Dreams really do come true…
The influence of Christopher Guest’s mockumentaries is quite overt in Ricky Gervais’ The Office. In fact, the brilliant show wouldn’t have existed if it wasn’t for “This is Spinal Tap,” “Waiting for Guffman” and “Best in Show.” My real dream is to star in a mockumentary, but I’ll settle for a Guest/Gervais team-up. I could barely get to sleep last night after I read that a team-up is really happening. Gervais will be starring in Guest’s latest flick “For Your Consideration.”
It will chart the making of an exquisitely bad indie film staring three actors whose lives are dramatically changed when they get wind of the fact they have been tipped for awards.“We all know many people who have been through this reality, and how it changes them. This happens to be an area I know something about,” Guest told Variety magazine.
Gervais plays the head of a studio’s specialty division, who is producing the film, called Home for Purim. It is “an extraordinarily poorly written movie. It’s a melodrama, and it’s just awful. These actors never would have imagined that this movie was going to change their lives,” Guest said.
A movie within a movie called “Home For Purim.”
It doesn’t get much better than that, does it?
August 26, 2005 TVFH podcast
Click here to listen: 
Subscribe to the feed: 
Add to itunes: 
Odeo users click here!
Call the official View from Here hotline: 206-666-HERE (4373)
August 22, 2005 TVFH Podcast
On episode 17 of The View from Here podcast we completely ignore Disengagement (we don’t do politics)! Ziva gives the lowdown on Tu B’Av - the romantic Jewish holiday of love. We experience culinary adventures with beet juice and Harry hits a new low with his worst and most annoying accent yet!
All this and a very special guest! Israeli journalist extraordinaire Shahar Smooha, one of two Israelis who voted in January’s Iraqi election, joins us for about five minutes of serious talk and a full 37 minutes of nonsense! Believe it!
Click here to listen:
Subscribe to the feed:
Add to itunes:
Odeo users click here!
Call the official View from Here hotline: 206-666-HERE (4373)
August 14, 2005 TVFH Podcast
Shalom from Israel! This week Harry gets his PHD in Proxemics! Ziva takes on the plumber! And then they attack such topics as reality TV stars, Jew camp, Biblical floods, Ikea… and much, much more! Actually, not that much more. Those items I mentioned pretty much cover everything. Except that Israelis love porn. We talk about that too.
Click here to listen:
Subscribe to the feed:
Add to itunes:
Alternatively, you can subscribe via my Odeo Channel
Call the official View from Here hotline: 206-666-HERE (4373)
Situation: Watch this TV show
After cleaning up a flood of biblical proportions in our apartment (you’ll have to listen to our next podcast for further details) I headed over to my computer to sit down and rest my arthritic joints. I was checking my RSS reader and saw over at Gothamist that there is an interview with Bex Schwartz (performance artist, poet, comedian, producer and one of those talking heads on those addictive VH1 shows about how celebs spend their money). After I read the interview I headed on over to check out her blog. There I learned that my former counselor from Kikecamp (Mark Treitel) is now a finalist on Bravo’s Situation: Comedy, a Project: Greenlight-esque reality show about the making of a sitcom pilot. His idea is an updated version of Small Wonder, where Vicki the Robot and that annoying redhead neighbor with the freckles are pimped out by a crack addicted Jamie Lawson. No it’s not, but I think that would be really funny. Anyway, together with his writing partner Shoe Schuster they managed to beat out 10,000 applicants and are now certified reality television stars. Their pilot is called “The Sperm Donor” and when the time comes you should vote for it. In the meantime, check the show out on Friday Night at 7 PM (eastern time).
I haven’t seen Mark in years. In fact, the last time I spoke to him was probably in the early nineties standing outside of our synagogue during Rosh Hashana or Yom Kippur services back on Strong Island. He’s a really funny guy and wrote the most irreverent play that Camp Ramah in the Berkshires has ever seen!
As I mentioned above Mark was my camp counselor. It was 1989, I was a 15 year old with slight behavior problems and desperately in need of ritalin. Mark was fairly tolerant of my nonsense, tantrums and incessant ramblings and is without a doubt responsible for my undying love of everything Elvis Costello. Spike was the first Elvis album I had heard (although I had heard the song Alison before but it didn’t really do it for me) and when the summer ended I got my hands on Costello’s entire back catalogue.
Thanks Mark!
Political opportunities
I rarely write about politics these days. It’s not because they don’t interest me but rather because politics generally make me sick.
A good example of nausea-inducing politics can be found in the behavior of Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu these past few days. Benjamin Netanyahu stepped down as finance minister two days ago claiming that the upcoming Israeli withdrawal from Gaza will only strengthen Palestinian terror groups. Maybe he is right. Who knows? That’s not the issue here. His resignation came less than ten days before the disengagement is set to begin. There is nothing he can do to stop it and he has made it quite clear that he just wants the historical record to show that he was opposed. The right are obviously lauding Netanyahu for his courage but the fact is that he has had more than one opportunity to resign and its way too late in the game for Bibi to convincingly separate himself from the government’s role in Disengagement. Up until this point Netanyahu has been an active part of the government so his last inning resignation wreaks of political opportunity. His ambitions to return to the prime ministership is no secret. This move was so overtly assholic that I am dumbfounded by the reaction of the right. He’s “betrayed” the right before. Lest we forget that it was Netanyahu who was PM when Israel handed over majority of Hebron to the control of the Palestinian Authority. Trying to paint himself as the “new right” of the Likud party is a complete sham and insulting.
The right-wing Israel National News is reporting that instead of participating in Thursday’s anti-disengagement rally he’ll be in the states fundraising. Interesting, no?
I have been sickened these past few months by the sophomoric color wars and the disgusting behavior of both camps. I’m sick of the insults being thrown at each other, the incitement and the government’s quashing of the democratic right to protest, I’m sick of being handed orange and blue ribbons at junctions, I’m tired of the divisions in our society and most of all I just want to be able to wear my cool orange shirt without making a political statement.
I prefer fashion statements instead.
How to avoid getting gang raped in a Turkish prison
I saw this article in Israel’s largest daily Yediot Achronot last week and meant to blog about it but never got around to it.
You won’t find them listed in any telephone book. But if you’re locked up in a Third World jail, seemingly beyond help, the secret team of Israeli soldiers-of-fortune can spring you from your cramped and fetid cell - for a price.With an armoury ranging from spiked drinks and disguises to fake passports, honeytraps and sheer brute force, the seven-strong squad of former special forces troops will launch freelance jail-breaks across the developing world. Assuming you can find them, they charge up to $150,000 to get their prize safely home.
I’ll keep this in mind next time I get caught in Thailand smuggling 12 kilos of heroin up my ass.
-
Search
-
-
My Flickr
