The VMAs are Basically Irrelevant

Last night, I gave the 25th annual MTV Video Music Awards about an hour and fifteen minutes before giving up and changing the channel to something else. I wasn't offended by host Russell Brand's lewd and politically incorrect comedy (it wasn't always spot on, but some of it was funny). MTV has always been a sexed-up network, as the last several seasons of The Real World can demonstrate, and anyone looking to MTV for pertinent political coverage is just foolish.

I think that my problem with the broadcast stems from the fact that music videos just aren't that prominent anymore. When I was younger, seeing the newest music video by a favorite artist was an event. MTV premiered videos and people got excited about them. You could mention a music video to a friend and they would actually have seen it and know what you were talking about.

Now, in the digital age, music seems to be a far more isolated entertainment. New music is easy to discover on satellite radio and iTunes, and MTV plays fewer and fewer actual music videos every day.

It's no wonder, since the network has increasingly shied away from actual music programming, that the quality of its music video awards show has decreased. It's just not that exciting to see who wins an award for a video you've likely never even seen.

Last night, MTV seemed to be grasping at straws. They went for the shock-value host, but had Disney tween stars scattered throughout the auditorium and depended on a performance by the Jonas Brothers to pull in some viewers. They only gave out eight awards, and three were to Britney Spears, whose career is hardly on the cutting edge of the music industry these days.

MTV needs to figure out whether they want to be a music television channel or not. If they do, I think they'll need to regain some of their edge to put the VMAs back on the cultural radar as anything worth watching.

P.S. Jordin Sparks may want to be more careful about spewing pejorative terms at everyone who doesn't make the same personal choices that she does.

Please...

don't let this happen.

Side-by-Side: Edward Norton

Last month, American History X finally made it to the top of my Netflix queue. The film was incredible, equal parts disturbing and mesmerizing, and Edward Norton absolutely blew me away. His performance seemed like the perfect reason for my second side-by-side post.

In American History X, Norton is practically playing two different roles, so there's no need to seek another film for comparison. He embodies Derek Vinyard as the reformed, penitent ex-con, and the enraged, xenophobic skinhead we see in flashbacks. Somehow, he made me believe that his character really could change that much and end up being so good and sympathetic.

First, the frightening (watch out, NSFW and potentially offensive):




Next, the pitiful, as we see Derek struggle to hold his family together after what he's put them through (same warnings apply to this clip):




This was just a great role for Edward Norton, and will probably remain one of his strongest throughout his career. The final scene of the film (which I didn't choose since it would spoil things for anyone who wants to see the whole movie) was just heartbreaking in his capable hands.

Barack's Gone Country

As Barack Obama's speech wrapped up last Thursday, I think my mouth literally hung open in shock when Brooks n' Dunn's "Only in America" played in the background as the smiling Obama family stood on stage and waved at the cheering crowd of Dems. That B&D twang was the last thing I expected to hear.

Obviously I wasn't alone in that surprise, since PopWatcher Chris Willman devoted a post to the matter.

I've always enjoyed having a little laugh when conservatives use songs and then get blasted by the singer and/or songwriter (my favorite example being Ronald Reagan's notoriously naive understanding of Springsteen's "Born in the USA"--I guess he never paid attention to the lyrics). Even though I know how useless it may be for them to raise a fuss about it, it still makes me chuckle.

Obama's use of "Only in America" was especially odd since it has been used in the past (as noted in Willman's post) by none other than George Bush and Dick Cheney (insert "That's not change, that's more of the same" joke here). Immediately I wondered what Brooks & Dunn would have to say about the whole thing.

Evidently, Kix Brooks figures turnabout is fair play. The man who co-wrote the song, Don Cook, founded Music Row Democrats, an organization that tries to fight the idea that the only people making music in Nashville are conservatives. Cook had to put up with Bush and Cheney using his work, and now Brooks & Dunn will do the same just as graciously.

Check out Willman's full post for some really interesting background on music in the '08 campaign, and the attitude shift he sees this year among country singers especially.

Online Leak Halts Midnight Sun

As an unabashed fan of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series, I've been looking forward to Midnight Sun since I first read about it on her website several months ago. For those who don't know, Midnight Sun is the retelling of Twilight, the first book in the series, from the perspective of Edward Cullen. The first time around we heard Bella's take on falling in love with a vampire, and Midnight Sun promised the torture of a vampire falling in love with a human and loathing himself for putting her in danger.

Now, it looks like the book may never make it to print.

Meyer has had the first chapter of Midnight Sun up on her official site for quite some time now, but a while back the next eleven chapters leaked online and spread like wildfire.

Last week, Meyer finally addressed the leak. Yes, that is her writing. No, she is not happy about it. As she explains, the chapters that leaked were unedited drafts, not ready for public viewing. She's putting Midnight Sun on hold indefinitely because she's in no mood to keep writing it. I understand her point. When you're writing fiction you have to be in the right head space to do so, and if your work has been tainted by something this unfortunate your head space is going to be pretty messed up.

I for one hope that the release of the Twilight movie and the current outpouring of support from fans will help Meyer move past this nastiness over the next several months so she can get back to Edward's story. In the mean time, she has posted the twelve chapters that were leaked on her own site so that fans can see them legitimately.

SNL Seeks the Phelpsian Touch

SNL's 34th season kicks off on September 13th, and the first hosting gig of the season will rest on the shoulders of the much beloved Michael Phelps, America's golden boy (many times over).

This is way more fun than a Wheaties Frosted Flakes box. Phelps has been talking a lot about using his celebrity status to grow the sport of swimming, and this seems like a good component of that plan.

Here's hoping he's as funny as Peyton Manning.

Intervention: Broadway Style

For a bit of funny this Wednesday morning, here's a Funny or Die video of Kristen Chenoweth performing a very musical intervention.

See more Kristin Chenoweth videos at Funny or Die

Hat tip: Perez

Streaming TV for Dorm Residents

Fox plans to shake up the norm a bit this TV season by premiering the new series Fringe and the season opener of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles on air and online. The catch? The only viewers able to tune into the online broadcast will be those on college campuses.

Many networks have adopted online viewing systems, allowing those of us without a DVR or Tivo to catch full episodes of our favorite shows online a day or two after they originally air, but Fox's decision to put Fringe and Terminator online at the same time they are aired signals shifts in the digital viewing process.

Fox made the decision when they noticed that a good deal of their site traffic comes from .edu addresses. It's a pretty cool way to make sure that your target audience doesn't miss your new show just because they don't have a TV in their tiny shoebox of a dorm room.

The new strategy may also help minimize illegal downloads of these shows, since .edu users are also one of the largest culprits of online pirating. It will be interesting to see what other networks follow Fox's lead on this one and put forth that extra effort to catch the college crowd.

Lawsuit May Stall Watchmen

More roller coaster news on the upcoming releases front. First, Harry Potter got pushed back eight months. Then Twilight got bumped up three weeks to take advantage of HP's vacated spot. Now Watchmen may be in trouble that will shelve it indefinitely.

Twentieth Century Fox filed a lawsuit against Warner Brothers earlier this year for making the $100 million Watchmen without having the distribution rights. Fox says that they have those rights, and want to stop the film's release. Warner Brothers' request to have the lawsuit dismissed was denied by a judge this week.

With that decision, the fate of Watchmen is in movie industry limbo. These types of battles can bury films for good, but with a film this high profile, with such great potential to be a hit, my bet would be that if the case goes Fox's way, they'll want a cut of the money, not the death of the film.

Gearing up for the Winslet-DiCaprio Reunion

I was already looking forward to Revolutionary Road, the new drama that will reunite Titanic co-stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. Now that I've read this Huffington Post snippet about Winslet's awkwardness filming their love scenes under the scrutiny of her husband Sam Mendes (who directed the film), I'm even more ready for the December release.

Winslet gave Entertainment Weekly something to look forward to about the payoff of that awkward situation: "I hadn't realized how much my chemistry with him since `Titanic' would still stick. It's great to discover we can just slip right into it, like muscle memory."

Nothing like a silly glimpse behind-the-scenes to get you ready for a new release.

Back in the swing of things...

After being absent from the blog for a couple of weeks, I thought I would ease back into things today. The Great '08 Move is mostly over, though a few boxes remain scattered around, waiting to be dealt with, so it's high time to get back to pop culture and see what I've been missing.

Like I said though, I'm going easy for now. Today EW.com had a run down of 20 Fall releases the EW writers are itching to see. It's pretty good, and there were even a few on there that I had no idea were coming out so soon (The Road in particular).

One of those exciting new releases appears to be stalled, though. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is being postponed until Summer '09 (hat tip: Perez).

Warner Brothers is blaming the writer's strike, basically saying they needed to shift around some of the big-money movies to protect their bottom line. That's a pretty crappy thing to do to fans, especially since this is basically the biggest movie franchise going right now. We'll see if this decision sticks, but until we know for sure it looks like we're down to Twilight for our fun fall book series adaptation.

Stop Trying to Make 'Girlicious' Happen...

...it's not going to happen, Blayne!

This season, Project Runway seems to have an overwhelming number of contestants trying to emerge as "characters." Characters and Project Runway go hand-in-hand, but these people are crashing right out of the gate, trying to prove themselves the next Santino, Andre, etc.

Blayne is perhaps the worst offender of the bunch. From episode one, he was trying to weave his ludicrous catchphrases (girlicious, really?) into every other sentence he spoke, prancing around the work room like the most hyper tanorexic in Manhattan. After the success of last season's fierce winner Christian Siriano, and the attention that his catchphrases earned, Blayne's no dummy to try to fill the void.

He's simply a failure. The best part about Christian's delightfully bitchy persona last season was the fact that it just felt real. He may have been playing up his diva tendencies for the camera, but he only called something a hot mess if it was a hot mess.

Besides, Blayne's catchphrases are just lame.