Springsteen Gems

So, I'm tooling around on YouTube and somehow come across...

Jon Stewart praising Bruce Springsteen at the 2009 Kennedy Center Awards?  Awesome.



The Sting performance at the end is fine but I had just watched Springsteen sing it himself so it unfortunately paled in comparison.


Eddie Vedder doing this though?



Made me tear up just like Bruce.

All of the songs in this post are from Springsteen's 9-11 album "The Rising," which I tend to forget about because it makes me cry. I should add it back onto my ipod. They are very beautiful songs.

Movie Trailer of Awesome

I feel like movie trailers have gotten completely uninspiring lately (it doesn't help that the actual movies have done the same thing).

So, imagine my complete delight when I stumbled upon the following while cruising around on the Xbox last night:



Love!

And here's a more normal trailer with a better hint at the actual plot:



Looks seriously promising come August.

Song Loop!

Am I the only person who gets a song in my head and then happily listens to it over and over and over and over again on repeat?

I do it all of the time.

My current obsession?


(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYn8a1ZVoNo)

Huey! Oh, I love this song. For the last year, it's been getting heavy rotation on one of the internet radio stations my uncle listens to in his office and every single time I heard it I would sing and dance along and declare "I NEED this song. I love it." Yet, I'm a fickle bitch so I did nothing about it.

Until today. Now I can play it to death on my ipod.

Baby, are you down down down down down?

Last video post before I start writing about vampires and reality tv and bad movies I saw in the theater recently, I swear:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEdVfyt-mLw

I'm a big fan of joyful goofy dancing. And boy does this deliver. I also really love how many different people/departments they got to participate in the video. I see doctors, nurses, cleaning staff, kitchen staff, secretaries, and even some barristas. And the elderly janitor steals the show.

Brain Poison for Everyone!

Because I happened to fortuitously be watching this when A. sent me a horrible text message designed to put pure evil into my brain, I dedicate it to her.

Congrats, you're a G.D.B.




While you're watching horribly catchy ditties from the past week of television, here's Taylor Swift being cute/hilarious on SNL:




I'm not entirely sure which one is harder to get out of my head, "I'm getting rid of Brita... she's a G.D.B!" or "I like writing songs about douchebags who cheat on me." But luckily, both thwart the intent of the text-message of awfulness that was sent to me:


Keyword Search: SYTYCD and Battlefield


Which song is now stuck in your head?!?

I Ain't Sayin' She's a Coal Digger...

My favorite new show of the year is easily "Modern Family." It's sweet and yet hilariously funny at the same time.

If you haven't seen it yet, you should. I liked the pilot, as well as every episode since, but the most recent two episodes were particularly great.

From last week: "There's a fish in nature that swims around with its babies in its mouth. That fish would look at Mitchell's relationship with his mother and say 'that's messed up.'"

From this past week: "What’s weird is that her kid wears aftershave and dresses like a count."

Non-Rhetorical Bitchslapping!

"One Tree Hill" has never been one to shy away from good old fashioned fisticuffs. But the bitch-slapping? It's awesomely out of control.

In honor of a recent episode where Brooke got to hilariously say "Does Brooke Davis need to slap-a-bitch?" and Haley got arrested for assault, I present you with the two best bitch-slaps to ever grace "One Tree Hill."


First, we have my personal favorite. It's got a bunch of One Tree Hill staples in it. Brooke is vulnerable and emotional and just all-around awesome while calling bullshit when she sees it. Peyton's being even whinier and more annoying than usual. And then there's bonus insufferable and condescending Lucas to cap things off!





And next we have a very pregnant Haley venting her righteous fury. What's best about this slap, though, is that it's just the beginning of a slippery slope of violence for Haley. The next step, of course, involving going to your son's elementary school, calling the mom of the kid who is bullying him a Bitch, and then punching her in the face. And let's not forget the aforementioned assault that landed her in the slammer recently.

Haley! You're a big ole nerd! You should know better! It's just not a good idea to bitch-slap the pregnant woman claiming to be carrying your NBA star husband's offspring. Especially if she purposefully baits you. Because you know that bitch has the paparazzi staked out behind your car.

Things I've found on the internet today

I grew up watching a helluva lot of HBO (because my father stole our cable from the neighbors, naturally) and this song was one of my favorites. I've never seen the show (or read the book) it's apparently taken from, though. I think HBO just cut all the songs up and aired them in between programs.

It's relevant because I took the boys to the library today for "Summer Reading Program" activities and they were forced, strangely enough, to watch this in exchange for a soft pretzel. Brown-Eyes happily munched on his over the course of an hour while Blue-Eyes absolutely refused to take one with crossed arms, high-pitched loud voice, and everything. And no, I still have no idea why he got so angry and melodramatic over being offered a free pretzel.

---------------------------------------------

Romance author Jennifer Crusie pointed me to a blog where half of the pictures tend to remind me of something my friend Elliott either once did or will likely one day do.

The one that most comes to mind involves the time I went down to his dorm room in college and watched him happily stick half his body out of the window and proudly reemerge with a cold Dr. Pepper he'd chilled in the snow sitting on top of the central air-conditioning unit outside.

My favorite picture, though, is this ingenious spoon:

Duct Tape + Zip Tie = Spoon, indeed.

---------------------------------------------

"The Inventory" is easily my favorite regular feature at The A.V. Club and there was a particularly awesome one today concerning R. Kelly and gratuitous and often bizarre sexual acts mentioned on his recent album.

Also, I will totally buy their book when it comes out and place it on my coffee table... once I move out of my parents' house and again have a coffee table to put books on.

---------------------------------------------

And "So You Think You Can Dance" finally got good again. I think I forget every year that the dancing usually doesn't get crazy amazing until it gets closer to the Top 10 and they weed out most of the dancers who aren't versatile enough to pull off routines not in their particular specialty.



Man, I frickin love Wade Robson. He is totally my favorite choreographer on the show even if his stuff is sometimes absurdly strange. And I will say that I think Brandon's a great dancer but he has a bad habit (or unfortunate birth defect) of being unable to not look like Carlton from "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air." He also looks particularly stupid when he pouts and he does that all of the damn time.

Upcoming Movies

(Click on the posters for trailers)

Will definitely go see:


Because I have enjoyed all of Apatow's movies so far. And the trailers made me laugh.

(Ponyo)

Because Miyazaki's kid-oriented movies are my favorite of his. And it's about a mermaid!!

And I won't be taking the boys because they can be frickin annoying at the movie theater and I don't want to be distracted. They can watch it on video.


Will Probably Go See:

Even though I only got about 2/3 of the way through the book because I just didn't like Julie and didn't care to read about her anymore. This is usually my problem with non-fiction memoirs. I like Amy Adams, though. And Meryl Streep.


Note: This post was brought to you with hardly any complete sentences. Just the way I like it.

There's too many mother uckers ucking with my shiiiiiiiiiit. Too many to count. Mother uckers!

I haven't watched a single Flight of The Conchords episode all of the way through besides the Bowie one, but when I catch pieces, I'm usually amused. Like now.

My favorite part is that Brett's tirade about apples is so explicit that the only words not beeped out in the middle are "Granny Smith," "avocado," and "mango." Heh.


Oh, and as a bonus, here's a ridiculously awesome Footloose tribute/parody. Oh, Kevin Bacon.

I Call Shenanigans

Burn Notice is one of those shows I enjoy when I see it, but I don't follow regularly (which is becoming more common for me, actually). I should catch up with the season 2 dvd's.

Michael's "How To Be A Spy On The Cheap" tutorials are easily my favorite parts of the show. So, in honor of new episodes starting to air tonight, you get a clip of one of my favorites:



http://www.hulu.com/watch/30453/burn-notice-bad-blood?c=1645:1737

Blackpool!

It's been a long while since I've been completely obsessed with something... and then my friend A. had to go and discover Blackpool. And we spent the whole weekend watching it. And re-watching the you-tube clips. And listening to the soundtrack repeatedly in the car. (Those last two were mostly me, though).

Oh, Blackpool.

So frickin awesome.

For those not familiar with random-ass british television. Blackpool is a 6-episode musical drama series revolving around bastardly gaming-house owner Ripley Holden, his family (unhappy wife, whiney daughter, and drug-dealing teenaged son), a murder, and the investigating detective.

The twist? Did you catch the word musical?

Oh yeah. Each episode contains 3-4 musical numbers/fantasy sequences featuring the cast members singing and dancing along with (mostly) well-known tunes. And more than half of those numbers feature middle-aged men singing women's parts and dancing with each other. Yeah, totally awesome.

Odd as hell. But totally awesome.


As for clips, YouTube doesn't have my favorite one (Ripley breaking out into The Supreme's "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me" in front of the planning commission) but it does have most of the ones featuring David Tennant.

So, the one with the best song (and most hilarious ending) is here:

The one with the best choreography is here.

And the only one featuring two men angrily tangoing to a country music standard is here.

To Paris, With Love (Whatever that means)

Happy New Year!

But before I depart, I have to share the strangest movie trailer I've seen in a very long time.

It looks like a buddy-cop movie staring John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers.

Yeah, I just said those two names together.

Makes no sense, right?

And I didn't even get to Travolta's bizzare bald/beard combo and bazooka-shooting penchant.



Seriously, what the hell was that? Probably really awful. Possibly totally awesome.

Again, happy new year.

Man, I want to see this movie. I'm such a sucker for underdog "man with a dream" tales. We all know how I feel about "Hustle and Flow." I'm sure if it's playing around New Years in Ithaca that A. would go see it with me.

Also, that Springsteen song playing over the trailer? Damn.

"Tell me, friend, can you ask for anything more?"

I know that if you dissect Springsteen songs up, they're mostly very simple, repeating melodies with easy rhyme schemes. But that's always been the key to Springsteen. I like to think of them as lean, instead of simple. It's like there's nothing superfluous or showy tacked on that doesn't belong there. It also helps that Springsteen's got such a full voice that it ebbs and flows and fills in any gaps. Man, I love that voice.

Proof? I downloaded a goddamn Christmas song the other day because of Bruce.

I even managed to find a single youtube video featuring the version I downloaded. My favorite part is when he can't stop laughing at the member of his band doing the "ho, ho, ho" bits.

One of these days, you'll get an entry without youtube videos. Probably not soon, though.

You would think, given the amount of television I watch, it would be near impossible for me to discover shows on dvd that I haven't yet seen.

I'm currently totally enthralled in the demon-hunting adventures to be found in "Supernatural." I just finished the second season, am waiting for netflix to send me the third one, and am mostly caught up on the current fourth season.

The show is basically a never-ending male-bonding road trip revolving around two seriously attractive brothers who drive around in a totally awesome car, listen to a steady stream of classic rock, and... oh yeah... hunt demons and other supernatural baddies while trying to connect with their rogue father who has spent the last twenty years being singularly obsessed with tracking down and killing the demon who murdered his wife and burnt his house down.

Most episodes find the brothers investigating paranormal crimes (most often grisly murders), lying through their teeth with only charisma, fake IDs, and occasional costumes (see photographic evidence below) at their disposal.

I tuned into the first handful of episodes when it first came out (it's currently in a looming-apocalypse-themed 4th season). It was entertaining, but I didn't get hooked and eventually wandered off. I found the first season entertaining but didn't get hooked until the ridiculously awesome first third of season 2. The show can be kind of uneven. For episode that's ridiculously awesome there's one that's flat and cheesy. But the awesome ones are totally worth it.

Dean Winchester? Easily one of my favorite tv characters ever.

Here's a quick sample clip that not only showcases the funny, but a little bit of the brother interaction as well:

And this seriously cheesy link's for my friend C. and her remarkable ability to capture hilarious screen captures of attractive men, because the middle of the video features approximately 30 back-to-back shots of Dean pouting:

I'd like to write about...

how much I liked the new Hulk movie...
how awesome Georgette Heyer books are...
the great tv I've been watching lately...
how Meg Cabot's book tastes and mine eerily coincide...

but instead...

you get a video featuring a ridiculously awesome puppy prison break



Thems the breaks.

I know I've been posting a lot of videos lately... but this one's particularly hilarious.

They changed the words to Aha's "Take On Me" to match what's going on in the video and sung them to the original tune.

So funny.

Especially "Watch out for them. They're gonna beat you up with that pipe wrench."

Enjoy.

The horror!

Now, crap-tastic music is always playing in the store. "Mambo #5" was playing when I was in the bathroom the other day. And I had to listen to "beating down the walls of heartache, bang bang, I am the warrior" every damn day for four months.

But the other day, it reached a new low. So low, in fact, that I was certain my ears were going to spontaneously bleed from the torture.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wJ-VPqFzy0

Yeah...

Now, it's well known that I'm not a fan of John Mayer. Elliott once asked me why I didn't like him but then answered the question himself with "Ah, the misogyny, right? Yeah, I see that." Force me to listen to even a few seconds of "Daughters" and I'm ready to punch holes through walls out of anger.

But that?! Ugh. Whole new level of awful.

Just watch the cheesy 80's Tom Petty music video. You'll feel cleaner, I promise.

Hysterical Ammounts of Racism

Alec Baldwin is absolutely hysterical on 30 Rock.

For those who haven't watched the show previously (I'm assuming anyone reading this), the only set-up you need is that Jack (Alec Baldwin) is an NBC executive, Tracy Morgan is the bat-shit crazy star of a popular sketch comedy show, and Jack's dragged him down to therapy because he's been acting out and doing whatever Jack tells him not to (all "you're not my father!").

The poor therapist has to sit through the following in sheer horror:

"Mind your own damn business, Mrs. Rodriguez!"

"Lady, just because I'm an ignorant black man and you paid me a nickle to bust up your shifarobe doesn't give you the right to call me ridiculous just because I'm proud of my son."

Paul Simon, Obviously

I was at work the other day when the customer I was helping started to hum and tap his fingers on the counter. This actually happens all of the time.

But then I realized he was humming along to "You Can Call Me Al" by Paul Simon.

And I had an epiphany.

There was no Paul Simon in my life! (And by life, I mean ipod, obviously.)

Thus, here are my four favorite Paul Simon songs.

(If I could figure out how to post audio rather than YouTube videos, I would. However, these particular videos are pretty interesting. Two are actual cheesy music videos and two are live performances. The Zimbabwe dancers in #3 are particularly awesome.)

4. Me and Julio Down By The Schoolyard



3. Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes



2. You Can Call Me Al



1. The Obvious Child