Well You're Back and Everyone Seems Happy About It

Superman was the first big blockbuster comic book hero to be turned into a movie turning Christopher Reeves from a virtual unknown to a cultural icon over four films. Although before the franchise led to other comics leaping to the big screen asides from a Supergirl spin-off, it crumbled under its own weight (but I have to admit I did enjoy the Richard Pryor starring third installment). In the nineties the same happened to the second biggest hero Batman. But by the late nineties thanks to the success The X-Men and Spiderman, there was a boom of comic book heroes that was so big even the unknown heroes got their own movie. Within the boom, even the Batman franchise got retooled before Superman made another appearance on the big screen.

That’s not that the movie hasn’t been in the works all that time. The resurrection of Superman started way back in 1998 which even had a director (Tim Burton) and a hero (Nicholas Cage). But those don’t mean much without a script, two of Kevin Smith’s were turned down. McG was in and out as a director while Josh Hartnett and Brendan Fraser were both considered for wearing the tights while Johnny Depp auditioned for both Jor-El and Lex Luthor. Eventually Brain Singer who helmed the first two X-Men films stabilized the production signing on to direct as well as writing a draft which, unlike Smith’s, was not based on anything from the comic books and was tied into the first two Superman movies.

Singer brought in Kevin Spacey who he previously worked with on The Usual Suspects. Spacey in tuned suggested his Beyond the Sea co-star Kate Bosworth to play reporter Lois Lane who does much better than the annoying chick currently player her on Smallville. But the biggest piece of course was casting the Man of Steel and almost every name twenty something actor expressed interest but Singer decided to do the same the original movie did and cast an unknown and you really couldn’t get more unknown that Brandon Routh who may be best know for showing up in a Christina Aguilera video as well as MTV’s Undressed series.

So almost ten years in the making and nineteen years after the last installment, Superman Returns. Not only does he return to the silver screen he has returned to Earth after a five year absence while he searched for the reminisce of his home planet Krypton. Back on his adopted planet, in true Superman fashion, no one puts two and two together realizing that Superman left Metropolis at the same time Clark Kent took a sabbatical from the Daily Planet to “travel the world.” A few thing have happened in the five years including Lois Lane has a five year old son (and it doesn’t take a math major to see that the kid was conceived while Superman was still around), and Lex Luthor has been released from prison after his fifth appeal was overturned when Superman didn’t take the stand.

It doesn’t take long for some things to get back to normal as Luthor is quick to round up his henchmen for his latest idea for world domination, although if you figure out his plan before he spells ii out to Lane in the second act, you are smarter than me. There in lies a problem in that I had absolutely no clue what Lex was up to and it brought down the first act that was already slow to start with. Thing get better when you figure out what is going on although there are still some spacing issues throughout the film. And having the third largest budget ever, some of the CGI is not up to par and they could have thrown in some more money to get Bosworth a better wig.

Superman Returns gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

Don't Download These Videos vol. IV

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 so here they are courtesy of YouTube. I advise you to watch them before you read my reviews if you don’t want me to spoil things. 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.


Hurt - Christina Aguilera



Yeah the big plot twist under the big top has been done before and to better effect by U2 and in claymation by Alice in Chains, the chair spinning thing is annoying, and Christina Aguilera continues her decent in to looking more and more like a drag queen, but when it comes there are very few videos that give me the chills and this is one of them. And even though Johnny Cash’s song with the same title is much better, Xtina’s song may have something to do with the chill factor. And am I the only one who thinks her “dad” looks like the new James Bond.


Suddenly I See - KT Tunstall



Keeping with the big top theme, here’s the latest video from KT Tunstall off of her debut not the recent acoustic one. Now my courses tell me that the song has been featured in a few crappy television shows, but don’t let that negatively effect the song (same goes for Chasing Cars that has wrongfully co-opted by even crappier shows). There is also a cool CGI version (for the British I think) of the video if you can hunt that one down.

Wanted - Rhymefest



There is something seriously wrong with the charts that a fill with disposable rap songs that pretty much are the exact same song, yet the originally refreshing Rhymefest can seem to get a hit. Here’s his latest album from the film Half Nelson. To be honest one of the reasons I’m showing this video is to get more face time for the dude from The Notebook whom I used to get mistaken for back before he fell into obscurity. So hopefully this movie put him (and Rhymefest) back in the spotlight so I can get some “you remind me of the dude from The Notebook” lovin’.


Save Room - John Legend



In a story I broke yesterday, John Legend released the best baby making album of the millennium so far. Need proof? Look no further than the first single from Once Again where over the course of four minutes, Legend hooks up with as many as eight video hofessionals. My personal favorites are the token white chick and the chick in the cab. And once again, if there are any video hofessionals who would like to test out the baby making ability of the album and will be greater Cleveland area soon, shout me a holla.

I’m from the Eighties NYC Five Percent of Culture

There are very few artists that would open up their album with another artist’s song, but not even VH1 loves the eighties more than Diddy, seriously, this guy even sampled Christopher Cross. So at the start of Diddy’s latest album Press Play, the first sounds you hear are those of Tears for Fears. But surprisingly this is the only eighties sample on the album. What’s more surpising is that as a guy who came up as a producer, Diddy handed over the production reigns for the majority of the album to those that have surpassed him in recent years like Kanye West, the Neptunes, will.i.am and the underappreciated Rich Harrison who has brought us such club bangers as Crazy in Love and 1 Thing.

The artist formally known as Puff Daddy claims the name of the album Press Play comes from what the album would make you do, sit down and press play without having to skip any tracks. Granted that concept was thrown out of the window with the release of the first single Come to Me featuring the only Pussycat Doll that I think actually sings. What exactly are the other Dolls there for, to stay in the background and do things that embarrass their daddies? But anyways. This really hasn’t been a good year for artists who over hype their albums (see Angels and Airwaves, The Killers, and Ludacris). Who would have thought that Paris Hilton would be the marketing mastermind who set the bar so low that even though her album was by far the worst released of the year, possibly ever, people actually thought it was good compaired to what they expected.

Much like his previous ones, this album is guest appearance heavy. On almost every song, Diddy brings in someone to sing his hooks ranging to big names like Mary J Blige to lesser known artist such as Keri Hilson. The best though is Christina Aguilera who shows up on the Just Blaze produced Tell Me. Unlike previous album, Diddy doesn’t push down his Bad Boy rappers down our throat, in fact there are very few guest rappers on the album as side from Big Boi of Outkast, Twista, and Nas who shows up on the Kanye West produced Everything I Love. Naturally when you throw together Nas and Kanye with Cee-Lo, one half of Gnarls Barkley, singing the hook over some great horns that sound like they are from the Late Registration sessions, you got a hot track.

Unfortunately Diddy didn’t have Kanye and Nas to save the rest of the album. The Neptunes fall from grace continues with another bland track in the album closer Partners for Life featuring the past expiration date Jamie Foxx. The back to back Though the Pain (She Told Me) and Thought You Said blend together making one extremely long ten minute song that will make you look at you watch wondering when it will end. Puffy does try out different styles which is a novel idea. The Future is his attempt at hard core militant sound in a track produced by Havoc from Mobb Deep who was also behind the boards for the grimy Hold Up. Continuing his futuristic techno from Justin Timberlake’s latest album, Timbaland adds that same sound to Diddy Rock. But it doesn’t say much about the song when it’s a leftover beat from an already poor album. But Diddy is back to loving the eighties on the will.i.am produced Special Feeling that sounds like classic Prince. Well that’s if you take out the charismatic Prince singing and replace it with the anemic rapping of Diddy.

Song to Download - Everything I Love

Press Play gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

We on Award Tour - 2006 Video Music Awards

There were high hopes for this year’s MTV Music Video Awards after two years of well below sub-par shows. But in the end this year’s VMA’s were just as bad as the previous one with Jack Black somehow finding a way to be unfunny (and this may be a tipping point for Black after being universally panned for Nacho Libre). What was worse was for a show that has built itself of big stage productions and surprised guest, the performances seemed extremely low-budgets compared to years past and the surprised guests this year were Montel Williams, the little kid from the movie no one but movie snobs saw, and Lou Reed and the dude from ZZ Top who were most likely only there because The Raconteurs invited them. Here are more disappointing moments from the five hours of my life that I’ll never get back:

- Just as worthless as the big show was the hour and a half pre-show this basically was a vehicle for people to promote upcoming albums. Usually they have a world premiere video or exclusive interview, but nothing but two horrible performances.

- The show starts out with the chick from Kids Incorporated performing London Bridge, a song easily a lock for the Worst Songs of 2006 list. Blatant guided vocal track here as she didn’t even bother to even lip-sync half the time.

- Kurt Loder and John Norris must have something on the higher ups at the network because as MTV tries to distance itself from what it used to be (even refusing to even acknowledge it’s 25th anniversary) these two still show up every year at the VMA’s.

- Does the world really need a rock opera from My Chemical Romance? Really the world doesn’t need another album from them let along a concept album. But with the goth Sergeant Pepper garb, the creepy skeleton children’s choir, and the lead singer actually trying to sing with a fake British accent maybe the musical version of Jumping the Shark. Oh as for the premiere of their new song, it is easily a lock for the Worst Songs of 2006 list.

- Can we please end the Diddy era? The dude is now walking around with his own spokesman because he’s too elf important to talk. Really no one has capitalized on the death of someone else. Well except for all the Elvis impersonators.

- We start off the big show with Jay-Z welcoming the show back to New York City from a top of a building. This would have been a lot cooler had they not had the My Chemical Romance performance there earlier.

- Who ever decided the show should start off with a performance of a song that no one has ever heard should be fired. Worst show opening ever. When Justin Timberlake then switched to Worst Song of 2006 nominee SexyBack and brought out Big Head Timberland and a blatant guided vocal track, things didn’t get much better. What’s worse is it seems that the phrase Sexyback is going to overtake the go to phase for the corny old dudes replacing Fiddy (as in Fiddy Cent) after corny old dudes Al Gore and Jared Leto both used it.

- I kept waiting and waiting for the opening Jack Black skit to get funny, but sadly it never did. I think that it may have been the goal with the “everything going wrong” theme, but that’s just too high brow for me. Although I like how the MTV execs were the Douches. And what was with Black kissing everyone’s butt all evening? MTV really need to bring Chris Rock back.

- The first presenter is the straight from jail Lil’ Kim. Seeing her makes me wonder should you lose all the street cred you receive for going to jail but by getting released early for good behavior?

- The first shocker of the night was James Blunt for winning Best Male Video. I have a suspicion that this was a last minute decision to give him the award just to give his girlfriend some airtime.

- The least hip-hop song nominated wins Best Hip-Hop award. And up the irony quotient one of the Black Eyed Peas talked about how there is a place for positive rap as he picks up an award for a song about a woman’s naughty bits.

- Shakira and her Indian themed performance for Hips Don't Lie was probably the best of the night, but that’s not really saying much.

- Can someone please explain the allure of Jackass to me? Am I the moron for not finding naked midgets and dudes hitting each other in the testicles funny?

- Lil’ John is up next and tells everyone to get on the feet, but as the camera scans the place, everyone is as slow to get up as if a hymn started to play at church. But I can’t blame them considering it was just for Ludacris whose set looked like it was on a lower budget than most high school plays. Not a good sign for a song called Moneymaker. And had Ludacris not namedropped them, I would have never known that it was the Pussycat Dolls that came on stage at the end of the song.

- Speaking of the Pussycat Dolls, it’s sad tat we live in a world where they actually won a music award. But it’s nice that they thanked God for winning an award that tells dudes to loosen up their buttons. Classy.

- Jessica Simpson actually used the phrase “Push My Tush” while presenting the awards. I actually can feel my IQ dropping. Oh, and to follow up a story I broke here a couple days ago about her hooking up with John Mayer, just days later, Mayer posted on his blog that he really like the Public Enemy song Don’t Believe the Hype.

- OK Go redid their Here it Goes Again video with the treadmills step for step. What a waste of time. I could see the same exact routine on YouTube whenever I want, why would I want to see it live. The least they could have done was to screw p somewhere to make this performance memorable. Complete waste of time.

- What was on Paris Hilton’s head? But something has to be said that her album has been out more than a week and she has yet to perform a song live once. Even Ashlee Simpson’s people trusted her enough to lip-sync, it’s not a good sign that Paris cannot even be trusted to do that. Luckily she didn’t try doing it tonight instead she was just relegated to present the dude from Smallville and his band.

- Did some backstage dude grab Nicole Richie’s butt as she went onstage? I wonder if Nicole realized that Pink was making fun of her during her acceptance speech. I wonder if Pink realized that no one knew she was trying to be ironic.

- Did anyone else start to feel old when Snoop Dogg was talking about how all the new rappers were in diapers when he started? He then presents the Best Rap Video to Chamillionaire who said the best advice he ever got was to stay humble. Keep in mind this is coming from a guy who then named himself Chamillionaire.

- Guided Vocal Alert! Beyoncé gets no introduction and performs her second single off her new album. It’s never a good sign when a label has to rush out a second single before the album is never a good sign. Maybe we can expect that Destiny’s Child reunion sooner than later.

- T.I. is out next to perform a medley of songs I’ve never heard before and hope to never hear again.

- How funny was it that the dude who won Ringtone of the Year actually brought a list of people to thank? Apparently he didn’t get the memo that’s this was a joke award.

- It’s official, I am now totally sick of Fall Out Boy. And what was with the dude with the cape? The band is out to present Panic! at the Disco, or as I like to call it, a bathroom break. The performance would have been much better had the lead singer would have gotten hit with a bottle early in the song. If you want to see that happen, check out YouTube. Now that was entertaining.

- What's with bringing out the ten-year-old girl to the sounds of Rick James Superfreak. That is just totally wrong.

- I know that people like to make fun of past scandals but when your scandal is that you are horrible parents, it’s not a good idea to parody that sediment like Britney and her baby daddy did. Someone please send that tape to child services.

- Christina Aguilera for some reason to performed a balled. The massive guns she was showing off didn’t help with those drag queen comparisons.

- I thought they took out Michael Jackson from the Video Vangard award. Granted they have been sporatic giving it out lately. Hype Williams wins. It's sad that the rap cliches his videos created over a decade ago are still being used today.

- So AFI wins Best Rock Video and they were the only one all night who brings up the voting. This was something I was really wondering about, in the press release for the nominees, it mentioned that there was voting on the website, but I never heard anything about it after that. Nor did anything mention what the votes meant or if they meant why there was still a Viewer’s Choice Award. This is really bugging me.

- During one of their many mini-songs The Raconteurs changed the lyrics of historic song to “internet killed the video star.” Clever. Although this is about a year after I declared Podcasts Killed the Video Star.

- Worst Dressed of the night goes to Jennifer Lopez and her gypsy outfit. Seriously, who brought her out of obscurity? Can we quickly send her back there before she makes more crappy music? She appropriately presents Video of the Year to Panic! at the Disco, a crappy song to top off the crappy year.

- The night ends with The Killers. As the song ends they go to the nosebleed camera and just when you think they are setting up for something special, they cut back to Jack Black who ends the show.

Musings From the Back 9: Music Edition

There are a few albums that have been released lately but I either didn’t have time to give them their own post or the album didn’t inspire me enough to fill up a whole post. I’ve compiled some of those albums into one review. With the fall television season approaching leading to more posts on that leaving less for album reviews and music companies releasing more and more notable albums in time for the holiday season, this may become a new segment on the 9th Green.


This may shock my fellow fans of old school hip-hop but I never really cared for OutKast. Yeah there a few songs in their decade plus repertoire like Player’s Ball or Ms. Jackson but for the most part, the duo was a little too weird for me and I just never got their beats like on Elevators (Me and You). What’s interesting about their latest album, Idlewild, is how most of the album was recorded with only one of the members present. I though that the solo double album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below was just going to be a one time thing. But anyway. The album itself is basically a soundtrack to a film of the same name which itself is a movie set in prohibition which leads to half of the album having a retro feel heavy on pianos and acoustic guitars which are more entertaining then the other half that feature classic OutKast odd beats that they are known for. Hollywood Divorse combines both to great effect and even features both Andre 3000 and Big Boi as well as a standout verse by Snoop Dogg and a less than stellar one from Lil’ Wayne. The big problem with the album is it is like listening to the soundtrack to a musical you have never seen in that you are left thinking you need to see the movie to full appreciate the album.

Idlewild gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.


One reason why I had no reason to give the self-titled debut of Danity Kane is because it seemed like I just reviewed a couple a weeks ago when Cassie (see my review - It's Not that Deep) released her self-titled debut not so ironically on the same record label Bad Boy. The same over-production over the same paint-by-number lyrics are present. The main different is where Cassie seemed to be on anti-depressants while she sings, the five members of Danity Kane spend the album trying to out Mariah Carey each other. And there in lies the problems of vocal groups since the explosion of the boy bands, they are filled with five lead singers singing melody with no one willing to sing the harmony like in groups from the Motown era. Another thing going against Danity Kane is that they were formed out of a reality show, a cable one at that and with the exclusion of Kelly Clarkson, no reality act has been able sustain a career after the cameras stop rolling. Speaking of the reality show they spanned from, Making the Band 3, like most MTV reality shows I tried to avoid it, but one scene I did catch was when Diddy chastised the girls for acting like black dudes, something I totally agree with because there is nothing more annoying than white chick acting black, but fast forward to their first single Showstopper and the song is all about riding on “22’s” and acting “like big boys do.” I guess it’s okay to act black if it sell records.

Danity Kane gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.


Lyfe Jennings and his half singing half spoken word delivery is the ultimate combination of R&B and rap music. His latest album The Phoenix (named after his son) leaves right off where his debut left off. That album chronicled his release from prison and his assimilation back into society. Now on the new album he goes on to sing about life since the first one’s release including the un-hip-hop anti-groupie stance on S.E.X. Lyfe would be best served to stick to R&B themes because when he goes into rap it just comes off as silly like on Biggie N****a where he suggests he’s the reincarnation of The Notorious B.I.G. or his restyling of 2Pac’s Keep Ya Head Up. What’s cool about this album, as well as his first is that Lyfe gives a running commentary between songs connection each one, although this could get old real quick.

The Phoenix gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.


Anyone with cable could watch Nick Lachey and then wife Jessica Simpson as they started their life together on the MTV reality show Newlyweds. Then anyone with a US Magazine or an internet connection could read about it falling apart. And then could see the couple participate in a “who can hook up the most people” contest. Nick definitely won if you are counting in terms quantity (quality can be debated though). But if his album, What’s Left of Me was any indication, he still wasn’t quite over his reality show co-star. I did give it a listen when it was released and marveled at how sad the dude was. Every song was about how he couldn’t go on and they all just sounded the same blending into one uber-long excruciatingly long song.

What’s Left of Me gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.


Two weeks ago MTV hyped that you could listen to the whole Back to Basics album a week before it’s release so I took advantage of that and started to get ready for a review last week when it dropped. Then while watching a special on Christina Aguilera they played some songs I hadn’t heard only to realize they only streamed the first disk of a double CD (unless I’m a complete moron and couldn’t figure out how to stream the second disk). So I scrapped the review, but here are some thoughts of the songs I heard. It’s odd that she started off the first disk (intro excluded) with Pray, featuring Steve Windwood on keyboards, which only conjured up thoughts of the M.C. Hammer song of the same name. But don’t worry, all that praying doesn’t mean she doesn’t still have that nasty in her as she explains on Still Dirrty. Oh, Mother is touching, but nowhere as good as Kanye West’s ode to his mama. I was a little disappointed that most of the songs weren’t as retro as the title would suggest but then again I still prefer my Aguilera to sing about rubbing her the right way.

Since I didn’t hear the whole album, I won’t hand out a rating on the Terror Alert Scale unless I can hunt down the second disk, but since I’m mocked for having her first album, I don’t think that will happen. If you are interested in a review of both disks, check out Neverending Rainbow for a full review.

We on Award Tour - 2006 MTV Movie Awards

MTV Award shows usually are as good as their host so I was a little skeptical when it was announced that Jessica Alba was hosting thinking back to the Lindsay Lohan Dance Off debacle of last year. Or was it two years ago; was there a Jimmy Fallon bombfest in between? And that in lies the problem, there hasn’t been a memorable Movie Awards host since Jack Black and Sarah Michelle Gellar hooked up. Here’s a look at this year’s festivities:

- First we have to start off with the obligatory pre-show this time with guest reporters Rihanna and the dude from Fall Out Boy. And for those who think Rihanna sounds extremely bored when she’s sing, she was even more anemic while talking. As for Fall Out Boy, yeah Sugar We’re Going Down is catchy, but I’m totally over them since making the Michael Jackson sized video. Now it’s time for them to go to the pseudo-punk where all the other band of the like have gone after minimal success. Say hi to Good Charlotte while you’re there boys.

- Christina Aguilera announced her next album is going to be a double-album. Great that means twice as much music for me to ignore. Seriously, if I wanted to listen to jazz music, I’d break out my Ella Fitzgerald album; you really need to go back to coy pop double entendre like Genie in a Bottle.

- Not to be outdone by sports programs that have sponsored everything out except the National Anthem, the MTV Awards, instead of a Green Room, have the Neutrogena Amber Room. I shouldn’t mock too much because coming soon to the 9th Green is the Adidas Lyrics Quiz and the Scooter Hall of Fame brought to you by Heineken.

- Also seen multiple times of the blue carpet was Joe Simpson. Dude must have incriminating photo’s of very powerful people because I can’t understand how him and his daughters have stayed in the spotlight for so long.

- And now on to the big show with what I believe was a Mission Impossible 3 spoof (I only know this because its theme music played at the end). I have no clue why Topher Grace was there, but the whole bit was saved by Flavor Flav. I really can’t wait until the inevitable second edition of Flavor of Love.

- Luckily we are spared from an Alba monologue by Andy Sanburg as Mr. Google in a funny bit. Here’s a wild idea, why didn’t they have Mr. Lazy Sunday co-host the show? Or Dane Cook? Or any comedian not named Jimmy Fallon? Really, if I wanted to stare at Jessica Alba, I could have just googled her like the bit suggested.

- Another reason why the award show has gone downhill, instead of randomly picking presenters for comic effect (think Busta Rhymes and Martha Stewart) they resort to just putting together from the same upcoming movie much like having the cast of Superman Returns present Best Hero. Hopefully the verbal beat down Batman gave to Superman during his acceptance speech may lead to the much rumored Superman vs. Batman movie.

- For Best Kiss, Justin Timberlake routinely repeats the phrase “ranch hand jobs.” Yeah, that should really help stop those pesky gay rumors.

- Crap, a Jimmy Fallon sighting. And it’s for parody of yet another movie I haven’t seen, The Da Vinci Code. And what Movie Awards wouldn’t be complete without an Andy Dick sighting. And that begs the question, Where’s Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn?

- Should I know who Borat is? But anyways. The dude is out to present the highlight of the night (asides from Flavor Flav), Gnarls Barkley who were in full Star Wars gear with Chewbacca on drums. Classic. Between this performance and the uber catch Crazy, Cee-Lo is almost forgiven for raising a daughter who got her own My Super Sweet 16 episode (um, not that I watch that show or anything). In fact the song is so good, I may start my own cover band, Gnawn Bradley. And the Barkley karma was so good, Darth Vader promptly wins best villain.

- Alba wins the Sexiest Award and thanks all the perverts out there. Um, you’re welcome, I guess.

- It’s nice to hear The J. Geils Band back on MTV to accompany Adam Sandler out. He’s out to present the Best Performance, with his Click co-star of course. I really don’t like these new serious awards MTV are heading to. But the award went to the dude from Bubble Boy, so how credible can the award be?

- Aside from Alba in her underwear, the King Kong parody was a waste of time. Stay away from comedy Jessica and stick to, um, well, um, yeah, um, never mind.

- Christina Aguilera is out next as she looks more and more like a drag queen every day. C’mon, take out the fake breasts, stop putting stuff in your hair, lay off the excessive makeup, and return to asking me to rub you the right way.

- Speaking of shameless plug, Will Ferrell is out to run down the long list of sponsors in addition to those already on his jumpsuit. Not nearly as funny as the scene from Wayne’s World, in fact it wasn’t funny at all. And did anyone notice the blatant cut during his thing? But anyways. Ferrell is out to present Best Comedic Performance and apparently the Wedding Chashers duo split their votes because that’s the only way Steve Carell could win.

- The Silver Bucket of Excellence was awarded to Do the Right Thing. Again with the seriousness. Please stop. Remember the good old days when they gave these awards to Shaft?

- Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock are teaming up again. Yawn.

- Thank goodness for the AFI performance because it gave me a chance to check out the end of the Astros game on TBS. Whoever suggested this band should be fired. Doesn’t the Red Hot Chili Peppers have an album to promote?

- Chris “Ludacris” Bridges I up next. Why does the rapper insist on using his real name for acting purposes? You don’t the clock dude going around calling himself William “Flavor Flav” Drayton, you don’t see Ice-T’s real name in the credits for Law and Order.

- Next up is the first ever MTV Generations Award given to Jim Carrey. Remember the good ol’ days when Carrey and Sandler won Best Comedic Performance every year? Those were good time. It’s interesting during his retrospective, they didn’t bleep out “There’s a lot of fine looking pussy here tonight” yet they did back when he originally uttered the line. Of course that was back in the day they were still banning the word “pimp” and now they even have a show with it in its title. Wow, I feel old now.

- Instead of the first time filmmaker award, we now get the student filmmaker award which was heavily edited. I give it two years before it’s edited out of the whole program like its predecessor.

- Sam Jackson is out to present the granddaddy of them all, Best Picture. But before he hands that off to Wedding Crashers, he gives a shameless plug to his latest film, Snakes on a Plane. Normally I go off on things like this, but since it’s Sam Jackson promoting something as silly as Snakes on a Plane, I’ll let it slide. Plus I was laughing the whole time epecially when he hints at the sequil, More Mother(Expletive Deleted)ing Snakes on Another Mother(Expletive Deleted)ing Plane.


As a whole, the awards were another borefest, but if you are interested in watching it, not only can you wait for MTV to repeated ad nausea, you can watch individual segments on their broadband channel, Overdrive. I highly suggest the Flavor Flav bit and the Gnarls Barkley performance and skip the rest.

Now for something unrelated to the awards but under the rule of ask and you shall receive, Annie asked for more “Weird Al” Yankovic, and it just so happens that Al is offering up his latest parody, You’re Pitiful on his website (click his name). So if you are a fan of Al or just hate James Blunt (yep it’s a parody of You’re Beautiful), this is a must download. I personally love the beginning of the song.