Many of those who enjoy making overly ironic jokes routinely mentioned at the release of the new Gwen Stefani single, Wind it Up, that she was totally ripping of Fergie’s faux rap style. Of course it was actually Stefani that started the trend that has also been utilized since by Nelly Furtado and Cassie with her Middle School anthems off her debut album. Granted long before Stefani and Fergie, Toni Basil was the first to revolutionize the singing cadence in her cheerleader inspired Mickey. There is a good chance that Basil may have inspired Stefani because it is apparent on Love Angel Music Baby as well as her latest release, The Sweet Escape, that she loves the 80’s almost as much as VH1.
After going even further back in time with the Sound of Music sampling Wind it Up to open the album, the 80’s influences come fast and often. Early Winter sounds like Cyndi Lauper through the No Doubt filter circa Simple Kind of Life. The song, produced by the keyboardist from Keane, is easily the standout track, but mostly because there is little competition. The next closest track is 4 in the Morning, produced by No Doubt’s Tony Kanel, which has a mid-eighties R&B feel to it as Stefani sounds like a one woman version of The Jets.
Elsewhere on the album the eighties elements fall flat. On Fluorescent the song is about one note away from blatantly ripping of the classic from the decad Human by The Human League. The Neptunes continue there downfall with a few weak tracks on the album including Yummy which Stefani herself says, “This sounds like disco Tetris.” I can’t imagine anyone else would think that is a good idea. They also produced the ill-advised Breakin’ Up. No it is not about dumping a boyfriend, it is instead about a dropped phone call. And it even turns out lamer than it sounds. Trying to recreate Hollaback Girl, we get Don’t Get it Twisted chalk full of profanities and a chorus that lift the melody from the Ringling Brothers. The big different is that this song is much less chant worthy than its predecessor. Hopefully some time after this album Stefani realizes she is inching closer to forty and needs to get back together with her band and stop making trite music for thirteen year old girls. Oh yeah, and please don’t ever yodel again, leave that to Jewel.
Back in October, despite two whole months left, VH1 released it’s nominations for their Big in 2006. The nominations came so early then even had to add some nominees later because they deserved to be mentioned when talking about the year that was. Of course the nominations had to come so early because even though December was just a couple days old the channel held the awards ceremony. Well to be technical that’s just when they aired because the actual awards were likely taped days ago. But anyways. Here are some thoughts from the festivities:
- Even though the latest movie in the franchise was just released you really shouldn’t open up a show about 2006 with a James Bond parody. Although dressing D.L. Hughley up like Boret yet looking more like Steve Harvey was funny. And the monologue was great. Now if only Sorkin would let D.L. write some comedy for Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (which oddly didn’t receive a mention) imagine how the show could actually be better.
- Whoever decided to pair up Tommy Lee and the cheerleader from Heroes should be charged with Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor. They hand out the Big Music Artist to Justin Timberlake. Yawn, I’m ready for sexy to go away again.
- Flavor Flav is your backstage announcer for the night and possibly got more screen time than Hughley. I am now convinced that Flav has some compromising pictures of the president of VH1.
- Umm, should I know who Miley Cyrus is? She along with Lance Bass, who somehow escapes from obscurity just for being outed, are out to announce the performance of Fergie. They put this way too early in the show because it’s too soon for a bathroom break. I really hope the Fergie era ends along with 2006 and she takes all the other faux female rappers along with her.
- Wow, Kathy Griffin is looking scarier and scarier by the minute. Give her a wig and five years and she will look exactly like Joan Rivers. Lame segment too.
- Next up are the Dancing with C-Listers losers, the dudes from Blossom and Save by the Bell who give the award for big comeback to another has been who needs a reality show to stay on television, David Hasselhoff.
- Britney Spears wins Big Mama. Keep in mind most of the voting was done before she started hanging out with Paris Hilton and flashing her kootchiepop all over the place. And to think two weeks ago no one thought there was anyway Kevin Federline could win custody of their children and now he actually looks like the better parent.
- Speaking of bad plastic surgery, here comes Jenna Jamison. But this begs the question is it really a bad face lift if no one ever looks at your face? But anyways. Lonelygirl15, who apparently has a real name, Jessica Rose, and cleans up well from all the pajamas she wears to win the Big Web Hit. Now was I just fantasizing are did Jessica ask to make a video with Jenna?
- The Killers are onstage with, like Fergie, the same song they performed at the VMA’s. Oh well, at least it’s the best song off their album. And I really like the last line, “He doesn’t look a thing like Jesus… But more than you’ll ever know.” (Mmm, I wonder if that line will show up later this month.)
- Two actors from various CSI shows give the award for Big Breakthrough to Steven Colbert who despite being on tape is funny as usual as he has a collection of Emmys around. Odd that he pokes fun at the cast of fellow nominee High School Musical yet they weren’t mentioned in the nominee segment.
- Ice-T and his trophy wife is out to announce the best performance of the night: “Weird Al” Yankovic. I was a little disappointed that VH1 didn’t take my advice and have Al perform with Chamillionaire, but this will have to do.
- The Big Shocker goes North Korea testing the bomb. VH1 really dropped the ball by not staging an acceptance speech by bringing in the puppet from Team America.
- The Big Mistakes was another great bit by Hughley, the best being when talking about Mel Gibson blaming all the wars on the Jews, Hughley said, “I didn’t know George Bush is Jewish.” High comedy right there.
- Next out are the dude from Borat not named Borat and Brooke Hogan (it’s time to cut your loses Hulk, Brooke’s music career is officially a failure) to give the Big Reality Star to some chick from Big Brother. Really? There is something ironic (possibly sad) about people who sit around their house watching people sit around a house doing nothing.
- Xzibit announces the Big It-Girl as Katherine McVeigh. I wonder if she’s related to the dude who blew up the building in Oklahoma City.
- Nothing says 2006 like a performance by the dude from Styx. Um, yeah, okay. Apparently he was out to recognize the woman of reality TV, sadly Casey from the Real World/Road Rules Challenge was missing. Although they made up for her absence by closing out the segment with Ms. Jay, that had me on the floor laughing.
- Umm, should I know who Perez Hilton is? Whoever he is, he really needs to invest in a speech coach. And only Paris Hilton would be so starved for the spotlight that she would actually show up to accept an award like Big Outlaw. I wonder if she realizes that we are laughing at her, not with her.
- When did the dude from X-Play start singing for The Fray?
- Nice of VH1 to award Big Entertainer to Dane Cook long after most people believed he stopped being funny. The proof was in his acceptance speech where he too a joke that should have been funny (saying he’d meet up with Lindsay, Paris, and Britney then flash his junk while getting out of a car) only to go way overboard. It’s time to learn about subtlety Dane.
- The last award of the night goes to Kiefer Sutherland for Big TV Star. Yawn. Possibly the most boring VH1 award show ever.
If you watched the Big show you undoubtedly saw some commercials for upcoming VH1 reality shows because that’s all they show anymore. Here I rank them in order of how excited I am about them.
4) I Love New York - A spin-off of a spin-off of a spin-off of a spin-off; that has to be some sort of record. But even though I’m a huge Flavor Flav guy there is no way you can get me to watch this. 3) Tom Sizmore Show - I missed what the exact title of the show was and oddly there is no mention of it on the VH1 website, but it looks exactly like Breaking Bonaduce but without the wife. Granted there is a reason why I don’t watch that show and won’t be watching this. 2) The Surreal Life Game - The Surreal Life was a complete rip off of The Real World so it was inevitable that it would riff its spin-off, the Real World/Road Rules Challenge and just like the RW/RR I’ll watch every minute. 1) The White Rapper Show - It looks like an American Karaoke rip-off with M.C. Search of 3rd Bass as a judge. Seriously, this could be the greatest show in VH1 history. Well maybe not Pop Up Videos good, but close.
Every once in a while you come across a movie that has you on the edge of your seat for parts of the movie. In the case of Inside Man, don’t expect to feel the back of your chair any time between when the bank robbers roll into the lobby and the end credits. Actually you may not even lean back into your seat until long after the credits finish rolling as you sit and try to comprehend what just happened and ponder if you should watch it again. Granted if you listen to the opening soliloquy (the dude even tells you to listen carefully), the ending shouldn’t be at all puzzling.
So what we have here is your basic bank heist. Guys (and a girl) go into a bank with guns waving; soon the cops arrive to make sure they get don’t get away while making sure none of the hostages are harmed. But you quickly realize this isn’t your ordinary game of cops and robbers. On one side you have Denzel Washington (Remember the Titans) as a detective and negotiator assigned to the case. Naturally he has some skeletons in his past namely some money that went missing from his previous case. On the other side of the law is Clive Owen (Closer) as the ringleader of the robbers who give a powerful performance despite spending the majority of the movie behind a mask, sunglasses and hooded sweatshirt.
At the peripheral of the case is Christopher Plummer (Must Love Dogs) who owns the bank yet seems to care less about the money inside the vault than something locked away in a security deposit box. That’s where Jodie Foster (Freaky Friday, no not the crappy Lindsay Lohan one, the original) comes in, she’s the person you call when you need something done, and done discretely. Almost a character despite never seen on screen is director Spike Lee turns the bank robbery into a bigger issue that also deals with race, class, and sex and is still able to feature his longtime collaborator, New York City itself even though most of the action takes place in the bank and a police trailer. And Spike had plenty to work with thanks to Russell Gewirtz, who throws in plenty of one-liners in between all the tense scenes leaving you laughing only to then wonder if you should have or not considering the overall tone of the movie. The best of which is Owen’s dislike for a Grand Theft Auto type video game the youngest hostage is playing.
For most males of my generation, much of the mid nineties were devoted to sitting in front of the computer playing the granddaddy of all shooters, Doom. Before the game, most video games were family friendly plat formers like Mario Brothers and even games that involved killing things like The Legend of Zelda, the killing was very cartoonish. But with Doom, you took a first person account of blasting hell spawn and zombies complete with blood spatter. There was even a time that there more computers that had some form of Doom on it than Windows. The game eventually gave way to the gorier Quake that featured multiplayer through the internet so you could now spend day on end killing your dorm mates.
Then over ten years after its original release and a year after a third installment in the series hit computer screens a movie tie-in made it to theaters despite ever other movie that was based on a videogame has sucked massively. Well of course the one exception being Super Mario Bros. with Bob Hopkins playing the red overall wearing plumber. Okay, enough sarcasm. Transferring Doom into a movie is an odd choice due to the video game being a first person shooter with evil doers being the only other characters in the game. So some changes had to be made for the transition to the big screen. First instead of one space marine shipped off to Mars, we get eight. The biggest change though is that the evil doers don’t come out of portal from hell. Where the actually come from in the movie is bit of a spoiler and I won’t tell you where or how not because I don’t want to spoil you, instead because it’s extremely complicated.
There in lies one of the big problems with the movie, its way too complicated for a film based on a game where all you had to know was kill anything that moves. When the marines hit Mars, they run into a bunch of scientists that bog down the dialog with way too many big words that you needed to take upper level biology and archeology courses in college to understand. The other big problem is you can’t see anything, ever. The lighting in the movie is so dark, even when the evil doers come on screen it’s hard to be scared because you have no clue what you are looking at. The only part of the film that old school gamers can appreciate is they discover of the BFG (my censors won’t let me tell you what it completely stands for but “B” is big and “G” is gun) and the segment where film takes on a first person view. But even those inclusions would make it worth sitting through the rest of the film.
Even though many don’t ever release Christmas albums, most artists have a holiday song for radio stations to play in December. For years there wasn’t a way to have those songs in your collection unless you sit in tape them off the radio, yes kiddies, this was how we got our music in a time before the internet and CD burners. But in 1987, a compilation of holiday music came out with the biggest names in music titled A Very Special Christmas which is naturally December’s induction into the Scooter Hall of Fame. As an added bonus proceeds from the album were donated to the Special Olympics.
The album was a mixture of rock legends like Bob Seger, with Little Drummer Boy and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s rendition of Merry Christmas Baby, granted his version of Santa Clause Is Coming to Town is more associated with him, but the Pointer Sisters version of that song is what appears on the album. The eighties upstarts represented weren’t too shabby either including Madonna appropriately doing Santa Baby and Whitney Houston’s rendition of Do You Hear What I Hear? And long before the genre became mainstream, Run-DMC’s Christmas in Hollis made the tracklist. But the highlight of the album is my personal favorite Christmas song of all time Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) by U2.
Five years later, a second volume was released including contributions from Boyz II Men (The Birth of Christ), Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (Christmas All Over Again), and Debbie Gibson (Sleigh Ride). Then in 1997 the third album featured Dave Mathews Band (Christmas Song), Blues Traveler (Christmas), and another personal favorite Hootie and the Blowfish’s rendition of The Christmas Song. 2001 saw the release of the fifth installment and the series also includes Jazz, World Music, Live and Acoustic albums. Today with advent of iTunes you can mix and match your favorites but it would be hard find a better array of Christmas music than that found on the original A Very Special Christmas. Now only had it included The Twelve Pains of Christmas it would have been perfect.
After years of syndicating different dramas across different genres and types including a library of probably over a thousand different Law & Order episodes from it dozens of offshoots, TNT started producing original programming including the critically acclaimed The Closer. Now its sister station TBS, which focuses on comedies, has decided to go the original programming route to fill the gap between all those Friends episodes including My Boys.
The show centers around a grown up tomboy, P.J., who spends must of her time with her, well, boys. All of those boys are just platonic and that doesn’t bode well for her love life because apparently numerous boyfriends were scared off by all her male friend that include her whipped married brother, her college roommate and two random dudes that were picked up along the way to round out their poker games, a game that seems like a daily even as they played multiple times over the course of the first two episodes.
The latest inclusion to the gang, and the only recognizable actor as one of Drew Carey’s bosses during the last season of that show, is the new superstar shortstop of their softball team, just some happened to be captained by P.J. And no it’s no a co-ed league either, that’s just how butch she is. Dude also catches P.J.’s eye which leads to the most unrealistic scene ever on television where P.J. starts taking dude’s cloths off in the heat of the moment only for the dude tells her to stop. If you’re a guy and an uber-cute chick starts taking off your clothes, you never, under any circumstance tell her to stop.
Rounding out the cast is the P.J.’s lone female friend who she met in journalism school and just so happens to be the exact opposite and is very much a girlie girl. The friend also was the catalyst for the most blatant product namedrops with the numerous mentions of Match.com who just so happens to sponsors the show. But to P.J.’s journalism degree, not so surprisingly she used it to get a job as a Cubs beat writer for the Chicago Sun Times. Luckily there were no Jay Marriotti sightings yet.
Verdict: As good as you would expect a sitcom for a cable show would be but maybe something worth sticking with and you find it while channel surfing because there were a few good laughs. If you would like to check out the first two episodes check out TBS.com. My Boys airs Tuesdays at 10:00.
From very early on this season of Veronica Mars I had a sinking suspicion that the rapist world turn out to be different people, the original rapist then the copycat, but having a tandem that were teaming up definitely took me by surprise. And the who experiment conducted by Homer Simpson earlier this season became a little more important when it was insinuated that that was how Mercer and the Fraking RA met (in case you blinked and missed it, Moe was wearing a prisoner’s shirt in the picture and called Mercer “sir” while Mercer referred to Moe as “prisoner”).
Although even with them working together we never did find out who committed the rape over the summer while Mercer was in Mexico. Was it Moe fulfilling his hair fetish while Mercer was out of town? Was it another Lilith fake rape? But Mercer’s Austin Powers type of monologue as why he does it to his passed victim which was about as long as it would take him to get in the girls pants anyways was highly entertaining whether it was supposed to or not. It was over the top I half expected to hear him mutter, “I would have gotten away with it if it not for that meddling blonde” to Moe in the cell before Logan shows up. Speaking of whom, it’s always the highest of high comedy whenever they have the action happen in the background like with him taking a baseball bat to the cop car.
It was a little disappointing that Parker was MIA for most of the episode considering she was the catalyst of the mystery arc. But it was nice that she ended up being the one to save Vee especially after their conversation on how well the rape whistle works. For those that never took any sociology courses, study after study backs up Ronnie’s claim that just because you blow the whistle are state you are in danger, most people won’t stop to help you out. Even in the scene it took a second cry for help before anyone else showed up. I know the serial rapist got a bad rap among some people, but I thought this was a great ending for the arc.
The whole conclusion to the rape was great and all and graduated Right Here, Right Now into iPod status, but the best part of the episode was when we learned that Dean O’Dell’s car mix includes Olivia Newton John’s Have You Ever Been Mellow? I literally did a spit take as they transitioned from Dick on his float to the Dean in his car. Sadly we won’t get to fid out what else is on the Dean’s playlist as he was on the that won’t see the second mystery arc because, well, it looks like he will be the second mystery arc. It’s a shame that he never learned that Chip Diller also got a crack at his wife.
And for everyone who complained about the three mystery season, keep in mind they spent the last six episodes setting up a lengthy list of suspect so figuring out who did it. If you are going to do a multiple arc season this was definitely the way to go as the second mystery started long before we even realized it did. As for the lengthy list of suspects, it’s too early for Oddsmakers (not to mention I just did one) but here’s my list so far in no paricular order:
The Trophy Wife Professor Landry Richard Greeko Lillith House Chip Diller The Board of Trustees Cigar smoking dude Mercer The dude from The Nanny Not-Lucky
Feel free to tell me if there was anyone I missed. Now from this list, Landry, with his back loge of “Plan the Perfect Murder” papers, would be the top suspect. And I would not be at all surprised if the death mirror a certain paper that detailed the killing of the local sheriff; it is the general consensus that that was the subject of Ronnie’s paper right?
And now we get our first break from the show until at least January, but come February the Toss Up between Lost and Veronica Mars will back in full swing.
Over the past decade or so Snoop Dogg has become more than a brand than a rapper staring in movies, commercials, his own variety show, even lent his name to a porno, wrote a book, started up his own clothing line including a pet accessory line, hosting his own satellite radio show, starred in video games, and founded the Snoop Youth Football League. But the biggest impact was giving new slang for suburbanite white dudes everywhere to annoy their parents. But among all the extracurricular sometimes his music gets overlooks; most casual music fans probably can’t named any of his songs between Jin & Juice and Drop it Like it’s Hot. Even Snoop’s son fully respects his dad’s rapping because when the elder ask him who his favorite lyrist, the Bigg Snoop Dogg wasn’t on the list.
The disrespect from Lil’ Snoop is the catalyst for Snoop Dogg’s latest album Tha Blue Carpet Treatment. The title naturally comes from his affiliation to his former gang the Crips who get their own song on the Neptunes produced 10 Lil’ Crips. To give his advisories equal airtime, Snoop brings in The Game, a Blood to spit a couple verses on Gangbangin’ 101. Longtime producer Dr. Dre shows up behind the boards on four songs and Dre’s old running mate Ice Cube drops a couple verses on LAX. And no Snoop album would be complete without a hook from Nate Dogg who lends his trademark baritone for Crazy while Tha Dogg Pound also show up on the album. New collaborators the Neptunes actually deliver a banging track Vato, one of the few this year, and is only heightened by having B-Real of Cypress Hill on the hook.
Snoop Eastwood embraces the new school too as he brings in Akon, who seems to show up on all rap songs lately despite having a voice that sounds like nails on a chalk board, for two songs but he’s not as bad as the sorry Jamie Foxx appearance. Damien Marley brings some dancehall to the Timbaland produced Get a Light, another stand out track. Snoop also brings in a catchphrase maker in his own right E-40 for Candy but the two can do much better than the over obvious double entendres that show up in the song. And regardless of his falling out with Jay-Z, tha Doggfather still collaborates with R. Kelly, finally out of the closet, for That’s That (Expletive Deleted) which humorously samples the best line from Coming to America.
Tha Blue Carpet Treatment though is way too long at seventy-eight minutes. Plenty of mediocre tracks could have been cut to make a much more complete hour length album. Then they stuck some of the best track at the end including the introspective Imagine which sees Dre step out from behind the boards and takes the mike and D’Angelo on the hook. For the closer, Snoop brings in the legendary Stevie Wonder to rework Have a Talk with God into Conversations. So many rappers sneek in a religious song at the end of their albums, imagine is one would fill up a album with songs like this instead of re-treading the “G” that has overtaken the genre for over fifteen years.
Tomorrow sees the conclusion of the Rapist mini-arc on Veronica Mars so naturally I have compiled a list of possible suspects. The list is significantly lower than last year’s last for who crashed the bus yet also lacks clear cut suspects like the Fitzpatricks or Mayor Goodwood (granted neither turned out to be the culprit), so a wide open field this time around. Go ahead and place your bets on the comment section*.
Dean O’Dell (150:1) - Since his wife is getting her jollies elsewhere, he may look to alternative places to get his. And since he doesn’t like college students he may drug them to make them easier to deal with
Professor Landry & Chip Diller (99:1) - We just learned that the Prof isn’t the most moral person on campus as he’s been secretly meeting the Dean’s wife (who gets around herself) and there more before her or so Not-Lucky would have us believe. Same goes for Chipper who has also had the Dean’s wife and one of his brother’s girlfriend. But as a great philosopher once said, “Why rape the cow when you can get the milk for free?”
Mercer (85:1) - Was exonerated by the computer schedule that had him hosting Club Flush at the time of Parker’s rape. But here something that makes me wonder about his alibi: couldn’t it have been changed afterwards? Of course if that was the case, Mercer would have known to tell someone about the show.
Weevil (60:1) - We all know he likes the party girl type, but maybe he isn’t getting lucky with them with his new appearance. Even though we don’t have a definitive timeline, but he may have been in jail for one or more of the rapes.
Not Lucky (50:1) - He has he creepy bulletin board that all serial killers have. With him pointing out that there was no DNA evidence gave him a very Dexter feel to the dude (works on the cases he commits and is meticulous in cleaning up the crime scene).
The Field (45:1) - Anyone else not stated. Do you think it was Wallace, Deputy Saks, Shelly Pomroy? This is where you place your bets.
A Chick (30:1) - We already know Claire faked her rape and Ronnie insinuated to the Lilith meeting that they may have done more. Plus we learn there has been no DNA evidence suggesting there may not have been any sexual contact which supports the theory that it was a girl. Also the nose ring chick helps out with the booze cart so she would have access.
The Frakking RA (10:1) - Has opportunity and motive: He helps out with the booze cart and has keys to the dorm rooms and being a Battlestar Galactica fan it’s safe to assume dude’s not getting laid so he would need some assistance to get in a girl’s pants. Plus thanks to the keys, he also could have framed Mercer by planting GHB in his dormroom.
A Phi Sig (5:1) - Even though Dick tried to exonerate his brother’s by telling Ronnie that they get some whenever they want, but every Fraternity has a member that isn’t that lucky with the ladies and with the point system could possibly resort to nefarious tactics to get the required numbers to avoid punishment.
Apparently there will be a death tomorrow too according to the promo. Unlike the previous list here, I have now prime suspects, but if I were a betting man, I’ll go with the Dean’s wife which could set up the next arc because her long trail of lovers leads to numerous suspects.
* This game is strictly for entertainment purposes, no money is meant to change hands. Unless of course you would like to donate to the Scooter McGavin is Poor Fund.
First I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving or for those outside the U.S. like to call it, Thursday. Just a heads up with the holidays upon us, here’s a look at the schedule the blog will be taking the next couple weeks as well as a list of the best of 2006. There is a link on the sidebar for future reference. Feel free to dive into the archives on days that I will be taking off and on day that are not listed, they will be filled by the regular reviews and such you have come to find at the 9th Green (card subject to change):
*As you may have noticed, on the 29th I will have a Reader’s poll on what you all thought were the best songs of the year. So if you would sometime time before Christmas, e-mail me (ScooterKSU@aol.com) your top ten songs of the year. If you need a refresher of songs from the last twelve months, check out the list of the albums I reviewed for my Terror Alert Scale as all the songs from those albums are eligible, and of course any song released this year is okay too even if I didn’t review it. Your nominations will be confidential and I won’t disclose it here at the 9th Green, so if you enjoy the 9th Green please send me an e-mail by December 24. But if I don’t get enough ballots, I’ll just take the 26th off.
Another reason I won’t be posting this weekend is I finally switched over to Blogger Beta recently and will be spending some time going through my archives and assigning labels so if anyone wanted to check out all the Toss Ups between Lost and Veronica Mars and other things hopefully you will be able do so by Monday. If there is a category you would like to see, just shoot me an e-mail and hopefully I’ll be able to accommodate. I haven’t made a full switch yet by picking out a new template yet but hopefully I’ll have one by the New Year (of course a Blogger Beta ready template with 3-columns would make a good Christmas present, not that I’m pandering for one or anything).
Scooter Update: Well after labeling all weekend I only got 200 posts done all the way back to late April of this year. To put that in perspective on Wedensday I'll reach my 600th post. So this is going to take much longer than I expected. And with the Holidays and finals coming up I doubt I get them all label until after Christmas. And I apoligize to anyone's who's feed is getting all messed up with my updating. In old blogger, the feed readers would only update posts on my main page, not when I did anything to older posts. If anyone knows if there is anything I can do to keep the older post from getting updated in the feed readers please shoot me an e-mail.
Well I was a little wrong last week when I said that Ronnie would go after Chip Diller in regards to his gambling debt and the possibility that he set up Mercer to take the fall for the rapes on Veronica Mars this week. Instead we open with Chipper in his tightie whities with chunks of hair missing from his head. Not surprisingly it turned out to be the Lilith House behind the whole thing. But it was surprising when Vee accused them chicks to be behind other “rapes” she didn’t accuse them of being behind her attack. It’s not like her to not throw around accusations even if she’s outnumbered.
But the big news this week, or so I’m told, was the appearance of Patty Hearst. And her acting skill made the chick from Laguna Beach look like Meryl Streep in the acting department. Well, at least she was better than Paris Hilton. But Hearst was a little bit before my time. It’s not a good sign that I was more excited with an appearance by the dude from The Nanny. Then there were just too many in jokes at Heart’s expense that just went way over my head. And are we to assume that she really voted against the Greeks? I really can’t imagine that is really going to happen unless the Greek system goes underground until they can apply for reinstatement.
But that was all made up for with not one, but two scenes between Dick and Ronnie. You gotta love Dick, who would give up his president just to tell a funny story even to his arch nemesis. Seriously, how funny was the “keister egg” comment? Too bad you started to feel bad for Chipper during the other food court to the point he needed Wallace and Ronnie to help him out. And I’m not sure what was scarier, last week where Vee was dancing back to front with Liam or this week where the bodyguard came out of nowhere to nab her. I’m calling it next week will be the end of the Ronnie/Logan coupling. They have been teasing it too long for it not to happen.
And it’s gotten to the point where they are not even making an excuse for Mac being MIA since the second episode. But just when people may have started to forget about her, look who showed up in the preview. So Mac won’t have any more aunts dieing, won’t be at the gym, nor will have a big midterm. And Mac aside, the preview for next week looks epic. See for yourself with the video below courtesy of YouTube:
For anyone who missed the website that was given after the show it’s VeronicaViewers.com. The site is pretty bare bones excepte for a poll of who Ronnie should date (Logan, Piz, no one) and a contest whre you can win a walk on role for the show. Personally I’m holding out for a speaking role. But anyways. Lastly, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, or to the non-American readers like to refer to it, Thursday. And with Thanksgiving tomorrow, I will be taking a days off but check out this weekend for my holiday schedule and I'll be back in full force on Monday as I break down the probability of who is the Hearst Rapist with Oddsmakers.
…It’s not to play games with you.” That was a line uttered on Encore, a song from the retirement album of Jay-Z. Then during what Jay called the worst retirement ever, he released a duet album with R. Kelly, a mash-up album with Linkin Park (not to mention the unofficial mash-up, The Grey Album), and spit verses on multiple different albums. Even his comeback was the worst kept secret in music circles as Kanye West and Pharrell of the Neptunes both said they were working on the project long before Jay admitted he was coming out of retirement.
So three years after his farewell with The Black Album, Jay-Z is back with Kingdom Come, a name that comes from a Superman comic book of the same name where the Man of Steel comes back from self exile. Much like his previous album, Jay handles almost all the rapping himself with guests like John Legend, Usher, Beyoncé, Ne-Yo, and Chris Martin (yes the dude from Coldplay) relegated to singing the hooks. And then there is the steller line of producers, aside the previously mentioned West and Neptunes, Swizz Beatz, Just Blaze, and Dr. Dre who behind the boards for five tracks.
The rust still lingers as Jay isn’t on the top of his game for most of the disk. He even brings down some of the joints as his flow is just anemic over Blaze’s great beat of Oh My God. But Blaze doesn’t repeat that success as his sample of Rick James doesn’t work on the title track. And he was also at the helm of the weak comeback single Show Me What You Got that jacks the same sax from the early nineties oversexed Rump Shaker. The Neptunes continue their downslide with the unlistenable. West has a misstep with Do U Wanna Ride.
Even Dr. Dre produced a rare weak track with the poorly conceived 30 Something where Jay tries to convince himself that “Thirty is the new twenty.” Dre does much better on the laid back Lost Ones. Trouble takes his trademark sound and makes it futuristic much better than Timbaland tried to do on the horrible Justin Timberlake album (this begs the question was Timbaland absent from Kingdom Come to make that crap?). Dre also has his hands on the best songs on the album that end the album starting with Minority Report that sees Jay tackle Hurricane Katrina and the broader topic of poverty that features snippets from the evening news as well as the infamous, “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.” That is followed by Beach Chair that features Martin on the hook and behind the board and may be Hova’s most introspective track to date.
Like the last album, Michael Jordon references are a plenty and maybe it’s too true. The poor verses that Jay dropped on other artists songs during his “retirement” were about as good as Jordon’s baseball career. And lets not forget that Jordon didn’t win the championship in his first season back. Hopefully will get back on track with future releases and doesn’t take the Jordon comparison any further or he may quickly turn into the Wizards version of the basketball star, as Jay already has the executive power.
Thanks to the brainchilds who wined last season that the reason Lost lost it’s thunder last season was too many repeats between new episode even though that didn’t seem to be a problem when the show was good in the first season. So to appease those morons now we have to wait three months in-between new episodes. In the interim we get Day Break, or as I like to call it Tru Calling with dudes.
So much like Tru Calling we get someone who lives the same day over again but instead getting a do over, the dude get the same day over again more like Groundhog Day, but much less funny. But the difference is the main dude carries over his injuries to the next day so no suicide attempts like Bill Murray. But much like the other “live the day over again” premises, they plant plenty of little thing for the dude to catch like always tripping over his belt, making sure he doesn’t break a plate again, and saving a woman from being hit by a bus.
The one and only day we get to see is based around Taye Diggs (How Stella Got Her Groove Back) who is being set up for killing the district attorney. Also possible wrapped up in all of this is Diggs partner Victoria Pratt (House of the Dead II) who has problems of her own as Internal Affairs got her on something. Adam Baldwin (Firefly), the IA officer on the case, just happens to be the ex-husband of Moon Bloodgood (Eight Below) who just so happens to be shacking up with Diggs these days. Then FBI Assistant Director Skinner gets a demotion as he now is working homicide on Diggs’ case. Through in some shadowy figures in a rock quarry who seem to behind the whole thing and you have a tangled web of a television show.
Verdict: Much better than I expected. Granted I may be the one of the few as the premiere dropped over three million viewers in the second hour. With that trend, we may get the dreaded Lost repeats before Christmas. But it’s a good choose to keep the show in a limited run because the premise would get old much like Tru Calling and at Tru at least only relieved the day once. Day Break airs on Wednesdays at 9:00 until the end of January. If you want to check out the series premiere head over to ABC.com.
There have been a couple of videos that have caught my eye lately so I though I’d give them some love since the death of Musical Television left a void for a forum on the art form so here they are courtesy of YouTube. I advise you to watch them before you read my reviews if you don’t want me to spoil things. If you are interested in buying the video through iTunes, click the title link (where available, if not the link goes to YouTube where you can watch the video in full screen). If you are interested in buying the song, look for a link in the analysis.
If there is one good thing about American Karaoke, it gave us Carrie Underwood who is moderately attractive. But if there were a second good thing to come out from the show it would be that it spawned this video and parody from “Weird Al” Yankovic. Yeah, I can't say I have heard the orginal version, but that doesn't make it any less brilliant. I may actually like this more than the White and Nerdy video. And for those that were wondering, the video is from Jib Jab, the guys behind those brilliantly funny political parodies from two years ago. Oh and what really makes the song great is that Taylor Hicks dude totally creeps me out so it's nice to know Al thinks the same thing.
Then there’s Al’s buddy Ben Folds who has a hilarious video of his own. I can’t help think of Dodgeball with Folds walking around the city in a pirate’s outfit.
It should go without saying that Shakira is uber-hot, but I always thought her perm was somewhat of a turn off so the look in this video is easily her best yet. Throw in some boxing and I’m thoroughly entertained. Oh and for those who didn’t realize, that’s Carlos Santana on the guitar.
I really can’t describe this video, just watch it, you should definitely like it. If you don’t, well I feel sorry for you. Oh and don’t forget to check out the new Johnny Cash video if you haven’t already.
Don’t hate (+44) because half it’s members are from Blink-182, a band that is best know for songs about prank phone calls and other sophomoric lyrics. Don’t hate the band because the other Blink-182 member, with his new band Angels and Airwaves, (see my review: Everyone Will Listen Even if it Hurts Sometimes) made the most pretentious album of the year had My Chemical Romance not tried to make a concept album that sounded like Queen and Pink Floyd. Don’t hate the band because half of the members are from the Transplants, a band best known for letting one of their songs to be used for a female hair product. No, don’t even hate the band because their drummer has been seen with his tongue in Paris Hilton’s mouth on multiple occasions recently.
After Blink-182 when on an indefinite hiatus, Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker started up the new band describing it as more experimental and more electronica oriented. But after the duo recruited Craig Fairbaugh, who Barker played with in the Transplants, and Shane Gallagher from the band The Nervous Return, the electronic sound got pushed into the background as the guitars became more prominently featured on the release of When Your Heart Stops Beating. The result is just a slight variant of the old Blink-182 sound, a sound that the band was already going towards with the release of their last self titled album with a more mature sound and void of any frat boy humor.
There are some great modern rock tracks on the album, but some are just derivatives of other and it’s sometimes hard to distinguish the title track with the opener Lycanthrope. Little Death should like an offshoot of Blink’s I Miss You. And when the band finally lives up to its electronic promise like on 155 and the instrumental Interlude, the result is mediocre at best. An exception to that is Make You Smile where Hoppus does a heartfelt duet with Carol Heller who was part of the early carnation of the band but left to start a family.
But at least Hoppus and Barker can rest in the solace that they made a better record than their former band mate Tom DeLonge whom they may or may not have taken a dig at in the line, “This isn’t just goodbye, this is I can’t stand you” from the song No, it Isn’t.
![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.
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![Terror Alert Level: Severe [RED]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidjcsCV5I3jWQDVTcnVoXbArSx3kHl02FZ8FkOHBBKP2w8mQulcCF614SIw1GjuB2JtKV2YcQOKXtMlnW2ulLSOvYvvXzDwZ3JF4Mlh0Dt2nfEL1oGLh0sk7O-GRHWbCPvJmMMKg/s400/small_severe.png)
on my 
![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 Level: Elevated [YELLOW]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6-iVFV0hXCTSYP16K_V0Rrxp3GqFrtBIJKeTUyQ2LpxZQ9XKHFj6QGtqqa7oxhLadLV8vUj8R84AftD8IKUSfN0u_u0CYDtJwhrpCPN2DBWquAIDv0jbVlhZL0mDFKlPKluGyxw/s400/small_elevated.png)
on my 
