Best of the Week vol. XXVI

Quote of the Week: My mother calls me at work to see if I had a healthy bowel movement. (Howard – The Big Bang Theory)

Song of the Week: Up All Night – Slaughter (Greek)

Big News of the Week: Um: Since I have no desire to talk about the balloon boy (except to ask why is this breaking news when we have two wars going on, massive unemployment, etc?) I got nothing this week.

Free Download of the Week: Pilot – Modern Family (iTunes): If you have somehow missed the best new show of the fall, you can check up on the first episode at least to see why it is the best.

Deal of the Week: The Happy Birthday Sale: Save up to 60% (The Dark Knight, Peanuts Holiday Collection, Gran Torino, Blazing Saddles)

Video of the Week: In a story I broke yesterday, this year Halloween falls on the weekend (next Saturday to be exact) and me and the Geto Boys will be trick or treating, robbing little kids for bag. If you didn’t get that what should be an obvious pop culture reference, check out the video below:



Next Week Pick of the Week: Friday Night Lights, Wednesday at 9:00 on DirecTV: It pains me to write this considering I may have to wait until summer to see the new season unless I can find someone closer to New Jersey to invite me over every Wednesday for the next thirteen week. If not, I am going into FNL shutdown until NBC airs it to avoid any spoilers. But seriously, if you are in the Northeast Ohio area and have DirecTV, shout me a holla.

Also be on the look out next week for my latest Greatest of the 00's list.

Around the Tubes vol. XXVI

I have gotten a plethora of cool press releases have been flooding my inbox recently that you may find interesting. This post will include blurbs on Trauma, Community, Stargate Universe, and The League.

- Trauma is slowly getting its footing, which is of course too slow. But there is nothing like a Halloween episode to kick start a show because like the holiday itself, anything can happen. And since this year Halloween falls on the weekend, I think me and the Geto Boys are going to go trick or treat and robbing little kids for bags. But anyways. Here is a behind the scene look at Monday’s Trauma:

BTS Masquerade


- Also getting into the Halloween spirit next week is Community. Here is another behind the scenes look at some of the costumed fun:

Community Trick or Treat


- Tonight on Stargate Universe, “a stellar collision is imminent, and not everyone will escape.” Ere is a sneak peak:

Light


I am not entirely sure about The League, the new FX comedy debuting Thursday, October 29th at 10:30, because from the previews I am not sure if the show will be laughing at me or laughing with me as an avid fantasy sports player. Check out a preview below to see if you can figure it out:

Each Time I Try to Be the Good Girl

Kristania DeBarge has a lot to live up to. Yes the last name is courtesy of her father James who was part of the eighties group that brought us the theme song to Short Circuits. Then her debut album Exposed was produced by nineties uber-producer Babyface who also wrote four songs for the album. With that lineage, Exposed is a little disappointing.

The album just sounds like every other album from other cookie cutter R&B pop acts of the past couple years like Jordin Sparks and the like getting the scraps that Rihanna pass on. Debarge even tries to do for Steam’s Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye for her Goodbye what Rihanna did for Tainted Love on S.O.S. to lesser effect (it also doesn’t help that Wale and Jay-Z also decided to co-opt the same song this year). And it doesn’t help that Ryan Tedder contribute a track because Speak Up doesn’t help his rap that he basically only has one song that he recycles to ever artist he works with to the point you can understand why Kelly Clarkson was so upset.

Even the Babyface songs like Cried Me a River come off a little too smaltzy and too overproduced making you wish of the days when ‘face could do no wrong but that was over a decade ago. He does manage to take us back to when Kristinia’s father ruled the charts on the throwback It’s Got to Be Love which borrows from I Need Love from LL Cool J.

But on the bright side, the album is good clean fun for the tween set who are looking for something edgier than the Magic Kingdom is exporting and not ready for the oversexualized music that plagues R&B radio these days. Anyone one in that age bracket will be more than happy to sing along to songs like Goodbye, Future Love and Doesn’t Everybody Want to Fall in Love.

Song to Download – Doesn’t Everybody Want to Fall in Love

Exposed gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

Feed Your iPod vol. XXXVIII: Spin the Bottle

If there was one reason to pick up the Reality Bites soundtrack it was because my favorite U2 song All I Want Is You is among the track listing (keep in mind this was long before iTunes or even Napster). And with all due respect to the breakout star amongst the great eighties tunes, Lisa Loeb, the second standout track on the album was Spin the Bottle, a quick jolly romp reminiscent of the great middle school days when the spinning the bottle was the way to tell someone you liked them long before Vanessa Hudgens discovered a cell phone.

Spin the Bottle – The Juliana Hatfield 3

You'd Be Surprised What You'll Do When the Lamia Comes for You

During the Halloween season, there is one movie I go back to for a good scare, and a few laughs thrown in for good measure, and that is the Evil Dead Trilogy (okay that is three, but who’s counting). Unfortunate the creative mind behind those movies Sam Raimi has been too busy playing with boys in tights the last decade to do anything in the horror genre this decade until he squeaked one in at the end with Drag Me to Hell.

First off, Bruce Campbell who was the lead in the Evil Dead movies and cameos in all three Spider-Man movies as three different characters, is absent from the film. But other than that, Drag Me to Hell is pure Sam Raimi. The unexpected laughs throughout the movie jump up as much as the unsuspecting scary parts that horror movies are known for, although Raimi may have gone with one too many false endings.

The movie centers around Alison Lohman (Big Fish), a sweet loan officer who decides to get a backbone at the wrong time. Promotion time is right around the corner and after her boss says to get it, she will start to have to make the tough decisions which leads to Lohman to decline a frail old lady (perfectly portrayed by Lorna Raver with an assist to the great makeup artist who turned her that way) a third extension on her mortgage tossing her on the street. Wrong decision.

In retaliation, Raver puts a curse on Lohman where a demon named the Lamia would harass her for three days before, well, dragging her to hell, naturally. And as dramatized in the prologue, this is definitely not something you want to partake in. Along for the rise I the surprisingly straight man Justin Long (Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story) as Lohman loyal boyfriend who stays by her despite actually believing that she is being cursed and an eventful dinner with his parents who meet Lohman for the first time.

Drag Me to Hell might not be the scariest horror movie you will see (it is only PG-13) but for Raimi that is not the point as a full entertainment experience is what he wants to give you and that is what you get with this movie. And now that he has dipped his toe back in the genre, hopefully more adventures of Ash are not far behind.

Drag Me to Hell gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

I Want My Music Television vol. LXVI

There have been a couple of videos that have caught my eye lately so I thought 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 you are interested in buying the song, look for a link in the analysis.


Who Says – John Mayer



I wasn’t too fond when I first heard the new John Mayer song. It just sounded like a mash up of Stop This Train and In Your Atmosphere. And I still pretty much still feel that way but then I discovered the lyric “It’s been a long time since twenty-two” which has hit a little close to home lately. And if I do my math correctly, twenty-two is around the time he sang about wanting to ruin through the halls of his high school.


Fifteen – Taylor Swift



Speaking of songs that take you back to a certain age, so does the new Taylor Swift. But for me it isn’t back to time the title refers to but back to eighteen when I was a senior trying to pick up those freshmen girls. Fun times.


Meet Me on the Equinox – Death Cab for Cutie



I am thinking it may not be a coincidence that this is one of the worst songs Death Cab for Cutie considering what it was written for.


How bout Dat – Method Man and Redman



With songs like this it makes you wish Method Man and Redman would hook up more than once a decade for a joint album.

57 Channels and Only This Is On vol. CII

Tool Academy: There is something to be said that when it was announced that the winning team would get a conjugal visit, Shannon and her “Special” Tool were the only ones not celebrating. So not surprising that they got eliminated. But I was really shocked that she took him back. I wonder if there is something seriously wrong with Shannon that we didn’t see because she should be albe to do much better than him. And having him John and Dre P eliminated in succession may hurt the show from an entertainment standpoint. You can stream recent episodes over at vh1.com. You can also download Tool Academy on iTunes.

How I Met Your Mother: Holy crap, I was a sexless innkeeper. And no I am not retelling that story in poem form or not. You can stream recent episodes over at cbs.com. You can also download How I Met Your Mother on iTunes.

Trauma: The show really needs to spend more time developing their characters instead of going out on some of these smaller calls. They could have dropped either the skater or drunk couple and spend those five minutes getting to know the characters better. There are some interesting ones there; they just need to focus more screen time on them. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Trauma on iTunes.

Greek: It is good to see Dale born again at the episode because sleazy Dale was physically uncomfortable to watch. Also physically uncomfortable, the thought of a return of the Casey / Cappie / Evan love triangle. Hopefully this doesn’t happen. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu.



The Big Bang Theory: Great use of an Eye of the Tiger montage. You can stream current episodes over at cbs.com. You can also download The Big Bang Theory on iTunes.

Castle: I agree with Castle: best case ever. But I may go one further and say it was the best episode ever. And much like Castle, I was conned into thinking that the dude was actually CIA too. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Castle on iTunes. Also be sure to check out my chat with Stana Katic.

Hip Hop Honors:: It is interesting to watch the reactions of the founders and CEO’s of Def Jam during certain performances, usually they would sing along and be excited, but were flatfooted during Ja Rule and Rick Ross. And coincidentally so was I. And just behind that front row in the balcony I swear was MC Serch of 3rd Bass who were conspicuously absent during the performances.

Mercy: Crazy homeless burrito stealing dude gets hit by a bike: classic. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Mercy on iTunes.

Gary Unmarried: The ending was a little cheap because once you get a nickname, you are not losing it until you graduate (and hope none of your classmates go to the same college) or you get an even more humiliating nickname. You can stream recent episodes over at cbs.com. You can also download Gary Unmarried on iTunes.

Modern Family: Let’s hope Shelley Long isn’t really moving to Canada or at the very least makes the trek down to the states for holidays and family reunions because The Incident on the show was much more satisfying than the one on Lost. And more Dylan and the Rusty Zippers please because much like the families, I have been humming the song all week. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu.



Real World-Road Rules Challenge: The Ruins: Yeah, the producers didn’t realize why the champions are champions for a reason. The only Ruins the challengers have won so far was one that a champion threw. At this point are there going to be any challengers left for the final challenge? You can stream recent episodes over at mtv.com. You can also download Real World-Road Rules Challenge: The Ruins on iTunes.

Survivor: Samoa: With the tribe being unable to strategize, it makes me wonder why the show doesn’t have losing tribes go straight to tribal council more often. It has only happened once or trice that I can remember. It could make tribal council more interesting. You can stream recent episodes over at cbs.com.



Community: I actually went to high school with someone who would believe anything I would tell her. I’d try to up the lie in hopes she would finally get I was joking but she would end up believing I was related to the fictitious Shooter McGavin while Darrin McGavin was my grandfather. You can stream current episodes on Hulu. You can also download Community on iTunes.