Lyrics Quiz: Mystery Theme III

I decided last year that November would be the official Mystery Theme. If you guess the theme you will get three extra bonus points and as always you need to put both artist and title in the comments section (along with the theme if you think you know it) 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. Now onto the quiz:

1. I was down at the New Amsterdam starring at this yellow haired girl. (Mr. Jones - Counting Crows; guessed by Taylor Blue)
2. They love to tell you, “Stay inside the lines.” But something’s better on the other side. (No Such Thing - John Mayer; guessed by Angie)
3. With a holy host of others standing around me. Still I’m on the dark side of the moon. (Carolina on My Mind - James Taylor; guessed by Rebekah)
4. Looking around the house. Hidden behind the window and the door. Searching for signs of life but there’s nobody home. (Good - Better Than Ezra; guessed by Rebekah)
5. In restless dreams I walked along narrow streets of cobblestone. (Sound of Silence - Simon and Garfunkel; guessed by Rebekah)
6. 38/24/37, you and me honey: a match made in heaven. (Bonita Applebum - A Tribe Called Quest; guessed by Rose)
7. Get up in the morning, look in the mirror. My face ain’t looking any younger. Now I can see, love has taken a toll on me. (She's Gone - Hall and Oates; guessed by Rebekah)
8. I see you my friend, and touch your face again. Miracles will happen as we dream. (Crazy - Seal; guessed by Angie)
9. I been hit with a few shells but I don’t walk with a limp. (In da Club - 50 Cent; guessed by Rebekah)
10. I got seven women on my mind: Four who want to hold me, two that want to stone me, one says she’s a friend of mind. (Take it Easy - The Eagles; guessed by Angie)
11. I never felt this way. How to you give so much pleasure and cause me so much pain? (Fallin' - Alicia Keys; guessed by Rebekah)
12. I know you want what’s on my mind. I know you like what’s on my mind. I know it eats you up inside. (Sex Type Thing - Stone Temple Pilots; guessed by Angie)
13. There’s an old man sitting next to me making love to his tonic n’ gin. (Piano Man - Billy Joel; guessed by Angie)
14. I’m gonna break the spell she’s got on you. You’re gonna wake up to find I’m your desire, my intentions are true. (I Can Love You Better - The Dixie Chicks; guessed by Jo)
15. Make sure to keep your hair spotless and clean. Wash it a least every two weeks. Once every two weeks.
16. You’re licking your lips and throwing kisses my way, but that don’t mean I'm going to give it away. (Genie in a Bottle - Christina Aguilera; guessed by Angie)
17. When I dream of fairytales I think of me Shelly. She’s my kind of height, but I can’t stand when brothers tell me…
18. Can I ride with you in your BMW? You can sail with me in my yellow submarine.
19. We just like to stay at home and rip on the President. (Meet Virgina - Train; guessed by Jo)
20. She hold the shotgun while you doe-se-doe. She want one man made of Hercules and Cyrano. (Little Miss Can't Be Wrong - Spin Doctors; guessed by Rebekah)
21. Never skipped a beat, while cooling on South Street. Jet black Benz, plenty of friends and all the foods that you could eat.
22. You’re all I’ve got. You lift me up. The sun and the moonlight, all my dreams are in your eyes. (Inside Your Heaven - Carrie Underwood; guessed by Angie)
23. I have waited a lifetime. Spent my time so foolishly. But now that I've found you, together we’ll make history. (Feels Like the First Time - Foreigner; guessed by Angie)
24. I was in a bar one Friday night cooling watching a Mike Tyson fight. I was maxing and relaxing sipping on Tequilla when this girl walked up she said hi my name is Sheila. (Girls Ain't Nothing But Trouble - D.J. Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince; guessed by Angie)
25. You had a boyfriend who looked like a girlfriend that I had in February of last year. (Somebody Told Me - The Killers; guessed by Taylor Blue)

Previewing Expedition Week

With its successful Shark Week, you knew it would only be a matter of time before other cable channels would be following the Discover Channel’s lead an devote a whole week to specific targets. Starting this Sunday, the National Geographic Channel launching their Expedition Week which looks to solves some of the biggest questions archeologist have been trying to solve for decades, if not centuries. Each night features a new program specifically for the event. Here is what you can expect (the new programs start at 9:00 PM unless otherwise noted:

Sunday, November 16
Unlocking the Great Pyramid: They start off the week with the best of the new programming. This is mostly because the program is narrated by the guy leading the expedition who is legitimately excited about the findings and not narrated by someone disembodied voice of your high school science teacher.

Monday, November 17
Direct From the Moon: Don’t have much on this but it looks like someone is looking to colonize the moon, if only for a month at a time. Here are a couple of pictures from the episode:





Tuesday, November 18
Shipwrecked! Captain Kidd: Here’s one that can’t wait until the next Pirates of the Caribbean. Apparently some of the pirate lore comes from Kidd, and of course there may be some hidden booty, even though he was on the British payroll.

Wednesday, November 19
The Real George Washington: Maybe the least interesting because it seems like we already know everything there is to know about the first president. And the few things that they uncover are not the interesting or that groundbreaking.

Thursday, November 20
Lost Cities of the Amazon: Put the kiddies to bed early this night because it is National Geographic in the Amazon so there is plenty of gratuitous nudity of tribal men and women and like the magazine none of it is at all sexual. But there are plenty of interesting theories of if and who huge tribe could have survived in the middle of a tropical jungle.

Friday November 21
Egypt Unwrapped: Alexander the Great’s Lost Tomb: The double feature of two Egypt programs starts at 8:00 featuring a tomb that was once a tourist attraction in the ancient world but have today’s archeologist puzzled to its whereabouts that have taken tomb seekers across Egypt and parts of Europe.

Egypt Unwrapped: Mystery of the Screaming Man: The Egypt episodes are easily the best of the bunch and here in another entertaining one. It is probably not a good sign your mummified corpse was frozen in a scream, but adding to this mysteries the lack of a name to go along with the tomb he was found in. And much like many of today’s mysteries, this one might be solved with a CAT scan.

Sunday November 23
Egypt Unwrapped: The Scorpion King: I have not much on this that airs at 8:00 but who know that the movie was based, if very, very loosely, on a real person?

Herod’s Lost Tomb: Who knew King Herod was such an accomplished architect? I guess when you are primarily know as a killer and your must impressive works don’t stand the test of time either by erosion or invaders tearing your work down. And even when you construct your own expansive tomb, apparently if you are extremely cruel to you people, they don’t honor your burial very much.

I Want My Music Television vol. XXXVIII

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.


Mystery Man - Gnarls Barkley



With Gnarls Barkley, you have to take the inane with the greatness sometimes. But I have to say the song is growing on me with every listen.


Old Enough - The Raconteurs



If I were to make a list of the greatest music videos of the 00's, Jack White would show up plenty of times. And that is what makes the new Raconteurs video so disappointing. If it had been anyone else, the clones band may have been cool.


Reach Out - Hilary Duff



After hearing the new Hilary Duff song, one has to wonder when does sampling become just blatant stealing? An the artsy beginning and end is pretty laughable considering the rest is just Hilary doing her worst Madonna impression. The song is one of two new songs on her recently released Greatest Hits package. For those keeping track at home, Duff has released three studio albums and two greatest hits albums. Because if there is any artist that needs to update her greatest hits after every album, it is Hilary Duff.


Fanboys Trailer II



Fanboys pretty much had me at Kristen Bell in a Princess Leia costume, but this trailer reaffirms how great this movie is going to be. I love how they do not bother to name any of the actual stars and just names the cameos, and just what they are known for (like whenever you see my older brother Shooter, you think anything else but the dude from Happy Gilmore). Brilliant. If I were a promo monkey, this would be the kind of promo I would make. Now if they would only actually release the movie which has been ready for two years.

It’s Like a Roller Coaster Kind of Rush

Love Song by Taylor Swift may just end up being the best pop song this decade that was not written by Gnarls Barkley. Even with its fiddles and twang, the song was instantly accessibly to anyone with ears that would make anyone want to write their own song. Usually whenever artists try to recreate that one big hit on their next album they fail miserably but somehow the eighteen year old was able to catch lightning twice with the equally likeable, if not slightly more mature sounding Love Story off her sophomore outing Fearless.

Given her age it is forgivable for her Disney version of the Baird’s Romeo and Juliet where the guy gets the girl with the family’s approval. And who knew Shakespeare and banjo would go so well together? While the build up of the bridge makes you want to hunt down one of the Jonas Brothers (who gets addressed as a “scared little boy” on the sarcastic Forever & Always) and smack them up side the head. But it seems that very same fairytale all but comes crashing down a couple songs later on the acoustic guitar plucking White Horse of which is “too late to come around.”

More similar themes pop up on Fearless including the sediment of Teardrops on My Guitar of why do you want her when you know you could have me based You Belong to Me. What is not around this time is any vengeful songs; no burning pictures, no cheaters who forgot to say no. The closest comes on Tell Me Why but it is not as spiteful as anything her debut. Swift is more ambivalent about failed relationships on Fearless like on the slow piano based You’re Not Sorry but Swift sounds more morose than angry that they fell apart.

It is easy to write off Taylor Swift writing as just a school girl diary put to fiddles (remember the line, “wishing on a wishing star”), and she unabashedly admits she likes to write songs about boys, but no teenage has been able to craft songs this catchy since Debbie Gibson. Fifteen, a song about freshmen memorized by upper classmen can be relatable to girls going through it now, graduates looking back on high school, middle schoolers looking forward to high school, and even us lecherous dudes who took advantages of those innocent girls (I miss high school).

And that musical growth is the heart of Fearless as Swift turns down the fiddles and banjos and turns up the guitars and orchestras (see The Way I Loved You). Then for something completely different is breezy, hum along Hey Steven where Swift’s singing is so carefree she even starts laughing after the line, “All those other girls, well, they're beautiful, but would they write a song for you?” That same vibe, right down to the humming is also featured on Breathe which finds Colbie Caillet helping out with the writing and backing vocals. And Taylor’s down home drawl fits right in to Colbie’s campfire beach song writing.

If Fearless is an album this teenager can produce, one can high hopes when Swift gets some miles under her and evolves past all the songs about boys and grown even more musically and invites in more influences. The album closes with what could be a precursor, Change (written for the Olympics compilation album) where she sings Halleluiah and about revolutions that could have come off cheesy from others of her age but cannot sing along when it was Swift that is asking. It may have just been a high school anthem rising up against the rival team now, but wait until she gets out in the real world for awhile and create real change. If only in musical term.

Song to Download - Hey Stephen

Fearless gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

Best New Shows of Fall 2008

In this I have to be first world we live in, there tends to be a rush to judgment. Take the first impression of The Big Bang Theory which was universally panned thanks to a sub-par pilot last year, many of the jokes that were killed by the overplaying of the promo before the show become much beloved by the end of the year. So once again I have rounded up a cabal of TV Bloggers to list their favorite new shows of the season now that they have gotten about a month of episodes under their belts. Then I put their list into my patented formula that is slightly more credible than token daily tracking poll. Here are the results. You can catch up by downloading the shows on iTunes and/or Amazon Video on Demand.

1. Privileged (The CW) iTunes - Amazon
2. Fringe (Fox) iTunes - Amazon
3. True Blood (HBO)
4. The Mentalist (CBS)
5. My Own Worst Enemy (NBC) iTunes - Amazon
6. Raising the Bar (TBS) iTunes
7. Busted (MTV) iTunes - Amazon
8. Gavin & Stacey (BBC America) iTunes
9. Kath & Kim (NBC) iTunes - Amazon
10. Gary Unmarried (CBS)

Also receiving votes: Life on Mars, 90210, Worst Week, Whatever Martha!, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Eleventh Hour, Sons of Anarchy, The Ex-List, Rita Rocks
Voters: Dan, Ducky, Matt, Rae, Sandie, Scooter McGavin, Tube Talk Girl, Vance

The closest thing to a consensus would be Privileged, then Fringe slightly behind and everything pretty much bunched up at the bottom. But considering some of the negative comments voters sent with their ballots, they are less than enthuse with the new slate of shows this fall much like I am which many are contributed to lingering effects of the writer’s strike. Honestly I was thinking of not hosting the poll this year but only did for prosperity sake so in 1000 years from now people in the future could tell just how poor this television season was. In a measure of full disclosure, here was my ballot:

1. Busted (MTV)
2. Gary Unmarried (CBS)
3. Raising the Bar (TNT)
4. Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Cartoon Network)
5. The Ex-List (CBS)

57 Channels and Only This Is On vol. LIV

The Big Bang Theory: Considering all she does is calling Sheldon names, maybe they should have made the stalker a castmember and made her obsession a season arc. Best part of any show this week was the discussion of Sheldon’s “deal.” Don’t tell me you have never had that discussion with friends before. You can stream current episodes over at Innertube. You can also download The Big Bang Theory on iTunes.

How I Met your Mother: Sadly Ted’s Ohio way of dealing was pretty much on point. And yes I had made many of mental maps back in college and hid under a few tables. Unfortunately I was not as good at hiding. You can stream current episodes over at Innertube. You can also download The Big Bang Theory on iTunes.

Gary Unmarried: Nice juxtaposition in the kiddie house. And Paula Marshall’s (it may not be a good thing that this far in I have no clue what her name is) misusing penultimate begs the question, when you catch someone doing that, do you tell them or mock them behind their backs? You can stream current episodes over at Innertube.

Survivor: Hats off to the quiet chick. It seems like every season there is an obvious pecking order yet the fifth and six in the alliance are happy to get voted off when their time comes then flip on their tribe. I can’t wait to see how Corrine reacts to this. Now the game should become more interesting. You can stream current episodes over at Innertube.



My Name Is Earl: If I had a list, Sold a Dude a Lemon would have to be high on mine. If you remember the Check Engine light discussion from a couple Big Bang Theories ago, when I sold that car it didn’t last more than a couple a months before it broke down completely. But I guess that was karma in a different way because the dude I sold it to was a humongous tool so he ended up getting what he deserved. You can stream current episodes over at NBC.com. You can also download My Name Is Earl on iTunes.

Everybody Hates Chris: Holy Robin Givens sighting! Are there any washed up black actors from the eighties Chris Rock hasn’t given a job to? Come to think of it, where has Rudy Huckstible been hiding?