Quote of the Week: Like in Blackjack. She’s a 15 so you’re not sure whether you’d hit that. (Barney - How I Met Your Mother)
Song of the Week: Devil Town - Tony Lucca (Friday Night Lights)
Big News of the Week: NBC orders Six More Friday Night Lights Scripts: Hopefully this is a precursor for a full order for next season. Or maybe it is just a formality and the higher ups at NBC just want to see what is coming next: will next season start on right after the state championship and follow the players in the off season or will we fast forward straight to the start of the next football season (which would be right around the time for the Taylor’s will be adding a family member)?
How I Met Your Mother: This season, they are really trying their best to ruin Barney. And by ruin I mean humanize. The episode was rolling along to be another great episode until they had to go and tell us that it was Barney that got Lily to come back home. And for those keeping track at home, future Ted has no problem telling his kids about stripper and self pleasuring devises. Um, yeah. I guess that is better than the multiple times he has told them about having sex with women that are not their mother. Check out the latest episode on Innertube.
Friday Night Lights: A decent ending to a stellar first season. Yeah the come from behind victory was improbable and it is doubtful that the cheerleaders would have to provide their own transportation to state, but it did lead to the great Landry Express scenes. And with their I hate guys bonding scenes, could we expect a Tyra and Lyla hookup next season? Yet another reason to renew this show.
And just a little bit on the Song of the Week, usually I add a link to iTunes where you can download the song, but not only is Tony Lucca’s Devil Town not on iTunes, I couldn’t find it anywhere on any of the internets. Anyone who can help a brother out, shout me a holla. Until then, like me, you can check out Bright Eyes version of the song as well as the original Daniel Johnston version to tide you over. Check out the latest episode over at NBC.com.
Lost: The big shock this week wasn’t that Juliet is still in cahoots with The Others as it was quite suspicious last week when she was so confident that the security system wasn’t running. No, the big shock was that Lost actually let us in on this as they wait to make a big reveal long after people stopped caring about it. I was fully expecting for the show to wait until the finale where there was a showdown with The Others with Jack having Not-Henry cornered, about to put in the final blow only for Juliet to come out of nowhere and nail Jack in the back with a steel chair, rip off her shirt to show she had an “I (Heart) Not-Henry” shirt underneath.
And now for my way out there theory of the week: The Others’ end game is to create a utopian society with only “good people” but the thing that keeps them from getting sick is what is rejecting fetuses in pregnant women. Check out the latest episodes over at ABC.com.
Survivor: It was a great twist by making the losing team go straight to tribal council without a chance to strategize. Not so great was when Probst didn’t make Alex man up and pick a reason to vote off his tribemates leading to the token hot chick getting voted off. Check out the latest episode on Innertube.
Promo of the Week: Only two and a half weeks until the return of Veronica Mars and the first episode back looks like it will have a semi-big name star making an appearance. If you avoid casting spoilers you may want to not watch it but he doesn’t reveal anything about his character or plot:
Pick of the Week: My Name Is Earl, Thursday 8:00, NBC: Many of you out there may think My Name Is Earl is hilarious but how could they possibly make it any funnier. Well it can with two words, Norm Frakking MacDonald.
Earlier this week I unveiled Part 1 of my Spring Music Preview (click the link to read it) and here is the second half of the post. Also if there is anything I missed, feel free to drop me a comment and I may add it later.
May 22 It Won’t Be Soon Before Long - Maroon 5: It may not be a good sign that I listed the album in my Winter Preview last year and it still hasn’t been released. Another bad sign is the first single, Makes Me Wonder which is mediocre at best.
May 29 Double Up - R Kelly: The bad news, no new additions to Trapped in the Closet. The good new, R has completed twenty-two new chapters of his opera, eleven of which will show up on DVD this summer. Hopefully the back eleven won’t be far behind. As for Double Up, expect a cavalcade of guest spot including Kanye West, Snoop Dogg, and Mary J. Blige as well as twenty, yes twenty, others.
June 5 Easy Tiger - Ryan Adams: In 2005 Ryan Adams released three albums, 2006: none. So after almost a year and a half without recording an album, he should have a few great song stock piled for this release. No word on how many other albums are scheduled to be released later this year.
June 19 Icky Thump - The White Stripes: After a detour with a more traditional band, Jack White is back with Meg with an album that was recorded within three weeks in Nashville.
Wild Hope - Mandy Moore: Mandy has gone the independent root with an album that is said to sound much like the cover album that was widely ignored four years ago (but featured a version of one of my favorite songs of all time, Have a Little Faith in Me). It will also be the first time Moore co-wrote every song on an album.
July 10 Finding Forever - Common: The Chicago rapper finally had a breakout success with his last album Be thanks to some production from Kanye West. On the follow up West returns behind the board along with will.i.am and the late J Dilla. You can also expect a guest spot from, wait for it, wait for it… Lily Allen. That is going to be classic.
Zeitgeist - Smashing Pumpkins: It’s been seven years since they have put out an album and twelve years since they put out a good one, can Billy Corgan get back to his nineties heydays?
No Date Announced Yet But Should Be Out By the Time You Go on Summer Vacation My December - Kelly Clarkson: I’m not sure who the brain trust is that decided to release an album called My December in the middle of summer but this may be a make or break album for the former karaoker. Clarkson has decided to write most of the songs with production from David Kahne (The Strokes). Surprisingly ex-Minutemen bassist Mike Watt shows up on half the tracks. Scooter Update: Just heard the first single Never Again, another done me wrong anthem but it is definitely no Since U been Gone. It is not even Behind These Hazel Eyes or Walk Away. Just on the strength the first single, I am leaning towards break right now.
Songs About Girls - will.i.am: Believe it or not, there was a time when the Black Eyed Peasdidn’t suck. This was of course the pre-Fergie era. And not only is his first solo album Fergie-less, there is actually no guest stars. Wow, can anyone remember the last rap album with no guest appearances? (I want to say To the 5 Boroughs)
After hyping Friday Night Lights for most of the season, I went back to check out my First Impressions of the show and was surprised to see I ripped the pilot to shreds saying the show was clichéd and outright ripped off Remember the Titans and Varsity Blues and ended the review by saying:
“NBC has two new football programs this year, but I have a feeling Friday Night Lights will be off the air before Sunday Night Football plays its last game of the season.”
Mmm, harsh. I’m not sure where my mind changed about the so (if I were a betting man I would put my money on when Landry got more screen time), but I’m glad I didn’t jump ship.
Now I’m not entirely sure where the turning point was when I went from finding the show clichéd to being one of the upper tier of great television but I have a feeling it had to do with the greatness of Landry Clarke, Matt Saracen’s socially challenged, math loving best friend. Explaining why Landry was great would be a post upon itself so instead here are the top ten greatest Landry moments from the first reason of Friday Night Lights (click the links to be taken to YouTube where available, if you know where to find those I don't have, or are technology inclined enough to make one and upload them, please drop me a comment):
Landry isn’t the only great character on the show, if fact every character on the show is well crafted, from the cast members right down to the guest stars (well Tyra’s mother aside). You end up getting deeply involved with each and every one of them and the camera work and the locations makes you feel like you are actual resident of the town of Dillon, Texas. You are heartbroken when Tyra gets assaulted. You feel the pain when Jason finds out his girlfriend cheated with his girlfriend. Emotions wash over you when Mrs. Taylor confronts her daughter when she finds out she is planning to have sex. And even as clichéd as most of the games were (how many games did they come from behind from to win on the final play?), you still get the tingles when the games start and are on the edge of your seat when the games inevitably goes down to the wire.
Now I am not one to talk about acting because there are actually very few great actors in Hollywood. And most acting awards are given not to the best actor but to the best written characters as great writing can make moderate actors seem like great actors (see Sarah Michelle Gellar in Buffy the Vampire Slayer). Case in point, I am an award winning actor. Am I a great actor? No. I just had the best role. With that said, if any award show doesn’t recognize Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton, they will instantly lose all credibility, well except the Golden Globes because the lost all credibility years ago when the voting members started taking bribes. But whenever Chandler and Britton were on screen together I started to smile because I knew something great was coming up. And nobody does the passive aggressive annoyance better than Chandler.
For those that are still not on the Friday Night Lights bandwagon, all episodes are still available for streaming on NBC.com or you can click the picture at the top of this post to download the show on iTunes. With nothing much on during the summer, checking out this show will be time well spent.
Since I have long been out of the MTV demographic I haven’t watch the channel (except for a few episodes of the current season of The Real World because Brooke LaBarbera is clinically unhinged, and I mean that in a good way) since the last Real World/Road Rules Challenge ended so I was completely unaware that that latest started up until a buddy of mine asked me if I was going to watch it last night. Of course I was going to watch the last great bastion in the MTV reality crown.
This time around we get the third installment of The Inferno hosted by some X-Game athlete, whom like most of these hosts, despite participating in death-defying trick is uber-stiff. But really who need an interesting host when your cast is full of nut jobs? The teams are divided into Good Guys and Bad Asses for I believe the second time in challenge history. There was one questionable selection with Davis Mallory playing for the good guys yet every time I happen upon his season of The Real World he is belligerently drunk and throwing around racial slurs. Even in the commercial for the next episode he goes all mean girls of the females of the house which of course leads to Brooke having a hissy fit. Sadly she wasn’t one of the four Denver cast mates in the Inferno.
The rest of the cast is primarily made up of casts from the last five years with Susie Meister (RR Down Under) and Tim Beggy (RR 2) being the lone old school contestants. And in spite of just being kicked off the latest season of Road Rules for fighting, his second time getting kicked off a show for throwing a punch, Abram Boise returns sporting a clean shaven and Barry Bonds sized dome. But for those who had Chris “CT” Tamburello (RW Paris) getting drunk and belligerent at twelve minutes into the season in your office pool, congratulations, collect your money. And as an added bonus it is actually CT that got thrown off first for throwing a punch. In the highest of high comedy, he punched Davis after he answered yes to if he could take a punch. The best is when Davis said he punched him out of nowhere. Um, Davis, he asked you if you could take a punch. For future reference, if a drunken psychotic meat head asks you if you can take a punch, say no if you don’t want to be punched.
But it looks like it will be a long season for the Good Guys as they lost the first two challenges and it doesn’t look like they have a chance to win anything. It is not a good sign that Alton Williams (RW Las Vegas) voluntarily goes into the Inferno as he may be the only dude on his team has any chance of winning one. Plus they have three of the weakest chicks, Susie, Paula Walnuts (RW Key West), and Cara Zavaleta (RR South Pacific). Really there only hope if there competitor become unhinged much like CT and with Abram and Tonya Cooley (RW Chicago), who apparently since the last challenge has gotten married and taken up soft-core porn, on the team that could be very likely.
Verdict: Unfortunately no Brooke or Casey Cooper, the two most entertaining MTV reality stars in years, but looking from the season promo, this season will still be thoroughly entertaining (really, why can’t the MTV promo monkeys work for Veronica Mars) and if I’m not mistaken I think I heard one of the contestants say she was pregnant. The Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Inferno III airs Tuesdays at 10:00 on MTV (and naturally will be repeated constantly throughout the week) and you can stream full episodes over at MTV.com.
The first quarter of 2007 was easily the worst quarter ever for the music industry. To put things in perspective, when the soundtrack to Dreamgirls topped the chart in January, it wouldn’t have even cracked the top twenty five years ago. Granted when you don’t release albums people want to buy you should expect some low numbers with only Norah Jones and Fall Out Boy being the only big name acts to release an album in the first three months of the year with the latter certainly not living up to expectations. But the consumer is partially to blame too as Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse both put out great debuts that were widely ignored by the general public. Apparently you have to be featured on crappy television shows before anyone will buy your record these days.
Things may be starting to pick up as record companies are starting to release albums featuring songs that will be the soundtrack of your summer. Here is part one of my spring preview with the second coming later this week. If there is anything I missed feel free to drop me a comment and maybe I’ll add it to the second part, if it is not already there. Keep in mind, release dates are scheduled to change.
April 17 Best Damn Thing - Avril Lavigne: Avril has already perfected the pseudo-punk girl attitude, but after adding a few years, getting married, and putting out a Celine Dion type balled last year, it looks like she is swinging back the other way with the straight out pop song of the first single off the album, Girlfriend. Click her name to pre-order this album on iTunes and recieve a bonus track.
April 24 Favourite Worst Nightmare - The Arctic Monkeys: One of the biggest buzz bands of last year. Well at least until they actually released an album. They did still land at number 14 of my 50 Best Albums of 2006 list. Click there name to pre-order this album on iTunes and recieve the video for Brianstorm for free.
One Man Revolution - The Nightwatchman: Rage Against the Machine were legendary, Audioslave were great (at times), now after conquering rap-rock and classic rock, Tom Morello gives the singer-songwriter genre a try with what he calls, “the vibe of Springsteen’s Nebraska, Dylan’s The Times Are a-Changin’ and maybe a pinch of Johnny Cash and Leonard Cohen.”
Evil Dead: The Musical -2006 Orginal Off-Broadway Cast: I never knew they made a musical of this but if it is a third as good as the movie it will be great. Can we dare hope for an Army of Darkness musical in the future?
May 1 Crazy Ex-Girlfriend - Miranda Lambert: Think Carrie Underwood if Before He Cheats was considered one of her nicer song. Miranda even has her own karaoke background as the loser of Country Star.
May 8 Strength & Loyalty - Bone Thugs-n-Harmony: My boys form just a miles north of my back and hopefully they didn’t bring any Phil Collins samples this time around.
The Boy with No Name - Travis: Remember them? No? Oh, never mind then.
May 15 Minutes to Midnight - Linkin Park: I featured the video to What I’ve Done last week which sounded pretty much like their old sound without the beats or pseudo rap and the guitar turned up fitting into their no rap-rock credo. But with Rick Rubin at the helm, last seen actually making Justin Timberlake not suck, it can’t be too bad. Click there name to pre-order this album on iTunes and recieve two exclusive bonus tracks (one only available for pre-ordered).
In a measure of full discloser I’ve never been a big fan of producer Timbaland. His songs are too erratic. Certainly there are a few tracks that I’ve liked (We Need a Resolution, Big Pimpin’) but, really, if you have heard one Timbaland produced track, you have pretty much heard them all. And to call his most recent work, Timbaland Presents Shock Value, a solo album would be stretching it as only the opener Oh Timbaland is the only track that doesn’t have a featured guest. For those keeping track at home, the seventeen track disk features twenty-one different artists.
The album can be divided into three different sections starting off with the hip-hop section featuring raps from Dr. Dre, Missy Elliot, 50 Cent, Tony Yayo, and Timbaland’s longtime running partner Magoo, who, let’s face it was always the better rapper of the two. Much of the beats from this section sound like leftovers from the production of Justin Timberlake’s album, so much that I’m pretty sure that The Way I Are is straight off the album. Most of the guests are topical too as two of them name drop Britney Spears, one talking about her lack of undergarments the other about her lack of hair.
Timbaland on the other hand likes to spend most of his verses verbally assaulting Scott Storch which may be the softest feud since the Another Bad Creation/Kriss Kross feud of 1992. C’mon, in one corner you have the dude who gave up Paris Hilton and Brooke Hogan and in the other the guy who produces ex-boy banders and Pussycat Dolls. But anyways. Even sillier choice of words goes to Timberlake as he tries to conjure up his inner gangster on the couple of tracks he shows up on. It really can’t be a good sign that Nelly Furtado seemed the most credible one on Give it to Me.
Next is the R&B section where Timbaland for the most part takes a back seat to singers as he is pretty non-existent on these track and doesn’t leave any vocals on Fantasy. He then breaks out of his box with the last section collaborating with rock acts She Wants Revenge, Fall Out Boy and The Hives for Throw it on Me which would have been a great track had Timbaland not started rapping on it. Timbaland saves the oddest partnership for last with 2 Man Show featuring Elton John who just contributes piano as the song only really features a choir singing a chorus while Timbaland just repeats nonsense. I guees in the end this disk is better than Diddy’s most recent star-studded affair in the battle of producers, but that really isn’t saying much. Hopefully Detox is coming out soon to show these two how it is done.
Quote of the Week: “I’ll take care of Julie for you, don’t worry about it. I’ll give her a nice call and tell her there's a new girl in town. And that girl is me.” (Jason Street, Friday Night Lights)
Song of the Week: Um, none really stuck out this week. Any suggestions?
Friday Night Lights: A bunch of twists and turns in the world of Tandry (or should I say Landra) this week. You knew once Tyra told Landry not to tell anyone that wasn’t going to end well. And I can’t believe Landry grew a pair and told Trya off about getting back with Riggins while she was trying to apologize (and dare I say Landry/Tyra/Riggins: best love triangle ever).
Elsewhere, Coach and Mrs. Taylor continue the “If we don’t get an Emmy nomination, they no longer have any credibility” Tour ’07 with more great scenes between them including the fight at the roast (on a side note, even though no one there laughed, Riggins’, “How about Saracen sleeping with the coach’s daughter” had me on the floor) and what a final scene with Mrs. Taylor telling the coach she wasn’t leaving Dillion then asking him to go to bed without missing a beat.
Next week we get the season finale but I’m really not ready for the season to end. And I’m certainly not ready for the series to end so hopefully NBC keeps the show around. Check out the latest episodes over at NBC.com.
Lost: After the dreadful Locke-centric episode two weeks ago, Lost is really doing its best to keep me from jumping ship since. Last week they opened the show at a strip club and this week we have a Skinamax style catfight in the rain. But despite all that I could care less about this episode because I stopped caring about Kate’s back stories two years ago. They really need to put a moratorium on Kate and Jack back stories because they are really bring the show down. Give me Other-centric or Rousseau-centric episodes. Those may actually be entertain or at the very least fresh. Check out the latest episodes over at ABC.com.
Survivor: Ooo, so we get another Idol this week. I wonder what the rules are about them both getting played at the same tribal council. Of course the only thing better would be if Yoa Man’s fake Idol gets played too. I really hope someone finds that. Thanks to Dreamz we have the most entertaining tribal in recent mwmory. And it was funny that Lisi talked about it time that Dreamz gets a grown up name considering she calls herself Lisi. Check out the latest episode on Innertube.
Two of my favorite bloggers got to visit the set of Supernatural last week (my invite must have gotten lost in the mail, not that I'm bitter as I was too busy bombing a quiz last week). Check out the recaps from Ducky (No longer available) and Raelee (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4)
Promo of the Week: I posted an earlier version of this fan made Veronica Mars promo on my sister site Scooter McGavin Takes Pictures, but here is the latest version. If you have never seen the show, just take two minutes to take a look at the video coutesy of YouTube and if you like what you see, be sure to check out the show when it returns from giatus May 1st.
Pick of the Week: Flavor of Love Girls: Charm School, Sunday at 10:00 on VH1: This could possibly be the greatest show in the history of televised medium. The show takes Flavor of Love castoffs from both seasons of the show to see which one can become the most lady like. This may be the first reality show ever where they decide not to actual declare anyone the winner. Some of the notable contestants are Pumpkin (did the spit seen round the world), Toasteee (got the boot for her suggestive photographs), Saaphyri (beat some white girl up), and Buckwild (the blackest white girl ever). As great as the cast is, I gotta wonder where is Somethin, you would think the girl her did her business on the floor would be in the most need of charm school.
Download all the episodes of the current season of these shows on Amazon Unbox which you can then transfer and watch on your Tivo DVR's:
A few years back, I read an article on Diamonds detailing with Blood Diamonds that were fueling civil wars in several African countries. They were called Blood Diamonds of course because much blood was shed to control these diamonds so they can sell them to stores like De Beers just to spend the money on more guns and ammo to further the civil wars leaving innocent people that happened to be in the path of the rebels without hands or legs, well at least the lucky ones.
After hearing this I made a silent protest, no longer wearing any time of jewelry including a watch but would be more than happy to tell people why whenever they ask why not. The lone non-clothing I wear these days is a LiveStrong bracelet (speaking of which, check out the latest issue of Newsweek that has LiveStrong on the cover for a great story on living with cancer). But it has been an uphill battle trying to convert other as most people I run into care much more about a rock than handless children hundreds of miles away. Seriously, see how fast your marriage proposal will be rejected when you tell her you didn’t put a diamond on the engagement ring because of the bloodshed it causes.
Despite almost two decades of Civil War in Sierra Leone, Blood Diamonds are just recently getting the much deserved attention. Two years ago, Kanye West changed one of his songs names to Diamonds from Sierra Leone, the video and remix of which delt with the effects of Conflict Diamonds. More recently VH1 filmed a documentary in which they took some rappers, a genre overly obsessed with bling, to Africa. But the biggest impact was that of the Leonardo DiCaprio led movie Blood Diamond.
The movie se in 1999 Sierra Leone intertwines the lives of two very different people, DiCaprio (The Departed) who trades arms for diamonds with the Revolutionary Untied Front and Djimon Hounsou (Amistad) as a fisherman who was put into slavery in the diamond fields by the RUF and separated from his family. When they are both incarcerated in the same jail, DiCaprio overhears Hounsou being accused of hiding a rare pink diamond and realizes this is his best chance at getting off the continent and makes a deal with Hounsou if he helps him get the diamond, he will help him find his family.
There is plenty road bumps in the way between the two and where the diamond is hidden, but both lead actors are up for the challenge even though the plot is sometimes hard to follow although the film does a decent job at relaying the atrocities that have been happening in these African countries. Another plot point that was really unneeded was a love story between DiCaprio and Jennifer Connelly (Hulk) but hopefully the film helps bring into light the civil wars brought on by the sale of Conflict Diamonds and change the practices of those profiting from them and ultimately people buying them something to think about.
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.
Do we need a political Linkin Park video? Probably not. But it looks like it may be part of the band’s new make-over as Mike Shinoda gets pushed into the background as it looks like they lived up to their promise to move away from the rap-rock combo that put them on the map. I’m not the biggest Linkin Park fan but I am interested how the rest of the Rick Rubin produced album sounds like when Minutes to Midnight (a doomsday clock reference?) comes out in May.
Your typical Maroon 5 video: The group plays in front of a wild backdrop while the lead singer, Adam Levine, gets fondled by hot chicks. As for the song, if this is any indication of what we can expect from their upcoming album, it may be a sophomore slump that will make The Killers’ slump look not so bad. There last album was very top heavy with the single being really good while the rest, well, calling them filler would be too nice for most of them. Makes Me Wonder falls somewhere in between.
As good of a rapper Redman is, it’s his videos are usually more entertaining and his latest doesn’t disappoint. It’s nice to see the dude from Chappelle’s Show actually get work (Redman had a classic cameo on the show) although what’s up with the fat dude. Shouldn’t he be in jail or at the very least being stalked by Chris Hansen?
I assume this was an April Fools Day joke gone horribly wrong. Yet even though I absolutely hate both Alanis Morissette and Fergie, I can’t stop watching this. Yeah, Ben Folds already did the ironic, slow down a rap song and put it against a piano when he reworked Dr. Dre’s classic (Expletive Deleted) Ain’t (Expletive Deleted) to a much better effect, although Folds didn’t have a video to faithfully recreate which just makes My Humps even more disturbingly entertaining. And it is a little ironic that this is the most anyone has talked about Alanis Morissette since, well, Ironic.
There is a long standing train of thought that all actors want to sing and all singers want to act. But as for the latter, from Don Johnson to Jared Leto, they have all sucked massively. Granted that hasn’t kept actors from trying. In recent years there is a special case of actor turned singer, the brand name. You know the “artist” that blankets all forms of media and lends their likeness to anything that there name can fit on from sleeping bags to perfumes. And an album is just another avenue to promote themselves.
Hilary Duff certainly wasn’t the first to do this but she stared the most recent onslaught of Disney approves entities that included Lindsay Lohan and numerous High School Musical alums. And did Disney certainly milk that cow for all its worth releasing three albums in the span of two years (in addition to the five movies released during that period), one of which was actually a greatest hit package despite the little amount of song in her library.
With the year and a half lay off since her last album, a lot has changed as the High School Musical cast have successfully taken her tween queen crown and Duff has wisely gone in a different direction with her new disk, Dignity. She slightly moves away from the pop setting she started out in going for more of a dance vibe complete with Euro-trash beats and layered vocals, another wise decision as Duff really wouldn’t win any singing contests so anything that hides her weak vocal styling is a good idea. Certainly the more upbeat tracks like Never Stop, Outside of You, and the will.i.am produced Play with Fire will have all the Middle School girls dancing this spring.
This time around, Duff even sits in on the writing process getting name credited to all but one of the songs on the album. But with at least two co-writers on each song, you have to wonder just how much input Duff actually had on the album. And in a chicken or the egg scenario, I wonder if Duff named her perfume, With Love after the song or the song was written for extra promotion for the fragrance. God bless synergy. The most noteworthy song on the album is the title track where Duff takes pot shows at people famous for being famous (most likely including Nicole Richie who just happens to be dating Duff’s ex) with lines like, It’s not news when you got a new bag. It’s not news when somebody slaps you.” Oh snap. Maybe if Duff filled the album with more biting and vengeful lyrics, it would have been more enjoyable. Maybe she should have Alanis Morissette help write the next album.
Ever walk out of a movie and thought, how did that garner a PG-13 rating when it drops a couple F-Bombs. How many F-Bombs is too many before it gets bumps up to an R rating? That is the basic premise of This Film Is not Yet Rated, a documentary where Kirby Dick (I won’t point out the irony that the dude behind figuring out the ratings system is named Dick) tries to figure out how the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) comes up with their basis on which films get which ratings and an even harder task, who exactly is on the board that gives out the ratings.
The second is the much more interesting part of the film as Dick hires a private investigator team to track down these raters that are hidden in secrecy. These segments have a distinct Veronica Mars feel to it as the investigators involves one of their moderately attractive daughter to help out with clerical work and the occasional field work where it would be easier for an attractive young woman to gain access. But in a very un-Ronnie way, the mother daughter team is on the case over a month. And the hypocrisy of the raters remaining anonymous is that head of the MPAA, Jack Valenti, has stated the secrecy is to keep them from being pressures, but they are in constant contact with movie studios, the very ones that would have the most to gain from influencing the raters.
The other part looks at the inequalities between how certain films are rated featuring interviews with filmmakers that had there own wars with the ratings board including John Waters (A Dirty Shame), Kevin Smith (Jersey Girl), and Matt Stone (South Park). First is how Independent films are rated compared to one from the major studios. Keep in mind the MPAA are made up of members from the big six studios formed to advance the interest of the studio. So a major studio movie like Basic Instinct can show Sharon Stone in all her glory and get an R yet the independently released The Cooler gets an NC-17 for showing parts of Maria Bellow that is usually covered by undergarments. If you show heterosexual intercourse, you can get an R (well depending on the number of thrusts which leads to a funny montage in the documentary), but if it is two dudes: NC-17.
But the biggest argument, one that has been going on for decades, is how violent acts can get a PG-13. So in the mind of the MPAA, you can kill as many people, but as long as there is no blood it is okay. There is something significantly wrong with that yet the MPAA decides ignore all the psychological reports on how it violent images effect kids because they make more money off of PG-13 movies than R rated ones, which is the main reason they created PG-13 back in 1984 to get better box office revenue from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
The highlight of the film is when Dick himself submitted This Movie Is Not Yet Rated into the ratings board and of course got slapped with the NC-17 rating. This led to an appeals possess which is shrouded in as much secrecy as the original rating process. Once you get to this point of the documentary it is not surprising that the appeal was rejected, although getting the ruling overturned never looked like Dick’s goal of the appeals process.
I’m actually a big proponent of censorship as it spawns creativity. But it is obvious that the current system for rating movies is broken. The biggest problem is that the movies are being rated by the very system that makes the movies which sets up a big conflict of interest. Second is the lack of general guidelines and since raters are changed out occasionally, you run the risk of movies that could get different rating depending on who the raters are at any given time. It may be time for someone to set up an independent ratings board as the lack of competition has led the MPAA rate on how things suit their interests.
The DVD format has been around so long now that almost every movie has been released on it. But unfortunately there are a few movies that just get released and that’s it, no special features or anything. These are mostly older movies that wouldn’t have had much in the way of special features because there really wasn’t need for them back when they were released, but at the very least they could throw in the trailer for the movie on the disk. One of the more egregious examples was one of the greatest sports movies of all time; and this month’s induction into the Scooter Hall of Fame, Major League which has gotten two releases on DVD with a combined zero extras.
Well that is going to change as the movie is finally getting the special edition treatment with the release next week of Major League: Wild Thing Edition. And they didn’t skip on the extras either as you can expect an audio commentary from Commentary by Writer/Director David S. Ward and Producer Chris Chesser. There are also a couple featurettes including My Kinda Team which includes interviews with Charlie Sheen, Corbin Bernsen, Tom Berenger, Dennis Haysbert, and Bob Uecker, A Major League Look at Major League, and Bob Ueker: Just A Bit Outside. There is also an alternate ending, a tour of Cerrano's locker and the very lucrative photo gallery (has anyone actually looked at photo gallery included on a DVD?).
The movie itself hits close to home as a life long resident of Northeast Ohio who, back in 1989, had never seen the Cleveland Indians end higher than sixth. In fact even my parents couldn’t remember the last time the team had a winning record. What’s worse, in retrospect, was the storyline of a team moving out of Cleveland thanks to an evil owner actually came to fruition less than a decade later thanks to evil Art Modell and the horrible coaching job of Bill Belichicken.
But enough about the Browns. Watching Major League is a trip down memory lane for me because I lived with the Tribe losing so much that I actually preferred the team back then compared to the team of the nineties when they brought in hired thugs like Joey “corked bat” Bell and Robbie” I spit on umpires” Alomar. I even remember as a child seeing Greg Swindell’s first major league start where he gave up seven earned runs on no outs. For those keeping track at home, that’s an ERA of infinity. Those were good time.
The fake Indians were just as pitiful leading the team’s owner to bring in a bunch of has been’s and never were’s to try out for the team (sounds suspiciously how they cast Dancing with the Stars) in hopes that they will be so bad the team can move to Florida. The team is anchored by Tom Berenger (Eddie and the Cruisers), a catcher with chronic knee problems and had spend the last couple years in the Mexican League. But I guess that is more respectable than Charlie Sheen (Two and a Half Men), a pitcher with a lot of speed and little command, who came from the California Penal League. Then there is Corbin Bernsen (LA Law) as an athlete we see way too often these day, the one that doesn’t try as he bides his time until free agency.
The movie also a few unknowns who because breakout stars thanks to their roles including Wesley Snipes (Demolition Man) who ungraciously didn’t return for the sequel as the brash centerfielder who had a penchant for popping out. Also in her first major role was Rene Russo (The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle) as the token hot chick and love interest for Berenger. Then there is Dennis Haysbert who would go on to become president and Allstate pitchman, but, along with Jobu, stole every seen in Major League with his voodoo antics. But no one stole the movie more than former baseball player Bob Uecker (Mr. Belvedere) who has reverted to drinking while doing commentaries on the games.
As great as the movie is, the film has actually Also had a lasting impact on Major League Baseball as it become common place for relief pitchers to come to the mound with accompanying music just like Sheen did in the film with The Troggs’ Wild Thing (as performed by X in the film). The film also introduced that song to an all new generation including myself. So I’ll definitely be picking up the DVD on the 10th and hope to see you in line. Now hopefully a fully loaded Major League II DVD won’t be far behind.
Big News of the Week: ABC.com Finally Goes Full Scene: Well, sort of. ABC.com was easily the worst network that offered streaming of their episodes. Their “Big” screen didn’t live up to its title and even though I on a cable line, it sometimes wouldn’t go Big saying I didn’t have the bandwidth and it was a pain if you wanted to skip to a certain scene. But there was something on Lost that I wanted to re-watch and noticed that they have a brand new player that offers Full Screen. So I disagree with ABC’s definition of Full Screen but it is at least bigger than Big. In addition to streaming some of their shows, there is also an internet only show, Voicemail. I haven’t had time to check it out yet, but you can head over to its Official Site and it even has its own MySpace page. You know what else is still available for streaming, The Knights of Prosperity. If you haven’t done so yet, go over to check out the funniest new show of the season over at ABC.com.
Friday Night Lights: After teasing all season with conversations that lasted about a word we finally got a bunch of great Tyra and Landry scenes. It may be time to do one of those extremely lame name mash-ups: Tandry? Landra? Okay, maybe not. But when it comes down to it, this episodes wasn’t just one of the best episodes of Friday Night Lights, it was easily one of the top five best episodes of any show this season. And to be honest the reason why Friday Night Lights didn’t get the coveted Quote of the Week was because I couldn’t decide which my favorite was this week. Really anything between Tyra and Landry, Matt talking about Landry’s “date” or the Taylor’s in the cow pasture would have been worthy. In the action department there was just something extremely jarring (in a good television kind of way) of the juxtaposition of the final moments of the game and the attempted rape. And as an added bonus to an already great episode we get Lyla handling a gun, you really can’t get hotter than that.
I was a little disappointed that Lyla going demolition derby on her dad’s showroom last week wasn’t mentioned at all. You got to imagine there should have been some major fallout from that. Maybe it will be picked up later. And having them playing Voodoo in the state finals sets up a lose-lose situation for the season finale. If the team loses then there is the disappointment that the chump Voodoo gets a ring. And if the Panthers win, then there will be nothing to strive for in a second season. Although I wonder where the second season will start off (I refuse to think there won’t be a second season), will it focus on the football off-season or will it fast forward to the start of the next season? Or could we be following Coach Taylor to college?
Lost: What better way to make up for an episode so inane that saying it jump the shark would be too nice than to start of an episode featuring a nominally hot chick wearing very little clothes on a fake show about strippers that fight crime that features Billy Dee Williams. This episode could easily be the most entertaining episode of the last two seasons. Well in a so bad it’s good kind of way as the episode had a very B-movie feel to it. And the island flash backs had a Saturday Night Live skit with throwing characters we know weren’t there but drops them in there thanks to some blue screening.
Yeah, the episode sputtered at the end especially with the completely useless Not-Henry/Juliet sighting. They seriously trekked across the island just to watch the monitor for less than a minute and they just happen to leave their walkie-talkie. And despite overhearing their intentions to kidnap Jack, Sawyer, and Kate, Paulo didn’t bother to warn them. But it was good to see Arnst and the token hot chick back again. Although I wonder what was with the absence of Michael and Walt? Did the writers just completely leave them out or did one or both of the actors turned down returning?
And I was surprised that everyone is assuming that Nikki and Paulo are dead. Nikki said that the paralysis would wear off in eight hours about eight hours before they were buried and we saw Nikki open her eyes at the end. Really, would them clawing themselves out of their graves be any less plausible than Locke surviving being pushed out a eight story window onto concrete? And it was Locke who said earlier in the episode that things don’t stay buried on the island. Check out the latest episode over at ABC.com.
Survivor: Is it wrong that I was disappointed that no one almost set themselves on fire like Brandon back in Africa? More importantly, is it wrong that I still remember something that happened way back in the Africa season? And it looks like they are going to have the tree person finale again as Jeff mentioned that Rocky was the first member of the jury. I was really hoping they wouldn't do that again. Maybe the worst idea in Survivor history. Check out the latest episode on Innertube.
Promo of the Week: Tomorrow marks one month until we finally get a new Veronica Mars episode on May 1st so below is the promo for that episode. Seriously, what is better than Ronnie handling a paintball gun? And don’t forget to vote for Veronica Mars at the SOS Poll, there is only one week until the voting period ends.
Pick of the Week: Friday Night Lights, Wednesday, 8:00, NBC: After a five star episode hopefully next week’s episode can continue that tradition as we will hopefully see more Tyra and Landry interaction with the fallout over the attempted rape, see the boys start preparing for the state championship, and it looks like Coach Taylor has made a decision on if he is going to accept the college job offer. And maybe we will finally see the fallout at the Garrity house over Lyla’s bumper car incident.
Download the latest episodes on Amazon Unbox which you can watch on your Tivo DVR's:
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