Friday Links

Justin Timberlake is set to cameo in the video for the Gnarls Barkley song “Run.” It’s the first single from their new album, slated for an April 8th release. Can’t wait.

Five Year Engagement is in the works, a new collaboration between Judd Apatow and Jason Segel who also teamed on the upcoming release Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

Recent Best Song Oscar winners Marketa Irglova and Glen Hansard have been signed to Warner/Chappell Music, a division of Warner Music Group.

EW has a video sneak-peek of the new Lego Indiana Jones video game.

HuffPost blogger Jeremy Axelrod defends the now defunct Quarterlife. (Thanks to Michelle for the cancellation link!)

Christian Music or Secular? It's Complicated

A couple of weeks ago, a post on True Sheet informed me that Reliant K is considered a Christian rock group. I was surprised. I don’t listen to much Reliant K, but from what I have heard, I would never assume they are a Christian group. The realization set me to thinking about another realization I had back in October. Doing some background reading on Mat Kearney before going to see him perform at a small concert (see unnecessary photo, right), I discovered on Wikipedia that he is also considered a Christian musician and originally started out on a Christian label. I’ve mentioned before that Mat Kearney is one of my favorite artists, so having been familiar with his work for a couple of years (having first discovered him when I heard one of his songs in a JAM tribute on You Tube), the added info was more than unexpected.

I’m not really religious, but I certainly respect those who are. We all have ideas we believe in. I actually have more respect for Mat Kearney, Reliant K, and similar artists for being capable of expressing their spiritual beliefs in song without being as blunt and boring as some Christian music. Knowing Kearney’s Christian background, I still wonder whether many of his songs are about a relationship with another living person or his Christian faith. It’s better this way; I can decide for myself. Like the best art, my own life experience can influence my interpretation of the work.

Kearney doesn’t really make a big deal about it. Nowhere on his website does he make overt reference to Christianity. Though I was worried he would be a bit preachy at his concert, he never actually mentioned religion, and only spoke of the origins of one song (written about his friends’ experience during hurricane Katrina).

The Christian side generates most of the conversation on secularly popular Christian music (and vice versa). This makes sense, since secular listeners and media outlets have basically no stake in the Christian aspect of these artists’ careers, and likely little interest in arguments about whether or not writing music that can be taken as secular is acceptable for Christian artists.

U2 is probably the most popular example of Christian artists who are influenced by their faith without forcing themselves to focus on it solely or adhere to strict definitions of what Christian musicians should write. Their huge success in secular media is simply a reminder that the members of U2 are just like many of their listeners: Christians with more than one aspect of a personality. Given the number of people who associate themselves with a religious faith, especially the number associating themselves with Christianity, it’s clear that the only people listening to secular radio are not atheists and agnostics. Average people want to hear good music that represents everything they care about: love, money, religion, sex, etc.

To close, I’ll just leave you with a little snippet of lyrics from Mat Kearney’s song “Crashing Down.” Enjoy the ambiguity, interpret as you will. And check out the rest of his music if you have a chance. Whatever your beliefs, he’s worth a listen:

These four walls are closing in on me
The talk is louder than I’ll sing
I want to be there, want to be where you are
but you know it all, Every look and smile that aren’t meant to break
I’m over the bridge and under the rain

Mixed Reactions to SNL's Return

It was ladies night at SNL last weekend when the show returned after it’s three-month, strike-induced hiatus. Tina Fey, former head writer and cast member, started things off as the first host. From the commentary I’ve been reading post-show, the episode played to exactly the strengths it was expected to with Fey on display. Her goal during her time as head writer was always to promote women being funny.

What was not so funny, and has been getting some less-than-thrilled reactions, was the choice to use Fred Armisen as Obama in the night’s first political sketch. The sketch itself was a pretty good lampoon of the Obama idolization going on these days. Huffington Post blogger Daniel Holloway was not amused by the casting choice:

Apparently unable to find one black comedian able to do an impression of the frontrunner for Most Important Black Person of the 21st Century, Michaels turned to cast member Fred Armisen, who is of Japanese and Venezuelan descent. If you've seen Billy Crystal doing Sammy Davis Jr. on the show in the '80s, it was like that but less funny.

While I don’t agree with Holloway when he says that black people “were actively picked on” in the episode (to me, the sketch illustrating his point is simply an example of lazy writing—a little too dependent on clichés) he has a good point overall. It’s long overdue for SNL to become as culturally diverse as it’s less intelligent, less watchable younger cousin Mad TV. The show shouldn’t have had such a problem figuring out who can play Obama.

Here’s hoping SNL takes a clue from the presidential race it’s parodying and diversifies. If we can finally vote between a woman and a black man in the democratic primaries, we should certainly have already seen a more multicultural cast of characters on America’s sketch comedy gold standard.

A Taste of SNL

I plan to come back to this at some point today and talk about SNL's post-strike return Saturday night. For now, enjoy my two favorite sketches from the evening.

First, Tina Fey does a spot-on impression of Daisy (The Trainwreck) from Rock of Love.

Next, SNL manages to pull off the only "I drink your milkshake" (from There Will Be Blood) parody I've found at all original. Also, I've had the theme song (surely sung by Will Forte) stuck in my head all weekend.

More later...

When Does [Title of Your Choice] Come Out on DVD?

For anyone dying to know when their favorite recent movie release will come out on DVD, I recommend taking a trip over to Video ETA. The site has a drop list of more movies and television shows than I ever knew existed. You simply find what you’re looking for and if they know when to expect the DVD you know too.

Bonus points for the site’s “notify me” feature. You can submit your e-mail address and as soon as Video ETA knows when your movie is coming out, you get notified.

Post Oscars Wrap-Up

I’m not sure what the cheesy, amusement park introduction was all about, but overall the Oscars were not bad last night. The main thing keeping my attention throughout was trying to spot James McAvoy, but hey, the Oscars aren’t really known as the most entertaining night of television.

The fashion was pretty spectacular overall. My favorite for the evening had to be Kristin Chenoweth. Even the night’s worst dressed were talented folks, so we’ll forgive them their fashion faux pas.

Jon Stewart started out the evening strong with a nice Vanity Fair Oscar Party joke. The actors seemed happy, Stewart didn’t seem too nervous. He threw a few too many political jokes in there at the end of his opening monologue, but he still got some laughs. All was well.

My favorite win of the evening was Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova for the song “Falling Slowly” from the film Once. The actors wrote the song themselves, the film had a shoestring budget, and the entire soundtrack is just gorgeous. Cutting the mic before Irglova had a chance to say her piece? Not cool, sound guy, not cool. Jon Stewart bringing her back out to speak after commercial? Awesome. Major props to the academy for the pick.

No Country for Old Men took the Best Picture award. I’ve read the novel but haven’t seen the film yet. I still want to see There Will Be Blood more, so I’ll probably just make sure No Country is at the top of my Netflix queue when it comes out on DVD. Check out the full list of the night’s winners over at EW.

Friday Links: Oscars Edition

Before the telecast Sunday, take a spin through Entertainment Weekly’s countdown of the 25 Biggest Oscar Snubs Ever.

Variety reports that the Best Picture nominees are doing better than usual at the box office this year.

Defamer rates the Best Male Actor nominees fashion pasts and forecasts their fashion futures.

Pop Candy led me to this collection of all the posters for the Best Picture winners. In all, there are 79!

New Trailer: Sex and the City

A lengthier trailer for the Sex and the City Movie has hit the net today. The clip is more than 2 minutes this time, and it has dialogue!

Enjoy:

UPDATE: Evidently, the trailer is being yanked down all over the internet, but you can still see it here for now. Watch it soon, though, who knows how long it will last.

And, it may be a bit spoiler-ish, so beware.

New Trailer: Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2

Just took a spin through JoBlo and noticed that there's a trailer up for The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2.  The MTV Movie Blog put the trailer up last week, and there's certainly a lot going on for the girls in this new outing.

I saw the last Sisterhood movie, and it wasn't bad.  It only falls victim to the Saved-by-the-Bell, unrealistic-portrayal-of-high-school-kids problem a little bit.  For the most part, the movie was about being a good friend, and as much fun (and as relatable) as Mean Girls was, I think a lot of younger girls going into high school should be able to see good examples of that.  Sisterhood is one of those good examples, but it's not preachy or grating - it just shows four young women who don't talk crap behind each other's backs.

This Sisterhood looks promising enough, and with the boost in America Ferrera and Blake Lively's careers since the last movie, I'm sure it will do just fine at the box office.

I Watch Dumb Television Shows

Don’t worry. This post isn’t another, what-are-you-embarrassed-to-admit-you-like confessional. MENSA chairman Jim Werdell has written a list of the ten smartest TV shows ever (Via Pop Candy). I’m not that surprised none of my favorite shows made the cut. While I do have certain standards I look for, I’m more concerned with character than intellect when I sit down to watch something.

Here’s how Werdell broke it down:

1. M*A*S*H
2. Cosmos
3. CSI
4. House
5. The West Wing
6. Boston Legal
7. All in the Family
8. Frasier
9. Mad About You
10. Jeopardy!

I really enjoy that Werdell included All in the Family. The show was, for racism, sort of what Stephen Colbert is for conservatism. Archie Bunker was a hyperbolic bigot, meant to poke fun at racist, homophobic, and sexist rhetoric. A lot of people didn’t get the joke though, making All in the Family the perfect contender for the MENSA list. It was one of those shows that the people who “got it” could really feel smarmy about.

Etymology Talk: Cunt

After all the brouhaha surrounding Jane Fonda’s utterance of the word cunt on the Today Show last week (see video below), I decided to do a little research. I was already astounded by the fact that people were making such a big deal over her using the word in the context she did. She was referring to the title of a piece from The Vagina Monologues, not using the term in a negative way. Ironically, the point of the monologue Fonda was referring to is to empower women to break down the stigma associated with the word.

The main definition of cunt is ‘the female external genital organs’ (OED). According to the OED online, the first known appearance of the word cunt was around 1230, in London. Gropecuntelane was a street name, and the street housed brothels. Ha ha, aren’t those Brits clever? These early usages derived from the Middle English ‘cunte,’ of the same meaning.

It was not until 1929 that the term was used in a vulgar manner, directed as an insult. The vulgarization of the term is a modern problem. Arguably, the modern vulgar usage is the equivalent of one person calling another a vagina as an insult. A bit misogynistic? I think so. Granted, male genital slang is also used in an insulting manner, but cunt seems to be far more reviled a word than prick & co.

Something that could grace a street sign in London (even in the red-light district) more than 800 years ago now elicits a look of horrified embarrassment from Meridith Viera. Have we regressed? As you ponder, remember that words aren’t inherently vulgar, they are given power by our response to them.

Friday Links

The new teaser trailer for Indiana Jones has hit the internet. I’m withholding judgment…for now.

With the Screen Actors Guild’s contract coming up for renewal this summer, actors are pushing for negotiations to start early to avoid another strike.

The official red-band (R-rated version) trailer of The Pineapple Express (starring Knocked Up’s Seth Rogan) is officially up on the film’s website. (Age verification required)

Tom Scholz, of BOSTON, tells Huckabee to cease and desist using the band’s song on the campaign trail. When will the politicians learn?

Random Survey: Crappy-Music Guilty Pleasures

New people in my life don’t even get to hold my iPod until I know they won’t tease me mercilessly or judge me solely based on my collection of mid-90’s boy band music, the five Britney Spears songs I own, or even that Clay Aiken cover of “Solitaire” that’s lurking around the corner every time I hit shuffle.

Before I added the adorable, pop-brothers trio The Jonas Brothers to my Stuff I’m Loving list last night, I hesitated. It is one thing to secretly jam out to silly pop music in your car with your best friend. It’s another to admit to the world (that reads your blog) that you jam out to silly pop music in your car. The kind of music we admit we listen to is a carefully cultivated piece of our persona for many of us. We let the music on our MySpace pages or the bands we list on our Facebook profiles tell a little story about us, let people know who we are. The Jo Bros, the boy bands, and the Clay Aiken covers never make the cut for my story. I opt to focus the narrative on the “Desert Island” picks that I could never be embarrassed about instead: David Gray, James Morrison, Mat Kearney, et al.

I’m sure I’m not the only person who generally leaves the fluffier stuff out. So, fess up. What crappy music do you secretly love? Feel free to redeem yourself with some of your own “Desert Island” picks since I couldn’t resist redeeming myself.

It’s Official: Scribes Back to Work Tomorrow!

After three months and six days of picketing writers (and 88 days with no new episodes of The Office) the WGA and the AMPTP have struck a deal and officially ended the strike. The deal comes just in time to squeeze a few new episodes of our favorite shows out before the end of the TV season.

The major concessions in the agreement? Writers will get a percentage of the distributor’s gross on permanent downloads. The agreement also defines what “promotional use” is, which was cited as the reason the writers were not previously getting residuals on downloaded material. The new arrangement states that if a clip is being used to refer viewers to methods of renting, downloading, or watching the program, it’s promotional; if it is just to archive old footage, it is not promotional and the writers are entitled to compensation.

The good news won’t be immediately evident. It may not be until early April that we see any new episodes on the air. In the meantime, we’ll get The Daily Show back to its normal levels of hilarity (not that I think Jon Stewart is doing so bad on his own, he’s just better with his writers behind him), and in a couple of months we can put this whole mess behind us.

The best thing about all of this? All of the people in Hollywood who do the hard work and get none of the glory (writers, crew members, food-service workers, etc.) will get their jobs back.

To find out the status on your favorite scripted shows, keep checking here for updates.

Monday Odds n' Ends

The weekend box office reports show that Paris Hilton’s latest ‘film’ The Hottie and the Nottie only grossed around $25,000 on 111 screens. While I still don’t think the weekend’s number one movie, Fool’s Gold, looks very good, anything is fine on the weekend a Paris Hilton movie tanks.

My favorite Dawson’s Creek-er Joshua Jackson has signed on to be in J.J. Abrams new pilot Fringe. The show sounds like another Abrams winner. I’d be willing to give up Jackson’s (pre-strike) planned arc on Grey’s Anatomy if this turns out to be a good show.

Could the theme song for the next James Bond movie be sung by Amy Winehouse? Let’s hope so! (via Pop Candy)

Pushing Daisies (and a few other ABC shows) gets picked up for a second season!

I didn’t watch the grammys. I was too busy rejoicing the fact that there was a new episode of Brothers and Sisters to watch. Today I have been catching up on the highlights of the night via the interweb. Kanye West showed his infuriating arrogance at the podium when he accepted his award for Best Rap Album. I honestly think Kanye West is talented, but there is something decidedly unattractive about constantly broadcasting how awesome you are. It was rude of the show producers to play music while he talked about his mom, but since it had already been on for at least thirty seconds by the time he got around to his mom, he seems to be the rude one. Kanye, please do me a favor and stop being a jerk so I don’t have to feel embarrassed to admit I think you’re great.

New Trailer: Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Forgetting Sarah Marshall is a film I have been looking forward to for several months now. Jason Segel, who I love, gets to try on a leading role in a comedy for this one. Seth Rogan, Paul Rudd, and Bill Hader are involved (along with many other faces from the Judd Apatow funny farm). But this trailer (NSFW) has left me a little cold. It’s not getting me nearly as psyched up to see the film as the trailers for Knocked Up and Superbad did.

Since I’ll be going to see the movie regardless, I’m just going to have to assume that the best stuff was left out of the trailer. Strangely, this publicity still has me more excited than the preview:

The shot has such a true-to-life look that I’m intrigued. It’s more interesting on its own than at least half the stuff in the trailer.

I’m going to keep my fingers crossed that the photo is a better reflection of the movie than that other half of the preview.

Bluths on the Big Screen

Several different sources were reporting earlier this week that Arrested Development could be headed to a multiplex near you once the WGA strike is resolved. Jeffrey Tambor discussed the possibility of a movie in an interview recently, and it sounds like more than hypothetical chit-chat. According to Tambor, Jason Bateman is also on board and Ron Howard thinks things are moving in the right direction.

The show didn’t bring in a lot of viewers during its run on Fox (Page Six estimates around 4 million or so loyal fans), but it seems to have gained a bigger following on DVD. Knowing that, and knowing that an Arrested Development film shouldn’t be too costly to produce, a film would probably be a great investment.

Plus, who doesn’t want to see more of Buster?!

Nothing's Gonna Stop Them Now

Over the weekend I found out that Perfect Strangers would be released on DVD today. I got very excited. Balki and Larry are as iconic in my childhood TV memories as any of the characters on Full House, even though Perfect Strangers isn’t syndicated on dozens of cable networks several times a day.

Now, I probably won’t rush out and buy the DVDs, but I may Netflix them for a nice trip down memory lane. At any rate, the show’s entry into the TV-on-DVD category proves a few things:

a) People love weird, vague, pseudo-European accents. (See also: Andy Kaufman in Taxi)
b) There is a market for anything on DVD, even if it’s not lucrative for syndication.
c) Bronson Pinchot is freaking awesome.

I’m not sure how it proves point c, but while I go tweak the logic, enjoy the Perfect Strangers dance of joy.

Has anyone written your obituary?

Last week, NPR’s On The Media did a fairly strange piece on celebrity obituaries. Evidently, the AP has a stock of prepared celebrity obituaries, not only for older stars but also for those in the younger generation teetering dangerously on the edge of disaster. The story comes on the heels of the death of Heath Ledger, who was not among the AP’s candidates for a just-in-case obit.

Britney Spears and Amy Winehouse, though? Primo early-obit candidates.

BOB GARFIELD: At what point during the reality show that has become Britney Spears’ life did the AP say, okay, there is a chance that this show is going to end sooner rather than later – let’s get something on paper?

JESSE WASHINGTON: It was fairly recently. I can't pinpoint the exact moment. I think that everyone would agree that she’s in trouble and does not seem to be improving, so we decided to get ready if the worst-case scenario happened.

Garfield can be cheeky about it, but it’s disturbing. Are young celebrities dying in such great numbers to merit the AP running a young Hollywood death pool? Garfield points out that the gone-too-soon celebrity is no new phenomenon—Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, and John Belushi all illustrate his point.

The only recent young celebrity deaths aside from Heath Ledger that I can think of off the top of my head are Brad Renfro and Anna Nicole Smith. While Anna Nicole may have been an AP contender, Renfro—who had long been flying under the radar—likely was not. The deaths of Renfro and Ledger seem to point out that these things aren’t really so predictable. You have to wonder just how helpful the AP's morbid practice really is.

Let's hope...

this is good news.

Pre-Super Bowl Fun

The only reason I watch the super bowl is to see the commercials. I’m not a big enough football fan to care about the actual game, especially when it’s a face off between two teams I don’t actually follow.

For all the non-footballers like me, EW has compiled a list of 11 Memorable Super Bowl Commercials. With that short of a list, there was bound to be a lot left out, so I decided to suggest a 12th memorable clip:




Say what you will about Kevin Federline, but he was smart enough to make fun of himself in a major way for Nationwide, and I loved it.

How about you? What commercial do you think should have made the list?

Friday Links

Found this video (watch out, NSFW) over at The Huffington Post (and just about every other site I looked at today). Just another reason to love Matt Damon and Sarah Silverman.

Interesting article from The Independent (via Huff Post) about two things I find insanely interesting: Daniel Day-Lewis and method acting.

Pop Candy led me to Spinner’s fun list of the 20 Meanest Love Songs.

The possible fate(s) of the Oscars this year.

For anyone looking to update their music collection, EW gathers all of the new releases they've given A reviews to in the past three months.

News that surprises no one

CBS and ABC are suffering some pretty big ratings drops as a result of having to air repeats during the strike. Both networks saw especially sharp declines among the 18-49 age bracket, which brings in the most advertising dollars.

This is especially bad news heading into February sweeps, since the advertising rates for the year will be determined by this month's numbers. Maybe they should have thought about that before letting the strike drag on for three months.