My U2 playlist

I'm watching the season premiere of Saturday Night Live, with musical guest U2! (Speaking of musicals, I'll be on the lookout for any references to Spider-Man.)

In case you're interested, I saw the band once, in Syracuse on Oct. 9, 1987. I remember Bono's arm was in a sling because he'd dislocated his shoulder. It was also the same night as a friend's goodbye party, which I rushed to after the concert.

Here's the playlist, which actually contains most of my favorite U2 songs. (Thanks to James Sims of the Sofa Snark blog for pointing me to the site where I could look it up!)

Venue: Carrier Dome, Syracuse University

Opening Act(s): Little Steven & The Disciples of Soul, Los Lobos

Main Set: Where the Streets..., I Will Follow, Trip Through Your Wires, I Still Haven't Found, MLK, The Unforgettable Fire, Exit, In God's Country, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Help, People Get Ready, Bad, October, New Year's Day, Pride

Encore(s): Bullet The Blue Sky, Running To Stand Still, With or Without You, 40

Update: U2 performed four songs on SNL: "Breathe," "Moment of Surrender," "Ultraviolet," and after the show ended, "With or Without You."

A history lesson from Tina Fey

I've been thumbing through Live from New York, an oral history of Saturday Night Live. It's a great book for leisurely reading. There's one anecdote after another and almost everyone who's been connected with the show over the years is included.

This quote from Tina Fey made me laugh:

"The seventies and the twenty-first century are just so different. There's no drugs and there's no sex at the show now. I would have been terrified if I was here back in the old days."

I know what she means. Have you ever watched any of those early shows? I have the first season on dvd and there are a lot more drug references than I think you'd ever see today.

I said almost everyone is included in the book but there's one notable exception. Apparently, Eddie Murphy has some bitter feelings toward SNL and declined to be interviewed.

Hey, I know what that's like. I once tried to get an interview with him myself, when he was on tour doing his standup routine in the mid 1980s. I even made a personal pitch to actress Susan Saint James, wife of then-producer Dick Ebersol, who promised to give him my business card.

For the next few weeks, I kept getting notes on my desk from colleagues (this was before voicemail) saying that "Eddie" had called. He never did.

Remembering George Carlin

HBO is remembering comedian George Carlin by presenting 11 specials over the next three nights. Here's the schedule:

Tonight (HBO2)
8 p.m. George Carlin at USC (1977)
9 p.m. George Carlin Again! (1978)
11 p.m. Carlin at Carnegie (1983)
12 a.m. Carlin on Campus (1984)
1 a.m. Playin with Your Head (1986)

Thursday (HBO2)
8 p.m. What Am I Doing in New Jersey? (1988)
9 p.m. Doin it Again (1990)
10 p.m. Jammin' in New York (1992)
11 p.m. Back in Town (1996)
12:05 a.m. You Are All Diseased (1999)
1 a.m. It's Bad for Ya (2008)

Friday HBO
9 p.m. It's Bad for Ya (2008)

And on Saturday, from 11:30 p.m. to 1 a.m., NBC has its own tribute planned. The network will rebroadcast the very first episode of Saturday Night Live, which aired on Oct. 11, 1975, and featured Carlin as host, as well as a film by Albert Brooks and an appearance by comedian Andy Kaufman. The musical guests were Janis Ian and Billy Preston.

Carlin does some classic routines on the show: "blue food" and "baseball versus football." What struck me when I watched them again on Monday, after hearing of Carlin's death, is how well they hold up. They're still as funny today as they were more than three decades ago, which is something you can't say about every comedian's work.

I have the first season of Saturday Night Live on dvd. While it's still broadcast from the same studio at Rockefeller Center, the show does have a different look today. In the first season, there were more musical performances, fewer skits. So it's well worth tuning in this weekend. Back then, by the way, it was called NBC's Saturday Night.

I saw the SNL studio last year when I took the NBC tour. (And it's definitely the highlight). The guide stops at two framed photographs - one of the original cast and one from today's cast. While I could name every one of the original Not Ready for Prime Time Players, I didn't do nearly as well with the current lineup.

America's new top dog

Some things to be happy about today:

Tina Fey will host the first post-strike Saturday Night Live, on Feb. 23. As a big fan of 30 Rock, I'm very excited. Ben Silverman, the co-chairman of NBC Entertainment, told The New York Times, “It’s a political year, so we want to jam it with ‘SNL.’ We hope to have as many as six or eight more this season.” And according to TV Guide.com, there are plans to shoot five or six more episodes of 30 Rock, to air in April and May.

Joel and Ethan Coen are going to make a movie of Michael Chabon's novel The Yiddish Policemen's Union, a murder mystery set in a fictional Jewish homeland in Alaska. Ok, that book has been sitting in my to-read pile for far too long. Now, I really have to get cracking on it. I hope this revives efforts to film one of Chabon's earlier novels, the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.

In a boost to underdogs everywhere, last night an adorable beagle named Uno became the first of his breed to win best in show at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in New York City. His handler, Aaron Wilkerson, said afterward, "He's my best friend."