ordinary extraordinary

Bob Knows Best

I totally have a new favorite local band, and its name is Bob Knows Best. From the website:

The band’s original songs have earned them comparisons to Weird Al Yankovic, They Might Be Giants, Barenaked Ladies, Tenacious D, and Flight of the Conchords. . . The Mission of Bob Knows Best, or BKB for short, is to expose the band's listeners to a selection of songs to quench their diverse musical thirst and put a smile on their faces at the same time. BKB can take you to the funk of the 70’s, the vaudevillian sounds of 1910, the country flavor of yesteryear and then back to the rock sounds of today.

Shy Guy and I went to see them on Friday night and we had an absolute blast. Not only are the band members extremely talented musicians, but the songs are catchy and funny as hell they put on a great show. I highly suggest that you click on over to their MySpace page and listen to a few tracks; you'll be glad you did.

YEAH BABY!!!

Giants Receiver David Tyree making
the CATCH OF THE GAME in Super Bowl XLII.
Photo: Matt Slocum

Oh how the mighty have fallen. And you know what? I couldn't be happier (and not just because I've been a Giants fan since birth). Though I was prepared to have some sympathy for the Patriots as they watched their hopes of being 19-0 get dashed, Belichek managed to obliterate that idea by abandoning his team on the field for the last official play of the game.

Suck it Belichek, you graceless, cheating jackass. The simple fact is, the Giants outplayed your boys for all four quarters.

The Giants understood what was at stake, they brought thier A-Game, and in what was possibly the most nail-biting fourth quarter play of all time Manning & Tyree were nothing short of heroic. Eli breaking free of almost the entire Pats defensive line and hurling the ball 32 yards, where David Tyree kept possession by sticking it to his freaking helmet? That is Super Bowl quality football.

I know that in the days to come, the Patriots PR machine will come out with all manner of excuses for why the Patriots played so poorly, and that annoys me. The Giants earned this victory, and they've earned the right to enjoy it without any excuses from their opponents.

God I love football, and I am so sad that the start of the 2008 season is so far away.

Hey, Patriots, how about you add "learn to lose with dignity" to your list of things to do in the off-season? It's a skill you're sorely lacking.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday

Sunday afternoon, February 3rd.

It's cold outside (for Los Angeles, anyway) and pouring rain. My new Crock Pot is full of delicious smelling chili ingredients, which are slowly but surely becoming chili. The cats are snoozing peacefully on my bed. The Super Bowl is on in a little while, and after the game I'll head down to Costa Mesa to see Demz, my favorite Road Dog. The Bossman is snowboarding until Tuesday, so the work week promises to start comparatively peacefully.

Today, life is pretty good.

Silence! I kill you!

I know I'm late to the party here, but this is some of the funniest shit I've seen in quite some time:

Many thanks to The Fireman for sending me this little gem and brightening up what was otherwise an awful day.

Pet Peeve

Dear NFL Commentators,

Please stop referring to LaDainian Tomlinson as "LT." There is only one LT, Lawrence Taylor, and he retired in 1993.

You prompt attention to this matter is appreciated.

Best,
Amandarin

Friday Food For Thought

Shake it, baby

I know where I'm going to be tomorrow night, how about you?

What I'm Watching

I have a confession to make. I don't own a TiVo, or a DVR of any kind.

(Dave? Hilly? You guys OK? That thud I just heard wasn't you two fainting from shock, was it?)

I know, I know, but here's the thing: Episodic television has pretty much sucked for the last few years so there haven't been too many shows in which I've been interested. Lost had me for awhile, but I was done as soon as the writers got lazy and started adding new plot twists rather than resolving the old ones. I mean, has there been any explanation of the polar bears from the first two episodes?? Plus, I make TV for a living so the last thing that I want to do is come home and watch more of it.

All that being said, I'm finally considering investing in a TiVo because holy crap! There are actually good shows on again! Here's what I'm hooked on so far:

• Dancing With The Stars - It's like watching Strictly Ballroom every week! Plus, Mongo works on it and I am all about supporting my friends.

• Bones - I've written before about my love for this show and it just keeps growing with every episode. It's the best show on television, seriously.

• Reaper - I was very, very skeptical about this series. The premise sounded shaky to me and, as a general rule, I hate the CW's programming; I wasn't too excited. But then I heard that it was a Kevin Smith project and I adore everything he's ever done (Yes, even Jersey Girl, Shut up.) so I had to check it out. I am SO glad that I did - the characters are engaging and the writing is sharp and clever. I can't remember the last time a show actually made me laugh out loud, but this one does.

• Cane - OMG this show is the new Dallas, except with less hairspray, and more Jimmy Smits. And with hot Latin guys who seem to spend an inordinate amount of time gleaming with sweat, looking at people with brooding bedroom eyes, and speaking Spanish (the show is subtitled whenever they slip into Spanish). The eye candy alone is enough of a reason to tune in, the awesome primetime-soap-opera story line is just a perk.

• Pushing Daisies - Love it, love it, love it, and Snackie explains why far better than I could.

• Ghost Hunters - Two Roto-Rooter plumbers who hunt ghosts by night? A hot, tattooed former police officer who's afraid of everything BUT ghosts? Um, yes please!

• Survivor: China - I'm so ashamed that I'm back on the Survivor bandwagon, but I can't help it. I want to see if Fei Long finally gives up and eats Courtney - she's about snack sized.

• And my perenial favorites, Deadliest Catch & Lobster Wars.
  

I'm still on the fence about Bionic Woman, Dirty Sexy Money, Supernatural, and Moonlight. There are things that I like about all of them, but I don't think I like them enough to stay interested for a whole season. We'll see.

I'm stunned that there's even one show in which I'm interested, nevermind seven. When did primetime get good again?

So... what are YOU guys watching?

Open Letter: MTV Edition

Dear MTV,

You fought a hard battle to resuscitate the VMAs. Really, you did. After watching your ratings tank for the last couple of years, you decided to put all your chips in on one last hand with a new location, new format, and new categories. A valiant effort.

However, I think it's safe to say that you lost that hand; it's time to back away from the table and head back to your hotel suite to sleep it off. Maybe when you wake up, it will all have been a bad dream.

Your first mistake was signing Britney up to open the show. Not only has she not had an album out since 2004, she's a complete trainwreck. Unsurprisingly, she wandered through her choreography and mumbled through her lip-sync, looking slightly confused and lost in the bright lights the whole time. She was painful to watch, but it was moderately entertaining to watch the audience members try to keep a straight face when the cameras panned across them.

Your second mistake was Sarah Silverman. As has been proven countless times before, she is not funny when she's put in any kind of hosting situation. Scripted comedy? FIne. Stand up? Fine? But she is not good at hosting and you people need to stop making her try. Plus, did she really need to do so many Britney jokes? The audience was already squirming from Britney's performance, the tired old jokes about her cooch and her kids were totally unnecessary.

Your third mistake was the new categories. "Monster SIngle of the Year" essentially translates to "Most Overplayed Song of the Year" and "Quadruple Threat of the Year" is just... stupid. Stop it. Just stop it.

There were some mistakes on the technical side too. Please fire whoever designed the seating arrangement. It should never take a winner more than 45 seconds to get to the stage; watching Beyonce squeeze her way between tables didn't exactly make for compelling television. If you insist on having the tables that close together so they can be danced on later, at least have the good sense to put the nominees at the front and on the outside edges so they have some hope of getting on the stage to accept their awards in a reasonable amount of time.

Also, please fire your Graphics department. The robotic nomination packages got old really, really fast.

All that being said, there were some highlights. Chris Brown gave an absolutely phenomenal performance (which should have opened the show) and Justin totally gets a round of applause for asking (twice!) that you "play more damn videos." The suite parties were way more entertaining than the main show and hey, at least now we know the title of the next Indiana Jones movie. But a handful of highlights does not a good show make.

I realize that I'm dating myself with this question, but do you remember when the Video Music Awards were about, I don't know... music? And videos?

Yeah, neither do I.

Perhaps next year you'd like to refresh everyone's memory?

No Love,
Me

Watch the stars

Rest in peace, Maestro.
Would that tomorrow morning's light could dissolve your silence.