Nate Haduch

I wasn't actually sure this was gonna happen this time, but...I made a dance mix.  All the tip-toppest 2013 jams.  Decidedly, willfully less elaborate than past year-end blow-outs (2012 felt like an untoppleable pinnacle anyway, why try harder?) – it ended up being probably more involved than I intended, but in a happy-medium kind of way.  It's probably a much better dance mix for not trying to be all fussy and cute.

It was finished (in the form you see below) well before New Years, and I could have pretty easily posted it then; failed again, but there you are.  Instead, hear it is now.  Tracklist below but as always don't look if you wanna be surprised.  Just pop it on at your next dance party (for ≥1 persons.) It'll work, trust me:

by Megh Wright

Back in October, it was announced that HBO had added what seemed like a surefire pilot with People In New Jersey, a half-hour series starring Sarah Silverman and Topher Grace, directed by Bridesmaids' Paul Feig, produced by Lorne Michaels, and created/written by Girls/Six Feet Under writer Eric Kaplan. Though the specifics of the network's decision is unclear, Deadline reports that HBO has "decided not to go forward" with the pilot, though they are redeveloping another Michaels-produced comedy created by and starring Fallon writers Diallo Riddle and Bashir Salahuddin. Sadly, it looks like we'll have to wait a little longer until Silverman finds her next regular starring TV role.

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A Tea Chart I made to remember how to make a cup of tea for everyone who comes by the house. 

-navyvice

by Megh Wright

IFC's Funny Or Die-produced epic miniseries The Spoils of Babylon premiered its first installment last night, and so far it's received mixed reviews from critics. While we'll have to wait until all six episodes air to conclusively judge, the first two episodes both have enough hits (and misses) to get a good feel for what we can expect from former SNL writers Matt Piedmont and Andrew Steele's newest collaboration since 2012's Casa de Mi Padre. Here are three takeaways from the beginnings of this playfully nostalgic, time sweeping, and star-studded saga that's found the perfect home alongside Comedy Bang! Bang!, The Birthday Boys, and Portlandia.

The influence of Spoils runs deeper than the 80s

Almost every online review has compared Spoils to the two same 80s miniseries The Winds of War and The Thorn Birds. While both have elements of wartime and forbidden love found in Spoils, the 1956 Douglas Sirk film Written on the Wind not only contains much of the same basic plot (mainly the scheming nymphomaniac daughter of an oil baron who desperately wants to sleep with her overly noble adopted brother) but a striking aesthetic resemblance in many of its scenes. Written on the Wind was a feature film rather than a television miniseries but served as a highly influential precursor to the popular prime-time soaps of the 70s by setting a tone, as Roger Ebert wrote, "in which shocking behavior is treated with passionate solemnity, while parody burbles underneath." Here are just a few examples of some other similarities between Wind and Spoils:

The alcoholic Kyle Hadley (Robert Stack) driving in his yellow car through the darkness VS the alcoholic Devon Morehouse (Tobey Maguire) driving in his yellow car through the darkness

Lucy Moore Hadley (Dorothy Malone) sitting at the oil company's executive chair VS Cynthia Morehouse (Kristen Wiig) sitting at the oil company's executive chair

The towering headquarters of big oil companies Hadley Oil and Morehouse Conglomerated

Lucy and Cynthia both in their mourning outfits

Kristen Wiig and Will Ferrell carry the humor

If there's one thing Spoils has covered, it's having a hilariously bizarre cast. It's like the writers picked names out of a bag, and considering the stars involved — Val Kilmer, Tim Robbins, Jessica Alba, Haley Joel Osment, the voice of Carey Mulligan, and more — their presence is really more of a novelty than a huge comedy contribution. Even Tobey Maguire, who manages to turn a potentially sarcastic meta performance as a struggling actor playing a crummy role into something both earnest and smirk-worthy, loses his steam at points (especially when he rattles on about a simple point for way too long — a character trait that's only funny the first time). Wiig, on the other hand, kills it as the dreamy, motivated, and impressively stupid Cynthia ("War. W-O-R-E" or "What is the economy?"), and her overdramatic facial contortions echo back to her SNL days as Freakin' Excited Sue, hammy "Secret Word" frequenter Mindy Grayson, or the flirtatious secretary Trina ("Ohh Thoomas…"). Will Ferrell's brief bits of screen time as the film's bearded, bloated, burbling, Falstaffianly self-important writer/director/producer Eric Jonrosh, who introduces each episode while double fisting goblets of red wine, is the "actual" show's biggest competition as far as being laugh-out-loud-worthy and also harks back to his SNL days — think James Lipton mixed with Roger Clarvin of "The Love-ahs."

Production value is a main character

From Drunk History to SNL's "Darrell's House" and Wes Anderson spoof, many successful recent comedy sketches and series have proven that set design, cinematography, and post-production elements can not only make or break the humor but serve as a driving and deconstructive force. Spoils not only attempts to imitate epic miniseries tropes, but it does so in a purposely amateurish way, from the train set miniatures to the popsicle stick visible under the airplanes and mismatched World War 2 newsreel footage. The crude special effects allow Spoils to blur the line between parodying the lazier melodrama clichés and being guilty of a few lazy, or at least lulled, moments of its own volition, which is probably the series' biggest strength and weakness combined. But at least we all get to watch a ragtag team of SNL veterans and former/present film stars get all gussied up to lampoon a now-extinct glorious era of television entertainment (an idea Adam Scott's Greatest Event in Television History pulls off as well), and we still have generations to go until we reach the end of the Morehouse saga.

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The People's Park in central Henan province substituted a Tibetan mastiff when its resident African lion went off to a breeding center.

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by Bradford Evans

Showtime has landed a new comedy starring Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman. THR reports that the pay cable network has ordered 10 episodes of Happyish, a dark comedy created by This American Life contributor Shalom Auslander that stars Hoffman, with Kathryn Hahn and Rhys Ifans in supporting roles. The show, previously titled Trending Down, was ordered to pilot in July.

In Happyish, Hoffman will play a man named Thom Payne who on his 42nd birthday, is struggling with his new bosses being half his age and is having to choose between his antidepressants and his ED pills. Hahn plays his wife, while Ifans is his mentor. Ken Kwapis (The Office) developed the show and serves as executive producer alongside Auslander and Hoffman. This will be Philip Seymour Hoffman's first full-time TV job ever.

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by Bradford Evans

Parks and Recreation is airing its 100th episode tonight. Ever since the series started nearly five years ago, showrunner Mike Schur has made it a point to frequently use his writers in acting parts on the show as Pawnee residents, most of them with super silly names that aren't even spoken on screen. In an interview with us last year, Schur explained the decision to feature the writers so frequently like this:

I think it really ultimately comes from SNL because on SNL, the line between writer and performer is very blurry and the performers write a lot of their own sketches. Sometimes, the writers appear on the show. In general, the collaboration is very intense between writers and performers. A lot of the writers are also performing at UCB every week and doing improv and stuff like that. That spirit was taken to The Office. That was an explicit idea that Greg Daniels had for The Office was that there would be crossover. That's why he hired Mindy [Kaling] as a writer-performer; he hired BJ Novak that way; he basically held Paul Lieberstein down and forced him to be in the show against Paul's will; and I played Mose. Pretty much every writer at some point appeared on the show in some way … It's a fun aspect of the show that we cram writers into the cast whenever we can.

From Harris Wittels's stoner animal control character to Joe Mande's scene-stealing nerd Morris, here's a look back at some of the Parks and Rec writers who have turned up in acting roles big and small on the show during its run:

Joe Mande as Morris Lerpiss

Standup Joe Mande joined Parks and Rec's writing staff in Season 5 after writing for Delocated and Kroll Show. The other writers wasted no time in giving him a part on the show, casting him as Morris, a nerdy, technology-obsessed Pawnee resident. In Morris's most recent appearance, he was revealed to work at the prize counter at a roller rink's arcade and his boss is a wimpy teenager who he's respectful and fearful of. Mande often tweets about his character, jokingly amping up how important he is on the show and trying to get the character's name to be a popular hashtag.

[Season 5, Episode 5; Season 5, Episode 16; Season 6, Episode 6]

Alan Yang as Chang

One of Parks and Rec's original writers, Alan Yang started playing a character called Chang, the bass player in Andy Dwyer's band MouseRat.

[Several episodes, Season 2 to present]


Mike Scully as Pearl

Veteran comedy writer Mike Scully, who served as The Simpsons showrunner from seasons 9 to 12, was a consulting producer and writer on Parks and Rec for its first four seasons. He turned up on the show a couple times as one of the weird Pawnee residents who speaks up at city council meetings.

[Season 3, Episode 12; Season 5, Episode 2]

Aisha Muharrar as Kerp Sulsse

Aisha Muharrar, who's been writing on Parks since Season 2, made a small appearance this season as a woman who works at a baby store called Tots All, Folks that Ann shops at.

[Season 6, Episode 3]

Katie Dippold as Mindy Marfan

Katie Dippold spent three seasons writing for Parks and Rec before moving on to movies and writing last year's highest-grossing comedy, The Heat. On Parks, she's popped up a few times as a neurotic Pawneean who shares the same therapist as Chris Traeger and once applied for the city's vacant animal control position despite not wanting the job.

[Season 2, Episode 9; Season 4, Episode 19; Season 5, Episode 18]

Chelsea Peretti as Zelda

Now a series regular on Parks and Rec higher-ups Mike Schur and Dan Goor's other show Brooklyn Nine-Nine, standup Chelsea Peretti spent two seasons writing for Parks before landing that big role on Brooklyn. She made a brief appearance on Parks as part of a committee April has to speak to while filling in for Leslie during her City Council run.

[Season 4, Episode 19]

Megan Amram as Viv

Popular Twitterer Megan Amram was hired onto Parks and Rec as a writer for its fifth season. She made a short appearance in a recent episode as one-half of a hipster couple who April tries to trick into buying Ron's cabin.

[Season 6, Episode 9]

Alexandra Rushfield as Rebecca Lindshade

Alexandra Rushfield (Undeclared, Help Me Help You) made a short appearance as a woman infatuated with Ron Swanson's alter ego Duke Silver who is upset he has a girlfriend.

[Season 5, Episode 9]

Emily Spivey as Dr. Van Dyne

Up All Night creator and former Saturday Night Live writer Emily Spivey briefly worked on Parks and Rec during its third season, and she appeared in a couple of episodes years later as a doctor helping Chris and Ann have a child. Her character first appeared in the show's Infinite Jest episode, with her name being a reference to a character from the novel.

[Season 5, Episode 17; Season 5, Episode 20]

Harris Wittels as Harris

The most frequently-featured writer-as-an-actor on the show, Harris Wittels has appeared multiple times as one-half of a pair of incompetent animal control workers/roommates who love getting stoned alongside Key & Peele writer Colton Dunn as Brett. Harris and Brett were fired by Chris Traeger in Season 5 for being horrible at their jobs but they've continued to pop up on the show since.

[Several episodes, Season 2 to present]

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by Megh Wright

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler have an interview with The Hollywood Reporter out today to promote their Golden Globes hosting gig this Sunday, and when the writer asked them to comment on the past few months of SNL diversity criticism, Poehler gave the best response possible:

After a lot of public criticism, SNL has added an African-American women to the cast. Do you think that criticism was warranted?

Fey: I think Kerry Washington did such a great job on the [Nov. 2] show [in a sketch that addressed the controversy]. And you saw how great it was for Jay Pharoah to have someone playing Michelle Obama opposite [his President Obama]. So I feel like they registered that really quickly and they've acted on it really quickly.

Poehler: Ugh, I don't want to talk about this. Pass.

Tina and Amy go on to answer questions about SNL's now outdated boys club reputation and explain the rules of the Golden Globe drinking game they invented, but no interview response is as succinct, honest, and hilariously over it as the above Poehler gem.

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by Megh Wright and Josh Kurp

For these two last weeks of the year, while we're taking a bit of a break from our regular publishing schedule, we'll be revisiting some of our favorite features from the past three years. Enjoy!

For the last four years, Stefon Zolesky, created by Bill Hader and John Mulaney, has been every SNL fan's favorite drugged-up club-hopper. Without his New York City party suggestions, we would never know about the glory of Furkles, Jewpids, human bathmats, Teddy Graham people, and Gizblow the Coked-Up Gremlin. Stefon made his first appearance not on Weekend Update, but in a sketch with host Ben Affleck, in which he and Hader played the Zolesky Brothers. Together, the siblings pitched coming-of-age movie ideas…with gay porn angles. A year and a half later on April 24, 2010, Stefon made his first appearance as Weekend Update's city correspondent, and the rest is history.

We love Stefon, which is why we asked very talented illustrator friends to draw up some of his hot spots. We gave our artists a transcript and clip of each sketch, and left them to do the rest. Sometimes they went literal, sometimes they focused on a single character, sometimes they tackled the whole scene, and some of them didn’t even know what SNL was before the assignment. But all of them delivered Stefon-inspired masterpieces, so consider this Splitsider's very first curated group show, Zolesky-style.

CREASE by Yker Moreno

Episode Date: April 24, 2010
If you’re looking for a good time, look no further: New York’s hottest club is Crease. Club promoter Tranny Oakley has gone all out, and inside it’s just everything: lights, psychos, Furbies, screaming babies in Mozart wigs, sunburnt drifters with soapsuds beards…It’s that thing where a hobo becomes a rich man, so they take the big bubble bath.

WESH by William Trebutien

Episode Date: April 24, 2010
New York’s hottest club is Wesh. Nine-year-old Tokyo pimp Ichiaku Guru is back with an all-new hot spot that answers the question What?!? This place has everything: trance, stilts, throw-up music, an albino that looks like Susan Powder, Teddy Graham people…It’s the thing, like when a guy has stumpy arms, but with the belly.

SLICE by Anne Calandre

Episode Date: May 15, 2010
If you want fun, then listen to this: New York’s hottest club is Slice. Club promoter Gay Liotta is back, and this time he’s gone crazy. Jump in and join a dance party where you’ll see twinks, gypsies, grown men in wedding dresses, a cat from a bodega, puppets in disguise…It’s that thing like when Alf wore a trench coat, so he could go out into public.

SLASH by Ann Seymour (Photo by Justin Lawes)

Episode Date: May 15, 2010
New York’s hottest club is Slash. This place has everything: glass, steam, bear traps, and just when you think the fun is over, knock knock who’s there? It’s Black George Washington! All that, and a party room filled with human bathmats…It’s that thing like when midgets have dreadlocks and they lay faced down on the floor.

TASTE by Chris Phillips

Episode Date: May 15, 2010
New York’s hottest club is Taste. Nightlife designer Tranny Griffith is back with an all-new club that answers the question Huh?!? Don’t look for a bouncer – there isn’t one. Instead the door’s guarded by ten jacked homeless guys in old-fashioned bathing suits. And inside it's just sick: ice sculptures, winos, Germufs – German smurfs – a Teddy Ruxpin wearing mascara, an old lady wearing Kid 'N Play hair, and none other than DJ Baby Bok Choy…He’s a giant 300-pound Chinese baby who wears tinted aviator glasses and he spins records with his little ravioli hands.

OUNCE by Danielle MacIndoe

Episode Date: December 11, 2010
New York’s hottest club is Ounce. Located in the middle of the East River, this place has everything: cholos, puke people, a sheepdog that looks like Bruce Vilanch, and an entire room of puppets doing karate…It’s that thing where someone calls Miss Piggy fat and she goes, “High ya!”

BLITZEN by Gareth O’Brien (Photo by Seth Ricart)

Episode Date: December 11, 2010
New York’s hottest holiday club is Blitzen, and right now they’re having their 12 Days of Christmas dance party. It has everything: 12 jacked albinos, 11 Little Richards, 10 piercer babies, 9 Asian Balkis, 8 gay Aladdins, 7 psychos swearing, 6 Puerto Screechers, 5 homeless Elmos. 4 coked up frogs, 3 French hens, Taylor Negron, and a human parking cone…It’s that thing were two jacked midgets paint themselves orange and you have to parallel park between them.

BOOOOOOOOOF by Matt Smithson

Episode Date: February 12, 2011
I have the perfect spot. New York’s hottest club is BOOOOOOOOOF. Located in an abandoned orphanage in the Lower East Side of Chelsea, this round-the-clock puke party is the creation of narcoleptic club owner Snoozan Lucci, and this place has everything: pugs, geezers, doo-wop groups, a wise old turtle that looks like Quincy Jones…and you’ll have your own When Harry Met Sally moment when you share a special kiss with Gizblow the Coked-Up Gremlin. I’ll have what she’s having.

UHHNNNH by Marz Jr.

Episode Date: May 7, 2011
If you want your mom to have a day filled with fun, look no further. New York’s hottest club is UHHNNNH. Located in the middle of the West Side Highway, this bi-curious beach party is the creation of Italian club owner Bologna Danza, and this place has everything: split kicks, pachucos, pile after pile of expired Lunchables, a Hawaiian cleaning lady that looks like Smokey Robinson…and look who just walked in, is that Natalie Portman? No, it’s an old Irish black man that we call Murphy Brown. Plus, if you come this Sunday you’ll meet two-year-old ultimate fighter Drooly Lips Jackson. He’s got fists like little empanadas and he is my best friend.

HEYYYYYY! by Daniel Oeffinger

Episode Date: December 10, 2011
If you're looking to get festive with your family, I've got the perfect place for you. New York's hottest club is Heyyyyyy! Built from the bucket list of a dying pervert, this Battery Park bitch parade is now managed by overweight game show host Fat Sajak. This place has everything: tweakers, skeevies, Spud Webb, a child, and a Russian guy who runs on the treadmill in a Cosby sweater. So come on down this weekend — the bouncer is a bulldog who looks like Wilford Brimley and the password is "diabeetus."

BAAAAAAA-BAANAM by Esther Werdiger

Episode Date: December 10, 2011
If you're ordinary or love salt, I've got just the spot for you. New York's hottest holiday club is BAAAAAAA-BAANAM. Opened and condemned in 1904, this seasonal psycho ward is the creation of Hanukkah cartoon character Menorah the Explorer, and this place has everything: Kiwis, Spud Webb, Clio Awards, some guy's mom, plus a special showing of the African holiday classic A Fish Called Kwanza. Look who just walked in — it’s a lady who works at CVS, but do not bother her because she is on break. And all the proceeds go to charity — flaccid outreach group Doctors Without Boners.

Megh Wright and Josh Kurp hope this feature does well enough that they can ask people to animate The Best of Hanukkah Harry.

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Rick Ross is apparently feeling confident after his recent court victory over cocaine kingpin “Freeway” Ricky Ross, in which a judge ruled that the rapper (born William Leonard Roberts) has the right to build a fictionalized identity around the drug dealer’s name for First Amendment reasons. Ross the rapper is feeling so confident, in fact, that he’s suing somebody else for strikingly similar reasons. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Ross and Jermaine Jackson are going after LMFAO for using the phrase “Everyday I’m shufflin’” on their 2011 global #1 hit “Party Rock Anthem.” Ross claims the phrase is derivative of “Everyday I’m hustlin’,” the hook from his breakout 2006 hit “Hustlin’.” Which, yes, of course it is. In the suit’s official language:

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forgifen:

Numerology Negative

Considering the true breadth of Lou Reed’s legacy, the guy would actually probably be genuinely honored to know that he’s spawned a pizza-themed band featuring Macaulay Culkin. The Pizza Underground just released their 9-song demo via Bandcamp, and it is exactly what its title implies: a no-concept set of lo-fi covers of Velvet Underground tracks, swapping the original lyrics for lyrics about pizza, recorded live at Culkin’s house last month, with song titles like “I’m Waiting For Delivery Man.” You can hear the whole thing below

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littlebunnysunshine:

simple illustration of the Photoshop liberties taken with a recent Jennifer Lawrence cover.

by Bradford Evans

Prince is doing his first sitcom. He'll be guest starring as himself on New Girl's upcoming post-Super Bowl episode, airing on February 2nd, according to a report on a funk music site. The report claims that Prince is a New Girl fan and reached out to the show. The episode will find Zooey Deschanel and company attending one of Prince's notorious, star-studded house parties. This will be Prince's first time on a TV sitcom and, hopefully, not his last.

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nevver:

Born on this day, Gustave Flaubert

howstuffworks:m1ssred:

chemical reaction

The Toast hopes you have had a pleasant, uplifting Hannukah. This author has kindly waived his fee for your edification.

Torah y Moi
The (Hebrew) National
SYNOGAVGES
L’Haim
Yad Future
Goy Division
Jew Order
Matzoh Hoople
Manic Street Rabbis
Guided by Moishes
The Talis Man on Earth
Feh Feh Fehs
…And You Shall Know Us By The Sale On Bread
Portugal, The Manischewitz.
Tre1f
Spinny Dreidel Real Estate
Shvitz and the Tantrums
Shmear We Go Magic
Unknown Mohel Orchestra
The Stone Moses
JCC Soundsystem
Pastrami on Rhye
Neutral Milk Hillel
Mazel Tov You! Black Emperor
My Bloody Alan Stein
Au Revoir Shimon
Men Without Katz’s
Fuck Bupkes
She & Ham
The Oy Formidable
Gelt Banana
Tegan and Sara and Rebecca and Rachel and Leah
Vlasixx
HEALTH SALAD
Bonnie “Blintz” Billy
Drake

Read more Orthodox Jewish Indie Music Acts at The Toast.

tastefullyoffensive:

Instant Karma (Part 1) [x]

Previously: Cats Giving High Fives

by Joel Arnold

On the spectrum of conceptual talk shows, Natasha Leggero’s Tubbin’ with Tash, which debuted last month on the YouTube channel JASH, is certainly one of the weirder ones, with its hot tub location possibly being the most conventional thing about it. Leggero is assisted by Moshe Kasher who plays her spa boy Pig Bottom, and the short-but-insane episodes have featured prominent comedians joining the host in her hot tub, which has led to memorable images like Reggie Watts twerking, Sarah Silverman using a tampon as a projectile, and Eric Andre getting naked, which is actually becoming business as usual for his talk show appearances.

I talked to Leggero recently about her show, her clothing optional rule, and the power of the hot tub.

Where did this show come from?

Well, I bought a hot tub, and I realized if I did a talk show in it, I would be able to write it off.

Was that the way you pitched it? "I want to recoup the cost of my hot tub?"

[Laughs] No, I mean, I went to JASH because I had been wanting to do something with them. I told them the idea, and they loved it. Actually, I was going to do a podcast from my tub, but I was like, ‘Well, this is too funny — having all these people sitting my in hot tub — to not be able to see it,’ so I called Ruben Fleischer, who I have loved working with in the past, and he loved the idea so he agreed to come direct them.

We asked tons of people, and some people were not wanting to get in the hot tub or get naked or get in a swimsuit, but we still got some people in their clothes.

Tig Notaro even wore a suit.

[Laughs] Yeah, I know, it was great. I had to get that dry-cleaned for her after.

Chelsea Peretti came on essentially wearing a trash bag. Where did that come from?

We had both seen those signs that are now California law, which they have in all pools, that say if you’ve had active diarrhea in the past fortnight, you’re not allowed in the pool. First of all, I’m not sure what active diarrhea is and also a fortnight is a pretty long time. Well, I guess we live in America, so they don’t say fortnight; they say two weeks. But the idea was that her diarrhea was so active that she had to wear a trash bag sealed with duct tape whilst around the pool area

How much of that bit and the rest of the show is planned out and scripted?

I would say it’s about 4% scripted. We’ll record for like 30 minutes, and I definitely have some questions planned out, but I didn’t send them to the people or anything. The thing about a hot tub — I feel like people in general are pretty uptight these days. Most of the people I know are sober, and I feel like comedians — if you think about the '80s, people were doing cocaine, or at least you hear about all these comics who were doing cocaine and going wild on the road, and now it’s like every comic I know has got food sensitivity testing done and they’re not eating gluten and they’re not drinking and they stopped smoking pot and nobody smokes cigarettes and no one does drugs and everyone’s juicing. So maybe the hot tub show is a way to try to loosen back up and get back to that time when people were just not so uptight. People have a drink, smoke a little pot, and sit in the hot tub. It’s like a more loose kind of conversation.

When did you decide Tubbin’ with Tash would be more compact and joke heavy?

I’ve been in the room while we’re editing these, and there are just so many different ways you can go. I was just watching Doug Benson’s new show on JASH, Getting Doug with High, and his has just been a 35 or 40 minute video podcast of him getting high with people. I really could be doing that because one of the main comments on YouTube — besides that I don’t have any tits — is they should be longer. And I do have tits. They’re, y’know, nice, healthy. And so we could do a long version and then just cut a shorter version for YouTube. It’s hard to decide. It’s better, I guess, if people want something longer.

How has it been interviewing nude guests?

Well, I’m from the Midwest, where people are very uptight, and there certainly aren’t places with clothing optional hot tub situations. People would be so afraid of that. And I feel like the more time I spend in California (and northern California), it’s definitely just how people hot tub.

I like that idea that you shouldn’t be ashamed of your body and it shouldn’t be this thing that everyone’s so scared about, and so I made a rule that it is clothing optional and if someone does get naked, I will. I know I didn’t with Eric Andre. Well, I did, but then I was like, ‘Maybe I should think about this.’ Now, him peeing on me, that’s a different story. That’s not something I was prepared for.

That was real?

Yeah. I hadn’t been peed on since art school so it brought back some memories. I did have the water drained, though, the day after.

The jewelry you wear and your crisp articulation give your hosting persona a real elegance. Where did those choices come from?

The only idea I had in my head for the character was Bianca Jagger at Studio 54. You know, like having this VIP situation where you were only letting certain people in and then talking to them. The crisp articulation comes from spending so many years at acting conservatory in NY where they taught me how to be a working actor in the 1700s. "To the back of the auditorium, Natasha!" We learned the liquid "u" like in "Tyuuuuesday." "The payment is dyuue on Tyuuuuesday."

Were you going for something similar with the intro and the cards introducing the guests? They have a classy ‘80s music video quality.

Hot tubs were pretty big in the '80s, and I guess the '80s were a time of excess. It’s very Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. I’ve always been kind of fascinated with that show so that’s probably the inspiration for that.

Moshe Kasher plays your assistant–

He’s my spa boy, Pig Bottom.

Where did that character come from?

The character came from Moshe’s psyche. I knew I wanted a spa boy to be waiting on me, and Moshe is so funny and also I knew he’d look great and hilarious in a Speedo, so that just sort of evolved. Then he came up with [the name] "Pig Bottom." I don’t know if you’ve googled "pig bottom," but it’s basically someone sexually who will do absolutely anything.

So there’s class, elegance, and some darkness, at least with that relationship.

Oh, yeah. That relationship seems pretty dark. I mean, it’s definitely meant for comedy’s sake, but I’m sure there are relationships like that. We’re working right now on maybe an episode where you can see how the relationship blossomed and started. It essentially comes from my husband dying and then that day I go take the check I got from his death and go buy the hot tub, and Pig Bottom is the person who sold it to me. So that’s the backstory, and then I employ him as my slave.

What kind of additional challenges are there to shooting a water-based talk show?

Staff infection, sharks, and there’s always the risk of electrocution, which makes it a little more exciting because there are boom operators leaning over the hot tub. Dehydration. I’m in the tub for sometimes six hours at a time. But I have a whole team of people rinsing me off, touching me up, and administering B12 shots so it’s all good.

Do you have any dream guests?

Larry King, Dr. Phil, Beyonce, Greg Louganis. Malia Obama would be good. Sasha seems too uppity. You definitely get people a little more vulnerable because they’re showing their bodies, especially since male comedians all kind of have that same body —  kind of pale, pasty, skinny fat thing.

Is there anything that’s surprised you about how people have handled the hot tub?

Jeff Ross, I found, became very vulnerable. I started roasting him and then he got a little mad at me, and then we just ended up having this deeper conversation which was what he really wanted to do. So that was fun, to kind of catch him in a different mode. Eric Andre, I think within four minutes of shooting, had spread his asshole to the camera, so you, know it varies.

That’s what I like too. Every one of them has its own vibe, and the water sort of acts as this neutralizing agent to really let people relax into themselves, and then we kind of take it from there.

Having done the hot tub thing, do you have any interest in taking a talk show to other unconventional locations?

We were just invited to do it at the Fun Fun Fun Festival in Austin in November, so Pig Bottom and our director for this round (Todd Strauss-Schulson) and I are going to Austin, and we’re going to get a Hummer limo with a hot tub in the back and interview some of the acts that interest me. I really want to interview Big Freedia, Cut Copy. Del the Funky Homosapien would be fun in the tub. Apparently Hummer limos with hot tubs in the back are illegal now in the state of Texas because apparently in Texas guns don’t kill people, mobile hot tubs kill people.

 

Tubbin' with Tash releases new episodes every Wednesday. Natasha and Moshe Kasher will be performing at Caroline's November 14-17

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My 14-year-old daughter made “playing card” themed petit fours and then arranged them by frequency of suit.

-Juliette

Following this year’s New Moon and the Campfire Songs EP, the Men have another new album coming out on Sacred Bones. According to a press release, it’s the first record by the Men to be recorded in a high end studio, and has their highest fidelity recordings to date. Titled Tomorrow’s Hits, the LP contains eight tracks culled from roughly 40 demos and then later 13 studio cuts, a few of which will feature a horn section. One of the really exciting things (perhaps if you’re enough of a label nerd), is that the artwork above features a new Sacred Bones design, one that pushes their traditional maker’s mark into the upper right corner, providing more room for the artwork. Check out the track list below and look for the album in March.

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[Label: Hospital Productions | Cat#: HOS398]

1. Remember Your Black Day (Bouthayna Traditions) (8:11)
2. Al Qaeda (9:08)
3. Atta’s Apartment Slated For Demolition (Bouthayna Engineering) (14:46)
4. Not The Son Of Desert Storm But The Child Of Chechnya (4:12)

Earlier this year, New York Times pop critic Jon Caramanica wrote a piece about pop’s Summer Of Smooth, about how many of this year’s big warm-weather crossover hits were soft and breezy and immaculately produced and comforting pieces of throwbacky, slick pseudo-R&B. Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” drove the narrative, but it also encompassed Bruno Mars and Justin Timberlake and Daft Punk and Drake. If you wanted to reach a bit, you could also extend the same story to indie rock. This is, after all, the year Ariel Rechtshaid became a smart-pop production baron by helming albums from Vampire Weekend and HAIM and Sky Ferreira and Charli XCX. It’s the year the National once again affirmed their calm, tasteful, wood-scented dominance. It’s the year that Phoenix inoffensively ascended to festival-headliner status, and that Disclosure crossed over to indie by goosing its dance music with high-stepping and laser-precise R&B hooks.

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Read more The Random Penguins: Three Cartoons at The Toast.

The psychadelic hellhounds of The New Highway Hymnal just dropped a new EP on the megalithic Vanya Records – and boy, does this thing bark. For the most part, Reverb Room shows NHH working with well-honed, familiar tools: Amy’s mesmerizing bass riffs are spunky, simplistic, and utterly groovy; Travis’ drumbeats get their power from sparseness and precisely placed gaps in sound, rather than from obnoxious, overbearing fills; Hadden’s surf-and-sand-saturated tones are as sharp as his trademark screeches, and his circular lyrics rope you into the band’s already inescapable revolutions.

But what makes Reverb Room such a great release – what’s really exciting for me – is to hear all the new, unfamiliar aspects of this band’s sound coming to fruition. Case in point: those blooming male/female vocal harmonies on the explosive chorus of “By The Pool” – I don’t think there have ever been vocal harmonies on a NHH album, and even if there were, they’ve never been this powerful, this interesting. “Isolation” shows the band becoming more patient, more comfortable with those rad plateaus of 60s vamps that make these jams surprisingly contemplative in the midst of energy. And the band’s relationship with noise is more experimental than ever: the stall-and-skip feedback of “By The Pool”, the sandstorm of squeals and echoes on “Isolation”, and, of course, the psychic acid-journey that is the “Reverb Room”, are all evidence of this band’s changing sound. This album is gut-crunching, free-wheeling, and perfectly unique – be sure to scope it out on the NHH bandcamp and on Vanya Records.

The post THE NEW HIGHWAY HYMNAL – REVERB ROOM EP appeared first on The Boston Hassle.

Girls. Trailer. Third season. HBO. January 12. Lena Dunham. Watch:

I am so excited for this show to return. I don't think I can hide it. It's like I'm about to lose control. Maybe I like that feeling?

Tags: Girls   HBO   Lena Dunham   trailers   TV   video