There's a Fire Starting in my Heart

Adele has the kind of voice that all her contemporaries on the pop chart would kill for and couldn’t come close to with all the auto-tune in the world. But let’s face it; her debut album was a bit of a bore. The music she was singing over was so bland it might as well have been Musak. And so when the first single off her sophomore outing, Rolling in the Deep was released it instantly became her best song. The voice remained unmistakable, but production went to another level thanks to Paul Epworth (Florence + The Machine) with opening strumming of a guitar which adding a driving bass drum a couple lines later and turning into a full on foot stomping clap along by the bridge. Even her phrasing gets betters, when she says, “Don’t underestimate the things that I will do” you can’t help but believe her while chills go up your spine.

And that sophomore album 21 (she is keeping with the age of when she recorded the record theme from 19) continues the promise of Rolling in the Deep. After the album kicks off with the first single, it goes straight into Rumor Has It which could have been the most haunting song from the girl group era of the sixties. Then out of nowhere the song slows down for a even more haunting piano accompanying part before picking right back up again.

Aside from Rolling in the Deep, Epworth helped write two of the best songs on the album. I’ll Be Waiting opens with an Elton John flair on piano before being joined by some horns and is easily the most fun you will have listening to Adele and listening to the song makes you wonder why she doesn’t go up tempo more often. He Won’t Go starts off with the beat and piano riff from The Roots version of Dear God before morphing into a soft rock R&B song from the eighties without managing to sound cheesy.

Rick Rubin, who produced four of the tracks, goes for the less is more approach he took when guiding Johnny Cash’s American records. Don’t You Remember and One and Only are the songs on the new albums most reminiscent of her previous album. And where Rubin made an art of picking cover songs for Cash, having Adele cover Love Song by The Cure with an acoustic bossa nove twinge just doesn’t reach the highs she had when she reworked To Make You Feel My Love by Bob Dylan on her last album which is the only advance 19 has over 21.

Song to Download – I'll Be Waiting

21 gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

Previewing Blue-Collar Dogs

George Washington owned a dog, ten in all, Abraham Lincoln owned two of them himself. In fact the seventeen last presidents had a four legged friend to keep him company all the way up to Bo who currently resides in the White Dog House. But tonight on Nat Geo Wild, the channel will premiere a show that highlights dogs that go even further than being the best friend of the Leader of the Free World.

Blue-Collar Dogs follows dogs are more than man’s best friend but help their owners do some tough jobs. And tonight starting at 8:00 Nat Geo Wild will air three straight episodes starting with Canine MD. Sure we are all familiar with Seeing Eye dogs for the blind, but some do even more than guide their owners. Watching a dog open the refrigerator , grab a Sprite, give it to his owner with a degenerative muscle disease, then close the door is a sight to be seen. And the medical field is also putting a dog’s nose to good use by having them sniff out cancer and one dog that helps her owner by predicting her blood sugar crashes.

At 9:00 is Border Hounds which views like the best dog segments from Border Wars on its sister station but goes deeper into the training that goes on to making a drug sniffing dog. And the “Don’t Touch My Junk” guy may want to skip this episode because one of the dogs smells something a suspect’s crotch area as we get to see an agent go in and fish it out of the hiding area. But the best visual is a dog training to be dropped out of a helicopter getting strapped to an agent’s back and repelling down a six story structure (as seen above).

Rounding out the night is New York Police where dogs are trained to protect the world’s busiest city by sniffing out bombs, which they did to keep the scene safe during the Times Square Bombing attempt, attacking criminals in the subway, and as part of a search and rescue squad. Some of New York’s finest four legged officers went down to Haiti to find people stuck in the rubble after last year’s earthquake. And how New York is it that even police dogs need to be issued credentials just to sniff for bombs at the US Open tennis tournament? The most interesting part of the episode doesn’t even take place in New York, but across the river at a woman’s prison in New Jersey wear inmates actually help train puppies to become bomb sniffing dogs and even lives in the inmate’s cell. Check out a clip of that below:

Puppies Behind Bars

57 Channels and Only This Is On - 2/20/11

Chuck: If Chuck were not to be renewed for next fall, here is hoping they pick up a prequel spin off featuring the C.A.T. Squad, I’d totally watch that over the proposed Charlie’s Angels reboot. Now if only they could work Casey into the series. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Chuck on iTunes.

How I Met Your Mother: Finally Marshall is back in New York, his dad’s death storyline went on for far too long. And what is with Barney dating a British chick? You can stream recent episodes over at cbs.com. You can also download How I Met Your Mother on iTunes.

Pretty Little Liars: So that is why the swimmer was acting so weird last week. I totally did not see that coming. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Pretty Little Liars on iTunes.

Greek: I thought this show took place in Ohio? As someone who has lived in the state for his whole life, we have had plenty of snowstorms that bad or worse, that couldn’t have been the first one they have witnessed. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu.



Castle: Of course Castle and Beckett both had to be right, his buddy didn’t murder his wife, but she was right that he was involved with his father’s murder. I saw that ending coming a mile away. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Castle on iTunes.

Parenthood: I can’t believe I just watched Lyla Garrity talk down Ben Linus. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Parenthood on iTunes.

Mr. Sunshine: Hopefully they find a way to keep the pyromaniac secretary around because she was my favorite part of the show after Allison Janney. Certainly her son won’t be able to help out Matthew Perry. You can stream current episodes on Hulu. You can also download Mr. Sunshine on iTunes.

Justified: Interesting that weed lady lied to the girl about her daddy dying instead telling her that he went on a business trip. What is she going to tell the girl when he doesn’t return? I guess he will “die” on the trip if she doesn’t find out the truth in the meantime. Here’s hoping she goes Hit Girl on the family if she does find out. And what was with Ava and Boyd? Did they hook up or is that the only place he thought he could go after getting beat up? But this episode featured my third favorite scene with the apricot line coming in just after the series opening and “Use it or throw it away.” You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Justified on iTunes.

The Big Bang Theory: I don’t really think we really needed that “previously on segment.” You can stream recent episodes over at cbs.com.

Outsourced: It’s a shame we only got to hear three seconds of karaoke Sister Christian, hopefully there is an extended version unleashed on the internet in the near future. You can stream current episodes on Hulu. You can also download Outsourced on iTunes.

You can also check out my First Impressions of Survivor: Redemption Island.

Best of the Week - 2/19/11

Quote of the Week: I don’t drink. I don’t smoke. I don’t do drugs. I don’t have crazy, reckless sex with strangers. If Charlie Sheen outlives me, I’m gonna be really pissed. (Chuck Lorre – Two and a Half Men)

Song of the Week: Reading Rainbow Theme Song - Tina Fabrique (as sung by Troy and LeVar Burton, Community)

Big News of the Week: Adrianne Palicki is You New Wonder Woman: Please if you will, step into the 9th Green time machine all the way back to October of 2010 when hearing that David E. Kelly was working on a Wonder Woman television show I commented,

“No word on who will fill Lynda Carter’s spandex, but if I were a casting director, I would definitely screen test the recently unemployed and currently brunette Tyra Collette.”

Keep in mind that the show just got picked up for a pilot and there are no guarantees it will make it to air and no live action actress has donned the golden bracelets since Lynda Carter hung up her lasso of truth thirty two years ago (but this is NBC and they have been throwing everything at the wall the last couple seasons).

The casting comes shortly after another casting I suggested that Trya’s nemesis Lyla Garrity become one of Charlie’s Angels for ABC’s reboot. Unfortunately the casting director didn’t take my other suggestions of Veronica Mars and Lana Lang to fill out the trio. But with my tract record of finding role for Friday Night Lights alums, now I need to scourer the trades to find Coach and Mrs. Taylor some work. Or maybe Parenthood should take up my suggestion that the Taylors should move to California to coach Drew’s football team.

Gratuitous Token Hot Chick(s) Picture of the Week:



Free Download of the Week: Happily Ever After – He Is We (iTunes): Don’t ask me what the band name is, but I found the song sugary sweet. For your previewing pleasure, here is an acoustic version of the song.



New Album Release of the Week: 21 - Adele

New DVD Release of the Week: All-Star Superman

Video of the Week: After the cinematic masterpiece that was Blue Crush, I assumed that we would get a chicks surfing movie once a year for a while, but no luck, not even a crappy straight to video “sequel” that has nothing to do with the orginal aside from the name and stolen plot. Finally almost a decade later Hollywood is going back to the beach with Soul Surfer.

Soul Surfer Official Trailer


First, if this chick is willing to amputate her arm for a role, just give her an Oscar now. Second, Carrie Underwood? What? Third, I had no clue that was Helen Hunt until they credited her. What has she been up to since Mad About You ended?

Next Week Pick of the Week: Episodes, Tomorrow at 9:30 on Showtime: With all the hype of the Friends returning to television, it doesn’t look like they will spend much time of the schedule together with Chandler replacing Monica and Joey’s show ending its season already. The press release teases

“Deeply regretting her tryst with Matt (Matt LeBlanc), Beverly (Tamsin Greig) returns home to find Sean (Stephen Mangan) waiting with open arms. As the pilot for the “Pucks!” pilot wraps, Sean and Beverly prepare to return to London. A final goodbye between Matt and Sean, however, takes an unexpected turn involving a missing Jaguar, a red-nosed reindeer and the smell of cinnamon.”