The 100 Guiltiest Guilty Pleasures of the 00's

1. Snakes on a Plane

2. Trapped in the Closet

3. Olympic Curling

4. “I drink your milkshake… I drink it up!”

5. Pootie Tang

6. Dan LeBatard guest hosting PTI (BAM!)

7. Flavor of Love and its countless spin-offs

8. Thong Song - Sisqó

9. “Boom goes the dynamite”

10. “You know how I know you're gay…”

11. Carrot Top audio commentary on Rules of Attraction

12. Blaming it on the al-al-al-al-al-alcohol

13. The Osbornes

14. Chris Hansen

15. Queer Eye for the Straight Guy

16. “Yo Kobe, tell me how my (expletive deleted) tastes”

17. Red Stripe: It's Beer; Hooray Beer

18. Dennis Miller on Monday Night Football

19. Mash Up’s

20. Party in the U.S.A. - Miley Cyrus

21. Wazzzzzzup!?!

22. Taylor Swift

23. Sorority Life

24. using names as verbs (i.e. He got Cheneyed last time he went hunting)

25. Carrie Underwood

26. Kanye West’s ego

27. (Explative Deleted) It (I Don’t Want You Back) - Eamon

28. Coyote Ugly

29. Telling people you are, indeed, bringing sexyback

30. Thinking with Your Dip Stick, Jimmy

31. VH1’s I Love the…

32. Amish in the City

33. Hotel for Dogs

34. “What?!? Yeah!!!”

35. I'm a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! (ABC version)

36. Who Let the Dogs Out - The Baha Men

37. Howard Dean scream

38. “You play to win the game” Herm Edwards

39. Downfall memes

40. Mac ads

41. Chocolate Rain

42. Wizards of Waverly Place

43. Complaining about Lost

44. Leave (Get Out) - JoJo

45. Miami Football’s 7th Floor Crew

46. Because I Got High - Afroman

47. I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked - Ida Maria

48. Sexual Seduction (video) - Snoop Dogg

49. “We let them off the hook” Denny Greene

50. The Surreal Life

51. Don't Forget (video) - Demi Lovato

52. Chad Ochocinco

53. Oops! I Did it Again - Brittany Spears

54. Desperate Housewives

55. John Stewart vs. Tucker Carlson

56. John Tucker Must Die

57. Mandy Moore

58. The Man Show

59. Beauty and the Geek

60. 3 6 Mafia winning an Oscar

61. Joe Schmo

62. Come Clean - Hilary Duff

63. Average Joe

64. Extreme Dodgeball

65. Bartman

66. Paul Blart: Mall Cop

67. Team America: World Police

68. Michael Moore

69. Soulja Boy Superman Dance

70. TaTu MTV Movie Awards performance

71. Sarah Palin

72. Mamma Mia!

73. The Real Cancun

74. Celebrity Deathmatch

75. We Are All Made of Stars (video) - Moby

76. Zell Miller challenging Chris Matthews to a duel

77. Tik Tok - Ke$ha

78. Hot In Herre - Jenny Owen Young

79. Road Trip (and Eurotrip for that matter)

80. Under the Moonlight (Do Me) - Dylan and the Rusty Zippers

81. Enchanted

82. Bandslam

83. Olympic Badminton

84. Eminem feuding with a puppet

85. Undercover Brother

86. Falling Down - Selena Gomez and the Scene

87. “Weird Al” Yankovic

88. Wake Up Call (video) - Hayden Panettiere

89. Holidae In - Chingy

90. Rush Limbaugh on ESPN

91. Blind Date

92. This I Promise You - *NSYNC

93. The Pacifier

94. Forever Wedding Dance

95. Being Bobby Brown

96. John McEnroe on CNBC

97. Death to All but Metal (video) - Steel Panther

98. How High

99. Seven Nation Army - The Oak Ridge Boys

100. “You Lie” Joe Wilson

Previewing Explorer: 25 Years

Please note that in celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of Explorer, the National Geographic Channel sent over a bottle of champagne in honor of the milestone so I may have been a little happy while writing this post.

I would venture to say that most people didn’t have cable back in 1985, me being one of them, but that was the year Explorer debuted twenty-five years ago making it the longest running documentary series in cable history racking up nearly sixty Emmys in the process. Tonight Lisa Ling looks back at the series from the 1987 first look at the Titanic wreckage all the way up to Ling’s undercover report from inside North Korea from 2007 (which is even more interesting now considering her sister’s ordeal in the country last year). My favorite part of the retrospective is the look inside a maximum security prison where whenever a fight breaks out, a alarm sound and whoever doesn’t fall to the ground could get shot, and seeing a bunch of inmates drop down like a grade school class would is an odd sight to see. The two hour special Explorer: 25 Years airs tonight at 9:00 on the National Geographic Channel and is presented in HD where available. Check out a preview below:





National Geographic’s sister station, Nat Geo Wild, is actually doing a little counterprogramming, so those not fealing all the nostalgic may want to tune into Shark Island with Enric Sala at 9:00 tonight instead. The channel will stay under the sea tomorrow when it premieres Hunt for the Giant Octopus also premiering at 9:00. Sadly the show’s definition of “Giant” is not the same as awesomely lame Syfy movies.

57 Channels and Only This Is On vol. CXXVI

How I Met Your Mother: Holy Bob Rooney sighting! But they realy went a long way to go for a King Kong gag. I am just a little disappointed in myself that it took me until the cameraman throwing paper airplanes to realized that is what they were doing. You can stream recent episodes over at cbs.com. You can also download How I Met Your Mother on iTunes.

Trauma: How does Christian Sheppard continue to find work after operating on a patient drunk (and the whole being dead thing). And his relationship with Nancy is about as good as his other children (just how many families does this guy has). And is this the reason why he hasn’t appeared on Lost this season or does his absence add to the theory that Christian was actually Smokey all along. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Trauma on iTunes.

The Big Bang Theory: Finally Leonard and Penny broke up and who knew we would have Will Wheaton to thank for that? Though I basically had the same reaction as Penny to the Wesley Crushers shirts. You can download The Big Bang Theory on iTunes.

Castle: What a star studded guest list; an early 90’s reunion of Bill Bellamy and Dan Cortese (was Kennedy not available?), the chick from Nip/Tuck, Sabrina’s aunt, and Fred Willard. That really helped with my The actor I recognize is always the killer theory. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Castle on iTunes. Also be sure to check out my chat with Stana Katic.

Lost: In true Lost fashion we get an answers many seasons to late to a question we already thought was answered. So the whispers are dead people that are stuck on the island even though everyone assumed a long time ago they were associated with The Others. Alrighty. So what if Michael didn’t die on the island (who was told by Christian “you can go now” after appear after some whispers), or that Walt, who appeared after some whispers, didn’t die on the island, or actually die at all. We finally get to see Libby again but none of her long lingering questions. But for the first time that I can remember a flashback-forward-sideways, the main focus actually switched between characters with the episode started out solely on Hurley, but no Hurley when Desmond ran over Locke. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu.



Justified: We finally get to meet daddy dearest and he doesn’t disappoint. He should play a decent foil to Raylan and I really loved the line he told his dad about being the one that got him out of jail and he could put him right back in their (even if it kind of ripped of Cliff Huxtable who told Theo he brought him into this world, he can take him out of it). You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Justified on iTunes.

The Challenge: Fresh Meat 2: Finally they chopped the Real World / Road Rules part off the name, that was a long time coming considering that they have only had one season in the second half of the decade. One thing that really bothered me with the premiere episode is how they completely glossed over that one of the female challengers was banned from entering Canada. Seriously, what crap have you had to done not to get into Canada? And really this could be almost anyone between being denied for criminal record, banned substances, or the infectious disease department of Canada not allowing it. I really need to find out who this is because that is more entertaining than this season has been so far. You can stream recent episodes over at MTV.com. You can also download The Challenge: Fresh Meat 2 on iTunes.

Modern Family: Nothing funnier on television this week than the look on Alex’s face at the end of the episode. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu.



Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains: With last week’s preview I never thought the entire Heroes would be so stupid to ship off their immunity idol to someone on the other tribe. Certainly there would be someone smart enough to realize you never give away an Idol unless all the Heroes do not trust J.T. with it. Though I am still not ready to call it the dumbest move in Survivor as my previously mentioned top three, all of them resulted in the immediate snuffing of the player’s torch. If the Heroes, with the possible help of Sandra, next week managed to blindside Russell, or even Paravti, without them playing their Idol, it will just turn out to be a dumb, harmless, mistake, not the dumbest ever. You can stream recent episodes over at cbs.com.

Best of the Week vol. XLI

Quote of the Week: I saw how you broke out Peaches and Herb. (Al Bundy, Modern Family)

Song of the Week: How Much I Feel – Ambrosia (Castle)

Big News of the Week: Conan to TBS: Here is something no one expected. Since the minute NBC dumped Conan O’Brien everyone assumed that he would end up on Fox no matter if it was a lose-lose situation for both parties (Conan would be third fiddle, maybe even fourth, to Leno, Letterman and possibly Kimmel, while the Fox affiliates would rather air reruns after the news). So Conan heads to basic cable to complete his master plan where expectations will be much lower and his only competition being the combination of John Stewart and Stephan Colbert. Then George Lopez gets a strong lead-in as he gets pushed back to midnight. Not that I care that much because this is all happening well past my bedtime. Though I feel bad for basketball and baseball fans who will be getting inundated with Conan ads throughout this year’s playoffs that air on TNT and TBS respectively.

Free Download of the Week: Planet Earth (iTunes)

Deal of the Week: Television Blowout: Up to 52% Off (Friday Night Lights, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica)

Video of the Week: Broken Bells, better known as the dudes from Gnarls Barkley and The Shins, are still testing their songs in front of a focus group of kid. See what the youth of today think of their song Citizan.

Tough Set of Judges


Next Week Pick of the Week: NFL Draft, Thursday, at 7:30 on ESPN: For the first time ever, the NFL is moving to primetime to battle Survivor and NBC’s comedies for its first round of the draft. Second and third rounds will start Friday at 6:30 with the final rounds beginning at 10:00 on Saturday. For those of us with crappy, the NFL draft is like Christmas but us Browns fans can rest in the solace that we did not win two Super Bowls with a serial rapist.

Around the Tubes vol. XLVI

I have gotten a plethora of cool press releases have been flooding my inbox recently that you may find interesting. This post will include blurbs on Beauty and the Briefcase, Pretty Little Liars, Lost Gold of the Dark Ages, Californication, Seduce Me, and Friday Night Lights.

- ABC Family’s latest made for TV movie is airing this Sunday at 8:00. Beauty and the Briefcase stars Hillary Duff (Lizzy McGuire), Matt Dallas (Kyle XY), and Jamie Pressly (Not Another Teen Movie). Below is a preview:

- In other ABC Family news, their latest series is coming in June so look out for more news about Pretty Little Liars coming soon. Until then, here is the key art where the sister from Bionic Woman got smeared with the same smoot that Lady Gaga and Elton John smeared on themselves at the Grammy’s.



- For those that are not under the guise of Hilary Duff may want to tune over to the National Geographic Channel at 9:00 Sunday to watch Lost Gold of the Dark Ages about an amateur metal hunter who stumbled on the largest collection of Anglo-Saxon gold objects ever discovered. Below is a preview or you can head over nationalgeographic.com where you can view and interactive features that lets you inspect the find.



- Fans of Showtime’s Californication can expect Carla Gugino to show up for a bulk of next season episodes. No word yet of when you can see this.

- Isabella Rossellini has a new series called Seduce Me coming to the Sundance channel. For those that cannot wait until May 25 at 9:50 when it premieres over your television, head over to sundance.com starting April 20 to watch it early.

- NBC passed along some banners promoting the new season of Friday Night Lights coming May 7 and here is one to remind you to tune in three weeks from tonight.

Lyrics Quiz: The Way it Is

Happy tax day. And as depressing as the holiday may seem today, it may only get worse when the health care bill goes into effect where it will probably raise our taxes (or at least our premiums, but most likely both). The passage of the bill got me thinking of the Bruce Hornsby record, The Way it Is and if he and The Range were to update the song for today, they may include a couples lines that would go, “They passed a law in 2010 to give to those who ain’t got a lot a little more, but it only goes so far. Unless of course you work for an insurance company who will be able to swim Scrooge McDuck style in money bins because of the law.” So in honor of that, I put The Way it Is into iTunes Genius function and here are twenty-five songs it gave back to me. Looking over the list, it seems like Genius decided to go with a less political playlist but heavy on blue eyed soul. As always leave your guesses, both artist and song title, in the comment section or e-mail me. If you are correct I will un-bold the lyric. Please keep in mind the lyrics quiz is for entertainment purposes only so please only use your own meandering mind to guess them. Now onto the lyric quiz:


1. Money’s a matter. If you’re in it for love, you ain’t gonna get too far.
2. Strangled by the wishes of pater. Hoping for the arms of mater get to me the sooner or later.
3. I must've been a dreamer and I must’ve been someone else and we should’ve been over.
4. Will you meet him on the main line, or will you catch him on the rebound? Will you marry for the money; take a lover in the afternoon?
5. Tam bo li de say de moi ya. Hey Jambo Jumbo. Way to parti o we goin’. Oh, jambali. Tam bo li de say de moi ya. Yeah, Jambo, jumbo.
6. This time you got nothing to lose; you can take it you can leave it, whatever you choose. I won’t hold back anything and I’ll walk away a fool or a king.
7. When you called me up this morning and told me about the new love you found. I said I’m happy for you. I’m really happy for you.
8. We are the children, the last generation. We are the ones they left behind. And I wonder if we are ever gonna change. Living under the fear until nothing else remains.
9. You never close your eyes anymore when I kiss your lips.
10. That old dog has chained you up all right. Give you everything you need to live inside a twisted cage, sleep beside in empty rage. I had a dream I was your hero.
11. Lady, morning’s just a moment away and I'm without you once again. You laughed at me, you said you never needed me. I wonder if you need me now.
12. Inside your head, on every beat. And the beat's so loud, deep inside. The pressure's high, just to stay alive.
13. My friends wonder what is wrong with me. Well I'm in a daze from your love, you see I came back to let you know, got a thing for you and I can’t let go.
14. So let the music take your mind. Just release and you will find you’re gonna fly away, glad you’re going my way.
15. When the river was deep, I didn’t falter. When the mountain was high, I still believed. When the valley was low it didn't stop me.
16. Love, like a road that never ends. How it leads me back again to heartache, I’ll never understand.
17. One month ago today I was happy as a lark. But now I go for walks to the movies, maybe the park.
18. I was feeling so bad. I asked my family doctor just what I had. I said doctor, Mr. MD; can you tell me what’s ailing me?
19. Old religions, new generations caught in a struggle about a righteous way. Can’t see the forest for all the frustrations. So many lying, so many dying.
20. My love, there’s only you in my life. (This song actually showed up twice in Genius, name both artists (well four in total))
21. I won’t forget all those things you have told to me. Praise in my heart won't let me forget your love.
22. Now once, I was downhearted, disappointment was my closest friend . But then you came, and it soon departed.
23. You were my toy but I could be the boy you adore if you’d just let me know. Although you’re untrue, I’m attracted tio you all the more. Why do I need you so?
24. You'll see much deeper when you read between the lines ‘cause there's a fire burning in my eyes. Like a thief in the night who can't get enough.
25. She’ll expose you when she snows you off your feet with the crumbs she throws you.

I Want My Music Television vol. LXXIX

There have been a couple of videos that have caught my eye lately so I thought I’d give them some love since the death of Musical Television left a void for a forum on the art form. If you are interested in buying the video through iTunes, click the title link (where available). If you are interested in buying the song, look for a link in the analysis.

Heartbreak Warfare – John Mayer



Wasn’t there a conceptual video for this song that dropped around the time the album was release that was erased from the internets shortly there afterward? Instead John Mayer gives us a straight forward performance version instead. Yawn. If you are going to do a performance based video, at least give us the live music to go along with it instead of the studio version.


Our Dreams – Method Man, Raekwon, and Ghostface Killah



Ah, yo, The Wu is back and will make you go Boom, Boom like you are Supercat.


Oh My – Gin Wigmore



A couple of songs from Gin Wigmore have found their way on to my iPod and she is in the musical spectrum somewhere in-between Duffy and Amy Winhouse. She may be better at the slower songs, but this one is decent enough.


Tiny Light – Grace Potter and the Nocturnal



Whenever I hear the name Grace Potter I always think of Mrs. Potter’s Lullaby (which is actually about Monica Potter of Parenthood). But anyways. But if I didn’t know better, watching the band in their video you almost expect to find out the they were actually a long lost group from the seventies that used to open up for Fleetwood Mac or The Eagles. And I mean that as a compliment.

Spin-Offs that Need to Happen

When listening to The BS Report with Bill Simmons the other day, he mentioned how Joey essentially ruined the spinoff. And looking back on the decade he seems to be right with a small exception with lame CBS procedurals, and they really don’t count because they are just the same shows in different cities. The problem with Joey is that you don’t give a spinoff to a main cast member, audiences do not like to see someone from an ensemble by themselves, but instead you should give spinoffs to minor random characters. Like in the eighties when they gave shows to Mike Seaver’s gym teacher (R.I.P. Boner Stabone) and Balki’s elevator attendant. So with networks currently creating new shows to make up the Fall schedule, here are some spinoffs of random characters of current shows I would like to see:

Stuart from The Big Bang Theory: In order to keep his comic book store owner, he needs an investor that comes in the form of Will Wheaton who then takes a more involved role than Stuart would like and then hilarity ensues. Throw in a token hot chick (say, Kristin Kreuk who has some recent experience with nerds on Chuck) they hire as a cashier and I would watch every week.

Jack Burton from Chuck: Seriously, why is Gary Cole not on my television every week? And what better way to alleviate that problem than give Sarah Walker’s father his own series as he roams from town to town conning people. There would be plenty of crossover opportunities as Sarah and her dad need each other’s services to help out with their current cases or capers.

How I Met Your Father starring Rachel Bilson: Bringing in Rachel Bilson to be the mother’s roommate seemed like a complete waste. But that doesn’t have to be a wasted opportunity if you give her, and said mother, their own show as they search for love. Bonus in we actually get to meet the mother while How I Met Your Mother can excruciatingly draw out Ted meeting her.

Leslie Arzt from Lost: Yes he blew up into little pieces in season one, but this will be focused on a still together science teaching Artz in sideways land. Of course the show will have to feature Ben Linus as the European History teacher and the school would eventually hire John Locke full time. Then can even have the dude from Ghostbusters return as the antagonist principal. And what the hey, go ahead and have Walt attend the school (which I was surprised we didn’t see in the flashsideways already).

Mama Smash from Friday Night Lights: When Smash went off to college I was still hoping Mama Smash would still find a way onto the show; have her become the school nurse, let her daughter become the water girl, let her have a torrid affair with Tim Riggins, anything that would keep give her screen name, because let’s face it, no one gives a better reaction shot than Mama Smash. Or just give Mama Smash her own show where she moves to be closer to Smash to see him play and she could get a job at the Texas A&M school clinic. And believe me, there are plenty of entertainment that can come from a college clinic.

Dylan from Modern Family: In classic 80’s fashion, give a spin off to the breakout fringe character where we get to see Dylan and the Rusty Zippers chase fame and stardom. They could even get some mentoring from Izzy LaFontaine, the bassist of Spandau Ballet.



P.S. Bonus points for anyone who can name the shows that featured Mike Seaver’s gym teacher and Balki’s elevator attendant.

Previewing Africa's Lost Eden

We all know the story of Noah and his ark, but have you ever wondered where he landed after the thirty days of rain? Many believe that he finally docked in Mozambique with its numerous wild animals and over five hundred bird that habitat the lush floodplains in the middle of the country. Unfortunately the civil war has ravaged the wildlife there with thousands of zebras, buffalo, hippos, and elephants have been slaughtered for food or ivory tusks with some animals down to the double digits in the Gorongosa Wildlife Park.

Now conservationists are trying to revitalize the park by relocating overpopulated elephants and hippos from South Africa in the farthest by land transport of the creature (sorry, no real life version of Operation Dumbo Drop). Making matters worse, a drought has turning in the local river into just a patch of mud for the crocodiles (the lone animal that hasn’t been depleted by the war) to burrow into. If there is one drawback to the special, it would look awesome in high-def, but new Nat Geo Wild, where Africa’s Lost Eden airs tonight at 10:00, does not have an HD channel yet (orat least it isn’t offered in my area). Check out a preview below:

57 Channels and Only This Is On vol. CXXV

Tool Academy: Another anticlimactic season finale from the show. They really need to figure how to make the last episode more interesting. And the whole marriage onsite is gone too. You can stream recent episodes over at vh1.com. You can also download Tool Academy on iTunes.

Chuck: I really do not understand why one of Casey’s conditions to giving over the director of The Ring was to deputize Morgan. Does Casey not realize he will be the one who has to deal with Morgan? Morgan going on missions really doesn’t get me that excited for the rest of the season. Here is hoping he gets hit in some crossfire. But at least we got rid of Superman. And I never got his endgame, if he was going to kill Sarah in retaliation for his wife, why not do it in the warehouse, or when they were in the The Ring headquarters? Why fly all the way to Paris? Just for the symbolism of killing her where Sarah shot his wife? All it did was extend the episode thirty minutes more than it should have. At least Casey taking down The Ring in the background was pretty cool. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Chuck on iTunes.

Castle: Aw, curses. Even though I loved how the gang rigged thing to break around Castle to make him think he was under it. Fun times. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Castle on iTunes. Also be sure to check out my chat with Stana Katic.

Lost: I really hope they were not insinuating what I think they were insinuation, that the flashsideways are all happening inside Desmond’s brain. That would be autistic kid looking at a snow globe lame. And if this is some mindjumping by Desmond, isn’t Penny his constant? If so, why did he not leap back until he met Penny? And speaking of Penny, who is her mother? Is there a Mrs. Milton out there somewhere? She seems a little older than the scientist formally known as Faraday, did Charles cheat on Eloise? Did they meet just after she was born? Is this a Time Traveler’s Wife situation? But of course, the time for questions is over! You can stream recent episodes on Hulu.



Justified: I am not sure who was more entertaining, the moron girlfriend, or the moron driver. Wait, definitely the driver simply because Raylan gave him the option to drop his gun or use it and he made the wrong decision. And that was just after his Raylan told his buddy that he would shoot him if he took one more step, only to take another shot. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Justified on iTunes.

Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains: Considering it was a lackluster episode, they should have cut five minutes and just made the promo featuring the dumbest moments that much longer, granted they forgot this season’s own Tyson blunder that got him voted off. Or could we just get a full special devoted to dumb Survivor moments? Although I sure hope JT doesn’t join that list by giving Russell the hidden immunity idol. That makes no sense. Even if you think there is an all girl alliance, if the Heroes lose the immunity challenge (assuming there is no merge), he would safe. And if they win, they would have even numbers, and if they merge after that, they could use the idol to break a potential tie. You can stream recent episodes over at cbs.com.

Best of the Week vol. XL

Quote of the Week: Use it or throw it away. (Raylan Gibbons, Justified)

Song of the Week: Young Folks – Peter, Bjorn and John (Parenthood)

Big News of the Week: Tiger Woods Back on the Course: To be honest, I stopped caring about the Tiger Woods scandal after I stopped laughing that one of his mistresses appeared on Tool Academy. So I could care less that he returned to gold this weekend and the only way they could have gotten me to watch is if they had placed a different mistress at each of the eighteen holes. But I did get drawn back into the controversy when I saw the creepy new Nike commercial with Wood’s father preaching to a motionless, black and white Tiger. Seriously, what marketing genius thought this was a good idea. Don Draper he is not. On the Brightside, it did produced plenty of hilarious parodies, this one being my favorite:



Gratuitous Token Hot Chick Picture of the Week:



Free Download of the Week: I Learned the Hard Way – Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings (Amazon MP3)

Deal of the Week: Blu-ray Blowout: Save Up to 52% (District 9, Up, 300)

Video of the Week: Michael Cera once again goes for the “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” philosophy to acting as it looks like he is playing the same character for the eighth straight movie, a pseudo-emo rocker wannabe. Cera apparently has ninety-nine problems; girls seem to be all of them. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World looks to his the worst problem yet as he has to battle seven evil ex’s to get the girl, including George Michael Bluth’s old fame. Yes, Her?



Next Week Pick of the Week: Real World / Road Rules Challenge, Fresh Meat 2, Wednesday at 10:00 on MTV: Once again I missed that there was a new Challenge and will be playing catch up before the second episode this week. Here’s hoping MTV will repeat the premiere before then (just in case it didn’t come across in written form, that last sentence was sarcasm, it probably be one twenty times before then).

Around the Tubes vol. XLV

I have gotten a plethora of cool press releases have been flooding my inbox recently that you may find interesting. This post will include blurbs on The Real Face of Jesus, Explorer: Solitary Confinement, Dr. Who, The Roots, NBC Renewals, Parenthood, and Shameless.

- What Jesus looked like has been hotly debated for years and now a team of scientists are trying to find out what he may have really looked like on Time Machine: The Real Face of Jesus? (click the link to pre-order from Amazon). “The Real Face of Jesus is a documentary that follows a team of graphic experts as they use cutting-edge 3D software to bring a holy relic known as the Shroud of Turin to life. Many believe Jesus Christ was buried in this ancient linen cloth, which bears traces of blood and the faint, ghostly image of a man. With the help of modern technology, can HISTORY finally unlock the secrets of one of the world’s most scrutinized and controversial artifacts?”

- Coming up Sunday is the new National Geographic Channel special Explorer: Solitary Confinement to look at the controversial prison practice at 9:00. To mark the program, three people volunteers to put themselves into solitary confinement and you can watch their experience live at explorersolitary.com.

- Looking for a sneak peak of the new season of Doctor Who? Well iTunes has a nine minute video available to download for free.

- Next on The Roots awesome collaboration list: Tom’s Diner with Suzanne Vega:



- Fans of unscripted television rejoice as NBC has renewed Minute to Win It, The Marriage Ref and Who Do You Think You Are for another season. Fans of scripted television, though, will apparently have to sweat it out another month to learn the fates of Chuck, Parenthood, Mercy and Trauma (though I wouldn’t hold my breath for the last two).

- Speaking of Parenthood, according to the promo below, the next episode will feature Lyla Garrity Gone Wild. Yes please.



- New show alert: Showtime has just picked up Shameless, about a patriarch of ten children who is “making ends meet is always difficult especially with a mother who is AWOL (guest star Allison Janney) and an alcoholic patriarch -- played by William H. Macy -- who usually ends up passed out on the living room floor. Oldest daughter Fiona (the highly likeable Emmy Rossum) is left to the task of keeping her five younger brothers and sisters on track, a task that usually proves impossible.” No word on a premiere date yet.

I Want My Music Television vol. LXXVIII

There have been a couple of videos that have caught my eye lately so I thought I’d give them some love since the death of Musical Television left a void for a forum on the art form. If you are interested in buying the video through iTunes, click the title link (where available). If you are interested in buying the song, look for a link in the analysis.


Young Blood – Norah Jones



And now for the most literal interpretation of a song ever. Well at least the most hilariously literal one. I think the sleeping shotgun wedding sequence is my favorite. Thank you Norah Jones and your silly red hat.


Tighten Up – The Black Keys



And I didn’t think that The Black Keys wouldn’t be able to top their laser tag inspired Strange Time, but a self awar dinosaur puppet with an E-Harmony account will do that.


The Last of the American Girls – Green Day



Okay, who put up a web cam in bedroom because Green Day totally stole my daily morning routine of having blonde twins pull off my bed sheets before breaking into a morning long dance routine.


Die by the Drop – The Dead Weather



I could not actually find a full embeddable version of the new video from the Dead Weather, but as I write this, you can download the full version of Die by the Drop on iTunes for free. And it is as creepy as the above teaser would have you believe.