movies I'm Looking Forward to in 2010: A-G

I've done some research, and with the help of the movie news website Dark Horizons, I've put together a list of film that I find interesting and think you should at least consider seeing in the theaters.

With each film is a brief description, list of stars and a release date, if one has been provided. That said, just remember that release dates are subject to change.

Here is the first part of the list I've come up with in what will be a four part list that I will reveal over between now and Tuesday.

44 Inch Chest (January 15)
Cast: John Hurt, Ray Winstone, Ian McShane, Tom Wilkinson, Joanne Whalley
Director: Malcolm Venville
Summary: Shattered by the bombshell of his wife’s infidelity with a young French waiter, Colin Diamond and his motley crew of friends kidnapp the loverboy and assemble a kangaroo court to take revenge out on him as the mighty Colin wrestles with his own demons.

The Adjustment Bureau
Cast: Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, John Slattery, Terence Stamp, Daniel Dae Kim
Director: George Nolfi
Summary: David Norris, a charismatic congressman meets a beautiful ballet dancer named Elise Sellas, only to find strange circumstances keeping them from getting closer. Norris discovers forces are at work to ensure they stay apart, and he pushes to find out why. Based on a short story by science fiction writer Phillip K. Dick.

Alice in Wonderland (March 5)
Cast: Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter
Director: Tim Burton
Summary: A pseudo-sequel to the Lewis Carroll classic, Alice returns to the fantasy realm years after her first visit. Now aged 17 and not fitting into Victorian society and structure, she returns to a slightly haunted and overgrown Wonderland.

Bitch Slap (opened January 5)
Cast: Julia Voth, Erin Cummings, America Olivo, Michael Hurst
Director: Rick Jacobson
Summary: A down-and-out stripper, a drug-running killer and a corporate powerbroker arrive at a remote desert hideaway to extort money from a ruthless underworld kingpin. As allegiances change, truths are revealed and the fate of the world hangs in the balance.

The Book of Eli (January 15)
Cast: Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, Mila Kunis, Ray Stevenson, Jennifer Beals
Director: Allen Hughes, Albert Hughes (sometimes credited as The Hughes Brothers)
Summary: The story revolves around a lone warrior (Washington) who must fight to bring society the knowledge that could be the key to its redemption. Oldman has been set to portray the despot of a small makeshift town who's determined to take possession of the book Eli's guarding.

Centurion
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Dominic West, Olga Kurylenko, David Morrissey, Noel Clarke
Director: Neil Marshall
Summary: Set during the Roman invasion of Britain in AD 117. The legendary Ninth Legion marches north under orders to wipe the Picts from the face of the Earth, only to be decimated in a devastating guerrilla attack. A splinter group of survivors fight for their lives behind enemy lines.

Clash of the Titans (March 26)
Cast: Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Gemma Arterton
Director: Louis Leterrier
Summary: Based on the 1981 film of the same name (rememberr Bubo the Owl?), the ultimate struggle for power pits men against gods. But the war between the gods themselves could destroy the world. Born of a god but raised as a man, Perseus is helpless to save his family from Hades, vengeful god of the underworld.

The Conspirator
Cast: Evan Rachel Wood, James McAvoy, Kevin Kline, Robin Wright Penn, Justin Long
Director: Robert Redford
Summary: Mary Surratt is the lone female charged as a co-conspirator in the assassination trial of Abraham Lincoln. As the whole nation turns against her, she is forced to rely on her reluctant lawyer to uncover the truth and save her life.

Cop Out (February 26)
Cast: Bruce Willis, Tracy Morgan, Seann William Scott, Adam Brody, Jason Lee
Director: Kevin Smith
Summary: Two cops track down a stolen baseball card, rescue a Mexican beauty and must deal with gangsters and laundered drug money. This was called “A Couple of Dicks,” till someone decided they didn’t think the title of the film was funny. Also, Smith didn't write this one, he's just directing.

The Crazies (February 26)
Cast: Timothy Olyphant, Danielle Panabaker, Radha Mitchell, Joe Anderson
Director: Breck Eisner
Summary: A remake of George A. Romero's 1973 film of the same name. The story revolves around the inhabitants of a small Kansas town who are beset by death and insanity after a plane crash lets loose a secret biological weapon into the water supply.

Date Night (April 9)
Cast: Steve Carell, Tina Fey, Mark Wahlberg, James Franco
Director: Shawn Levy
Summary: A couple find their routine date night becomes much more than just dinner and a movie when they're mistaken for a dangerous couple. They soon encounter everything from over-anxious securities experts to petty con men who mess up their romantic evening.

Daybreakers (Opened January 8)
Cast: Willem Dafoe, Ethan Hawke, Sam Neill, Vince Colosimo, Claudia Karvan
Director: Michael & Peter Spierig
Summary: In the year 2019, a plague has transformed most every human into vampires. Faced with a dwindling blood supply, the dominant plots their survival; meanwhile, a researcher works with a covert band of humans on a potential way to save the human race.

The Debt
Cast: Sam Worthington, Helen Mirren, Ciaran Hinds, Tom Wilkinson, Martin Csokas
Director: John Madden
Summary: In 1965, three young Israeli Mossad agents on a secret mission capture and kill a notorious Nazi war criminal. Now, thirty years later, a man claiming to be the Nazi has surfaced in the Ukraine and one of the former agents must go back undercover to seek out the truth.

Dinner for Schmucks (July 23)
Cast: Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, Zach Galifianakis, Bruce Greenwood, David Walliams
Director: Jay Roach
Summary: A renowned publisher encourages his friends to invite the most pathetic guests possible for their weekly dinner party. Just as they find the most pathetic man yet, the host is injured and ends up trapped with the man all night long.

Due Date (November 5)
Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Jamie Foxx, Zach Galifianakis, Michelle Monaghan, RZA
Director: Todd Phillips
Summary: Downey will play an expectant father who finds himself on a road trip with a mismatched partner, as he races to get there before his wife gives birth to his first child. Galifianakis plays his road trip mate.

Edge of Darkness (January 29)
Cast: Mel Gibson, Ray Winstone, Danny Huston, Denis O'Hare
Director: Martin Campbell
Summary: Based on the acclaimed British TV miniseries which followed a cop unravelling the truth behind the brutal killing of his daughter. His investigations lead him into a murky world of corporate cover-ups and nuclear espionage with dark forces threatening the future of life on Earth.

The Expendables (August 13)
Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Jet Li, Jason Statham, Mickey Rourke, Eric Roberts
Director: Sylvester Stallone
Summary: "The Expendables" follows a team of mercenaries on a mission to overthrow a South American dictator.

Get Me to the Gig (June 11)
Cast: Jonah Hill, Russell Brand, Rose Byrne, Sean Combs, Elisabeth Moss
Director: Nicholas Stoller
Summary: Aaron Greenberg is a driven, idealistic young college graduate who works as an intern at a record company. Aaron is given his big break when he is sent to transport flaky English musician Aldous Snow to a concert at Los Angeles' Greek Theater. A spinoff of the 2008 film “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.”

The Green Hornet (December 22)
Cast: Seth Rogen, Cameron Diaz, Jay Chou, Edward James Olmos, Christoph Waltz
Director: Michel Gondry
Summary: Britt Reid is a wealthy industrialist by day. At night though he goes out in his masked "Green Hornet" identity to fight crime as a vigilante, accompanied by his similarly masked Asian manservant Kato who drives a car equipped with advanced technology. Based on the comic book and 1960's TV show of the same name.

Green Zone (March 12)
Cast: Matt Damon, Jason Isaacs, Greg Kinnear, Brendan Gleeson, Amy Ryan
Director: Paul Greengrass
Summary: During the U.S.-led occupation of Baghdad in 2003, a warrant officer in search of weapons of mass destruction believed to be stockpiled in the Iraqi desert instead stumbles upon an elaborate cover-up by his own people that inverts the purpose of their mission.

Grown Ups (June 25)
Cast: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, Rob Schneider, David Spade, Salma Hayek
Director: Dennis Dugan
Summary: Five friends and former teammates reunite years later to honor the passing of their childhood basketball coach. With their wives and kids in tow, they spend the Fourth of July weekend together at the lake house where they celebrated their championship years earlier.

Guardians of Ga'Hoole 3D (September 24)
Cast: Sam Neill, Geoffrey Rush, Helen Mirren, Hugo Weaving, Abbie Cornish, Ryan Kwanten
Director: Zack Snyder
Summary: The story follows Soren, a young owl enthralled by his father's epic stories of the Guardians of Ga'Hoole, a mythic band of winged warriors who had fought a great battle to save all of owlkind from the evil Pure Ones.

One Hell of a Meeting of the Minds

Hello my lovelies. I know I haven't written for a while, and for that I do apologize. At the start of 2010, I made a few promises to myself, one of which was that I would write more. I figured I would promise to do things, instead of resolving, in the hopes that I was better able to do what I had said I was going to do. One of these is to write more. It is my hope that you are all the beneficiaries of this promise I've made myself. So, with a little assist from the "Quiet Beatle" playing in the background ("Marwa Blues" to be exact), I offer you the following. Enjoy.

As some of may, or may not know, a few months back, I had mentioned a movie called It Might Get Loud in the blog (and here is a link to my original post.) It's a documentary featuring Jack White, The Edge and the legendary Jimmy Page.

I actually got this film from Santa (and by Santa Claus, I mean me) for Christmas. If you're a fan of any of these three guitarists, or at the very least, enjoy music, do yourselves a favor and watch, rent or buy this movie.

The movie covers the lives of the three virtuosos, discussing their backgrounds, influences, and recording careers. It also features a meeting of the three that took place on a sound stage in early 2008.

Additionally, the film delves into the process of creating a song. In the case of The Edge, the film offers a view into the song "Get on Your Boots," from U2's most recent effort No Line on the Horizon, moving from a very rough take of the song to near it's completion. In the case of Jack White, he literally wrote a song on the fly during the filming and debuts it during the movie. Don't be surprised to see "Fly Farm Blues" be nominated for an Oscar in the near future.

White also provides some of the better looks of the movie. I know this statement may sound a bit odd, but it must be remembered that Page was playing in and heading towards the finish of his run with Led Zeppelin when White was born in 1975. White just mostly sits, guitar on leg, listening to Edge and Page talk about their playing styles and creative process. It's like he's a little kid listening to his grandfather and father tell stories. In this case, though, the people telling stories are arguably among the better guitarists of all time.

The highlight of the film occurs near the end with the three playing part of the Zeppelin classic "In My Time of Dying" (Here is a version of the song from the recent Zeppelin one off reunion in London.) Edge and White each put their own spin on the song, all the while being respectful to the writer of the song playing it next to them.

Why should you see this movie? I would say because it offers a great look into the creative process of a musician and a fellow artist (I see myself as artist--except I use words). Also, it's just a great way to spend 90 or so minutes.