A Random Pop Culture List

The Writers Guild of America has compiled their list of the 101 Greatest Screenplays (as voted by their membership of film and television writers.) Woody Allen, Francis Ford Coppola, and Billy Wilder each have four efforts on the overall list; Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), John Huston (The Maltese Falcon), and William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) each have three screenplays on the list.

Their top 10 selections (all filled with wonderful, vivid and memorable, writing) are:

1) Casablanca written by Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, and Howard Koch (based on the play Everybody Comes to Rick’s by Murray Burnett & Joan Alison)

2) The Godfather by Mario Puzo & Francis Ford Coppola (based on Puzo’s novel)

3) Chinatown by Robert Towne

4) Citizen Kane by Howard Mankiewicz & Orson Welles

5) All About Eve by Joseph L. Mankiewicz (based on the short story and radio play The Wisdom of Eve by Mary Orr)

6) Annie Hall by Woody Allen & Marshall Brickman

7) Sunset Boulevard by Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder, and D.M. Marshman, Jr.

8) Network by Paddy Chayefsky

9) Some Like it Hot by Billy Wilder & I.A.L. Diamond (based on the German film Fanfare of Love written by Robert Thoeren & M. Logan)

10) The Godfather, Part 2 by Puzo & Coppola (based on Puzo’s novel The Godfather)

Other screenplays on the list include: Dr. Strangelove, Fargo, The Usual Suspects, The Graduate, Do the Right Thing, Star Wars, 8 ½, Goodfellas, The Philadelphia Story, The Sixth Sense, High Noon, and Momento.

Disney to Offer 4 ABC shows free on the Internet

Disney has announced that they will be offering episodes of four of their ABC shows free on the internet in an experimental 2-month trial program during May and June. The trial will include episodes of the shows Lost, Desperate Housewives, and Commander-in-Chief (all available starting the day after they are broadcast on the network) as well as the entire current season of Alias.

Viewers will be able to pause and rewind the shows and to skip between “chapters” but they won’t be able to skip ads (Universal Pictures, Proctor & Gamble, Ford and AT&T are among the advertisers signed up for the trial) due to technical embedding (watching commercials is the trade-off for free downloads it seems.)

Thunderbird

I’m more than a little bit biased when it comes to Cassandra Wilson…I make no bones about that (see here for more about that.)

That disclaimer aside, I have no problem with proclaiming that Thunderbird is a stunner from start to finish. As always, the amazing Ms. Wilson defies being easily categorized; this disc finds her offering up a tasty, intoxicating gumbo of swampy delta blues, jazz, rock, pop, funk, and Americana to wondrous effect with her sensuously husky voice and her ability to find unique colors in songs both new and old as the vital ingredients holding it all together.

T-Bone Burnett, the Grammy winning producer of (among many other things) the glorious Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, helms this disc bringing his rich, authentic sonic palette to the party on a collection of original songs and, as always, surprising and delightful covers (among them a wistful take on Jakob Dylan’s “Closer to You”, a mournful then swaggering romp through Blind Lemon Jefferson’s “Easy Rider”, and a spare, haunting version of the cowboy classic “Red River Valley”.)

Thunderbird is one of those CDs that grabs you on the first listen and then continues to reward the listener with each and every subsequent listen.

A Random Pop Culture List

CMT’s Top 10 Greatest "Done Me Wrong" Songs

1. “Your Cheatin’ Heart” Hank Williams


2. “Jolene” Dolly Parton


3. “Fist City” Loretta Lynn


4. “How Do You Like Me Now?” Toby Keith


5. “Harper Valley P.T.A.” Jeannie C. Reilly


6. “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town” Kenny Rogers


7. “Seven Year Ache” Rosanne Cash


8. “Here’s a Quarter (Call Someone Who Cares)” Travis Tritt


9. “Independence Day” Martina McBride


10. “(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song” B.J. Thomas

Nothing encapsulates the down home blues quite like a good old fashioned country song :-) Hank Williams at the top was a no-brainer, of course.

Katie Couric

After 15 years of being so delightfully (or, perhaps depending on your mood, insufferably) perky early in the morning on NBC’s Today Show, Katie Couric (seen above with co-anchor Matt Lauer) is going to be able to sleep in by jumping over to CBS to become the first woman to anchor a network news show solo (the less we remember the disastrous stint Connie Chung spent co-anchoring with Dan Rather the better) when she takes over the CBS Evening News later this year. Couric will also be managing editor of the show as well as become a contributor to the venerable 60 Minutes.

Couric’s stint on Today, which ends in May, is the longest of any anchor in the show’s 50+ year history.

Reports have it that Couric turned down more money (perhaps as much as $5 Million a year) offered by NBC in order to take on the challenge at CBS (where the news show has been trailing the other networks’ evening news shows for years.)

Bob Schieffer, moderator of Face the Nation, has been filling the anchor chair since Dan Rather stepped down a year or so ago.

NBC is apparently trying to raid ABC’s roster to replace Couric on the morning show as there are reports that they are negotiating to lure Meredith Viera from The View (how will she ever tear herself away from Star Jones and Joy Behar???) to co-host Today. (Failing that, NBC Nightly News substitute anchor Campbell Brown and Today Show news reader (and Dateline co-host) Ann Curry are among the in-house ladies at NBC who are being considered for the job.)

Movie Downloads

Five Hollywood studios are joining the digital revolution as they start selling digital downloads of movies for the first time. Hits like King Kong and Brokeback Mountain are among the titles that are available to be bought and downloaded to computers.

Movielink…a site co-owned by Sony, Warner Brothers, MGM, Universal, and 20^th Century Fox…will make some releases available at the same time the movies go on sale on DVD and others will be available for download sale within 45 days of DVD release. (FYI: the Movielink site does not support the Firefox or Netscape browsers.)

Recent releases will be sold for $20-$30 and older movies will be available for download for $10-$20. (These prices seem a bit high given discounts available for DVDs at places like Amazon.com but perhaps a lot of people will be willing to pay those prices in order to have immediate access to movies. We shall see.)

Customers will not be able to burn the movies onto discs to be played on DVDs but they will be able to be stored on computers indefinitely. The movies will also be able to be transferred to two other computers. (Transfers of movies to handheld devices are not available yet but that capability is in the offing.)

Sony and Lionsgate will also be selling movie downloads through another site, CinemaNow (which appears to accessible to Firefox and Netscape as well as Internet Explorer.)

Of the major studios only Disney is shying away from digital downloads of their films for the time being. This is likely to change though.

Personally I’m not that excited about watching movies on my computer but I have to give the major studios credit for, however reluctantly, acknowledging that the ways movies are being viewed, rented, and purchased are indeed changing.

Quote of the Week

"I'm so over me."
Blow Out's Jonathan Antin

Welcome to the club, "bro". We have "So Over Jonathan" t-shirts for sale at all the meetings. :-)

Pop Culture News and Notes

American Idol’s Little Miss Sunshine will be gushing, dancing, poking Simon Cowell, and babbling incoherently on air for at least 3 more years as Paula Abdul has signed a contract extension with the show (I guess this shoots down the internet rumor that the producers were thinking about dumping the former pop star and bringing on someone like Britney Spears or Jessica Simpson to take her seat at the judges’ table.)

* * *

Academy Award winners Three 6 Mafia have been working with the annoyingly ubiquitous Paris Hilton on her upcoming CD. (Man, I was feeling you guys…”It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp” is one of the coolest Oscar-winning songs ever [alongside “Lose Yourself” and “Theme from Shaft” among a very few others]…but I’m not feeling this even a little bit. Couldn’t you fellas have waited for Lil’ Kim to get out of jail instead??)

* * *

Prince nails the first #1 debut of his long career this week as his new 3121 disc tops the Billboard chart (with 183,000 copies sold during its first week on sale.) This is only the 4th Prince album to top Billboard’s Album chart (following 1984’s Purple Rain, 1985’s Around the World in a Day, and 1989’s Batman soundtrack.)

A Random Pop Culture List

FHM’s Top 10 Sexiest Women in the World 2006

1. Scarlett Johansson



2. Angelina Jolie



3. Jessica Alba



4. Jessica Simpson



5. Keira Knightley



6. Halle Berry



7. Jenny McCarthy



8. Maria Sharapova



9. Carmen Electra



10. Teri Hatcher

As voted by the readers of FHM (For Him Magazine.)

I'm not sure if I've ever read an issue of FHM so I'm not sure what the readership is exactly but judging by their picks it's a pretty sure thing that they're predominantly young (though Ms. Hatcher did make the list as someone who is not twenty-something) and they spend a fair amount of time watching movies and TV.

Scarlett Johansson was apparently ranked #9 in last year's poll but I'm not sure what she did that had her vault to the top this year (Ms. Jolie...who has been relatively camera-shy since she's been carrying the golden Pitt-Jolie child...was last year's #1.)

A Random Pop Culture List

Entertainment Weekly’s Top 10 TV Dramas

1. 24


2. The Sopranos


3. CSI


4. Battlestar Galactica


5. Lost


6. Everwood


7. Gilmore Girls


8. Law & Order franchise


9. Veronica Mars


10. The Shield

I am a faithful viewer of #’s 3 and 5 and a faithful wait-for-the-DVD-set buyer for #’s 1, 2, and 10. I catch up on sporadic episodes of #8 in reruns and syndication. I’ve never seen episodes of #’s 4, 6, 7, or 9 so I guess I’ve got some catching up to do :-)

American Idol

So far this American Idol season: Simon Cowell seems more bored than ever, Paula Abdul seems more incoherent than ever (sometimes to the point of seeming downright inebriated on some shows…I’m not saying that she is but she does seem awfully heavy-lidded and slurry sometimes), Randy Jackson’s hipster routine seems more tired and rote than ever, and Ryan Seacrest’s attempts at wit (especially when trying to slam Cowell) are more lame and annoying than ever.

On the upside, the contestants are as strong a group of singers as American Idol has ever had. As of this writing, Chris Daughtry seems to be the one to beat…he has a great voice, an appealing back story, and a strong sense of who he is and what he does; he’s also not afraid to take chances and, more often than not, he pulls them off. As the judges have said several times I can easily imagine buying CDs by Chris right now.

The rest of the field is filled with some potential stars…Taylor Hicks, Mandisa, Ace Young, and Katherine McPhee among them…and none of the contestants are without some measure of real talent (I could do with less of the “Chicken Little” kid’s smugness but I guess we can attribute that to his youth…and I think that Miss Pickler is overplaying the “ditzy country gal” routine.)

The American Idol juggernaut doesn’t seem to be losing steam yet (as the gold and platinum selling records by Kelly Clarkson, Clay Aiken, Fantasia, Carrie Underwood, Ruben Studdard, and Bo Bice prove so surely) and it will interesting to see who comes out on top during this very competitive season.

* * * * *

3/23 addendum: Kevin "Chicken Little" Covais' fanbase failed him as he got the boot last night. It was a mild surprise since his performance this week was, in my opinion, one of his better ones...but that's the way it goes sometimes on Idol.

You Don't Know Me: The Songs of Cindy Walker

Cindy Walker, a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, has written or co-written dozens of classic country, cowboy, and western swing songs in her long lifetime. One of her most famous tunes, the title track to this affectionate tribute disc, was most famously a big hit for the late, great Ray Charles.

You Don’t Know Me: The Songs of Cindy Walker finds Willie, backed by a crack band, putting his distinctive spin on 14 of Walker’s great songs. From the sprightly swing of venerable chestnuts like “Don’t Be Ashamed of Your Age” and “It’s All Your Fault”…from bittersweet saloon songs like “Warm Red Wine” and “Bubbles in my Beer”…from sly cowboy songs like “Dusty Skies” and “Cherokee Maiden”…from wistful lost-love songs like “Just Walking Out the Door” and the title song…Willie is relaxed and playful and completely engaged (I love Willie…I’ve been down with him for decades…but even I can’t deny when he’s off his records can have a maddening indifference to them…as if he went into the studio, dashed off the first take and then got the hell out of the studio again.)

And if Willie’s voice is a bit ragged around the edges from time to time (he can’t sustain notes the way he might have in younger days), that’s okay because it just adds a beguilingly authentic touch of raggedness to the proceedings. It’s a sweet little record indeed.

Pop Culture News and Notes

The Donald has another Apprentice. Third wife Melania Trump (see above) gave birth to a boy, Donald Trump’s fifth child, this morning. The child, unnamed as of this writing, is reportedly well. Trump had three children with his first wife Ivana (Donald, Jr., Eric, and Apprentice sidekick, Ivanka, whom he rather creepily said was the kind of woman he might date were she not his daughter) and one daughter, Tiffani, with his second wife Marla.

* * * * *

A judge has banned the continued sale of The Notorious B.I.G.’s album Ready to Die after a jury found that it contained an illegally used sample from a 1992 song (“Singing in the Morning”) by The Ohio Players. The jury also awarded the two companies which won the rights to the Players’ songs more than four million dollars in damages. Sean “Diddy” Combs, the sample-happy producer of the CD, and his Bad Boy Entertainment will doubtlessly appeal.

* * * * *

A company (World Wide Red Light District) which obtained a sex tape featuring Kid Rock, former Creed frontman Scott Stapp, and four women has reached an agreement with Rock which will keep the temporary injunction against releasing the tape in effect until the matter is fully adjudicated. I don’t care if celebrities feel the need to document their sexual adventures for posterity (or for whatever reason they do so), I just wish they would learn to keep the recordings under better lock and key if they’re so concerned about keeping them out of the public view.

Top Chef

I watched and enjoyed both editions of Bravo’s Project Runway even though I haven’t the slightest interest in “high fashion” and so far I’m digging their new show, Top Chef, even though I have little patience for the kind of fussy gourmet cuisine the folks on the show aspire to master.

Top Chef is less manic and stagy than the similar Hell’s Kitchen (the Fox show from last year which starred the always-apoplectic Chef Ramsey) and more interesting than the sedate Next Big Food Network Star (a second edition of which debuts soon on the Food Network.)

As always these kinds of “reality” shows rise or fall on the quality of their casting process…put together an interest bunch of folks and put them in odd situations and it can be escapist TV magic (take a bow, current edition of The Amazing Race.) On the other hand, if your cast is dull and irritating (that’s right, Survivor: Panama- Exile Island, we’re looking at you), it can make getting through episodes slow, mind-numbing slogs.

Top Chef seems to have brought in enough interesting people to make it work. We already have people to root against (the smug, pretentious Stephen and the whiny, crabby Tiffani) and underdogs to root for (the ditzy, profane Cynthia, who is competing even while her father is dying of cancer and the fun-loving Miguel) and competitive infighting already brewing. (Kenneth, the cocky, acerbic Irish guy, got the boot in the first episode when his food failed to live up to what his ego had promised it would be.)

Katie Lee Joel, the host, is no Heidi Klum (Joel’s kiss-off phrase…”pack your knives and leave the kitchen”…doesn’t hold a candle to Klum’s gloriously abrupt “You’re out”) but she doesn’t get in the way too much. Neither do the judges (whose names escape me and I’m really don’t care enough about them to go look them up.)

Top Chef is not great TV…but it’s fun and engaging and that’s cool by me.

(As an aside: I do wish though that Bravo didn’t run so many promos during Top Chef for Blow Out 3…featuring the self-absorbed wonder that is Jonathan, the gayest self-proclaimed [over and over and over again…we get it, “bro”, you “dig the chicks.” Right. Whatever works for you, dude] “straight” guy in TV history. I like a lot of “reality” TV but nothing on heaven or Earth could get me to watch the show and endure yet another one of Jonathan’s endless prissy/pissy tantrums.)

Fox Confessor Brings the Flood

It’s the voice that captures your attention first…it’s the voice that captures your attention and holds it fast. Neko Case…indie darling, remarkable singer-songwriter, New Pornographer…has a voice filled with passion and power, confidence and heartbreak, the soaring and beguiling mixture of “absolute torch and twang” that K.D. Lang once championed before she gave up the twang.

Fox Confessor Brings the Flood (no, I’m not sure what that means even after hearing the song of the same name but that doesn’t matter even a little bit) is a shimmering, utterly gorgeous collection of 12 melodic, poetic songs that are neither country nor pop but rather an intoxicating blend of the two (with the stellar musicianship defying any facile pop sheen to take hold.

From the opening acoustic lilt of “Margaret vs. Pauline” to the gospel swagger of “John Saw That Number”…from the wondrous harmonies of “That Teenage Feeling” (an updated version of one of those plaintive girl-group ballads from the 60’s) and the bittersweet “A Widow’s Toast”…from the ominous, yet strangely beautiful, murder ballad “Dirty Knife” to the gently-propulsive pop lilt of the closing “The Needle Has Landed”, this record never takes a wrong turn. And Case’s voice…which, oddly and engagingly enough, often seems to be booming and soothing in the same instant…shines brightly and wonderfully from beginning to end.

Fox Confessor is a grand record indeed.

Pop Culture News and Notes

Actually, South Park’s Chef should be saying “Goodbye, children” as Isaac Hayes, the legendary soul man who has been the voice of the character on the iconoclastic cartoon from the beginning, has quit the show due to religious concerns.

Hayes, one of the many celebrity members of the Church of Scientology, apparently took umbrage with having his religion skewered during a November episode (poking fun at other notable Scientologists like John Travolta and Tom Cruise.)

“There is a place in this world for satire, but there is a time when satire ends and intolerance and bigotry towards religious beliefs of others begins," Hayes is quoted as saying.

South Park co-creator Matt Stone dismisses that explanation. "This is 100 percent having to do with his faith of Scientology... He has no problem - and he's cashed plenty of checks - with our show making fun of Christians."

Guess it’s not so funny when your ox is being gored, is it Isaac?

The Calvin or Hobbes Test

My results:

Almost All Hobbes You are 10% Calvin and 90% Hobbes

You're a clever tiger with a dash of little boy. A bit pessimistic about human nature, you think most people would be better as meals than as friends, and maybe you're right. At least, I've known several guys who fit that description. But your cannabalistic streak notwithstanding, you're a sensitive, (mostly) patient, and supportive friend. You have a few wild ideas here and there, but over all, you're quite sensible. Finally, my guess is you're the kind of person who gets along well with others, but who really needs space to be alone, like me.

My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 0% on calvin You scored higher than 99% on hobbes

Link: The Calvin Or Hobbes Test written by gwendolynbooks on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Deal or No Deal

Deal or No Deal is the first hit primetime network game show since the heyday of Regis and the one-time ratings juggernaut that was Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

Deal or No Deal (an international success with versions in a couple of dozen other countries) is proudly simple (no questions…trivial or otherwise…other than the titular one), repetitive, shamelessly giddy (the contestants dance, yell, jump, and mug for the camera like they were all in the throes of the biggest sugar rushes you could ever imagine), and strangely addictive.

Howie Mandell, free from the manic silliness that used to punctuate his standup comedy act, is an engaging master of ceremonies who seems to really enjoy his interaction with the would-be “millionaires” who join him on stage.

The game itself is simple…there are 26 briefcases each representing an amount of money from one cent up to one million dollars (the models carrying and opening the cases, each outfitted in identical outfits, are pure window dressing), the contestant chooses one for themselves and then the other cases are opened with breaks in the action during which the mysterious “Banker” tries to tempt the player into quitting by offering sums of money to sell back the chosen case. If the contestant doesn't sell back the case, the amount of money in their case is theirs. A small group of friends and family members are brought onstage to yell and scream and dance and prod the contestant with giddy advice. Not much more to it than that.

As of this writing, nobody has won a million dollars but everybody seems to be having a grand time. NBC is trying to avoid the Millionaire overkill by scheduling the show just twice a week…on Mondays and Fridays…and so far it’s working. It will quickly get old…this sort of show has a short shelf life…but for now it’s entertaining enough (and it doesn’t take itself anymore seriously than that which is cool.)

It's my birthday, too...yeah!

You say it's your birthday
It's my birthday too--yeah
They say it's your birthday
We're gonna have a good time
I'm glad it's your birthday
Happy birthday to you.

You say it's your birthday
Well it's my birthday too--yeah
You say it's your birthday
We're gonna have a good time
I'm glad it's your birthday
Happy birthday to you.

It’s my birthday…yay!...and if it’s your birthday too, have yourself a grand one!

Namaste, y’all.

"Birthday"
words and music by John Lennon & Paul McCartney

Pop Culture News and Notes

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be held on Monday March 13^th in New York City. This year’s list of inductees is a relatively eclectic bunch:

Blondie, the poppy New Wave band fronted by Deborah Harry who had the first rap (well, sorta…) single to top the Billboard pop chart with “Rapture”.

Miles Davis, the jazz legend whose blending of jazz and rock (starting with the monumental Bitches Brew...see above) gave birth to a flood of lesser jazz-rock fusion attempts (yes, we’re looking at you, Return to Forever…)

Black Sabbath, the prototypical (and enormously inventive and influential) Heavy Metal band fronted by absent-minded reality TV show Ozzy Osbourne.

Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Southern Rock legends that are still soldiering despite the deaths of leader Ronnie Van Zant and two other band members in a plane crash back in 1977.

The Sex Pistols, the raucous punk band that had more attitude than talent (though “God Save the Queen” is still a thrilling rock and roll song all these years later. The ever-pretentious (some might call him cool but I don’t) John Lydon (aka “Johnny Rotten”) and the rest of the surviving members of the band have already said that they won’t be at the ceremony (maybe they’re honked off that The Clash, a superior band, made into the Hall before they did :-)

* * * * *

Isabelle Dinoire, the French woman who was the recipient of the world’s first face transplant late last year is ready to tell her story on to a major American network…if they’ll meet her quote. Allegedly she wants something in the six figures for an interview and an additional half-million bucks for the rights to broadcast a documentary about the groundbreaking procedure she went through. NBC has already demurred (Matt Lauer had already been waiting in the starting gate) and ABC is denying rumors (propagated it seems by Dinoire’s lawyer) of a deal involving an interview with Diane Sawyer and a trip to Disney World.

Free enterprise is a wonderful thing…and face transplants can’t come cheap…so I don’t begrudge Dinoire taking her shot at the golden ring (and eventually, despite all their high-falutin’ bluster about not paying for news, I won't be surprised when one of the networks ponies up some cash in one way or the other for her story.)

* * * * *

American Idol has their Top 12 (one might wonder how a couple of them made the cut but America voted and these are the folks who will sing and dance endure Paula Abdul’s pointless treacle, Randy Jackson’s hipster babble, and Simon Cowell’s acid barbs.) Now let the real show…on the big stage with the big band…begin.

For those who bet on such things, Pinnacle Sports (the first sports book to list odds for reality show contestants) has rocker Chris Daughtry (one of my favorites) listed as the early favorite to win with odds of 7-2. Mandisa goes into the finals with odds of 11-2 followed by Katherine McPhee and Ace Young both at 6-1. Kevin Covais (40-1), Bucky Covington (50-1), and Melissa McGhee (60-1) are the longshots at this juncture (but, of course, things can…and probably will…change as the season rolls on.)

Project Runway

Ah, Project Runway…with Heidi Klum’s endless wardrobe of stylish maternity clothes and her oddly-endearing cool Aryan charm (you almost forget that her catchphrase…“You’re out”…is a kiss-off sending yet another would-be Versace or Donna Karan out of her presence and off of the show)…with sanctimonious judges with pursed lips (Nina Garcia always looked like she was smelling something extremely foul) and quips not nearly as clever as they thought they were (Michael Kors might be a great designer…honestly I wouldn’t really know…but his “witticisms” almost always lacked anything resembling real wit)…with 16 designers full of good reasons for making bad fashion…with the celebrity aesthetic that actually thinks that Nikki Hilton is someone to be lionized…with the fussy dithering of Tim Gunn…and, of course, with the self-proclaimed majesty of the one and only (at least we should hope so) of SANTINO!...what was not to like this season?

Well, silly outfits made of plants notwithstanding, not too much. The second season was better than the first…more interesting challenges and just enough bitchiness, cat fighting, rampant egos (well hello there, Santino, fancy meeting you here) and overemotional weeping (yes, Andre, we’re looking at you) to keep it interesting. Chloe’s win was a bit of a surprise (the straight woman trumps two gay men in a fashion designing competition...go figure :-)…Daniel seemed to be the anointed one until his final collection sort of fell flat and Santino seemed to have the maverick thing going for him but he went soft (though often pretty) with his final collection…but then I didn’t think that what’s-his-name should have won the first season so what do I know about this fashion stuff?

(Me, I was rooting for Nick but he got bounced before the finals.)

They’ve put out a casting call for Project Runway 3 so Heidi and the gang will be back…and so will I (as unabashedly fashion challenged as I am and will ever be.)

Over and Over

One of the Christmas gifts I gave came with 50 free downloads from eMusic.com, a site I hadn’t heard of at the time (they’ve since started running TV ads), and as the recipient of that gift isn’t much interested in new music, he gave the downloads back to me (sometimes it’s cool to give AND receive :-).

I’m digging eMusic.com, a site featuring music of all genres from independent labels, more than I thought I would. It’s led me to discover (and in some cases rediscover) cool music not spotlighted by radio or the other online sites (iTunes, Rhapsody, Yahoo Music, etc.) Case in point is the wondrous Erin Bode and her new CD, Over and Over.

There’s a mellow, jazzy feel to Erin Bode’s music that brings to mind the music of other noteworthy female artists who straddle the worlds of pop and jazz…artists like Norah Jones, Lizz Wright, and the late, great Eva Cassidy. But where there those ladies bring a smoky, undeniably soulful vibe to their vocals, Bode’s voice has a more delicate and lilting quality…harkening back to some of Joni Mitchell’s early jazz-influenced efforts or, perhaps a bit more on point, to the ever-wonderful Nanci Griffith (though with less twang :-)

The songs on Over and Over are all slow simmering, soothing mid-tempo offerings that keep Bode’s evocative voice always at the forefront (though space is given over to tasteful piano solos and yearning sax solos to bring additional colors to the program.)

Where Bode's last album, 2004’s Don’t Take Your Time, was dominated by an eclectic group of interesting covers (Lennon & McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Irving Berlin, Bob Dylan, the Gershwins), this disc is filled mostly with poignant originals co-written by Bode and keyboardist/guitarist Adam Maness…the three covers here (a sprightly take on Paul Simon’s “Graceland”, a slow-building version of the jazz standard “Alone Together, and a lovely, spare [just vocal and acoustic guitar] cover of Simply Red’s “Holding Back the Years”) fold nicely into the overall flow of the CD without being the distractions that cover songs can sometimes be.

Over and Over is a Sunday morning/soft rainy day kind of album…the kind of music that slips up on you and takes you into its gentle embrace and soothes your soul. And hey, that’s all right by me.

78th Annual Academy Awards

Okay, the fact that Crash won out over Brokeback Mountain for Best Picture was a bit of a surprise (especially after Ang Lee snagged the Best Director Oscar) but the biggest…and most whimsically amusing…surprise of the Academy Awards was the fact that they gave an Oscar to a song entitled “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp”. In some ways it doesn’t get much cooler than that (though I’m guessing Dolly Parton didn’t find it that cool…)

The show itself was a bit tedious and anticlimactic (I guessed all of the winners…with the exceptions of the two mentioned above and the two short subjects…before the envelopes were opened and I doubt that I was alone in that.)

Jon Stewart, like Chris Rock last year, was okay…nowhere near great (he reined himself in to the point of being just this side of dull for large stretches of the evening), but okay. And thankfully they got the unavoidable Brokeback gag out of the way at the very beginning of the show with Billy Crystal and Chris Rock.

With no blockbusters (no Lord of the Rings: Return of the King or Titanic, for example) in the mix for the major awards I’m presuming the audience for the show was down in the ratings…and truthfully they didn’t miss much. Better luck next year, Academy.

(“It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp”…heh. Priceless.)

Grey's Anatomy

Let me go on record in saying that I’m not that fond of Meredith Grey, the pivotal character in ABC’s hit nighttime soap opera/medical drama/relationship comedy Grey’s Anatomy. Dr. Grey is at turns whiney and naïve, self-absorbed and clueless, wistfully foolish and earnestly self-flagellating.

When I say that I’m not that fond of Meredith, I mean that I wouldn’t want the character as friend (for all of the reasons above and more) but, that said, as the focal point of a sterling ensemble of characters, she is more than fine. Ellen Pompeo plays first year intern Meredith with this pouty Ally McBeal meets Renee Zellwegger thing that, for the most part, works (though her goopy narration and constant moping both do tend to grate at times.)

Her star-struck romance with Dr. Derek Sheppard (Patrick Dempsey)…given the too-precious-by-half nickname of “Dr. McDreamy”…is so tedious now (what with him being in love with Meredith but having gone back to his cheating wife out of a sense of duty and honor and the two of them…Meredith and Derek…making soulful doe eyes at each other at every turn) that it derails the show for me whenever it comes to the fore (if the doctors Sheppard are going to stay together, Meredith needs to get over it and get back into the mix…I was hoping that the bomb squad guy in the most recent episodes was going to be a possible love interest but, after teasing us with he and Meredith engaging in that “bickering-as-foreplay” thing that people on TV do when they’re falling in love, they blew him up.)

When it’s clicking (and lately it has been doing so more often than not), Grey’s Anatomy walks that tight line between soap opera and medical drama with aplomb.

On the soap opera side, the relationship between the imperious Dr. Preston Burke (Isaiah Washington) and the nakedly ambitious Dr. Christina Yang (the wondrous Sandra Oh) is more interesting by far than the Grey-Shepherd-Shepherd triangle. Even the sometimes awkward relationship between the earnest ex-model Dr. Izzy Stevens (the radiant Katherine Heigl) and the caddish Dr. Alex Karev (Justin Chambers) has more juice.

The medical drama side is well-served without too much mind-numbing medical jargon. And the comedic elements are never allowed to take over the show.

The rest of the regular ensemble…the sad sack (but often quietly-heroic) Dr. George O’Malley (the delightful T.R. Knight) along with the tough love Resident Dr. Miranda Bailey (the sassy Chandra Wilson), the long-suffering Chief Dr. Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr.), and prodigal wife Dr. Addison Sheppard (Kate Walsh)…all bring nuance and color to their characters and the overall ambiance of the show.

Grey’s Anatomy is what it sets out to be…a good show with characters and situations engaging enough to make you want to tune in each week…and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Random Notes (Grammys '06 Edition)

Okay…the broadcast of the 48th Grammy Awards was a mess. Bad camera angles, numerous audio malfunctions, awkward pauses, glimpses of people working backstage, bad transitions, a zillion commercials, padded out to 3 ½ hours…it was a mess. They chose to go without a host this year…and that was probably a bad idea too.

Some of the performances were pretty good, though:

Gorillaz and De La Soul opened the show with “Feel Good Inc.” (the rappers being a bit more animated than the too-cool-for-the-room cartoon characters :-) followed by Madonna (who, judging by the stylish leotard she was wearing, apparently came directly to show from a workout) and bunch of dancers gyrating through “Hung Up”.

Stevie Wonder and Alicia Keys dedicated a couple of a cappella bars of “Higher Ground” to Coretta Scott King before giving out an award to Kelly Clarkson.

(Ooo look, Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban are sitting together in the audience…ain’t love grand?)

Coldplay (Chris Martin really likes that “prancing in the audience thing”, don’t he?), John Legend, and Sugarland (missing a member and plagued by mike problems) kept the show moving.

U2 kicked things up a level with “Vertigo” (though they got lost in the smoke there for a while) and then Mary J. Blige joined them to raise the roof with “One” (see above).

Kelly Clarkson (who had bawled through her acceptance of the aforementioned award) was in fine voice on “Because of You”

Sir Paul McCartney performed “Fine Line” and then got frisky with a rockin’ rendition of “Helter Skelter”

(Wait…are the Black Eyed Peas finished announcing the Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Male yet? They do babble on, don't they?)

Comeback girl Mariah Carey opened with “We Belong Together” and then went gospel with a choir on a soaring “Carry Me Home”

(Why is Teri Hatcher wearing a negligee?)

Keith Urban (thanks for dressing up for the occasion, guy) sang “You’ll Think of Me” on top of plastic box and then joined Faith Hill for a sprightly “The Lucky One”

The “tribute” to Sly and the Family Stone was…okay, let’s be charitable again and say “ ragged.” John Legend, Joss Stone, Van Hunt, Maroon 5, Fantasia, Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Robert Randolph, and others (what the hell is Randy Jackson doing playing bass with the band? Shouldn’t he be at home practicing his “hip” banter for the next edition of American Idol?) stumbled through tepid versions of Sly hits with the man himself (resplendent with a blond Mohawk) came out to lead the ensemble in comparatively lively version of “I Want to Take You Higher”.

Jay-Z and Linkin Park brought things back up a bit with “Numb/Encore” and then they slipped into a lovely version of The Beatles’ “Yesterday” where they were joined by Sir Paul himself.

Bruce Springsteen got off the most political statement of the night with a simple cry of “bring ‘em home!” at the end of his Iraq War inspired “Devils and Dust”

And then there was the Kanye Show. Mr. West and Jamie Foxx put on an extravaganza with marching bands, dancers, and costume changes as they ripped through “Gold Digger” and “Touch the Sky”. It was gloriously over-the-top and fun.

Christina Aguilera looked sultry in her glittering gown and platinum blonde hair as she joined Herbie Hancock for “A Song for You”. (That she oversang the song goes almost without saying, doesn’t it?)

(That Recording Academy President guy is a long-winded son of a gun, ain’t he? We get it, you guys are wonderful and you’re rebuilding New Orleans all by yourselves…now shaddap already!)

After U2 picked up the Album of the Year (0 for 2 in that category, Kanye), a tribute to New Orleans featured Allen Toussaint, Dr. John, Elvis Costello, Bonnie Raitt, Irma Thomas, and The Edge on a loping version of Toussaint’s “Yes We Can Can” (featuring more bad audio on the vocals.)

Bruce Springsteen and Sam Moore joined the group for “In the Midnight Hour” a soulful tribute to late Wilson Pickett.

The broadcast is just over as I write this and I’ve already forgotten who won what (I know U2 and Miss Clarkson and Mr. Legend were up there a couple of times each for stuff.)

Hopefully the broadcast of the 49th Annual Grammy Awards will be less snakebit next year.

The Stones at the Super Bowl

As games go, Super Bowl XL was only so-so (occasional flashes of football brilliance but with lots and lots of ragged moments along the way.) As Super Bowl halftime shows, the Rolling Stones’ three-song set was also so-so (occasional flashes of rock and roll brilliance but with lots of ragged moments along the way.)

But, that said, it was fine…theatrics at a minimum, the Stones played their tunes…”Start Me Up”, “Rough Justice”, and “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”…took a bow and quit the stage. Mick Jagger strutted his skinny butt around the circular stage while the designated dancers shimmied and mugged for the cameras; Keith Richards looked like he couldn’t wait for the set to be over.

“Start Me Up” was…oh, let’s be charitable and just say, again, that it was “ragged”. “Rough Justice”, arguably the best song from last year’s A Bigger Bang, was tighter and “Satisfaction”, which Mick impishly said could have been played at the first Super Bowl 40 years ago, was also fine. ABC’s nervous censors (still lingering in the shadow of Janet Jackson’s nipple from that now-infamous halftime show a couple of years ago) saw fit to blank out some lyrics in both of the first two songs (seemed silly to me but I guess they would rather to be safe than sorry.)

Whatever the NFL paid the band (these guys don’t do stuff for free for the most part), they probably got their money’s worth.

Academy Award Nominations

Brokeback Mountain (see below) and George Clooney (see above) lead the pack in the race as the nominations for the 78th Academy Awards are announced and the chase for the precious Oscars is officially joined. Brokeback scored 8 nominations…including Best Picture…while Clooney got 3 nods all by himself (Best Director and Best Original Screenplay for Good Night, and Good Luck as well as Best Supporting Actor for Syriana.)

Along with Brokeback Mountain, the other Best Picture nominees are Capote, Crash, Good Night, and Good Luck, and Munich. The directors of those movies…Ang Lee, Bennett Miller, Paul Haggis, Clooney, and Steven Spielberg…are vying for the Best Director prize.

Capote’s Philip Seymour Hoffman (see above) is probably the favorite in the Best Actor race for his portrayal of the titular writer. The other Nominees include Terence Howard (Hustle & Flow), Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain), Joaquin Phoenix (Walk the Line), and David Strathairn (Good Night, and Good Luck).

Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line) and Felicity Huffman (Transamerica - see below) are the likely frontrunners for the Best Actress prize. Dame Judi Dench (Mrs. Henderson Presents), Keira Knightley (Pride and Prejudice), and (having survived the bomb that was Aeon Flux) Charlize Theron (North Country) will likely have to settle for being happy to have just been nominated.

The year’s biggest moneymaker, Star Wars: Episode 3-Revenge of the Sith, got just one nomination (for Best Makeup). It was shut out of the Best Visual Effects race by King Kong, The Chronicles of Narnia, and War of the Worlds.

Peter Jackson’s King Kong had to settle for a handful of technical nominations (Art Direction, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Visual Effects) after being shut out of the major categories.

And for some reason there were only 3 (instead of the usual 5) Best Song nominations this year: “In the Deep” (from Crash), “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp” (from Hustle and Flow), and Dolly Parton’s “Travelin’ Thru” (from Transamerica).

The Oscars will go to the winners on March 5th.

Dancing with the Stars 2006

The first edition of Dancing with the Stars was a guilty pleasure of sorts…engaging enough as these “reality” show things go…but after the suspect awarding of the championship at the end of the series I wasn’t sure if I would bother with the new edition.

But I decided to give it a chance and, thus far, it’s a harmlessly entertaining way to spend an hour or so on Thursday nights. The same hypercritical (they don’t seem to understand that they are watching novices who have had a week to learn a routine and not seasoned professional dancers who will hit every move with perfection), pompous judges are back …but this year their votes are only half on the competitors’ scores (the public gets to vote to make the other half of the score.) The unctuous Tom Bergeron is back as co-host (with a different giggly co-host whose name escapes me.)

But then there are the dancers. The celebrities are mostly from the C-list again (though future Pro Football Hall of Fame member Jerry Rice and Academy Award winner Tatum O’Neal…yeah she won it when she was 12 but she won it just the same…lift the caliber of the group a bit) but they are, for the most part, quite game.

The most pleasant surprise is the incredibly graceful Stacy Keibler (above with her professional dance partner Dovolani.) Keibler is a professional wrestler (the 2004 “WWE Babe of the Year” who is, quite aptly, nicknamed “the Legs of the WWE”) and she is a wonder to behold.

Rice, Drew Lachey (late of the “boy band” 98 Degrees and brother of Jessica Simpson’s soon-to-be ex-husband, Nick…who has attended the shows to cheer his bro on), and TV reporter Giselle Fernandez are also among those who have worked hard not to embarrass themselves during the dancing.

And then there’s Master P (below with his professional dance partner Ashly DelGrosso.)

Rapper/Athlete (he played semi-pro Basketball last year)/Businessman P (for Percy) Miller gets props for stepping into the breach when his son, rapper/actor Romeo, got hurt and had to drop out. That gets him points as a good Dad but as a ballroom dancer…? Well, he’s a good Dad…

(I guess there must be some kind of campaign among the phone voters to keep P in the competition because his lead-footed performances and headstrong behavior certainly haven’t merited him making the cut during the first two weeks of the show.)

Dancing with the Stars was such a hit for ABC last summer that it has spawned its own Fox-TV rip off, Skating with Celebrities, which debuts this week. I guess these things are good for keeping C (and D list “stars” out of rehab and away from other unsavory ways of trying to get back into the spotlight if for nothing else.

The Book of Daniel

Daniel Webster (and yes, he’s supposed to be descended from his historic namesake) is an Episcopal Priest living in a large house in an affluent neighborhood. But his life...as portrayed by Aidan Quinn (above)...is anything but serene.

Over the course of the 2-hour series debut we find that: Daniel seems to be addicted to pain pills (he pops Vicodin like breath mints), his wife seems to be an alcoholic, his daughter sells marijuana to finance her fledgling career as a comic book artist, his adopted Chinese son is bedding the 16-year-old daughter of one of his more conservative parishioners (whose shrewish wife unabashedly disdains the possibility of having “Asian grandchildren” running around her Christmas tree), his mother is plagued with Alzheimer’s, his father (a Bishop) is a sour, self-righteous prig who is having an extramarital affair with Daniel’s direct superior, a prickly female Bishop (who herself is now taking part in Daniel’s Vicodin popping), his wife’s sister is a high-strung flake who’s having an affair with the woman her husband brought in to spice up their sex life, his brother-in-law (husband of his wife’s sister) absconded with millions of the church’s funds (Daniel had put him in charge of building a school for the Church) and ended up dead (with the money nowhere in sight), and the most level-headed (well, relatively speaking) person in his family is his gay son (who is teased, constantly and unmercifully, by his siblings about his sexuality and who so afraid of coming out to his grandfather that he allows himself to forced into a date with a woman arranged the old man.)

On top of all that, Daniel contacts a Catholic Priest…an Italian-American who, as a matter of course for this series, has direct ties to the Mafia…to help him track down the brother-in-law and the missing money and finds that the church money will be returned only if he hires a mob-connected construction company to build the school.

And, if all that weren’t enough, Daniel has regular conversations with Jesus Christ, who is portrayed as a bland guy with a surfer dude attitude and more vapid platitudes than actual wisdom and comfort.

I’m not sure what The Book of Daniel is trying to be (I’m guessing that it wants to be a hip, “edgy” cross between Desperate Housewives and Joan of Arcadia)…but what it turns out to be is a mess. It’s not funny (the early promos for it positioned it as being much more light-hearted than it turned out to be)…it’s certainly not as whimsical as it thinks it is…it has no characters that you really care about…and the sheer accumulation of over-the-top plotlines is just plain numbing.

(I’m not Episcopalian and I don’t think I know any Episcopalians personally but I have to imagine that this show is insulting to them on myriad levels.)

The Book of Daniel is a limited series and I can’t imagine it being picked up to continue after the 8 episodes scheduled for this run (at this point…given the furor, the lack of sponsors (most the ads during the 2 hours were promos for other NBC programs), and the so-so ratings…I’d imagine there’s only a 50-50 chance that NBC is going to finish airing even these episodes; they're likely to shunt the show over to Bravo or one of the other cable outlets in the NBC- Universal family.)