That’s Demetri Martin. He’s “The Daily Show’s” trendspotter, an amazing comedian, and also someone I interviewed.

Here’s a segment of his from “The Daily Show.”

Dude’s also a budding filmmaker. He wrote and starred in a little watched short film called “12:21″ (the guy’s into palindromes) that aired on the BBC awhile back. The film also stars Fred Armisen of SNL, Leo Allen, Eugene Mirman, and a ton of other New York comedians. Through some back channel internet sources I got ahold of it. And I uploaded it for you good readers. Download it here. Enjoy.

And because no one asked for it, here’s a live MP3 I recorded of Demetri being interrupted by Doug Benson. And here’s Doug’s set.

I saw this on Valencia street:

And I’ve had these songs stuck in my head:
Magnetic Fields-Strange Powers
Magnetic Fields-All the umbrellas in London
Magnetic Fields-I wish I had an evil twin

tvshowsondvd.com announced the release date today for one of my all-time favorite shows, “Stella.” Stella is comprised of Michael Showalter, David Wain, and Michael Ian Black. Season 1 will come out September 12. The set will contain all 10 episodes (215 mins) on two discs, plus tons of bonus features including “History of Stella” documentary, “Comedy Central Presents - Stella,” deleted scenes, extended takes and bloopers.

If you’ll recall I interviewed them back in 2004. The disappointing thing about Stella, and other alums of “The State,” is that most of the things they do are never appreciated when they first come out, the Stella TV show and its subsequent cancellation being yet another example of this. I saw Michael Showalter and David Wain speak and they said that there seems to be some sort of 6 year rule where 6 years after they do something it’s finally appreciated. Sad but true.

I tried to read “The Da Vinci Code.” I couldn’t do it. I gave it 60 pages and put it down, took it back to Barnes and Noble and got my money back. I asked the cashier if anyone else had returned the book and he said that he didn’t know in a fairly snooty tone.

I have no plans on watching the film, but I did very much enjoy Anthony Lane’s review of it in The New Yorker. Anthony Lane is my favorite movie reviewer because of paragraphs like, “The film is directed by Ron Howard and written by Akiva Goldsman, the master wordsmith who brought us “Batman & Robin.” I assumed that such an achievement would result in Goldsman’s being legally banned from any of the verbal professions, but, no, here he is yet again.”

To say that Lane is witty is a serious understatement. The guy has been writing some of the most amazing and entertaining reviews now for the last 12 years.

I’m going to have to quote his review again.

“There has been much debate over Dan Brown’s novel ever since it was published, in 2003, but no question has been more contentious than this: if a person of sound mind begins reading the book at ten o’clock in the morning, at what time will he or she come to the realization that it is unmitigated junk? The answer, in my case, was 10:00.03″

“Should we mind that forty million readers—or, to use the technical term, “lemmings”—have followed one another over the cliff of this long and laughable text? I am aware of the argument that, if a tale has enough grip, one can for a while forget, if not forgive, the crumbling coarseness of the style; otherwise, why would I still read “The Day of the Jackal” once a year? With “The Da Vinci Code,” there can be no such excuse. Even as you clear away the rubble of the prose, what shows through is the folly of the central conceit, and, worse still, the pride that the author seems to take in his theological presumption.”

I don’t think it can be summed up much better than that.

I found two of my favorite Sealab 2021 episodes on youtube. The first one is “Murphy Murph and The Feng Shui Bunch,” and the second is “Red Dawn.” Both are great.

tinyvices.com, a cool photo/art site, recently put up a collection of found photos that’s got some sweet shots.

I liked these two:

The season finale of “Wonder Showzen” was last week. On that episode there was a “special report” by Clarence the puppet about the state of TV. The entire episode is Clarence asking people what’s wrong with television and then telling them to make some compelling TV. Dramatic music underscores the fact that the people really have nothing to say. Then, in an odd twist, someone starts harassing Clarence. This clip encapsulates the whole episode.

I appreciate that Wonder Showzen is trying to push boundaries and mess with viewers’ expectations, but I really didn’t find this episode funny. I can see the merit in the idea of the episode, but the execution of it was just not that entertaining. It reminded me a lot of something an artist would do. Like putting a toilet in an art gallery to make people re-evaluate what art is. I mean, I like the idea of a toilet sitting in an art gallery, but let’s face it, toilets are fucking boring.

I was trying to think back of an example of a show where you realized, “Oh, they’re really going to do this for the whole episode,” but then you end up really enjoying it. I thought of an episode of Sea Lab 2021 where the entire 12 minute episode was a single shot of the Sea Lab headquarters and the lights were out. A bunch of the characters are trying to figure out what’s going on, why they’re trapped in the clost and the insanity and hilarity of Captain Hazel “Hank” Murphy carries the episode. That worked. I’m not so sure this Wonder Showzen episode worked, but regardless it made me think, and I belive that’s ultimately the goal the of show’s creators.

Download the episode here.

I’ve been driving 400 miles south every weekend for the past 3 weeks in an effort to find a place to live. The mission was accomplished last weekend. Here are some pics from the road:

I can’t say I’m a big Robin Williams fan, but I do enjoy laughing at him, not with him. A distinction I feel must be made. Check out this video from the showbiz show highlighting the genius of RV (my new nickname for him).

I particularly enjoy when he starts using his black voice, which he dubs “white chocolate,” and asks a palpably amused Katie Couric, “What up with that, girl?”

The Onion broke it down years earlier with an article titled Robin Williams Leaves Entertainment Reporter In Stitches.

Here’s my favorite part of the article:
Williams went on the unexpected, wholly improvised comic tear when Menounos asked him about his outfit, a tuxedo accentuated by a pair of flashy, neon-purple cowboy boots. The query prompted Williams to launch into impersonations of a jive-talking black man and John Wayne before segueing into references to Joan Rivers, the reality-TV program Survivor, and the popular wrinkle remover Botox, leaving Menounos in what witnesses described as “hysterics.”

“Yo, what is up, homeslice? Dis sucka be lookin’ baaad tonight!” said Williams, showing off his outfit to Menounos. “Now listen, pilgrim, Monty Clift is down in Red River still lookin’ for his boots. He’s a little light in those loafers he’s been wearin’ lately, catch my drift? It’s like Survivor: San Francisco… ‘The tribe has spoken, and you look faaabulous!’ Is Joan [Rivers] here tonight? Don’t let her see me—her facelift stitches might pop out from the shock! Nurse, one million CCs of Botox, stat! No, we don’t have time for the needle! Just back the truck up, fasten the hose, and pump it right into her skull! Boooop! Boooop! Boooop!”

Awhile back wonkette, a political blog that I read ocassionally, came across a major find on the ATF website. It seems the head office decided to solicit artwork to adorn the walls of their new office in Washington. Employees were asked to ask their children to make some drawings depicting what they thought their parents did. The results are amazing. You can view all of them here. Also be sure to check out the sweet web design on the .gov site. Note to the webmater, you can change the name from “untitled document” to whatever you’d like on a web page. Anyway, here are some of my favorites:

As the age of the artist increases, so too does their perception of reality. I found these two to be a depressingly accurate portrayal of office life.