Lost is hitting .500 when it comes to finales. The first season finale was cumbersome and left most everyone upset that we didn’t actually get inside the hatch. The second season finale was much better as we learned why the plane crashed (maybe), what happened when the buttons aren’t pushed, and we even got a glimpse of someone off the island for the first time not via flashback. Even though last night’s Lost wasn’t a proper finale, we will have to wait three months until the next episode which is about the time of the summer break. But due to the hiatus, this will be the last Toss-Up until February. Well maybe longer depending how long the Veronica Mars
break takes when it goes on hiatus at the conclusion of the first mystery arc. Well onto the Toss Up:
Love Triangle
Lost: Kate, Jack, Sawyer
Veronica Mars: Harmony, Keith, Harmony’s Husband
Winner: Lost
Wardrobe Decision
Lost: Kate had to decide between wearing a sack over her head or not
Veronica Mars: Ronnie had to decide between and Earnest bowling shirt or a crappy old shirt with a stupid saying
Winner: Veronica Mars
MIA
Lost: Dick, Mac, Weevil, Lamb
Veronica Mars: Claire, Charlie, Sun, and Jin
Winner: Lost
Admitting Their Crimes
Lost: Not-Monica admitted to her husband that she killed her father
Veronica Mars: Wallace admitted to cheating on his test
Winner: Lost
Desperation Sex
Lost: Sawyer and Kate getting it on when it looks like Sawyer will die
Veronica Mars: Keith and Harmony get it on after Keith’s near death experience
Winner: Lost
Machiavellian Plot
Lost: Everything The Others do seem way too complicated then they should be
Veronica Mars: Not-Lucky went too far out of his way to get Ronnie to find out Landry was a horn dog
Winner: Veronica Mars
Not Their Type
Lost: Kate is not Zeke's type
Veronica Mars: Parker is not Piz's type
Winner: Lost
Surprised to See You
Lost: Jack was surprised to see Kate when she begged for Sawyer’s life
Veronica Mars: Ronnie was surprised to see the Dean’s wife when looking for who was behind her term paper
Winner: Veronica Mars
Almost Caught Doing It
Lost: Jack sees Kate and Sawyer lying in the cage naked presumably after sex
Veronica Mars: Ronnie sees Landry and the Dean’s wife at the hotel presumably before sex
Winner: Lost
Jealousy
Lost: Jack was jealous that Sawyer got Kate before him
Veronica Mars: Piz is jealous of Logan for landing Vee.
Winner: Veronica Mars
Why You Should Boycott Fox
Lost: For canceling Firefly staring Kate’s husband
Veronica Mars: For not renewing Arrested Development which guest starred the Dean sans eyebrows
Winner: Veronica Mars
Cliffhanger
Lost: Not-Henry has an incision in his kidney, Sawyer has a gun to his head, and Kate has to decide with running and staying with Sawyer
Veronica Mars: Logan says he’s Mercer’s alibi for the rape that happened over the summer but can’t tell Ronnie what that alibi was
Winner: Veronica Mars
Next Time On
Lost: We get a Juliet flashback, but that is in February
Veronica Mars: Ronnie gets drugged, which will be seen next week
Winner: Veronica Mars
Another squeaker for Veronica Mars. But had Lost had been exciting for the whole episode as it was the last fifteen minutes, it may have won by a landslide as it went on hiatus. The Locke scenes were basically useless and I have a feeling I missed a scene in-between the one where Locke and Sayid got the shovels and the funeral where Locke and Sayid talked about where they were actually going and why. Presumably it was to get the Jesus stick but I bet there was a scene cut somewhere. Then throw in some boring flashbacks (of course are there any other kind recently).
But the big story this week was in Otherville, especially the last couple minutes. Yeah it’s safe to assume that Sawyer and Not-Henry will survive and Kate won’t leave Sawyer, but it still had me on the edge of my seat mostly because of Jack’s actions. It’s surprising that he would jeopardize his own escape just to get Kate away from Sawyer. And just how many times have we seen Kate cry in the rain? There was also what could be a very important line that many people may have missed in passing that I really need to hear again when the vengeful Other said something to the effect that, “Shepard wasn’t even on the original list.” And weren’t only good people “on the list.” Does this make Jack not a good person?
In other Otherville news, it looks like Alex take after her mother in the crazy department when she started to attack gun-toting people with a sling-shot. Just who is the guy she is looking for, is he an Other? A Tailie? And just where is her mother? I don’t believe we have seen her since she shot Not-Henry. And why did Juliet lie to Not-Henry when he asked if Alex asked for him. I really hate you Lost. Oh and see you in February.
Then on Veronica Mars we had an episode that was very reminiscent to last season when Vice Principal Clemmons sent Ronnie on a wild goose chase that ended in the then principal getting canned. This time around Not-Lucky laid a plan to have Vee find out her possible mentor is nailing the Dean’s wife, who seems to get around. Remember Chip Diller got 300 points for hitting that. Not-Lucky also informed us that there has been no DNA evidence found in any of the rapes that lends even more credence to my “The Lilith House Did It” Theory. Granted Not-Lucky’s serial killer bulitin board officially puts him on my list of suspects.
But the Dean’s wife wasn’t the only one getting their creep-on, as Keith finally acted on his feelings after a near death experience. That scene was really shocking, just when you think the show was about to do another musical montage with I’m Not in Love, BAM. But in an episode entitled Hi, Infidelity, Ronnie and Logan’s was the only one that went unharmed despite it highly being alluded to in last week’s preview. Another trouble in paradise preview this week, but with the ending, it may come to fruition next week. And I know a certain Clash lover who won’t be sad to see that breakup.
Speaking of the Clash lover (but really, who doesn’t love the Clash), Piz if defiantly growing on me especially after asking Ronnie out on a date that isn’t a date debacle as I been through such awkwardness myself. Then there is someone who grew on me a long time ago Parker who was giving me a Meg circa pre-Duncan vibe last night. And despite obviously crushing on Ronnie, how can Parker not be Piz’s type, Parker’s everyone’s type, well as long as she keeps her wig on. Speaking of the wig, does anyone else think Parker’s “wig” looks more real than her “real hair”? Of course if you look at the picture of Julie Gonzalo it’s pretty obvious that Parker’s “wig” is Julie’s real hair.
Also growing on me is Dean O’Dell. At first I though he would be a poor man’s Principal Clemmons, but his part dick, part moron is starting to be very entertaining in not a rip-off of Clemmons sort of way. And speaking of Dicks, where was he this week? I can’t go without my weekly fill of Dick for two weeks in a row. And for those keeping track at home, Dean O’Dell has been in more episodes this season than both Mac and Weevil.
Next week obviously no Lost, but instead we get Day Break. Of course the irony would be that it gets canceled early and ABC ends up having to put Lost reruns in it’s place. Then on Veronica Mars it looks like Ronnie will come face to drugged up face with the rapist. Or maybe not, I have a sinking suspicion that this is Nish’s revenge, remember she told Vee she would regret getting her fired. Then again, maybe it really is the rapist which begs the question who will come to her rescue. My money’s on good ol’ Chip Diller. Either way, at least there will be a Veronica Mars next week.
Oh and check out the prices of the first two season of Veronica Mars at Amazon to see if you can still get them at half price which they are as I write this.
To be honest I wasn’t planning on voting today but after receiving phone calls lately from Rudy Giuliani and Laura Bush I have changed my tune and will vote against anyone who called me or whatever candidate they were endorsing. Sorry Ken Blackwell, had your wife not ironically interrupted Pardon the Interruption yesterday, I totally would have voted for you. Granted good ol’ Kenny has the power to void, or outright change my ballot so it’s not like voting against him matters to him (Fun Fact: Blackwell replaced Jerry Springer as mayor of Cincinnati). Hopefully some other state has a major voting scandal so Ohio is now longer the poster child for voting fraud. Can’t Florida bring back the butterfly ballot? Now say what you want about the God-hating, baby-killing, terrorist-sympathizing, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip-watching Democrats, but at least they have yet to interrupt my television watching schedule.
In all seriousness, Election Tuesday is one of my favorite days of the years to the point where I treat it like a sporting event, grabbing a case of beer on my way home, lounge on the couch all night and cheer and boo appropriately. Luckily my class tonight is supposedly ending early so I should be getting home just in time for the early results to start pouring in. If the races are as close as the media would have us to believe, I may even tape Veronica Mars as not to miss anything. And long time readers know it takes a lot to drag me away from my favorite show on television.
On a non-political note, since it is Tuesday, we do get a few new albums released today, but looking at the lineup of releases today, it looks like the record companies are avoiding competing with the election with the collaboration between Eric Clapton and J.J. Cale being the only new release of note today (look for a review later this week). In other music news, this week iTunes is giving away one of my favorite songs in recent memory, Smile by Lily Allen for free. If you remember I featured the video for the song a couple weeks ago (Don’t Download These Video vol III) and now if you click on her name, you will be directed to the page in iTunes where you can download the song at no cost. A great song for free, what more can you ask for? Just don't hold it against Lily that her song Take What You Take is the soundtrack to The CW's Aerie Tuesdays.
Recently of few television bloggers including myself put together a list of the best new shows on television the season. And here is what we came up:
1. Heroes - NBC (3)
2. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip - NBC (1)
3. Friday Night Lights - NBC (1)
4. The Nine - ABC (1)
5. Ugly Betty - ABC
numbers in parentheses denote first place votes
Also recieving votes: Brothers and Sisters; Men in Trees; Ice-T’s Rap School; Dexter; Justice; Jericho; Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders: Making the Team
Voters: Ducky, Raelee, Scooter McGavin, Sheila, Tube Talk Girl, TV Fan
First off I guess I should mention that none of the voters are on the NBC payroll. But looking at the list, it looks like it’s a down year for new shows at least compared to recent years. Last year saw the return of the sitcom with My Name Is Earl and Everyone Hates Chris. The year before there was the debut of the two best shows this decade in Veronica Mars and Lost. And even the summer before those two aired was when Rescue Me started its run. Now keep in mind the list above does not reflect my personal tastes because I see enough ugly people in my everyday life that I have absolutely desire to see ugly people on my television, so in a measure of full disclosure here’s my ballot:
1. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (NBC)
2. Friday Night Lights (NBC)
3. Ice-T’s Rap School (VH1)
4. Dexter (Showtime)
5. Heroes (NBC)
As evident of the four different number one votes on the above poll, our television tastes vary a little, but if there is something that all of the voters can agree on is that you should be watching Veronica Mars if you are not already. And as I am writing this Amazon has both season of the show for for half price which is under thirty dollars (see bottom of post for ads). If you do the math, that’s just over a dollar per episode which is less than you can purchase an episode of a show on iTunes so here is your chance to get into the show at a low price or if you already watch the show, it would make a great Christmas present for someone who doesn’t (or for yourself if you haven’t picked them up yet). And to show you how great the show is, here is my personal favorite scene in the show’s history courtesy of YouTube:One last television note, Linda Blair will be appearing on this week's installment of Supernatural and I have some exclusice pictures of the upcoming episode courtesy of The CW. So maybe this Thursday at 9:00 you can catch quality programming instead of a General Hospital in primetime ripoff, whatever city CSI is in this year, or the dude from Little Monsters saying "Deal or no deal" for an entire hour:
Earlier this summer, MTV had two of its reality stars release albums in the same week (see Jamie Kennedy and Cheyenne Kimball) and now MTV for old people, VH1 tries to outdo it with the release of three albums by its reality stars in a two week period. And let’s face it, Vh1 shows some of the guiltiest of the guilty pleasures. The channel started its reality empire when it fleeced The Surreal Life from the now defunct WB in its third season. That was the season that brought us the very first reality show for the greatest hype man in the business, Flavor Flav, who would later go on to star in two spin-offs, Strange Love and Flavor of Love, whose two finales garnered VH1 its two highest ratings in the channel’s history.
And I was one of the seven million that say New York get rejected not once, but twice. The main reason why I sat there week in and week out was because I am a long time fan of Public Enemy and will support the group no matter how trashy the venue is. Okay so the main reason I watched Flavor of Love was I find woman degrading themselves just to get on television entertaining and will stoop so low to hook up with a midget, crack-head on the wrong side of forty just to get screen time. But anyways.
To coincide with the finale of his show, the former William Drayton has released his first solo album that has been in the works for a while. The problem though with a Flavor Flav solo album is that he as his best as the hype man and not the center of attention and just making an occasional comment to Chuck D’s political words. Yeah 911 Is a Joke is a classic, but do you really want to hear a whole album full of those types of song? Listening to Flavor Flav answers that question with a no. The bright spot on the album is the production which Flav does most of as well as play most of the instrumentation himself (young Drayton was a trained classical pianist). But really the only song of any interest would be for those that have wanted to get the Flavor of Love theme song that shows up on the album as Flavor-Man.
New to the reality game is Ice-T who has been biding his time in recent years on the set of one of the Law & Order shows. But he got recruited by VH1 to turn eight middle schoolers at a prep school into a rap group. The show is surprisingly heartfelt and okay for the whole family with the Iceman actually doing a good job teaching the kids. But don’t bring the kids to listen to his latest album Gangsta Rap that definitely lives up to the title. The album is the first by Ice-T in seven years and still sounds like vintage Ice which is not necessarily a good thing. I’m sure if I was still a youngster who memorized every gangsta rap album I could get my hands on, this album would be right up my album. Unfortunately I have matured in my old age so nothing really strikes me on the album. And Ice replaces he usual tracks about various women with one about his wife Coco (whose appearance on the cover has gotten the album banned in a few stores) which show a softer side of the man that we haven’t hear on an album yet. But for any of you that love the watered down rap that finds its way to the radio, you may want to check out the album to here what real gangsta rap sounds like.
Then in a completely different musical direct there is the debut album from Brooke Hogan better known as Hulk’s daughter. The Hulkster has been quite open about the reason he signed up for a reality show and that was to advance his daughter’s music career using the VH1 connection to get tickets to various award shows. It eventually paid off when Brooke was the first artist signed to producer Scott Storch’s record label. Storch was also responsible for the production on Hogan’d debut Undiscovered. The album is filled with your token R&B songs over rap beats that oversaturated the market two years ago. And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the voice that appears on this album sounds suspiciously like the one that appears on Paris Hilton’s album considering Storch was involved in both projects. This begs the question who’s voice is it, Brooke’s or Paris’, or could it be a third singer all, together? Either way, I smell something fishy and that fish looks strikingly like Milli Vanilli.
Flavor Flav gets a ![Terror Alert Level: Guarded [BLUE]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzCbHfExiuXqojow1zxkBUX6j-9BHg9IyrfzqR77jnja2Xq6dbv-7iiqMFzp_UKXGcUF9FyAHqCkNxa5uitXa5Xu2Q1OboN9-TLjsaeI1a2eoGLORU4vkTQ54l1C-_cZyn81QHyQ/s400/small_guarded.png)
on my Terror Alert Scale.
Gangsta Rap gets a ![Terror Alert Level: Elevated [YELLOW]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6-iVFV0hXCTSYP16K_V0Rrxp3GqFrtBIJKeTUyQ2LpxZQ9XKHFj6QGtqqa7oxhLadLV8vUj8R84AftD8IKUSfN0u_u0CYDtJwhrpCPN2DBWquAIDv0jbVlhZL0mDFKlPKluGyxw/s400/small_elevated.png)
on my Terror Alert Scale.
Undiscovered gets a ![Terror Alert Level: Low [GREEN]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV5jUNMqnrEt-A-laO7HQcvH_2mssvEmU-3Ljc21QB95bE8gBS-ozxxmgUMEDQnUAPq4VYFmBlF5RIkGoiRjdCR8euNAtMTAaPmay8ZF4Lg3LY4TNqjAOq_3qDmalmC9AxLMIoVw/s400/small_low.png)
on my Terror Alert Scale.
It probably won’t take a long time reader here at the 9th Green to realize that a review of a Adam Sandler movie won’t be the most unbiased review out there. But much like his other past dumb comedies, Click made into my DVD library. But unlike his previous movies, Sandler doesn’t play the lovable loser. Instead he is a fairly successful architect who close to making partner and he already has the girl in the form of Kate Beckinsale (Serendipity) who seems to like to walk around in pajama short shorts and tight fitting shirt.
Okay, so not everything is perfect as he is having trouble balancing his family and doing enough at work to be made partner. The pressure culminates when he has to do research on Asian architecture so he can land a prestigious Japanese client only to turn on a remote control car while trying to play a video on the subject. So it’s time to a universal remote so he doesn’t open his garage door every time he tries to turn on the television. But the only place that is open at the time is Bed, Bath, and Beyond where Sandler has to venture into the Beyond where he runs into the last person you want to meet at the end of a dark hallway, Mr. Cowbell himself, Christopher Walken.
As anyone who saw the trailer can figure up, the remote that Walken gives Sandler is truly a universal remote as it gives Sandler the power to control his whole universe. He can fast forward threw fights with his wife, mute annoying people, and pause to kick someone in the crotch without them knowing (hey it’s an Adam Sandler movie; you need your prerequisite object to the crotch). No remote control gag goes unused. Well except for close captioning. But anyways. Unfortunately for Sandler the remote comes with Tivo so it starts predicting his habits and starts to fast forwards even when he doesn’t want to do so. And unfortunately for us as Sandler goes further in the future, the sappier the movie gets and almost plays out like A Christmas Carol with Walken playing all three ghosts.
But luckily there are plenty of fart jokes and other sophomoric gags that you would expect from a Sandler movie that keeps the sappy parts from being unwatchable. Plus Sandler brings in some of his past coworker who knock the comedy out of the park including The Fonz (The Waterboy), Sean Austin (50 First Dates), Terry Crews (The Longest Yard), and of course Rob Schneider who seems to pop up in every of his movie, but you will have to look in the deleted scenes to hear his catchphrase, “You can do it!” The best cameo though goes to James Earl Jones who you will just have to see the movie to see how he is used. But when it comes down to it, if you love Sandler, you will love this movie, but if you’re not, you are complete and total tool and need to get a sense of humor.
Click gets a ![Terror Alert Level: High [ORANGE]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhebDZ0qqwOVKMZj7oFSUe8Hm3ax54U9Hp1fThJPgiddTyzcdwx_5SV6E3b7hkKyxbaDiym4COmUXT2YJnsKCUjBHI_a2xZtNoY7qFQRslP5AGO5gLkJwn2ZbO0wIF80ycbKrgPPA/s400/small_high.png)
on my Terror Alert Scale.
We are down to the last two Toss Up’s of this year as Lost will soon go on hiatus until February (luckily Veronica Mars won't) because people actually though all the repeats are why Lost took a creative dive last year and not all the long stretches of boring scenes and to numerous to count unanswered questions. Morons. But enough ranting on stupid people, it’s time for the Toss Up:
Still Has Trust Issues
Lost: Eko’s brother could never trust his motives
Veronica Mars: Even after all they have been through Vee still can’t trust Weevil
Winner: Lost
On Video
Lost: Weird dude with an eye patch in another hatch
Veronica Mars: Claire’s boyfriend
Winner: Lost
Neckwear
Lost: The crucifix Eko took from his brother
Veronica Mars: The necklace that Lily gave to Veronica
Winner: Veronica Mars
Costumes
Lost: The Others all dressed up like cultists for the one chick’s funeral
Veronica Mars: My sources tell me Logan and Ronnie dressed up like The White Stripes for Halloween
Winner: Veronica Mars
Kidnapped for Operation
Lost: The Others kidnapped Jack to operate on Not-Henry’s tumor
Veronica Mars: The Dean kidnapped his step-son’s father for bone marrow
Winner: Veronica Mars
Folk Hero
Lost: Juliet emulated Bob Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues in her video to Jack
Veronica Mars: Johnny Cash’s Busted played over a montage of people appropriately getting busted
Winner: Veronica Mars
Memory Lane
Lost: Eko relieved his previous flashback
Veronica Mars: Pizza boy reminded Vee all the cool things she did in high school
Winner: Veronica Mars
Stolen Goods
Lost: Vaccines
Veronica Mars: Rich kids gambling money
Winner: Lost
Questions From Young Kids
Lost: “Are you a good man?”
Veronica Mars: “Shouldn’t you be, like, smart?”
Winner: Veronica Mars
Alias
Lost: Not-Henry took the name Henry Gale, referencing The Wizard of Oz
Veronica Mars: Keith took the name Adian Monk referencing Monk
Winner: Lost
Who’s?
Lost: Who’s that new chick that went to the Pearl station?
Veronica Mars: Who’s Pam?
Winner: Veronica Mars
Shocker
Lost: Eko dies
Veronica Mars: Claire lied about her boyfriend
Winner: Veronica Mars
An easy win for Veronica Mars as Lost slipped into season two mode with an uninteresting story. And with all three new cast members of that season now dead it’s almost an indication that season two was a failure. This especially true with Eko as he quickly became the most interesting character on the show only to be ruined by bad writing and flashbacks that made little sense. There was so much they could have done with Eko but squandered him for most of last season.
Then there is the question of why did Eko died? He came face to face with the Black Smoke last year and lived so why kill him now? And can we assume that the Black Smoke can take human form and that Eko wasn’t hallucinating his brother but it was instead the Black Smoke? And does that mean it was the Black Smoke that took the shape of Jack’s dad back in season one when Jack saw him, and same with Kate’s horse, Sawyer’s boar? But you know none of these questions will answered next week because Lost only raises new questions on finales, not answers them. And surly we won’t know for a few months who eye patch dude was. But is it safe to assume that the eyeball the tailies found back in the other station is this guys?
Then there’s the Jack storyline which I can’t make sense of either because the Others always seem to have the most elaborate plans so you can’t really tell if Not-Henry isn’t in on Juliet’s video. For all we know Not-Henry may not really have a tumor and that’s a set up for something else. But if he does, wouldn’t it have been a lot easier when the plane crashed and you learn one of the members is a spinal surgeon to just go to the camp and ask, “hey could you please remove this tumor” instead of concocting a plan that would take a couple months to complete?
Now onto the less aggravating show, Veronica Mars which had another solid episode this week. But I’m beginning to think the show is unable to produce a great episode that doesn’t include Dick. You know he would be a fan of gambling, couldn’t they put him in the casino. Seriously, who wouldn’t want to see what Dick would come up with for a Halloween costume? Plus the lack of Piz and Parker is just getting more annoying. How can I care about characters that aren’t there week in and week out? For those keeping track at home, out of the five episodes this season, Piz has been in only two. And that is the same number for Mac, Weevil, and Lamb.
But even without Dick there was plenty of high comedy including Lamb’s robot dance, Ronnie laying the smackdown to the little girl, “Who’s Pam?” and Ronnie’s number one fan at the pizza place even I the character was played by that annoying kid from Punk’d. The second and third storylines seemed to fall flat with the Dean and Wallace cheating but they my set up better things to come. And as much of a Johnny Cash fan I am, hearing him on Veronica Mars just doesn’t fit. Unless maybe it’s fro the American Recording era.
But back to the rap case, with what we leaned this week, my way out there theory from a couple weeks ago that it’s the Lilith behind the rapes my not far off. She may have just been the sacrificial lamb who got her head shaved to pin the crime on the Lampoon guys who said they’d rape the one in the middle two weeks back. She then lied about her boyfriend to make it look like she didn’t willingly had sex and doesn’t wear a wig like the other victims to bring more attention to the crime.
Next week on Lost we get the last episode for about four months and surely we won’t get answers but plenty of questions to ponder over those four months. Then on Veronica Mars we get an episode called Hi-Infidelity which may or may not be a reference to the great John Cusack movie High Fidelity (or possible the book the movie was based on) but hopefully not the REO Speedwagon album of the same name as the episode. It may also be referencing the Regina Spektor song Fidelity that played at the end of the football player episode. I found it odd that the show was playing a break-up song when Logan and Vee were ending their fight, but maybe it was just a sign of what was to come which would be great because I always thought Ronnie should dump Logan and start wearing an I (Heart) Dick t-shirt.
Like many guys my age, a good deal of my childhood devoted to the original Nintendo and while many of the games at the time took just hours to complete, there was one game that stood out due to its massiveness, Final Fantasy. The game luckily didn’t live up to its name as it just saw the twelfth installment yesterday. I have yet to pick up the latest installment yet, but if you suddenly see a slow down in the amount of posts here, there is a good chance I did making my Final Fantasy library complete again. The game though is this month’s induction into the Scooter Hall of Fame. And though the original game seemed to take forever back then to finish (but pales in the length of current games) it still had plenty of replay value as you mix and match your party and decide what was easier an all Warrior team or all Black Mage party? And so began the Final Fantasy addiction.
Granted I want as enthralled with the second edition as the first and took a long break from the series mostly because they didn’t release three, four, five, or six in the United States. It wasn’t until the mid nineties that my love affair with the franchise started up again after buying the original Playstation and picking up right around the time Final Fantasy VIII, but I had to first go back and play VII first mostly because I’m anal retentive because there really isn’t any need to play them in order do to that none of the games were true sequels up to that point aside from dudes named Sid showing up occasionally. Widely regarded as the best game in the series, Final Fantasy VII was unfortunately spoiled for me when one of buddies walked in on me playing while in the early stages of the game and asked “Have you got to the part where the chick dies yet?” But even after the chick actually dies, I actually expected that she would eventually be brought back to life but she was surprisingly never does.
The following games released on the original Playstation were just as good and expansive as the previous game where you waste fifty plus hours trying to get to the end and you can log over a hundred hours to complete everything the game has to offer including vast side missions. In fact whereas all the fanboys rave about VII, the eighth installment may be better. Yeah VII had the shocker in the middle, VIII had a more interesting storyline, less convoluted characters and the game is where Sqauresoft mastered the Playstation dynamics and produced much better graphic and stunning cut scenes. And though IX got blasted for its cartoonish look, it did see the return of the Black Mage from the original and was still worth the time suck. But those who didn’t care for the cartoon must have really hated the Kingdom Hearts spin off complete with Disney characters, both of which I’ve played because I’m that obsessed with Final Fantasy. I even have the movie on DVD as well as picking up the reissued games that came out for the Playstation of the Nintendo games that weren’t originally released here. But I drew the line at Final Fantasy XI because I’m not that big of a nerd to play a massively multiplayer online game.
The main reason I picked the PS2 over the other consoles of its generation had to do with Sony’s exclusive Final Fantasy rights. The tenth volume was a bit of a disappointment because one of the great parts of all the previous installments were their vast landscapes that you can transverse wherever you want once you get the required modes of transportation. But on Final Fantasy X, as well as the first real sequel Final Fantasy X-2, there were very linier maps. Hopefully they go back to the expansive maps for VII which I hope to put off to buying until summer where I’ll have more free time due to nothing worth watching on television. But if I get it earlier, you may expect post to become more sporadic because once I start a Final Fantasy game, I can’t put it down until I’ve finished.
There is no more appropriate time for Kevin Federline to release an album than on Halloween. But instead of writing up a proper review, here is a video that best sums up Playing with Fire (replay five times for proper effect):
Many thanks to Best Week Ever for creating the clip but many apologies to U2 for having their great song tarnished by Federline. But in all seriousness, Playing with Fire sounds much like almost every other rap album released by a Jay-Z wannabe in the past seven years. Mediocre to poor rapping: check. Anemic beats: check. Pop singer providing the hook: check in form of wife Britney Spears. Braggadocios topics ranging from all the bling he has to being a pimp: check. To Federline’s credit he did avoid one of the worst rap album clichés in that there are very few guest appearances and it is pretty much just him rapping on the album. And even though the album is bad, at least it’s not Paris Hilton bad (see my review: Since I'm Already Screwed Here's a Message to You).
Song to Download - Just replay the video one more time
Playing with Fire gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.
Yeah we havn’t even reached November yet, but that hasn’t stopped media outlet’s from trying to be the first to get out their Year End Wrap Out. I wouldn’t be surprised that within five years someone will be doing their Year End Extravaganza in August. But anyways. The first to reminisce about the year that was is VH1 that recently opened it’s voting for the Big in 06 Awards, click the link to vote yourself and much like the mid term elections next year, be sure to vote early, vote often., but don’t vote for the incumbents. The Big show will air December 3rd and be hosted by D.L. Hughley of the hopefully not canceled Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip who did a great job hosting the show a couple years back during the Paris Hilton sex tape era. No performers have been announced yet buy if there are any VH1 executives that are reading this, you must do everything in your power to make sure a “Weird Al” Yankovic / Chamillionaire duet happens.And now this years nominees as well as who I voted for in italics:
Big Entertainer
YouTube
Dane Cook
Jessica Simpson
Steve Carell
Johnny Depp
Gee, it looks like someone has a vested interest in the DVD sales of Employee of the Month. Way to honor Cook long after no one finds him funny anymore. And since when does two movie flops and dismal sales of an album make you a Big Entertainer? Two spots that could have went to Gnarls Barkley. Personally my vote is based on who took up the most of my time in 2006 and that was easily YouTube.
Big Reality Star
No nominees just yet. Right now you can nominate your favorite. I nominated Casey from the Real World/Road Rules Challenges: Fresh Meat/The Duel. Casey is easily the most entertaining reality star that MTV has produced in years. From fights the fights with her partner Wes, to making it to the finals without any physical attributes. Then coming back for The Duel admitting she spent her prize money on a new set of breasts. The final four will be announced November 14th and you can vote on them then. And here is who would fill out my top four: Flavor Flav (Flavor of Love), Josh (Beauty and the Geek), and Danielle’s Breasts (Survivor: Exile Island).
Big TV Star
John Stewart
Ellen Degeneres
Patrick Dempsey
Keifer Sutherland
Who would have thought back in the late eighties that twenty years later that the dudes from Can’t Buy Me Love and The Lost Boys would be nominated for this award. Granted I don’t watch either show, so I’ll go with who used to have a talk show on MTV. And where is Earl Hickey?
Big Musical Artist
Justin Timberlake
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Pussycat Dolls
Shakira
No Gnarls Barkley, no, Fray, no Christina Aguilera, no Killers, no “Weird Al” yet the Pussycat Dolls get nominated. It’s official, 2006 sucked.
Big Download
Jump in My Car - David Hasselhoff
London Bridge - Fergie
White and Nerdy - “Weird Al” Yankovic
Here it Goes Again - OK Go
What’s a Date - Lonely Girl Fifteen
This is an odd category because most of these were YouTube phenomenon and you can’t actually download those videos. But I’m just knick picking. If we are going by number of YouTube views though, then OK Go should win by a landslide, but nothing beats “Weird Al” in entertainment value.
Big Mama
Madonna
Britany Spears
Katie Holmes
Brooke Shields
Yeah, this is a pretty lame category. And you can tell that the nominees were chosen in the short span between when Madonna adopted her African baby and when the father wanted the boy back.
Big Breakthrough
The Cast of High School Musical
Jamie Pressly
Steven Colbert
Sasha Baron Cohen
It looks like VH1 also has vested interest in the Borat movie by putting Cohen in the category before he even broke threw. And not to sound like a broken record but where is Gnarls Barkley. When VH1 does I Love the 00’s you know Crazy will get plenty of screen time for the 2006 episode. But of the nominees you have to go with Pressley because after staring in cinematic gems like Poison Ivy 3 and the Jerry Springer movie, she somehow became the most entertain part of the funniest show on television.
Big Comeback
Rosie O'Donnell
Al Gore
David Hasselhoff
Howie Mandel
New Orleans Saints
Much like Madonna not getting her African baby, the Saints got spanked in New Orleans shortly after the nominees were announced. Yet another reason not to do your best of the year thing before Halloween. But I voted for them just because the other nominees are iffy with two coming back via a reality show and a game show. And how can Rosie be considered a comeback when she went from her own talk show to sharing time with the chick from Survivor and two other blowhards. Maybe I should vote for Gore because the last time I didn’t vote fore him bad things happens.
Hot It Girl
Katherine Heigl
Katharine McPhee
America Ferrera
Vanessa Minnillo
Four chicks from four shows I avoid like the plague. Let’s see here, one stared in a movie that not only did no one see, I don’t must people have even heard of it (Side Effects anyone? And did anyone see the Ringer while I’m at it?) another can pull off ugly way too easy (remember the nerdy version of Rachel Lee Cook in She’s All That was stilly pretty hittable), and one has Nick Lashey stench on her. And I don’t really follow the karaoke circuit, but didn’t the last one lose? And not only lost but lost to a dude even older than me? I went with Minnillo just because she the one I’d most want to have dirty, dirty sex with which says a lot considering the whole Lashey thing. Seriously where’s Scarlett Johansson, Evangeline Lilly and Kristen Bell, can’t we resurrect Rachel McAdams career for this please. I’d even take the chicks from High School Musical or Cassie over these girls.
Big Outlaw
Paris Hilton (DUI)
Willie Nelson (Drug Possession)
Mel Gibson (DUI)
Dick Chaney (Shot Dude in the Face)
Another reason why the awards are too soon in the year, they missed Snoop Dogg’s double whammy of drug and weapon charges on two separate occasions at an airport. Despite being the only one on the list that wasn’t actually charged, I went with Cheney solely in the hope that he shows up to accept the award and inadvertently shooting Hilton in the face.
Big Power Couple
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie
Matthew McConaughey and Lance Armstrong
Britney Spears and Kevin Federline
Beyoncé and Jay-Z
Another lame award. I just went for the boys again just to see the acceptance speech which could be interrupted by Jake Gyllenhaal who was jealous that he wasn’t nominated with them.
Big Shocker
North Korea Tests a Nuke
Mark Foley Gets Caught
John Mark Carr Confesses
Bill Clinton Losses His Cool
It is well known that Kim Jong Il love Hollywood so if you tell him Clint Eastwood id there, he may just show up to accept the award so that why I voted for him. And if he doesn’t show you have the potential for the Kim Jong Il marionette from Team America to accept the award; either way this could be the most entertaining part of the whole show.
Despite rarely ever watching the sport lately, I still participate in the fantasy version. Like much of my drafts lately, I got yet another late draft position drafting here eleventh out of twelve. But that only makes it sweeter when I win. Now here is the roster for Ehlo’s Revenge:
PG - Kirk Hinrich (Chicago Bulls)
SG - Ray Allen (Seattle Supersonics)
G - Jameer Nelson (Orlando Magic)
SF - Carmelo Anthony (Denver Nuggets)
PF - Adam Morrison (Charlotte Bobcats)
F - Shane Battier (Houston Rockets)
C - Chris Bosh (Toronto Raptors)
C --empty--
Util - Randy Foye (Minnesota Timberwolves)
Util - Speedy Claxton (Atlanta Hawks)
BN - Danny Granger (Indiana Pacers)
BN - Shaun Livingston (Los Angeles Clippers)
BN - Tyrus Thomas (Chicago Bulls)
BN - Rajon Rondo (Boston Celtics)
Yeah I didn’t draft enough centers, but there are only about five quality centers in the league, so getting centers were not high on my priority list. But I did work out a trade after the draft to send Granger to another team for Nendad Krstic who I was looking into drafting with my pick after Granger before other team poached him. But in the end I’ll be trading a bench player for a starter which is always a good thing.
I inadvertently went young this year with only one player with more than five years of service as well as four rookies, two of which I have starting so hopefully they all live up to the hype because this will be a really good or really bad season for me. And even though I haven’t watched and NBA game in two years, I still going to give my picks for the year:
Atlantic Division: New Jersey Nets
Central Division: Chicago Bulls
Southeast Division: Miami Heat
Southwest Division: San Antonio Spurs
Northwest Division: Denver Nuggets
Pacific Division: Phoenix Suns
Eastern Conference Championship: Heat over Bulls
Western Conference Championship: Spurs over Suns
NBA Championship: Spurs over Heat
Wardrobe Decision
Desperation Sex
Not Their Type
Almost Caught Doing It
Why You Should Boycott Fox
Another squeaker for Veronica Mars. But had Lost had been exciting for the whole episode as it was the last fifteen minutes, it may have won by a landslide as it went on hiatus. The Locke scenes were basically useless and I have a feeling I missed a scene in-between the one where Locke and Sayid got the shovels and the funeral where Locke and Sayid talked about where they were actually going and why. Presumably it was to get the Jesus stick but I bet there was a scene cut somewhere. Then throw in some boring flashbacks (of course are there any other kind recently).
But the big story this week was in Otherville, especially the last couple minutes. Yeah it’s safe to assume that Sawyer and Not-Henry will survive and Kate won’t leave Sawyer, but it still had me on the edge of my seat mostly because of Jack’s actions. It’s surprising that he would jeopardize his own escape just to get Kate away from Sawyer. And just how many times have we seen Kate cry in the rain? There was also what could be a very important line that many people may have missed in passing that I really need to hear again when the vengeful Other said something to the effect that, “Shepard wasn’t even on the original list.” And weren’t only good people “on the list.” Does this make Jack not a good person?
Speaking of the Clash lover (but really, who doesn’t love the Clash), Piz if defiantly growing on me especially after asking Ronnie out on a date that isn’t a date debacle as I been through such awkwardness myself. Then there is someone who grew on me a long time ago Parker who was giving me a Meg circa pre-Duncan vibe last night. And despite obviously crushing on Ronnie, how can Parker not be Piz’s type, Parker’s everyone’s type, well as long as she keeps her wig on. Speaking of the wig, does anyone else think Parker’s “wig” looks more real than her “real hair”? Of course if you look at the picture of Julie Gonzalo it’s pretty obvious that Parker’s “wig” is Julie’s real hair.
