Why I Oughta...

In the past few weeks, I've begun to watch Bob's Burgers.  And it.is.really.great!  In fact, I now seek it out on Cartoon Network when I'm laying around in bed trying to fall asleep.  But, the show has been on for years, so where have I been this whole time?  It's not like there aren't a bunch of fans out there.   I guess I just never gave it a chance. But, the art crawl episode really roped me in.  What with that 'Don't be crabby' sign (an inside joke between Nat and me.  And, yes, I did snap that photo above with my phone of our tiny tv hanging on the wall of our bedroom.) and the whole animal paintings comedy.   It was all too much.

Last week, Google announced a new tool called Oscar Trends - which is the second vertical-ized view of our trend data with the first being Flu Trends . Granted, I "drink the Google Kool-Aid" and think that Google data is compelling on any subject, but by combining the geek/chic pieces of Google+Oscars, I think we have a winner.  For a full sense of the project, let take a look at the research - which is based on past year's trends and eventual winners.  Check out this interesting set of examples from the past three years.  Each winner saw a surge in queries BOTH when they were announced as a finalist and leading up to the actual ceremony. Each year, as you would expect, Google sees a flood of searches around the movies, actors, and film industry as the Oscar broadcast comes closer.  People want to see the movies in person, they want to learn more about them, and they also want to see what their friends and others are saying about them.  They turn to Google ...

Are you guys watching Modern Family on ABC?  You soooo should be.  It is on Hulu or you can catch it on Wednesday nights on ABC.  The show stars Ed O'Neill as the patriarch of a uniquely-American family. 3 different story lines collide in each episode which include a gay couple with an adopted Asian daughter, a youngish couple with 3 kids and a pretty goofy dad (and requisite hot mama), and Ed - who married a younger hot potato. I'm certainly not doing it justice - nor do any of the "clips" on Hulu.  Nevertheless, I've embedded one below.

You're really missing some good comedy.  Seriously. Nat and I don't stay up that late very often, but when I do, I always go to bed with my belly hurting from laughing so much.  Most of the times, like last night, I catch him on Fridays. Some say that "he's the best thing to happen to late night tv since Carson."  He doesn't seem to get too much credit for having a great show, but much like Conan was on Late Night, I suspect he has a very loyal following who hangs on his every show. Craig's show is a bit different than Letterman/Leno/Conan.  He does bits just like them, but the biggest difference is in how the show opens.  He does a long monologue.  Like a REALLY long monologue compared to Jay and Dave.   I never noticed it until a friend (who also works in late night tv) mentioned to it, but indeed, he was right:  sometimes the monologue goes past the 30 minute mark and is broken up with commercials.  In fact, he can carry the entire s...

One of the by-products of traveling for work is that you end up alone in a smallish hotel room with nothing to do but surf the web and watch television. If that wasn't bad enough, for me, it's been summer-time television - which means a lot of reruns, reality shows, and filler. Last night I ended up watching part of Last Comic Standing, which is a show that is trying to find the "best" comic in America. (as a side note, they must be looking for the best amateur, right? But...what really is an "amateur comedian"?) Anyway, I think I might have found my new favorite comedian: Lavell Crawford. He made me laugh out loud repeatedly. This morning, one of the first things I did was look up some of his other material on YouTube. It's priceless. I have no idea if he survived last night's show, but if his act was the only consideration, they should hand him the prize right now.

A few nights ago, Natalie and I took it all in at the Orland Park Costco. In addition to buying a HUGE jar of Giardinara, enough yogurt to feed a football team, and of course, a $1.50 polish sausage/Diet Coke combo, I also picked up Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2007 for the Nintendo Wii. I've toyed with it in just about all of my free time the past few days. My first impressions: great extension of the core Wii Sports golf game. In playing all of the Wii Sports games, I found both bowling and golf the most fun games to play. That's largely due to the ability to go through the entire range of gameplay in both bowling and golf. Baseball would be great if you could run the bases, throw people out, and manage the game and boxing, well boxing is just too much work, frankly. Tiger Woods 2007 PGA Tour brings all of that (the good stuff) to golf. You can create a player (which I already did), get him his tour card, upgrade his skills, and go head-to-head with the PGA's best. My ar...

Madonna, The Police, Beastie Boys, Smashing Pumpkins, Foo Fighters, and.....Spinal Tap?!? You read that right! They're getting the band back together! Spinal Tap, the fake band, is fake reuniting for a gig this summer to benefit environmental causes . The show, coincides with their "new" release: Warmer than Hell . The best part? Rob Reiner also directed a new short film that chronicles the band and their current whereabouts that's being screened tonight at the Tribeca Film Festival. That needs to be on YouTube soon. Back in 1990 or 1991, I caught This is Spinal Tap for the first time. My buddy Neil McAllister turned me on to it, probably through his older brothers. Immediately, it struck a chord with me. I ran back to the video store and rented the VHS a few times. Then for either Christmas or my birthday, someone bought me the tape. I just about wore it out. Then came "Break like the Wind" . Released when I was in 8th grade, I again, colle...

Can't say that I've watched even one minute of American Idol in my life, but like a little schoolgirl I voted last night for Sanjaya. Not just once, either. I voted like 15 times. I know...Weird, right? I couldn't help myself. Howard Stern made me do it . What's that you say? How did Howard make me do it? He made it soooo easy. When I was in my car, I had Howard 100 tuned in and guess what kept flashing across the screen? The words "Vote for Sanjaya" and the number to call. I called. And called. And called. I kept looking around at the stop lights wondering if the folks next to me knew what I was doing. Stern's crew have really figured out how to leverage the device to their benefit. There's a few million of those things around the country and more than a handful were probably tuned in to Howard. They knew that, and figured it was a great way to incent folks to act. I'm sure that this is just the first way in which they'll use...