This contest has ended, congradulations to those that have won, if you did not win, you can order the book at the BenBella Books website. You can check out my review of Neptune Noir here: Well it's About a 17 Year Old Girl Who Happens to Be a Detective. Also any television fan who is dreading the upcoming summer without your favorite shows should check out other books in their Smart Pop Anthology Series including books dedicated to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Simpsons, Gilmore Girls among others.
A must have for any fan of Veronica Mars, the good people over at BenBella Books have given me the opportunity to give away up to five (5) copies of Neptune Noir: Unauthorized Investigations into Veronica Mars. I got my advance copy a couple days ago and will have a review of it up in the next couple days but here is a synopsis:
More than just a high school drama, Veronica Mars is a smart and savvy teen detective show that offers complex mysteries and rapier wit, engaging social commentary, and noir sensibilities—with the occasional murder thrown in for good measure. This collection, edited by the creator and executive producer of the show, offers supreme insight into the class struggles and love stories of the series. Essays by top writers intelligently address a multitude of questions such as Is Veronica a modern-day vigilante? Why is a show that features rape, potential incest, and a teen girl outsmarting local authorities so popular with America’s conservative population? and Why is Veronica and Logan’s relationship the most important story-driving factor in the show?
So know you know what you will be getting, here is how you can enter the contest to win yourself. There are three different ways you can enter to win:
1. Name your two (2) favorite cases that Ronnie has worked on over the three season of the show, you are not allowed to pick more than one mini or full arc mysteries, and in a hundred (100) words or less tell me why they are your favorites.
2. For those that haven’t seen the show but want a good read, watch the first episode of the third season, Welcome Wagon, which you can download on iTunes or Amazon Unbox or stream it on MSN.com, and in a hundred (100) words or less, review the episode.
3. Link this contest on your blog or link it a message board (only one entry allowed per message board).
You can e-mail your entries to ScooterKSU(at)aol(dot)com (subject: Neptune Noir) or leave them here in the comment section (but if you leave a comment make sure there is an easy way for me to find how to contact you). If you link the contest, make sure you let me know somehow so you get credited with an entry. You may enter multiple times (up to three times), but can only win once. The contest ends Sunday, May 20th at 11:59 PM EST. The winners will be picked at random from all eligible entries and will be contacted shortly after. Also this contest is only open to people with shipping addresses in the Untied States or Canada.
Have a final tonight and I also have a take home final due today so again I will make some quick notes on last night’s episode of Veronica Mars. If you have yet to see the episode, you can stream Debasement Tapes over at CWTV.com or download it on iTunes or Amazon Unbox.
- You know a recurring character is a good one when you smile just by seeing them on screen much like with Jeff Ratner, Deputy Leo, and Vinnie Van Lowe.
- Something is fishy with Vinnie, well more than usual. He was on retainer for the Fitzpatricks then he “infiltrated” their gang; remember Danny Boyd was part of the heist, using just a cheap mustache. Boyd ain’t the smartest person in the class, but I’m sure even he could tell the difference. I have a feeling this was all a set up to get Vinnie into the race.
- There is just something entertaining about the way Ronnie says “Ratner.” Hopefully her falsely accusing him will become a running theme.
- When everyone argues Duncan or Logan, Logan or Piz, my favorite ex of Vee has always been Deputy Leo. And by the look on Ronnie’s face when he said they would be seeing more of each other seems that he may still have a shot.
- It was also good to see Piz’s hot boss again. I was hoping she would be recurring ever since Piz got the job but sadly has been MIA since. Hopefully we don’t have to wait long for another sighting.
- But the episode belonged to Paul Rudd. His radio interview was an instant classic. His new names for Piz were great. Dude can actually sing. Loved his argument with Keith (the Beatles are overrated by the way, had Brian Wilson had been shot in 1980 instead of John Lennon, everyone would be talking about how the Beach Boys were the greatest band ever, but anyways). And his conversation with Dick was hilarious.
- But as funny as Rudd was, Dick still had the funniest moment of the night as he watched himself “Ghost Riding the Whip.” The expression on my face was pretty much the same as his during that scene.
- I much prefer Max to Bronson. Although I would have loved to see Mac trying to play Ultimate.
- For some reason I know have a strange craving for Wrigley's Extra Gum.
I may have more to say this weekend about the episode during my weekly television round up. And be sure to stop by early tomorrow as I have big news (and by early I mean 4-ish).
As I was busy working on my major project last week, there a couple of albums worth reviewing that were released last we, here are a quick review of those:
Indiana - Jon McLaughlin
Aw, Indiana, the great state that has given us John Mellencamp, David Letterman and, un, certainly there has to be more, oh yeah, and Dan Quayle. The latest export from the Land of the Indians is singer-songwriter Jon McLaughlin who named his debut album after his home state. Unlike his fellow Hoosier, McLaughlin’s music in not distinctively Midwestern instead focuses on more uplifting fair of love in a small town. And instead of a guitar as his instrument of choice, he instead goes with the piano listing Billy Joel and Ben Folds as influences. But McLaughlin lacks the wit of Folds and the emotion of Joel leading to songs best fit to play over the speakers in your local supermarket with songs that won’t make you run for the exit but won’t make you stop and wonder who that was. Of course with Mother’s Day this weekend, Indiana would make the perfect gift if your mother doesn’t already have the latest Norah Jones album.
Indiana gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.
The Reminder - Feist
Speaking of exports, Canada doesn’t really have the best track record. It seems for every great artist like Sarah McLachlan or Neil Young we get, they send us artists like Avril Lavigne, Shania Twain, Sum 41, and Nickelback. The latest artist to come stateside from the Great White North is Feist (Leslie Fiest to her friends and family) and quickly became an indie queen. Her latest album, The Reminder, got some early buzz thanks to a really cool video (featured here not to long ago). On the album, Feist somehow is able to sound subdued yet have a big song, thanks to multi-instrument tracks, at the same time. When listing to The Reminder, it can seem longer than its fifty minutes which can be a good or bad thing depending on your mood. So thanks Canada for finally sending down some good music again, but not all is forgiven for Celine Dion yet.
During the nineties and before, record companies would con fans into buying movie soundtracks even though they may have only featured on artist they wanted to listen to much Ghostbusters II did so I could get the Bobby Brown song (hey I was young). But with the advent of downloading, which enables fans to pick and choosing their favorites without actually buying the whole album, has pretty much killed the movie soundtrack business. This hasn’t stopped Spider-Man from releasing a soundtrack for each of its movies full of songs that haven’t actually appeared in the movies sans the end credits. The beginning of the album is top heavy with songs from Snow Patrol, The Killers, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs with songs not as good as anything on their most recent albums. The rest of the album is filled with modern rock bands most people have never heard of except stuck in the middle of the trainwreck is Chubby Checker’s version of The Twist. The most interesting song here (keep in mind interesting is not synonymous with the best) is The Flaming Lips’ The Supreme Being Teaches Spider-Man How to Be in Love, a song that follows a bout between the web slinger and Muhammad Ali of all people.
Quote of the Week: “I've been studied up, I watched My Super Sweet 16. That reminds me, you don't know where I can get a dozen eunuchs do you?” (Logan, Veronica Mars)
Song of the Week: Hurts So Good - John Cougar Mellencamp (Everybody Hates Chris)
Big News of the Week: Gilmore Girls Going, Studio 60 Coming Back: Okay so I have never watched Gilmore Girls except maybe the last five minutes of the current season as I prepare for Veronica Mars. But with its demise you got to wonder if this gives Veronica Mars a better chance to return next season now with three extra hours than The CW had last fall. The channel did green light fifteen pilots, a third of which were reality programs. Then there is Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip which is returning May 24 in ER’s timeslot.
Everybody Hates Chris: One of the main problems about doing an episode about dirty jokes is that you can’t actually tell them on national television. But they did do a clever thing avoid the seven words you can’t say on TV especially with Craig talking about his parents going back and forth calling each other four and five. Check out the latest episode on CWTV.com.
Heroes: Okay, Hollywood, I get it, George Bush is evil and exploited 9/11 for his own political gain. There is no need to continually put these not so thinly veiled allusions to him and his administration in your movies and television show. And when Heroes wasn’t exploiting someone exploiting a tragedy this week, they were totally ripping off the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode where Cordelia wished herself into a parallel universe where Buffy never came to Sunnydale and everyone, sans Giles, ended up dieing. But will all the Heroes dieing in the future, why was Nikki the lone hero spared? What really bugged me about this whole thing is why did Future Hiro keep on going back to make sure everything happened to ensure Sylar didn’t blow up New York City but never thought to go back and kill Sylar himself? Speaking of Hiro, he gets a little to happy to see Ando when they have been apart and Future Hiro is uber depressed without him, could Hiro have a man crush on Ando? Check out the latest episode over at NBC.com.
Veronica Mars: Just an addition to I Like This Show, It’s Tawdry from earlier this week. Someone made a video of all the great elevator scenes in the show’s history (see below) and it is really interesting the elevator played a part with Ronnie catching Logan with Kendall and Logan catching Vee with Piz. On a side note, I am totally disappointed that Dick hasn’t accepted my friends request on MySpace. Check out the latest episode on CWTV.com or download it on iTunes.
Lost: Lost is really good this season for giving huge hints to their big reveals that when they are actually revealed, they are not that surprising (see Jack and Claire being siblings). After the last Locke-centric I wrote on this very blog, “how many seasons until we get the hyped, shocking revelation that the original Sawyer is Locke’s dad?” Okay so we didn’t have to wait that long, but it wasn’t any less shocking. The big new this episode was Juliet and Jack argued over whether to tell Kate something big, which of course this being Lost, they didn’t. I’m putting my money on her planning on turning on the Others and wanted to let Kate in on the kidnapping that is about to occur as Sawyer most likely impregnated her. Although assuming that Sun is also on the list, who is the third? Check out the latest episodes over at ABC.com.
Smallville: Loved the noir parts of the episode, the other part, not so much. They really should have made this more stand alone having only about five minutes of “real life.”
My Name Is Earl: Maybe I looked forward to the whole scratch and stiff way too much, or that the last two episode were two of the series best, but this episode was a bit of a let down. Sadly the funniest part of the show was in an interview the show’s creator gave complaining that he wasn’t given smell approval and not to blame him if the smells don’t quite smell like they should. Check out the latest episode over at NBC.com or download it on iTunes.
Next Week’s Pick: Lost, Wednesday, 10:00, ABC: It seems like every week I complain how useless the flashbacks are because there have been just way too many from Jack, Kate and Locke. And not so surprisingly the best episodes this season have been the Juliet and those random people centric one. Next week may top them all as we get flashbacks from a guy not named Henry.
Download these shows on Amazon UnBox and watch them on your computer or transfer them to your Tivo:
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.
This is the story of two Kelly Clarkson’s. You have the Clarkson in white, who is definitely serviceable. Then there is the creepy Clarkson who makes you realize why the dude in the song would drop her for somewhere else. The video oddly reminds me of Owner of a Lonely Heart without the animals and unfortunately she doesn’t force the dude to jump off a building. And as I said before, the song is no Since U Been Gone (or Behind These Hazel Eyes for that matter) but there is something I like about the lyric, “Give me that Sunday school answer.”
Rihanna is good for at least one good song per album. Okay she is good for only one good song per album. But Umbrella definitely isn’t going to be that one for her upcoming release. And you really have to blame Jay-Z, ever since he unretired, everything he has touched has been sub par; Déjà vu with Beyonce was a cheap rip off of Crazy in Love; Kingdom Come was a massive flop, and this song just plain sucks. And as much as I like moderately attractive chicks naked, that body paint made me feel like I was watching some creepy soft-core robot porn.
I would much rather Tom Morello to focus more on continuing the Rage Against the Machine reunion, as his Nightwatchman isn’t nearly as good, but this video is a good watch.
Do we really need a serious song and accompanying video from Bowling for Soup? Probably not. The video is a little too soap opera-y, but effective nonetheless.
With the major project deadline still looming, I don’t have time to give a full write of the latest episode of Veronica Mars but here is a list of some of my favorite parts from last night’s episode. If you missed Un-American Graffiti, you can stream the episode over at CWTV.com, or download it through iTunes or Amazon Unbox.
- Really, any episode with Dick and Ronnie interaction is a great episode in my book. Ronnie’s comment about rather riding in a space elevator with Dick than going to Parker’s party was a great shout out to the alterna-prom episode. And Dick calling having his zipper down a “party ritual” may be the greatest Dick-ism ever.
- Second favorite part of the episode was the Van Clemmons sighting.
- Loved that Logan mocked the worst show in the history of television, My Super Sweet 16 and deliver the best line of the night: That reminds me, you don't know where I can get a dozen eunuchs do you?
- Vee giving the smackdown to a Middle School kid: classic
- Not sure what pop culture reference I liked more, Ronnie calling random stoner “Towelie” or the over exaggerated Tarintinoesque super slow-mo during the drive by.
- Loved Mac referencing cheesy 90’s movies, but her chumming it up with Logan was a little weird.
- The Mac-Max introduction may be the greatest introduction since Uma met Oprah. And poor guy know has to ask every girl he meets if his friends bought her.
- Much preferred the Keith case opposed to Ronnie’s. But how exactly did Keith know Piz’s first name? But the Biggie Smalls ID was great. I have a feeling that it will be just Keith and Sachs at the sheriff’s office next week.
- It was great seeing Chief Reilly in the episode. I wonder if this is part of some great television exchange program. Is Dick going to show up on Rescue Me next season in return?
There was an article in that latest Newsweek (5/7/07) totally ripping on The CW and how the first year is a failure. The first paragraph is dedicated to Veronica Mars and is the show that gets the most mention. Check your local newstands if you want to check that out.
In an unrelated story, a melancholy happy trails to Tom Poston who died last night. He was a little before my time, but I do remember seeing a few episodes of Newhart. It is good to remember a time in comedy where everyone didn’t go straight to raunchy in order to get a laugh.
It is the first of the month and that means it time for a new induction to the Scooter Hall of Fame. In honor of the band reuniting this weekend at Coachella, Rage Against the Machine, and their best album Evil Emipre will be this month's induction. The only problem is I with the semester coming to a close and a major project due Thursday, I just do not have time to do a right up. I will most likely have that ready later this week. Until then, here is my favorite Rage song, Bulls on Parade, from the Coachella set (which really is not that safe for work):
You know that the MTV Movie Awards have become a complete skill for the movie industry if you check out the category they stuck in at the end Best Summer Movie You Haven’t Seen Yet. Then the movie that garnished the most nominations, along with 300, was a movie that everyone panned, but who’s third installment in the series is also coming this summer. With that said, I’ll still be tuning in June 3rd mostly because for the first time in what seems like forever, an MTV awards show may actually have a host that may be funny in Sarah Silverman. Here are the nominations and you can always head over to MTV.com to cast your vote or Yahoo.com to vote for your favorite fan submitted spoofs:
Maybe it is a generational thing, but I have never understood the whole Borat phenomenon. Same with Will Ferrell, someone really needs to tell explain how they actually find them funny. But with that said, I have a feeling there will be a Borat sweep. Personally as a big fan of homoerotic history, 300 was the best movie here.
Who Will Win: Will Smith Who I Voted For: Gerard Butler
You can trace the point when the Movie Awards started to suck to when they started nominated the same actors that the academy awards did and here you have four actors nominated for the characters they have played. What ever happened to Most Desirable Female? But anyways. Even though he was great in the first, Depp seemed to be mailing it in with the second, so I go with Butler. But I got to wonder what was his gayer role, 300 or Phantom of the Opera.
Breakthrough Performance Emily Blunt, The Devil Wears Prada Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine Lena Headey, 300 Columbus Short, Stomp the Yard Jaden Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness Justin Timberlake, Alpha Dog
Who Will Win: Abigail Breslin Who I Voted For: Columbus Short
Justin Timberlake’s inclusion here begs the question how can you actually have a breakout performance in a movie no one saw? Not that it matter, Breslin will runaway with it because all the future stars of To Catch a Predator most likely liked her stripper routine a little to me. Since I’m against the exploitation of eight year olds, I went with Short not for Stop the Yard per say, but I loved his performance on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.
Best Comedic Performance Emily Blunt, The Devil Wears Prada Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan Will Ferrell, Blades of Glory Adam Sandler, Click Ben Stiller, Night at the Museum
Who Will Win: Sacha Baron Cohen Who I Voted For: Adam Sandler
Well Click was the only movie on this list that I actually saw so that is the easy choice. For further reasons why I would vote for Sandler, take a look at the name of this blog.
Who Will Win: Tobin Bell Who I Voted For: Bill Nighy
If I’m not mistake, Bell won last year and that will most likely continue not just this year but next. Hopefully there may be some Saw fatigue so Nighy wins as he was the lone bright spot in an otherwise bland movie. Although if he does end up winning, the award should also go to the CGI people that created his tentacle beard.
Best Fight Jack Black & Héctor Jiménez vs. Los Duendes (Wrestling Match), Nacho Libre Gerard Butler vs. The Uber Immortal (The Spartan/Persian Battle), 300 Sacha Baron Cohen vs. Ken Davitian (Naked Wrestle Fight), Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan Will Ferrell vs. Jon Heder (Ice Rink Fight), Blades of Glory Uma Thurman vs. Anna Faris (Super Girl Fight), My Super Ex-Girlfriend
Who Will Win: Sacha Baron Cohen vs. Ken Davitian Who I Voted For: Gerard Butler vs. The Uber Immortal
Who would have though that Best Fight would be the gayest category ever? They might as while send these montages to the Secretary of Defense in hopes of overturning their Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy.
Best Summer Movie You Haven't Seen Yet Evan Almighty (June 22) Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (June 15) Hairspray (July 20) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (July 13) Rush Hour 3 (August 10) Transformers (July 4)
Who Will Win: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Who I Voted For: Transformers
Yeah, this was pretty worthless. And where’s I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry?
Big News of the Week: May Sweeps in Full Swing: It’s is may and the networks are bringing out the big guns: Barney appears on The Price Is Right (How I Met Your Mother), the Heroes fast forward five years, Veronica Mars returns, My Name Is Earl has Smell-a-Vision (check the latest issue of TV Guide for your sniff card), Smallville goes noir, Tyra Collette returns to Supernatural, and next Sunday NBC gives us Saturday Night Live in the ‘90s: Pop Culture Nation. With all that, there will be only one Pick of the Week which you will have to wait until the end of this post.
One thing you won’t be seeing during May Sweeps is Drive which Fox pulled. I believe I called that before it ever aired. So you can add that show to The Lone Gunmen, Undeclared, Firefly, A Minute with Stan Hooper, Keen Eddie, Wonderfalls, The Jury, The Inside, Point Pleasant, Reunion. But anyways. And the 9th Green may even get into the sweeps fever with an upcoming contest. I haven’t gotten the prize(s) yet so I don’t want to jinx it by telling you what it is, but be sure to keep a look out for it. As a hint, even though the name may fool you, the prize has nothing to do with the dude who sang 3 AM. (Scooter's Note: If the deal falls through, I will disavow that the last sentence ever happened)
Heroes: Well that sucked massively. Yeah I knew from the moment the shard of glass entered Peter’s head he wasn’t actually going to be dead, but a fan of good acting can hope that he was actually killed of the show. Then the episode ended with a potential jump the shark moment when Hiro came face to face with Future Hiro. Anyone who has seen Back to the Future if you were to meet your future self it would rip a hole in the time/space continuum. Check out the latest episode over at NBC.com.
RW/RR Challenge: The Inferno III: I probably laughed a little to long after Rachel lost to Jenn. Really, how can you lose three straight after being up 2-0? She was definitely right to leave in shame without saying goodbye to anyone. Check out the latest episode over at MTV.com or download at iTunes.
Lost: Yawn. Have Sun and Jin ever had an interesting flashback? But that’s not to say the episode was a complete wash with the return of Eyepatch dude. I theorized a couple weeks ago that Miss Cleo was a little to eager to commit suicide and that that they knew they would come back. Even as far back as season one I theorized that Boone, Ethan, and the Federal Marshall would be what was down in the hatch. But I backed off those theories realizing that then they couldn’t possibly bring everyone back. But there was Eyepatch dude and I really doubt he just so happened to have an eyepatch over the same eye.
The other big news was random chick from the skies’ reveal that the flight was already recovered with no survivors which brought back all the purgatory rumors. My theory is that whoever wanted the plane to crash in the first place staged a fake crash so no one would keep searching foe them. Check out the latest episodes over at ABC.com.
Survivor: These have got to be some of the dumbest contestants in the history of Survivor. Which is a good thing because you never know what they are going to do leading to many unpredictable episodes this season. First you had the Alex/ Mookie braintrust who, upon finding Yau-Man’s immunity idol, come up with a plan to out Yau instead of just stealing it for themselves. That may have been the dumbest move ever.
Then you have the weakest alliance ever. Yau and Earl are tight. Then you have Cassandra who is loosly ties to the Earl/Yau tandem and to Dreamz. Then there is Stacy and Boo who are complete outsiders. It should be interesting next week to see if they stick together or someone aligns with Alex to gain control of the game. Check out the latest episode on Innertube.
My Name Is Earl: Certainly there was going to be a drop off after the hilarious Norm MacDonald episode last week, but not by much. It was great to see Earl issue out his own brand of karma this week including inadvertently helping the teachers blow up a student’s care. And as grating as Randy sometimes gets, him pouring out some chocolate milk in memory of a fallen teacher was classic. Check out the latest episode over at NBC.com or download at iTunes.
Next Week’s Pick: Veronica Mars, 9:00 Tuesday, The CW: The latest talentless female with a name no one knows has been added to a group that won’t be around in two to three years so that means it is time for the best show on television to finally comeback. If you have yet to check out the show, there is no better time than this week to give it a try (you can always download the whole season on iTunes). It has been eight weeks since Ronnie has solved the Dean’s murder and Parker and Logan looked like they were becoming more than friends. And we will get are first taste of a standalone episode of the show. All leading up to the season finale which some who have\ seen it are calling the best episode in the history of the show which is high praise considering the two previous five star season finales, as well as A Trip to the Dentist and Donut Run and this years gold standards, Spit and Eggs and Mars Bars. Naturally Vee and crew are also the Promo of the Week:
1. Name your two (2) favorite cases that Ronnie has worked on over the three season of the show, you are not allowed to pick more than one mini or full arc mysteries, and in a hundred (100) words or less tell me why they are your favorites.
![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.![Terror Alert Level: High [ORANGE]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhebDZ0qqwOVKMZj7oFSUe8Hm3ax54U9Hp1fThJPgiddTyzcdwx_5SV6E3b7hkKyxbaDiym4COmUXT2YJnsKCUjBHI_a2xZtNoY7qFQRslP5AGO5gLkJwn2ZbO0wIF80ycbKrgPPA/s400/small_high.png)
on my Terror Alert Scale.![Terror Alert Level: Guarded [BLUE]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzCbHfExiuXqojow1zxkBUX6j-9BHg9IyrfzqR77jnja2Xq6dbv-7iiqMFzp_UKXGcUF9FyAHqCkNxa5uitXa5Xu2Q1OboN9-TLjsaeI1a2eoGLORU4vkTQ54l1C-_cZyn81QHyQ/s400/small_guarded.png)
on my 
.
