March 2008 - Posts
On Tuesday, R.E.M. -- once arguably the biggest band in the world -- will perform on the plaza in support of its new album, Accelerate.
I'm curious to see and hear them, because, for me and a lot of people, R.E.M. has kind of fallen off the map in the past decade.
Roughly since the time drummer Bill Berry left the group in 1997, R.E.M. has become less relevant in American music.
I, for one, never stopped to think about why that was, but I also didn't bother to buy any of their recent albums either.
And that says something, because although I would never have considered myself a hard-core R.E.M. fan, I certainly devoured Document, Out of Time and Monster as a kid and teenager.
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This just in: Matt Lauer likes things to be clean.
If you're an avid watcher of TODAY, you know about Matt's almost pathological quest to exist in an orderly and a germ-free environment.
Over the weekend, you may have seen this article in USA Weekend detailing Matt's quest for cleanliness and order in his own home.
If you missed it (or don't subscribe to a local newspaper on Sunday), check it out.
As I write this, yesterday's post about the controversial Vogue cover featuring LeBron James and Gisele Bundchen has generated more than 260 comments...the most we've had for a single post in three months (UPDATE: as of Monday morning, we're at 444 comments).
One of the commenters was former soccer star Brandi Chastain, who famously landed on the covers of Time, Newsweek and Sports Illustrated back in 1999, after tearing off her jersey to celebrate the World Cup-clinching goal.
After reading her comment, which focused more on gender than on race, I spoke to Chastain to get more on her take on the Vogue photo and to find out what it's like to be in the middle of a cover controversy.
You can read our conversation HERE.
Here's Chastain's original comment to the blog (after the jump):
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Here it is, the controversial Vogue cover featuring NBA star LeBron James and supermodel Gisele Bundchen.
This morning, Peter Alexander reported on the controversy, followed by Ann Curry's interview with CNBC's Donny Deutsch and humorist/TV commentator Nancy Giles. WATCH VIDEO
The cover has caused a lot of chatter, particularly online, over whether the shot (taken by famed photographer Annie Liebovitz) perpetuates racial stereotypes.
Some look at the cover and don't think much of it, that it's an interesting shot of two of the world's most recognizable people.
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It's always a circus around here (remember when Richard Simmons showed up?), but today it was really a circus.
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey brought the Greatest Show on Earth to the plaza, showing off the "Globe of Steel," the Henen Troupe of acrobats (left) and other crowd-pleasing performances. WATCH VIDEO
Do you remember your first trip to the circus? Or the look on your child's face the first time you brought him or her to see the three rings?
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When you walk into a store like Home Depot or Best Buy, do you haggle?
Apparently, a growing number of people do, which was news to me when I read this story in The New York Times on Sunday.
This morning, Matt took a closer look at how to do it with Tod Marks, a senior editor at Consumer Reports. WATCH VIDEO
It's hard for me to imagine walking into a store intending to buy, for example, a DVD player, and negotiating the price with a salesperson. In general, our retail culture hasn't embraced that kind of behavior for more than 100 years (outside of buying jewelry or cars, among other specialized items).
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Have you ever wondered what your chances are of developing diabetes, getting cancer or becoming lactose intolerant?
NBC News Correspondent Peter Alexander reported on what we can learn about ourselves through DNA testing. WATCH VIDEO
Some experts say that DNA testing through biotech firms like 23andME does little more than collect personal trivia, that if you're really concerned about inheriting or passing on a genetic disease or condition, you should consult a professional genetic counselor.
I know several people who would rather not know if they are predisposed to genetic conditions (the "ignorance is bliss" defense) and there are others who are afraid that such information could be used against them (by, for example, a prospective employer).
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In case you missed it last night, Meredith made an appearance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien.
Here are some of the highlights. WATCH VIDEO
And, no, I wasn't in the studio audience this time, as I was when Matt was on Conan last month. But thanks for asking.
(From Josh Weiner, TODAY producer)
Do you like cats? How many do you consider too many to keep as pets?
Imagine being inside a tiny house with over 100 cats. Talk about an unforgettable experience. It was a recent assignment for a segment on animal hoarding where I found myself inside a cat-cramped, tiny home just outside Manhattan.
It was a bitterly cold Friday morning just after sunrise. My colleague Melanie came along to help film, and we first met the ASPCA folks outside. Their team was ready to go with two mobile surgical trucks. The goal: to spay and neuter all the cats in the house within just one day. Because this case wasn’t wasn't deemed one of animal abuse, this was the way to at least prevent further breeding. A perfect solution? Perhaps not, but it was the best option.
You can't even imagine the stench walking into the home. Absolutely horrendous. Big, small, running wild, hiding in the kitchen cabinets, the bedroom mattress, behind the refrigerator ... cats were everywhere!
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Among the many things Carol Burnett is known for is her "Tarzan yell" (basically like yodeling), which was one of her trademarks on "The Carol Burnett Show."
This morning, she taught Meredith -- and our audience on the plaza -- and later, Martha Stewart, how to do the Tarzan yell. WATCH VIDEO
Burnett learned the yell as a child, mimicking the calls she heard in the Tarzan and Jane movies.
Al was out in Los Angeles today, reporting from our bureau in Burbank.
While there, he uncovered one of the most heavily-guarded items in all of NBC News and was even permitted to (briefly) touch it. WATCH VIDEO
New York Daily News columnist Mike Lupica is out with a new young adult sports book, The Big Field, and he joined Meredith this morning to talk about it. WATCH VIDEO
Before that segment, Mike and I talked about his column, Hillary Clinton's resurgence, and one of his writing heroes, W.C. Heinz, who passed away last week.
Here's our conversation:
DF: First, let's talk about your career as a novelist. You churn one of these young adult sports book pretty much every year. How do you find the time to do your day job as a columnist and still write these books?
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This morning, David Gregory interviewed NBC News Tel Aviv Bureau Chief and correspondent Martin Fletcher about his new book, Breaking News. READ EXCERPT
WATCH VIDEO
Usually we see Martin wearing a flak jacket and a helmet, cheating death in some god-forsaken war zone, so it was nice to see him in the safety of the studio for a change.
I like to think of Martin as our very own Zelig; he just seems to pop up at every important point in recent world history. Berlin Wall comes down? There's Marty, talking (in fluent German, of course) to dazed East Germans as they cross the border into the West.
Soviets invade Afghanistan? There's Marty, traveling through the rugged Khyber Pass with the Mujahideen. Iranians overthrow their government? Marty's in the middle of it, getting kidnapped by student militants. I keep expecting to turn on the TV to see Martin with Stalin or Attila the Hun or Ivan the Terrible ("Mr. Terrible, are you really that bad or simply the victim of a crude English translation?").
On Sunday, Martin and I sat down for a chat at a New York institution, the Old Town Bar. Here's our conversation (after the jump):
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Here's a cooking segment for you. Andrew Zimmern, the host of "Bizarre Foods" on the Travel Channel, was on the show this morning to give Meredith, David, Al and Natalie a chance to sample some bizarre foods.
On the menu: scorpion, lutefisk, lamb's head (left), civet coffee, lamprey, snake and giant water bugs/Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches.
What are the odds that the foods featured in this segment would be the same ones I had for dinner last night? Quite a coincidence.
In any case, when Andrew cut into one of these items, everyone in the control room collectively let out an audible groan (myself included). Can you guess which item it was? Check out the video (if you dare). WATCH VIDEO
