Got Bluths? (4 hours left!)

arrested development fans:

for the next 4 or so hours (as or 10:30 EST), you can buy all 3 seasons of the bluths on DVD for only 33.73

A LOST Must

If you can get beyond the over-over-exposed Gwen Stefani on the cover of Entertainment Weekly’s latest issue, there’s a great interview/discussion between J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof, and Carlton Cuse (the guys behind LOST) and their idol, Stephen King. The article is important because it helps you get a glimpse into their love it or hate it writing/creative process.

You know – and possibly despise – Abrams from a bajillion projects, like his worst, and most recent, project: Mission: Impossible: III (OR Miii (pronouced “meh”) to you Colbert heads). But if Lindelof and Cuse’s names don’t ring a bell, then you’re obviously not listening to the OFFICIAL LOST PODCAST, something that LOST Stans like myself listen to on an obsessive level.

I was having a pleasant night in Williamsburg with some friends on Saturday when one of them suddenly, and without prompt, denounced Abrams. “I hate J.J.,” he blurted. So I guess this article won’t be the fun read for everybody that it was for me, but it’s totally worth the read through if you’re interested in LOST.

Mmmm! Free Simpsons!

Every Simpsons episode ever, for free. Fox is probably going to be taking this website down as soon as they find out about it. So don’t tell them! Hah, I found out about it through a blog on USA Today’s website, so I don’t think my spreading around of the link is going to do much. This is the death of productivity, and the begining of a wonderful day. Now, off to hear about when Grover Cleveland spanked Grandpa Simpson on two nonconsecutive occasions.

Bird Kills Why The Caged I Know

After an exhausting Friday and Saturday, I return to you, the readers, to give one instruction for tonight. Watch The Venture Bros. on Cartoon Network, the episode is called “I Know Why The Caged Bird Kills.” If that title, and the show’s epic 2nd season, isn’t enough, let me give you an eentsie-weenstie spoiler: there’s a new character named Dr. Henry Killinger. The episode airs at 10:30 pm est, and is now playing on the link given above, over at the Adult Swim Fix.

Notes from the past few days.

What is a greater part of the popular culture – that which happens in society we all know, track, and follow – than 9-11? Nothing, anymore. As El-Producto puts it in his blog, “and nothing was ever the same. not ever again.”

But on Tuesday the 12th, we have the biggest release date for hipsters in recent memory. Even though we already know Justin Timberlake’s campaign to Bring Sexy Back will take the #1 slot on the record sales chart next week, I hope people will go to their local music vendors to support TV On The Radio, Junior Boys, The Rapture, Yo La Tengo, and The Mars Volta, all of these perennial hipster faves (maybe not TMV anymore) have releases this week.

My pick – and this will be no surprise to anyone who has heard me promote the record over the last god knows how many months since the early release leaked and the UK edition came out – is for TV On The Radio’s Return To Cookie Mountain. If only for the fact that Cookie Mountain is a Mario reference (Cookie Mountain is the third of seven worlds in Super Mario World) and the album is the best fucking thing I’ve heard in ages. Also, the US release features 3 bonus tracks, which include an El-P remix of “Hours.” Look at that fancy reweaving.

Oh, and not that I rely on Aaron McGruder’s The Boondocks to give me witty political commentary daily, this entry into the series does not cut it for an entry published on a 9-11 anniversary.

The Descent is the biggest movie theater mindfuck I’ve experienced in ages. It just makes you feel SO uncomfortable. Oh, and if anybody has seen it, would you care to comment on the rather simple corollaries to the 7th season of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer?

Finally, there’s more to Tuesday the 12th than just a shitload of music releases, this blogger is excited for whatever it is that Apple is going to announce at their “It’s Showtime” media event, which is most likely going to be where they announce their plan for selling feature length films via iTunes, a renaming of the iTunes Music Store (it’s been selling tv shows for so long now), and new iPods. This post/pic over at TUAW is the kind of falsified Mac Addict Pr0n that encourages the Apple rumor mill to churn oh so fast. The point of the photo was to make it seem like our new overlord, the widescreen video iPod, is finally here. Only time will tell.

Rooting For Romany, and others.

Let’s face it, part of the reason a lot of people watch certain TV shows is to root for (im)possible couplings or relationships (Friends horribly awkward Ross & Rachel melodrama comes to mind). On the tangential angle sometimes I wish Ross were Rick Ross, at least then there would have been a black man on Friends, and NBC would have made him be the one responsible for Chandler’s drug problem.

My favorite ’ship to root for is quite possibly the most futile, and it comes from Weeds. Conrad and Nancy, respectively played by Romany Malco and Mary Louise Parker, have excellent chemistry and either need or want each other. Conrad’s done some pretty dumb shit for Nancy before, so that gets him the vote for “awww he reaaaaalllly likes her!” while at the same time you worry about him getting his heart broken or his ass in fertilizer too deep for his shoes.

And with the new TV season bearing down upon us, I’ve done a write-up of couplings on TV that I’ve given a rats ass to care about. Another rule of the article is that the shows mentioned can’t be relationship centric (sorry, How I Met Your Mother). It’s all after the bump.

kickin, thinkin

So I just listened to Game Theory the latest release from The (Legendary) Roots. After the clearly lukewarm Tipping Point, Tariq and Ahmir have brought it back. Net heads are rumbling about the early hype of how Jay-Z gave The Roots a blank check in terms of artistic license. That this record shoulda been the More people were jonesing for after the Roots first showed up. You know what? That isn’t going to happen. Doesn’t mean that Questlove isn’t able to make a raw album to make the heads nod and the brains think. This is definitely a 4/5 record. Black Thought has never been on the story telling tip the way he is on “Baby.”

Its been years since I’ve had a straight-through-listen with an album like the way I just had with Game Theory. Now I’m about to listen to the new Method Man record (gracias, bit torrent), and after that the J.Period The Best Of The Roots disc. I don’t know how good the Method Man record’s gonna be, even though the leaked tracks I’ve gotten so far were alright. It hits stores tomorrow, along with Game Theory. The J.Period is not that easy to find in stores, unless your stores include places like Fat Beats and similar locales.

Supposed to go to a Yankees/Tigers game tomorrow, but it looks like that shit’s gonna get rained out. Oh well, maybe mo’ mothersnaking snakes on more mothersnaking planes.

Oh, and Prison Break was good tonight. Yeah, I didn’t mention this, but I’m addicted to that too, now. Anything that supports Peter Stormare is worth my time. C-Note might be one of my favorite characters on the show though. That surprise at the end of 201 was a mighty mind frack, though. Seriously.