The Monday Edition.
Man, I had a busy weekend. Between early Christmas shopping, Thanksgiving food shopping, and social engagements, I feel like I need another two days to relax before I go back to work.
Too late. I’m already here…
Went to see National Treasure over the weekend. It was a toss-up between that or the Spongebob Squarepants movie. Turns out I made a good decision; National Treasure is a mostly clever, lightly historical, likeable, Indiana Jones-ish scavenger hunt. I typically find Nicholas Cage to be pretty annoying, but this role fit him well. Not a groundbreaking, mind-blowing movie, but entertaining none the less.
I missed most of Saturday Night Live, due to the aforementioned weekend’s activities, but I did manage to catch the last 30 minutes. SNL has been slipping into stupidity over the past 20 years, and sometimes I wonder why I even bother watching anymore. The show has been lucky enough to have had some really funny actors during that time, but, sadly, the material has been mostly tired and lackluster.
But who cares about dumb comedy sketches when U2 is on? The revered boys from Dublin were kind enough to show America what “live” music is supposed to sound like. You know—“live”—as in, not prerecorded. I was already interested in the new album because of it’s title; it is perhaps one of the greatest titles ever conceived by man: How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. But it seemed that Saturday night, on live television, it would be more appropriate to say that U2 was detonating an atomic bomb. I’ve never been a huge U2 fan; in fact, I don’t own any U2 songs. But after watching them perform that night, I can’t wait to get my hands on the music. Not only did the songs sound great, but Bono’s performance (which I once thought was narcissistic, swaggering, ridiculously self-important rockstar posturing) came across as genuinely energetic and real. U2 is probably the best thing to happen to that rinky-dink comedy show in years. Lorne Michaels should be thanking his lucky stars. Then he needs to fire his writing staff (except Tina Fey; her comedy is redonkulous).
