Moving...

Sorry for the lack of updates lately, but there is some good news.

Scattershot is moving to AZNightBuzz!

I should start posting there in the next week, so I will let you know when that happens.



This really is quite funny...

Joanna Newsom tonight!

Chris Rock predicts future

I haven't posted anything about O.J. Simpson, because there's not much left to say about that or the Michael Richards fiasco. But I will post this video from a 1997 episode of The Chris Rock Show. Make sure to watch the end for the Nostradamus moment.

Mr. Manager gets his own show

Michael Cera, best known for his role as George Michael Bluth in Arrested Development and his work in indie rock band The Long Goodbye, will be getting his own show, on the CBS broadband channel Innertube.

The show will be web-only, and is the first of its kind for CBS. It will be shot mockumentary style with Michael and friend Clark Duke (who is also in The Long Goodbye) playing television producers. They're calling it "The Good Life", maybe because they're huge Weezer fans, and the episodes will be a few minutes long.

I imagine the show will look something like this:


You can find some more comedy from the Clark and Michael team at their MySpace page.

UPDATE: Apparently, the show will simply be called "Clark and Michael" instead of "The Good Life", and will follow the two as they try to sell a pilot script. Hopefully, we'll get to see an episode soon.

Surfing the net

I spend so much time on the Internet, I'm amazed that there are still essential sites out there that I am just coming across.

Two new sites I've recently discovered I can't live without are Pawky and Fimoculous.

Fimoculous is just a good quality catch-all blog for music, film, tv and misc., but I love it because of the compilation of year-end lists. It's getting to be that time of the season, and I can't wait to roll my eyes about bloggers' buzzed out lists, which started with Information Leafblower's Top 40 Bands in America. (Sure, Girl Talk is the 36th best band in America.)

Pawky is downright awesome. For those who are sick of wading through YouTube to find any semblance of quality, Pawky is the answer -- a video site that highlights award-winning short films. Actual filmmakers can submit films and if the powers-that-be deem it worthy, the site will give it a featured spot. Sure, users could still upload crap or stuff from TV, but it won't be lauded by the more discernable audience that Pawky attracts. I've found that even the user-uploaded videos are pretty cool.

So, yeah. Check out these sites. Also, tell me about some more cool spots, because I've got 16 waking hours to fill.

Brits agree! Ys is "astonishing"!

Two Joanna Newsom posts in a row? Yes.

Newsom's Ys is racking up rave reviews from pretty much every media outlet. In fact, the only bad review I found was from Rolling Stone, which gave Ys two stars out of five, called it an EP and said her voice makes Bjork sound like Kelly Clarkson. Normally I would be frustrated with reviewer Christian Hoard and chastise him for naming Brad Paisley's "Alcohol" his favorite single of 2005. But I'd rather Joanna not get the Rolling Stone audience.

Curiously, the three British reviews I read all called the album "astonishing," which I guess must be a very popular word over there.

From the BBC: "The orchestra compliment without intruding on Newsom's harp and astonishing range of melody..."

From Uncut: "Uncut’s editor compares "Ys" to Nico’s "Marble Index", for its astonishing single-mindedness..."

From the Guardian: "The lyric book goes on and on like the Gobi Desert. It may well be the most off-putting album released this year. After playing it, there seems every chance it is the also the most astonishing."

If this album weren't so blatantly astonishing, I'd call plagiarism.

Songs: Peach, Plum, Pear

I think it's natural to get upset when a band you love during their relative anonymity becomes wildly popular. Zack Braff didn't make the Shins' music any worse, and they were already extremely popular, but he contaminated them by feeding them to the masses. I know it's immature, but I want to keep artists I love to myself. Or at least to people that I respect. When you see the Shins listed next to Audioslave on MySpace profiles, it's hard to only hear the music.

There's a chance that I'll get to keep Joanna Newsom, although she's already quite popular and her new brilliant album, Ys, is only going to make her more-so. Her voice, which is inexplicably called annoying, yelping, screeching and other expletives in any mention of her work, will assure me that not everyone will embrace her. Thus, I can continue to stand on high and look down on the masses who don't understand what I see as a singular, mesmerizing voice that may be alien, but is clearly part of a more advanced species than you or I.

The first time I heard the The Milk-Eyed Mender, "Peach, Plum, Pear" startled me. I stopped progressing on the album and listened to the song again. There aren't many songs out there capable of giving me chills, but this one did the first 100 times I heard it.

The rest of the album is great, but this song stands out for so many reasons. A new instrument, an electric harp, instructs you to listen. It sounds like a song from the future, from an instrument I've never heard and a voice I could never imagine. And then the voice magnifies itself at certain points, the song ascending to terrifying new heights.

It's at these points where the song becomes something I'll never get over. Doubletracking vocals is nice, but Newsom quadruple (or more) tracks to make the climax that much more intense.

For many people that annoying, yelping voice X 4 will be only that more unbearable. For me, it's transcendent.

And I am blue, I am blue and unwell.


Joanna Newsom - Peach, Plum, Pear

Final Fantasy - Peach, Plum, Pear

Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man comes out tomorrow on DVD, and, unfortunately, I can't really say it's worth buying or renting.

The problem is there's only one performance from Leonard, and this isn't rectified in the DVD special features. Sure, Rufus Wainwright's "Chelsea Hotel #2" (possibly my favorite Leonard song) is nice, but then you've got to traverse through loads of Bono and The Edge rubbish to get to anything else worthwhile.

Instead, try YouTube for all your Leonard viewing needs.

Here's a classic live performance of Chelsea at Carnegie Hall, and here's Rufus doing it. For good measure, here's an ugly girl with a lisp doing it.

But this is the crown jewel of all things Leonard on YouTube, and it just popped up a couple days ago. Notice the amazing clothing on the choir, and the way Leonard so casually turns up to them, with hands in pocket.

Election day

Vote baby!

Awesome "Ironic" Tee Idea

This poor dude, who has an innocent enough impulse to expose himself to young girls, was ordered by a Delaware judge to wear a new work uniform consisting of a T-shirt with the catchy phrase "I am a registered sex offender" on the front.

I'm sure this guy's business will go down in flames if he's standing out front welcoming families with his happy new shirt, unless he capitalizes on it and starts a new business. Sell this shit to BustedTees or put a Adobe Illustrated penis on it and sell it to Threadless! Not only will he make some extra cash from frat boys, but the market will be so flooded with these shirts that no one will be able to tell who's a real sex offender. So not only can he can continue his gardening business, but he can continue exposing himself any chance he gets.

Because what's the judge gonna do next time, make him wear a hat? That's only going to help him expand his business.





I really want this I 'heart' Lamp shirt.

Scatter-Shot at CMJ

Red Hot Chili Peppers at Northsix

I was walking by Northsix in Williamsburg last night around 3 a.m., coming home from the Annuals show (all hype, fyi), when I heard some monster bass lines making their way out to the street. I walked up to the unguarded door and peeked inside. About 20 people were standing around trying to look bored, but there were five onstage looking anything but.

The Red Hot Fucking Chili Peppers baby! Booyah!

They opened up with "Give it Away" and got the crowd, or at least me, really into an awesome rock mood.

The highlight of the show was when Anthony sent the band offstage, took an acoustic guitar and played a more spectacular version of "Under the Bridge" than I even thought was possible, and this is coming from a guy who has seen RHCP at least a dozen times. It was both earth-shattering and heart-shattering, which makes sense because those words use the same letters.

If I had to use any letters to describe the show it would be L-O-V-E. You guys have got to check out the latest RHCP, Californication. Hit after hit after #1 hit.

This is my favorite part of CMJ, when I catch a secret show from a band I don't expect to see. Last year it was Elton John, but this year was better.

Here's some video I caught of the show with my phone camera:

Worst Website Ever

I hate having to use the grossly overplayed Comic Book Guy reference, but I really did find the worst website ever. And while I know this template blogger page isn't anything to brag about, at least I didn't try to make my own like Iris Lord.

I was watching music videos in the YouTube Underground contest, and came across one called "Screentest" for an experimental jazz singer named Iris Lord. I thought the video was pretty cool, so I checked her website to see who the fuck this crazy chick was.

At irislord.com, it's quite difficult to find out anything about the artist because of the red text on yellow background. You can click on what looks to be album covers, and that will take you to smaller pictures of the album. And then there's the page with her bio I found after half an hour, where you might absorb some info if you've got a couple hours to read a big block of text.

Simply terrible. Please check it out and click around a bit. And tell me about the worst website you've come across. Now there are over 100 million of them, so I'm sure there are some even worse than Iris Lord's.

Diary of a Werewolf

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about competing in the 48 Hour Film Contest, and now I present you with the video that my team, the Sparkle Kids, created.

On Friday, there was a screening and awards ceremony for all the entries, and we ended up winning four awards, including Best Film. Because of that, we had the great privilege of appearing on the local morning zoo radio show on KFMA, where I proceeded to hog the mic and try to get someone listening to offer me a new job.

Anyway, here's the film. It's called "Diary of a Werewolf" - which seems appropriate for this Halloween day.



We had to use a prop (pumpkin), a line of dialogue ("I don't know, I'm not a dentist.") and a character (Bob Johnson), and make the film in a specific genre (horror).

You can check out some other films from the contest here.

"Gravity" Music Video

The good people over at Glitterfish have finished their music video for L.A. band She's Your Sister.

The song, "Gravity," off their debut album In Between is pretty good, and the video is great.

Produced by Andy Martinez and directed by Jonny Pulley, the video utilizes still images to tell the band's origin story.

Watch the video here, and then log in to vote for it in the very cool YouTube Underground Contest.

Top 5 Best Origin Stories:
5. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
4. Batman
3. She's Your Sister
2. Spider-Man
1. Earth (Thanks God!)

Top 1 Worst Origin Story:
1. Darth Vader

There's no such thing as a free lunch

I don't really understand how this hasn't been stopped, but you can watch a bunch of television shows online at this website without having to download anything.

From animated classics like Family Guy and The Simpsons, to shows that iTunes is trying to get us to download like LOST and The Office. Plus Kenan and Kel.

You'd think the networks could shut down this website, but I guess they haven't caught on to it yet.

Also, here's a good torrent for the new Shins album, if you haven't grabbed it yet.

UPDATE: Now the website doesn't work. Remember the no free lunch thing... You can still get loads of episodes at www.dailymotion.com, you'll just have to search for them.

A trip down Nostalgia Lane #1

I loved going to the video store as a child. The one in the shopping center right by my house had a great cartoon selection, with classics like Thundercats and Silverhawks.

I would rent the same tapes over and over again, but my most-rented video was, without question, Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue, an anti-drug PSA from 1990 featuring every cartoon character worth a damn working together to get a teen off drugs. The Smurfs, the Ninja Turtles, Alf, Garfield, the Chipmunks, Winnie the Pooh, Bugs Bunny. The list goes on and on.

I certainly didn't rent it because of the message, but for the sensory overload of seeing all my favorites interacting on screen.

Thanks to YouTube, I can finally see the half-hour video again. (I tried multiple times to get it on ebay, but didn't want to pay more than $20.)

The video is at turns hilarious (the first line is "Morning already? I was smurfing like a baby.") and absurd (George Sr. and Barbara Bush introduce the film, and nerdy Simon explains to the others about, "marijuana, an unlawful substance used to experience artificial highs.").

Simply put, this is choice viewing whether you watched it as a kid or not.

Scatter-Shot #2

Gripe of the Week: I used to only hate the St. Louis Cardinals because they're in the same division as my consistently awful Cincy Reds, but now I've got a better reason. Scott Spiezio, the one-time steroid pumper who now looks like he might have trouble lifting up the syringe, is sporting a gross soul patch, dyed Cardinal red. Seriously, Douchey McSpiez? What are you thinking? I'd rather see you with a bright red mullet. I hope you guys get swept.

Quoteworthy: "Emo is bullshit. If people want to take it for the literal sense of the word, yes, we're an emotional band, we put a lot of thought into what we do. People always try to stereotype us, but we don't fit the emo stereotype," Brendon Urle, lead singer of Panic! at the Disco. I'm not sure what is more obviously false, that they're not emo, or that they put a lot of thought into what they do.

Newsworthy: Shrek is being transformed into a Broadway musical, set to premiere on the stage in 2008. We can only hope that it will last beyond '08 though, and overtake Cats as the longest running Broadway show. Make sure to see it multiple times, because fart jokes, especially in song, get even funnier the second and third times around.

Watch: New Michel Gondry-directed Beck video. Of course it's awesome.



Read: I wouldn't normally post about this, because I already did yesterday, but I'm just so happy that teen columnist Jessica Mendibles let us in on the little secret that, "God exists." It looks like I scooped you, Matt Drudge.

Listen: You Ain't No Picasso had a new track from the forthcoming Shins album, but the stooges over at SubPop must have put an end to that. Damn, I was ready to get my life changed again (I will never get tired of Shins-Garden State jokes). Still check out the post for a Shins cover of a Magnetic Fields song.

Teen Columnist Proves Existence of God!

Everyone can stop debating this bullshit. Yes, there is a God. Teen columnist for the Tucson Citizen Jessica Mendibles proved it. "God exists," Jessica writes in the opinion section of Tuesday's paper.

Not convinced? Well, she'll fucking prove it again for you. Goddamn heathens...

"My answer to those who question the presence of God is: Yes, God is real..."

She refutes evolution as well. And no, she doesn't have any fucking evidence. She doesn't need any. It's about faith, dummy.

Why was more than 500 words devoted to this in a supposedly unbiased paper in a mostly liberal city? I have no idea.

Please comment on this column over at the Citizen website. If not because you're appalled that this was printed, then because Mendibles is such an incredible last name. Just say it. Mendibles. Ha. Rolls of the tongue.

LSD for Soldiers and Children

Amidst the news that the U.S. Government is "torturing" terror suspects with LSD, here are some awesome videos of soldiers and children doing or talking about LSD. They're in black and white, so that means they're old.

These soldiers try to carry out their mission while tripping balls, broseph.



This one has a little boy talking quite eloquently about his religious experience on LSD.




And here's a girl on LSD trying to wrap her head around the concept of "orange."

48 Hour Film Fest

This weekend I competed in a 48 Hour Film contest, in which my team had to write, shoot and edit a 4 - 7 minute film in 48 hours. The organizers assign teams different genres, but every team has to use the same prop (pumpkin), character (Bob Johnson) and line of dialogue ("I don't know, I'm not a dentist.").

There are thousands of entries every year in similar contests. Here is the national winner from last year, the fantastic Mimes on the Prairie. Here is the second place entry — which I only mention because it was created by a team called Scattershot — The Write Stuff.

And if you can't stop watching the 48 hour movies, YouTube has hundreds of them. Breakin' Hearts was the best one I found over there. Obviously, it's a breakdancing musical.



If you want to try your hand at 48 hour filmmaking, this weekend you can compete in the National Film Challenge, which is actually international.

Scatter-Shot #1

Newsworthy: Marijuana will help you defeat Alzheimer's. Next up, AIDS.

Quoteworthy: "Terrell has 25 millions reasons why he should be alive," publicist Kim Etheredge, referencing Terrell Owens $25 million contract, as the reason he wouldn't try to kill himself. Me? Including college loans and credit card debt, I've got a few thousand reasons to end it all.

Random Review: I bought a box of Handi-Snacks Crackers 'N Cheez for nostalgic reasons, and it turned out to be a stupid idea, just like when I got Thundercats on DVD or downloaded Kriss-Kross.

Watch: NBC is riding high with Howie Mandel and "Deal or No Deal", so why not have Bob Saget host "1 vs. 100," the new game show premiering tonight. Like most game shows, "1 vs. 100" has whored itself around the world before coming to America, looking for a new start and some cream to relieve the burning down there. The show premieres tonight.

Listen: Ryan Adams, who changes his mind about the Internet every day, has put up a new "album" called You are the Audience up on his website. I would say the 36 tracks are a joke, but I like them better than most of Adams' recent offerings.

Read: It's pretty difficult for anyone to defend Mel Gibson right now. But you know who could? Jesus Christ. Through Pat Boone, that is. Check out Boone's column where he tells us that he knows "Mel and Christ, and my friend Mel is no anti-semite." Christ, however, believes the Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.

Bam! You come to another light.

I went to the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in L.A. this weekend to catch F'Ed Up and Illegal Videos, hosted by Matt Besser. It was a great show, as most of UCB's offerings are. While I consider myself well-versed in Internet vids, everything they showed was new to me.

Larry Williams giving directions to a couple out-of-towners might have been the highlight of the show for me.

Chitra my queen, let's boycott Fandango

I suppose I understand the marketing idea that if your advertisements are annoying enough, they will stick with the consumer. But once the company knows they’ve got plenty of brand awareness, it should be time to change the ads to make the consumer happy.

Of course, I’m talking about Fandango, a company that sells movie-tickets online. More specifically, I’m talking about the paper bag puppets who help the audience start almost every film I see in the worst possible mindset.

At first, I thought that the Fandango puppet humor just didn’t appeal to me. I would hear laughter throughout the theater as the puppets talked about getting their movie tickets online. Now, I don’t think anyone is laughing. Ethnic stereotypes have entered the advertisements and reoccurring characters such as Chitra and her husband are making what was once only painful, now completely unbearable.

Here is the most worthless ad so far, but they'll only get worse....unless we do something.



Today I call for Fandango to stop advertising. We know that if we want to buy tickets online, we’ve got to go through you…and pay the $1 service charge. But I personally will not buy tickets online until you change your ad campaign. The puppets need to die a quick, hopefully very painful, death.

Here are some new campaign ideas that are less offensive, since Fandango apparently have no one working on this.

1. Diet Coke and Mentos - this is really hot right now

2. Lonelygirl15 - she can sell anything

3. Budweiser frogs - bring them back, have them say "whassup"

Shit, I even made a petition. Sign it and join me in stopping the most irritating ad campaign since Jared lost more than 200 pounds!

Or if you love the ads, go buy a t-shirt online for only $15.

Why I don't read on Wednesday

"One quality show after another, each one fresher and more brilliant than the last. If they only stumbled once, just gave us thirty minutes to ourselves, but they won’t! They won’t let me live!” - Homer

There's America's Next Top Model and Project Runway. Now there's South Park and the new David Cross and Jon Benjamin cartoon Freakshow. The airwaves are so clogged with entertainment that I have to skip Laguna Beach. It's a good thing the Yankees-Tigers game was rained out. I don't know what I'll do when Top Chef starts up again.

The real star of Wednesday night, however, is of course Lost. I'm a little late to the party on this show, and had to catch up on DVD in the last couple weeks. The first episode of the 3rd season is the first I've seen with commercials, and it was agonizing to wait three minutes to see what happened next. Now I have to endure a 215 hour break before the next episode.

If you are deciding whether or not to watch the show, take a look at LOSTpedia and see what might become of you. This is also a good site if you need a quick bump to make it until next Wednesday.

They have character histories, plot summaries and lots of other useless info, but the most fun are reading the "fan theories."

Here are some of the nuttiest ones:

The numbers 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42 are in fact referencing the periodic table, and the combination of these elements (Be, O, P, S, V and Mo) create an evil weapon.
LIKELINESS: 5

The statue of a foot with four toes that Sayid sees means "the others" might be trolls.
LIKELINESS: 8

Mr. Friendly, the man who leads the boat that takes Walt, is gay.
LIKELINESS: 10

Jack's father is Him, the leader of the others. John Locke's father is Him. HIM is an acronym for "His Infernal Majesty" - the Devil.
LIKELINESS: 0

An early name for Goliath was Alwt, an anagram for Walt, therefore...I'm not sure.
LIKELINESS: ?

Mr. Manager gets his own band

"Some of the artists are kind of talented. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of The Jerky Boys. They do these prank phone calls. It’s kind of old school, but... I have the tape in my room. I accidentally didn’t burn it yet."

It's the fall and thanks to Fox there's nothing funny on television again. For those with serious or minor Arrested Development withdrawl, there's a few options. Buster shows up in the trailer for Stranger than Fiction, which looks like this year's Oscar-worthy indie flick for Clint Eastwood to stomp on come Awards time. And there's Gob in this prison movie, which looks pretty bad but is directed by Bob Odenkirk, so who knows?

If you're tired of moving images, AD's cast is delving into other areas of the entertainment industry, notably with Michael Cera (George Michael) tryng his hand at music.

The kids of AD always seemed super cool behind a nerdy front, and this was confirmed when my friends spotted Maeby and Bland checking out the Mountain Goats in-store at Amoeba L.A. a few weeks ago. "Where was George Michael?" I asked.

Apparently practicing with his band, The Long Goodbye, who are actually AWESOME. Only 18-years-old, Michael plays guitar and sometimes sings for TLG - which cites influences like Neutral Milk Hotel and Weezer (I'm sure only pre-Green Weez, though). Michael even sports a serious Rivers Cuomo style in most of the band's pics on their MySpace page.

TLG has one rocker ("Nothing at All") and a couple beautiful acoustic songs up on MySpace.

"Can I Call You Mine" reminds me a bit of Rogue Wave's "Postage Stamp World", but I think it tops it. I haven't heard a cuter song in ages with Michael's unabashed vocals and the perfect harmonica accompaniment. I can't stop listening to it.

I don't know if this band will achieve a Phantom Planet or, dare I say, 30 Seconds to Mars level of success, but The Long Goodbye is no novelty act. They aren't playing live regularly, and don't appear to have any kind of record deal, but I think they're on the right track and I can't wait to check them out next time they play.

Check out Michael and band-mate Clark dance around the house in this DIY music video. Better than OK Go, or at least more adorable.



"I was going to smoke the marijuana, like a cigarette."

Extreme Makeover: Harry Edition

It looks like Harry has gotten a significant trim for the upcoming Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the fifth film installment of the tremendous literary series.

Unless they're straying quite far from the book, I don't think Harry and Hermione will be an item in the film, but this shot suggests they might be at least friends with benefits. I thought he looked better shaggy in Goblet, but I guess she likes this flathead nerd cut.

More pics from HP 5, out next summer.

UPDATE: Check out Daniel Radcliffe on the most recent episode of Extras.

A timeline of douchebaggery

Dustin Diamond aka Screech aka Douche McCallister has reached the apex of his douchiness, pathetically grasping for any semblance of fame he can get his grubby little hands on.

He's decided to release a sex tape where he has a threesome with two girls, and in the end actually gives one of the girls a dirty sanchez, something that this douche probably does on a regular basis to any girl he can find who's on a nostalgia kick. Here's a preview.

And here's a timeline of his douchebaggery for those who haven't kept informed on what this wad has done since they cancelled Saved by the Bell: The New Class.

2002 - Beats up an old man
Perhaps the most disturbing of all the Celebrity Boxing fiascos, Screech takes on Horshack in a nerd fight. Not only does he unveil a major molester goatee, but he relentlessly beats up a poor old man in the saddest moment of his career. He shows no mercy, as he begins to try and shed the "dork" image which he thinks is holding back his "career."

2003 - Doesn't want to talk about Saved
Whether it's promoting his terrible band or his terrible stand-up, Diamond appeared on numerous morning zoo shows and continues to do this. I'm sure there's a story like this in every city, but here's what happened in Tucson: I normally don't listen to these shows but somehow hear Screech on The Frank Show one morning, promoting something or other. He doesn't want to talk about Zack Attack or his crush on Lisa, and only says that he's moved on from Saved by the Bell. He eventually hangs up because they don't take him seriously. What did you expect Screech?

2003 - Worst band in the world
He plays or played bass in Salty the Pocketknife. If you think the name is terrible, just listen. If anybody gets through the whole song...

2006 - He wants a handout, not a hand-up
Apparently about to lose his Wisconsin home, Diamond asks the internet community to come together and give him tons of money. He tries to make it seem like an injustice on his website, but he simply can't pay his rent, so the bank is going to foreclose on his home. Poor baby, maybe you should move into an apartment. His plan to sell 30,000 shirts at $15 each is ludicrous, and the shirts say "Save Screeech's house" because he doesn't have the rights to Screech. This is also clearly a publicity stunt, just like...

2006 - Mugged by a lady
While in Nebraska for a stand-up event (the first sign that this story might be false), he was mugged in his hotel room by a woman trying to steal his video games.

2006 - Porn star
Please die Diamond, or make like Bobby Fischer and disappear.

Here's a funny Screech website from YTMND, and here's another!

Where does Sorkin find these guys?

“Timothy Busfield sure was great in Little Big League and Bradley Whitford stole the show in Billy Madison. Let's cast 'em!” – Aaron Sorkin.



Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip premiered last week and it seems like Sorkin’s done it again. Yawn.

One of the keys to Aaron’s success is his ability to find actors with talent and bring them out from anonymity. Busfield and Whitford are the best part of Studio 60, but it remains to be seen if this will make Steven Weber (Wings) a star.

While I’m definitely an immediate fan of Studio 60, I remain skeptical about whether it will save TV, as was pretty much promised during the show-inside-a-show’s opening monologue.

Here are top three concerns after the first two episodes:

1. How will they handle the sketches?
Sure, Sports Night was “funny,” but it was dialogue based, and sketch comedy is a different beast. Maybe we won’t even regularly see sketches, or maybe it will turn into a one-per-episode formula as they used in the second episode. None of the writing staff were sketch writers in a previous life, but, if you ask me, I think it would be a good idea to hire a couple people with that kind of experience to help write sketches.

2. Matthew Perry? Amanda Peet?
I wasn’t impressed with his brief stint in West Wing, but Sorkin insisted that he play the character of Matthew Albee on the show. I don’t want to live to see the day Perry is nominated for Best Actor in a Dramatic Series, although he is better than Kiefer Sutherland. As for Peet? Hopefully her character will be gone by Season 3.

3. Romantic possibilities?
I already hate the idea of Peet and Whitford getting together, or the drama that will ensue with Perry and the religious singer (WTF?) Harriet Hayes. Also, please get Dule Hill out of that Psych show and onto network TV where he belongs.

Combining his dramatic and comedic power is an exciting play from Sorkin, but I don’t feel like the attempt to do something that combines Sports Night and West Wing necessarily means that it will be better than or equal to the sum of both parts.

So far I love the show, but really hate Sarah Paulson. The prayer circle before the show was strange to say the least, and the way everyone keeps talking about her like she's a comedy god hasn't been backed up by her saying or doing anything funny. Her performance in the song at the end of Ep 2 was painfully unfunny.

She must be fucking Sorkin or something...

Here's the very weird Defaker blog created to promote the show. I don't think this was a good idea. Here's a cache if they decided to take the site down because it was not a good idea.

What is this all about then?

I guess I should do some kind of mission statement, or at least explain what's going to be happening here at scatter-shot.

1. I will filter the entire internet every day - except for weekends - and bring you only the juiciest nuggets (or sweetest morsels).
2. I will sometimes write about movies, and other times about music, but everything will fall under the gigantic umbrella of pop culture. This is why the blog is called scatter-shot, because I have no focus.
3. I will be creative.
4. I will have fun features and activities.
5. I will make lists.

Bonus:
6. The revolution will not be televised.

Wishful thinking

Death of a President, the fictional documentary that pretends Prezzie Bush was assasinated, took home an award a couple weekends ago at the Toronto International Film Festival, and actually picked up a serious distribution deal.

I always roll my eyes when artists decide to take a stab at changing the world with candor and controversy, even if I vote the same way they do. Subtlety really goes a long way, I swear.

The movie could be great, but we need to look only to indie rock to see how overt politicizing can make artists look like fools.

Take Bright Eyes, with a lead singer who shoots straight from the hip. This works most of the time for Conor Oberst, because he's got the hooks, voice and hipster hair to pull it off. But he really went for it with his anti-Bush song, "When the President Talks to God," and blew it big time.

Not only are the lyrics bitter and pathetic, but the song itself is so bad that Jay Leno doesn't even seem to like it.

But maybe Death of a President will have more in common with Okkervil River's new track, "The President's Dead" - which you can get over at YANP.

I'm sure these guys are liberal, but Will Sheff and co. actually give some thought to the situation (and the songwriting) and don't straight up give in to Bush-bashing - which is about as fresh as Sufjan Stevens-praising at this point.

The soundtrack for this movie sure could be interesting. Maybe it will all be NOFX. I'm hoping that Pink will make an appearance.

First Post. Last Post?

When I started making (I use this term loosely) this blog, a continuation of the regular feature I wrote every week in the Arizona Daily Wildcat - the student newspaper for the University of Arizona - I ran into trouble gettting the domain name I wanted from Blogspot.

Since everyone has at least one blog, all of my first choices were taken. But it's not like they were being put to good use; they were a waste of space with most having only an initial post.

Let's give these blogs that took my names the attention they don't deserve, shall we?

www.scattershot.blogspot.com

I guess this blog is call "Weird Al." Was it all going to be about Al Gore? I like in the third graph when blogger Andrew refers to him as Algore, which sounds like an African country. You'd think this blog would still be active as Gore is back into the spotlight with An Inconvenient Truth. He was even on the MTV Video Music Awards. Isn't that worthy of a fucking post, Andy? Just plan on updating every two and a half years. You've got time for that, don't you?

www.scatteredshots.blogspot.com

Another conservative political blog, albeit with a little LiveJournal action mixed in. POLITICAL_JUNKIE_N_SC, I'm sorry but I couldn't even get through the entirety of your first and only post. And I guess since I'm only the second person to view your profile it doesn't matter, but Be Cool is not acceptable to list as one of your favorite movies.

www.scattershooting.blogspot.com

Glen Jarboe claims in his profile that he "wants to do lots of things" during his retirement. Apparently, keeping up with a blog is not one of them. The rare 60-year-old blogger couldn't even muster up enough material for an actual first post. All it says is "First Test Post." However, he did get four comments on this test post, and two other bloggers found it to be "inquisitive." Glen, you're getting a positive response, why stop now?

www.scatter.blogspot.com

By this time I was getting pretty desperate/pissed off. Way back in 2001, Andrew Robinson decided to start this thing called a "blog." It was like a journal that you could keep online, and your friends could read it, too. Everyone thought he was crazy, but he said he wouldn't stop until everyone was reading his "blog." Unfortunately, Andrew died on June 12, 2001, and he was never able to make that second post. You can probably read about it here.

http://www.musicandvideo.blogspot.com/

And here is my previous blog, which I only managed to make one post on. I'll cast stones, but I'll throw them right back at myself as well.

But seriously, Music+Video? That first post showed promise, no?