Best of the Week - 1/12/13

Quote of the Week: I would like to quote another MC: MC Hammer because when you take the Monet’s and the Mayonnaise, you can’t touch this. Am I right? (Ryan King, Go On)

Song of the Week: It's Oh So Quiet – Bjork (Bunheads)

Scene of the Week:


Big News of the Week: Big Head Barry and the Monsters Never Ever Ever Getting Into the Hall of Fame, Like Ever: In his first ever time on the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot Barry Bonds received only 26.2% of the 75% needed to get elected into the Hall. Other first time ballot players who probably also roided up did not fair any better including Roget Clemons (37.6), Sammy Sosa (12.5). Other notable Big Heads previously on the ballot Mark McGwire (16.9) and Rafael Palmeiro (8.8) actually saw their percentages go down about three points each from last year which does not bode well for the cheaters. It is appropriate that when the three biggest suspected steroid users were on the ballot for the first time that no one was inducted (the first since 1961), thought Craig Biggio, who had the most votes at 68.2% should have gotten in.

Preview Picture of the Week:

Justified "Where's Waldo?" Tuesday at 10:00 on FX

Free Download of the Week: Vangaurd / Sugar Hill Records: The Americana Sessions

New Album Release of the Week: Things I Should Let You Know - Seth Glier

New DVD Release of the Week: The Possession

Video of the Week: When it was announced that the next season of Survivor would be Fans vs. Favorites II I said I would be irate if Kat from One World was not involved. Well consider me irate. Okay, I was irate that night when someone pointed out that the cast list had leaked months earlier. And as bad as the cast looked on paper, Francesca, the first voted off Redemption Island, another season for another annoying Hantz family member, this time Brandon, they actually looked worse in the promo. Did anyone really want to see more of Brenda or Corrine. At least they did bring back the clinically insane Special Agent Philip Sheppard, the clinically idiotic Erik Reichenbach (most famous, well, only famous for the first fans vs. favorites showdown when he gave away his Immunity Idol and then promptly being voted out), and the clinically attractive Andrea Boehlke. Here is hoping the show did a much better job casting the fans this time around.


Next Week Pick of the Week: Shameless, Sunday at 9:00 on Showtime: Even if you do not subscribe, you can still watch the third season premiere thanks to the Showtime free preview this weekend (and thanks to on-demand, you can even watch previous seasons). You can check out my full preview of the new season here.

London Olympics Round Up Week 2

- Where the swimmers shave their body hair, wears swimming caps and do everything to shaves fractions of a second off their times, it is weird how none of the track runners do the same thing with jewelry, lots of hair, and even they are forced to wear a loose fitting name tag. There even someone who ran with a large flower in her hair.

- I am not going to pretend I am an expert at gymnastics, but there seems to be a flaw in the judging when someone who falls on her butt gets a silver. Either that are all the other competitors that bad?

- I played soccer all throughout my youth, was a referee in college and watch every American match in the World Cup, Olympics and other random friends, and I do not remember anyone call a goalie for holding the ball too long, seen a couple warnings (apparently the Canadian goalie was warned by the assistant referee previously), but never actually called. It is so prevalent that the networks usually aired replays while the goalies stroll around the box before getting rid of it. It is kind of like a travel in basketball where you have to take an extra step or five to get called. For the record, the rule is six seconds and the goalie held it for over ten before the penalty was called. But it is silly for Canadians to complain because it is a rarely called foul because it would be telling a judge you should have not have to pay your jaywalking ticket because cops rarely write anyone up for it. And if that is not enough to keep you Cunucks from complaining, please watch the video of Melissa Tancredi stomping on Carli Lloyd’s head which went uncalled. It was poetic that the American went on to win the gold medal on a header by Lloyd. Suck it Canada.

- There was actually belly-flop in the Olympics. And the guy advanced.

- Chris Webber may be off the hook for the dumbest timeout ever in the history of sports. That is thanks to the American Women’s Water Polo coach who called time out with one second left with his team up by a goal. Since they did not have possession, the Australians were awarded a penalty shot, which they converted. I am hesitant to call it the dumbest timeout ever because unlike Chris Weber, the Americans went on to win in overtime.

- I do not know how I am supposed to take volleyball commentators seriously when they say things like, “Hooker records her 9th kill.”

- One of my favorite stories of the Games was the high jumper who could not find his jersey, and since his time was running out, pinned his number to his polo shirt to get his jump off in the allotted time. Not only did he clear his jump, he won gold.

- After watching them play in the gold medal field hockey match; I have decided to move to The Netherlands.

- It was weird to see the East German Women still held the World and Olympic Records for the 4x100 until the Americans beat it at this games. You know when the commentators brought the record up they wanted to claim that the East Germans were known for using steroids.

- If the winner of the decathlon is the world’s best athlete, what does that make the3 winner of the modern pentathlon (fencing, 200 meter swim, show jumping, and a 3k cross country run that includes a shooting competition at the same time, kind of like the biathlon)? The most random athlete in the world?

- There I nothing I hate more in sports that replay, and having football coaches throw a red flag on the field is really silly. But I have to admit I liked the challenge brick in wrestling.

- I may update this space if anything interesting happens at the Closing Ceremonies (which rarely happens), until then, here is only last obligatory look at Alex Morgan’s ponytail.

57 Channels and Only This Is On - 8/11/12

Quote of the Week: Life is cheap in prison, Vicente and I'm a very rich man. (J.R. – Dallas)

Song of the Week: God's Gonna Cut You Down – Johnny Cash (Dallas)

Scene of the Week:


Big News of the Week: Canada Blames: I played soccer all throughout my youth, was a referee in college and watch every American match in the World Cup, Olympics and other random friendlies, and I do not remember anyone call a goalie for holding the ball too long, seen a couple warnings (apparently the Canadian goalie was warned by the assistant referee previously), but never actually called. It is so prevalent that the networks usually aired replays while the goalies stroll around the box for a minute or two before getting rid of it. It is kind of like a travel in basketball where you have to take an extra step or five to get called (I had to laugh when Chris Paul actually got called for it not knowing NBA superstar rules do not apply in international basketball). For the record, the rule is six seconds and the goalie held it for over ten before the penalty was called. But it is silly for Canadians to complain because it is a rarely called foul because it would be telling a judge you should have not have to pay your jaywalking ticket because cops rarely write anyone up for it. And if that is not enough to keep you Cunucks from complaining, please watch the video of Melissa Tancredi stomping on Carli Lloyd’s head which went uncalled. It was poetic that the Americans ended up winning the gold medal on that very head of Lloyd.

Preview Picture of the Week:


Falling Skies: I have to wonder just how Pope knew of Maggie’s deep dark secret. Why exactly would she tell her former captor something like that if she did not want to share with someone else?
You can download Falling Skies on iTunes.

Weeds: It is a shame that Andy got himself a new show already on NBC this fall because I would have been up for an Andy and Doug, My Two Dads style spin off.

Pretty Little Liars: Did they really need to introduce yet another guy who looks just like every other guy? When Erza’s brother showed up on screen I was trying to figure out if that was the dude who ended up hosting the party or the one guy who was in the secret fight club. It turns out neither. Now usually when talking about Mr. Fitz(Gerald) I make a Better than Ezra reference, but instead suggest Aria take the advice of Steve Miller and take the money and run. That family is bad news.

But the big news was the introduction of The BetrAyal which will happen at the end of the season. Despite the stylization it is unclear if The BetrAyal will turn out to be “A”, just a member of “The A Team” or just a someone forced by “A” to betray the Liars, or just a random betrayal. ABC Family even set up a suspect tracker where Paige is currently in the lead with 34%. Conspicuously absent is my leading contender for the new A in Allison and my new favorite character CiCi. Since I am hoping that the BetrAyal is by one of the Liars, I am going to predict Aria will be doing the betraying. Her name does start with an A.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Pretty Little Liars on iTunes.


Free Download of the Week: Tracks from the Attic – The Lumineers (Noise Trade)

Deal of the Week: Hip-Hop Classics for 2.99: Amazon went for some classic rap albums for their deeply discounted albums this week including A Tribe Called Quest, Wu-Tang Clan, Dr. Dre, and Nas.


New Album Release of the Week: Just Tell Me That You Want Me - Tribute To Fleetwood Mac

New DVD Release of the Week: Shaft [Blu-ray]

Video of the Week: Wait, Coach Taylor helped kill Osama bin Laden? I guess that makes sense.


Next Week Pick of the Week: Boss, Friday at 9:00 on Starz: For the three of you that have Starz, the second season of Boss returns later this week. The first season was weirdly frantic and I could not turn away. For those that do not have Starz, t5he first season is available on Blu-ray and DVD, you can check out my review here: One Necessary Evil Leads to Another until One Day You Can’t Differentiate Between What’s Necessary and What’s Merely Expedient.

London Olympics Round Up Week 1

This is the first Summer Olympics I have watched in HD and it was well worth the upgrade. It even makes quite boring events like Rowing entertaining because the sight is just so beautiful. The images are so sharp you can even see sweat drip down off a ping ponger’s brow. Who knew table tennis athletes sweat? Apparently they sweat so much they have a towel off break every seven points or so. Here are some other thought on the first week of the Olympics.

- Who would have guessed one of the biggest stories of The Olympics would come from badminton? Sure we see a few athletes ever games booted from competition, but most are for trying too hard with performance enhancers. This is the first time I have ever heard of anyone getting booted for not trying. But four woman’s doubles pairs did just that and got booed then booted by a crowd that paid about $120 American for the match.

- The other big news of the week was Michael Phelps is now the most decorated medalist of all time. It is hard to argue that he is not the greatest Olympian ever even though there is a laughable amount of swimming medal (who knows how many Carl Lewis could have gotten if there was skipping, backwards, and hopping) 100 Meters) kind of like how RnB artists are always the most nominated at the Grammy’s because there is an absurd amount of RnB categories.

- I am sick of Debbie Phelps. There, I said it. They should have had more gratuitous Kate Middleton shots. And how has there not been a Pippa sighting yet?

- Gymnastics was usually when I would take my dogs for a walk every night mostly because I feared if I watched the “Woman’s” I might walk into my kitchen and see Chris Hansen. But I did get back in time for the controversies. I do not have a problem with only two gymnasts from one country in the finals, if you cannot even beat your teammates, then you do not have a gripe.

- But my favorite gymnast story was a Men’s Japanese gymnast who fell of the one thing, putting his country in fourth. His coach then slips a judge a few dollars (which thanks to my HD I am pretty sure were American, which begs the question, why does the Japanese delegation have American dollars in Great Britain), and a couple minutes later (I am not one to complain about tape delays, but if you are going to air it a couple hours later, how about cutting down the standing, and waiting around for scores?), Japan moved up to second. Awesome.


- Of course a couple days after declaring Alex Morgan having the second ponytail ever in the history of the world, she just had to come out for her very next game with her hair in a bun. Her hair magically came down minutes later, but was back up by half time where it stayed. Hurump. Thankfully her ponytail was back to its awesomeness glory for the next game where she brused her knee on the New Zealand’s goalie.


- Forget Destinee Hooker, Dutch swimmer Ranomi Kromowidjojo has the best name of these Olympics.

- Please note that trampoline is an Olympics sport; baseball is not.

- Speaking of American pastimes not currently in the Olympics, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said this week he hopes that football will soon become an Olympics sport and as the six-four countries needed to be included. As the great Michael Wilbon responded (paraphrasing), “There are only two countries that play football: America and Canada. And we are not entirely sure about Canada.” And considering it currently takes five weeks for the NFL’s twelve team playoff, how exactly does Roger plan to get an Olympics tournament done in seventeen days?

- I really do not understand the controversy of the double amputee running in the Olympics. So what if he gets an advantage from his prosthetics, dude has no legs. Until people start voluntarily amputating their legs to get an unfair advantage, let the guy run. Almost as inspiring but less reported on is the one handed Table Tennis contestant which has to be the second greatest one handed feet since Jim Abbott threw a one-hitter.

Let the Games Begins: London 2012

I love the Olympics. I do not care what sport. Yesterday I watched woman’s ping pong, women’s fencing, woman’s soccer, tennis, rowing, swilling, woman’s beach volleyball (where the females were not even wearing bikinis; actually the Australians for some reason wore bikinis over t-shirts), and woman’s handball. Woman’s handball that even featured two foreign teams. And of course I watched every minute of the Opening Ceremonies, all four and a half hours. Here are a couple thoughts on the first two days of the games which is my first in HD (I bought mine just prior to the Winter Olympics two years ago).

- Let’s start off with a negative. Why the frack is Ryan Seacrest on the television? The guy has already ruined music and pop culture, why is he ruining sport. And why if he bringing up foreigner Justin Bieber when talking to Americans? Very few things can get me to tune out the Olympics; he is going to be one.

- As everyone pointed out already, the Queen / James Bond skit was the highlight of the Opening Ceremony. The not so highlight: Paul McCartney bumbling the one billionth performance of Hey Jude.

- You do not equate Olympics with funny, but the Mr. Bean bit managed to be cheesy and extremely funny.

- Call me old, but I did not really get the internet love story despite the great music. Even if when I think nineties British music, The Prodigy probably would not make the top ten. Really, were there any other breakout British bands from that time other than Oasis? And while I am on the internet segment, how dare the British suggest Al Gore did not invent the internet?

- And the winner for best Olympics theme promo for a new NBC show goes to Go On.

- In other ad news, I am already dick of all the political ads.

- I am ready to declare Alex Morgan’s ponytail the second greatest ponytail ever in the history of the world (second only to Lyla Garrity). She is also in the early lead for breakout star of this Olympics. Now if only NBC gives them channel. Yesterday they were stuck on something called NBC Sports (which used to be Vs.) which is not even on my basic cable package.



- If there is one sport I could not bring myself to watch was archery. They just have way too much crap on their bow. It is like those annoying golfers that have club heads the size of their own head. Use just a simple bow and a string, and I will be impressed that you hit a bulls eye.

- The American volleyball team has a member named Destinee Hooker. Seriously. I am too lazy to fact check, but I am pretty sure someone on a season of Rock of Love with Brett Michaels had the same name.

- It is surprising that Bob Costas opening the first prime time night by saying that everything you will be watching will be taped. It is weird they were so upfront about this (although the first couple minutes are the least watch). Sure anyone with half a brain can figure out prime time on the east coast is about 1:00 AM London time.

- John McEnroe did a special interest piece. It is becoming more and clearer the Mayans were right.

57 Channels and Only This Is On - 7/21/12

Quote of the Week: I’m only going to say this once boys, give me the... teddy bear. (Eliot, Leverage)

Song of the Week: Little Boxes – Steve Martin and Kevin Nealon (Weeds)

Scene of the Week:



Big News of the Week: Emmy Nominations Announced: The only nomination Justified got was for Dickie Bennett (and his hair)? Alright, I am back to ignoring the Emmy’s.

Falling Skies: Even though I knew it probably would not be the case, I was hoping Karen would come back normal, or at least as normal as a de-harnessed kid could be. Unfortunately it looks like she is still being controlled by the Overlords somehow. Sadly I have a feeling she may go the way of the black kid whose name I have already forgotten by the end of the next episode which is a shame because she was really the only character I actually cared about from the start of the series.
You can download Falling Skies on iTunes.

Weeds: Kids playing roller derby was probably the most entertaining this I saw anywhere this week. Well it was until the great Andy slap fight of 2012.

Pretty Little Liars: I love how stupid these girls are. Of course Hanna, the police man was there because of the note. Of course Spencer, Garrett was sending you somewhere that would help him get off (although I thought we already saw him confess to killing Allison with Jenna). Then you have Aria who finds a boat load of money in Ezra’s sock drawer (not his finest hour) and instantly thinks that he collected Jason’s reward money. She is that paranoid but actually believes his I let the guy pay in cash to avoid taxes excuse. And what could he have possibly tell Jason? Then there is Emily who just happens to remember a tattoo right before seeing it on Aria’s former beard. God bless stupid people.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Pretty Little Liars on iTunes.

Dallas: As I mention in my initial post about Dallas, there was going to be more to Rebecca and Anne than being doting brides to the Ewing men. We learned just was hiding in Rebecca’s closet earlier this season, and we finally (kinda) learned Anne’s deep dark season besides having an evil ex-husband and it looks like she had a kid. Of course there are a couple possibilities like she gave them up for adoption, they could of died, or my current favorite theory, she thinks her kid is dead but really grew up to become Rebecca. Didn’t her parents mysteriously died early in her life? If so then we would get the awesome Springer episode with Christopher marring his step-mother’s daughter. Sometime soap operas write themselves.
You can download Dallas on iTunes.

Preview Picture of the Week:



Free Download of the Week: Fly Like an Eagle – Steve Miller Band (Google Play)

Deal of the Week: $2.99 Soul Albums: This week’s absurdly low price sale on Amazon is dedicated to soul music including greatest hits packages from Prince, The Temptations, Al Green, and the new album from Frank Ocean.



New Album Release of the Week: Handwritten - The Gaslight Anthem

New DVD Release of the Week: Boss: Season 1

Video of the Week: Apparently Mansome is a real documentary (from Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and the Super Size Me Guy) and not a Funny or Die fake trailer. Now if you excuse me, I need to go add this to my queue.



Next Week Pick of the Week: 2012 Summer Olympics: Opening Ceremony, Friday at 7:30 on NBC: I am an unabashed Olympics fan, I will watch it all, no matter how obscure, I will be even watching handball at some point probably. Trampoline? Sure, why not? (Unfortunately for the second games in a row I will not be able to watch any basketball because I cannot bring myself to root for the likes of LeBron James and Kobe Bryant). If you cannot wait a whole week for the start of the games, there are a couple preliminary soccer games starting Wednesday including the American woman (welcome back to my life Alex Morgan) playing at noon on NBC Sports Network (which used to be called Vs). Head over to nbcolympics.com to get a full rundown of what sports will be airing when and what channel.

57 Channels and Only This Is On - 6/23/12

Quote of the Week: The best way to get to know somebody is to talk to their friends… and their enemies. My friends are in the state house. My enemies are harder to find. (J.R. – Dallas)

Song of the Week: Picture In a Frame - Tom Waits (Bunheads)

Scene of the Week:



Big News of the Week: A New Member of the Asterisk Club: The Asterisk Club opened its doors to accommodate all the cheating that went on in baseball for the past two decades and has even opened its doors to Olympians, singing competition winners, and even a president. And this week it welcomed its latest member: LeBron James. As a Cleveland sports fan, we had the asterisk locked and loaded when he took his talents to South Beach so he could play with two other All-Stars, one of which was another top five talent in the league. But in the year he won his first championship, that asterisk got even larger. There shortened season, making it an abnormal win to begin with (keep in mind the last time there was a shortened season, an eighth seed made it to the finals). Then the asterisk grew even bigger when Derrick Rose, the best player on the best team, tore his ACL in the first game of the playoffs, giving the Heat an easy path to the championship, playing lower seeds. So enjoy your asterisk and say high to Barry Bonds for me. And if any of this sounds like sour grapes, that is because it is.

The Killing: After a bunch of painful to sit through episodes it was a total shock that the case of Rosie Larsen actually ended competently. A back room deal that Rosie overheard and Jamie had to get rid of her. But why did they wrap it up before the first commercial break. Of wait, this is The Killing and they had to find a way to screw it up. Just when Lynden went to the Larsen’s to tell them they found a broken taillight in a garage they had been in countless number of times. And that taillight was apparently enough evidence for the aunt to confess. Sure she could have lied about it, or gotten it fixed sometime in the last three weeks, or at least explain why the taillight was integral to the story (this is why you solve the case in the first season, everything we learned a year ago, most of us have forgotten). Now it is time to start up a class action lawsuit to get The Killing and AMC to pay therapists to erase any memory of The Killing from our collective minds.
You can download The Killing on iTunes.

Bunheads: A really weird way to start off a series based around someone’s death especially when that death is the husband the main character barely knew. One episode in and I am already content with the show jumping ahead a year where Michelle and Fanny are running the dance studio together with an Odd Couple living arrangement. But since it looks like there will be a fight, or at least some resentment over the estate (how could they be that shocked, even without a will, everything would have gone to the widow anyway).
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Bunheads on iTunes.

Pretty Little Liars: Yeah, Hermy the Hermaphrodite was totally nailing Mona. That is why he has been so moody lately. And I am beginning to think that it is not a good sign that three seasons in, I still have no clue what his real name is and have to resign to calling him Hermy every time.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Pretty Little Liars on iTunes.

Dallas: I am glad we got the silly e-mail storyline out of the way. And now that is out of the way, who exactly is Christopher’s new bride, and more importantly who is her brother and what is their agenda? And since this is a soap opera, it is safe to assume their parents are still alive, if they are even related in the first place.
You can download Dallas on iTunes.


Preview Picture of the Week:

The Great Escape, Premiering Sunday at 10:00 on TNT

Free Download of the Week: Love Don't Leave Me Waiting - Glen Hansard (Amazon MP3)

Deal of the Week: Going Solo for $2.99: This week’s ultra cheap albums all belong to group members who struck gold (and platinum) on their on including Lionel Richie, George Michael, Ben Folds and Kenny Loggins.



New Album Release of the Week: Write Me Back (Deluxe Edition) - R. Kelly

New DVD Release of the Week: Christopher Nolan Director's Collection (Blu-ray)

Video of the Week: Sometime when they announce a sequel to a movie you just have to roll your eyes. How many times does Brady Cooper have to get hunover before giving up drinking altogether? How many times are terrorists going to take over a building with Bruce Willis in it? And when they announced Taken 2 I could not help thinking, how many times will the Token Hot Chick from Lost get kidnapped? I originally thought that maybe the person that would be “taken” this time around would be the pop star at the end of the first movie. Nope. The trailer has been released and the family of all the henchmen Liam Neeson killed in the first movie is back for revenge (who knew redshirts had family?) and takes his (ex?)-wife and (presumably) the Token Hot Chick from Lost. But the biggest disappointment from the trailer is the lack of an epic monologue. They better be saving that for the actual movie because if what everyone talks about in the first movie is not in the sequel, you are going to be in trouble.



Next Week Pick of the Week: The Great Escape, Sunday (tomorrow) at 10:00 on TNT: For those going through withdrawals with no Survivor, The Amazing Race, or The Challenge on television for the summer, or wished those three shows would dump the social aspect from their shows and have stand alone episode will want to check out The Great Escape when it premieres tomorrow. Look out for my full review then.

Best of the Week - 4/28/12

Quote of the Week: Is January Jones a robot? (Chloe, Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23)

Song of the Week: I Just Wasn't Made For These Times – The Beach Boys (Mad Men)

Scene of the Week:



Big News of the Week: NFL Draft: For us Browns fan, the NFL Draft is our Super Bowl because we really do not have much else to look forward to and after this draft, it may still be the case that we do not have much to look forward next season. I did not really like moving up one spot to get Trent Richardson. I did not think he was worth the extra picks because I think the Vikings were just throwing up a smoke screen to get extra picks. And even if they did, the Browns have so many holes, Matt Kalil or Justin Blackman would have been worth picks at number four.

But even worse with all those hole was taking a quarterback with third round talent in the first round when the reason the current QB looked so bad was because his starting RB for most of the season was on someone else’s practice squad, their best WR was a 3 at best for any other team and the group led the league in drops, the TE had concussion problems, and half of the offensive line was essentially a revolving door. Brandon Weeden may be more talented than Colt McCoy; he will not have much more success with just an upgrade at RB and no round one talent to throw to or block for him. Ugg, what a horrible start to 2012. Wake me up in time for the 2013 draft when we have to take Matt Barkley with the number one overall pick..

Preview Picture of the Week:




Free Download of the Week: Lost Without You – Rhett Miller (Rolling Stone)

New Album Release of the Week: Little Broken Hearts - Norah Jones

New DVD Release of the Week: Clueless [Blu-ray]

Video of the Week: The new ABC Family sitcom Baby Daddy launches Wednesday, June 20 at 8:30 and they have just released its first promo. Check it out below:

Baby Daddy Promo


Next Week Pick of the Week: Suburgatory, Wednesday at 8:30 on ABC: Forget all the pretentious people who try to tell you Parks and Recreation is the funniest show on network television (aren’t these the same people that told you it was an unfunny version of The Office when it came on; why did they bother to continue watching), Suburgatory has the most laughs per minute you can find on free television. Bonus points for having Alicia Silverstone for the reminder of the season as Geoge’s girlfriend and Noah’s baby mama (can you still be a baby mama through surrogacy). Also Dalia Royce remains the most frightening thing on television, dead, alive, or undead.

Best of the Week - 4/21/12

Quote of the Week: You’re a grimy little pimp. (Lane, Mad Men)

Song of the Week: Hello – Lionel Richie (Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23)

Scene of the Week:



Big News of the Week: A Melancholy Happy Trails to Dick Clark: American Bandstand was a bit before my time but like anyone born in the past fifty years, New Years Eve was not New Years Eve without Dick Clarke counting down the ball. Even after his stroke I still had to check in with him because there was no one better to ring in the New Year with. This year would have been Dick’s fortieth anniversary of Rocking Eve special and it will not be the same without him.

Preview Picture of the Week:

Susan Sarandon on The Big C Tomorrow  

Free Download of the Week: Live to Rise – Soundgarden (iTunes): The grunge gods have recorded their first new song in over fifteen years and you can get it for the low, low price of free.

Deal of the Week: R&B Classics for $3.99: Amazon MP3 has some R&B classics for only $3.99 including The Temptations, Marvin Gaye, Al Green and Lionel Richie.




New Album Release of the Week: Blunderbuss - Jack White

New DVD Release of the Week: The Innkeepers

Video of the Week: A documentary on the history of rap directed by Ice-T? Yes please. Hopefully this is just part one of a hundred. Actually, was is this not a series on VH1 Classic like the recent great Metal Evolution?


Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap Official Trailer


Next Week Pick of the Week: NFL Draft, Thursday at 8:00, Friday at 7:00, and Saturday at Noon on ESPN: For fans of preferential bottom feeders like myself, the NFL Draft is our Super Bowl, three days where hope springs eternal where hopefully our horrible players are replaced by better ones. And with the Browns having thirteen picks and three in the top thirty-seven and with plenty of holes needing to be filled, there will plenty for me to pay attention to this year.

Best of the Week - 4/6/12

Quote of the Week: Marshall, do I strike you in any way as a Van Halen fan? (Loretta, Justified)

Song of the Week: Can't Fight This Feeling – REO Speedwagon (Justified)

Scene of the Week:



Big News of the Week: Play Ball: Opening Day in the north in early April is always a crapshoot which is why I never head out to the ball park on opening day here in Cleveland and the 56 degree is a little too cold for my tastes. It is too bad they did not have opening day two weeks ago when it was hitting 80 everyday. Now we are stuck in the forties for the foreseeable future. The Indians just had to go 16 innings, preempt Community and still manage to lose (a rain delay opening day last year preempted the season premiere of Friday Night Lights and I am not liking this trend). But anyway. Of course the return of baseball means the return of fantasy baseball and Big Head Barry needs a great season after Elho’s Revenge got unceremoniously bounced in the first round of the playoffs last week. So the national pastime is back, at least until the NFL Draft in three weeks.

Preview Picture of the Week:



Free Download of the Week: Hold On – Alabama Shakes

Deal of the Week: 100 Albums for $5 Each: This month’s five dollar deals include Norah Jones (two albums), the Beach Boys, Cake and Delta Spirit.



New Album Release of the Week: Underwater Sunshine (or what we did on our summer vacation) - Counting Crows

New DVD Release of the Week: Dark Shadows: The Complete Original Series (Limited Edition)

Video of the Week: Aaron Sorkin’s latest venture in television Newsroom got its first trailer this week and of course it looks awesome.



Next Week Pick of the Week: Don’t Trust the B---- in Apartment 23, Wednesday at 9:30 on ABC: It looks like Dalia Royce will have some competition for biggest Queen B on Wednesday’s ABC comedy block with the premiere of Don’t Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 where the title character is so evil, she takes on new roommates and scares them away so she can pocket their security deposit. Oh yeah, and James van der Beek plays James van der Beek which will finally answer the question just how many Varsity Blues jokes can their be. For those that just cannot wait until Wednesday, you can download the first two episodes on iTunes, Amazon Instant Video (which is now available for the Playstation 3), or just watch it below via Hulu:

Best of the Week - 3/24/12

Quote of the Week: Why wait? (Raylan, Justified)

Song of the Week: Silver Springs – Fleetwood Mac (as sung by George Bluth Sr., Bent)

Scene of the Week:



Big News of the Week: Tim Tebow Heading to New York: As a Cleveland Browns, I was a bit worried with all the talking head claiming the Browns must upgrade at the quarterback position even though I was content with Colt McCoy and though the team should upgrade around him, making Colt better in the process. Serious, his number one receiver last year was a kick returner. I do not like mobile quarterbacks like Robert Griffin III because they have a short shelf life, and free agents like Kevin Kolb and Matt Flynn were not going to do much better than McCoy and I did not want to overpay for the same production we already had. A week after free agency started and all the high profile names were out of the pictures and I let out a sigh of relief. Then Peyton Manning landed in Denver.

Naturally all the talking head pointed to Cleveland as a potential landing spot for Tim Tebow which made more worried than the previous possible because Tim is the single worst starting quarterback ever in the history of the National Football League. Sure he made me believe me in God again because not only was he the worst, he also was the luckiest playing teams after major upheaval, the Bears a week after Jay Cutler got hurt, the first game back for Carson Palmer after sitting on the couch the last year and a half. They were even to win a playoff game because the Steelers best defensive players couldn’t even set foot in Denver because a medical issue could have killed him because of the thin air.

Thankfully the Jets quickly traded for Tebow, not just because he would not be playing for Cleveland, but Tebow’s presence in New York could possibly cause the city, or very least the team, to self combust. Seriously, is it too late to get a Tebow / Rex Ryan reality show on this fall? Sure I may have some karma coming back to be for badmouthing Tim Tebow (as Pat Robertson humorously suggest will happen to Peyton Manning for daring to step into Tebow’s shoes) but to see Tebow singlehandedly bring down NYC can only be summed up by the Jet’s own Bart Scott: “can’t wait!”

Preview Picture of the Week:

Make it or Break It returning Monday at 9:00 on ABC Family

Free Download of the Week: Blood for Poppies – Garbage (Garbage.com; e-mail required)

Deal of the Week: $3.99 Albums: Amazon has secretly released another batch of albums for only $3.99 including ones from The Throne, Florence + the Machine, Snoop Doggy Dogg, and Maroon 5. Grab them quick because the sale may npt last long.



New Album Release of the Week: Covered - Macy Gray

New DVD Release of the Week: South Park: The Complete Fifteenth Season

Video of the Week: All the pretentious Man Men fans like to whine how it’s been about five hundred days since the last new episode. Screw you hippies. It has been 1,677 days since R. Kelly released the last chapter of Trapped In the Closet. Well the wait is almost over because IFC recently announced that new episodes are “coming soon.” No word on when exactly or how many new chapters will be released this time, but Kels stated last year that he has already written thirty-two chapters. Can’t wait.



Next Week Pick of the Week: Mad Men, Sunday at 9:00 on AMC: After all the hype, I finally got around to watching Mad Men a couple years ago and was bored to tears. Unfortunately I already owned season three before I even started on the first season, so I went ahead and forced myself through the second which also did not do much for me aside from cure my insomnia (and make me want to drink and smoke and work; two things I rarely even do at home). The third season got better and had a season finale that I really enjoyed and for the first time I really wanted to see where the show would go with the new agency. And the fourth did not disappoint the promise mostly because of Don Draper’s secretaries, the first who hilariously had a mental breakdown that Don chose to ignore and then was replace by Mrs. Blankenship who was straight out of a sixties work sitcom. As I write this, I still have three episodes I need to get through to be caught up by the fifth season premiere, and even though I doubt I will ever enjoy it like all the annoying pretentious people who claim Mad Men is the best thing on television (seriously, do they just not watch Justified or refuse to think a show about rednecks could be any good?), but I am for the first time actually looking forward to the show.

Best of the Week - 3/17/12

Quote of the Week: Now I am off to lead a pack of tiny testosterone animals to victory. Got to warm them up and give them my best Friday Night Lights speech about hearts or eyes or some (expletive deleted). (Steve, Shameless)

Song of the Week: King of Rock – Run-DMC (Happy Endings)

Scene of the Week:



Big News of the Week: It’s March Madness Baby!: The first round is less about how many games you won but how many teams you have going deep in your bracket still around. And when one half of your Final Four is out on the first day really is not a good sign. Thanks Missouri and Duke. But like it is the last couple years, the big story is Barack Obama’s bracket which surprisingly is not completely chalk this year and even has an eleventh seed in the Sweet Sixteen. Sure his other three regions are pretty much chalk and has the overall top two teams in the finals.

Preview Picture of the Week:

Pretty Little Liars Season Finale

Most Worthless The Walking Dead Character of the Week: T-Dogg (so when they are rounding up a posse to hunt down an armed dude, they choose the ten pound Asian Glen who got trigger shy a couple episodes back over T-Dogg; which begs the question, who else is above T-Dogg in the hunting queue? Maggie? Hershel? Carl?)

Free Download of the Week: Beautiful Day - U2 (Google Play)

New Album Release of the Week: Tuskegee - Lionel Richie

New DVD Release of the Week: The Muppets

Video of the Week: I gave up on spoilers almost a decade ago after finally realizing they were ruining my television experience, but the one concession I make is that I still watch the promos that follow the shows which are like my nicotine patch that keeps me from spoiler site. Granted I should just turn off my television when the credits run because the promos routinely spoil the show anyway or are just misleading. With all the crap I do give to the promo monkeys, the promo for next week’s Justified is the single greatest promo ever in the history of television. “Why wait?” More like “Can’t wait!”



Next Week Pick of the Week: Pretty Little Liars, Monday at 8:00 on ABC Family: Monday is the big day when we will finally learn who A is on the season finale of Pretty Little Liars. Check out my odd of who is behind the texts here: Oddsmakers: Who Is A?

It's March Madness Baby! 2012 Edition

It is time of year again, that time where you suddenly get that mid-march flu that keeps you bed ridden for four days with nothing but a remote control and a six pack of Shamrock Shakes. Yep, it’s March Madness. Last year was the first time that every game aired on television, so it will still take some time to get used to navigating between games. Of course the best part of the week leading up to the actual games is filling out your bracket (or in many cases, brackets), and here is a guide to what mine looks like (or at least the first one I filled out):

South
Finals: Duke over Indiana
Upset Special: Xavier over Notre Dame

West
Finals: Missouri over Michigan St.
Upset Special: Long Beach State over New Mexico

East
Finals: Ohio State over Wisconsin
Upset Special(s): Harvard over Vanderbilt, Texas over Cincinnati, Kansas St. over Syracuse

Midwest
Finals: Georgetown over North Carolina
Upset Special: Ohio over Michigan

Final Four
Ohio State over Georgetown
Missouri over Duke

Finals
Missouri over Ohio State 69-60

Best of the Week - 2/11/12

Quote of the Week: You know what they say: getting old ain’t for pussies. (Raylan, Justified)

Song of the Week: Burnin' for You – Blue Öyster Cult (How I Met Your Mother)

Scene of the Week:



Big News of the Week: Super Bowl XLVI: Darn you New York Giants, for the second time in five years you just had to win the game late, but still leaving enough time for a potential last second drive. Remember the good old days when the Super Bowl would be a blowout and you could just sit back, relax and enjoy the party and commercials? Oh well, at least they still ended up beating Bill Belechicken and his merry band of cheater so us Patriot haters can still hang our hats on that they have yet to win a championship since Spygate.

As for those previously mention commercials: yawn (except of course all the ones that featured Adriana Lima). A week later an none really stick out to me except the Clint Eastwood one (and of course Adriana Lima) which was stupidly decried as pro-Obama. The ad was pro-America and anyone who thought it was pro-Obama or even anti-Obama as other talking heads insisted need to leave America. But as un memorable the ads were once again this year, at least none of them features some fifty year old pretending that she was still in her twenties. No one needs to see that.

Free Download of the Week: Celebrity - The Escape Club (Amazon MP3): Remember two hit wonder The Escape Club. You know Wild Wild West; “Heading for the nineties living in the eighties” and those weird arms / legs things in the video? Well they are still together and surprisingly this song is not bad. You got to feel bad for two hit wonders, not enough hits to be remembered in the annuls of time and one hit too many for the novelty of being a one hit wonder.

Deal of the Week: Blu Rays Under $10 (Forrest Gump, Batman Begins, Groundhog Day)

New Album Release of the Week: As The Crow Flies - Amos Lee

New DVD Release of the Week: Beavis & Butthead: Volume 4

Video of the Week: As lackluster as the ads during the Super Bowl were, the best one actually came after the big game when Betty White congratulated the New York Giants before teling America who will be lifting the Lombardi Trophy in 2013. I have lived through the Drive, The Fumble, The Shot, The Blown Save, The Decision, and an inferior city stealing our football team only to win the Super Bowl four years later so I have been content that I would never see a championship in Cleveland in my lifetime. But now that we have the backing of Belly White, not only to I know I see one in my life time, I believe Betty will see one in her lifetime. Mark it down: Josh Cribbs will be your Super Bowl XLVII MVP. (Please note that I will delete this post and deny I ever typed it when the Brown picks up Donovan McNabb in free agency.)



Next Week Pick of the Week: Grammy Awards, Sunday at 8:00 on CBS: It is the biggest night in music tomorrow and once again they are giving us quite a few great collaborations including Coldplay and Rihanna, Tony Bennett and Carrie Underwood, Glen Campbell with The Band Perry and Blake Shelton, Alicia Keys is teaming up with Bonnie Raitt to honor Etta James, and the reunited The Beach Boys with fellow Southern Californians Maroon 5 and Foster the People. Plus the return of Adele to live performing and the first performance of Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band since the passing of longtime saxophonist Clarence Clemmons. They may even pass out an award or two (I am going to go out on a very short limb and say they all go to Adele).