Jimmy Fallon is scheduled to host a “Yacht Rock Party” on tonight’s episode of “Late Night” that will feature the smooth stylings of Christopher Cross, who will perform the yacht rock cornerstones “Ride Like the Wind” and “Sailing.” From OK Magazine:
You mean you don’t know what Yacht Rock is? Hearken back to the soft rock of Southern California in the late ’70s and early ’80s, that certain strain of music celebrated with nautical references in lyrics, videos and album artwork. Yacht Rockers like Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins, Steely Dan and Toto joined [Christopher] Cross in celebrating all things yacht-like.
The reason I’m making it a point to write about this is that it blows my mind that some people still haven’t seen the Yacht Rock series from Channel 101, which chronicles the fictitious stories of how yacht rock’s classics came to be. Above is episode 1 to get you started; below is my favorite in the series. Watch it or we can’t be friends. It’s so smooth!
On the same day that NBC had to dial back its fulsome praise of Conan O’Brien as the “King of Late Night” – he’s really more the ginger knight-errant of late night – Jay Leno, the Brett Favre (Land Baron) of late night, unveiled details about the format of his upcoming hour-long 10 p.m. suckfest.
Among the gimmicks on parade will be simultaneous performances by different musical acts (CACOPHONY! AWESOME!), NBC News anchor Brian Williams doing jokes, a shorter intro, only one or two celebrity guests per show (thus granting more time for Jay not to be funny), and, naturally, it wouldn’t be NBC without some empty posturing about the environment.
Leno also previewed some segments, such as the advertiser-friendly “Green Car Challenge,” where celebrities race against each other in alternative fuel vehicles. NBC has built a race track next to the studio where guests can compete against each other.
Admittedly, it’s a concept that could be entertaining, say, once, maybe even a few times, but if NBC actually ponied up the money to build him a race track, you know that thing is going to be done to death. And by that, I mean I hope they continue to race stars until somebody dies in a flaming wreck. Adrian Grenier, maybe?
Tiffani Thiessen remains the only “Saved by the Bell” cast member who hasn’t signed on for a reunion on Jimmy Fallon’s “Late Night” show, and she made a joke-y video for Funny or Die (see below) to explain why she’s too busy to do it. Apparently she’s making cat videos and helping NASA and some other whimsical things that I didn’t find very funny. It’s obviously supposed to show that she has a sense of humor about the situation, but it fails because if she had a sense of humor about it, she’d just go and do the stupid reunion. Dammit, Tiffani, an entire generation of Americans had to shut their brains off to like that retarded-ass show, the least you could do is indulge in our nostalgia. Who do you think you are? Jennie Garth?
If you’re wondering why Warming Glow is running a little slowly today, it’s because I’ve been watching and re-watching all the videos of Conan O’Brien interacting with his pretentious, metrosexual associate producer, Jordan Schlansky. Schlansky enjoys Tuscan food, fine wine, the band Rush, ballroom dancing, and shaving his chest. He first appeared in a “Late Night” segment during the writers’ strike last winter, which led to Conan taping a segment in which they had dinner together, which finally led to last night’s segment.
I don’t know, maybe I’m alone in this, but there’s some kind of magical comedic balance between Conan’s utter zaniness and Schlansky’s total self-seriousness that makes for compelling, hilarious television. From the first video (see below):
Conan: How did you get interested in ballroom dancing?
Jordan: I had an embarrassing experience in France. Two Danish models approached me in a club and asked me to dance. I didn’t know how, I tried anyway –
Conan: –so you murdered them.
Jordan: [looks away]
Conan: What else could you do? Those bitches had to die.
How this hasn’t been adapted into a reality show already is a mystery to me. Watch all the grandeur after the jump.
Glenn Close was a guest on “Late Night” last night month (Edit: eh, sometime in the past), and she kicked Jimmy Fallon’s ass after he challenged her to see who could stuff more baby carrots into their mouth. That seems to be Jimmy’s approach to being a late-night host: try to get his guests to loosen up by doing silly challenges. I’m not sure if it works or not, but I like the idea of shoving things into people’s mouths. Like this chocolate I got for you. Here, have a bite. Oh, you thought I meant…? Perv.
Anyway, you can watch the video below. Glenn Close hasn’t been this sexy and creepy since Fatal Attraction.
‘Round these here parts, I dole out plenty of fanboy love for Conan but don’t pay much attention to David Letterman. And that’s too bad, because Letterman is often excellent. Unfortunately, my hatred for Paul Shaffer burns like a blue giant: tens of thousands of years of fusion reactions burning hotter than anything in the galaxy, a roiling mass of energy that can end only with the metaphorical super nova of Shaffer’s skull against concrete.
What? Where am I? Sorry, I blacked out for a minute. ANYWAY, Bruce Willis did a little skit for Letterman where he was a “Late Night” intern. There are a couple decent laughs here, especially when he punches people. Man, the world really needs more punching. I’d even be willing to get punched on a regular basis if it meant I could let my fists do the talking.
**makes fist, holds it up** “Hi, I’m Matt’s fist!”
