Quote of the Week: Goodnight LeBatard’s mustache. (Tony Kornheiser, Pardon the Interruption)
Big New of the Week: It’s the End of the World as We Know It: And I feel sick. The most coveted endorsement: Angelina Jolie. I wish I were making this up. Then Barack Obama finally got around to responding to John McCain’s celebrity ad, keep in mind it took him a week longer than it took Paris Hilton to respond, calling McCain “Washington’s biggest celebrity.” The election better get here soon before someone uses the rubber/glue response.
Coalition Links of the Week: With the news that the Emmys will have actors recite classic TV lines from the past 60 years, Buzz put out a call for your favorite TV quips. (BuzzSugar)
We wind down the week with some Friday Fun, this time featuring battles between some of our favorite sidekicks. Tell us who you think would win. (RTVW Online)
Vance asks all you readers to help pick the Song of the Summer for 2008! (Tapeworthy)
This week, Jace took a look at another British import, reviewing the first three episodes of BBC America's new drama Skins, launching this Sunday. (Televisionary)
TiFaux’s coverage of the Olympics included coverage of commercials, hot athletic bodies, the opening ceremonies and, yes, even a few passing mentions of sports! (TiFaux)
This week the TV Addict asked, "Is The Secret Life of the American Teenager the Best Worst Show Ever?" (The TV Addict)
Kate stayed up way too late and decided that Grey's Anatomy is just likeFriends. (TV Filter)
I Love Money: We may just be getting closer and closer to the first reality death. Pumpkin better hope that VH1 brought down some metal detectors. You can download episodes of I Love Money on iTunes.
Sit a side an hour because Best Week Ever has compiled the Ten Best To Catch a Predator segments ever. Don’t ask me how the naked dude who gets tackled by a dude only lands at number eight.
With all the Olympics I have been watching over the past week there have been plenty of NBC programming I have seen. First off, who knew Lipstick Jungle wasn’t canceled? As for the news show, it probably says something that I have only seen one ad for Caruso and Knight Rider, but ads for Kath and Kim and My Own Worst Enemy are shown ad nausea. That is not to hint at the quality of either as both look unwatchable. Kath and Kim looks less funny each commercial and Jennifer Garner makes for a more credible looking spy than Christian Slater.
Free Download of the Week: Primeval: My sources tell me the BBC America show is entertaining but I cannot find that channel on my television, but you can download the first episode for free on iTunes.
Promo of the Week: In about a month shows start trickling back to your television sets, some that we haven’t seen for nine months. So to help you remember the story so far for their returning shows (Lost is supposed to be up next week), ABC.com have Starter Kits. Below is the Starter Kit for the best new show from last season, Pushing Daisies:
Pick for Next Week: More Olympics, All Day, Every Day, NBC Networks: As swimming winds down (thank goodness, the Michael Phelps coverage is leaving me want to hear more Brett Varve new). For those that need a break from Archery, Table Tennis, and Rowing, tonight is the first face to face meeting with John McCain and Barack Obama on MSNBC in a forum on faith starting at 8:00. Well face to face for a few moments.
For three years now I have tested your musical knowledge with a monthly Lyrics Quiz and for that anniversary here is your second chance of song that when unguessed their first time around. As always you need to put both artist and title in the comments section (or you can e-mail me) and if you are correct I will un-bold it and give you credit. The Lyrics Quiz is for entertainment purposes only so please do not use anything besides your own meandering mind to help you up with the answers. Feel free to go through the archives or use the Lyrics Quiz Label to check out some of the previous hints (the list starts from the oldest quiz to the latest). Now onto the quiz:
1. She couldn’t afford a car so she named her daughter Alexis. 2. She said her name was Donnie but her shirt said Marie. 3. Why, why you slap me in my face? I didn’t say it was okay. 4. Exactly how many days you got last, you laughing? We passing, passing away. 5. Natural fact is, honey, that I can’t pay my taxes. 6. I love in a place where there’s no space or time, I love you for my life, you’re a friend of mine. 7. Tryin’ to get my hands on some Grants like Horace. Yeah livin’ the raw deal three course meals. 8. It’s been too hard living but I’m afraid to die because I don’t know what’s up there beyond the sky. 9. I’m not along because the TV’s on, yeah. I’m not crazy because I take the right pills everyday. 10. Wherever there's somebody fightin’ for a place to stand or decent job or a helpin’ hand. Wherever somebody's strugglin’ to be free, look in their eyes Mom you'll see me. (Ghost of Tom Joad - Bruce Springsteen; guess by Rebekah) 11. No prints can come from fingers if machines become our hands. And then our feet become the wheels, and then the wheels become the cars, then the rigs begin to drill until the drilling goes too far. 12. So go ahead and get gone. Call up that chick and see if she’s home. Oops. I bet you though that I didn’t know. What do you think I was putting you out for? (Irreplaceable - Beyonce; guessed by Rebekah) 13. I got a letterman’s sweater with a letter in front I got for football and track. I’m proud to wear it now. When I cruise around the other parts of the town I got my decal in back. 14. I’ll tap into the water try and bring my share. Try to bring more, more then I can handle. Bring it to the table, bring what I am able. 15. I was a starling, nobody’s darling. Lying in perfect circles just for company. 16. Yeah here we go for the hundredth time. Hand grenade pins in every line. Throw ‘em up and let something shine. 17. She was the type to watch Oprah and the Today Show. Be on the treadmill, uh, like OK-Go. 18. Sneakin’ out late, tapping on your window when we’re on the phone and you talk real slow ‘cause it’s late and your mama don’t know. (Our Song - Taylor Swift; guessed by Rebekah) 19. My body’s longing to hold you so bad it hurts inside. Time is precious and it’s ticking away and I’ve been waiting for you all of my life. 20. Let’s go back, back to the beginning, back to when the Earth, the sun, the stars all aligned. 21. There was blood and a single gun shot. But just who shot who? (Copacabana - Barry Manalow; guessed by Rebekah) 22. Secret lovers is what you wanna be. While making love to him, girl, you’re silently calling on me. 23. All the husbands, all the sons, all the lovers gone they make no difference, no difference in the end. Still hear the woman say “you’re daddy died a hero.” 24. So you think my singing’s out of time: it makes me money. I don’t know why. (Cum on Feel the Noize - Quiet Riot; guessed by Rebekah) 25. Your bark was loud, but your bite wasn't vicious and them rhymes you were kicking were quite bootylicious.
There have been over 800 different lyrics and more than 90 different participants in the past two year. And after twenty-four months, here is the leader board in term of all-time points (and of course check out the Winners List on the sidebar).
What a way to start the Olympics (see It's not the Triumph but the Struggle), to be it turned out to be a sham. First we learned that the Chinese CGI’ed some of the fireworks but by far the worst was the axing a young girl to sing their national anthem for a cuter one who lip synced it. Other thoughts of the first week of the Olympics:
- Andrea Kramer may be the worst sideline reporter ever. Couldn’t NBC just rent out Erin Andrews or at least bring back a former golden girl like Summer Sanders or Janet Evans?
- And you cannot talk swimming without talking Michael Phelps. His Olympics aren’t even over but there is talk of him being not just being the greatest Olympian ever but the best athlete ever. Personally I view swimming these days like the baseball in the nineties. But instead of horse roids, you have these swimsuits that put all these world records with asterisks. Really, there should be a rule that if you cannot put on your suit yourself, it should not be allowed. If Phelps wants to impress me, break all the world records with an old school Speedo and a seventies porn mustache. And NBC is doing everything to turn Phelps into a God even refusing to even mention that whole DUI he got to avoid tarnishing his image. But I will give it to him that he is better athlete than Tiger Woods that has been brought up in the discussion. Golfers and baseball players should never be in any discussion for best athletes. When your peers can be obese and great, your sport by definition is not athletic.
- One of the most mesmerizing sports is badminton. It’s like the Curling of the Summer Olympics for me. One reason is because I have played the sport against natural Asians and got beat down like a red-headed step child. Literally. I came away with welts and bruises from the shuttlecock being imbedded in my chest multiple times. The shuttlecock of course is the fastest instrument in sports.
- What could have been the a symbolic picture of the games, Georgian beach volleyballers embracing their Russian counterpoint is a little less symbolic when you learn the Georgian team are actually Brazilians born duel citizens who spent only a couple more days in Georgia than I have. There are some lax eligibility rules for who you can play for.
- Speaking of eligibility rules, what is with all the weird age requirements? You have to be sixteen or older in gymnastics, a sport that benefits the youth, but there was a fourteen year old diver. But the most odd is soccer where it is something like player must be twenty-five ore younger but you are allowed like three players that are older than that. Oh, and if the female Chinese gymnastics are really sixteen and older, they should really become decoys for Chris Hansen.
- Certainly everyone knows Natalie Coughlin, Jenny Finch and Ana Ivanovic (who sadly had to drop out of the Olympics), or at least the dudes out there, but here is possibly the hottest chick with a gun, and Olympics bronze medalist Corey Cogdell:
One movie I probably should not have seen was 21, a movie about a bunch of MIT students who go to Las Vegas on weekends and land big money by counting cards. I shouldn’t have seen it not based on the quality of the film but after watching I thought to myself, I could do that. And that is the exactly reason why Vegas liked the movie, it causes people to think they can count cards when it is not as easy as the movie suggests. (Okay, it is actually is as easy as the movie would suggest, it just takes a lot longer to actually get a lot of money than the movie suggests.)
My aspirations to lose my entire fortune aside, 21 is more than a gambling film. The movie follows Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe) while he finds a way to get into Harvard Medical School and it is not his grades keeping him out and the promotion at his clothing store isn’t going to put a dent into that tuition. Luck would have it that his professor Kevin Spacey (Pay it Forward) is looking for another student to recruit into his Vegas field trips. Along for the ride is Kate Bosworth who hasn’t looked this attractive on film since Blue Crush.
21 is actually funnier than the trailer would have you to believe thanks mostly to Jim’s two friends and science club buddies who are building a robot together. And that juxtaposition of the nerdier, cold, wintry Boston and sleek, cool Vegas almost makes two distinctive films with the card counters even playing cooler versions of them. Now if there is anyone who would like to be my own personal Kate Bosworth, I will meet you in Vegas.
Apparently some people actually left their houses this weekend to go see Pineapple Express. Personally I stayed in to watch chicks play badminton. For those that went to see the movie, you may have been treated to a new song from Huey Lewis (at least I am assuming because the song is on the soundtrack yet some movie soundtracks do not have many of the songs actually in the movie). So after twenty years Lewis finally found the new drug he wanted. Below is his performance, along with The News, on Jimmy Kimmel and just because, the video for I Want a New Drug. Wow, dude has not aged. Now if you excuse me, I believe there is some team handball being played.
As a corny white dude in the suburbs, there was nothing more entertaining than Shaft, and I am of course referring to the movie that is older than I am, not the Samuel L. Jackson version from a couple years ago, to the point I even did a report in college on the film. The greatness of the movie was much attributed to its theme that sent the tone perfectly for the film. Isaac Hayes may not have written the greatest theme song ever, but it is easiest the coolest one ever which everyone from Peal Jam to The Simpsons copied the infamous, That Shaft is one bad mother…” line. Naturally this guy also repeated the line multiple times if only to see whether anyone would tell me to “shut your mouth,” and if they would I know we could be friends.
To those of my generation not familiar with the original Shaft, they may most know Hayes as Chef from South Park even if he was a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee from the class of 2002. On South Park he again became quoteworthy and even did some singing in on the show. For more on the life of Isaac Hayes, head over to VH1.com: Isaac Hayes, Soul Legend and the Voice of South Park Character Chef, Dead at 65.
Quote of the Week: A song even Michael Bolton can’t ruin. Don’t tell anyone I said that. (Tyler, The Middleman)
Big New of the Week: It’s the End of the World as We Know It: And I am starting to get a little queasy. It was bad enough that John McCain included Paris Hilton in one of his political ads, but then the Paris respond ad just inched us even closer to the impending apocalypse. And when you thought, or at least hoped, that was it, John McCain responded to the Paris Hilton ad saying her energy plan was better than the one of Barack Obama. Let me repeat, the presumptive republican nominee responded to an attack ad from Paris Hilton.
Coalition Links of the Week: Buzz tested your knowledge of how much money TV stars make. (BuzzSugar)
This week, Sandie took a first look at Katie Holmes' guest appearance on Eli Stone. (Daemon's TV)
As part of a week-long series on TV vs. film with TiFaux, Marcia takes a look at some of the ways TV creates more varied characters than film. (Pop Vultures)
Rae steps into the RTVW Confessional and spills about liking good stunt casting, citing such examples as LiLo on Ugly Betty and Katie Holmes on Eli Stone. (RTVW Online)
Vance giddily recaps the finale of So You Think You Can Dance Season 4. (Tapeworthy)
This week, Jace waxed poetic about the latest Peggy-and-Pete-centric installment of Mad Men, easily the one of the most complex, vibrant, and vivid series on television right now. (Televisionary)
In an exciting first for TiFaux, Dan teamed up with Marcia from Pop Vultures to discuss the merits of TV versus film. In his first entry, Dan talked about how couch potatoes are given a bad reputation as anti-social shut-ins. Which, for the record, he only is when Project Runway is on. (TiFaux)
Jack Bauer would me proud as this week, the TV Addict did the impossible and infiltrated the set of 24. (The TV Addict)
Kate was saddened to realize that pretty much any great woman's life can be turned into a Lifetime Original Movie. (TV Filter)
The Middleman: For anyone that didn’t catch all those Ghostbusters references, I do not think we can be friends. You can download episodes of The Middleman on iTunes.
My Boys: Predictable ending, but I have no clue if the wedding will end up going off next season or not. Catch up on recent episodes over at TBS.com. You can also download My Boys on iTunes.
Last week I introduced the cast of Raising the Bar and no one was able to catch the one decree of separation of two of the cast mates, here is a hint:
Free Download of the Week: Man vs. Wild: I was late to hyping the new season, but it just so happens that you can download some bonus material for free on iTunes.
Pick for Next Week: Beijing Olympics, all the time on NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, USA, and Oxygen: Pretty much all I watched this weekend, and all I did, and that looks to continue all week.
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