I recently signed up for Hulu, the online TV viewing website that has Joost beat for its simplicity and the fact that you don’t have to download any software. Just sign up and start exploring. They also have a strong commitment to providing HD quality streaming clips so that’s good news for us HDTV folk.
One of the first videos I watched was a clip from SNL (Saturday Night Live). I have to admit, I really can’t stand most of the comedians that have been on this show for roughly the past 10 years. But every now and then they come up with a gem such as the “Lazy Sunday” skit.
The skit I saw included Natalie Portman doing a rap about what her regular life is about or rather, surreal life. The skit itself was thought up by Andy Samberg, who is probably the funniest dude on the show (except for Darrell Hammond but that’s an unfair battle given he’s been on the show for 13 years!). Andy and his writer friends from Berkley, CA are the brains behind most of the spoof musical bits on the show today such as “Lazy Sunday”.
It starts off as an interview with Chris Parnell (for some reason Andy really digs Chris Parnell who has been off the show for a couple of years). Natalie, dawning her boyish hair cut but somehow managing to look sexy as ever, is asked by the reporter, “Natalie, what is a day in the life of Natalie Portman really like?” And she says, “Do you really want to know?” And that’s when the things start really getting hot. Watch the 2 and half minute clip below.
In other Natalie news, this time we’re delving deep into the heart of the psych-folk barrel with Devendra Banhart. Some of you may already know that Natalie and the hippy dippy singer are very close friends but for those of you who didn’t know, now you do. They solidified this friendship by recently appearing in a music video together that has yet to be released. Read more at MTV News Room.
Stream a Devendra Banhart track, “Little Boxes”, which is a cover of the theme song for the Showtime series, Weeds.
Moving away from Natalie, I went to the Malkmus and John Vanderslice show last night at the Paradise. I won’t go into a review of the show but if you’re a Malkmus, ex-Pavement or ex-Sleater-Kinney fan I’m sure I don’t have to tell you how awesome the dude is on guitar and how amazing Janet Weiss is on drums. But what I will tell you is how John Vanderslice has proven to me that he is the nicest guy on the music scene today.
This was my second time seeing John and my second time meeting him. He’s very approachable and he makes it a point to the crowd that he will be hanging out by the merch table not only after his set but also after the Malkmus set. Besides being friendly, the guy is also a musical genius and he always seems to bring along these musicians who are far and above some of the best musicians around – drummer who plays both a synth and sampler while drumming or a bass player who also happens to play the violin. You know, people like that.
J.V. MP3: “White Dove” (off of Emerald City)
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Download more JV MP3′s HERE: http://www.johnvanderslice.com/html/mp3_index.html
John and Steve are only on tour for one more show together tonight in North Adams, MA at the Museum of Contemporary Art.
See more shows that JV and company are headlining after April 4th HERE: http://www.johnvanderslice.com/html/shows.html
See more Malkmus and The Jicks shows HERE: http://www.matadorrecords.com/tours/
