I Want My Music Television vol. XC

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.


Madder Red – Yeasayer



I guess we have Yeasayer to thank for giving us a little insight as how Kristen Bell could date Dax Sheppard.


Wake Up Everybody - John Legend, The Roots featuring Common and Melanie Fiona



I do not know exactly where they find the time, but color me excited for a collaboration album between The Roots and John Legend. Hopefully Legend carved out a week to join The Roots on Late Night to perform a bunch of the songs.


(Expletive Delete) You – Cee-Lo



Expletive lyrics have not been this catchy since Closer by Nine Inch Nails. Thank you Cee-Lo for raising my chances of getting mouth washed out with soap in the near future.


Bushwick Blues - Delta Spirit



Hurmph. I actually thought something was actually going to happen, but it was all build up and no payoff from Delta Spirit. At least the song is pretty decent.

Previewing Witness: Katrina

It is hard to believe we are already upon the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina which was officially classified as one five years ago today. It took another week before it wrecked havoc on the gulf coast where things still are not back to normal in placed she hit. Tonight at 9:00 the National Geographic Channel is taking a look back at the storm literally through the eyes of people who lived through it with Witness: Katrina.

All of the footage show will come from those on the scene from amateur cameramen documenting how they try to live through the storm throughout the Gulf Coast (but mostly focusing on New Orleans), filming as water rises above their waste, walls getting blown down and even the Superdome falling around them. The footage ranges over seventy-two hours of the storm starting with a bunch of hippies mocking at how un-scary a hurricane named Katrina sounds to hours after the storm passes as we join residents trying to rescue their neighbors who stayed with their house.

It is good they the show stays in first person for just the prelude, the storm, and in immediate aftermath so the special isn’t bogged down with the finger pointing, celebrities getting stuck in a boat or dudes with the nickname Brownie that came afterward, just an unfiltered account of real people in the path of the hurricane. The only addenda we get are an update of how the videographers are doing today. Check out a preview of Witness: Katrina below.

57 Channels and Only This Is On vol. CXLIV

Quote of the Week: Hey Seth, South Park called, they want their everything back. (Jeff Ross – The Comedy Central Roast of David Hasselhoff)

Song of the Week: Hooked On a Feeling - Blue Swede (as sung by David Hasselhoff, The Comedy Central Roast of David Hasselhoff)

Big News of the Week: It’s Allergy Season: There are very things I hate more than allergy season. I just want to stay in bed until the first frost.

Leverage: Two themes are emerging from this season; the plot either revolves around daddy issues or a ripped from the headlines stories. This week was the latter but I assume due to budgeting, I assume they moved an off shore drilling explosion into a mine because the explosion was already pretty lame. Too bad there isn’t a real Leverage team to get payback on BP for raping the environment. You can stream recent episodes on TNT.tv. You can also download Leverage on iTunes.

Rescue Me: I never thought Needles had that in him. But I wonder if there will be repercussions from above like the other captain makes it sound like (my guess is yes). And Tommy just cannot be content, I never thought the Sheila moratorium would last, but I thought it would go past one hour. And Janet should deserve some blame as she should have realized that the “goodbye” wouldn’t go well. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Rescue Me on iTunes.

Covert Affairs: Another Joe McCoy red herring. When he popped up earlier this season on The Closer I would have bet he was the killer of the week, but alas he wasn’t. Then this week I would have bet he was going to turn out to be the leak, but of course he just turned out to be another horny Congressman (and I assume a Democratic one because most Republican sex scandals involve dudes). You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Covert Affairs on iTunes.

Free Download of the Week: White Lies - Stacy Clark (iTunes): For fans of peppy pop and if you enjoy this song, there is another song from Stacy Clark on the Vanguard Records Sounds of Summer Sampler) which I mentioned a couple weeks ago.

Deal of the Week: Save on DVDs from the Stars of The Expendables (Point Break, multiple Rambos, Terminator 2)

Video of the Week: Not once, but twice, I saw a trailer this week and though “this reminds me of Showgirls.” Maybe not the best sign of things to come at the local multiplex. First, and most obvious Showgirls rip of is Burlesque which features Christina Aguilera’s acting debut and Kristen Bell. Looking at the tailer, it looks like we will finally get the answer to what Showgirls would look like would if it were written by a gay dude.

Burlesque Trailer


And the next one is a little bit of a stretch, but I guess it is the whole dancer gets replaced plot, but I get strong Showgirls vibe from Black Swan, the thriller from the dude who have us The Wrestler and stars Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis. Of course this movie would be from the Gina Gershon perspective. And what the frack is with that last scene in the trailer?

Black Swan Trailer


Next Week Pick of the Week: Memphis Beat, Tuesday at 10:00 on TNT: Memphis Beat never quite win me over, and it didn’t help being on at the same time as Rescue Me and Covert Affairs, but maybe I will catch up now that the season is ending this week.

Around the Tubes vol. LXIII

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 Friday Night Lights, If God Is Willing and da Creek Won’t Rise, Eastbound and Down, Modern Family, DVD2Blu, Bond of Silence, and Richard Petty.

- If you have ever wondered why I go on and on about Friday Night Lights but found it too cumbersome to catch up, ABC Family recently bought the syndication rights and will start airing the show from the beginning starting Tuesday September 7 at 6:00. Below is the poster hyping the premiere.



- A couple years ago, Spike Lee made a Katrina related documentary When the Levees Broke and now of the fifth anniversary of the Hurricane he is revisiting the subject with If God Is Willing and da Creek Won’t Rise focusing on the recovery in New Orleans and the recent oil spill. The two night event starts Monday with the second part on Tuesday, both at 9:00 on HBO. Below is a trailer:

Trailer

- In other HBO news, Eastbound and Down returns for its second season September 26 at 10:30 and here is a teaser:



- It would seem like a no brainer that Modern Family should take home the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy in that is the funniest show nominated. But over at the Daily Beast, they still have to explain why Modern Family Should Win an Emmy Over Glee.

- For those that have upgraded to Blu-Ray recently but do not want to spend all that money upgrading your DVD collection should head over to DVD2Blu which lets you exchange your DVD’s for a much cheaper than buying a Blu-Ray new. And now the program has some TV sets available for exchange such as Chuck, Pushing Daisies, Smallville and The Sopranos.

- The latest Lifetime movie premieres this Monday at 9 and stars Kim Raver (24) and Greg Grumberg. Here is a sneak peak of Bond of Silence:

Bond of Silence Preview


- This is more for you out there south of the Mason-Dixon Line (as country and auto racing doesn’t play as well up here), though if you were on the winning side of the Civil War, you may still find this video of six foot six Trace Adkins trying to get in a NASCAR entertaining.

Trace Adkins Is Stick and Richard Petty Won’t Help!

Can I Come Home for the Summer, I Could Slow Down for a Little While

In a story I broke yesterday, John Mellencamp has a new album out and it is boring (see I’m not Falling up the Ladder), a claim made because the new blood of folk has made the genre much more interesting in the past decade than the Mellencamp disk has to offer. Another of those previously mentioned new bloods is the mountain man looking Ray LaMontagne (whose song Trouble was perfectly used in the commercial with the dog trying to hid his bone safely, maybe not a good ad from the company’s perspective because I cannot recall off the top of my head).

Unlike other folk revivalist recently that take a more rock approach, LaMontange fuses his folk with a heavy dose of blue eyed soul. But Ray took a dip into the bland with his last album Gossip in the Grain with almost every song in the set sounding like we have heard it before. Thankfully for his follow up Ray hook thing up by adding a backing band, the Pariah Dogs, to the equation that brought him out of rut much like when Ryan Adams brought together the Cardinals.

The new album God Willin' & the Creek Don't Rise starts out with the very un-Ray like blues meets funk grooves of Repo Man before settling into familiar territory with New York City’s Killing Me for those that are dawn to LaMontange’s more sensitive tracks. New York instantly rivals Trouble as one of his best tracks in his catalogue. That is followed up with the just as strong title track with is waltzing slide guitar opening. Another standout track from the album is the breezy Beg Steal or Borrow which sees LaMontange sing in a mid tempo song that you could mistake for a Nick Drake cover.

Song to Download – New York City's Killing Me

God Willin’ and the Creek Don’t Rise gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

I’m not Falling up the Ladder

Bands like The Avett Brothers have shown that folk music doesn’t have to be boring. And we can trace back the resurrection of that upbeat folk rock back to the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack that earned producer T-Bone Burnett multiple Grammy Awards. Even Bruce Springsteen brought plenty of energy to his Seeger Sessions album that covered songs from folk icon Pete Seeger.

With all that in mind, the latest folk album from John Mellencamp is pretty bland considering that other contemporary folk albums of the past decade even with No Better Than This being produced by Burnett. Mellencamp recently said he is done being a rock star, and it sounds is if he purposely decided to have no to little fun on the new album and not even in a dark way like his last album Life, Death, Love and Freedom. No Better Than This is just bland.

The album doesn’t do any justice to the places where Mellencamp recorded the songs. While on his minor league baseball park tour with Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson, Mellencamp would take detours to record in places like Sun Studio, the former home of Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley, and even the Sheraton Gunter Hotel where Robert Johnson recorded some of his legendary tunes.

Mellencamp and Burnett even recorded much like in those landmarks’ heyday on an old Amplex reel-to-reel tape recorder in mono. But it sounds as if he was trying too hard to recreate that fifties feel that he forgot to add some passion because that isn’t exclusive attribute to a folk star. As Mumford & Sons show, you can be passionate about making folk music too.

Song to Download - Each Day of Sorrow

No Better Than This gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

I Want My Music Television: Mumford & Sons Edition

Every once and a while I get totally enamored with a band and my current obsession is Irish act Mumford & Sons. They remind me of an Irish version of The Avett Brothers who invented the folk/punk genre with a heavy dose of emotion. And Mumford and Sons do it without a traditional drummer. The band has gone platinum two times over in their native country but hasn’t caught on here stateside since their album Sigh No More was released. Only Little Lion Man has been released over here as a single (note to those with virgin ears, you may want to skip this song for its heavy use of a certain naughty word), but thanks to the internets, you can check out all four videos that have dropped in Great Britain below.

Little Lion Man




Winter Winds




The Cave




Roll Away Your Stone

Lyrics Quiz: Greatest Lyrics of the 00's part 2

Last month I started off my first part of the Greatest Lyrics of the 00’s (there are still three songs left to be guessed) and here is the second half. 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. You’re wack, you’re twisted, you’re girl’s a (expletive deleted). You’re broke, kid ain’t yours and everybody knows.
2. If I go crazy would you still call me Superman? (Kryptonite - 3 Doors Down; guessed by Doug)
3. Home hard to know where it is if you never had one. Home I can’t say where it is but I know I’m going home; it’s where the heart is. (Walk On - U2; guessed by Angie)
4. I’m just straight ill riding my motorcycle down the street. While politicians is sounding like hookers to me. (Lapdance - N.E.R.D.; guessed by Doug)
5. I’m not gonna diss you on the internet, ‘cause my momma taught me better than that. (Survivor - Destiny's Child; guessed by Doug)
6. His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy. There’s vomit on his sweater already: mom’s spaghetti. (Lose Yourself - Eminem; guessed by Doug)
7. Left the house this morning, bells ringing filled the air. Wearing the cross of my calling, on wheels of fire I come rolling down here. (The Rising - Bruce Springsteen; guessed by Angie)
8. You must wanna be in the Guinness Book of World Records as the dumbest (expletive deleted) alive.
9. Well as for now I’m gonna hear the saddest songs and sit alone and wonder how you’re making out.
10. If Mary drop my baby tonight, I would name her Rock and Roll. (The Seed (2.0) - The Roots and Cody ChestnuTT; guessed by Doug)
11. You know the type, load as a motorbike, but wouldn’t bust a grape in a food fight. (99 Problems - Jay-Z; guessed by Doug)
12. If you wrote me off, I’d understand it. ‘Cause I’ve been on some other planet.
13. Sing like you think no one’s listening. You would kill for this, just a little bit.
14. I’m so moving on. (Since U Been Gone - Kelly Clarkson; guessed by Angie)
15. MC Escher that's my favorite MC. Keep your 40 I'll just have an Earl Grey tea. My rims never spin to the contrary you’ll find they're quite stationary. (White & Nerdy - "Weird Al" Yankovic; guessed by Angie)
16. When you trust your television, what you get is what you got. Cause when they own the information, they can bend it all they want. (Waiting On the World to Change - John Mayer; guessed by Angie)
17. It’s a sad, sad story when a mother will teach her daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger. And how in the world can the words that I said send somebody so over the edge? (Not Ready to Make Nice - Dixie Chicks; guessed by Doug)
18. She was the type to watch Oprah and the Today Show. Be on the treadmill, uh, like OK-Go. (Drivin' Me Wild - Common and Lily Allen; guessed by Rose)
19. There were people from the city having lunch in the park. I believe that’s called alfresco.
20. I ain’t gonna make the same mistakes that put my momma in her grave. I don’t wanna be alone.
21. I’ve been spending way too long checking my tongue in the mirror. And bending over backwards just to try to see it clearer. But my breath fogged up the glass so I drew a new face and I laughed. (I'm Yours - Jason Mraz; guessed by Doug)
22. What am I supposed to talk about with you anyway? I graduated the year you were born and I don’t wanna have to drive around and listen to your burned CD’s through your (expletive deleted) car speakers of every band you think you discovered. It’s just gonna make me insecure. (The Weight of Her - Butch Walker; guessed by Angie)
23. There are times when the poets and porn stars align and you won’t know who to believe in, well that’s a good time to be leaving. (Shine - Anna Nalick; guessed by Angie)
24. I got seniority, with the sorority. So that explains why I love college. Getting brain in the library ‘cause I love knowledge when you use your medulla oblongata. (Make Her Say - Kid Kudi, Kanye West and Common; guessed by Rose)
25. Somewhere we went wrong, our love is like a song but you won’t sing along. Have you forgotten about us? (Don't Forget - Demi Lovato; guessed by Angie)

57 Channels and Only This Is On vol. CXLIII

Quote of the Week: My recall wasn’t total. (The Hateable Dan LeBatard, Pardon the Interruption)

Song of the Week: It Had to Be You – Tony Bennett (Rescue Me)

Big News of the Week: It’s Hot

Leverage: It must been family season for Leverage, first we meet Parker’s “dad” and now Nate has a run in with his old man. I was surprised that Nate was so confident that daddy dearest could leave the town before being knocked off by one of the goons he should him out to for. He came close to running into a machine gun while walking down the street. You can stream recent episodes on TNT.tv. You can also download Leverage on iTunes.

Rescue Me: I really hate it when they end an episode with an excruciateingly long scene that is just painful to watch like the restaurant scene. And are we really supposed to believe Conner would be seventeen. Unless there was a time jump I was unaware of, I just have a hard time believing that. But still not as egregious and his red hair turning blonde in the afterlife. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Rescue Me on iTunes.


Free Download of the Week: Memories – Weezer (Spinner.com): Weezer recently went independent and will be releasing the album as such next month entitled Hurley, with an album cover with an extreme close-up of the Lost character. Spinner has the first single from the album for free.

Deal of the Week: Save up to 60% on Popular TV Shows and Movies (Friday Night Lights, Shaun of the Dead [Blu-Ray], Atonement [Blu-Ray])

Video of the Week: We are still a couple of months before Conan shows up on TBS and here is the latest promo which someone faster than me noted its familiarness to the title sequence to You Can’t Do That on Television.



Next Week Pick of the Week: Weeds, Monday at 10:00 on Showtime: The last couple seasons have been mediocre and I do not see some renaissance on the horizon, but I will still catch up when the latest season hits DVD, but those with Showtime get new episodes this week.

Around the Tubes vol. LXII

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 Bored to Death, Pawn Stars, The Event, Entourage, So You Think You Can Dance, Army Wives, Timmy Time, the Smithsonian Channel.

- The new season of Bored to Death featuring Jason Schwartzman, Ted Danson and Zach Galifianakis is returning September 26 on HBO. To tide you over, you can download The Birth of Super Ray comic book or watch the Invitation to the Set video below:



- Yesterday I mentioned the upcoming Hardcore Pawn, and for those that cannot get enough of the occupation should check out the second season of Pawn Stars coming to DVD August 24. Check out below to pre-order the second season or catch up on the first.



- I am glad I am not watching much television this summer because I get the impression that NBC’s marketing of The Event may be on par with ABC’s “Mommy… you smell different” campaign. For those that have escaped the marketing blanket, here is the latest promo for the show:



- The Daily Beast takes a look at two television shows that are struggling in the seventh seasons, Gina Piccalo takes a look at the dark turn on Entourage while Andy Denhart remarks on the failed makeover for So You Think You can Dance.

- Speaking of So You Think You Can Dance, if you watch the show, you make have heard Jar of Hearts by newcomer Christina Perri and Cambio Music has exclusive footage of the singer.

- Gabrielle Union guest on this Sunday’s very special episode of Army Wives. You know how it is a special episode; it gets its own subtitle: Murder in Charleston. If we are lucky, someone might even reenact a scene from Blazing Saddles. Here is a promo:



- Here’s one for the kiddies (or ones that have them), multi-award winning animation studio, Aardman Animations, has a new show called Timmy Time coming to Disney Channel’s Playhouse Disney starting September 13. Below is a picture of Timmy, a little lamb about to enter pre-school or head over to timmytime.tv for exact airtime and more about Timmy.



- Those with an iPhone or iPod Touch and love history will want to check out the Smithsonian Channel app featuring full episodes, fun facts, video clips and more. While on the channel itself, this Sunday at 8:00 is the latest of their Inside the Music episode entitled Electrified:
The Guitar Revolution. Below is a preview:

Previewing Hardcore Pawn

In this economy, and every vocation getting its own reality show, it was only a matter of time before cameras followed the day to day operations of a pawn shop. And what better place to set the show in the most economically depressed city in America, Detroit where American Jewelry and Loan is located just off of 8Mile, the road that Eminem made famous in his semi-autographical movie of the same name.

Don’t ask me why the show is titled Hardcore Pawn, my closest guess is that “pawn” sounds very much like “porn” and the owner of the pawn shop, with his long, stringy, but rapidly balding hair, kind of looks like a prototypical porn mogul. The third generation pawnbroker Lee Gold (natch on the last name) oversees the 50,000 square foot American Jewelry and Loan and with its forty-five employees and is as outspoken as his look.

Trying to reel him in are his two children Seth and Ashley, with Seth taking a more business approach than his shoot from the hip father while daughter Ashley has a keen eye for jewelry for that side of the business yet doesn’t have the best negotiator. With a pawn shop this big, the Gold family sees a lot of out of the ordinary, in the first episode alone; people bring in a stripper pole, homemade cannon, and a live horse, some of the Gold family actually takes in. But the majority of the episode revolves around an irate costumer that comes back a few times when she thinks the shop stole her earrings, a storyline that gets old quick.

Hardcore Pawn airs Mondays at 10:00 on truTV.

Feed Your iPod vol. L: Long Black Veil

In my youth I hated country with a passion, I believed that just listening to it would lower ones IQ. Then in college I was listening to a Dave Mathews Band live album and heard an amazing version of Long Black Veil, a heart wrenching tale of a convicted murderer who won’t clear his name because he was with his best friend’s wife. Since I was not familiar with the song and cracked opened the liner notes to learn more about the song and saw it was written by Johnny Cash and had to check out the original. After that I became a huge Cash fan and softened my stance on the genre as a whole (though I still find a majority of mainstream country IQ reducing). Below are both versions that should find their way to your iPod.

Long Black Veil – Johnny Cash



Long Black Veil – Dave Matthews Band

I Want My Music Television vol. LXXXIX

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.


Power - Kanye West



Do not call this a music video, it ia living portrait. Alrighty, I am not sure that it awesome, or just the most pretentious move ever. Probably both. Hopefully Kanye West doesn’t use the same delivery style throughout his next album because it reminds me of the voice Eminem used during Relapse which was so annoying, Em disavowed it. It is alright for a song or two, but I have no desire to hear and hour’s worth of it.


Love the Way You Lie - Eminem & Rihanna



Speaking of Eminem, he has a new video of his own and you know it is serious because it has big name actors in it. Granted it is hard to take anything serious when Megan Fox is involved because she cannot act, and really can only come close to pulling something off when she is portraying a hooker or succubus.


What Part of Forever – Cee Lo



When his former partner is going the pretentious route by casting the chick from Mad Men in a sci-fi video, Cee Lo is stuck slumming it with vampires on the Twilight soundtrack. Maybe he should have stuck with Gnarls Barkley.


Cold War - Janelle Monae



You may remember Janelle Monae as the house band for this year’s ESPY Awards and here is a super simple video to her latest song reminiscent of Sinead O’Connor’s Nothing Compares 2U performance.

57 Channels and Only This Is On vol. CXLII

Quote of the Week: If you see your balls, pick ‘em up. When I get back I’ll staple them back on you. (Needles, Rescue Me)

Song of the Week: Goodbye – Steve Earl (Friday Night Lights)

Big News of the Week: MTV Video Music Awards Announced: Remember when the VMA’s were a cultural landmark, now, like most people that watch during the MTV heyday, I do not care. I haven’t even seen half nominated videos or even heard the songs. The only nominations of note are Broken Bells up for Best New Artist, though both James Mercer and Danger Mouse put out music for most of last decade, and Tighten Up - The Black Keys for Breakthrough Video, granted I do not remember anything groundbreaking about Tighten Up and both videos are better than anything in the Best Video category, but it is hard to complained because the VMA’s lost credibility about five years ago.

Leverage: Nice light fair after last week’s heavy political episode and Turner was nice enough to give Bill Engvall some work after canceling his show. I wonder if the network is regretting that decision after the daughter on the show has become a much buzzed about actress for her performance in Winter Bone and being cast in the X-Man reboot. You can stream recent episodes on TNT.tv. You can also download Leverage on iTunes.

Rubicon: I am always up for a good conspiracy theory and it is too soon to tell if this is one yet. It is moving a little too slow for my taste so far. You can stream recent episodes on AMC.com. You can also download Rubicon on iTunes.

Rescue Me: There have been some very bizarre moments throughout the history of the show, but handcuffing your daughter in church to baptize her ranks very high near the top. And it is strange that Lou broke out of the hospital and no one there seems to care. I really do not think that storyline is going to end well for him. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Rescue Me on iTunes.

Covert Affairs: Let me put out my prediction of who I think the leak is: the chick from Invasion. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Covert Affairs on iTunes.

Also check out my season wrap up of Friday Night Lights.



Free Download of the Week: For The Summer - Ray LaMontagne & The Pariah Dogs (Amazon MP3)

Deal of the Week: Over 1000 Albums for $5 Each (Huey Lewis and the News, A Tribe Called Quest, KT Tunstall, The Like)



Video of the Week: Two years ago there was a Stand Up 2 Cancer special that aired on all the major networks (except Fox who for some reason had something else to air) and there will be another one coming up September 10 at 8:00 on many networks (this time Fox is included). Here is a PSA featuring Kristen Bell (in a bathtub), Zach Levi, Olivia Munn, Clark Duke, Aubrey Plaza, Vanessa Hudgens and more to bring awareeness to the cause..

SU2C: Change The Odds PSA


Next Week Pick of the Week: Pretty Little Liars, Tuesday at 8:00 on ABC Family: Pretty Little Liars really didn’t catch my interest enough to actually write about it that often, but it has intrigued me enough during the summer doldrums to tune to find out who A is. My prediction: Aria (her name does start with A).

So What Is it Like to Be the Guy who Used to Be Tim Riggins

There is no better line that sums up season four of Friday Night Lights than, “What’s it like to be the guy who used to be Tim Riggins?” All the returning cast members seemed to be shells of their former selves (with the exception of Tami Taylor who looks will be making her downgrade next season). Tim was an all too familiar site in Texas high school football, they guy who peaks in high school and can’t seem to find his way without it.

Along those lines, Matt Saresen also stays in town only to get mocked by the guy who took his spot on the team when delivering pizza. While their former coach gets forced out of his cushy job of a perennial State contender to the other side of the tracks where he can barely field a team. And the only white students that end up in East Dillon just happen to be Landry Clarke and Julie Taylor, but all their friends graduated anyways.

With all the grand sendoffs over the last two seasons; Jason Street moves closer to his kid, Smash Williams gets a scholarship to play football, Tyra Collette emotional acceptance into UT (yet doesn’t even warrant a mention at her absence at Thanksgiving), Matt riding off into the sunset after the death of his father; it is striking how Tim gets his send off, walking into the sheriff’s office to take full responsibility for the chop shop, so his brother can stay on the outside and raise his boy.

Where most shows are not even able to integrate one new character into a show, Friday Night Lights managed to do just that with three new faces in Dillon. Becky Spoles started out as comedic foil with a sharp tongue to jab Tim Riggins at every turn. But the more we learned about her, the mother who isn’t there enough to the dad who isn’t ever there to her scenes with Tami, she brought the emotional weight I just was not expecting at the beginning of the season. Here’s hoping, even with Riggins in prison, she is brought back next season with something to do, and with Tami taking a councilor gig over at East Dillon, it shouldn’t be too hard to do.

On the field, there was Vince Howard, a boy on his last strike, given his last chance at life in exchange for playing football in the newly resurrected Lions. But Vince had a good reason to turn his life to crime, to support his mother who cannot support herself due to her drug habit. It was emotionally wrecking to watch him try to balance his former life of crime, his mother’s struggle with sobriety, being the guy that Coach expects him to be, as well as being the guy that his childhood friend Jess Merriweather can date. That is a lot of weight to put on the shoulders of a high school student and Vince was almost able to pull it all off.

Jess herself seemed to start off as a throwaway character, just an object of Vince and Landry’s affection. But she had her own demons to exercise in the form of her father; a former Lions star that no longer can even watch the game, not even his boys’ peewee games no matter how much Jess tries to persuade him but eventually finds himself rooting for the Lions and his boys with the help of Jess and Coach.

With everyone taken down a notch in the early episodes, redemption was a big theme of the season, most notably that of Coach Taylor. Just two seasons removed from winning a state champion, Taylor is pushed out by a wealthy booster and resigned to take the job at the newly opened East Dillon because the last time he took a job away from his family didn’t work out very well. The transition took him from coaching future college players to former convicts and the road was a bumpy one.

Just yelling “Clear Eyes, Full Hearts…” was not going to work and it took a couple weeks for Coach to realize this. But slowly he won people over, from couple coaches, to Buddy Garrity (who hilariously got the Lions games broadcasted on a Spanish language radio station) to finally the players themselves as coach himself learned that he could not put these players into his system, but to create a new system around them, managing to win a couple games, and the big win against West Dillon (with the Dillon mayor on the Panther’s sideline) with what may have been the first ever game winning field goal in the history of Hollywood created football games. But Landry needed some redemption of his own.

Friday Night Lights gets a on my Terror Alert Scale. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Friday Night Lights on iTunes.

Around the Tubes vol. LXI

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 And Man Created Dog, My Child Is a Monkey, Eldebrock, Shaquille O’Neil, Pretty Little Liars, and True Blood.

- If you ever wonder how dogs became man’s best friend and went from wolves to the most diverse species on the planet will want to check out the very detailed explanation given by the National Geographic Channel on the special this Sunday at 9:00 called And Man Created Dog. Below is a clip:

The Start of the Domestic Dog


- For those that prefer monkeys over canines may instead want to watch My Child Is a Monkey on Nat Geo Wild tonight at 9:00. Here is a preview:



- For fans of Nickelback, Three Days Grace and Theory of a Deadman, you will want to check out new band Eldebrock. Their single Release Me is out on iTunes now and their self titled debute is out September 15. The band created the campaign, World War on Cancer, and will commit $1 per album (.10 cents per song sold) to support the UICC’s (International Union Against Cancer) fight against cancer.

- No athlete has exploited social media more than Shaquille O’Neil (who recently went to his Twitter page to challenge Jim Rome to a boxing match after Rome criticized Shaq on his show) and here is an interview of his on FastCompany.com about the subject of social media.

- Others on the Twitter is Marlene King, executive producer of Pretty Little Liars will be participating on a Tweet-Chat next Tuesday at 7:00 right before the mid-season finale. Follow @ABCFamily, @ABCFpll, and use the hashtag #PLLchat to join the chat.

- New episode of True Blood this Sunday at 9:00 on HBO. Here is a preview:

The Most Anticipated Films of the Next Year

Last week’s Comic Con got me thinking of which movies I am most looking forward to and so I came up with this list. I did limit the list to movies with a release date within the next year (sorry Avengers, though it may not have made the list anyway because I have been more of a DC Comics guy, which begs the question, whatever happened to the Justice League movie). Here are the top ten I am most looking forward to (note release dates are subject to change).

10. Everything You’ve Got (December 17): I really do not know anything about this movie other than it reteams Reese Witherspoon and Paul Rudd. It’s only been twelve years since Overnight Delivery (everyone remembers that movie right?).

9. Green Hornet (January 14): Seth Rogan really would not be my first choice for any superhero, but let’s face it, Kato was always the star of the show anyway. And Michel Gondry (all the great White Stripes videos) directs.

8. Machete (September 3): The first two Grindhouse movies were cheesy, low-budget fun so expect much of the same from this one.

7. Let Me In (October 1): This isn’t you younger sister’s lame vampire flick. I have yet seem the Swedish movie this is based on due to my dislike of reading (though Let the Right One In is a much cooler title), but the critics raved about it and this version stars Hit Girl as the fanged one that requests the title phrase.

6. Easy A (September 17): Let’s go ahead and file this one under guilty pleasure already.



5. It’s Kind of a Funny Story (September 24): For those that jumped on the Zach Galifinakas bandwagon after The Hangover might be disappointed by this film (if so, wait for Due Date), but being a fan dating back to his VH1 show, I am much more excited about this that an overhyped blockbuster. Though Emma Robert’s hair looks way too good to be a mental patient (but not as egregious as Mila Kunis in The Book of Eli whose hair looked immaculate despite the lack of conditioner for most of her life).



4. Thor (May 6): As previously mentioned I do not care too much with the Marvel lineup of comic book heroes, but I was a fan of Adventures in Babysitters and the little girl (whatever happened to her?) was obsessed with Thor. Plus Natalie Portman returns to nerdom for the first time since Star Wars ended.

3. You Again (September 24): Sign me up for anything Kristen Bell does, no matter how cheesy it looks. And as an added bonus, Betty White, Kristin Chenowith and Victor Garber also star.



Sucker Punch (March 25): Hot chicks with guns in a mental hospital during the fifties? How exactly is this not number one? Oh yeah…



Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (August 13): Every once in a very rare while does something come out that you feel was written specifically for you. For me that has only happened twice: High Fidelity and Wonderfalls. From the look of the trailers, this movie may be the third.