Best of the Week - 4/13/12

Quote of the Week: Anybody want to get weird and play Mario Kart? (Chloe, Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23)

Song of the Week: Infinity Guitars – Sleigh Bells (Don’t Trust the B---- in Apartment 23)

Scene of the Week:



Big News of the Week: Good Riddance Bye Rick Santorum: James Carville is famous for saying “It’s the economy stupid” and that is a great barometer for presidential contests, but there may be one thing more powerful than the economy: Money. So even though he won a couple states and made some talking heads doubt Mitt Romney’s inevitability, I never thought Rick Santorum had a shot at the Republican nomination despite his position as the top Not-Romney candidate. And just how much dos the Republican base hate Romney that the Tea Partiers would rally behind Santorum who introduced a lot of pork during his time in the senate or the evangelicals who view Catholicism much a cult as Mormonism. So goodbye Rick, just do not think your second place showing this year make you think you have a chance in four to eight years because this year was just a case of part of the Republican base hating you less than Mitt Romney and you have no chance the next cycle when stronger candidates like Chris Christie, Mitch Daniels, and / or Jeb Bush run. Sarah Palin may even steal votes from your nutjob wing of the part next time around.

Preview Picture of the Week:

Amish: Out of Order  Tuesday at 10:00 on National Geographic Channel

Free Download of the Week: Coachella All-Stars (Google Play): The music festival is this weekend and for those that are not making the trip this year, you can pick up a playlist of 15 songs from artists playing this including The Verve, Daft Punk, and Snoop Dogg for free.

Deal of the Week: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Artists for $3.99: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame takes place tomorrow (sans Axl Rose who does not want to be inducted because he is a douche who does not like that the Hall is inducting his former band mates too because apparently Bumblefoot is more worthy of induction than Slash) and to honor the occasion Amazon has lowered some albums by artists already in Pink Floyd and U2 and new inductees like Beastie Boys and Guns n Roses:



New Album Release of the Week: Picture Show - Neon Trees

New DVD Release of the Week: Frozen Planet: The Complete Series (David Attenborough-Narrated Version) [Blu-ray]

Video of the Week: I am not a big fan of Twitter, I find it un-American to limit free speech to under a hundred or so characters. But I did recently sign up for the service basically just to shamelessly plug new articles here at the 9th Green and it also gives me another avenue to stalk Kristen Bell (but mostly because of the latter). Amidst my unusual shameless plus, I made an tweet saying “I'm trying to figure out how to vote for The Shields Brothers! to advance on The Voice but for some reason they are not listed on the voting page” (In my true anti-Twitter fever I was extremely angry that I had to leave of a period to the post due to the lack of characters left; it’s bad form to sacrifice correct punctuation.) Apparently the brothers enjoyed my sentiments that even because the first celebrities ever to retweet me. And scrolling their twitter feed I noticed they released a video of the song they would have performed at the Live Show had they not been unceremoniously bounced from the show for the painfully bad Erin Martin. Since they were nice to retweet me, here is their version of We Are Young by fun. featuring what looks to be Ava Crowder’s baby sister.



Next Week Pick of the Week: Revenge, Wednesday at 10:00 on ABC: I was not thrill with how the last two episodes of Revenge played out when it turned out that Jack did not kill Daniel like we were led to believe in the series premiere but instead it was the rent boy killed by the sensei. But as it turns out absence does make the heart grow stronger because I am more then ready for the show to return after more than a month hiatus.

Best of the Week - 3/30/12

Quote of the Week: We just shot the guy that’s looking to kill the guy you’re dying to see dead. (Art, Justified)

Song of the Week: Zou Bisou, Bisou – Megan Draper (Mad Men)

Scene of the Week:



Big News of the Week: Trayvon Martin: I am not going to pretend I knew what happened during the shooting like many of the talking heads on television or the internet, but I will saw the Stand Your Ground Law is the dumbest idea ever in the history of dumb idea. It gives carte blanche to anyone who “thinks” they are being threatened, but if that law was ever instituted here I would fear threatened just for walking outside not knowing that someone having a bad day with a gun could take homage of a perceived slight from me.

Preview Picture of the Week:



Free Download of the Week: Pilot - Don't Trust the (Expletive Deleted) in Apartment 23 (iTunes)

Deal of the Week: Save up to 62% on Select HBO Favorites (Game of Thrones, Rome, Eastbound and Down)

New Album Release of the Week: My Head Is an Animal - Of Monsters and Men

New DVD Release of the Week: Eagleheart: Season One

Video of the Week: Ladies and gentlemen, the greatest acoustic metal band of all time is back. Yes Tenacious D are releasing a new album. And for those wondering what the band has been up to since The Pick of Destiny bombed at the box office, this video, complete with Val Kilmer, and, um, Josh Grobin, should catch you up.



Next Week Pick of the Week: Shameless, Sunday at 9:00 on Showtime: A lot went down last week with Karen giving birth to an Asian kid that her mother took from the hospital, Steve Jimmy giving his identity to his wife’s boyfriend, Harry Hamlin got naked, oh yeah, and Monica slit her wrists. All those plotlines play out tonight with some shocking endings (and Hamlin’s appearance proves not to be a one off as Ian runs into him is a surprising situation). And for those disappointed at Fiona’s ability to keep herself fully clothed that last couple episodes, you should be happy with tonight’s episode.

Best of the Week - 3/10/12

Quote of the Week: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. (Lionel Richie, The Voice)

Song of the Week: Time After Time – Cindi Lauper (as sung by Jody, Shameless)

Scene of the Week:



Big News of the Week: Mediocre Tuesday: I do not know what it says about the candidates that are still in the race, but when I went to the polls this past Tuesday, I ended up voting for Jon Huntsman since his name was still on the ballot. Not that my vote would have meant much either way because there was no knockout punch during the shrinking Super Tuesday. Well Newt Gingrich was all but eliminated and now Rick Santorm now needs about two-thirds of the remaining votes if he was to get the Republican nomination. Of course if they continue to remain the thorn in Mitt Romney’s side that may mean the brokered convention that Hilary Clinton robbed me of four years ago.

Preview Picture of the Week:

Wild Justice, Sunday at 9:00 on Nat Geo Wild

Worthless Walking Dead Character of the Week: T-Dogg (Seriously, had I have done this segment since the inception of the show T-Dogg would by far have won this award every everyone else, aside from being beat up by a redneck and cut his arm open, dude’s done nothing)

Free Download of the Week: Can't Go Home – Good Old War (iTunes)

Deal of the Week: $3.99 Albums on Amazon: Every month Amazon releases a hundred albums you can download for $5.00, but if you look closely they actually have better deals than that periodically on their site unadvertised. I do not know how long it will last, but as I write this there is a bunch of albums for only $3.99 including The Black Keys, N.W.A., U2, and the forty song Deluxe Edition of Nirvana’s Nevermind which comes out to ten cents per song by my math.



New Album Release of the Week: Delta Spirit - Delta Spirit

New DVD Release of the Week: American Pie 2 (Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy)

Video of the Week: I am not sure if we should read anything into Community returning on the Ides of March, but the show will be returning to its 8:00 timeslot this Thursdays. No word yet on if Annie’s Boobs shows up. To honor of the occasion the cast is getting animated and not stop motion animated like last Christmas but more traditionally this time around. Check out all three parts below.







Next Week Pick of the Week: March Madness, All Day, Thursday through Sunday on CBS, TNT, TBS, and TruTV: Brackets are being released tomorrow, so do not expect any work to get down this week on Monday or after noon on Thursday and Friday. Look out for my picks on Monday.

Best of the Week - 2/18/12

Quote of the Week: “Say hello to your Aunt Mommy.” No, not adorable: Appalachian. (Mitchell, Modern Family)

Song of the Week: A Horse with No Name – America (as sung by Alt-Man, Suburgatory)

Preview Picture of the Week:



Scene of the Week:



Big News of the Week: The New GOP Front Runner Is… Rick Santorum?: A couple weeks ago I heard someone compare the then inevitable Republican nominee Mitt Romney to former Democratic nominee for president John Kerry: a Massachusetts political so uninspiring that he could not even beat an incumbent who in no way deserved a second term. But what would that make Rick Santorum, a guy who would lose in a landslide to an incumbent that in no way deserves to be elected? Leave it to the Republican, who looked like they could nominate a ham sandwich a year ago and win, to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Free Download of the Week: Lead Me Love - Shelby Lynne (Rolling Stone)

Deal of the Week: Save up to 60% on Select HBO Favorites (Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire, Eastbound and Down)

New Album Release of the Week: Reign of Terror - Sleigh Bells

New DVD Release of the Week: Weeds: Season Seven

Video of the Week: You could not pay me to the last G.I. Joe. It looked like just another example of Hollywood trying to ruin my childhood with another crappy live action movie of toys I used to play with. And from what I heard I was glad to skip it. So I naturally groaned when they announced a sequel. But then the cast The Rock. And Tyra Collette. And Titus Pullo. And Boyd Crowder. And The Rza. And it was written by the guys who wrote Zombieland. So consider me intrigued. Well that was until I learned it was being directed by the dude who did the Justin Bieber movie. Wait, what?



Next Week Pick of the Week: Survivor: One World, Wednesday at 8:00 on CBS: I was tentative going into the new season of Survivor after two seasons of the painfully bad Redemption Island to the point I was ready to switch over to watching ABC comedies live on Wednesday and saving Survivor for later in the week. But after one week I am back in, the One World idea is great and segregating the genders is even better. I wonder if next season Survivor will have the cojones to do One World with Blacks, Whites, Asians, and Hispanics.

Best of the Week - 1/28/12

Quote of the Week: The weird thing about this is that I am scrapping honey off of no-no special places of my partner that I haven’t spoken to in over a year… and, oh yeah, she hates me. (Dumbar, The Challenge: Battle of the Exes)

Song of the Week: Take On Me - a-ha (as performed by Jeffster backed by an orchestra, Chuck)

Gratuitous Token Hot Chick Picture of the Week:



Scene of the Week:



Big News of the Week: Newt Back From the Dead… Again: Going into South Carolina it looked like Mitt Romney was going to win the first three primaries for the first time in modern history for a non incumbent. Then Iowa finally got around to counting their ballots and realize Rick Santorum actually won their state and then the Evangelicals of SC realized they would rather vote for thrice married Catholic than a Mormon. But if there is a silver lining for Romney is Republicans are starting to remember why they hated Newt in the first place so he may just wrap up the nomination by Super Tuesday anyway.

Free Download of the Week: Gimme a Kiss - Madi Diaz (RollingStone.com): If that is not enough free music from Madi Diaz, you can also grab her Let’s Go for the low, low price of free.

New Album Release of the Week: Born to Die - Lana Del Rey

New DVD Release of the Week: Drive

Video of the Week: The premiere of The Voice is just one week away and last year’s breakout singer Dia Frampton recently went out on tour with her coach Blake Shelton and has been doing some side gigs along the road like recently in Nashville where she streamed her entire set on Livestream. Check it out in its entirety below:

Watch live streaming video from exitin at livestream.com

Next Week Pick of the Week: The Challenge: Battle of the Exes, Wednesday at 10:00 on MTV: Where Survivor pulls out tricks no one wants to see like Redemption Island and Immunity Idols, last season The Challenge cam up with its best idea ever: pair up people who hate each other for Rivals. I did not think it could get much better than that until they announced their new season: Battle of The Exes forcing past hook ups to team up with each other. Brilliant. It always seems like I miss the first couple episodes of The Challenge because it is the only thing I still watch on MTV (until the triumphant return of Beavis and Butt-Head), but there was no way I was missing the new season and it totally lived up to expectation. I do not know why Survivor does not throw money at the people who create challenges for The Challenge but they should because the Honey challenge was more creative than any challenge on South Pacific.

Best of the Week - 1/21/12

Quote of the Week: Live long and suck it Zachary Quinto. (Sheldon, The Big Bang Theory)

Song of the Week: Rock Lobster – The B52’s (Suburgatory)

Gratuitous Token Hot Chick Picture of the Week:



Scene of the Week:



Big News of the Week: The Republican Field Keeps Shrinking: The slow march to Mitt Romney vs. Barack Obama (hopefully America Elect nominates someone worth voting for) picked up a little this week when the Republican candidates shrunk by two this week. First Jon Huntsman who seemed too smart for the Republican electorate dropped out. The other shoe dropped with Rick Perry who possibly withdrew for the second time. Perry was supposed to be the anti-Bush Texas governor but managed to perform worse at debates than W. But the big new of the week had to do with the high number of drop outs just short of tomorrow’s South Carolina primary, the spotlight was back on Newt Gingrich’s many marriages with wife number two claiming that Newt asked her if they could have an open marriage so he could hook up with eventual wife number three. On the bright side, this wife was not going through chemotherapy when he asked. So tomorrow we get to see if evangelicals would rather get behind a Mormon or a Christian who actually tried to get his wife to sign off on polygamy.

Free Download of the Week: Hurry Hurry - Jessie Baylin (Amazon MP3)

Deal of the Week: Over 1,000 Albums $5 Each: With over a 1000 album for sale for just $5 there are a lot of hidden gems, here are a couple from my list of The 100 Greatest Songs of the 00’s including Michele Branch, John Mayer, The Killers and Kanye West.



New Album Release of the Week: The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy - Nada Surf

New DVD Release of the Week: Kojak: The Complete Movie Collection

Video of the Week: House of Lies premiered to a resounding yawn a couple weeks ago and tomorrow’s episode should make any fan of Kristen Bell’s feet happy. Until then the two guys on the show not named Bell or Don Cheadle are starring in webisodes for the show entitled Friday’s at Gallweather, one of which even features Bell, with shoes on, in a cameo.



Next Week Pick of the Week: Chuck, Friday at 8:00 on NBC: An end of an era comes Friday when the hottest token hot chick ever in the history of television will presumably be donning her last skimpy outfit on the small screen. Sure the show itself has not been great since the second season and arguably has not even been good for the last couple seasons, but hopefully Chuck will go out on a high note, preferably by finally killing Morgan off, something they should have done a long, long time ago.

Best of the Week - 10/14/11

Quote of the Week: This is the third Teenage Dream in forty-five minutes; why don’t I just close my nuts in the cashier’s door? (Garrett Morris – 2 Broke Girls)

Song of the Week: Torn – Natalie Imbruglia (as sung by Penny and her mom, Happy Endings)

Scene of the Week:



Big News of the Week: Hank Williams Jr. Is a Moron and So Is Anyone Who Tries to Despiser His Ramblings: Last week Fox and Friends had country singer Hank Williams, Jr. to talk politics because apparently Dick Cheney was unavailable. Like most people in America, Hank is fed up with our political parties and said about Obama’s golf game with Speaker of the House Boehner was, “Come on! It would be like Hitler playing golf with Netanyahu!” Naturally this made the talking head head’s explode thinking he compared Obama and Hitler. But really, trying to make sense of what Williams was trying to say only makes you dumber than he is. And to say Williams compared Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler would be like saying he compared John Boehner to Benjamin Netanyahu, which no one is saying but is just as absurd. Now if you excuse, I am going to go watch Fox and Friends because they are going to interview the dude from Wham not named George Michael about the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Free Download of the Week: Ole´ – Pearl Jam (iTunes)

Deal of the Week: Up to 55% Off Hit Movies and TV on Blu-ray (Earnest Scared Straight, Ghostbusters, Dawn of the Dead)

New Album Release of the Week: Beyond the Sun (2CD) - Chris Isaak

New DVD Release of the Week: Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest

Video of the Week: Showtime has released a new teaser for their upcoming show House of Lies and just like the last one that featured AC/DC’s Big Balls, the new one is also balls-centric.

Newton’s Cradle (ouse of Lies Spot)


Next Week Pick of the Week: The Walking Dead, Sunday at 9:00 on AMC: The first season of The Walking Dead is one of those shows that you think it is better than it really is (a staple for AMC). Sure the first season was epic with great characterizations, zombie makeup, and you really felt the sparseness and isolation of the post apocalyptic world. But looking back at the first season, it is hard not to think that the six episodes could have been crammed into just two. There are big reservations going into the second season after creator and showrunner Frank Darabont got unceremoniously canned by the network after the first episode in the new season. But for those that cannot get enough of the show, right after it airs, there will be a new series Talking Dead, a live after-show where Chris Hardwick (you know, the one from Singled Out not named Jenny McCarthy) discussing the episode with fans, actors, and producers (presumably Darabont will not be making an appearance) because why wouldn’t a serious drama steal an idea from MTV? But anyway. For more on the second season, check out the video below where Attack of the Show’s Grace Helbig visits the set of the show.

Game Reviews - E3 2012 - Movies and TV

57 Channels and Only This Is On - 9/10/11

Quote of the Week: This ain’t a job. It ain’t an occupation. It's a calling. (Tommy, Rescue Me)

Song of the Week: In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida – Iron Butterfly (as played on the bagpipes, Rescue Me)

Big News of the Week: GOP Debate: I really do not pay too much to debates until about a month before people actually start voting, but I usually still tune in to the early ones. But this year’s Republican debates have been excruciationing to sit through I finally figured out why: where is Jimmy McMillan? I thought he was going to run as a Republican nominee for the president this election cyce yet he has yet to eb invited to any of the debates. Sure I do not actually pay it, but is the rent still not too damn high?


The Lying Game: Wow, the I accidently tipped the guy a fifty instead of a five and no do not have to pay the bill was the greatest move ever. And if it was not clear enough that the dude was poor, hustling at golf pretty much sealed it. But what made me laugh the most was when the dance instructor stopped things because of statutory reasons. It was almost a direct shot at the other show created by the same writer, Pretty Little Liars, with it’s icky teacher / student relationship. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download The Lying Game on iTunes.

Sons of Anarchy: And fears I had about the show continuing its slump from last season were quickly laid to rest because it was back to its season two glory right from the start. It was nice to see the dude from Terriers take up shop in Charming, adding a nice wrinkle to the town, although it took me a while to recognize without the beard. Also taking a while to place was the new assistant U.S. attorney. I recognized him right away, but could not remember what he played. The second scene I remembered he was a priest, then the third time he appeared I finally remembered he was on Deadwood (yet another actor from that show that made its way to Charming). You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Sons of Anarchy on iTunes.

Also check out my season (series) review of Rescue Me.

Free Download of the Week: Little Lie – Lindi Ortega (Spinner)

Deal of the Week: Save up to 57% on Blu-Ray Favorites & More (Inception, The Dark Knight, 300)

New Album Release of the Week: Wynton Marsalis & Eric Clapton Play The Blues

New DVD Release of the Week: Star Wars: The Complete Saga (Episodes I-VI) [Blu-ray]

Video of the Week: Henry Kissinger arguably had more to do with shaping the post-war policy of the United States than anyone else and Monday he sits down with the National Geographic Channel at 8:00 to talk about it. The two hour special comes from twenty-five hours of interviews and below is a sneak peak:

Kissinger


Next Week Pick of the Week: Parenthood, Tuesday at 10:00 on NBC: With Friday Night Lights ending its run this summer, Parenthood inherits the title of best show on network television (not surprisingly they share producers). If my memory serves me correctly, Adam quite his job just after knocking up his wife even though it was his sister Julia that was trying to get pregnant. Both Crosby and Haddie had sex with FNL alum to disastrous consequences. While Amber decided college was not for her much to the distain of Sarah. While Drew continues to stay in the background.


With 9/11 tomorrow, if you already inundated with retrospectives, here is another one to check out: Beyond 9/11: Portraits of Resilience which will debut tomorrow at 8:46 A.M., ten years to the minute the first airplaine hit the World Trade Center on HBO in association with Time magazine. Check out a trailer below:

Previewing George W. Bush: The 9/11 Interview

For my generation, September 11, 2001 is the defining moment that we will be talking about until the day we die the way previous generations talked about the Kennedy Assassination and Pearl Harbor. Everyone has a story about where they were and what they were doing the day the Twin Towers. But there may not be a more compelling story that someone can tell that was not actually in New York that day then of President George W. Bush.

Bush only granted one interview to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the date and that will be airing tonight on the National Geographic Channel at 10:00. George W. Bush: The 9/11 Interview, the forty-third president goes into detail of what he did that day, starting with a mundane run and ending with a speech to the nation in the Oval Office. W. goes into detail of what was going through his mind in that classroom, where he went in Air Force One after he left Florida, his decision to shoot down any commercial airline that did not respond, and even his one attempt at humor he made that day.

This interview is not an overview of the entire George W. Bush presidency, so do not expect him to explain Katrina, the economic meltdown at the end of his term, and the wars he waged are just alluded to. Topics remain only focused on that one day and the direct aftermath and ends with Bush famously on the rubble in New York City with the megaphone. There is a quick epilogue where he talks about the murder of Osama bin Laden. The interview is very down the line politically and if worth viewing whatever your political persuasion is and should not elicited cries of soft ball or gotcha questions from anyone unless nutjobs on either side of the aisle.

George W. Bush: The 9/11 Interview airs tonight at 10:00 on the National Geographic Channel. Check out a promo below:

57 Channels and Only This Is On - 8/27/11

Quote of the Week: I didn’t kill you, God killed you. I just made sure it took. (Nate, Leverage)

Song of the Week: Poison and Wine – The Civil Wars (Pretty Little Liars)

Big News of the Week: A Melancholy Happy Trails to Jerry Leiber and Nick Ashford: We lost two songwriting greats on the same day this week. Nick Ashford wrote some of Motown’s greatest hits including Ain’t No Mountain High Enough which was made famous by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell. But Nick may most be famous for the awesomely cheesy song Solid which he recorded with his wife as Ashford and Simpson. Jerry Leiber was also famous as part of a duo, he and Mike Stoller wrote some of the biggest songs of early rock and roll including Jailhouse Rock, Hound Dog and Ben E. King’s Stand by Me, one of the few songs I can play on piano.


The Lying Game: My biggest problem with the Pilot is that there seemed to have all the elements of an underlying conspiracy theory, but there were no clues or hints that there was any. Like I doubt it is a coincidence that the Mercers would adopt just one of the twins but the writers did not throw anything in to back up my suspicions. We finally got some of that this week in spades when the dude from Heroes showed up and mentioned something ambiguously shady with papa Mercer then turned out to be the one that was behind Sutton’s missing laptop. I also like how “The Lying Game” plays into the story. I was so bored after the first episode I did not bother to come up with any theories, but this episode gave me hope that the show may be salvaged. I even came up with a wild conspiracy theory: we learned that that mama Mercer and Char’s mom went to high school together and I bet all the parents go all the way back to school together and they somehow tie into Sutton and Emma’s parents. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download The Lying Game on iTunes.

Weeds: Apparently Silas is as dumb as he looks. I had Dawn Summers as a double agent right when she talked about how unhappy she was. What I did not see coming was her being the big bad or that she would clean him out that quickly.

Pretty Little Liars: I knew I should have put money on head shrinker dieing before she could tell anyone who “A” is. Why is it in every television show or movie whenever somebody calls someone to tell them a deep dark secret, they do not just tell them there so there is time for whoever is hiding the secret to do something to them? The head shrinker could have easily told Emily, “Hey, I know who “A” is, it is Bob the Bus Driver, tell your friends to meet me in my office to discuss. Oh and call the police just in case Bob the Bus Driver kills me before you get here.” You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Pretty Little Liars on iTunes.

Free Download of the Week: Pumped Up Kicks (Chrome Canyon Remix) - Foster the People (Rcrd Lbl): Ever wonder what the summer jam Pumped Up Kicks would sound like if it were reimaged as a early nineties slow jam? Wonder no long, just download this remix.

New Album Release of the Week: I'm With You - Red Hot Chili Peppers

New DVD Release of the Week: Parenthood: Season 2

Video of the Week: When you have George Harrison and Martin Scorcese in the same sentence, you know you are in for something. The former is the subject and the latter is the director of the documentary George Harrison: Living in the Material World which will air in two parts October 5 and 6 on HBO. Check out the trailer below:



Next Week Pick of the Week: George W. Bush: The 9/11 Interview, Sunday at 10:00 on the National Geographic Channel: With 9/11 tributes I full gear, National Geographic Channel has the biggest get, an exclusive interview with former president George W. Bush taking about the day for the first time since he left office. Look for my full preview tomorrow.

57 Channels and Only This Is On - 8/6/11

Quote of the Week: How accurate was The Wire? (Student – Weeds)

Song of the Week: Alien – Carey Brothers (Pretty Little Liars)

Big News of the Week: The Debt Ceiling Raised: Since Republicans do not want to do anything to help the economy in hopes of taking back the White House next year and Democrats do not have the marbles to push legislation without compromise through like Bush did last decade, we were stuck hearing about the debt ceiling while our congressmen played political chicken with the word’s economy. Considering it would be a lose-lose-lose type situation if the debt ceiling limit was not raised, it was done at the last minute. All this led to an all time 14% approval rating of Congress which puts them somewhere between LeBron James and Casey Anderson.


Leverage: Oh you silly promo monkeys making us think that Eliot gets shot during the episode, but never actually gets caught in the cross hairs at all. But I did like the ingenious way of getting the daughter’s breath to open the panic room. You can stream recent episodes on TNT.tv.

Falling Skies: I swear those creatures controlling the Skidders are those long necked creatures from Star Wars on the planet where the clones are being made. We also get some interesting exposition that if you have a harness on for so long, you may turn into a skidder. But I still do not particularly care much about any of the characters. You can stream recent episodes over at tnt.tv.

Switched at Birth: I wonder if Deafenstien is an actual movie because I think I may want to add it to my queue. You can stream the show on Hulu.

Pretty Little Liars: I have long questioned Big Head Barry’s assertion that he did not knowingly take steroids, but after seeing Emily was tricked by “A,” maybe Barry Bonds too was stalked by an omnipresent person that tricked him into using The Cream, The Clear and Beef Roids. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu.

The Nine Lives of Chloe King: I am beginning to think that empathy thing that Chloe does may be the most worthless superpower ever. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu.

Rescue Me: It is a shame that Mike and White Shawn are not featured in more scenes because even seven years later they are still comedy gold. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu.


Free Download of the Week: Dawes / Blitzen Trapper Tour Sampler (dawestheband.com): Dawes and Blitzen Trapper are hitting the road starting tomorrow in Petaluma, California and going through November. Head over to Dawes website to get the full list and while you are there you can download a sampler from both bands which includes Blitzen Trapper’s Furr which it worth the download by itself.

New Album Release of the Week: Watch the Throne - Jay-Z and Kanye West

New DVD Release of the Week: Paul

Next Week Pick of the Week: Falling Skies, Sunday at 9:00 on TNT: Stop me if you have heard this one before: a sci-fi show that sounds great on paper but ends up being mediocre in practice. And that was the same for Falling Skies. Things did start to build up in the last episode so hopefully the season can go out with a bang with their two hour finale. Also, star Noah Wiley will be live tweeting during the episode @fallingskiesTNT.

57 Channels and Only This Is On - 7/3/11

Quote of the Week: Do you know what else is going to be distracting to them, is when they turn their phones here in about thirty minutes and they look at iTunes and see you sitting way above their records. That’s going to be so distracting. How are they going to focus with all that iTunes domination happening? (Blake Shelton, The Voice)



Song of the Week: Spirit In the Sky – Norman Greenbaum (Friday Night Lights)

Big News of the Week: Dia Frampton is the Only Player that got Robbed and Kept all Her Jewelry: To be honest I wrote that title right after The Voice finale and opened with a joke about Barry Bonds, George W. Bush and the 1972 Russian Basketball team needing to make room in the asterisk club for Javier Colon. But three days later I do not particularly care anymore because I realized like everything that allows internet voting, the show has no creditability for that simple fact. Sure Dia Frampton still was robbed but since she outsold everyone else on The Voice, having the hightest charting single after ever show and the only one to hit number one on iTunes she should easily find a new record contract and have more flexibility than Javier not being the winner to have more creative control and record with her band Meg & Dia. And keep in mind the person Dia sang a duet with on Wednesday, Miranda Lambert, made it to the finals of Nashville Star and lost to some dude named Buddy Jewel. Yeah, never heard of him either.

But what is frustrating about The Voice is the solution to fix its voting problems is really easy: give equal weight to the three voting methods, 33.3 % from internet, 33.3% from phone, and 33.3% from iTunes. That way people that actually spend their hard earned money on the music have the same say as losers who created a hundred different e-mail accounts because they believe their opinion is more important than everyone else. So if the producers of The Voice are reading this, feel free to use my idea, all I ask for in return is a private performance of Genie In a Bottle from Christina Aguilera (preferably Christina circa 1999). Since I started this with a Kanye West quote, I’ll give the last word to him and his thoughts on the finale:



Falling Skies: It may be hard not to be distracted by plot points that were already used in alien invasion movies. Seeing Noah Wiley dragging the unconscious alien around, it was hard not to think of Will Smith in Independence Day or even Aaron Eckhart in Battle: Los Angeles who also captured aliens for study. But the ending was extremely creepy with both the alien and kid waking up at the same time. You can stream recent episodes over at tnt.tv. You can also download Falling Skies on iTunes.

Pretty Little Liars: I have long been in the A is a not so dead Allison so I am predicting that is who the shadowy figure in the house that her brother is hiding. But what happened to the that one’s chick’s girlfriend’s family that lived in the house? Here they just renting from the family and moved out or are the writers making things up as they go? You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Pretty Little Liars on iTunes.

Friday Night Lights: Holy Smash Williams sighting! Of course that is just what Tim Riggins needed to see right out of prison, his archnemesis excelling at the college level. Hopefully he can get things together by the end of the season. Unfortunately that end of the season is coming way sooner that I was hoping. With every passing playoff game I cringed because the faster they get to state, the faster the season would end. And after avoiding looking up the number of episodes left all season, the promo monkeys finally clued me in that there are only two episodes left. Sigh. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu.



Free Download of the Week: 23 This Year: The Sub Pop Amazon Sampler: This sampler includes songs by Fleet Foxes, The Head and the Heart, and J Mascus.

Deal of the Week: 100 Albums for $5: This month you can grab albums by Prince, Fleet Foxes, Huey Lewis and the News, and Blake Shelton.



New Album Release of the Week: Grand Theatre Vol. 2 - Old 97’s

New DVD Release of the Week: Gettysburg / Gods and Generals (Limited Collector's Edition) [Blu-ray]

Video of the Week: What better day than the 4th of July to honor the newest citizens of the United States of America than with their own documentary Citizen USA which attends naturalization ceremonies in all 50 states. You can watch it Monday at 9:00 on HBO. Here is the trailer:



Next Week Pick of the Week: It’s 4th of July: Go outside, eat some hot dogs and watch the firework.