Best of the Week: 11/16/13

Quote of the Week: Oh and the last thing was Olivia Gondek, it says that I wanted to eat her (expletive deleted). Olivia Gondek. I’ve never said that in my life to her. I would never do that. I’m happily married. I’ve got more than enough to eat at home. (Toronto Mayor Rob Ford)

Song of the Week: Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now – Starship (The Goldbergs)

Scene of the Week:


Big News of the Week: The Typhoon in the Philippines: As usual in situations like this, if you have anything to give in this season of Thanksgiving, please donate to the redcross.org.

Preview Picture of the Week:

“Scared to Death” Ravenswood Fall Finale, Tuesday at 8:00 on ABC Family

Free Download / Deal of the Week: Google Play is having a rock classics sale where you can get music from Guns and Roses, Weezer, Bon Jovi, and The Velvet Underground for as low as $3.99 and free songs from each of those artists and six others.

New Album Release of the Week: Crossroads Guitar Festival 2013

New DVD Release of the Week: We're the Millers

Video of the Week: The quote of the week is usually reserved for the funniest or most poignant statement uttered on television over the past seven days, but no words were said this week than those of the crack smoking, black-out drunk mayor of Toronto. But the written words just does not do the quote justice, watch it with the whole segment on the mayor on The Daily Show where John Stewart reacts to the quote the way I, and I am sure everyone else responded the first time they heard the quote.


Next Week Pick of the Week: You Oughta Know Live, Thursday at 9:00 on VH1: Ever since the nineties, it seems like VH1 tries a new yearly live show every three years or so. First there was Divas Live, then Big In (insert year here) Awards, then Hip Hop snd Rock Honors (I wish they would bring back the Hip-Hop Honors). Now they are trotting out the You Oughta Know Live concert featuring artists that VH1 have highlighted over the past couple years (it is basically VH1’s version of Buzzworthy dating back to 2005 with Anna Nalick as the first artist that you should have known). Performing are The Lumineers, Lorde, Ed Sheeran, Haim, Matt Nathanson, Emeli Sandé, and someone named Johnnyswim (apparently they did not do a very good job getting the word out on that last group).There will also be some surprise collaborations. A video of Haim being joined on stage by Lorde to sing Sheryl Crow in the internet this week but was quickly taken down. Note to VH1: if you do not want your concert to hit the web before you air it, do not film the concert ten days in advance.

Around the Tubes: 11/15/13

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 Secrets of Scotland Yard, Chicago PD, Syfy programming, Rizzoli and Isles, Perception, Cougar Town, Soul Train Awards, Duck Quacks Don’t Echo, and Arrested Development.

- This Sunday, Secrets of Scotland Yard concluding this fall’s series of Secrets of... specials. From Dickens to Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie to James Bond - no police institution in the world has caught the public imagination in quite the same way as Scotland Yard. The name has become synonymous with the police force itself - but actually derives from the location of the original London Metropolitan Police HQ. Its officers and ‘Bobbies’ can be seen not only as characters in fiction but also on the news, standing beside the Royal Family or other officials in their role as protectors. Above all else however, Scotland Yard is associated with a particular type of professional police officer–the Detective. By meeting with some modern-day sleuths we’ll uncover the secrets of what it takes to become a contemporary Sherlock as well as finding out all the grim and grisly details of detectives who have gone before.

- Chicago PD, the spinoff of Chicago Fire, does not premiere until January 8, but you can take a first look at the show below:


- Syfy will shake up the Thanksgiving Weekend (November 28-December 1) with its annual two day James Bond marathon featuring a dozen movies starring Sean Connery, Daniel Craig, Pierce Brosnan, Roger Moore and yes -- even Timothy Dalton. The 007-fest fires its first shot with Tomorrow Never Dies on Thursday, November 28 at 1AM (ET/PT) and includes special Thanksgiving primetime presentations of Die Another Day (6PM) and Casino Royale (9PM), concluding Friday, November 29. For those viewers who like their action in space, Syfy will beam down six Star Trek movies on Saturday, November 30, highlighted by Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (6:30PM) and Star Trek VII: Generations (9PM). The holiday movie festival ends on Sunday, December 1 at 8PM with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.-

- Set your calendars, Rizzoli and Isles returns Tuesday, February 25 at 9:00 followed by new episodes of Perception at 10:00 on TNT.

- Four-time Emmy® nominee Matthew Perry is set to reunite with Friends co-star Courteney Cox this winter in an episode of the TBS's hit comedy Cougar Town. TBS is set to launch the fifth season of Cougar Town on Tuesday, Jan. 7, at 10:00.

- In anticipation of the upcoming Soul Train Awards 2013, CENTRIC, a BET Network, has kicked off the Soul Train Effect Tour(#soultraineffect). Throughout November, CENTRIC’s Soul Train video team is taking over top clubs in six east coast cities and inviting locals to show their old school flavor in front of the cameras. The best moves from each night will be hosted on video clips airing on bet.com/soultraineffect.

- National Geographic Channel this week announced Michael Ian Black, Tom Papa, and Seth Herzog as co-hosts of the new series Duck Quacks Don’t Echo. With production set to begin in New York City, Duck Quacks Don’t Echo puts an entertaining spin on assessing the validity of weird, unusual and over-the-top hypotheses through a series of interactive, original scientific tests. As co-hosts of the series, Black, Papa and Herzog will challenge each other by presenting their best theories — ranging from “Can shrimp run longer than the average human?” to “Is it impossible for a blindfolded person to walk, swim or drive in a straight line?” — and then put them to the test with real, in-studio and field experiments.

Relive all your favorite “Arrested Development” moments with this must-have companion book to the ground-breaking comedy series entitled Arrested Development: And That’s Why . . .You Always Leave a Note. Full of the most memorable quotes and images from some of the best moments from the original three seasons of the show, Arrested Development offers valuable life lessons and wisdom from Michael, G.O.B., Lucille, George Sr., Lindsay, George Michael, Tobias, and the rest of the Bluth gang with chapters including: Family First, Huge Mistakes, Parental Guidance, Risky Business, and more.

Feed Your iPod LXXVIII: The Chase, Part II

This week twenty years ago saw the release of the debut album from Wu-Tang Clan, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), R.Kelly’s first solo outing 12 Play, and the best Tribe Called Quest album Midnight Marauders (if you thought that was a great release date, that was not even the most impressive week a Tribe album dropped; The Low End Theory was released on the same day as Nevermind, Blood Sugar Sex Magik, and the first CD I ever bought, Bryan Adam’s Waking Up the Neighbours). Even the casual rap fan knows Award Tour (which was number four on my list of the 100 Greatest Songs from the Golden Age of Hip-Hop) as well as Electric Relaxation, so let me highlight another song from the album, which was actually the bane of my existence shortly after hearing it.

Stuck near the end of the album is The Chase, Part II, another slow head nodder which features Phife Dog rapping, “you’re styles are incomplete same as Vinnie Testeverde.” For the youngsters out there, as the lyric suggest Vinnie was a horrible quarterback who was always near the top of the league in interceptions and holds the record for most loses for a starting quarterback in NFL history. Of course the Cleveland Browns just signed him when the album was released and the team then turned around and traded beloved local hero Bernie Kosar (who would go on to win a Super Bowl ring that season). After the Browns signed Vinnie, they became so bad that the owner was able to move the team and the Browns have made the playoff twice since the song was released and only had three winning seasons. As Bill Simmons would say, “God hates Cleveland.”

The Chase, Part II – A Tribe Called Quest

I Was Wrong When I Decided I Would Never Meet Somebody Like You

With The Civil Wars on what looks to be an indefinite hiatus, there is an opening for the co-ed folk duo with weird sexual tension corner. Enter Grace and Tony, a self described “punkgrass” band with the same esthetic as The Civil Wars. Oh yeah, and Tony in Grace and Toby is Tony White, little brother of John Paul White of The Civil Wars. But where The Civil Wars sound like later day, Rick Rubin produced albums by The Avett Brothers, Grace and Tony sound like the rawer early records of The Avett Brothers.

But where the individual members of The Civil Wars are actually married to other people, Grace and Tony is an actual couple married to each other. Maybe this is why their debut album November is a bit cheery than his older brother band. They introduce themselves on November with Hey Grace, Hey Tony, a bouncing, old timey duet. That is followed up with the most angst riddled song Holy Hand Grenade, but still something that will get your toe tapping.

The most haunting the duo gets on the album is the title track. But there is really nothing on November which suggests they will have much success crossing over like The Civil Wars or even get they song played on crappy television shows when the writers run out of ideas and just throw in a montage to fill the hour. This duo will probably appeal to a very small niche; basically those who hear the term “punkgrass” and think cool. I am sure Grace and Tony will also be big at the next Steam Punk convention, especially the song Electricity Bomb.

Song to Download – Holy Hand Grenade

November gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

I Want My Music Television: 11/12/13

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.


Bad Things – Meiko


I guess a video for a song called Bad Things should be creepy, but still, I will never eat whipped cream ever again. Or get the image of Meiko with a mustache out of my head.


Lies – Chvrches


I probably should not like Chvrches. Aside from the unnecessary “V” in their name, I really have not been a big fan of synth heavy music since back when New Wave was actually new. But there is just something transfixing about the lead singer’s voice.


Faden Away - 7 Days of Funk with Snoopzilla and Dâm-Funk


Barely a year after rechristening himself Snoop Lion, the artist formally known as Snoop Doggy Dogg has a new name: Snoopzilla. I guess it is for the best because with all the name changes, I can just pretend Snoop Dogg actually stopped releasing music not long after Drop it Like it’s Hot.


Daydreaming – Paramore


I am getting tired of the shoddily shot music videos (and other mediums) where they are meant to look like two friends documenting their travels to a Paramore concert but were obviously professionally done.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 11/10/13

Once Upon a Time: I was not expecting much from CGI Ursula, but that was really cheesy looking. Only worse was the real Ursula all CGI. And if mermaids can easily transport back and forth between worlds, then why not summon Ariel earlier and ride her back, why mess with the magic beans? The better question is why am I still questioning the massive plot holes on this show.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Once Upon a Time on iTunes.

Homeland: So that was Saul’s big master plan: use Carrie to get to the Iranian dude, and then blackmail him into talking to him? Ugg. At least we know why the Iranian dude was creepily watching the kid playing in the yard last episode. Though how easy was it to find his grandson? If the wife was in witness protection, why was the kid not? And what was with the pregnancy tests? I would think that the mental health facility would have run some sort of blood test to see if Carrie was pregnant.

Of course the best part of the episode was a shout out to Scooter McGavin’s 9th Green in the episode. At least I am assuming that Majid Javadi holing up off the 9th Green of a golf course was a reference to this site.

The Walking Dead: During the season premiere Rick mentioned he has three questions newbies have to answer before they are allowed to join the chain gang in the prison. We finally learned one of them, “How zombies have you killed?” I wonder if we will learn the other two by the end of the season. Rick did finally make his first decision of the season my exiling Carol for killing the two sick people. She is not dead so there is a good chance we will see her again eventually (it did take a couple seasons to see the guy from the Pilot again). The Governor is still out there somewhere and I do not remember them running into each other last season. I just hope she does not turn out to be the lead in the proposed Walking Dead spin-off.
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.

Revenge: So Emily’s big take down this week was… her own home? Alrighty.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Revenge on iTunes.

The Voice: I am pretty much out on this season after realizing I only watched an hour and a half of the five hours this week and was pretty bored with what I saw. To be honest I was out the moment Holly Henry was inexplicatively booted from the show for dude to butcher Blurred Lines and get booted himself the very next week. The show has a serious problem when Holly’s seven week old version of The Scientist was charting higher on Monday and Tuesday than two songs performed that day by Grey and Amber Nicole. Now with Preston Pohl, who got stuck with the worst song selection this week, also given the boot, the two biggest fan favorites are gone before even the top ten despite being the only two whose audition songs made the top twenty-five this season (or even the top eighty for that matter).

And just when you thought The Voice could not get any worse than letting the two early favorites fall by the waste side, next week they are introducing the Instant Save next week. For those that have not heard yet, starting next week (and will continue through the top 6 week) they will announce a bottom three and then for the next five minutes, Twitter users will be able to vote which singer to save. First off, way to alienate half your audience. Anyone who lives on the west coast will either have sit though spoilers to see if their favorites are in the bottom three just to vote for them, or watch when it is on and not be able to participate.

Most importantly, this will undoubtably backfire. As is, voters have thirteen hours from the end of the show to vote, be it the phone, the internet via nbc.com, or downloading songs on iTunes. Now you are going to give the reigns to a very small minority of Twitter users, mostly on the east coast only five minutes to decide. This is just ripe for manipulation. Even though Vote for the Worst closed up shop earlier this year, some other prankster, or just run of the mill spammers, could easily manipulate things so undeserving people make it further than they should. And how is the show going to know with just a five minute vote window? The person who gets the least amount of votes next week could easily make it to the final four/five by Twitter alone. And let face it, the cutest boy is likely to get the Instant Save every week. Hopefully the show quietly eliminates the Instant Save before it begins because it will ruin the show as much as dumping talent a lot sooner than it should (the Instant Save will probably end up saving people who do not deserve it). If not, I highly recommend instead of saving someone in the bottom three, Tweet the show a contestant that should not have been eliminated in the first place instead (I will be tweeting Holly Henry).

Unfortunately it is too late to make any suggestion for next season because I believe the Blind Auditions (and maybe even the Battle and Knockout Rounds) have already been taped. They even start casting for season seven next month. But most importantly for the upcoming casting, they need to find better singer. Enough with the amateur hour, leave those contestants for the crappy Fox singing show. It is time to start recruiting professionals again. Seriously, have they run out of Warped Tout chicks and Alicia Keys backup singers (this season lacked both for the first time)? This is the second straight season where I did not know any of the singers who audition. They need to go back to casting semi to full professional singers and stop it with all the teenagers who are not ready for primetime. For every Caroline Pennell and Danielle Bradbery, there are about twenty teenagers who do not even get a chair to turn around or make a quick exit during the Battle Round (and are montage most of the time).

I do make these suggestions because it does seem like the show does take my suggestions to heart. The last time I may suggestions on how to make the show better, I suggested that they needed to open their songbook because they had been recycling way too many song from previous season (sometimes even in the same season, last season saw two versions of Teenage Dream and Feelin’ Good) and this week only saw two recycled songs. And when ranting against repeat songs, I mentioned that I was surprised Seven Nation Army was performed on three straight season when I thought The White Stripes song most likely to become a standard would be We’re Going to Be Friends and low and behold Caroline Pennell performed the latter this week. Still even with the new songs, nothing I saw this week was as good as the latest video Holly Henry posted this week of her singing Daughter’s Youth.


The Blacklist: Between the end with Red reminiscing about his daughter and the promo for next week, it is almost guaranteed that Lizzie will turn out to be his daughter. Hopefully they come out and say it next week because everyone guessed it during the first trailer they released for the show. There are already on episode six, it is already been dragged on too long already, hopefully we get a definitive answer next week.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download The Blacklist on iTunes.

Castle: The problems wit procedurals is sometimes it is easy to figure out who the killer is even in the first act. The biggest indicator is whenever a recognizable guest star is in the episode. And then there are cases like this week when the cop being a total jerk early in the episode which led me to think he was the actual killer. Despite a few red herrings, fifty minute later I was right.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Castle on iTunes.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: When ABC announced Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., I was assuming that the Item 47 which was on The Avengers DVD was essentially the Pilot. Unfortunately Lizzy Caplan got herself cast in Masters of sex making her unavailable for this show (okay, it is not that unfortunately because I would much rather have Caplan on a show called Masters of Sex). Instead they replaced Caplan with a token hot chick with nominal acting skill. (Caplan has said she could still pop up on the show but since Masters of Sex has already been renewed for a second season, it probably will not be for a lengthy amount of episodes.) Titus Welliver, who was also in the Item 47, made his first appearance on the show. I wonder if he will be showing up more in the future with his own team which may or may not include Caplan.

As I mentioned earlier, the people they did cast on the show are not the best actors in the world. But I may have been wrong about Fitz because she did a very good job in this episode (or was it Simmons, I still not sure which one is which). I only liked her up to this point because when I squint, she looks exactly like Keira Knightley. Maybe they should give more for her to do and less to the token hot chick.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on iTunes.

Sons of Anarchy: I knew Tara’s plan would crumble quickly, but I am surprised that Jax figured it out that quickly. I have no idea how this would turn out. If I were Tara, I would go to the DA and give her the club in exchange for immunity from her current case and witness protection for her and her kids. But then again the DA may even reject that if Jax does in fact deliver the Irish to her. Though my favorite part of the episode was when the lady cop asked where the DA’s wig went, the black cop spouted some urban slang and after he walked away, simply said, “I did not understand a word of that.” It may have been a little sitcom-y, but I enjoyed what essentially a throw away line
You can download Sons of Anarchy on iTunes.

Survivor: Blood vs. Water: Just when you thought that Ciera just making the merge was amazing, the fate of this season rested in her hands; either stick with her stag alliance even though he mother came back in the game or join a couples alliance. Granted it turned out the fate was not entirely in her hands as Tina and Aras stupidly thought Gervise and Monica would be okay being in an alliance with two couples. But the craziness could continue because Ciera has a legitimate shot at actually winning this season as long as her mother does not screw things up.
You can stream recent episodes on cbs.com. You can also download Survivor: Blood vs. Water on iTunes.

Parenthood: It is getting to be distracting just how much Drew’s booty call looks like a smaller version of Alison Brie. I guess that will be the closest to a an Alison Brie fix I can get until next year.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Parenthood on iTunes.