2008/04/27

The Final Blog (for now)

It's that time again.

Life has once again taken me away from what I love to do best, eat pizza and watch tv on the couch with my cat.

Seriously.

But now that things have picked up a bit, I just find myself gotting too bogged down to really make the blog worthwhile. I had all these reviews that needed a bit of editing and correcting - and I just can't justify the time.

For whatever it's worth, I caught FIND ME GUILTY on HBO the other nite and kind of liked it. I LOVED re-watching the last batch of SOPRANOS eps - and liked them even better than I did the first time around. I still think you should get Sirius Sattelite and listen to the Stern show - Artie's walkout and subsequent apology was worth his weight in gold.

BIG BROTHER had a fairly good season - though I really can't believe James didn't go all the way. And the two that are left were largely floaters who went mostly unnoticed. It's hard to root for Ryan after he took Shiela's money away. And Adam Baller must have the most insane facial features of any contestant on any show ever - but he's immensely watchable and very likable.

Anyway - I'll be back at some point when I have a bit more leisure in my life - but for now, Digital Couch out.

2008/04/18

BAD GIRLS BAD GIRLS! (special fri edition)

STORYTELLERS: SNOOP DOGG (VH1)
I love the Dogg. I loved this hour special from VH1. He does a lot of hits, talks about a lot of things from his life that informs his music, and sounded pretty great live. I remember when Snoop first came on the scene – there was a new CD and some kind of gun charge against him. He seemed dangerous at the time. Now he seems like a warrior who has survived to sing about it. What can I do – I love the D-O-Double G.
Grade: A


SHE AND HIM (MUSIC CD)
This musical debut from M Ward and Zooey Deschanel was put together by director Martin Hayens for his film "The Go-Getter," and when they heard the results of the one song "When I get to to the border," which was recorded for the film, they decided to do a full CD. This is a very vintage feeling album full of warm country-esque tunes that will just make you feel good.
Grade: C +


COUNTING CROWS - Saturday Mornings & Sunday Evenings (MUSIC CD)
The new Counting Crows sounds really good, has lots of upbeat songs but not many "Long December" type ballads. Not too different from their usual, but a bit more upbeat and sprightly than the last few efforts. Unfortunately, none of the songs are really sticking to me.
Grade: B –


R.E.M. “Accelerate” (MUSIC CD)
Another comeback disc from some old rockers. This new, 35 minute CD has a lot of cool tunes that remind one of older R.E.M. – not a bad thing. I personally liked the mellow new vibe of R.E.M., but have to admit with their NEW YORK CD they had hit a really boring state of affairs. This disc sets things right again and makes them sound vital again. Lots of cool songs and Stipe sounds better than ever. Not any singles that pop out at me yet, but I’ve just started listening.
Grade: B


THE LION AND HIS FRIEND
This is one of the best videos I’ve ever seen. This is a woman who cared for this lion when he was found sick and eventually found a zoo to take him in and take care of him. Six weeks later, she goes to visit him. The following short video is best played without sound, as the newscasters obnoxiousness and meaningless talk almost ruin the moment – watch this with the sound down – but definitely watch. I’ve seen this video no less than 10000 times. And been moved by it no less than 1000 times.
http://www.telestereo.com/Archivos/video.html


AMERICAN PIE: THE NAKED MILE (HBO)
I don’t know how many of you are aware of this, but after AMERICAN WEDDING (I think the 3rd or 4th entry in the PIE series – and the final theatrical one – and from my memory – it was just kind of okay) – but now there is a straight to DVD market that makes a new AMERICAN PIE film about every 18 months. They did BAND CAMP, now comes THE NAKED MILE. I went into this with a lot of good will. After 14 minutes, all good will was lost as this aggressively stupid piece of shit did everything wrong that a comedy could possibly do wrong. Let it go, Universal Pictures, let it go.
Grade: F


PORN EDITOR (HBO)
Has anyone seen this curio 9 minute animated piece on HBO? It caught my interest both with the title and with the inclusion of MR. MARCUS’ name on the credits, who is a well known porn star. Anyway – it was ok at 9 minutes – I don’t really know what it was about – and it wasn’t really funny or insightful…it was this animated thing about an editor who becomes an editor of porn, but didn’t seem to have any real thoughts on the subject. Kind of empty.
Grade: D


THE BAD GIRLS CLUB (Oxy)
Last year this insanely addictive show had a bunch of compelling misfits who you actually started to care about. This season, the girls are truly out of their minds. As in, the majority of them need very serious, very costly mental help. Still, the show continues to truly awe in the behavior of these girls. There is so much to say here, that – it would take three pages to describe what’s goin on in that house. But allow me to say this – I think the really large girl, Tanisha, is hilarious and has calmed down considerably from the first few weeks. I think Naveen is a wannabe follower loser who does nothing but talk behind everybody’s back and is afraid of her own shadow. And for somebody who’s always attacking everybody’s looks, she actually does sort of resemble a poodle. There’s a white blonde girl who sounds black who’s never really contributed any moments to the show – I’m not even sure what her name is. Lyric came and went – and was a complete moron. Genevecia was a compelling idiot, but a truly hateful idiot full of vitriol which probably goes a long way to explain how this 24 year old mother (???) actually does look about 44. Darleen is a trip – she has sort of an 80s look to her – when she’s sober she’s a pretty sweet, very judgmental, almost virginal girl – get a few drinks in her and she will strip, molest and physically fight everybody with her fists and anger – it’s a shocking turn that she does about every 3 weeks. Andrea is the newest member of the cast and for a minute, I thought the most normal – until she had a 3 way with Cordelia and her boss, then made herself throw up on camera (she has bulimia – and Naveen’s flip statement “Make yourself feel better – have a twinkie” made me want to puke. But the girl who is most in need of serious mental help is Cordelia. Words cannot begin to describe the deep sea levels of fucked-upness of this absolutely out of her mind chick. She’s done porno, brags that she loves anal, has fucked over guy after guy, has gained 30 pounds in the house, called one of the black girls the N word, cheated on her fiancĂ©, humiliated the guy she was cheating with, and the list goes on and on. Oh yeah, my favorite was when she declared “I’m elitist, I’m pretentious, I’m amazing.” Cordelia might be the most seriously fucked up person in the short history of this fucked up show.
Grade: A


UPDATE: THE BAD GIRLS / CORDELIA DOES PORN
I’ve seen a few more. So, the girl I just said is so fucked – turns out, she’s a porn actress! (I’d hardly call her a “porn star” since she was only in about 8 movies and never really established herself as anything other than a TRULY dirty 18 year old who was willing to do just about anything. After viewing (for blog purposes only) a film of hers entitles “WORLD SEX TOUR” (actually – it was just Florida.) Anyway – the girl has serious problems. Watching the videos only confirmed that she has life-threatening self-esteem issues.


THE BAD GIRLS on TYRA (Oxy)
Were great, though it sucked that Andrea didn’t show up. They fought and screamed and did their thing, leaving Tyra so weirded out she actually left the stage and let them fight amongst themselves. I have to say – I’ve grown to really like Tenisha. I think she’s funny. And while I normally can’t stand Tyra, she had a throat infection so she wasn’t able to be her usual deuce self.
Grade: B


Jeff Conway on HOWARD STERN (Sirius)
Jeff and his girlfriend from the CELEB REHAB show were guests on the show last week. It was an A+ segment. Jeff is hilarious in his self-deprecating way, and they came off as very likable train wrecks.


next week:
Arties walk out.
Night of 2 many stars.
find me guilty
even more shite.