A Real Threat to the Nation

No, this isn't about last night's debate (Sarah Palin scores major points for remaining upright and conscious, right? Oh ya, you betcha!). Nor is it about the financial "crisis". It's about how we just might be a nation of jerks. Tools. Pricks. You get the picture. Why else would Bow-Flex feature Brian Alvarez in its TV ads, other than as an mass appeal to our inner douchebag? If you've seen the ad, you know what I'm talking about. If not, lucky you! I could go on at length, but it wasn't hard to find another blogger who shares a very healthy, heart-warming hatred for Mr. Alvarez.

Real-Life Wire

Straight from the TV screen to the actual streets of Baltimore! OK, maybe this guy and his East Side drug ring weren't as big-time as Proposition Joe or B & B, but it still sounds like David Simon could have written the script for this one.

2008 Rock & Roll HOF Induction

I'm not one for award shows, but I am a fan of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame show because it's so unlike the Oscars or the Grammys. For one, the audience is full of the most random collection of celebrities and music executives - this year there was Meg Ryan, Tom Hanks, some SNL cast members, and a random supermodel or two. The performances are also somewhat rough but come off as really genuine, maybe due to the relatively small venue at the Waldorf in NYC, as opposed to the cavernous amphitheaters that contain the bigger awards shows.

But the best part is the unscripted nature of the whole production. You never know what the inductees, or inductors (?) are going to say. And they can say pretty much whatever they want, for as long as they want. We recorded the show on Monday night and watched it last night; it was a good thing that it was recorded because we could zip through some of the inductees that we didn't know or care about and just get to the main acts (Leonard Cohen, Madonna, Mellencamp), because otherwise we would have been sitting there watching for four hours. On MHD they show the whole thing, edited only for bad words, without commercials, including stage change-overs and random backstage footage ("backstage" for some reason consisting of a kitchen/walk-in freezer area of the hotel). I think they edit it down to 2-hours, with ads, when they re-broadcast it on VH1 in a few weeks.

So what about all those crazy speeches and introductions? First of all, you kind of wonder how they come up with some pairings. Back in 2003 Gwen Stefani inducted the Police, and Elton John inducted Elvis Costello. Not the most natural pairings, if you ask me, but kinda fun nonetheless. This year Mr. Cohen was treated to a rambling, disjointed, when-will-it-end monologue by...Lou Reed? Sure, why not. Lou's odd introduction was thrown into even sharper relief by Cohen's brief, funny, touching acceptance speech.

Next up was Justin Timberlake to induct Madonna, a pairing that made a bit more sense to us. Justin started strong, but all the innuendo and lame jokes, not to mention his attempts to work in as many Madonna song titles as possible, became somewhat painful to listen to after a few minutes. Not terrible enough to wonder if Lou was still available, but still not good. Madonna herself had a solid and sincere acceptance speech prepared, nothing controversial or particularly noteworthy. But then...she didn't perform! Huh? Instead fellow Michigan native Iggy Pop performed in her stead (at her request?!?), "treating" the audience to two Madonna covers, the first which I didn't even recognize and the second an awful version of Ray of Light. Ugh.

Billy Joel inducted John Mellencamp, and while he started slow, he really delivered the most entertaining speech of the whole night. The role of sardonic and bitter aging rock/pop musician suits him quite well, plus he was very funny. I especially enjoyed his impression of Randy Newman. Mellencamp's speech was a bit rambling but solid, he seemed almost weary though at the podium. Fortunately, he had plenty of energy once he got on stage to perform three of his hits, although none of the three was Jack and Diane; what's up with that?

The big finale number, in which all inductees perform together, was just OK. They covered a song by the newly-inducted Dave Clark Five, and while Madonna didn't make it on stage, Iggy Pop didn't either, which was fine with us. So it ended up being John "Don't Call Me Cougar!!!" Mellencamp and his band, joined by John Fogerty, Joan Jett (told you this show was weird), plus Billy Joel looking clueless on keyboards - I wonder if anyone remembered to tell the old guy what song they were playing, or at least what key they were in.

Something to Complain About

Seriously, is this really a big deal? We're talking about SNL here. Tina Fey's Weekend Update piece on Hillary notwithstanding, the show doesn't usually have much of a political agenda - they simply unload on the political figures that will get them the most laughs. Some of these critics need to lighten up.

High Definition

To go with our new HDTV (Panasonic plasma) that was delivered Friday, we switched from DirecTV to the other satellite provider, Dish Network. They have more HD channels - for now - plus are a few bucks cheaper per month. But we found one caveat - and we think Dish Network was slightly misleading about it when Jenny set up everything over the phone - they don't offer local broadcast channels in HD, we need a separate antenna for that. We weren't too happy when we discovered that, but I still think we would have switched to Dish even if we had known that in advance. Besides, we can always switch back (in 18 months) if we really want to. Then again, in 18 months, it will be 2009 and the HDTV landscape is bound to look very different.

Colbert v. O'Reilly

I didn't see part one of this stroke of marketing genius - I wouldn't even know which channel Fox News uses to pollute DirecTV's signal - but Jenny and I did stay up for part two on the Colbert Report, and it was worth it. The best dig at O'Reilly was probably the Barnes & Noble 30% off sticker, which covered O'Reilly's head on the book cover. And the comment about Jon Stewart being a sexual predator, that was wonderfully vicious. I must admit, O'Reilly was a surprisingly good sport - still a pompous windbag, but a good sport nonetheless.

Last Minute Shopping Idea, Courtesy of SNL

Don't know what to get that special someone this Christmas? Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg have a suggestion (from last night's hilarious episode).

Here are a few more highlights. If NBC was smart, they'd replay this next weekend in prime time, instead of stale old Christmas cartoons (other than the Grinch, who kicks ass):

Opening Monologue Christmas Song w/Alvin & the Chipmunks

Cup-O-Soup/Homelessville

Hottest Show on TV, Netvibes

Anyone else out there a regular Hell's Kitchen viewer? What a fantastic "reality" show, and it's all thanks to the star, Scottish celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay. He exhibits the perfect blend of cruely, profanity, and condescension. His tirades are just incredible to behold, they seem so very sincere (and terrifying).

Netvibes is a web-based aggregator that lets users subscribe to RSS feeds, mail accounts, links, photo pages, even podcasts - although I'm still sticking with iTunes, for now - all on a single web page (with multiple tabs). I've been using it for about a week now, and I like it a lot; one tab for gmail, del.icio.us links, news links and weather, one tab for all my friends' blogs, another tab for other blogs I try to keep up with, and a fourth tab for flickr pages and video links. Check it out, and please let me know if you use something similar that you really like.

Super-Reality TV

Finally, a cool premise for a reality TV show. WIRED News has a brief write-up of this Stan Lee production, and here's the official website for the show. I wonder if it can join The Amazing Race and Hell's Kitchen as a reality show worthy of regular viewing. It debuts on July 27 on the Sci-Fi channel.

A Cookie is a Sometimes Food?!?

This may be old news to some of you, but I just heard about it this morning: apparently, Cookie Monster is cutting down on his cookie intake.

Sure, the chunk factor of kids in this country have been well-documented. But he's a piece of felt who likes cookies - no harm there, right? Maybe parents need to be a bit smarter if they believe that their kid is being unduly influenced by Cookie Monster's cravings for sugar and saturated fat (although with all the role models kids could choose these days, one would think that Cookie Monster would be the least of parents' worries). Buy lowfat cookies for your rotund child! Sure, they taste like sawdust, but they're still technically cookies. Kids are smart, smart enough to know better when their parent tries to pass celery off as a crunchy green cookie, but not smart enough to make sure there's real sugar and high fat content in that package of low-fat Oreos.

I appreciate what Sesame Street is trying to do, but let's hope they don't go too far. Oscar should still be a Grouch, not "Oscar the Occasionally Moody". Big Bird is still a BIG YELLOW BIRD! He's not "Bird, who is tall for his age". And Elmo is simply hyper and obnoxious, not overly enthusiastic.