Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, or as those outside the U.S. like to call it, Thursday. So I hope you have (or had depending on when you read this) a great Turkey Day. Just a heads up with the holidays upon us, here’s a look at the schedule the 9th Green will be taking the next couple weeks as well as a list of the best of 2007. There is a link on the sidebar for future reference. Feel free to dive into the archives on days that I will be taking off and on day or check out my peeps in my blogroll (card subject to change):
*As you may have noticed, on the 27th I will have a Reader’s poll on what you all thought were the best songs of the year. So if you would sometime time before Christmas, e-mail me, ScooterKSU(at)aol(dot)com, your top ten songs of the year in order. If you need a refresher of songs from the last twelve months, check out the list of the albums I reviewed for my Terror Alert Scale as all the songs from those albums are eligible, look through the music videos I highlighted the past year and of course any song released this year is okay too even if I didn’t talk about it. Your nominations will be confidential and I won’t disclose it here at the 9th Green. Hopefully I will at least more responses than I did last year, so if you enjoy the 9th Green please send me an e-mail with your list by December 24 (subject: 9th Green Reader's Poll). As an added bonus, whoever sends me their songs will be automatically be added to my Christmas list.
And with Christmas coming fast upon us, if there are any readers out there wondering what they could get their favorite blogger this year and have way too much disposable income, here is my Amazon wishlist:
And if you have a TV fan on your Christmas list (or just want to treat yourself), you may want to take a look at the NBC Universal DVD 60% Off Sale. You can get Scooter’s second favorite childhood show The A-Team for under $20 and The Office for just $11. Movies are also included in the sale such as Inside Man, which got a Severe rating here, and good friend Mandy Moore in American Dreamz on the cheap.
For some reason I have been labeled as some American Idol basher. This is understandable in regards to the show itself which is just of mediocre singers singing crappy songs. Despite my hatred of the national karaoke night, I have gone into listening former karaokers alums with an open ear but rarely been impressed with America’s ability at picking the next great singer. Of course this has led to people calling me a music snob just because I don’t like the mom-rock of Daughtry even though they fail to point out both Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood both ranked multiple times on my Best Songs of 2006 list.
After the puzzling win of Taylor Hicks selection, America has gone back to anointing a young girl as their karaoke queen. But unlike Clarkson and Underwood who used their girl next door charm to vault them into superstardom, that will not be the case for Jordin Sparks and it really doesn’t come as a surprise that the Ugly Betty doppelganger is the product of a former defensive back. And one listen to her first single Tattoo leaves non-Karaoke watchers scratching asking themselves, seriously her? That’s the best they could do? The song is a blatant rip-off of Rihanna’s Umbrella complete with nonsensical metaphors and annoying over-intrusive production. But unlike Umbrella, which had a second life with sweet acoustic cover versions, don’t expect many lame YouTuber to upload their own versions or any semi-ironic covers from established artists.
What’s so bad about Jordin’s self titled album is that we already heard it earlier this year when fellow former karaoker Katherine McPhee released essentially the exact same album (see I Want this to Be Over, I So Want this to Be Through). Both albums are chalked full of your typical bland overproduced album we have heard over and over again for the last five years. Okay, at least there are no songs on Jordin’s album as horrible as Open Toes, but at least McPhee didn’t have Chris Brown, who is by far a better dancer than singer, on hers.
It is not surprising that the two best songs on the album, Now You Tell Me and Permanent Monday, are the only tracks that actually use real instrumentation instead of using drum machines and beats that no rapper would think of using. But on the other end of the spectrum there is the laughable God Loves Ugly. The song basically sounds as if the writer thought, “that Christina Aguilera song Beautiful is great, but what if I wrote a song with the same sentiment but not as touching, then give it to someone that doesn’t have the vocal power to express the message anyway.” Of course you can take this review with a grain of salt because as you know I’m just a music snob.
The good people over at Amazon were nice enough to give an early Christmas present in the form of a Flip Video Camcorder. Instead of writing about it, why not tell you in all my monotone glory with my new toy (note the grotesque fingernail where my mom’s dog bit me over the summer):
Just a quick note of some things I didn’t cover in the video. First the camcorder takes two AA batteries. I really haven’t used it much but I have to imagine those won’t last long considering my digital camera takes four and burns threw them pretty quick. Also the videos are pretty huge; the one above is 40 MB’s for a two minute video. Oh, and it takes for fracking ever to upload and process these videos to YouTube. But it is a cool toy. Is it $150 cool? That’s debatable.
Now I am not entirely sure how or if I will incorporate my Flip into the 9th Green so I am up for suggestion. Keep in mind there will Paris Hilton type video and I won’t torture you with my singing. Although you have not lived until you have heard my trilling version of When Doves Cry so maybe the next time I am in an alcoholic haze I’ll record and upload it. I thought it would be cool when ever I make a list of some sort to give you an audio preview. I practiced on my playlist of the Best Songs of 2007. If you are interested in buying any of the songs or seeing the list in written form, I did a Lyrics Quiz of the list last year.
(Pardon the technical difficulties, like I said, I hate technology)
And while I am talking about Amazon, you may have noticed the widget on the sidebar that will have a Deal of the Day everyday until Christmas including a new deal every hour on Black Friday. You may also want to keep an eye on the Lightning Deals because those are where the truly great deals are, but there are only limited supplies so you have to act fast (hence the lightning title). I remember last year they did something like this that included getting all the seasons of Arrested Development for something like twenty dollars. I’m not talking about twenty for each individual season, but twenty for the whole series.
Big News of the Week: The Writers Strike Continues: Yawn. As a wise man once said, “Wake me up when September ends.” Let’s move on to more interesting things.
Tapeworthy: Vance was guest blogging on another site and refreshed his current TV Top 10 List to introduce himself. After the TV bloggers strike, it was nice to see Pushing Daisies again to brighten up the day and to prove why the writers deserve better compensation in the first place. Finally, there were a lot of That Guy this week, on Bones, on House, from Gossip Girl to Heroes (which, has completely lost/confused Vance at this point) and the CBS comedies (the good ones with long names HIMYM and TBBT).
TiFaux: This week, TiFaux had more than a little Project Runway on the brain. After giving a preview of all the contestants, Dan gave a rundown on the first episode including thoughts on the contestants’ fascination with the celebrity of being on Project Runway. In other news, we plotted various male characters (from Lost, Grey’s Anatomy, Dirty Sexy Money, etc) on a chart based on their annoyingness and machismo.
Chuck: It bugs me to no end that they would ship off the extremely more entertaining Henry Tang to Hawaii yet let Morgan stick around. There is something to say that the minor characters are more entertaining than some of the main ones (Token Hot Chick and Jayne not included). Case in point, the best part of the episode (aside from the picture above of course) was when we learned that the Curly-looking Nerd Herder’s mom was in prison. And what was with the inclusion of the Brittany Spears song? Seriously, if you really, really wanted to use Toxic (get it? Because the episode was about toxins) why not use the semi-ironic version by Local H instead? And the preview hyped the biggest secret yet next week. Is there anyplace where I can buy Bryce Is Still Alive stock? This of course would solve my biggest complaint of the Pilot that Jayne would kill an un-armed CIA agent. Check out the latest episodes over at NBC.com. You can also download Chuck on iTunes.
How I Met Your Mother: This episode would have worked much better the first season when we didn’t know the characters very well. Aside from Barney and his catchphrases, the other character haven’t really done what they were accused of doing, but had they done it ealier when we didn’t know them very well, it would have been much less annoying that they would pull all these traits out of nowhere. Check out the latest episodes over at Innertube. You can also download How I Met Your Mother on iTunes.
Everybody Hates Chris: This week’s random black dude guest star who hasn’t been seen in at least a decade: Tommy Davidson. But I loved that Greg put on a Superman costume first to go to sleep as Clark Kent. Classic.
The Big Bang Theory: I loved how Sheldon made a huge speech about the princess stuff, goes on a date with her, and she ends up being an afterthought by the end of the episode. Then the Token Hot Chick making his virgin drink, “a little slutty” was just classic. Check out the latest episodes over at Innertube. You can also download or The Big Bang Theory on iTunes.
Heroes: After they flashed back I get a feeling that the writers didn’t know what was actually going on back then when they wrote the season premiere. Seriously, how does DL get shot with a gun aimed at his chest? If you are going to kill him off at least shoot him in the back so he can’t see the bullet coming. And are supposed to believe that with how methodical The Company is that they wouldn’t make sure their guests wouldn’t be able to talk to each other? And how was Nathan able to grow that bushy beard in two weeks? And of all the flashbacks, how is it we don’t get to see how Sylar goes from being stabbed to the middle of the jungle with the shape shifting chick? But when it comes down to it, seeing Kristen Bell make out with the dude with no acting ability was the most disturbing thing on television this year that hasn’t involved Chris Hansen confronting naked dudes in a kitchen. Check out the latest episode over at NBC.com.
Journeyman: Well that was a waste of Bo Duke. Of well. But I guess if you ask, you actually receive. Last week I said it was time for a big reveal, and Olivia is from the 1940’s and is traveling to the future is a big one, and definitely something I never saw coming. But this begs the question is current day Olivia still alive? I guess she would be in her eighties or nineties so it is plausible she still is. Now we just need to learn how the Dr. dude figured into this all. Check out the latest episode over at NBC.com. You can also download Journeyman on iTunes.
Pushing Daisies: Maybe my favorite episode of the season so far. I would still like to see them do without the Ned’s childhood prologue ever week though. And seeing Jenny Wade as one of the wives made me wonder whatever happened to Project Greenlight, the second best reality show ever? With the strike looking like it will never end, how about getting thins back in production. Since the scripts would be coming from amateurs, you don’t have to worry about the WGA. Plus you get great television and possibly a watchable movie out of it. Check out the latest episodes over at ABC.com.
Bionic Woman: Well I guess two decent episodes in a row is all we are going to get out of Bionic Woman. What really bugged me this week is how they switched the cinematography between your token slick sci-fi camera work with shaky, Friday Night Lights, zoom for close up expressions. Have they always done this and I have never notice before or was this the first time? Check out the latest episodes over at NBC.com.
My Name Is Earl: Gotta love the movie trailer into. But this episode belonged to Joy trying to induce labor and Crabman who delivered the baby even after he got the induced labor drug. And surprise, even Michael Rappaport wasn’t as annoying as usual with him being mesmerized with Joy’s birth. Still, I hope he is in the Hole for the rest of Earl’s prison stay because I really could do without seeing him ever again. Check out the latest episodes over at NBC.com. You can also download My Name Is Earl on iTunes.
Survivor: It was really annoying that last week during the promo they teased that something was going to happen after Tribal Council only for this episode to end with that tease. Some promo monkey needs to be fired for that. Especially since it will be two weeks until we finally see what is going to happen because next week’s Thanksgiving episode is a clip show. Check out the latest episode over at Innertube.
Smallville: With all that is wrong with Heroes this season, I forgot to mention how it broke one of the three worst television clichés: amnesia. I bring this up because, for no real reason, Kara just happens to be transported to Michigan without any memory. Yawn.
Friday Night Lights: This show is the best at casting characters, from the lead roles to the extra to the guest stars, but what is with the English teacher and his hair? Don’t dudes like that get beaten down in Texas. What is worse is that Tammi, as a mother and a guidance councilor, didn’t call the dude out for being alone behind closed doors, breaking the number one cardinal rule for teachers, with her daughter. Hopefully the dude gets a newspaper job in Wisconsin next episode and is never seen again. At the very least can we get Chris Hansen down to Texas?
Thankfully the rest of the episode was vintage Friday Night Lights. From Tyra and Lyla teaming up to Coach being passive aggressive with Buddy again to Smash’s mom finally getting some quality screen time. And at least the lame teacher did led to a great scene when Coach complained his “No comment” was because he was behind the bathroom door. Check out the latest episodes over at NBC.com.
Rush’d: I’m a little backlogged on the online show for ABC Family’s Greek that is chronicling five fans as they compete for a walk on role on the show. But I thought I’d mention that voting starts tomorrow and goes until Friday. You can vote three times a day for your favorite. As I mentioned before, I’ll be rooting for fellow Ohioan Laura Wise, also known as White Cup. Below is a picture of her from the set with Frannie, who just happens to be my favorite character on Greek. And of course head over to Virtual Rush to vote for White Cup (or one of the other contestants if you choose so) and/or check out the latest episodes of Rush’d.
Next Week’s Pick: Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, Thursday at 9:00 AM on NBC: Now in it’s 81’s year, it is a Thanksgiving tradition for me to watch the festivities while getting things ready for the meal part of the day. Okay, this year’s guest list is less than stellar: Ashley Tisdale, Bindi and Terri Irwin, Corbin Bleu, Dolly Parton, Good Charlotte, Grandma from the Big Apple Circus, Jonas Brothers, Jordin Sparks, Kay Hanley, Lifehouse, Menudo, Michael Feinstein, Miss U.S.A. 2007 - Rachel Smith, Ne-Yo, Nikki Blonsky, Sarah Brightman, and Wynonna Judd. Seriously, Menudo? And should I even know who Tisdale, the Irwin’s, Blue, Grandma, the Jonas’ Sparks, Hanley, Blonsky, or Brighman are? But as long as there is a five story Garfield I’ll be happy.
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