Saturday Night Live returned last night with a spotty show hosted by fighting/dancing actor and ex-stripper Channing Tatum, and featuring a musical performance by Bon Iver. We didn’t expect much out of Tatum — we think it’s safe to say he gets hired for his looks, not his subtle acting or comedic brilliance — but he managed to make us laugh more than once, and approached the whole show in a good-natured, charming way. Also, his Matthew McConaughey impression is spot-on. Who knew? Click through to watch clips of the best and worst skits from last night’s SNL, and let us know if we missed (or hated on) your favorite in the comments.

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Bushmills has been going all out with its Since Way Back program, partnering with everyone from Bon Iver and Chromeo to Elijah Wood in celebration of strong friendships and longlasting traditions. As part of the campaign, the whiskey maker also teamed with style arbiter Michael Williams of A Continuous Lean. to create a custom-designed tote bag sold both through ACL and the Billy Reid store in NYC, with proceeds going to the Red Cross Tornado Relief Fund. As could be expected from such a collab, the bags sold out in a snap, but you still have a chance to get one — if you act fast. Head to Bushmills’ Facebook page by the end of the day today to enter to win one of four custom totes. If you win the grand prize, yours will even be filled with items selected by Williams himself.

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Indie rock fans who enjoyed Arcade Fire’s surprise double performance at last year’s Grammys may be wondering why we won’t be treated to a similar turn from Bon Iver, which received no fewer than four nominations in 2012, at next Sunday’s telecast. And now we know: It seems Justin Vernon is pulling a Jonathan Franzen ca. 2001 — refusing to dumb down his work for mass consumption.

In an interview with Billboard, Vernon said that he was given the opportunity to play the ceremony, but only in collaboration with other artists. “We wanted to play our music, but we were told that we couldn’t play,” he said. “We had to do a collaboration with someone else. And we just felt like it was such a large stage. We’re getting nominated for this record that we made, me and Brian [Joseph] and a bunch of our fucking friends, and we were given accolades for it. And all of a sudden we were being asked to play music that had nothing to do with that. We kind of said ‘fuck you’ a little bit and they sort of acted like they wanted us to play, but I don’t think they wanted us to play.”

Vernon said that he has a lot of respect for the artists he was asked to collaborate with, but “fuckin’ rock n’ roll should not be decided by people that have [the Grammy bookers'] job. Rock n’ roll should be the fucking people with guitars around their backs. And their friends. And their managers.” And their managers! See, kids? Indie rock will never die. [via Pitchfork]

1. Last night’s crazy wedding-themed episode of Gossip Girl may or may not have revealed the show’s biggest secret: the long-debated identity of Gossip Girl. But are you buying it?

2. You probably know that Bon Iver is up for Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year, and Best New Artist at this year’s Grammy Awards, but we bet that you haven’t seen his Grammy’s commercial yet. (Adele, Foo Fighters, and Skrillex all have TV spots airing, too.)

3. Flavorpill favorite Mindy Kaling will write, executive produce, and star in a new comedy pilot for Fox that’s about “a young Bridget Jones-type doctor.” Should the network decide to pick up the show, she’d be leaving the sinking ship that is The Office, which we think would be a good thing. [via TVLine]

4. Susan Sarandon will be joining Laura Linney in a handful of upcoming episodes of The Big C, playing a cancer survivor “who is using her unique experience to inspire and motivate others”; the show’s third season launches April 8 on Showtime. [via THR]

5. According to paperwork just filed with the FEC, Stephen Colbert’s Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow super PAC has taken in more than $1 million. No wonder Jon Stewart was so reluctant to hand back over the reigns. [via The Daily Beast]

Bonus Buzz: 20 of the Happiest Dogs Around

1. Last night Jon Stewart stopped by The Colbert Report to sign paperwork that legally makes him the head of Stephen Colbert’s super PAC — a move that will allow the late night host to pursue his “possible candidacy for the president of the United States of South Carolina.” [via Huffington Post]

2. Surprise: There’s another film project about Abraham Lincoln in the works! This one, which will be produced by Ridley Scott, is a documentary based on Bill O’Reilly‘s recent book Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever — source material that, as The Playlist points out, is “so factually inept, the National Parks Service has banned it from being sold at the Ford’s Theater.”

3. Kenneth Branagh will direct Kate Winslet in The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, a juicy-sounding period drama about a magazine reporter’s relationship with the residents of a Nazi-occupied island off the coast of Normandy. [via Vulture]

4. The Flaming Lips’ next album, which we already knew would feature collaborations with the Plastic Ono Band and Bon Iver, will apparently also include contributions from Nick Cave, Ke$ha, Lykke Li, and Erykah Badu. The LP is set to be released this coming April. [via NME]

5. The Daily reports that, thanks to a multimillion-dollar deal to be the spokeswoman for a pharmaceutical company, Paula Deen is about to reveal to the world that she has Type 2 diabetes. Does this mean no more deep-fried Twinkies for breakfast, y’all?

Bonus Buzz: 21 Examples Of Bizarre Furniture

1. Bon Iver frontman Justin Vernon is launching a new rarities label, Chigliak Records, as an imprint of Jagjaguwar, that will feature music that was “never commercially released” or “locally released [in Wisconsin] and never put out on vinyl.” [via NME]

2. You do not want to know how much money Apple CEO Tim Cook made last year, thanks to millions of dollars worth of stock option grants. But in case you’re curious…

3. Lindsay Lohan is apparently in early talks to play Elizabeth Taylor in a forthcoming Lifetime original movie about the screen legend’s epic romance with Richard Burton. [via THR]

4. Have you spotted any of the Hollywood hand-me-downs that have been worn by actresses on Downton Abbey? Apparently, dresses from period dramas like Finding Neverland and Howard’s End have recently made their way onto the show. [via The Daily Mail]

5. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia creator/star Rob McElhenney has a boozy new comedy called Living Loaded headed to Fox; the show, which McElhenney will executive produce, focuses on “a loose partying blogger forced to change his career plans when he becomes a radio host.” [via Deadline]

Bonus Buzz: The 8 Best Career Movies Of All Time

Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg (who was just arrested after border control agents found marijuana on his tour bus — shocking we know), The Black Keys, and Radiohead are amongst those headlining Coachella this year. Harlem rapper Azealia Banks nabbed herself one of the first official spots at the California music and arts festival just days ago. Other acts have been revealed via Twitter in the weeks leading up to today’s Facebook announcement. Bon Iver, Arctic Monkeys, At the Drive-In (they hinted at their participation in a Tweet today, about breaking their 11-year silence) … who are you missing in this lineup slated for a double weekend celebration, on April 13-15 and April 20-22 at the Empire Polo Club in Indio? [via Stereogum]

Enjoy Saturday’s night of revelry, readers, because when you wake up the next morning (or afternoon, we don’t judge), it’ll be time to reassess your life and commit yourself to unreasonable goals in hopes of self-improvement in 2012. Resolutions come in all shapes and sizes, and while many are deeply personal, Flavorpill’s are very public. We’ve created a list of our cultural resolutions for the new year — changes we’d like to see in the arts and entertainment landscape over the next 12 months, from trends that need to die to movements from 2011 that should make a bigger impact in 2012. Read our resolutions after the jump, and leave your own in the comments.

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Today at Flavorpill, we recalled 2011′s biggest band beefs, two of which involved Bon Iver. We met the entire Nintendo family, in a piece of deviantART that depicts all of its countless major characters. We watched a bizarre pair of elderly Christian twin sisters perform a pantomime to Radiohead’s “Street Spirit.” We discovered that Kelly Clarkson is a Ron Paul supporter, and also that she’s so educated about the Republican presidential candidate that she hadn’t realized he’s been accused of homophobia and racism. We laughed out loud at this spot-on faux flyer for Every New Year’s Eve Club Night Ever. We cringed our way through Salon critics’ discussion of “The Very Worst of 2011.” We enjoyed The Rumpus’s wide-ranging interview with Adrian Tomine. We were only occasionally stumped by this cool 1980s film alphabet poster, which doubles as a movie-geek quiz. We read that obligatory year-end think piece about the end of rock ‘n’ roll. And finally, we broke in our 2012 calendar with the news that Portlandia will make its second full episode of Season 2 — the one devoted to Battlestar Galactica – available to Facebook fans January 1st. Sounds like the perfect New Year’s Eve hangover cure to us.

Last week we stereotyped you by your favorite books, and this week it’s time to apply a bumper edition of our gratuitous generalizations to the world of music. Our stereotyping posts have become something of a tradition at Flavorpill, but still, here’s our obligatory disclaimer: this is an entirely tongue-in-cheek exercise, so don’t get all offended — and also, as ever, several of our favorite records are on here, and we’ll totally own up to all the stereotypes that apply to us. Anyway, with that said, here are 50 albums that keep cropping up on end-of-year lists and the sort of people that like them. Read More »