Ha!

Score another point for the 80's revival, because tv's favorite cat eating alien is to start hosting a talk show. Well at the very least, Alf is hosting a one-off special on TV Land. What can I say, it's a strange world.

Terminal

I had the chance to see "The Terminal" yesterday and it was interesting film. I can't say that I loved it, but it was completely involving and a much better than could ever be expected from a stupid premise about a man stuck in an airport. I had been tracking the films progress and didn't think it would actually get made, but I'm glad that it did. Hmm, I'm rambling. The movie is essentially about people who are waiting, which is not the most cinematic of subjects. The best part of the film is the performances. The most consistent criticism, other than sentimentality, is that he doesn't do characters, but he did an excellent job getting great performances out of every actor in the film and giving all the characters their humanity. I'm obviously not expressing my thoughts well, but Ebert did an insightful review that is a little more enthusiastic than my thoughts. Definitely a movie that reasonable people can have different opinions of, but one I enjoyed.

Pop Notes

If it's good enough for Puff Daddy, then why not? I just read in nme that Madonna is changing her name to Esther because she "wanted to attach myself to the energy of a different name." How well did that work for Symbol-Man, oh wait... he just changed his name back to Prince and had his biggest hit in years. The big M went on comment on others reaction to her recent devotion to Kabbalah saying that "I'm a little bit irritated that people think that it's like some celebrity bandwagon that I've jumped on." It is so not like Madonna to just jump aboard the latest fad. She's always dedicated herself to her singular vision of classical style.
The latest in the wave of summer concert cancellations comes to us courtesy of Missy Elliot. She is apparently unable to make her UK appearances because of a shortage of busses for her tour. At least it's more originally than spraining a leg or something…

No One...

...Saw this coming. Courtney Love just pulled out of her tour that was due to start in a few days. It's amazing that woman can remember to breathe with many, many legal problems (her motto: every week a new court case).
And is anyone else "shocked" that Britney Spears also pulled out of her tour because of her recent knee injury. I just don't know what to do with my summer anymore since Christina Aguilera started this trend of canceling summer tours. It just breaks me heart :(

This Is How You Remind Me (To Turn The Radio Off)

I always thought that Nickelback's boring songs sounded exactly the same and I pointed this out to my wife once as we switched back and forth between their two songs on different stations at the same time. Well, I was browsing the forums over at Pocky Bot and saw that someone posted a link to an almost mash-up where the separated their two hit songs in different stereo channels and played them at the same time. It's scary how close they are, getting loud and quiet in the same parts. Down with bad music!

Coverage

What does it take to get national news coverage? The dominate news story of the week is President Reagan’s death, which is legitimate since the man ended the Cold War, although cable news networks running constant live coverage of the man’s coffin is totally unnecessary. Talk about morbid. Beyond Reagan, the country is still at war and the two highest members of the CIA resigned last week. Is there anything more we need to know about our spy agency soon to have new management? That might be a big story. So what story did I hear lead the hourly news brief on ABC radio two hours in a row? An anti-war protest in Washington of what they said was only about 50 people. Here is the only print story I can find about it (not that I looked too hard). Hmm, 50 people drum on cans and make the national news. I’ll gather up my family and friends for a barbaque and see if we make the news!
Also Roger Clemens just won his 9th game this season with no losses yet. That man is a working legend and one best things to ever to happen to baseball (and he always strikes my team out).

Last Viewer Standing

Tonight I was suckered into even more reality with the new season of “Last Comic Standing.” I had strong reservations about watching the show, since all I remember from the ads for last season was the idea that it was comics living in a house together (that’s all I need in my life is another snooze-fest like “Big Brother” with people who think they’re funny). Fortunately this was just people doing their acts, with an odd mix of established comics with tv gigs (the guy from the Nick At Nite Road Crew and that guy who’s always on Collin Quin’s politically incorrect rip-off) and total amateurs. There were some good acts, and it was nice to see Will Durst, who is a Bay Area comedy staple, win a spot as a semi-finalist at the San Francisco stop. Once the show the living in a house together part I’ll probably tune out, but who knows, the extremely unfunny yet constantly employed Jay Mohr is the show’s host and producer which might force me to bail earlier.

Best News For Music Fans Ever

It was just announced that Creed are disbanding. This is the best news I've heard in ages, since their bland uninpired blah rock has held radio hostage for far too many years. I have all the hope in the world that the band's offspring won't have any success and we will all be rid of this horrible plague that is Creed's music.
In even better news is that Cause & Effect will be visiting San Francisco in July. I have been wanting to see the band live for more than a decade now and I'm so happy to finally have the chance. It almost makes for my not being able to make the
Freezepop show next week.

Book Sales

I happen to flip past C-Span earlier this evening while Bill Clinton was giving a speech promoting his soon to be released memoir. It was interesting to see him speak, since it has been a few years since he left office, and what a difference there is between his speeches and Bush’s style. Perhaps it was just the freedom to not be “presidential” but Clinton was really engaging and got a number of deserved laughs out of the crowd. What I saw of his speech reflected on the creation of the current political climate, and how the 60’s and Vietnam War created much of the divide between the parties. Nothing too shocking there, but he went on to describe the post-Cold War Republican party as a unified front, as opposed to what he considered himself to be a part of, the tradition of individual politicians working with members of both parties in the spirit of compromise. It’s my impression, in online discussions and listening to much of talk radio that people have become so polarized politically that common sense and critical thinking goes out the door when politics are involved. Critical thinking and the ability to analyze is the core of what makes democracy work, so why not use it when it comes to your political views? Just a thought that I believe more Americans will rediscover soon, although it may take another four years. (I caught a bit of “Crossfire” earlier this week and was shocked by the complete devotion to partisanship since both sides were taking cheap shots at the other candidate’s Memorial Day activities as being contrived.) Overall, I was left inspired by Clinton’s speech, and was impressed at his willingness to admit his faults, both personal and political.

Actually

It just occurred to me, in the tradition of so many other great thoughts that occur at nearly 2am, that I’ve had Pet Shop Boy’s “Actually” album on my brain today. I was thinking about the lyrics to “Hit Music” and how it mentions “Tainted Love” and “Love Is Strange” which is the cross referencing you don’t often hear in most pop music. Then I got “I Want To Wake Up” stuck in my head, probably because of the whole new Morrissey album who was in The Smiths with Johnny Marr who works with PSB and “IWTWU” is his favorite PSB song. Oh, then I heard “What Have I Done To Deserve This?” on the radio while I was picking up dinner this evening, which is a duet with Dusty Springfield who’s 60’s hit “I Just Don’t Know To Do With Myself” was recently covered and released as a fantastic single by the White Stripes. So I checked my computer, and for whatever reason I hadn’t ripped “Actually” on to my computer and so I did it and I’m listening to it and writing about it, and it really is a great album. Also it has one of the best album covers of all time (which they claim wasn’t staged, it was just the result of a long photo shoot).

Shrek 2- Donkey's Revenge

My wife and I caught “Shrek 2” over this past weekend and we both really enjoyed the movie. I was flipping through the imdb comments and someone was talking about the first “Shrek” being, “lauded by both critics and audiences: an uncommon occurrence in today's society” which I find to be amazingly short sighted statement. Popular movies and critical acclaim have almost always had about the same ratio over time, and things have only improved in relative popularity of critical hits with commercial success with the availability reviews and the rise of the information age. It helps to think of things in perspective.
Anyways back to “Shrek 2,” one of my favorite lines (just a side note; I don’t warn about spoilers, because there are no surprises in life) is the giant gingerbread man’s last line in the movie’s narrative. For some reason he quotes ET’s final message and tells the Gingerbread Man to “Be good.” It was just so odd, but I’m into movie referencing overkill, so it’s a good thing.