Saturday, August 02, 2008

57 Channels and Only This Is On vol. XL


Quote of the Week: I see vultures circling ahead, and if this catapult not together Mr. Boston better step up because the first thing they gonna be doing is picking his eyes out. (Chance - I Love Money)

Big New of the Week: It’s the End of the World as We Know It: And surprisingly I feel fine about it. Although when writing this I realized that the end of the world probably deserves it own post. So check back tomorrow for that and hopefully the world doesn’t actually end before the.


Coalition Links of the Week:
From Silvio Horta's mouth to her ear, Buzz got some insight into Ugly Betty's third season. (BuzzSugar)

Marcia listed her television blind spots, those TV shows she simply can't be bothered to watch. (Pop Vultures)

Vance wants Theo Tams to win Canadian Idol. (Tapeworthy)

This week, Jace recovered from Comic-Con fatigue and reviewed BBC America's latest British television series offering, Primeval, about a group of scientists exploring time-based anomalies and strange creatures. (Televisionary)

Dan will devour any tasty morsel of new programming you give him, so he was delighted to see the preview for the next season of Dexter! (TiFaux)

The TV Addict covered Comic Con so you didn't have to. (The TV Addict)

Raoul talked to David (but sadly not Elvis) from America's Greatest Dog. (TV Filter)


I Love Money: When you let Megan Hauserman be your brains of the operation, that should be sign number one that you are doomed. And when will people learn you never, under any circumstance tank challenges. If you want to get someone out, wait to you lose. I don’t remember when tanking ever worked except for maybe the NBA. Unfortunately Mr. Boston was the victim of Megan and her retarded dog’s Machiavellian plan, or as Machiavellian as someone on I Love Money can get. But that led to one of the funniest fights ever on television between Mr. Boston and Brandi C at elimination. But just when I though I have seen that last of Mr. Boston ever (or at least until the reunion show), a video of him popped up on the intertubes (one that I would never post here) that is part 3rd Base’s The Cactus, part lame teen sex comedy plotline, part profound advise that managed to be the funniest and most disturbing thing ever at the same time. You can download episodes of I Love Money on iTunes.


My Boys: So if Bobby’s dad is my older brother Shooter McGavin, does that make me his uncle? But anyways. While watching this episode I kept on trying to call my stockbroker to see if I could buy massive amount of stock of “Kenny and Stephanie hooking up” but unfortunately I was unable to get through before it was actually revealed on screen. That had to be the most predictable thing on television. The second: Mimi Rogers being Bobby’s mom. It is like the My Boys writer gave up with coming up with any interesting ideas and just started reading from the cliché handbook. Catch up on recent episodes over at TBS.com. You can also download My Boys on iTunes.


It is month until the debut of TNT’s newest show Raising the Bar (and considering the show is about lawyers, this could be the lamest title ever) and I have to say there is something striking about the promo pictures that were released lately. Can anyone name the one degree of separation of two of the characters seen below (click to enlarge)? The first person to correctly guess what that is will win the great prize of a hearty congratulation.

The Cast of Raising the Bar


Free Download of the Week: Death Will Never Conquer - Coldplay (Coldplay.com): First Coldplay let you download their debut single from their album and now another freebie an outtake from the Viva la Vida session which is actually sung by the drummer doing his best Chris Martin impression.


Promo of the Week: Chuck could be the most uneven show ever. Sure Casey ranks in the top five characters currently on television and boast the hottest Token Hot Chick. But the title character doesn’t even rank in the top five most entertaining character on his own show and Morgan needs to die a horrible dance soon than later. But this promo for season two shown at Comic Con is getting me excited.

Chuck: A Look at Season Two



Pick for Next Week: Summer Olympics, starting Friday at 8:00 on NBC: If there starts to be a lack of posts starting next Friday is because I will be watch 3600 hours of the Olympics (I may do some live blogging to keep the 9th Green active) that will be spread out on NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, USA, Universal HD, Oxygen (huh?), Telemundo, NBC Olympics Basketball Channel, NBC Olympics Soccer Cannel and NBCOlympics.com. So head over to the website to see when Handball, Sailing, and Trampoline (no, seriously) to see when your favorite are airing.


On a side note, I still have four open spots in my fantasy football league, Dillon Panthers Football, so if you would like to play shoot me an e-mail and I will pass along the sign up information. Our draft will be on Tuesday August 26 at 9:00 EST. All skill levels are welcome and may perfer novices after my pityful 9th place finish last year.

Friday, August 01, 2008

Thank You Doc, Have You Ever Served Time?


Fletch

Anyone under twenty-five may not know this, and those older may have forgotten, but Chevy Chase was once the funniest man on the planet. Look at his lineup of films from 1985: National Lampoon's European Vacation, Spies Like Us, and this month’s induction into the Scooter Hall of Fame, Fletch. That is a murder’s row of comedy if there ever was one.

The best of the three was Fletch where Chevy played Irwin M. Fletcher, a newspaper reporter who is either the dumbest smart guy ever or the smartest dumb guy ever. And it is Chase’s brilliance that he was able to walk that line like no one else could (and I am specifically talking to you Zach Braff and Joshua Jackson). While working undercover on a story about drugs being sold on the beach, which included one Norm Peterson, gets propositioned by Tim Matheson (Animal House), who is dieing of cancer, to kill him.

Naturally there is more to the story that includes some corrupt cops which includes one Uncle Phil. Also along for the ride is Geena Davis as Chevy’s buddy at the paper and the token hot chick just happen to play the mother to another token hot chick in her own right, one Miss Tyra Collette.

The legacy of the film is the absurdity of the dialogue as Fletch didn’t meet a wisecrack or horrible alias that he didn’t like. And whenever he got caught in a lie he would keep digging and digging until the other person would just give up trying to catch him in that lie.



Thursday, July 31, 2008

Have You Ever Stared into the Rain


Delta - Delta Goodrem

This one is for the ladies. Dudes you may want to scroll down to the previous post unless you want to read about the next artist that your girlfriend/wife will torture you with when even she gets tired playing her Celine Dion records.

The name Delta Goodrem may not currently be on the tongues of Americans, but in her native Australia all three of her albums went to number one with eight of her singles topping the charts Down Under too. Her third album, last year’s Delta, is the first to be released stateside.

There is no good American counterpoint to compare to Goodrem who plays danceable piano pop music. Some might compare her to countryman Kylie Minogue and Natasha Bedingfield, but Goodrem has a much better voice than either. Plus she actually plays her own piano. The closest maybe would be the previously mentioned Dion as some of the songs head into the overdramatic slouck, like Woman and Brave Face, which peppers Dion’s catalogue. Of course if that is your kind of music, Delta would be a great addition to your collection. (Fun Fact: Goodrem actually wrote a song for the most recent Dion album.)

Like Dion, there are plenty of listenable songs on the album, not that most dudes would admit that in public. Believe Again is a slow building, uplifting, dance track that should flood the radio in the near future. First single In This Life could have been the same, but pulls the number one diva cliché of adding five too many syllables to the word “life” which takes you out an otherwise catchy song. Then there is One Day which by far has the best beat on the album.

But dudes still reading this, you have been warned.

Song to Download - Believe Again

Delta gets a Terror Alert Level: Elevated [YELLOW] on my Terror Alert Scale.




Wednesday, July 30, 2008

I Want My Music Television vol. XXXII


There have been a couple of videos that have caught my eye lately so I though I’d give them some love since the death of Musical Television left a void for a forum on the art form. If you are interested in buying the video through iTunes, click the title link (where available, if not the link goes to YouTube where you can watch the video in full screen). If you are interested in buying the song, look for a link in the analysis.


Paper Planes - M.I.A.



You think making promos and trailers would be easy, yet nintie percent of the time they actually make me want to see the things they are trying to promote less. The trailer for Pineapple Express would be in the ten percent. The movie on paper doesn’t look like something I’d watch yet thank mostly in part to the M.I.A. soundtrack to the clip, I may end up checking it out (the cheesy white dude saying, “Thug Life” doesn’t hurt things either). The song has the best use of a shotgun sample since Thug Luv.


Superwoman - Alicia Keys



Easily my least favorite song on the latest album from Alicia Keys. Really, most of the singles from As I Am have been suspect. Why the two best songs, The Thing about Love and Sure looks Good to Me, haven’t been released is beyond me. In fact had the former been released earlier this spring it would have easily been the Prom song of the year. Of course this is one of the many reason why the music industry will be extinct in the next decade or so.


This Is the Life - Amy Macdonald



For those always on the look out for the next big thing, here is my suggestion: Amy MacDonald. Another songstress from the British Isles but more KT Tunstall than all the retro singers that have come overseas in the past two years. Her album This Is the Life has been out for more than a year pretty much everywhere else racking up number ones in four countries. The first single here is Mr. Rock and Roll, but for my money, the best song on the album is the title track. You can expect the album to drop stateside August 19 as well as a review the same day on the 9th Green.


Ayyomaman - Tre Hardson featuring Fat Lip



You can’t go wrong with one half of seminal rap group The Pharcyde, but why relegate one of the most eccentric rappers in Fat Lip to just singing the hook. Even without him spitting anything himself, Tre Hardson, whom you may know better as Slimkid3 makes up with his verses.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Change Is Hard, I Should Know


Volume One - She & Him

The years are littered with actors who have tried to sing from Joey Lawrence to Jennifer Love Hewitt (is it too early to say Scarlett Johansson singing career is a failure). The few with even a little success were smart enough to team up with actual musician like Eddie Murphy with Rick James or Jennifer Lopez getting whatever rapper of the month to spit a few bars in her songs and remixes.

This is why Emily Deschanel (Scooter's Note: yeah I totally ment Zooey here, check comments for explaination) could have some staying power teaming up with indie guitarist M Ward and keeping her name off the marquee going with the band name She & Him. It doesn’t hurt the general public will probably mix her up with her sister Emily or even name one of her movies off the top of their head (she was Dorothy in the Sci-Fi Channel’s Tin Man).

The result of the two coming together is the equally descriptive album title, Volume One. The album turns out to be the best early seventies singer-songwriter album that was never actually released. Deschanal typically sings her song, most of which she wrote, over mostly sparse music with the occasional song that is reminiscent of the girl groups like I Was Made for You.

Of the old songs she gives a stab at, there is the super slow version of Smokey Robinson’s You Really Got a Hold on Me which is just an occasional strumming of the acoustic guitar and some harmonizing with Ward. The duo then turns The Beatles I Should Have Known Better into a Hawaiian luau and actually sounds better than it looks on paper. Yeah, the starlet can’t quite pull off Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, but that is the rare misstep on an otherwise decent debut.

Song to Download - I Should Have Known Better

Volume One gets a Terror Alert Level: Elevated [YELLOW] on my Terror Alert Scale.




Monday, July 28, 2008

A List Like That Gets Crazy Montage Sequence Used


Sex and Death 101

Wynona Ryder teaming up with the writer who did Heathers is a cool proposition. Well if it were 1992. But re-teaming two decades after introducing the concept of a dark comedy upon teenagers doesn’t have the same cachet had it not taken so long. The result of the eighteen year wait is Sex and Death 101, which, despite the title, is a much lighter affair than their first outing as it focuses much more on the former.

The sex part of the equation comes courtesy of Simon Baker (Red Planet) who receives a list of everyone he has had slept with a week before his wedding. The problem is that his fiancée, Carol Vessey (Happy Gilmore), is only number twenty-nine of one hundred and one starting off a debate of destiny and free will and who knowing the names of every girl you going to sleep with, even if it is a lot, a good thing or bad thing. And then there is the flip side knowing when you don’t have a chance.

Some hilarity ensues as Barker transverses his new found list which has him running into some girls on and off his list including a centerfold (Sophie Monk, Date Movie), a doctor (Leslie Bibb, Popular), someone who provides the Death part of the title (Wynona Ryder, Heathers), lesbians, and though not Pat’s on the list, there is a Terry. Where the hilarity really excels is when Patton Oswalt (The King of Queens) hits the screen, though telling you his role is a little spoilerish.

Though being spoilerish with this film is hard because it is easy to tell the ending within the first five minutes of the film and nothing happens between then and the end (a too long two hours) that even gets you off the scent of how the story ends up. Luckily the journey there was half way decent if not in part to some of Oswalt’s suggestions on getting around the list. Oh and did I mention Mindy Cohn, yes that Mindy Cohn, makes an appearance?

Sex and Death 101 gets a Terror Alert Level: Elevated [YELLOW] on my Terror Alert Scale.