TVSquad

The Sundance Channel will launch season two of Iconoclasts on the 26th with the help of Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder and surfing legend Laird Hamilton. According to Executive Producer Robert Redford, "Iconoclasts explores the intersection where two great talents meet - and where creativity comes alive." That's a pretty way to say they point a camera at a pair of people we wouldn't normally get to see together and watch what happens. It can go either way, but when it works, it makes for a very interesting show.

The rest of the slate for season two has some other intriguing pairings, including Mikhail Baryshnikov & Alice Waters, Quentin Tarentino & Fiona Apple, Isabella Rosselini & Dean Kamen, Paul Simon & Lorne Michaels, and Dave Chapelle & Maya Angelou. I'm really looking forward to the Tarentino & Apple episode. Two interesting careers, and they both have just enough of the crazy in them that it could be fantastic television. The website has bios for everyone and promises video is "coming soon."

Pearl Jam is making one of their videos available online under the Creative Commons license. Why do I care about Pearl Jam doing this? Well, I don't actually, but it got me thinking about music videos and how they've found a new life online and in DVD form, as television has all but eradicated them. While many networks and channels are moving online with broadband content while still remaining secured to TV, these days you can't really see a video from your favorite band unless you go online, or buy a number of DVD collections dedicated to certain video directors like Michael Gondry and Spike Jonze, among others. The thing is, videos haven't gotten worse, in fact, they've gotten much better, I think, and while the idea of sitting through three whole minutes of song might cause the programmers at MTV to gasp in horror, I'm glad to see bands are still making videos, and making them easily accessible to fans and anyone else who wants to check them out. The Web can be a place not only for networks to try out online-only content and rerun old shows, it can also be a place where ideas no longer suited to television can still find an audience.

I've never liked nor disliked Pearl Jam, I've always been indifferent. I do give the band credit, though, for embracing its fanbase and keeping on even after the grunge explosion finally fizzled out and the sound of which they were originally a part of was no longer the hip new blip on the mainstream radar. Lately, though, the band seems to be warming up to the spotlight again, given their recent apperance on SNL and a scheduled apperance on The Late Show with David Letterman this Thursday. If you catch the show, you'll hear the usual one song a band performs, but if you want a bit more Pearl Jammy goodness, CBS will be streaming a full concert by the band from the Ed Sullivan Theater on the Late Show Web site which will follow the taping of their appearance. The online concert will start at 5:55 p.m. EST. You can expect to hear songs off the new album, as well as some older material.

(S31E16) Not too shabby. For her third SNL hosting gig, Lindsay Lohan wasn't all that bad. I did find it odd that she's doing SNL again so soon though. Especially after that big hoopla about the Vanity Fair article a few months ago. But her arms did look much plumper this time around. Besides, she has a new movie coming out and I would assume that she and Tina Fey have a good relationship. So I guess it does makes sense that she would be doing SNL again so soon. See that? I answer my own questions.

The Situation Room - It seems like we've officially reached the point where every single cold open that SNL does is going to be a take-off of one of the many political pundit shows from across the cable universe. I'm fine with that. I'm just saying that I can't remember the last time a cold open that wasn't Hardball, or Anderson Cooper, or this. I suppose it makes sense though when the government is giving out plenty of material to spin into a sketch. Might as well use it. This was funny. Wolf (Chris Parnell) had numerous guests commenting about the recent news that White House Chief of Staff Andy Card had resigned (well, I guess it's not that recent). It seems everyone they interviewed, who now worked for the President, had come from a temp agency. I loved it when Kristen Wiig (she's the new Resident Iran Expert) asked to have her time card initialed.