I'm not going to flush. Let them see the wrath of the Monarch!

I’ve given a name to my pain, and it is Mustard.

So normally I don’t dive into the media hot topic of the day but this whole MySpace thing has just pushed me over the edge. Parents: Take some frakking responsibility and know what your kids are doing. Ignorance of technology is no excuse for lazy-ass parenting. Don’t blame MySpace because it’s just the newest hottest way of people contacting one another that allows for anonymousness (and yes, that really is the noun form of the word). I would never wish for horrible things to happen to children and am in no way excusing the behavior of people who use social networking tools for nefarious purposes but in the end if your children don’t know any better than to agree to meet a strange person they have only spoken to through electronic means then you need to be responsible for making sure that doesn’t happen. You can buy tons of software that monitors which sites your kids go to or even block such sites if you don’t want them to go there at all. And don’t give me the excuse of “well my kids will just figure out a way around it”. If parents start using the excuse that they can’t parent properly because their kids are smarter than them…

I’m sick and tired of parents saying that something is dangerous because they don’t want to take the time to monitor their childrens’ actions. Let’s ban violent videogames? DON’T LET YOUR KIDS PLAY THEM!!! You don’t need to waste time that could be spent helping to solve legitimate problems to pass laws about not selling violent videogames to young children if you simply don’t let the kids play them. Hey here’s an idea: don’t let your kids have a TV and Xbox in their room. That way those crazy kids can’t hide what they’re playing from you. But what if the kids find ways to get around that? If parents start using the excuse that they can’t parent properly because their kids are smarter than them…

The funny part about these current problems is that a good majority of them are going to go away in the next 10 years or so. Why? Because the current generation of people who are starting to have kids are the people who grew up riding the current wave of video games and internet creation. They know what’s out there. They grew up with this technology and see it less as a big scary incomprehensible monster and more as a tool that can be monitored and controlled. Yes, kids are always going to find ways to get into trouble. That’s what they do. But the social networking and videogame “problems” will die down to make way for the next new thing parents can point their finger at and scream “danger”. Remember when rock ‘n roll was going to ruin the world?

So that’s my rant on society for the day.

Vegas baby, Vegas! So a quick long weekend and a little lighter in the pocket, it was a damn fine way to spend 4 days. Well, 4 1/2 if you count the almost 7 hour we spent at the airport on Sunday night waiting for our really red eye flight home. But it was a whole lot of fun. Gotta say though, on our last day, Erin and I hit up this little divey casino called O'Sheas right next the Margaritaville entrace at the Flamingo. It was fantastic. Dollar domestic drafts, friendly dealers who were spending lots of time helping out newbies at the craps table and cocktail waitresses that actually came around often to give you drinks. Hours at the Bellagio and I didn't see one damn waitress but, 5 minutes at this place and I had a Corona in my hand. If you're a low key, pub kinda person, try this place out over the overblown, snootier resort casinos. You'll have 10 time more fun.

Caught Nacho Libre last weekend (4 weeks in a row! Though it won’t be 5 as I didn’t get out this weekend). Honestly, watch the movie trailer. If you don’t find it funny, then don’t see this movie cause you’re not getting anything different from the rest of the move. I enjoyed it as the goofy it was. It’s not going to top Thank You For Smoking as the funniest movie of the year but it has some laughs. Jack Black has a few great moments and plays the role of a fat-monk-turned-luchador straight which I enjoyed immensely. But like I said, don’t look for anything different from the trailers with this.

News and Notes:

I saw Kevin “E” Connelly and Nicky Hilton in Vegas this weekend! They walked right by my in the Bellagio casino. It’s funny how most people were screaming for Nicky but me and Erin were just like holy crap, it’s E from Entourage!

Also saw Dr. J and he is not looking so good these days.

Superman comes out on Friday. Just in time for my birthday!

Also, I trust Entourage at this point but the whole troublesome visiting friend character is starting to give me uneasy twinges of an “Oliver” scenario. Let’s hope this is quickly resolved.

Venture Bros. is back and that first episode gave a whole lot of hope for this season being even better than the first. The ex-henchman group counseling session was just hilarious not to mention how the whole boys being dead thing was handled.

Until next time:

“The tumor was benign. It's just that, well…we cannot find it.”
“What do you mean you 'can't find it'?”
“Well we took it out and, I don't know. When I finished sewing you up, I turned around and it was... just gone.”
“Gone? Well. I want a second opinion. Oh wait, I'm a doctor! I can give myself one! You suck, and I'm leaving.”

You boys look angry. If there was plastic on the floor I'd think I was about to be whacked

Mustard: Let’s hug it out bitch!

God I love Entourage. Could it be at a better time than Sunday nights during the summer? Perfect way to close down the weekend. I’m loving the current season so far. Granted it’s only been one episode but the writers have lost none of the quality from last season. James Woods guest role was fan-friggin-tastic. Jeremy Piven’s Ari Gold is just brilliant and if it came down to it I don’t now who the hell I’d pick for an Emmy between him and John C McGinley’s Dr. Cox. They’re just too damn good. Lloyd!

Also back and in brilliant form: Deadwood. This show takes a while to grow into but once you get used to the fact that this is no low-brow western show but something that approaching a dialogue of Shakespearean complexity combined with more profanity than should be perfectly legal in a TV show, it’s just an amazing show. Ian McShane’s Al Swearengen is more badass than Jack Bauer and he does it all without a super all-purpose PDA!

Caught Cars this weekend (and for those of you playing the home game, that’s a movie 3 weeks in a row). While it’s not my favorite Pixar movie, it beats the living hell out of 99% of kids movies out there today. I never thought I’d ever say this but Larry the Cable guy actually made an endearing and entertaining character. Man I feel dirty. Paul Newman and Owen Wilson give good performances as it’s generally expected they would. Michael Keaton plays a good cocky villain/rival role. John Ratzenberger has some great lines (stay through the credits). And awesome cameo by Jeremy Piven as Owen Wilson’s agent (see above). Look, it’s Pixar. These guys know how to make a damn good movie. I’m really excited for their upcoming Ratatouille next summer.

Music you should be listening to:

Matt Nathanson – At the Point (live)
I have to say this is one of the few albums that actually grab the feeling of a live concert. Half the fun of a Matt Nathanson concert is his back and forth with the audience. He does it better than anyone and he’s got a great sense of humor. This is all captured excellently on this disc with such great moments of him introducing a song written about a girl who was cheating on him as “a song about sharing”. Or when he tells the story about how he broke up with a girl, wrote a whole album about it and then how awkward it was as they ended up getting back together. He plays a good selection with most of it being his recent stuff though he does dip back into some old EPs. It’s also all acoustic so he gets to show off his 12-string guitar playing a little better than on some of his more produced albums.

The Wrens – The Meadowlands
This is a fun though more obscure album. The House That Guilt Built starts things off extremely slow at lo-fi Elliot Smith standards (complete with crickets playing in the background) before building into Happy with strained vocals that would do Billy Corgan proud. Things finally start up on This Boy is Exhausted which brings up memories of the latest New Pornographers album. Faster Gun has a fun upbeat tempo while Everybody Chooses Sides is the late peak of the album with it’s cranked up distortion and pounding drums. Give the Wrens a try.

News and Notes:

Mets are on a friggin’ knock-on-wood roll right now, winning 7 in a row all on the road. Get those votes in for David Wright as starting 3B on the NL All Star Team.

Though 99.9% of American doesn’t seem to care, it’s been a pretty decent NHL finals with Carolina leading 3-2 after a nasty overtime game last night where Edmonton had a fantastic goal for the win.

Yeah, I know I should probably care more about the World Cup right now but as my uncle once said: Soccer is a wuss sport.

Please note it was my uncle who said it, not me. If you’ve got issues with that statement, please direct them to him.

Until next time:

“But Sloane is never wrong. You know she saw Johnny Depp in Platoon when she was eight years old and she said, ‘Dad, that's the guy to watch.’”
“You showed her Platoon when she was eight years old?”
“Oliver did. He wanted feedback.”

I'd make you swear on a bible, but I know how contact with Holy stuff makes your skin sizzle.

Here’s a little payback Mustard-style!

Another week, another blog, another day of weather.com predicting isolated thunderstorms. I wonder if the people there just take the summer off and set the website to display the isolated thunderstorm icon every day.

Anyways, so the NHL finals are Edmonton vs. Carolina. Not exactly the most fantastic matchup to get the ratings pouring in but for hockey fans, seeing Edmonton back in the finals is a fun sense of nostalgia. Unless of course you hate Canadians.

So I haven’t done music in forever so without further ado…

Music You Should Be Listening To:

Mike Doughty – Haughty Melodic
This guy seems to be the go-to person for TV shows these days as he’s had his songs in both Grey’s Anatomy and Veronica Mars. Looking at the World from the Bottom of a Well gets things off with a bang with a crazy wall of sound pouring over you. Doughty has an interesting lyrical delivery, something just a little off which reminds me, of all bands, Carbon Leaf. This is especially noticeable on the songs Unsingable Name and the excellent I Hear the Bells. Definitely a good car ride album.

Gomez – How We Operate
A little more low key, the album starts out nice easy with the nice violin infused Notice before moving only a step faster with See the World which you could almost see John Mayer covering on his next tour. But things really start moving with Girlshapedlovedrug which I’m still wondering how it wasn’t on the last Rhett Miller album. It’s a pretty strong album and I highly recommend it.

Sun Kil Moon – Tiny Cities
So you want the weirdest idea ever? Take Mark Kozelek, the lead man (and eventually only man) of the Red House Painters and have him play and entire acoustic album consisting of nothing but Modest Mouse covers. That’s right, crazy, blood pumping, ass kicking Modest Mouse done by a guy who gives Iron & Wine a run for most laid back artist ever. But it’s a fantastic album. All these songs are completely toned down to Red House Painter levels, meaning just soft, acoustic, singer-songwriter with a minimum of backup. It works because it gives throws the music in a different direction. Modest Mouse lyrics direct pain through anger. Kozelek drops the anger act and rather acts on the sadness behind the pain creating a whole new sound. No where is this more apparent than on his cover of the Ocean Breathes Salty. The title track is also a remarkable addition to the album that should not work but yet succeeds amazingly well.

Pavement – Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
Yeah, I don’t know why but lately I’ve been getting into this album. It’s just a lot of fun. Upbeat tempos and and warbling crooning lead singer? Yeah, I’ll admit, I really am filling in the hole that exists from my desire for a new Thrills album. True their sound is exactly like the Thrills but listen to Range Life and tell me you couldn’t hear this as a new cover. Anyways, love the sound on Elevate Me Later and the piano backing on Gold Sounds.

Caught The Breakup last weekend. Here’s the deal, this isn't Wedding Crashers so don’t think you’re getting that Vince Vaughn. This has kind of an indie feel to it in that it’s not a straight up romantic comedy and it’s not a frat-pack comedy. It’s about two people just emotionally beating the hell out of each other cause neither could stand to be the “loser” in their breakup. Think War of the Roses. Don’t get me wrong, it’s got some pretty friggin hilarious moments. The supporting cast is ridiculously strong with Jason Bateman having a great scene and Jon Favreau hasn’t been this funny in I don’t know how long. I liked this movie a lot and it’s a good but not great movie. One thing is that the titular “break up” happens way too quick. The only chance we have to be emotionally invested in this couple’s relationship is in the credits as we see a photo montage of them being together. I would’ve like to know why this breakup is so painful. The major major I-effing-hate-this-crap problem I had was with the ending. Some studio executive should be shot over this tacked on last scene which made me want to hurl something at the screen. The ending song of “I Can See Clearly Now” make no frakking sense and does not at all fit with the tone of the movie. Holy crap, you can’t treat your audience like they’re intelligent throughout the entire movie and then decide that we’re all effing morons for the very last scene. And it’s a shame because for a good little movie, this is the thing I most remember about it. And that sucks. See the movie. Plug your ears and stop watching for the last scene.

New and Notes:

Episode II commentary is now up and running. That didn’t take too long now did it? I’ll be quicker with the next. I’m finding that my intial HTML coding the first time around was abysmal so I’m having to do a lot of fixing of that as I add in the commentary.

Random I know but can someone tell me why the hell Doritos has a new commercial starring the crappy 1998 American version of Godzilla? I mean I don’t get it. It doesn’t seem to be ironic. There’s no new Godzilla movie coming out. It’s like the Doritos marketing group had no money to spend on anything current and so they dropped back to a horrendous movie from the late 90’s. WTF?

This is awesome and hilarious all at the same time: http://eepybird.com/dcm1.html

Until next time:

“Danni, we need to move on, okay? No more thinking about our exes; no more waiting for the phone to ring; no more stealing her purse just so you can return it later in the hopes that she'll be so grateful, she'll use the money recovered to buy you a drink and maybe have sex with you after.”

“Did that work?”

“I stole the wrong purse... and yes!”

Why is it every time I need to get somewhere we get waylaid by jackassery?

Mustard in the morning, Mustard in the evening, Mustard at dinner time

So another week, another episode of the Mustard. Hope everyone had a lovely Memorial Day. I spent it doing absolutely nothing! Mwa ha ha! Ok, so that’s not true. Erin’s birthday was on Sunday so that was a fun time. Though my sad attempt at a devil’s food cake ended up with a large crater in the middle of it. I mean come on, it shouldn’t be that hard to just make a normal looking cake.

Final season finale wrap up:

I didn’t mention it the other week, but Malcolm in the Middle actually had its series finale the other week. I was happy I caught it as it was a good little way to send off the show. I feel bad for it as quite frankly, it’s always been a pretty funny show with consistently good performances by the cast but Fox has treated it worse than NBC treats Scrubs by moving it all over the place. I mean Fridays? It was much better off in the Sunday at 7:30 slot.

So Alias is over and though I really never watch it consistently until the 2^nd half of this season, J.J Abrams makes a quality spy show and the finale I think just showed that the show was going out on top quality-wise.

Lost – fantastic finale. So now we know why the plane crashed if not definitively how. I’m guessing Desmond is now gone and if so that really sucks as in one episode he ended up being more interesting than half the regulars on the show. But the writers have given us a lot of answers without really giving us any. For one, the island exists in the real world as the last shot is the first “current” scene to take place off the island. So see ya Purgatory theory. Also I think it’s pretty clear that the Pearl monitoring station was the real test based on all the vacuum canisters just being dumped in the middle of nowhere (but who was in that station?). There is some force at work keeping people on the island (Desmond not being able to sail away) but it appears that there is a way out (fake Henry telling Michael to sail off at a specific degree). But man, I wanted more. Are Michael and Walt gone for good or at least downgraded to flashback guest stars? Eko and Locke will be just fine as they’re the two most popular characters on the show and if they get killed off you can be sure the writers will make sure we see it. But all in all I can’t wait for next season.

So now that the ’05-’06 season if officially over, there’s nothing left right? On the contrary, there are 3 big shows that start up in the next few weeks that should get you through the summer.

The big one is of course Entourage starting back up next Sunday. During its hiatus I managed to catch up on Season 1 and it’s pretty remarkable the jump between Season 1 and 2. Not that one was bad, but two was just outstanding. Jeremy Piven’s Ari Gold gets all the accolades but the one every should be paying attention is eternal C-movie star Johnny Drama. Who knew that Kevin Dillon would be the Dillon brother I actually enjoyed watching?

Deadwood is also starting up again and there’s just something about the show that makes you want to keep watching. The gritty, pull-no-punches approach to the old west just makes for a compelling show and damned if Ian McShane’s Al Swearengen is one of the greatest characters currently on TV.

Also coming back is a show that really needs more accolades. The Venture Bros is one of the greatest spoofs ever on TV and its first season was funnier than probably the last 5 seasons of the Simpsons put together. Granted being familiar with the old Johnny Quest show helps you key in to more of the jokes but the show by itself is just hysterical.

Scrubs Soundtrack Vol 2 is currently up as an iTunes exclusive. If you liked the first one, this is right up your alley. Taking songs from Season 2 all the way up to this last one, you’ve got such show mainstays as Colin Hay, Josh Radin, Cary Brothers and Rhett Miller. The only downside is that quite frankly the show has so many great songs on it during the last 5 seasons that I’m waiting eagerly for Vol 3.

David Wright = future of the Mets. The man is just unbelievable considering this is his 2^nd season! And Paul LoDuca is making me question the team’s sanity for keeping Mike Piazza for so long. Carlos is finally breaking out and showing that he wasn’t just a one trick pony in the playoffs two years ago.

Also caught X3 this weekend or as it’s officially titled: X-men: The Last Stand. I was amazingly not disappointed in the movie. I went in with the lowest expectations possible due to the pre-release buzz but I honestly enjoyed myself. No, it’s not as good as X2 but c’mon that was never going to happen. I still can’t stand Halle Berry as Storm but that’s no different than normal. The rest of the cast does just fine. My big complaint is that the movie was just too damn short. There are a lot of great ideas in the movie that really never get explored. They introduce a ton of new characters but they never have time to really do anything much with them. I mean Colossus gets maybe one line in the whole damn movie! I wanted more. But I suppose I should just be grateful that, with how fast Fox pushed this movie out, it turned out as well as it did. Oh, and for those of you who haven’t seen it there is a quick but MAJOR scene after the credits that had everyone at the theater going “Holy S@#%!”

Until next time:

“You scheme was very clever, very clever indeed, but he's no ghost!”

“Oh ya think genius? What tipped you off - was it the huge zipper, maybe the rubber mask? But you had to kill him anyways. If you'd played by the rules - the ghost pirate rules - and just run away, none of this would be happening! But nooo, you had to go nuts and kill a guy!”

And there it was, the moment where pity was turning into genuine affection — classic Dorian.

Wherefore art thou Mustard?

Alright, so I took last week off. Why? Cause I was busy as all hell and didn’t have time to write.

So tis the time of year where we say goodbye to all our company. By which I mean it’s finales week. The score thus far:

Prison Break: Meh. I mean come on, they’ve got the damn cops like 30 feet behind them and five guys running across an open field are supposed to get away. I know this show is built on ridiculously convenient twists but unless Geordi LaForge beams them out, they’re screwed. Good double switch on the Vice President killing off the President though.

24: Um, anyone notice that the terrorists were beaten 15 mins into the two hour finale? Yeah, it was great finally seeing Logan get his comeuppance but it was fairly obvious how that was going down. Great job though bringing back the Chinese problem from last season. Anyone else notice how by the 2^nd hour they pretty much gave up on the realtime format? Jack Bauer was on a Chinese freighter to Shang-hai after being beaten half to death about 2 minutes after he was kidnapped in the middle of a government operation.

The O.C.: They killed of Marissa. I don’t care. They crafted a well shot sequence tying back the burnt house from season one, even including the same song in the background but by a different person. I don’t care. Caitlin’s back permanently and Volchek is now a murderer who I’m sure will spend half the season running from Ryan’s vengeance. I don’t care. Are we seeing a picture here? This is going up against Grey’s Anatomy next season. See ya.

Greys Anatomy: Denny’s dead. I don’t care. Seriously though I never really saw what was so amazingly super wonderful about the guy. That arc ended exactly as it should so I applaud the writers for not coping out due to his popularity. And Izzy being out of the program? Yeah, she should be. No way in hell should she be a doctor after all that. Again, good job writers. It wasn’t the best finale ever (I know I should be caring about the triangle between Derek, Meredith and Chris O’Donnell [I don’t care what his character’s name is, he’s Chris “look where Batman and Robin got me” O’Donnell] but quite frankly, I don’t really like Meredith either.). But I sure enjoy this show more than the O.C. so it’ll have my spot Thursday next season. Plus the music is pretty good too. I still say it’s an hourlong, overly dramatic Scrubs clone though.

Scrubs: Um, how many pregnancies? Given that Elizabeth Banks is only on for a few episodes next season, I doubt the baby ends up being J.D.’s so was it really necessary to have that cliffhanger? In the end though this season has been one of the best and with the departure of Arrested Development, this show easily is the funniest show on television. If Donald Faison does not get an Emmy… well who am I kidding? He won’t. Sadly that will probably go to Sean Hayes. Look at it this way. Will & Grace is over! This will be their last Emmys!!!

Gilmore Girls: Well that was depressing as hell. I mean come on, did they really have to absolutely trash Luke’s character in order to screw up his relationship with Lorelai? It’ll be interesting to see where they go from here. Logan is back for all of next season so I don’t know how this whole Britain thing will work out. Without the Sherman-Palladinos next season, the writers better start praying they can turn this season into something great next season. I have no doubt the Sherman-Palladinos could have. Without them however…

Alias and Lost finales I’m catching tonight (yes, I know Alias was on Monday. I have it Tivoed). 4 hours of tv goodness.

To be perfectly honest so far the best season finale: Arrested Development. And that was way back in February. Granted it helped that was an excellently crafted series finale. But it was still so far the best.

News and notes:

My little sis (also known by some as EPrime) has graduated BC! So BC gets Condeleeza Rice and ND got me Dick Luger who just rehashed a UN speech? The hell?

Great great article here about emusic.com and how it is a profitable company with a good business model and doesn't have to DRM the crap out of the music it sells like iTunes does. I'm telling you, if you like the music I review on this site or just great non-mainstream music in general, try out this site. So much cheaper than iTunes, the ability to download a purchased song over and over again, and the ability to listen to your non-DRMed music anywhere and on any computer or mp3 player you want is definitely worth supporting.

X3 opens up this weekend. So far mixed reviews but it sounds like longtime fans (particularly those of the Phoenix Saga) are gonna be pissed.

Then again the Da Vinci code got a 22% Rotten Tomato rating and still raked in 77 mil.

Commentary for Ep 2 will be coming shortly. No, I haven’t forgotten about it.

Until next time:

“I’m now hornier than I have ever been and my husband is repulsed by me.”
“Listen, if you really need it that badly, I will suck it up and shut my eyes tight and then do you.”
“Thank you for the sacrifice.”
“It’s because I love you.”

I started an "I hate Cox" chat room. It didn't work out the way I planned. It's just me, two interns and 14,000 lesbians.

It’s a Mustard Twofer!

Ok, so I decided to post an update after the 2^nd half of the day brought several interesting updates.

First off, guess I was only partly right about Libby’s fate on Lost. She was still alive this episode… at least until the end. Supposedly they will be filling in her back story in other flashbacks posthumously (so we get to see her in the background of all of Hurley’s episodes?). I don’t know I buy the whole “we were always gonna get rid of her” schtick the producers are throwing out. I find it hard to believe in the coincidence that they’ve always been planning on killing off both the actresses who got DUI’s even though one of them had just started a storyline and had barely any of her past revealed. But who knows? Maybe I’m just that cynical… ok, I’m definitely that cynical.

So the huge news (and I’m still confused at this timing) is that Nintendo yesterday did indeed unveal SUPER SMASH BROS BRAWL!!! Check out the trailer here and prepare to drool. This game looks amazing. Hell, it even manages to give me a solid challenge to the “graphics” problem I was talking about yesterday. And new characters: Meta-Knight from the Kirby games, Wario, a new suit Samus and I-shit-you-not Solid effing Snake!!! Now that’s a way to win over fanboys (remember Metal Gear was originally an old school 8-bit Nintendo game). Holy crap! And that’s just a few of the new characters. But by breaking out Snake, Nintendo is hinting at more 3^rd party characters appearing *cough* Sonic *cough*. Not to mention the new main theme is written by Nobuo “Mr. Final Fantasy” Uematsu. I won’t lie, Nintendo may have just won me over completely. But we’ll see how things go.

Apparently Sony has been spending the last few days in damage control over their price. Their argument: Well, it’s gonna have a Blu-Ray player included which will make it the cheapest Blu-Ray players currently on the market. Yes, this is true. However, even though the current Blu-Ray players are over a grand right now, that sure as hell isn’t going to last. No way are people going to switch to next generation DVDs if they cheapest player they can get is a PS3 for $500! AND supposedly the $500 version of the PS3 won’t have an HDMI output meaning that you won’t be able to watch these super-awesome-high-def DVDs in the proper format to make it really worth the switch. So Sony, keep up the whining and watch as Nintendo and Microsoft take away your customers. I repeat: You putz!

Veronica Mars finale = Best. Finale. Ever! Ok, maybe not the best ever but damn, that was one helluva final episode. So many things getting wrapped up including major twists and turns on things you thought were long solved. Either way the 2^nd season has been friggin phenomenal and this show needs to be back next year. Hilarious pseudo-fourth wall break when Clarence Weidman is referred to as “CW”.

Until next time:

“Mrs. C! I trust you're well.”
“Well, if it isn't little Miss Teen Getaway. Your dad and I were just dealing with a little trouble.”
“Like Trouble, with a capital T, that rhymes with C, that stands for-”
“Veronica!”
“I was gonna say cute.”

Oh come on, Nate! You're the only guy in North America to have played this game and you still can't kill him?

-Zelda designer having trouble demo-ing the new game.

Mustard: It’s what’s for dinner.

So Nintendo had their big E3 conference yesterday. Yes, I still think the Wii is a terrible name. But damn if some of the things showed yesterday don’t have me a little excited about the new system’s possibilities.

The cool points:

Opening up the conference by showing a game where Shigeru Miyamoto uses the Wii controller to conduct a virtual orchestra in real time. I know this may be the 10 years of Orchestra in me but the fact that the orchestra in the game responds perfect to the conductor was pretty damn cool. Of course they were playing the theme from Zelda and that makes anything cooler.

The games announced for it: Mario Universe = awesome. The new Zelda game is gonna blow everyone away. Metroid Prime 3! Madden that will specifically make use of the new controller (imagine motioning a throw with the controller actually corresponding to your QB throwing in the game). A new Fire Emblem, a new Resident Evil, a new DUCK HUNT!!!! And the Red Steel game looked pretty sweet as you use the controller to perfectly control your sword.

Apparently the Wii will not have an “off” switch so much as a sleep mode where it can still be connected to the internet allowing game designers to upload update to your system as well as in games such as Animal Crossing your friends can leave your messages or visit you while you’re “out”.

The Wii Sport game while graphically deficient, looked pretty fun and definitely showed off the potential of things like a future Mario Tennis title.

The inclusion of a speaker on the controller allowing for a very cool “depth of sound” effect.

The not so cool:

First off, graphically, everything they showed looked like it could’ve been done on the Gamecube. Metroid Prime 3 honestly looks just like Metroid Prime 1 and 2. Zelda is technically a Gamecube game so I didn’t expect anything better, but Metroid is specifically for Wii. And the Wii Sports? WTF with those graphics? Yeah, I know Nintendo’s big point is that “graphics aren’t everything” but at least make it look like you’re trying. It’s not the Xbox360 but the Wii is at least supposed to be more powerful than the Cube so why the hell do the graphics on Wii Sports look like they could’ve been done on the N64? At least put in some effort here, Nintendo.

Where the hell was the new Smash Brothers game? And why nothing more than a few clips from the new Mario game?

No mention of how the Virtual Console will work where you’ll be able to download Nintendo back catalogue of games.

No price or date other than 4^th Quarter of this year. Look if Sony is gonna come out and shoot themselves in the foot by charging 600 eff-ing dollars for they’re new system, Nintendo should’ve come out saying hey, we’re only gonna charge $199 - $249. Lost opportunity on their part.

Overall:

I’m giving Nintendo props for it’s determination to pull in more non-gamers and to take the way games are played in a radically new direction. I really wished they had given more information on the system and shown off the Wii’s capabilities a little more but right now, they’ve got me intrigued.

Putz Patrol:

Way to go Sony. Your system will cost the gross annual income of some 3^rd word countries and your “innovative” controller with “tilt control” is a poor ripoff of Nintendo with very little practical use outside of maybe some driving games. But hey, you’ve got a lead in the video game market share so I’m sure you have nothing to worry about. You Putz.

Until next time:

“Alright people, listen up! We are a family and what do families do when one of their own is in trouble?”
“When my brother Barry came out of the closet my parents send him to hetero-camp.”
“Ok, families that aren't from Connecticut.”

They didn't have 'Say Anything' in Baghdad?

I feel the need, the need for Mustard.

One, two! Two mentions of EavesdropDC on Wonkette! Ah ah ah!

(wow, it must be tough for Sesame St writers to actually write the Count).

Adios Ana Lucia. No one will miss you. And don’t lie. You all hated her. Just cause she’s dead doesn’t mean we have to pretend we cared. But Lost just jumped into overdrive with its story development. Good for them. So a few thoughts from my end:

Michael – Ok, I’ve been pretty much guessing that the Others were going to flip him ever since he went missing. Afterall, the Others only harm the “bad people” and if you look at it, none of the main characters are really that decent people. The ones who are (Claire, Walt, etc) have been taken by them. So what if Michael found out all the bad stuff about his fellow castaways and decides to join the others? But now I’m not as sure that they flipped him as much as they might be blackmailing him with Walt. The way he looked when shooting Ana Lucia and Libby didn’t look like a man who really wanted to do it. Granted he didn’t actually mean to shoot Libby but still. I suppose there’s always the possibility that he did it to frame Henry (which he definitely will be doing) to solidify that they must march again the Others but why? Jack, Kate and Locke already agree that they should. So I’m going with blackmail for now.

Libby – She’s not dead just shot. One, next weeks preview has Kate saying “She’s dead” not “They’re dead”. Two, in the TVguide Ausiello interview with the Lost producers, both of them don’t mention Libby dying, just being shot. Several times in fact. But they do take about Ana Lucia’s death. And finally, what the hell would be the point of having Libby be at the mental hospital with Hurley (and having that ominous reveal of her during Hurley’s flashback) if you’re just gonna kill her off and not go anywhere with it? Lost writers aren’t that flaky. Hell, Ana Lucia’s death has been planned since last year. No, I’m gonna say Libby is very much alive and that super doc Jack will be able to save her.

Jack’s Father – this actor is busier than some of the series regulars! He’s just got connections to everyone. Let’s just pull the ultimate twist and have him be in charge of the Others and get it over with.

As for Alias – awesome seeing Gina Torres back. So can I ask a question? Why the hell are they going with the derivative, let’s-make-a-doppelganger-spy idea that EVERY spy show has done before. Christ people, I remember them using this idea on Get Smart 30 freaking years ago! Now if the plan had been to turn Gina Torres in to Don Adams, that would’ve been original.

News and Notes:

Good bye Rangers. It was nice having you back in the playoffs. Pity you didn’t stay long.

Wow, new Superman, Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and Casino Royale trailers up. Liking the look of Superman. I know Pirate is gonna rule. Casino Royale is a little meh. They are totally killing the book. Afterall apparently Americans know nothing of Baccarat (which actually is true) so we must turn the game into Poker. Give us some credit, we’re not going to see Bond play cards, we’re going because it’s Bond. But Daniel Craig looks like a good Bond. If they had just dyed his hair black he would’ve looked much more like the Connery Bond than anyone else to this point.

Just give John C. McGinley the Emmy already. You know he deserves it. He’s even doing the requisite dramatic acting in a comedy series that all comedy Emmys require.

Also for those playing the home game: Scrubs Season 3 – Out next Tuesday. Giggity.

Until next time:

“I'm having a weird pregnancy craving. Hey JD, if you go out would you get a me hot Italian sausage?”

“I got a hot Italian sausage right here. See, people think that I just luck into these situation but it is really a lot of hard work. You know what else is hard? Ok, I should go.”

AS SEEN ON WONKETTE

EAVESDROPDC



congrats guys

Super Cool Party People Bid You Super Cool Adieu!

Colonel Mustard in the Conservatory with the Lead Pipe!

I always mispronounced “lead” when I was little. It’s spelled the same as “lead dancer” and that just used to confused the living hell out of me. I also could never pronounce Johann of Johann Sebastian Bach. Stupid foreign names. Moving on…

So Nintendo has finally names its next system. From now on it is no longer the “Revolution”. It is now the Nintendo Wii (pronounced ‘we’). No seriously. It’s the Nintendo Wii. Here’s my favorite reaction to this so far: “Nintendo, You are joking, right??? Wii. Why not just call it the Nintendo WTF?” Honestly, it’s stupid. But then again I thought Xbox was also stupid (C’mon, it just screamed: Look at us! We’re cool! We’re using “X”!!! You know, like Xtreme!!!!) So Nintendo is not gonna win any fans with that name (can someone tell me what was wrong with the name “Revolution”?) but if the system turns out to be great, then who cares what the name is.

Yeah, it’s just starting to get on my nerves as I watch my Rangers just getting the ever-loving crap kicked out of them by the Devils. Hell, I’m starting to root for New Jersey at this point! They look great! The Rangers look like they the forgot how to play hockey!

However the Mets are still making me happy. Now if they can just win next week’s series versus the Braves I’ll be happy. The key is simple: DO NOT PITCH TO ANDRUW JONES!!! And where did that Xavier Nady come from? Damn!

So anyone else just waiting for the cross-over episode between Prison Break and 24? Seriously, in the past 2 weeks they’ve both suddenly brought out a behind-the-scenes shadow organization orchestrating all the events. Why not just slap ‘em together and we find out that “the company” on Prison Break is the same one as the organization that’s pulling Logan’s strings on 24 and being run by Dr. I-Really-Hate-Helicopters Romano from E.R.

Caught Thank You For Smoking last weekend. Might just be the best movie so far this year (yeah, I know, it’s only April). Absolutely hysterical. And despite what I initially had heard, it didn’t make me want to run on out and light up. That award still goes to Good Night and Good Luck. This movie just skewers everyone. Big Tobacco, Hollywood, the anti-smoking movement – nobody gets off free in this movie. Aaron Eckhart needs to be given a lot more lead roles. His voiceovers alone in the movie make it worth the price of admission. His scenes with the “MOD” (Merchants Of Death) squad (Maria Bello and David “Champ Kind” Koechner) had me rolling. Rob Lowe and Adam Brody are fantastic in small roles and William H. Macy continues to thrive in these smaller movies with an outstanding performance as the Senator from the Great State of Vermont. Go see this movie.

News and Notes:

Go Irish! Huge QB prospect Jimmy Clausen has committed to Notre Dame. They have someone to take over for Brady after next year.

EavesdropDC – Ok, this is getting so big that I’m moving it full time to the Links menu.

Still working on Ep II commentary. It’ll be up soon.

Ok, Gilmore Girls in one episode used both the term “frakking” and had Zach and Lanes wedding poster be a take on the cover of the White Stripes album “Get Behind Me Satan”. That’s just awesome.

Until next time:

“Secondly if Junior gets scared, he can always climb in the bed with us. That is what I did with my mom.”

“What do you mean "did"? JD, last Christmas, I walked in on Turk and his mom cuddling together in bed.”

“Turk gets defensive when it comes to his mother.”

“I think you are just jealous because you're mother is dead!”

“Whoa! We should probably take a break.”

Oh no. It's black Kojak and scary nurse-wife.

Mustard: is there anything it can’t do?

So the Rangers decided that they didn’t really want to win the division and so they tanked their last 5 games to blow the lead and end up with a friggin’ 6 seed in the playoffs again a hometown Devils team. Yeah, New Jersey isn’t exactly that much of a hometown advantage for New York but man oh man, talk about having no momentum going into the playoffs.

The Mets also had a nasty series with the Braves who once again proved that they can suck all year but if they play the Mets, they’re suddenly World Champion caliber. Seriously, back to back 3-hit games? Ouch. But congrats to Julie Franco who just became the oldest person ever to hit a homerun in the majors at 47 in what became the game-winning run against the Padres. And for the 3^rd year in a row, Kaz Matsui’s first at-bat was a homerun. Now if the Mets will please pay attention to Matsui’s historical record after his first at-bats, they’ll sit him the rest of the year.

So tragic news came today when it was announced that Gilmore Girls creator Amy Shermin-Palladino and her husband Dan won’t be coming back for the 7^th and possibly final season of the show. This is like Joss Whedon leaving any of his shows (and if you noticed how unfocused the first half of Buffy season 7 was when he was out working on Firefly, that’ll give you a clue of how negative an effect that could have). This show is seriously going to miss these two.

I’ve read that next season Josh Schwartz is going to “reboot” the O.C. and give it an overhaul by changing some recurring characters to full time and possibly killing off a major one. And honestly, I just don’t think I’ll care. I think the O.C. has gone terminal on me where once an episode Adam Brody gets to shine with one good line and the rest is just pointless. This is especially since I caught a couple “My Name is Earl” episodes and enjoyed them a helluva lot more. The one where Walt from Lost guest stars as a kid who Earl traumatized years ago by accidentally making him think he was the boogie man was hysterical. My dream is for Scrubs to get pulled back with that and the Office and then my Thursdays are going full time to NBC.

I started doing up the episode commentary on the strip (wow, long time since that linked appeared here). But I’ve got episode one done (just click on “turn on commentary” in any chapter and am working on doing episode two. Nothing too special, but if you want a little insight into my madness, this might help you out.

It’s amazing, I’d seen maybe 2 episode of Alias this year before catching the 2 hour return last Wednesday and I knew exactly what was going on. Based on what people have told me about past years, this just really proves this show is ready to head on out. But hey, last Wednesday’s episodes were enjoyable so I’ll watch to the end. It helps that next week Gina Torres (Zoe from Firefly) is back.

News and notes:

Eavesdropdc – because that could be you

Bizarre story going around that JJ Abrams will be directing a Star Trek movie about the early days of the original ST crew with Kirk and Spock and that Damon Lindelof (Lost) will be producing. If this actually happens, that’s one mighty interesting pedigree for a Trek movie.

Slow news week.

Until next time:

“You need to hear this. You need to know what to expect. It will start early.”

“What will?”

“The man's expectations. It starts early, at the wedding actually. At the wedding you are going to have to kiss him.”

“Mama!”

“Then you will be expected to share a bed tonight and when you are in that bed you have to do it with this boy. You're just going to have to do it. Hopefully if you’re lucky like me you'll only have to do it once.”

Mothers and daughters. They speak so fast but they speak so true.

I’m so mad at Lorelei right now I can’t even speak.

Scrubs: Best. Show. Ever.

As if I didn’t already love it enough for the Grey’s Anatomy comment, they pulled a Gilmore Girl reference in there. If there were any justice in the world this show would right now be the most popular show on Network television.

So the Mustard has returned. A week in Caribbean and I’m tan and wishing I was back there. Few notes:

Jamaica – Not all that impressed. Montego Bay had some good scenery but was no were near as nice as the other places.

Grand Cayman – Snorkeling with stingrays and moray eels over a coral reef. That was unbelievably cool. And that water. Talk about blue.

Cozumel, Mexico – Yeah, this was just one big party while sailing around on a catamaran. The snorkeling was somewhat disrupted by the sad fact that the last hurricane season decimated the reef there. I’m talking 90% of it was just gone.

Caught the Franz Ferdinand/ Death Cab for Cutie concert. Really bizarre pairing on paper that ended up just being an amazing concert. Franz Ferdinand was pretty much as you’d expect, just rocking the house down. Death Cab actually stuck to mostly older songs off the Transatlanticism album which was surprising though the opening song of Passenger Seat transitioning right into Different Name for Different Things was really cool. All in all if you can catch this concert, do it. Both these bands know how to put on a damn good show.

Almost caught up on everything from the week I was gone. Anyone else think that the sudden President-Logan-as-a-supervillian seems like a very bad twist? I mean it’s just so out of character for what he’s been the past 2 seasons. Now all of a sudden he’s gone from whiney little pissant to criminal mastermind. They better have a better explanation than what they’ve done so far.

Also just about caught up with Veronica Mars. Quite frankly it’s got the best storylines of any show this season that will be wrapped us this season (cause everyone knows Lost doesn’t really wrap up storylines). Also probably the most original death of a character that I’ve seen in a long time. Adios Thumper.

I actually caught the movie Slither in theaters a week back. No, it’s not a “good” movie but it’s a fun comedy/horror flick that I’d say definitely falls in to the same category as say Evil Dead II. And the cast is great. Michael Rooker. How far you’ve come since Cliffhanger.

News and Notes:

Eavesdropdc – in full swing and freaking hilarious.

Two weeks in a row with a Notre Dame reference on the Simpsons? Alright , what ND grad got on the writing staff and why haven’t they contacted me?

Wow, South Park absolutely tore Family Guy a new one last night. Plus adding Bart Simpson as Cartman’s co-conspirator was hilarious.

M-E-T-S Mets! Mets! Mets! 6-1 start! I’m so happy!

Rangers in the playoffs! Not sure how they managed that but I’ll take it.

Until next time:

“You know one of the reasons I divorced Perry was because of his last name.”

“ You don't like Cox?”

“Actually I love Cox.”

“Greatest conversation ever!”

“See, that's the problem.”

Good morning loyal subjects! Enjoy your day in Janitoria. Labor until you tire, and then labor some more!

Hi ho Mustard, away!

Can I just ask what the bloody hell is wrong with people in NYC where everyone was drinking Stella Artois on St. Patrick’s Day? I mean I don’t dislike the beer but I don’t think it’d make my top 10 beers and certainly not when there were a multitude of good Irish beers on tap. I mean come on, Stella?

But other than that bizarre aberration, New York was a good time. Had excellent seats to see “Wicked” which I thoroughly enjoyed and yes I’m determined to hunt down the book now. I feel bad for Erin who has read it haven’t to field all my questions of “did that happen in the book?”

Black 47… is there a better band to catch on March 17^th? Well probably but they were still darn fun.

So holy flurking schnit is my March Madness bracket totally shot to high hell. After last night I’m down to praying for UConn to run the table. Brilliant job of me to pick ‘Cuse to run to the finals. Momentum huh? Yep, I’m an idiot. But hey, all you Duke lovers got nothing anymore.

Shameless plug for www.emusic.com. If you want an iTunes for indie music, this is your poison. Great bands and it’s ¼ the price of iTunes. Plus you get 25 free songs for signing up. Yeah, the caveat is that you have to commit to at least $9.99 of music but that’s one album off iTunes and you get 4 times as much. It’s doesn’t have every artist. But if you’re a fan of any of the music on the O.C., Scrubs, Veronica Mars, Grey’s Anatomy I’d say you’ll find a good 75% of that music there. It’s nice to be able to greatly increase your music collection while still doing it legally.

If you haven’t seen V for Vendetta, go see it now. It’s the Batman Begins of this year. Dark, intelligent and fun. Natalie Portman gives her best performance, possibly ever (yeah, might actually be better than Garden State). And Hugo Weaving proves that Keanu really would have been completely useless in the Matrix movies if it wasn’t for him. Seriously, even with his face completely covered for the entire movie his acting is that good. And for all the political hullabaloo about this being an anti-Bush thing, it’s really not. It’s about a populace rebelling against a fascist state. Yes, there are definitely some jabs at the current administration but in actuality the source material was a commentary on Britain during the Thatcher regime. And I don’t recall hearing this much outcry when Good Night and Good Luck came out (and if you don’t think that had some commentary on the current US political situation you weren’t really paying much attention, were you?).

New and Notes:

www.eavesdropdc.com. It just keeps growing.

So after catching all up with Veronica Mars, I’ve forgotten to Tivo it 2 weeks in a row. D’oh!

Can I just tell you how glad I am that they moved Bones to Wednesdays at 8? Now I don’t have to flip the channels hoping something better than Freddie is on.

Prison Break and 24 back to back! Glaring… coincidence…overload! And it’s still the best 2 hours on TV. Until next year when Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars go back to back. Come on CW! Do it!!!

I haven’t caught an episode of South Park since maybe it’s first season but holy crap, did I laugh my farging ass off at the death of Chef. Don’t blame Chef, blame that fruity little club that scrambled his brains.

Until next time:

“Aw things were going so good for me and Stewie, but now he hates me again. Brian what should I do to win him back?”

“That depends. Do you want my advice or are you just asking random questions again?”

“What's a hypotenuse?”

I AM A MAN!!!! A MAN DOESN'T WEAR A PURSE!!!!

Mustard… It’s madness I tell you! Madness!

So the time has come once again for all good boys and girls to stop working and start filling out their March Madness brackets. My Final Four could be one of the most bizarre ones around. First of Gonzaga. Cause for some reason I just really like the Zags so what the hell. Next up: BC. Why? Very simple. Cause every since my sister starting attending there I have had the distinct impression that reality has decided to bend itself around them for the sole purpose of pissing me off. Seriously, every ND/BC football game since then has just turned out in the exact opposite outcome of what I want and BC continues to win in basketball as the Irish enjoy the NIT tournament (hey, they beat Vandy by 10 last night. Go Irish.). So what the hell? Instead of fighting it, I’m going with it. Hell, they almost topped Duke for the ACC title. And my championship game? UConn vs. Syracuse. Cause I’m a dirty dirty Big East whore. Always have been even prior to ND. Syracuse is on a helluva role after that Big East tourney so I’m throwing my weight behind that momentum to run through Duke until they run into the Huskie wall and UConn takes home the title. Odds of that Final Four happening? Eh, why not?

You want a great new band to get behind? Try The Subways. Caught them here in DC a few weeks back and holy crap are they amazing live. They have a great alt-punk sound. I highly recommend picking up their Young for Eternity album. Rock & Roll Queen is phenomenal and the whole album will just get your blood pumping. But as good as the album is, they’re just that much better live.

Caught the first episode of HBO’s tons of polygamy fun, Big Love. Must say, I’m really liked the pilot. They took what would normally be a relentlessly stupid gimmick on a modern sitcom, played it completely straight and built a pretty darn captivating show that I can definitely see myself checking out (yay, for on HBO on demand. As if my Sunday TV schedule isn’t crowded enough.).

News and Notes:

Headed on up to NYC this weekend for St. Patrick’s Day (will actually be catching Black 47 that night. Awesome). Also have tix to Wicked which I’m looking forward to seeing. Will probably need to read the book right after watching it though. Stupid obsessive compulsiveness.

eavesdropdc.blogspot.com – it just keeps getting bigger

Holy Veronica Mars cameos, Batman! First Teddy Dunn (Duncan) is on Gray's Anatomy then Tina Majorino (Mac) is on Big Love. It’s like after Buffy and Angel went off the air and all those alums started showing up randomly.

Until next time:

“Clearly I'm pushing some buttons here.”

“You couldn't push my buttons if you tried, in fact I have no buttons- please think of me as buttonless. All smooth, like G.I. Joe's nether regions, and by the by, this image has been brought to you by my son Jack who has been yanking the pants off of his toy soldiers and leaving them in provocative positions on my nightstand. It is just disturbing enough that, leaving the house, I'm cranky and less able to suffer fools, which brings me back to you, the fool. I'm done suffering you so go now, go, go before you can write a book entitled 'Help A Large Doctor is Beating My Ass “colon” The Lester Hedrick Story'”

“That was a mouthful. Anyway, if you need to talk just give me a call.”

“He seems strangely impervious to my threats. That annoys me.”

I'm gonna double-kill you! Then I'll bury you in a shallow grave! Then I'll dig you up and kill you again! THAT'S the beauty of a shallow grave!

Hello Mustard, Come into my life…

Little bastardized Super Furry Animals for you there. Hope you enjoyed it.

Alright, so we are done with the Oscars and for those of you keeping score at home: Martin Scorsese, 0 Oscars. 3-6 Mafia: 1. I love Jon Stewart. Best Oscar host in years. That ad-lib alone should get him back next year. So what did I think of the awards? Unless you count Crash as the HUGE SURPRISING UPSET that about 50% of the population were predicting, they pretty much went by the book. Also did anyone else notice they got the entire frat pack up there to present with lone exception of Vince Vaughn? Ben Stiller is a very strange man.

So, the Oscars are over which means it’s time to look forward to the summer movie season and so I proudly present the return of:

Jeff’s Top 5 Most Anticipated Summer Movies:
(in order of release)

V for Vendetta – So how take make me really look forward to a movie: Take a great Alan Moore graphic novel. Add the in Matrix’s Wachowski brothers (doesn’t matter what you thought of the sequels, they looked damned great). Cast Natalie Portman and Hugo Weaving. Commence drooling.

X-men 3 – So yeah, instead of Bryan Singer, we ended up with Brett Ratner. Yep, that’s a rather large step down. And there has been some questionable pictures sent out (with Colossus looking like a Halloween costume and Vinnie Jones looking a little stupid in that muscle suit. The jury is still out on the look of Beast). So why go see it? Great casting (Kelsey Grammar is perfect for Beast and Vinnie Jones, despite looking like crap, is the perfect attitude for Juggarnaut). And it’s still got Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan. As long as those two are still in an X-men movie, I’ll go see it. (PS, yes, for those of you in the know or who paid attention to the trailers, I get the irony of that comment).

Cars – Yeah, the first trailer didn’t do much for me but I think that’s really just Pixar building a slow buzz. I think the final one will be much better and if nothing else, it’s Pixar. They haven’t missed yet and until they do, I’ll go to anything they put out.

Superman Returns – Bryan Singer doing Superman? Yep, I’m there. So Brandon Routh isn’t Christopher Reeves. No one will ever top Christopher Reeves. I’ve come to grips with that. But come on, it’s Bryan Singer doing Superman. That’s gonna be great.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest – Because the first movie was the biggest surprise I’ve had at a movie in a very long time. I mean I went into it with low expectations but damn, was I blown away. Now my expectations for this are a helluva lot higher but Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow is always entertaining and I love the look of the film. By the way, great job for spoiling the ending of the movie Wikipedia. Then again, I guess it’s tough to give the synopsis of the 3^rd one without spoiling this one.

Honorable mentions:

Mission Impossible III: Why? Cause it’s JJ Abrams and Philip Seymour Hoffman. I don’t care of Tom Cruise dies 2 minutes into the movie. In fact, that may help a little.

A Scanner Darkly: Why? Richard Linkletter doing an “animated movie” (which if you’ve seen Waking Life, you know what that entails) based on a Philip K Dick movie equals quality sci-fi entertainment.

Da Vinci Code: Why? Cause the cast astounds me even if Tom Hanks is horribly cast and needs to cut that hair. It doesn’t make him look younger, just really really creepy.

News and Notes:

Oh my God! You killed Edgar! You bastards! So I’m a little pissed at 24. Of all the people to kill off, Edgar? Not to mention oh look, Tony is back on his feet a whole 7 hours after being BLOWN UP! So why do I keep watching this show? Simple: They brought in Peter Effing-“Robocop” Weller!!! That right there is enough to make me watch it this year AND next. In fact I think next year should be all about him. I mean come on, Peter Weller or Kiefer Sutherland? Is it even a question?

A new book is coming out alleging Barry Bonds took performance enhancing drugs. Ya think?

http://eavesdropdc.blogspot.com – it’s gonna be huge.

Until next time:

“JD, I really don't wanna do this. Can't we just go home, and put on our PJs and watch "Grey's Anatomy"?”

“Oh, I do love that show. It's like they've been watching our lives and just put it on TV.”

When a woman gives birth to a crack baby you don't buy her a puppy!

Mustard: You’ve had it coming.

Ok, so another week another delightful entry. It warms my heart.

The Strip is done. Holy closure, Batman! Yes, almost exactly a year and a half after first doing a goofy panel in MSpaint one boring night, I’ve completed my opus #1. Ok, maybe it’s opus #2 if you count the earlier 5-man sprite comic I attempted way way back when which only lasted like 6 panels. But I don’t know what to feel. Yeah, a little sad that it’s done. On the other hand the prospect of not having to devote such a large amount of free time to it anymore is a definite plus. But either way, I’m happy how it turned out. Thanks to all my regular readers who encouraged me to keep it up as I won’t lie, I never really planned on keeping it up through 6 full episodes.

So what’s next for me? Well, I don’t really know. I’ll probably go back through and clean up a few things such as misspellings at some point. Also the idea of doing a commentary kind of intrigues me and wouldn’t take nearly as much time. Plus I might throw up a section for some of the “special panels” I did for things such a holidays and birthdays not to mention there’s the possibility of putting up the aforementioned “lost 5-man” strip. And no, I’m not going to resume that comic. It’s dead. I was nice while it lasted but I’m not starting it up again.

As for the possibility of a new comic? Who knows. I’ll admit that, while it did take up a huge amount of time, it was pretty fun making this one. And yes, I’ve had ideas for follow-ups. But nothing is happening with that anytime soon. I just want to relax. And as many people have pointed to me that I could probably have done something commercial with the comic had I not used sprites. Course the problem is that I have no artistic ability of my own, so it would be difficult for me to use anything but sprites. So who knows? For now I’ll sit back and enjoy the fact that I did manage to take a project like this and follow through with it all the way to the end. Thanks for reading.

So Oscars are coming up this Sunday. Should be an interesting night if for no other reason than Jon Stewart is hosting. Man, and they thought Chris Rock was irreverent? Anyways, I think I’ve failed on the mission to see all Best Picture Nominees. Just started too late this year and didn’t see any before the noms went out. But I did see both Capote and Good Night and Good Luck. I really liked Capote but I thought the performances (which were outstanding and Philip Seymour Hoffman should easily get the award) were better than the movie itself. Good Night and Good Luck I also really enjoyed with tight performances though a pointless subplot involving Robert Downey Jr and Patricia Clarkson’s hidden marriage kind of took you out of the main story. So we’ll see how this night goes off. But both those movies really aren’t in the running as all pre-Oscar buzz has essentially narrowed it down to Brokeback Mountain and Crash. So we shall see.

Oh and if you haven’t seen the Brokeback to the Future spoof, you’re missing out.

News and Notes:

Do you like to laugh at the stupid/silly/crazy things people say? Do you sometimes find yourself heading to Crowley’s blog to just cheer yourself up with a good laugh? Well then head on over to eavesdropdc.blogspot.org for some fun times at the expense of the residents of DC. Goods times or your money back guaranteed (disclaimer: moneyback guaranteed not valid).

Entourage coming back in June. Wait a minute, that’s 3 months away! Damn you HBO!

How bout them US and Canadian hockey teams? Oh, wait…

Until next time:

“Or, Mel Brooks is on and he is so funny, and you think, 'What a wonderful world we live in that there's a Mel Brooks to go to sleep to.”

”Mel Brooks is never on Charlie Rose, and when he is on he's talking about Nazis and then you go to sleep and you dream about Nazis and they all look like Nathan Lane and you're creeped out for days.”

Tomorrow night, Pinky, we will come up with a new plan. One that isn't foiled by the atomic weight of gold.

Holy schnike it’s a double dip of the Mustard!

Yes, folks I decided after not updating at all last week and possibly upsetting you by only posting a music review piece and insulting Madonna, that I’d toss in a few random thoughts your way.

First off if Arrested Development is finally over (it’s gone from Fox and probably 50/50 on whether it goes somewhere else), then by God it went out in such a glorious fashion it puts most other series finales to utter shame (yes, I speak of you Friends! And you Seinfeld!). The finale was just an ode to everything that is genius about the show without having to resort to a dumbass clipshow (I speak of you yet again Seinfeld!). Hell I’d rank it right up there as one of my top series finales, better than both Buffy (cause that series just ended with everything resolving in the last 5 minutes of the episode) and Angel (cause that wasn’t originally written as a finale. Damn you WB!). There are not many shows I’d say this but if it doesn’t come back I will be more than content with having those 3 seasons on DVD.

Scrubs has officially moved up to the top spot of my must watch list. Yeah, I kinda wish they had aired it starting the beginning of the year but hey, I haven’t minded a full hour every week. Any show that can make my wife start crying cause she’s laughing so hard by using Bel Biv Devoe’s Poison by automatically earns favorite show status. Donald Faison has just reached all new heights of comedic brilliance. Also very excellent for Scrubs’ fans is that, since his new show just got axed, Tom Cavanaugh is coming back this season as JD’s brother.

Never has a show disappointed me by blowing an enticing idea like Grey’s Anatomy did with the 2^nd part of its Super Bowl episode. I mean what the hell happened? Did the first writer suffer some horrifying injury causing them to be replaced with the writing staff of the O.C.? It was just so gimmicky and clichéd I was just expecting Oliver to walk in, miraculously disarm the bomb and start competing with McDreamy for Meredith’s affections.

Am I the only one who doesn’t like Chloe on 24? The character is supposed to be comic relief (I guess) but I feel like she’s only there to act annoyed in a way eerily reminiscent of Napolean Dynamite. “Just do what I tell you Edgar! Gosh!”

Veronica Mars has actually managed to surpass last year which is no small feat considering they had to slash their budget and cut way back on a lot of their actor’s screentime. But damn if they don’t currently have the best regular guest list on TV right now.

As for the strip, I’m making a bold prediction right now that it will be finished up by the end of next weekend. Now to see if I can follow up on this drunken boast…

Best Picture Nominee Count:

1/5

Rank:

1. Good night and Good Luck

Yet to see:

1. Brokeback Mountain
2. Capote
3. Crash
4. Munich

News and Notes:

Is it just me or are the Olympics barely interesting to watch anymore? Yeah, it was funny as hell when the American snowboarder tried to pull a showboating move off while way in the lead of her race and ended up crashing, but seriously who cares all that much about the double luge?

[Insert Dick Cheney Hunting Accident Joke Here]

Will something just friggin’ happen on Lost already?

Awww, Sammy Sosa might retire? I think I’ll cry about the injustice done to him when the best offer he could get was a half a mil offer from the Nats (Thank God he didn’t actually accept. It was bad enough having him 30 miles away in Baltimore).

Until next time:

“Pinky, are you pondering what I’m pondering?”

“I think so Brain, but Zero Mostel time anything will still give you Zero Mostel.”

I think there's a tchotchke in my bum.

Wow! I had mustard?!

Welcome back to that blog that is so near and dear to my heart that I haven’t updated it in 2 weeks. Hey, I haven’t updated the strip in that long either. I’ve discovered that I like to sleep.

So I’ve noticed that 1) the Grammy’s sucked…the 10 minutes I saw of it at least. Will someone please tell Madonna to go away. No, seriously, I want her gone. And this time kissing Britney Spears or doing a James Bond movie isn’t gonna help her back. 2) I haven’t done really any music reviews in a while and considering how much I’ve added to my collection I figured it’s about time so….

MUSIC YOU SHOULD REALLY REALLY BY LISTENING TO (tournament edition):

Electric President – Electric President

I’m kinda hooked on this album lately. It’s the closest thing to a new Postal Service album you’re going to get until the current Death Cab run slows down and Ben Gibbard finds himself with more free time. Expect this to never happen. So until pigs fly and Mr. Burns writes that check to the Springfield Orphanage, check out these guys. Good Morning, Hypocrite is a great way to kick things off building slowly to a smooth string infused finish. Insomnia is right now at the top of my favorite songs list, reminding me slightly of Elliot Smith lyrics set to a Postal Service beat. We Were Never Built to Last has a great frenetic beat while the lyrics and wailing guitar intertwine themselves as the song goes on. Seriously, only one other album is getting more playing time on the ol’ iPod right now and that would be…

The New Pornographers – Twin Cinema

Yeah, if I’m kinda hooked on Electric President, I’m full on, blown away by this album. The opening number Twin Cinema is just full on great rock n’ roll. Sing Me Spanish Techno has a great rocking beat to it throughout the verses before pulling hitting a great falsetto chorus. Streets Of Fire brings things way down for a fantastic acoustic number. But if you want the stand out number check out Bleeding Heart Show and I dare you to not have that ending refrain rolling through your brain for the next few hours. It’s just that gosh darn good.

Sufjan Stevens – Illinois

So full on rock isn’t on your plate today and you feel like something a little more mellow, possibily with without a doubt the most original track names of all time? Try out this one. The opening number, Concerning the UFO sighting Near Highland, Illinois is a gorgeous simple piano piece leading directly into the chorus infused, overture of The Black Hawk War… (seriously the title is just too long to write) which flows into what I have to label the opening number of Come On! Feel the Illinoise! as you can almost see the chorus being performed on stage or in a musical to set the scene of the rest of the album. John Wayne Gacy, Jr.‘s simple, single guitar acoustic sound is just beautiful, so much so that it took me almost two listens before I realized this song was actually about the serial killer. But the award for greatest song title ever has to go to They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From the Dead!! Ahhhh! which has a great marching beat with some wicked violins and chanting chorus invoking an old horror movie score.

Spoon – Gimme Fiction

While being a complete alt-rock album, you sure can see a lot of throw backs in this album to classic rock pioneers. The Beast and Dragon Adored (number 3 on my top singles list after Insomnia and Bleeding Hearts Show above) is a brooding, slow burn number but tell me you can’t hear a little John Lennon in the chorus or maybe a little Bob Dylan influence in the chorus of another great number, The Two Sides of Monsieur Valentine. And there’s definitely a Beatles twinge in the lighter rock number of Sister Jack.

Flaming Lips – Ego Tripping at the Gate of Hell [EP]

Ok, so this isn’t new and Yoshimi Battle the Pink Robots came out a while back but in anticipation of their new album coming out in April try out this EP. Rather than just giving you tracks from the larger album, this EP gives you 4 non-album tracks and 3 remixes. Seeing as how we’ve been referencing them so much today let’s start off with the Postal Service remix of Do You Realize??. The remix brings down the music to it’s basic elements, cutting back at just the right time to emphasize the strength of the lyrics. Assasination of the Sun and Sunship Balloons continue the trippy, light theme of the main album. My only real complaint with the album is the back to back remixes of Ego Tripping. It’s a great song and both mixes are excellent but being consecutive makes it too repetitive and I often find myself skipping the 2^nd just cause I’ve already heard the song. But I do recommend coming back and listening to both as they’re worth it.

Alright, so that’s a helluva lot of music thrown at you. All of which should be in your collection. So go try it out. There’s a lot of great stuff out there which you’re not gonna hear on the radio nor see on VH1’s top 20. And since MTV doesn’t do the music thing anymore, you’re better off just not going there. And there’s a lot of new stuff coming out. Josh Radin just put out a new album and Cary Brothers has a new EP. Rhett Miller has a new album out in a few weeks. And by the end of the year we should have some new stuff from Bloc Party, Guster, the Killers, Outkast, Travis, Rooney, hopefully a new Thrills and finally the new Shins album.

Until next time:

“Don't worry about it, baby. We'll just keep trying. Remember that magazine I read about how important it is for the man to have a high-protein diet?”

“Turk, for the last time, you are not eating ribs while we do it.”

“You don't let me have no fun.”