Tonight's guests are Brian Jay Jones on TDS & Reed Albergotti & Vanessa O'Connell on Colbert.
Brian Jay Jones looks to be here to talk about his book Jim Henson: The Biography so we must have some Muppets.
Pop Up Video factoid:
The song Popcorn is considered to be an early example of electronic music, dating back to 1969.
Brian Jay Jones is an award-winning writer and biographer and presently serves as vice president of Biographers International Organization, the world’s largest organization of practicing biographers. Jones is a devoted member of the Jim Henson generation, having been two years old when Sesame Street premiered in 1969 and nine when The Muppet Show debuted in 1976. A former policy analyst and advisor in the U.S. Senate, Jones abandoned politics for the pen in 2008, with the publication of his award-winning biography, Washington Irving. He lives with his wife and daughter in Damascus, Maryland. His favorite Muppet is Rowlf (thanks for asking).
I loved the Muppet Show, they even taught you the proper way to heckle...
One More.
Pop Up Video Factoid:
Mah Nà Mah Nà" is a popular song written by Piero Umiliani. It originally appeared in the Italian film Sweden: Heaven and Hell (Svezia, Inferno E Paradiso). It was a minor radio hit in the U.S. and in Britain, but became better known in English-speaking countries from its use in a recurring blackout sketch for the 1969-70 season of The Red Skelton Show, the 14th episode of Sesame Street, the first episode of The Muppet Show, and also from its consistent use as the primary silent comedy sketch scene music for The Benny Hill Show.
Reed Albergotti & Vanessa O'Connell look to be promoting the book
Wheelmen: Lance Armstrong, the Tour de France, and the Greatest Sports Conspiracy Ever.
Reed Albergotti is a white-collar crime reporter for The Wall Street Journal. He is also the son of a fanatic amateur cyclist who served as the director of cycling competition in the 1984 Olympics. An accomplished bike racer himself, Reed speaks the sport’s odd language.
Vanessa O'Connell, an award-winning reporter at The Wall Street Journal for seventeen years, has covered tobacco, alcohol, guns, insider trading, and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. She has a knack for exposing the nature of corporate America and how it sometimes manipulates the score in making its money.
The Wall Street Journal reporters Reed Albergotti and Vanessa O’Connell broke the news at every turn. In Wheelmen they reveal the broader story of how Armstrong and his supporters used money, power, and cutting-edge science to conquer the world’s most diffcult race. Wheelmen introduces U.S. Postal Service Team owner Thom Weisel, who in a brazen power play ousted USA Cycling’s top leadership and gained control of the sport in the United States, ensuring Armstrong’s dominance. Meanwhile, sponsors fought over contracts with Armstrong as the entire sport of cycling began to benefit from the “Lance effect.” What had been a quirky, working-class hobby became the pastime of the Masters of the Universe set.
I realize there are people still really angry about the whole thing. I am not one of them. Colbert usually does well even with dry topics, but in the event people need to bail on the interview, we have some Kraftwerk below. Maybe the interview will actually be interesting.
Pop Up Video Factoid:
The signature Kraftwerk sound combines driving, repetitive rhythms with catchy melodies, mainly following a Western Classical style of harmony, with a minimalistic and strictly electronic instrumentation. The group's simplified lyrics are at times sung through a vocoder or generated by computer-speech software. Kraftwerk were one of the first groups to popularize electronic music and are considered pioneers in the field.