57 Channels and Only This Is On vol. XXXV

Quote of the Week: You know the lyric “I once got busy in a Burger King bathroom”: that’s me. (Tony Kornheiser, Pardon the Interruption)

Song of the Week: The Humpty Dance - Digital Underground (as mention by Tony Kornheiser, Pardon the Interruption)

Big New of the Week: Famous People Say the Dumbest Things: Well at least the pundits would have you believe. First off there was John McCain adviser Charlie Black who said that the McCain campaign would benefit from a terrorist attack which had all those pundits up in arms except they have been saying the exact same throughout the primary season as well as Hilary Clinton. Then there was Shaquille O’Neil who asked former teammate Kobe Bryant what the flavoring of his posterior was. This then got a full Sportscenter dedicated to his rap, but c’mon, who hasn’t asked everyone they met this past week to tell them how their (expletive deleted) tasted? Or was that just me? Finally there was Don Imus who asked what color Pacman Jones when it was brought up he had been arrested eight times. When one of his goons said African-American Imus relied, “Well there you go.” Alright, that dude is a moron.


Coalition Links of the Week:
If thinking The Secret Life of the American Teenager could be cheesily addictive is wrong, Buzz doesn't want to be right. (BuzzSugar)

GMMR has been podcast crazy this past week. Two, count 'em, two podcasts! In addition to the usual GMMR/Ducky So You Think You Can Dance podcast, we devoted a separate TV Talk Podcast to what shows are taking over our TV this summer. (Give Me My Remote)

Marcia decided to spend the summer hiatus watching old episodes of Buffy and wondered if the show improves with repeat viewings. (Pop Vultures)

From Miami to Vancouver, this week Rae was on the set of Psych and she's only to happy to share what happened. (RTVW)

School's out and Vance celebrates the end of an era now that Emma, daughter of Spike (from the original Degrassi) has now graduated from Degrassi High on Degrassi: The Next Generation. (Though The N will show those episodes this summer.) (Tapeworthy)

Remember that episode about the helpless dude who delivered the baby in the elevator? Oh yeah, that was every series ever. By that token, Dan decided to coin the term "elevator baby" and cement his role in pop culture history. (TiFaux)

Tube Talk shared some scoop on the new season of Psych, after an interview with show stars James Roday and Dulé Hill, fondly remembered shows that were canceled too early, and asked for help in naming Tube Talk Girl’s future baby boy. (Tube Talk)

This week we finally spotted someone who has a Nerdier license plate than the TV Addicts and released what critics, and by critics I mean listeners are saying was our funniest to date! (The TV Addict)

Kate is disappointed enough with this season of My Boys that she drafted an open letter to the show's writers. (TV Filter)


The Middleman: A bit of a fall off from last week, but I did like the gag of Hell being an office building. But there were some pacing issues keeping it from being as good as the pilot. And again, please stop spending your entire budget on bad CGI. Signs are not good for the future of the show as next week it is hastily being pushed to 10:00, so enjoy it while you can. You can dowload episodes of The Middleman on iTunes.


The Bill Engvall Show: I don’t remember this show being this funny from the first two episodes, but I laughed quite heavily a few times this episode if only because I have been on the receiving end of many of bad gifts in my lifetime. Catch up on recent episodes over at TBS.com




My Boys: Really nothing to say but both the A and B plots fell flat this week. Catch up on recent episodes over at TBS.com. You can also download My Boys on iTunes.


I Love the New Millennium: Back when I Love the 90’s premiered in 2004 I said it was too soon for reminiscing on the decade, so naturally I Love the New Millennium is way too soon. And what worked well with the I Love the 80’s was hearing dudes in their thirties talking about things they grew up about; hearing dudes in their forty taking about MySpace is a little creepy. And do we really need to hear Hal Spark and Michael Ian Black’s thoughts on every subject? It is obvious Black stopped trying around I Love the 80’s Part Deux and Sparks in only funny in small bursts.


Promo of the Week: All the nerds were in a tizzy this week. No, not because Bill Gates retired Friday, but for a promo for Joss Whedon’s internet series Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-Long Blog featuring Neil Patrick Harris as the title character and Nathan Fillion as his arch nemesis. Here’s the teaser:




Pick for Next Week: I Love Money, Sunday (July 6th) at 9:00 on VH1: I know I shouldn’t be this excited for a show that is going to suck massively, but I have to support my boy Midget Mac.

Listen to the Best Songs of 2007

Darn you VH1. I told myself I would not watch I Love the Millennium because it is too soon (not to mention I have March 2010 in the office pool as to when they would roll out the series. Then a massive thunder storm hit so I was flipping through the channels during it, stopping on the show. I said to myself I would only watch a segment and then do something productive, six hours later I finished off the marathon and felt dirty (crazy astronaut lady: too soon, man, too soon). Alas I didn't write anything for today so instead you can take an hour or so and check out the widget I mad of the best songs of last year. Because not all the songs are on Amazon MP3,where you can buy the songs DRM free, check out the 100 Best Songs of 2007 for the complete list.



And yes I realize the irony of railing against holding a nostalgia fest for stuff that happened as soon as last year only for me to roll out something from last year.

I Just Want to Be a Part of Your Home

From the first time you hear the voice of Amos Lee you can tell he made the right decision to become a singer. He has the kind of soulful tones that other singers would go down to the crossroads and sell their soul to the devil to have. Of course being from Philly, a city that knows a thing or two about soul, Lee has probably had that mastered since birth. And by virtue of being on Blue Note Records, thanks to be discovered by Norah Jones, a fair amount of the blues seems in too.

On his third album, Last Days at the Lodge, really fleshes out the music that accompanies his voice which most likely can be attributed to bringing in some of best sidemen in the business including Doyle Bramhall, Jr. (Eric Clapton) on guitar, Spooner Oldham (Neil Young) on keys, Pino Palladino (John Mayer Trio) on bass, James Gadson (Bill Withers) on drums with Don Was (Was, Not Was) producing. Now there’s a murders row of a backing band if I ever saw one.

Lee gets it right from the start of the album when he demands you to Listen. A slick bass line that slow burns into a good old southern style rocker when the guitars kick in and the drums go into high gear. The rest of the album sits mostly in the mellow, sometime baby making (seriously, if you want some sweet lovin’, put on Won’t Let Me Go) category with slick back music reminiscent of Mussel Shoals classics. The standout that breaks that mold is Street Corner Preacher where Lee turns into a Bob Dylan style storyteller on a backdrop of a funky foot stomper that deserves to be heard on every street corner.

Song to Download - Street Corner Preacher

Last Days at the Lodge gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

Toss Up: Katy Perry vs Charlotte Sometimes

Every couple days I troll the internet for new music video and usually I still to acts I already know unless there is a big buzz around a new artist or if a title just catches my eye. Videos by Katy Perry and Charlotte Sometimes basically caught my eye for the exact same reason, I thought that I Kissed a Girl and How I Could Kill a Man were covers of Jill Sobule and Cypress Hill respectively and was severely disappointed when it turned out neither were. So let’s break them down individually to their predecessors:


I Kissed a Girl - Katy Perry




I Kissed a Girl - Jill Sobule



What a different a decade makes. The Jill Sobule version would have been shocking had it not have been so cheesy. Not we have Katy Perry presumably trying to be shocking with her Girls Gone Wild video with all the good parts taken out. But you can find more shocking things on ABC Family in primetime these days. They you replace upbeat pop with dirty techno. Even worse: no Fabio cameo.


How I Could Just Kill a Man - Charlotte Sometimes




How I Could Just Kill a Man - Cypress Hill



With MTV’s anti-violence stance it was shocking when Yo! MTV Raps started spinning the Cypress Hill song back in the early nineties. But ever since the Dixie Chicks said goodbye to Earl, it seems like every pop tart from Kelly Clarkson to that arsonist Taylor Swift want to do bodily harm to a jilted ex, so again, not so shocking over a decade later.


Okay, I guess it shouldn’t be too surprising that neither could stack up to the original. But as for the premise for the Toss Up between the two new songs, the clear winner is Charlotte Sometimes as her song is at least remotely catchy.

Melancholy Happy Trails to George Carlin

The world is now a little less funny with the passing of George Carlin this past weekend. Like many dudes my age, I was introduced to the comic as Bill and Ted’s spiritual guide on their excellent adventure and subsequent bogus journey, two of his rare appearances on screen which included a memorable cameo in Dogma as a priest who blessed his golf clubs. Of course Carlin spent most of his time on stage where he continued to do until his death and remained funny to the end as I remember seeing him on The Tonight Show not too long ago. Carlin was really the first stand up to have the great mix of intelligent humor and the obscene. If you are too young to know George Carlin, do yourself a favor and head over to YouTube and put his name into the search, pop some pop corn, and prepare not to do anything for the next couple hours (his most famous routine below and definitely not safe for work). Foe more on George Carlin, check out this Kevin Smith, who directed Dogma, eulogy from Newsweek.

Sometimes I Get so Lonely I Forget What Day it Is

We all do things for weird reason. Basically the only reason I check out movies starring the dude from The Notebook is because I have been told by multiple people that I look like the dude from The Notebook (full discloser: I do not think I look like the dude from The Notebook). Ironically one of the few movies of his I have never seen starring the dude from The Notebook is The Notebook.

If there is one thing the dude from The Notebook likes it to take roles that will push him as an actor. And there is really no way to push yourself more as an actor it to have your leading lady be inanimate object like in Lars and the Real Girl. Lars is your typical movie introvert, living in the garage of his family’s home; that is until he orders a living doll “introduces” her to his brother and his wife.

Naturally they are concerned and take him to the local shrink who suggests that they go along with it and he may eventually grow out of the delusion. Of course he may not. And naturally the town folks are a little weary that one of their residents taking Bianca to church and other town functions. This is especially heartbreaking to Lars’ co worker Kelli Garner (Man of the House) who was quite smitten with him despite him running around whenever he sees her.

With that premise, in lesser hands the movie would play like a Saturday Night Live skit that is stuck close to the end of the episode. But every time it seems like the movie is going to detour into the absurd, it comes back to being grounded. And the movie takes a real humorous look at mental illness. Cheers should go to the writer, director, and the dude from The Notebook to be able to pull this off.

Lars and the Real Girl gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

Pardon the Mess

Today I will be messing with my template so excuse if the 9th Green looks a little funky right now. Actually I will be trying to switch over to the new XML Blogger. Unfortunately I can pass using HTML but know nothing about XML, so come tomorrow you may be seeing the old template if I get too frustrated (which has happened every other time I have played with XML). But if everything goes well, hopefully this place will look a little more streamlined and organized. Feel free to leave any suggestions to what you would like to see added to the 9th Green in the comment section.