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In less than 48 hours...

...we'll all be watching Lost. Well, I will and I'm sure some other people will be joining me at the edges of our proverbial seats. Here are 48 questions to ponder until then thanks to the Los Angeles Times.

This Is the Day

Here's the video for The The's "This Is the Day." You may have heard it (or is it a new version of it?) in an M&Ms commercial and I think in a Dockers commercial too. It's always been a favorite of mine. I can see why they used it too, it's catchy as hell and has great lyrics. The song is from their album "Soul Mining." Other great albums by The The are "Infected," "Mind Bomb" and "Dusk."

The Groove Tube

The Groove Tube is a 1974 movie that is a parody of television featuring commercials, news, kids shows (featuring the great Richard Belzer as a Bozo style clown reading 19th century erotica during "make-believe time" when all the big people have to leave the room) and other television staples. Here are a couple of clips from it. The first is a cooking demonstration for "Fourth of July Heritage Loaf" using, among other ingredients, Kramp Easy Lube Brand vegetable Shortening. MMM-MMMM!
The second is footage of the Watergate Hearings featuring the Clark Terry classic, "Mumbles."
Enjoy!

Django!

I was pretty busy yesterday and I missed 's Django Reinhardt's birthday. Shame on me and damn my eyes!
Here's some audio/video goodness:

Oscar Noms

There Will Be Blood and No Country For Old Men lead the way with eight each.
(link)

Star Trek

I wouldn't call myself a Trekkie or a Trekker but I have to admit that I like Star Trek movies and the TV shows too. I am also a big fan of J.J. Abrams who created Alias and is one of the minds behind Lost and Cloverfield (a movie that I must see soon.) I even think that his Mission: Impossible sequel was great. So when I heard he was going to revive the Star Trek franchise, I started to get excited. Here are some pictures of the cast (and one of the Enterprise) of the new movie, which is slated to come out in December.
And here is the teaser trailer for the movie:

A little credit card humor

I was having a conversation with this guy at work last night about signing credit cards and credit card slips and the danger of identity theft. It made me remember a blog I read a couple of years ago that is kind of about the same thing only funny.
(link)

RIP Johnny Podres

Pitched the Brooklyn Dodgers to their only World Series title.
(link)

Re-Issue! Re-Package! Re-Package!

Morrissey has a new greatest hits package coming out Feb 11 in the UK and eventually here in the States too. Entitled "Morrissey's Greatest Hits," it contains two (2!) new songs and a limited special edition of the album also comes with a bonus "Live at the Holllywood Bowl" CD.

To commemorate the upcoming occasion here is Morrissey performing The Smiths' "Paint a Vulgar Picture." Extra track and a tacky badge, indeed.

Zodiac

I don't buy a lot of DVDs anymore because a. they are kind of expensive b. I'm not a big repeat movie viewer, at least not enough to warrant actually owning many movies and c. if I really want to see a movie I can just get it from Netflix (never Blockbuster.) Once in a while however, a movie is released that bears repeat viewing. Zodiac is one such movie. If this movie comes out on DVD with lots of cool features, good commentary and maybe even some extra footage I say buy it, at least to myself. What I am getting at is the Zodiac Directors Cut Special Edition was released today. I plan on picking it up very soon.
I'm not sure if this footage is on the DVD but suffice to say the first time I saw it my mind was blown (I think you have to see the movie first to appreciate how cool this video is so if you haven't seen the movie, don't watch the video.)

Sing us a song you're the piano man...

A little late for a holiday themed post but whatever.

Some Andy Kaufman videos

Cool Bugs Bunny NPR story

The title kind of says it all. Here's the article.

More With Less

The best television show ever ("The Wire," as if you didn't know) made its fifth and final broadcast season premiere last night. It was good to see many of my favorite characters again. The cold open, with Bunk, Landsman and some of the other homicide detectives tricking a confession out of a couple of perps was hilarious although it apparently was done before on David Simon's previous show "Homicide: Life on the Streets." It seems like the more things change in Baltimore, the more they stay the same, McNulty at least as the episode begins, is back where he can make a change with the major crimes unit but he seems intent on destroying the personal happiness he was able to achieve with Beadie last season and by the end of this episode, major crimes is all but shut down and McNulty is back in homicide.
I thought it was darkly humorous that one of the first things we hear from Mayor Carcetti is a gripe about crime stats being too high when just last season (a year ago in The Wire world) he assured Daniels and the rest of the police that there would be no more focusing on stats but instead the focus would be on major, high-value arrests. Apparently Rawls and Burrell didn't take long to bring him to the dark side. The mayor has also broken his promise for across the board raises for Baltimore City Police. This is causing major morale problems throughout the department.
Speaking of the dark side, Herc, who was drummed out of the Baltimore police last season is now working for scumbag lawyer, Maurice Levy.
Bubbles AKA Reginald Cousins is living in his sister's basement and has a job selling newspapers on the street to people as they drive by. He is clean but is also still reeling from inadvertently causing the death of his friend Sherrod.
Two of last season's corner kids are back, Micheal who now has his own corner and Dukie who works the corner for him somewhat ineffectively. It remains to be seen whether we will see Randy or Namon or for that matter Bunny, Prez or Cutty at all this season.
The character who is sure to be back is of course everyone's favorite gay, drug dealer robbing bad ass, Omar. Not sure when he'll be back but I'm betting sooner rather than later.
Each season of The Wire expands its focus to add another aspect to the big story, in season two the docks become part of the story, season three features politics and season four we got to see what is wrong in urban schools, this season the media and more specifically they dying print media give us yet another perspective on the causes and results of modern urban decay that The Wire is really about.
I do have to say that I was a little disappointed in this episode. I don't know if it was because my expectations were so high (and they were sky high) or if it was because there seemed to be lots of exposition which of course is nesecary for the first episode. Who am I to criticize how these always brilliant writers work?

They're Back

Last week, the network late night talk show hosts made their return, Leno, O'Brien and Kimmel without writers and monologues and Letterman and Ferguson with a separate negotiated contract. Tonight marks the return of John Stewart's Daily Show and Steven Colbert's Colbert Report and Friday Bill Maher's "Real Time" makes its return. Should be interesting.

Start of Something Good

NBC is calling the Iowa Democratic Caucus for Obama with Clinton and Edwards in a statistical dead heat. I am actually excited for this campaign. On the Republican side, Huckabee is the projected winner followed by Romney in second and Thompson coming in third.

Watch the skies

Watch them early Friday morning depending on where you live (and depending on the weather) to check out one of the best meteor showers of the year, the Quantridid meteor shower to be exact.

I can't believe that this moronic garbage still goes on

Actually I can. Click on the link to read about an attempt to ban John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men from a school library in Virginia.

This is the kind of crap that makes me embarrassed to be an American.

More children's shows and rock stars

Happy New Year!!