Heartwarming Pseudo-Sequel Or Cynical Corporate Bullshit?

I submit to you that it can be both. Here’s the full version of the commercial that aired during yesterday’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

From io9

Xfinity, if you are scratching your head for the connection here, is the digital cable, internet, phone, etc. provider owned by Comcast. Comcast owns NBC, which aired the parade. It also owns Universal Pictures, which owns E.T. So, basically what you’re looking at is major corporation dipping into a considerable bag of tricks labeled “Nostalgic Intellectual Property” and throwing Super Bowl commercial money at it.

Speaking Of KISS

Bally produced 17,000 of these things back in 1979. Nowadays, median asking price is $2,550.

Fat Elvis, you need one.

The American Dream Value Menu

After finishing Harrison Scott Key’s first book I went a-Googling, finding his Ted talk from last summer. He’s originally from Memphis!

Harrison Scott Key is the author of two books—Congratulations, Who Are You Again? and The World’s Largest Man, winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor. He has spoken at TEDx and hundreds of book festivals, conferences, and universities around the nation. Harrison’s humor and nonfiction have appeared in The Best American Travel Writing, Oxford American, Outside, The New York Times, The Bitter Southerner, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Town & Country, The Mockingbird, Salon, Savannah Magazine, Reader’s Digest, Image, Southern Living, Gulf Coast, Creative Nonfiction, and more. He holds an M.F.A. in creative nonfiction and a Ph.D. in playwriting and works at SCAD, where he has held appointments as chair of liberal arts, professor of English, professor of writing, and executive dean. He lives in Savannah, Georgia, with wife and children.

You Are Forgiven

Fucking finally, an official copy of this amazing footage on YouTube. (As of six days ago!) No more take-downs.

According to the sometimes-reliable Wikipedia …

The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus was a concert show organised by the Rolling Stones on 11 December 1968. The show was filmed on a makeshift circus stage with Jethro Tull, the Who, Taj Mahal, Marianne Faithfull, and the Rolling Stones. John Lennon and his fiancee Yoko Ono also performed as part of a one-shot supergroup called the Dirty Mac, featuring Eric Clapton, Mitch Mitchell, and Keith Richards … It was meant to be aired on the BBC, but instead the Rolling Stones withheld it. The Rolling Stones contended they did so because of their substandard performance, clearly exhausted after 15 hours (and some indulgence in drugs) … Some speculate that another reason for not releasing the film was that the Who, who were fresh off a concert tour, seemingly upstaged the Stones on their own production.

No question.

Eventually released in 1996. Enjoy or don’t, you dirty bastards.

And Then There’s This

You don’t need a criminal lawyer, you need a criminal lawyer.

From a site I used to like, and begrudgingly still read despite its having been made a shadow of its former self by a corporate overlord a few years ago …

The season five premiere is a two-night event that begins on Sunday, February 23 at 9:00 PM ET and continues with the second episode on Monday, February 24 (preceded by a rerun of the season premiere). In the 10-episode fifth season, “Jimmy McGill’s (Odenkirk) decision to practice law as ‘Saul Goodman’ creates unexpected and profound waves of change for those in his orbit,” according to AMC’s press release.