Best of the Week - 12/17/11

Quote of the Week: Dumb move. (Rick, Survivor)

Song of the Week: Santa Claus Is Coming to Town – Cee-Lo Green (Christmas in Washington)

Gratuitous Token Hot Chick Picture of the Week:



Big News of the Week: Chris Paul to LA: To be honest I could care less if Paul ended up on the Lakers of the Clippers as long as he did not end up on the Heat. Not that I really care about basketball in general for the last couple years except for my fantasy team Ehlo’s Revenge.

Free Download of the Week: 25 Days of Free (Amazon MP3): Like it does every year, Amazon is offering up a new holiday song every day in December up until Christmas. Head over to grab the seventeen songs that are already up.

Deal of the Week: Up to 70% Off Hit Boxed Sets (The Goonies, Austin Powers, Batman)

New Album Release of the Week: The Dreamer, The Believer - Common
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo [Box set, Soundtrack] - Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (December 27)
Elvis Country (Legacy Edition) [Extra tracks] - Elvis Presley (January 3)

New DVD Release of the Week: Midnight in Paris
Shameless: The Complete First Season (December 27)
Justified: The Complete Second Season (January 3)

Video of the Week: Who better than the Gallagher family of Showtime’s Shameless to speed some holiday cheer this Christmas? And here is Frank and his family, and other assorted friends singing a very new festive song. Shameless returns January 8 followed by the highly anticipated House of Lies. For those that would like to check out the premieres but are too cheap to subscribe to Showtime, you are in luck; the premium channel is having a Free Preview Weekend starting that Friday. I highly recommend setting aside twelve hours to marathon Homeland if the entire season is available On Demand.



Next Week Pick of the Week: Survivor, Sunday at 8:00 on CBS: I guess the best thing that can be said about this season is that it is not as bad as the last one. Clearly going into the finale Sophie is the only person to root for. Coach and Ozzie are baboons who did not even deserve to return, Rick is useless, Albert is too shifty, and Brandon is a psycho.

Around the Tubes - 12/16/11

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 ABC Family's winter lineup, Angry Boys, Luck, Philly Undercover, Best TV of 2011, Rubik’s Cube, Skype, and America's Got Talent.

- ABC Family is kicking off the new year with the premiere of four shows and created the promo to let you know when they air pop up. For those too lazy to press play, Pretty Little Liars will return Monday, January 2 at 8:00 followed by a new episode of The Lying Game. Then on Tuesday, Switched at Birth will finish out its first season on new day and time Tuesday January 3 at 8:00. Then at 9:00 will be new show Jane by Design.



- What better way to ring in the New Year than with a new television show? On New Year’s Day, HBO will be premiering their newest show Angry Boys, from the guy who brought you Summer Heights High, at 10:00. Below is a trailer. And for those that cannot waity, you can head over to the show’s Facebook page to play Hammer Sandwich, a game created for the show.



- In other HBO debut news, Luck from director Michael Mann and writer Davis Milch (Deadwood) starring Dustin Hoffman will be hitting the channel January 29. Here is a look at the poster.



- Another new show coming your way early next year is Philly Undercover on Nat Geo Wild that goes undercover (natch) with a police unit in Philadelphia (double natch) to combat extreme cases of animal cruelty such as dog fighting and cat hoarding. Being that it is being filmed in the city that the Eagles play, no word yet on a Michael Vick cameo. Philly Undercover will premiere at 10:00 after an all new Dog Whisperer.

- Starting Tuesday, I will have a new Best of 2011 list every day until the end of the year, but those that need some yearend list now, TV Guide has released it list of the fifteen best TV shows of the year with Homeland topping the list. Friday Night Lights somehow was only 10.

- The latest Funny or Die video features, you guessed it, a Rubik’s Cube. If you can actually solve one, you can head over to its Facebook page.



- Why send out the same old boring Christmas cards this year when you can have Alice Cooper do it for you? You can get Alice (or if he might scare Granny Smith, Boyz II Men is also available) head over to skype.com to see how you can send customized video music cards for free.

- Howard Stern is the new judge for America’s Got Talent. The nineteen year old version of myself will be very excited by this news.

Lyrics Quiz: Best of 2011

Here are some of my favorite lyrics of the past twelve months. As always leave your guesses, both artist and song title, in the comment section or e-mail me. If you are correct I will un-bold the lyric and give you credit. Please keep in mind the lyrics quiz is for entertainment purposes only so please only use your own meandering mind to guess them.


1. The scars of your love remind me of us. They keep me thinking we almost had had it all. (Rolling in the Deep - Adele; guessed by Rose)
2. Won’t do me no good washing in the river. Can’t no preacher man gonna save my soul.
3. The square root of sixty-nine is eight-something, right? Cause I been trying to work it out. (What's My Name? - Rihanna featuring Drake; guessed by Doug)
4. I know, I know, I know what I am chasing. I know, I know, I know, that this is changing me.
5. Like a shotgun needs outcome. I’m your prostitute.
6. I don’t really care. You knew that’s what I’d say. The only time I miss you is every single day.
7. Can’t you tell that my sample of Adele was so hot I got these hood (expletive deleted) blowing up my cell? (Freaks and Geeks - Childish Gambino; guessed by Rose)
8. The bittersweet between my teeth. Trying to find the in-betweens. Fall back in love eventually. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
9. With that same big loud opinion but nobody listening. Wash up and ranting about the same old bitter things. Drunken, rumbling on about how I can’t sing.
10. I’m proud of my temper, well no, don’t give up on me, I’m doing better.
11. I’m about to lose my mind, you’ve been gone for so long; I’ve been running out of time. (I Need a Doctor - Dr. Dre featuring Eminem and Skylar Grey; guessed by Katie)
12. Tomorrow is Saturday and Sunday comes afterwards. I don’t want this weekend to end. (Friday - Rebecca Black; guessed by Katie)
13. Yes, here we go again, give you more, nothing lesser. Back on the mic is the anti-depressor.
14. I’m already fighting me so what’s another one? The mirror is a trigger and your mouth’s a gun. Lucky for me I’m not the only one.
15. And now after some thinking I’d say I’d rather be a functioning cog in some great machinery serving something greater than me.
16. Mama once told me, “you’re already home where you feel love.”
17. You stare out your window at the passing cars and you look at the sky, thank your unlucky stars. No you’re never quite happy right where you are.
18. She says you’re a rambling man. You ain’t never gonna change. You got a gypsy soul to blame and you were born for leaving.
19. I wanna darken the skies, open the floodgates up. I wanna change my mind, I wanna be enough.
20. You watched them handcuff me lady and walk me through my own home. I’ve never been so humiliated. I don’t think I deserve this from you.
21. Trying to grow flowers in your bull (expletive deleted). You’d put out the sun if you got a hold of it.
22. So give me the fevers that just won’t quite. And give me the children you don’t want to raise. And tell me about the cool he sings to in those songs if it’s better than my love.
23. They say I’m crazy, well, I’mma ’bout to go dumb again. They ain’t see me ‘cause I pulled up in my other Benz. Last week I was in my other other Benz. (Otis - The Throne featuring Otis Redding; guessed by Rose)
24. I gotta love that keeps me waiting.
25. Unlike my home they are not foreclosable. Freddy Mac can kiss my (expletive deleted).

I’d Be Such an Angel You’d Think Me and Jesus Was Cool Like That

December is the time of the year where you snuggle up with that special someone and when it is time to switch the soundtrack from tradition Christmas music to something more in the baby making department, well there really has not been any music released recently to fit the bill assuming your lady friend is not fond of music that is degrading to them. Well just in time as the temperature starts to drop is the latest album from Anthony Hamilton Back to Love which increase your chances of adding to your family sometime next August.

There is plenty songs to choose from as the title Back to Love would have you assume when deciding what to want to put on when you are about to get your groove on, the smooth title track, the playful duet with Keri Hilson on Never Let Go, the heartfelt Baby Girl, the falsetto vocals I’ll Wait (To Fall in Love) that are reminiscent of a Prince love song, and the beautiful Who’s Loving You (granted you will have to overlook it is an I want you back song). But when it is time to record some baby making music, you have to go to the source of the producer who caused the most conceptions since Barry White and Babyface is on the disk, helping out with the first single Woo.

Hamilton does deviate a couple times on Back to Love like when he goes to his country roots on Mad with its twangy acoustic guitar and hand claps that are aided by some Stevie Wonder style harmonica. Sucka for You is the rare danceable song from Hamilton (at least of the vertical variety). The album ends nicely with the bluesy Life Has a Way that is emotionally deeper than the rest of the album in the vein of soul singers of the past. As great as the baby making songs are, hopefully his next record is filled with a few more like the one he ended the album with.

Song to Download – Who's Loving You

Back to Love gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

I Want My Movie Trailers - 12/13/11

Every week or so I like to take a look at new music videos that catch my eye and really do not do the same for movie trailers because interesting ones do not hit the interwebs as frequently as music videos, but a bunch that caught my eye have been released recently and I thought I would share them. I am not sure if this will become a regular feature, but feel free to shout me a holler if you think you can come up with a better title than I did (which should not be too hard).


Cabin in the Woods – April 13



When I first heard about the new Joss Whedon movie Cabin in the Woods my first thought was, that sounded much better when it was called Evil Dead (and to show nothing is sacred anymore, word is we are getting an Evil Dead reboot in the near feature sans Ash; my soul is weeping). But like it says I the trailer, “You think you know the story… Think again” and after watching it I look to be wrong pigeonholing it because from the cabin in the woods setting, there looks to be something entirely different going on a bigger scale. At the very least Cabin in the Woods will be something to hold us over until the inevitable Army of Darkness reboot nobody ask for hits movie theaters.


The Five Year Engagement – April 27



Comedies are notorious for frontloading trailers with all the funniest bits, but if there are other scenes even half as funny as Bright Abbott singing We Didn’t Start the Fire with past girlfriends and a child shooting people with arrows, The Five Year Engagement will be worth watching. Really, when was the last unfunny movie Judd Apatow (who apparently now goes by “The Producers of Bridesmaids
” for some reason) was apart of? And I swear I heard Annie Edition try to do an English accent in the trailer which may also make the movie worth the price of admission.


Battleship – May 18



The second Battleship trailer has landed, now with 100% more Landry Clarke. But the movie could employ the entire cast of Friday Night Lights and I’d still be a bit worried. Best case scenario is it is Independence Day at seas. Worst case scenario, Transformers at sea.


What to Expect When You’re Expecting – May 11



The trailer work like the longest game of good news (Elizabeth Banks) bad new (Cameron Diaz) good news (Brooklyn Decker) bad news (Brooklyn Decker in a fat suit) good news (Chris Rock) ban news (Jennifer Lopez) good news (Anna Kendrick) bad news (the dude from Gossip Girl) good news (Big Poppa) bad new (the dude from Glee). I think the bad news will win out because the movie looks like He's Just Not That Into You if the all the chicks got knocked up. But seriously, can we please stop these horrible “ensemble” movies that spend too much money on talent and none on actual screenwriting?

I Want My Music Television - 12/12/11

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.


In Your Arms - Kina Grannis



This music video is pretty remarkable by itself in a Fell in Love with a Girl meets Sledgehammer kind of way, but even more show when you check out the Behind the Scenes where you see it took Kina Grannis 22 months and 288,000 jelly beans to make.


Don't Stop (Color On the Walls) - Foster the People



Not so fun fact: I was once a driving instructor in my past life and Foster the People brought back some really bad memories with this video.


Give it All Back - Noah and the Whale



Even though it had been done countless times before, it is hard not to enjoy Younger Versions of the Band type videos and the latest from Noah and the Whale is no exception.


Woo - Anthony Hamilton



Woo is right Anthony Hamilton. Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

57 Channels and Only This Is On - 12/11/11

Once Upon a Time: We finally learn who the blonde is, she turned out to be the daughter of King Midas. Granted when he pulled out his arm out I thought he was Goldfinger who is just as much a fairytale character as King Midas. But I guess mythology opens the show up to a whole bunch of potential characters. And does Ted Mosby’s most annoying girlfriend seriously have the Thriller jacket is a rainbow variety of colors?
You can stream current episodes on Hulu. You can also download Once Upon a Time.

Homeland: So who is the mole? For the half an episode where Brady was absolved from being the person that passed his captor the razor blade, the thought that Saul did it crossed my mind. And Brady can be blamed for alerting the couple who bought the house near the airport, but someone inside the CIA had to alert Tom Walker about the meet unless the Saudi diplomat tipped him off and essentially became a suicide. Two more episodes left and hopefully the wrap this storyline up and move onto a new one next season.

Pan Am: Every spy show has done it, but I ever understood the steal a list of CIA assets mission before it is sold on the black market because wouldn’t whoever made the list just make another one if it is stolen? But anyway. I am just upset that none of my family friend’s daughters grew up to look like Ashley Greene.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Pan Am on iTunes.

How I Met Your Mother: Wait, what just happened? Did they really switch the narration of the show for the first time in seven seasons with Robin talking to her kids instead of Ted just to be all “Psych” at the end? Huh?
You can stream recent episodes over at cbs.com. You can also download How I Met Your Mother on iTunes.

Sons of Anarchy: I am still disappointed Clay is still alive, but at least they came up with a better reason to keep him around than my prediction that he is hauled off to jail. I did not seeing Machete being CIA. But that twist kept there from being any action in the finale. I was waiting for the dad of the hit and run victim to show up at the end and go on a shooting spree, but I guess they planted that seed for next season. So we were left with a bit of a bore of a season finale, and really season four as a whole felt like a big tease, two cliffhanger deaths that did not end up happening and a big crackdown that got shut down but reval government agencies. It was not as bad as the Ireland season, but they better have plenty of payoffs next season.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Sons of Anarchy on iTunes.

Revenge: Maybe it is all the repeats recently, but it has seemed it has been way too long since Amy Abbot has destroyed somebody’s life. I want at least one person brought down per every two episodes.
You can stream current episodes on Hulu. You can also download Revenge on iTunes.

Community: As a straight heterosexual dude, I have naturally never seen an episode of Glee, but after watching Community’s awesome send up of the show I may have to check it out to see if is really that awesome, especially if they have a character like Annie Edison on the show.
You can stream current episodes on Hulu. You can also download Community on iTunes.

Chuck: Please let there be an uncensored version of this episode leaked to the internets in the near future.
You can stream current episodes on Hulu. You can also download Chuck on iTunes.