Have you noticed that all the songs in Apple products (iPod, Mac..)commercials sound exactly the same? Is this what one might call Branding? Or is it Over Branding?
And also, my Mac does need to be restarted at times, and while I appreciate it’s quality, it still gets stuck here and there!!!
No, this is not a direct quote from VP ticket Sarah Palin, but might not be far from the truth after reading the “personal, private” blog of Palin’s pregnant daughter’s boyfriend’s blog.
In his blog, Levi Johnston, a high school hockey player from Alaska and our favorite foot-in-the-mouth Baby Daddy, writes about Palin’s daughter, Bristol, and her considering an abortion just days before her mother found out and McCain nominated her.
In his sensitive blog entry Abort! Abort! Abort!” Levi pleas for funds to abort the baby and asks for where the nearest abortion clinic is. Even better someone calls Bristol a “hoor” while another commenter calls Palin out as a total hot “MILF.”
Seriously though, Obama couldn’t have wet dreamt himself a better outcome than this…Parody or not. I prefer to think of it as art.
The 2008 Beijing Olympics began yesterday with opening ceremonies airing in the U.S. last night.
Whatever your brand of politics might be with regards to China’s questionable treatment of its own citizens and those of Darfur, it was an impressive and tastefully done spectacle - up until the very end with some Chinese air gymnast engaging in some bizarre gravity-defying stunts. Huh? Well, I told myself that was a cultural thing, much like the appeal of campy Japanese game shows which if anything dictates that Kabuki theatre will never be entirely phased out.
But back to China and the Olympics and its opening ceremony.
Politics was in the air (the very polluted Beijing air) last night. Costumed Chinese soldiers did their android marches evoking an era less reminiscent of the futuristic feel of Blade Runner and more befitting of Mao’s China or a Mel Brook’s production mocking Germany of yesteryear.
Only today’s China isn’t some silly movie that ends rather disappointingly after a 2 hours of build-up nor are its visuals of devastation - from the 1.5 millions displaced peoples whose mere existence was inconvenient for new Olympics construction to the percentage of those very people who were then forced into a life of migrant work and hard labor at their own expense just so we could all cheer for a cute little kid rescued from an earthquake in Sichuan and feel better about ourselves for endorsing a country who’s so hard-pressed to find a symbol of hope that they have to dig out a 5-year-old from an earthquake who isn’t quite old enough to question the ways of his country to be their mascot.
The ceremony left audiences with an everlasting reminder that however fashionably forward China’s Capitalist pretense may be in the global community, at heart they remain true to their Communist doctrines. These principles do little to win public opinion, mind you. In the days and weeks leading up the Olympics, perhaps the most critical network to air coverage of the event was the one that dumped the most moola and has the most invested in its success.
Still, NBC is stuck with the Olympics. We’re not. Which means we can decide to change the channel, but unfortunately, can’t turn a blind eye to the goings-on in China. I decided not to change the channel last night. “It’s better to know and be cognizant,” I told myself.
Besides, the place our imaginations take us is far darker than what our eyes will allow us to see. Or is it?
The entire world will be amazed by the beauty of China, and exited with the beginning of the Olympics. I won’t. Not that I don’t like sports, nor was I born yesterday to this cynical-material world, but every day we discover more and more about how the Chinese government managed to pull this production on the backs of it’s poor people, the less I’m inclined to actually watch the games. NBC, who paid $894 million for the US broadcast rights, will show the Olympics no meter what. Here and there, we’ll see an item on the news that gently criticize the Chinese actions, but it disappears between Matt Lauer reporting for the Today Show, and Billy Bush getting a foot massage for $25 in Beijing.
Money talks, as the Chinese and we know, so what are a few million people whose homes were demolished in favor of a shiny stadium? Or a few millions more who are left to starve because they are not allowed to water their rice fields, comparing to Coca-Cola TV commercial?
So, I’m not so exited about the games. Maybe I’ll watch it a little bit, but no more than that.
There’s something about the way Mary-Louise Parker saunters as she effectively multi-tasks - Running her underground business while trying to meet the needs of her brood, inevitably falling from grace episode after episode, only to stay afloat and do a public service (Juggling hats again!) by supplying every inch of the food train with much-needed “happy” relief in the form of marijuana.
I’m not advocating drug use here. I’m quite anti-pleasure derived from substances other than chocolate or ice cream. It’s just Nancy Botwin (or Mary-Louise Parker’s character on Weeds) is such a prime example of a social antipreneur.
She has her principles and stands by them - She won’t deal in elicit drugs like crack or cocaine, traded her SUV for a Prius in a way that even Al Gore might have to slap her on the rear for just out of sheer adulation, and she puts her family first before her work. Read More…
Whenever your spouse starts a sentence with: “This may not be a big deal for you, but….” you will pay attention. So when my dear wife told me on Friday night that “This may not be a big deal for you” I was listening, and then came the relieving second half: “But I really want to watch Mad Men’s season premiere on Sunday.” So we watched it.
Mad Men is a good show, about the advertising world in the early 60’s. We watched the entire first season over one especially boring weekend On Demand. This is the best way to get addicted to a series. After 10 episodes, you got to know the characters and the plot so good, that you feel as if you were a part of the story. Anyway, addicted or not, unfortunately, it seems that Mad Men is going in the same path as many other promising shows, and turning itself into a slow Nothing-is-really-happening-here soap opera. It’s a little disappointing, but hey, we will only follow the show until the Football season begins!
Beating all records for opening weekend known to mankind, The Dark Knight stormed into the box office with a fierce vengeance. Closing its 3-day weekend run with a cool $155 million (over $30 million more than its production cost), the film’s producer, Chuck Roven, went on to gush aboutHeath Ledger’s fatal performance as the villainous Joker.
With Oscar buzz all around mounting over Ledger’s portrayal and some going as far as to say, his “method acting” antics put him over the edge (who buys that, really?), no one’s arguing that Ledger’s the real draw in all this movie-going mania frenzy, even with Maggie Gyllenhaal replacing Katie Holmes and Katie giving some bogus excuse as to why her love for Tom Cruise Scientology prevented her from resuming her role in the follow-up sequel.
Last time I checked the Summer movie line-up however, this year has been a doozy as far as decent films in the theatres so maybe we could all use a little reality check here.
Hollywood’s golden couple, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett blah-blah-blah have officially got with the program and are opening a “non-affiliated” private school.
On the mythological waiting list/roster of shoe-in attendees, Suri Cruise and possibly the Preston-Travolta clan. While the Hancock star and his wife are insistent that the school is not grounded in L. Ron Hubbard’s teachings, “several teachers on board at the school are members of the Church.”
Will and Jada’s New Village is different. For one, unlike your standard everyday brand of school sports which are nothing more than thinly veiled exercises in masochism where humans get used as target practice (dodgeball, kickball), New Village students will have the option of doing yoga. How very progressive. We’re no Scientologists here (and therefore ignorant as to the ways of the future), but we foresee a very heartfelt Oprah episode airing towards the mid-August in which Tom and Katie make cameos alongside their bestest friends and everyone shares some “I love you(s)”.
If only the ending to this sad story weren’t quite as predictable as Hancock’s twisted denouement.
According to an article in this week’s Newsweek, Israeli TV is quickly becoming the hottest commodity to hit Hollywood since Ben Stiller did his Derelicte schtick in Zoolander. Not to nuke the fridge here, but with acts like Yael Naim picking up steam in MacAir commercials and shows like HBO’sIn Treatment (B’tipul) managing to muster a modest, but staunchly loyal cult following, it’s not at all surprising that TV and film execs are looking to Israel to provide them with some much needed fresh and original programming. Have you seen NBC’s and ABC’s Summer programming? There’s not one show among the bunch that’s not reality TV.
It’s telling of Israel’s rising popularity and perhaps indicative of its viability as a fixture in the entertainment industry that network TV had followed in the footsteps of HBO and chosen to add and adapt an Israeli show, Mythological X, (about love, nonetheless) to their Fall roster. (To sneak a preview of The Ex-List, click here)Loaded, a FOX-produced show about dot-com millionaires is also slated to air in the Fall.
But aside from the creative, engaging story lines that Israel seems to have the capacity to deliver, why has Hollywood looked to another country to fulfill what seems to be a gaping hole in the U.S. entertainment industry at present? To quote Joshua Alston, “Israeli shows are cheap”:
“In Treatment” premiered new episodes five days a week over nine weeks. “We’re used to doing 12 or 13 episodes per season,” says HBO executive Michael Lombardo. “The cost-effectiveness of the show is what enabled us to take on this huge commitment of 45 episodes.
“The relatively low cost will allow U.S. networks to try out Israeli formats and give them space to find an audience. “In Treatment” premiered to sluggish numbers that would spell trouble for a pricier show. But it built steam by the end of the season, and performed well enough relative to its cost that HBO will launch a second season this fall.
What may be considered “shoestring budgets” by U.S. standards is fueling the passion and stamina of Israel’s entertainment industry and in turn delivering a premium product at a bargain rate. And as long as this translates to the end result being more Gabriel Byrne, then I’m one happy gal.
Last night’s episode of “Weeds” featured a noticeable absence of song (and cheer) at the episode’s opening. So glaring was it that the opening shot simply showed a highway, the Mexican border, and two signs with the words “Weeds” and “Creator: Jenji Kohan” and jumped to Mary Louise Parker attempting to use bubbe’s vibrator as a hair dryer. The latter was more awkward funny than real funny.
Am I excited that Weeds is back for another season? Of course! Do I like the current storyline of Nancy, her brother-in-law, Andy, and her kids on the lam hiding out with Albert Brooks? Damn straight! More opportunity to hear the word “schlimazel” outside the context of 80s sitcoms. Ok, so I stolethat line. But I also miss the entire cast together and want some promise that their current non-Agrestic lives will be colliding in the near future with the people and storylines left behind, and most crucially the Nancy-Celia storyline.
Last night’s “Lady is a Charm” episode gave viewers a twist of hope in this department.
Elizabeth Perkins hinted that Nancy and Celia will be reunited and it only makes sense since Celia is currently taking the fall for Nancy’s booming pot business and it’s only a matter of time before she’s sprung free. To boot, Celia’s loverboy detective visited her at the end of last night’s episode and revealed an incriminating photo of Nancy and her drugpin boss, Guillermo, leaving us with the words, “I’m starting to believe you.”
While this season struggles to find its identity, I’m left with the disturbing thought that Showtime might try to make some sort of web contest to find the next theme song for Weeds. Hell, it might even become the next big reality TV show competition. In the meantime, however, crystal balls aside, it appears that more Yiddish vocabulary is in our immediate future and it’s fairly safe to say, Nancy will be assuming more drug running activities both north and south of the border.
Remember your worst nightmare? The one involving you being discarded like yesterday’s trash and easily replaced? The one where you woke and realized that thankfully you weren’t dispensible or at the very least, it was all just a dream, but secretly questioning and doubting your abilities and cringing at your assessment of you self-worth?
Maybe these neurotic tendencies only creep up on me. It’s possible. As I was watching VH1 today, however, and seeing this new 20-year-old chanteuse from North London being hailed as the “new Amy Winehouse,” I had to sneak a listen to her. I also had to ask myself that why in an industry as vast as music, do we need to go around and recycle the same names. Winehouse was able to breathe new life into soul music and put it back on the map. She should be credited as such, in spite of all her drug-laden shenanigans. The girl’s got raw talent. Her predecessors are simply jumping on the over-crowded bandwagon.
And while the singer known as Adele (having your last name dropped from a label eliminates all those ugly pesky ethnic associations) might be more of a promising gamble in the professionalism dept. and she shares some things in common with Amy -notably they graduated from the same performing arts school and share a producer, Mark Ronson, Adele is no Amy, “chasing pavements” and all.
But you be the judge and listen and compare below.
Season 4 of Weedspremiered last night and I, for one, couldn’t have been more giddy. As a huge fan of the show, its premise, and in spite of my repressed jealousy for the fair Mary Louise Parker, the show’s start did nothing to sway my belief that this show represents one of the finest half-hour slots in entertainment on TV right now.
Last season ended with Nancy (Mary Louise Parker) torching her house and the entire Agrestic going up in flames. The police go into the basement of Celia’s (Elizabeth Perkin) house and discover Nancy’s booming pot operation and of course come to Celia looking for answers. Without disclosing too much here and potentially spoiling the experience for viewers, Albert Brooks joins the cast as Nancy’s father-in-law and the stereotypical Jewish father who regrets that his son married a goyishe woman. Brooks also doesn’t think much of Nancy’s eldest son, the one with the “goyishe punim” nor the fact that Nancy is eating the German dish, spatzle, and that she smells like gas. References to the Holocaust abound and you start to understand that the Jewish humor jokes are only going to increase exponentially with Brooks’ presence on the show.
The big open-ended question series’ creator Jenji Kohan had us all wondering last night is what’s going to happen with the storyline involving the show’s incredibly talented and witty supporting ensemble (Kevin Nealon, Elizabeth Perkins, etc) who get left behind in Agrestic now that Nancy, her kids, and her brother-in-law have shacked up with Albert Brooks just north of the border. Kohan leaked to E! that a spin-off show might be in the works that would center around the the rest of the cast. Unfortunately for Nancy-Conrad fans, Kohan sees the split has something irrevocable:
“I love those characters; I just think those relationships wore themselves out, and I wanted to be true to where the characters were. Truthfully, Heylia and Nancy had nothing more to say to each other. Conrad and Nancy weren’t going to be the loves of each other’s lives, so it was time to move on.”
On the flipside, a spin-off might be a welcome relief as it will translate to a whole hour of Weeds entertainment back-to-back and that the Call Girl show will have move to another night. Nothing against the show or anything (’twas better than expected and I’ll admit it has more potential than Sex in the City as it lives up to its sexed-up hype and shows actual sex taking place in the city), but as David Hinckley of the NY Daily News said, “Secret Diary of a Call Girl is sexy enough, but ’tis a pity she’s a bore.”
For a sneak peak of Episode 2 of Weeds click here.
Another blond Hollywood starlet with ample assets has been possessed by the politician bug, at least virtually. Actress Scarlett Johansson has been exchanging emails with presidential hopeful Barack Obama. The connection? Her twin brother, Hunter, works for the Obama campaign after conveniently leaving his gig as Community Liaison for Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer a few weeks ago.
While all this background might explain how Obama and Scarlett were introduced, it doesn’t quite explain why the Dem candidate is garnering “advice” from the Hollywood hottie or why Scarlett is gushing about Obama’s prompt responsiveness to her emails all over the political site, Politico.
Kinda sheds new light on the whole “Yes we can” linchpin of Barack’s campaign.
Meet the Press host and NBC political pundit Tim Russert died at 58 today of an alleged heart attack. He is survived by his wife, columnist and activist Maureen Orth and son Luke, a Boston College graduate.
Fans of Steve Carell got a double dose of Carell this week starting with an hour long season finale of The Office on Thursday night and winding down with a spectacular season closer to SNL last night. The highlight of last night’s episode being the clip below where Ricky Gervais, creator of The Office (the British one), introduces the faux Japanese version of the show. Kristen Wiig, always a crowd pleaser and Bill Hader, my own personal favorite SNL cast member did a smash-up job as Pam and Jim.
For those of you Office fans who can’t wait 5+ months to know if Michael really gets with Jan or if Dwight and Angela conceive a child from their amorous tryst (might happen with the storyline given actress Angela Kinsey’s pregnancy), NBC is cleverly offering fans some crumbs in the form of webisodes to be featured on their site mid-July. Most likely these mini shows won’t give us any insight into the cliffhangers we really want answers to (rumor has it these shows will focus on Kevin’s gambling addiction), but they might provide some much needed entertainment in a world of otherwise bland and unimaginative reality TV programming.
Lastly, be sure to catch Steve Carell in Get Smart this Summer. As a lover of Maxwell Smart and all things from Inspector Closseau to Gadget, the bumbling, idiotic detective routine rarely wears too thin, unless it involves ruining a perfectly good cartoon.
Last weeks Sports Illustrated cover featured Kevin Garnett and Kobe Bryant, expressing what I think is many Basketball fans’ fantasy, to see the Lakers and the Celtics, head to head, in the finales. As a Lakers fan, who lives in Boston, and as a result is also a Celtics fan(…) And is old enough to remember the great rivalry from the 80′, I can say that it will be a dream come true. I’m sure that Lebron and Tim Duncan will have something to say about SI’s selection of championship material, so we’ll have to wait and see, but so far this year’s Playoffs looks very promising.
I like The Biggest Loser; in fact I think it is the only realty TV show worth watching. It actually helps people do something positive, and encourage others as well. Also, I was very happy to find out that the brothers Jay and Mark are from around here, right outside of Boston (Go SOX!!!) But GOSH, did you see how much they cry?
Is this the way to lose weight? Tears are heavy you know…
They give a new literal meaning to Cry Me A River… (It’s actually a song from the 50’s, written by Arthur Hamilton, and sang by Julie London. Sorry Justin, no hard feelings, but it’s not yours, like many other things…) OK you got my point.
The Celebrity Apprentice finale last night was the most disgusting thing I’ve seen on TV in a long long time. In fact it was so annoying, that I could not bring myself to watch more then five minutes, so I don’t even know who won, and I really don’t care. The one thing I am happy about, is that it was the season finale, and next week, instead of trying to avoid Trump and his stupid wannabe never gonna be kids, we are getting our Thursday back with My Name Is Earl, The Office and back. What a relief!!!
30 Rock will take a bit longer, but it’s a start.
The 2008 Beijing Olympics began yesterday with 
The entire world will be amazed by the beauty of China, and exited with the beginning of the Olympics. I won’t. Not that I don’t like sports, nor was I born yesterday to this cynical-material world, but every day we discover more and more about how the Chinese government managed to pull this production on the backs of it’s poor people, the less I’m inclined to actually watch the games. NBC, who paid $894 million for the US broadcast rights, will show the Olympics no meter what. Here and there, we’ll see an item on the news that gently criticize the Chinese actions, but it disappears between Matt Lauer reporting for the Today Show, and Billy Bush getting a foot massage for $25 in Beijing.
Whenever your spouse starts a sentence with: “This may not be a big deal for you, but….” you will pay attention. So when my dear wife told me on Friday night that “This may not be a big deal for you” I was listening, and then came the relieving second half: “But I really want to watch 
Last night’s episode of “
Season 4 of 
The Celebrity Apprentice finale last night was the most disgusting thing I’ve seen on TV in a long long time. In fact it was so annoying, that I could not bring myself to watch more then five minutes, so I don’t even know 