MOVIE: Avatar

I watched this one with the whole family in 3D IMAX- seeing anything in that format is a bit of a transcendent experience, like discovering the joys of Tivo for the first time, or losing your virginity. (Can't wait to watch Alice in Wonderland with my 3D glasses on!) You do get a hell of a headache though, a bit like being car sick. But it's all worth it of course.

TV: Mad Men season 3 finale

Wow, just wow. This show constantly amazes me just by existing. When it comes to the scope of the writing, plotting, thematic depth, all done within the breakneck pace that is the TV production schedule, I can not believe it's possible to execute a show like this. This was especially true of the season 3 finale, where everything was turned around 180 degrees to set up for a completely different show for season 4.

Words: The over use of the term "minstrel"

Those of who know me well, know that I tend to be militantly anti-PC politics, especially the way it's practiced in the good old U.S. of A. Lately, I spy a very disturbing trend of critics being too quick to judge movies and sketch comedy as offensive and derogatory, when most likely, they're probably just underdevloped and lazily written.

Assault On My Senses: The hunt for "Juno of 2009"

Earier this summer, I went through a rather horrendous back to back sickness- which I'm convinced was some mutated strain of the pork flu. I had been confined to my bed for so long and so bored out of my mind that I actually watched Juno on HBO.

MOVIE: (500) Days of Summer

In the interest of full disclosure, let me just state that I could never dislike any movie that prominently features Patrick Swayze's "She's Like the Wind" as a leitmotif.

INTERNETS: Kevin Pollack's Chat Show

I stumbled on to this internet talk show while reading the blog section on the Mad Men website. (Season 3 starting in August!) Kevin Pollack is a character actor who's been around for a long time, and while I'm certain I've seen dozens of movies starring him, I fail to name any off the top of my head. He's sort of a cross between Kevin Spacey and Paul Giamatti, and I bet I used to confuse him with Giamatti all the time, before Sideways came out and made Giamatti a household name.

(Can you tell which one he is?)

HOT GUY OF THE DAY: Dan Finnerty

You may think you've never seen this guy beefore, but in fact you have- most notably in Old School, where he sang a memorable version of "Total Eclipse of the Heart." You may also remember him singing in Starsky and Hutch, and most recently in The Hangover.

MOVIE: The Hangover

This was one of the few movies I was excited to see this summer, given the riotous trailer, the Mike Tyson cameo, and the super likable cast that includes Bradley Cooper (hottie from Alias), Ed Helms, piano playing stand up comedian Zach Galifianakis, and Hot Guy Of The Day honoree Justin Bartha.

MOVIE: The Ten

Holy crap I love the Netflix streaming video thingy- on which I caught The Ten. It's from the Stella guys who did Wet Hot American Summer, and it's ten short films based on each of the Ten Commandments. Paul Rudd introduces each segment and is also featured in a hillariously obtuse Woody Allen tribute for the "Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery" segment.

HOT GUY OF THE DAY: Coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler)

The only thing I remember Kyle Chandler from pre-Fridayday Night Lights is this show that used to randomly be on at 4 am on Sundays- I never found out if this show actually had a prime time schedule. It was called Early Edition, and here's the premise of the show as described on IMDB:

"His name is Gary Hobson. He gets tomorrow's newspaper today. He doesn't know how. He doesn't know why. All he knows is when the early edition hits his doorstep, he has twenty-four hours to set things right."

MOVIE: Away We Go

I haven't seen this movie, but I just get the bad feeling that Away We Go is going to be this year's Juno. You know, the little indie movie that could, that's all cutesy and heartwarming, and everyone loves it and everyone loves the soundtrack........... Except for me, as I sit alone in a dark room, hating life, and hating the world, and falling ever so deeper into a desperate pit of isolation.......

HOT GUY OF THE DAY: Zachary Levi

When Chuck first came out, a friend of mine had a theory that NBC executives were trying to duplicate the success of resident heartthrob Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) by casting a look alike, give him the same haircut and nebbish good boy manners. That may be so, but Chuck is no second rate Jim Halpert, and Zachary Levi is a much better actor and way hotter.

TV: Renewals & Cancellations

So the end of TV season cancellation/renewal news cycle is over, and I would summarize my feelings on it as thus:

TV: How Top Chef screwed up this season

Top Chef Season 5 Misfires: Courtesy of Television Without Pity.

A really good article pointing out how contrived many of the challenges have been and how the eliminations have been less than satisfying. Also mourning the absence of Anthony Bourdain- while I also wonder why oh why did they get that low rent Simon Cowell guy instead of offering the job to my personal fave Ted Allen??

CONCERT: Punch Brothers P-Bingo Night

So the setting for Thursday night's Punch Brothers concert was pretty crucial- The Living Room, a super intimate space where we sat at tables and ordered drinks from our super duper preggers waitress who was like resting the drink tray on her ginormous stomach whilst walking around.

TV: How great is the advertising for Kings?

I know little to nothing about the premise of upcoming NBC show Kings, but the instant I saw the beautiful subway ads, I was intrigued.

TV: Back into the deep darkness of American Idol

Since the magical first season of American Idol, when my girl Kelly Clarkson rightfully won (despite claims of racism, because the black girl from that season didn't win, when Kelly clearly had the better voice, talk about white guilt! Okay I digress) - AI has been increasingly exhausting to watch.

TV: Friday mania as two great shows come back!

So I am counting the seconds til this Friday when both Battlestar Galactica and Friday Night Lights will premiere new seasons!

HOT GUY OF THE DAY: Eric Bana

So ever since I got HBO, I've wasted way too much time watching really crappy movies. One of them was Curtis Hanson's Lucky You. The whole thing was a mix of interesting tidbits about various Vegas hustler types and then really bad dramatic plot featuring dialogue with bad poker puns. Hot damn even the title is a bad poker pun!

Why the Gloden Globe Awards Piss Me Off

It's no news that all the big awards show suck, because the decision makers are all old industry people who who are too busy patting the backs of their fellow mainstream friends to really pay any attention to non-Hollywood media trends.

MOVIE: Bigger Than Life

Hello, I'm finally reviving me blog due to very high demand, ha! I think I'll be blogging more about other stuff too, like music, general pop culture stuff, etc.

Caught this one at my favorite NYC theatre, the Film Forum. I've been kinda interested in Nicholas Ray's (as well as Vincente Minnelli's) take on life in America, so I knew I wanted to go see this one without a doubt. For those of you who think, "I've never seen a Nicholas Ray movie", yes you have, Rebel Without a Cause.