Central Village

Friday Night Lights: Season 1 on DVD today

I need to urge anyone left reading this blog who did not watch Season One of Friday Night Lights last year to pick up the DVD set today. It's only $20 at Amazon for the 5-disc set, and it will not disappoint. In fact, if you don't like it, they'll give you your money back. Seriously! If you're staring down the television barrel of another month of The Two Coreys and CSI re-runs, this is a no-brainier. A few points...

No, it's not really all that much about football. You hear that so much that it's almost become the show's unofficial tag-line, but it's for the most part true. It's about people living in a town where High School Football is the most important thing going. It's an ensemble cast that focuses around the Head Coach's family, but spreads out to the families of several of the players on the team. But yeah...it's really about the families, not the athletes or the cheerleaders. Every character has to make tough decisions to balance their personal life and their football "career". Nobody has it easy. It's all quite gripping.

This is not an easy show to watch! These people, generally, have really tough lives. Like "holy shit how can they deal" lives. Every time someone catches a break, something else goes wrong. One example, a character gets thrust into a more prominent role on the team while balancing a minimum wage job and trying to take care of his senile grandmother by himself cause his Mom left them and his dad is fighting in Iraq. Yikes.

The football scenes are really good. Quite real. There were several times where they shoot a wide shot of a play developing and it looks like an actual game. I was literally on my feet in anticipation for these games, cheering along. I certainly care more about these scripted sequences than I will about this upcoming Giants season. It's almost acceptable practice to make sports laughably bad on TV dramas, and the extent they go to make these games feel perfect is quite remarkable.

Patton Oswalt recently praised the show on Pitchfork, putting it much better than I ever could. Read his comments if you're still not convinced. Everybody who watches this show not only loves it, but feels the need to get everyone else they know to watch it to share the brilliance. It's that kind of good.

The music on the show is really spot on. Aside from the regular Explosions in the Sky soundtrack playing throughout, the song selection is great. Gripping alt-emo-country stuff. The kind of songs you wish these characters would listen to when they're not on camera. Hearing these songs over the summer made me wanna watch the show again so bad. Some examples...

Ryan Adams - Political Scientist (mp3)

Bright Eyes (with Nick Zinner) - Devil Town (mp3)

Brand New - Jesus Christ (mp3)

Big Week for the Knicks

This is a big week for the Knicks. Tomorrow, August 28th, Zach Randolph trade throw-ins Dan Dickau and Fred Jones become tradable, which equals $6.1 Million in expiring contracts. This is the last shot for the knicks to make a move and turn a borderline playoff team into an actual contender. As a season ticket holder, I've gotta hope (and assume) that something can still be done before the start of the season.

It looks like Kobe has accepted the fact that he'll be playing in LA next season, unhappy or not, and I'm sure that the Lakers aren't feeling any pressure to move him anymore. THAT SAID...next year's free agent class is a big one, and IF the Lakers were willing to sacrifice one season for the greater good, this would be the year to do it. Unforch, if the decision is made, the Knicks simply don't have enough to get the Lakers off the hook. While the 6.1 mil, plus Balkman and Lee would be a start, there's no way they're taking back anything else the Knicks have to make up the salary difference. So barring some magical NBA level intervention to re-establish the league in the east, that one's not even worth discussing.

That basically leaves Artest as the guy to get, and it is this blogger's opinion that it's a move the Knicks would be foolish not to make. We're not going to get the Kings to bite on a Jerome James or Jared Jefferies that easy, but the expiring contracts plus a Nate Robinson and a draft pick is a deal any Knick fan must take in a second. I'm a little bit torn on Balkman and Lee, because while I love both players, they just don't fit on this team anymore. Especially Lee, who will demand big money when he becomes a free agent, or will level out this upcoming season and lose value. I mean, Lee simply doesn't fit into this team's future plans. We've got 2 big men signed for a long time. He can't play the 3. So we're either gonna overpay him to be a backup into his 30s, (remember...he's got 4 years on many of the kids in is draft class as he graduated College,) or let him go somewhere for free. The only move is to trade him. Sooner rather than later. Maybe he'll have more value at the deadline, when some new players might become available, but that's a crapshoot.

3 options for getting Artest:

1. Try and get the Kings to bite on the 6.1 plus a Robinson and a pick.
2. Give them the guy they really want, Lee, but force them to take back a player to ease up on our contract burden (James or Rose or Q or something). Save the contracts for a potential deadline deal (or just let them go)
3. Bite the bullet and just give em Lee or Balkman and filler for Ron.

I'm hoping we can trick them into the first 2 options, but I've accepted I'd be OK with #3. I just don't understand the "Lee is offlimits" Camp. Why??? He's not a 19 year old project. He doesn't fit into the teams current or future plans, he's probably reached his peak as a player and he's got that weird nagging injury which doesn't seem 100% healed yet. Plain and simple, he won't help this team win a single game they wouldn't already win. Artest probably gives them 5 wins himself. Maybe more. That could be the difference between a borderline 8th seed to a 4 or 5. I love Lee as a player as much as the next guy, but he has no place in New York. Not with Curry and Zack up front. Not this year, not next year and not after a large FA contract. It sucks, I know, but it's the fact.

I think Balkman is a great guy off the bench to backup at the 2/3. Jefferies grew a beard in the off-season and bulked up, so I'm willing to give him a shot. Rose is a capable backup. Collins is a solid backup PG in the NBA. The Rookies can be end of the bench guys who might have a reason to prove something. Richardson and Robinson seem a bit excessive at this point, but I'm not sure what to do with them. I guess we'll have to suck it up. Same goes for jokes like James. The Knicks aren't perfect. But they could be better. Even if it takes an unpopular move.

UPDATE: Another point...The best thing the Knicks have going for them this decade is that any player who is not a complete and total bust gets hyped to no end. WE NEED TO START TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THIS! Anyone still wishing we held onto that core of Frank Williams, Make Sweetney, Trevor Ariza and Madje Lampe?  Remember all these highly touted kids who got a lot of nice things written about them while the Knicks limped to another 35 win season? Renaldo Balkman and David Lee might have nice careers, but I can assure you that these players will never come back to haunt us. Our best assets are the young and unproven kids that get a ton of articles written about them before their faults are exposed. Move them now. I'm telling you. We're lucky we got something for Channing after his pedestrian second season. Remember when he was untouchable? And was a great draft pick and all that? Well is anyone worried that 5 years from now we'll be saying "Man...how did we give him up?" No way. This cannot be repeated with Balkman and Lee. ESPECIALLY Balkman. He is an exciting, but very flawed player. This year his faults will be more exposed. Remember this, Knick fans, when we're either trying to salvage something for Lee next season or trying to dump Lee's contract in 3 years. Like we're doing with Nate now.

Is R. Kelly a Self-Aware Goofball?

The Tori Episodes are really a creative drain, so I've got nothing today. Programming note, however, that tomorrow morning from 7-9, the Saved by the Bell Vegas Wedding movie will be shown in its entirety. At least DVR it? It's pretty awful, but it's so good.

The debate whether we're all laughing at or with R. Kelly is an interesting one. For Trapped in the Closet, the answer is clearly that he's in on the joke. SaH explains it all, and it's tough to argue. I've yet to see the new ones, but I agree that, while still enjoyable, the series did lose some focus after chapter 5 or 6 (once they became videos rather than just songs.) Whether or not we're laughing at him during songs like Real Talk (below) or Same Girl is another story. Trapped is it's own thing, but I can't believe he's turned his entire career into a satire, right? This is off of his latest album, "Double Up":

R. Kelly - Real Talk (mp3)

I mean...really?

Vampire Weekend

Hey! It's O.A.R. 2007! Who knew? These guys are one of those bands that I kept hearing so much about to the point I was just so tired of them before ever actually listening to them. This actually happens fairly often. Could call it the Cold War Kids Syndrome? Since I went like literally 18 months before actually giving them a shot (while they were playing Madison Square Garden, no less.) So anyway, back to Vampire Weekend. I was informed earlier that they would be opening for New Pornographers at Bowery Last night, and while I didn't go out of my way to try and get there early to see them, I caught a good chunk of their set. A couple thoughts...

How on EARTH did these guys become a 'blogger' favorite? If you ask me, it sounds like early 00's college rock. Like shit that people over the age of 30 have never heard of despite the fact that they sell out arenas across the country and everyone who went to college this decade had all their albums on their computer at some point. Is there anything wrong with this? I guess not. It's perfectly good music for what it is. It just sounds a lot more like something I'd be embarrassed to tell people I liked, rather than something I'm embarrassed to tell people I've never listened to. That make any sense?

The name 'Vampire Weekend' is the most deceptive name ever. It's like if Death Cab didn't have the 'for Cutie' qualifier. Before listening, I figured these guys were some electro-Faint thing that sounded like a 72-hour non-stop party. After listening, I can't help but picture them playing the Monster Mash at the school dance on a Boy Meets World episode. There is nothing 'Vampire' about them. They should just be called 'Weekend.'

I downloaded the EP off e-music this AM. Listened to it a few times, along with their impressive Exit Music (for a film) cover from the Stereogum OK Computer thing. Like I said, it's silly, goofy mindless music, and I probably like it so much because it sounds absolutely nothing like what I expected and I'm still sorta delirious from the shock. I'm not sure how a label like XL plans to recoup on these guys who fall into a genre defined by the associated band's complete lack of album sales, but I'm sure they'll do fine in some way. I kinda regret not buying a t-shirt. They seemed like nice guys.

Vampire Weekend - Oxford Comma (mp3)

Bioshock Review (First Impressions)

I understand that many of my regular readers here are not into video games, so lemme start by saying this. Bioshock is like the Arcade Fire's 'Funeral' of video games. It comes out this week to an unprecedented amount of praise. As of now, the current gamerankings mark (metacritic for games) is a whopping 97%, which is just about the best ever. And not only is the game a technical achievement, but the story just about pushes the envelope farther than anything ever done in the medium before. When a video game elicits Ann Rand comparisons, you know there's something special going on.

Clearly glowing opinions of this game are not in short supply, but let me set the scene. It's 1960, and you are some dude on a commercial airplane that crashes into the middle of the Atlantic. You swim to this odd lighthouse structure to seek refuge and find yourself at the entrance to this underwater Utopian society. Now bear with me for a sec...This world was created by billionaire socialite Andrew Ryan, who gathered the best minds of Art, Science and Industry to create a world that promotes personal freedoms over government or Godly intervention. The entire world is a series of rooms, airlocks and tubes, all created in this imposing Art Deco style. It's quite brilliant, honestly.

I've barely scratched the surface of this game, but it appears, from the various clues you come across, the whole society went to shit sometime around the 1959 New Year. One of the innovations of this world was that the ability to alter your genetic code was available on the consumer level by the way of various injections. These things let you create fire and electricity from your fingers, move things with your mind...ya know. So needless to say, the abuse of all this stuff led most of the population to go mad. You find yourself in the middle of all this, with a lone, sane fella on a radio helping you through. The actual plot so far, despite all this story depth is actually pretty vague, but it seems your main goal is to get out of this place alive, while trying to meet up with and save anyone who is still sane enough to want out.

I don't think I've gotten 1/5 of the way through the game yet (just reached the mad doctor who strives to surgically create the perfect being.) And I haven't even gotten to a 'big daddy', who are these massive robots who maintains a symbiotic relationship with these little girls who apparently possess some sort of pure blood that everyone craves. But I'm already very impressed. There is a big leap, in my opinion, between a technically prefect game such as last year's Gears of War and something like this. This is more than a game. As much as Citizen Kane or The Godfather were more than just moving pictures. This is the type of game that should make people realize that video games have the capacity for depth and emotion and more than just mindless violence and shallow entertainment. It can be art.

MTV Still Knows How to Pound a Song Down Your Throat

Not sure what type of deal Paramore broke with MTV, but Misery Business must get played on a promo literally a dozen times an hour on that channel. Plus there's some face time on that "This isn't a beach..." ad. It's quite overwhelming. Not that I have anything against it. Paramore is a pretty good band, and Misery Business is a jam, it just seems like a pretty hard push for a band that's by no means the biggest act in the world right now. Assuming this isn't some sneaky powerplay by Fueled by Ramen to get one of their rising stars some exposure...wait a minute, of course it is. Here I was almost trying to assume that there was some sort of logic and ethics behind ad-music placement. Well whatever. I'll take this leading up to the VMAs over a month of various Pete Wentz muggings.

I think its funny that MTV is overplaying a band to no end (at least as far as I'm concerned...me who watches hardly any MTV ever) without ever showing its video. The whiny complaint that MTV isn't about music anymore is kinda silly. Sure, they don't show videos, but everything they put on there, from the creepy dating shows to the latest Real world slutfest is draped in music. Current, relevant, popular music, too, not just background stuff. Much much more then similar shows on different channels, at least. MTV stopped showing music videos, but they certainly didn't abandon the whole Music Television thing. All they did was recognize that nobody will sit and watch a music video straight through, so they figured out different mediums to broadcast those same tunes. Sometimes it's having the band show you their house, sometimes it's to complement a scene on The Hills, and sometimes it's just straight up as an ad in-between shows. I mean face it...MTV has always just been a marketing ploy to sell music to viewers in ways that make the consumer feel like they're not watching an ad. Isn't this current system of incorporating it into shows much more convincing than the whole music video thing? If you like watching that kind of stuff, It's gotta be seen as a better alternative.

Paramore - Misery Business (mp3)

Podcasts!

What a concept! What a specifically urban commuter, tailored-to-me concept! And yes, I am well aware this is neither a new or groundbreaking subject, but bear with me for a sec, cause I just got into the whole thing a few weeks ago.

It started with the Bill Simmons podcast when that whole thing started. Say what you will about the fella, but he still writes the only sports column I regularly read and reference in conversation. Sure there might be a few more eye-rolls these days than in the past, but for a guy pushing 40, he still feels remarkably relevant and fun. So he starts doing these podcasts cause he's doing another book and doesn't have time to write as much, and they're pretty interesting! Good guests, smart conversation with people who not only have something to say, but people who he usually knows and has a great back and forth with. It's a really entertaining listen, and once he started doing it weekly, I FINALLY went into the iPod podcast center and hooked up an automatic update thingy.

From there, I figured I aught to start getting into others. I have about a 20 minute commute door-to-door, and while i can get a few songs in if I wanted, there are plenty of podcasts that I can get a whole story told to me in that time. So now I have a few things going. There's weekly Simmons and daily Pardon the Interruption (which is annoying because it's always yesterday's news,) Then I hooked up with the Joystiq podcast, which is these three dorks (one of which sounds like the Electronics Boutique store manager in Phillipsburg, NJ.) talking about video game news that I BARELY have an interest in. Then there's the smart stuff. NPR's Fresh Air podcast is remarkably dry and oftentimes unlistenable, but sometimes there's a good guest on that makes it interesting. The Slate Daily Podcast, which is usually a narrator reading a column out loud that's already available on line, but it's short and usually good. Then there's the gem, This American Life, which judging from my iTunes, I am 338 episodes behind. I can't say enough about how great this show is, and I'm the last person with the Internet to talk about it so I won't embarrass myself any longer.

So that's all. Welcome back from 2004, or whenever this all got started. I don't have a video ipod so I'm not getting into those yet. Hopefully there will be a new iPod in a month or so that will be worth the upgrade. For now tho, I'm happy with the radio stuff. Like I said...ideally there'd be a 20 minute daily show that i could get into and listen on the way to work every day. I'm sure there's something out there. Any suggestions?

Feist, Thermals, Saved by the Bell, and the '86 Mets

I had heard the new Feist album was supposed to be pretty good, but I had NO CLUE that My Moon My Man was such a great track! I heard it on a commercial a few times, then once or twice in a restaurant and was like whoh. It's leapfrogged into my top 5 jams of the year, alongside T&S's 'Nineteen', Pinback's 'Good to Sea', R. Kelly's 'Same Girl.' and that T-Pain/Cloud Cult Mashup. How has this song not been remixed like a million times yet? Put a thumping beat behind it and do that squelchy MSTRKRFT thing? BAM, major hit. Somebody's gotta do it right...that one remix I saw on hype machine is not enough.

Feist - My Moon My Man (mp3)

Every time I see The Thermals I tell myself I need to start listening to 'More Parts per Million' again. Those songs are so good. Couldn't find it, bought a new copy at the pool last Sunday and have been listening to it all week like it's new. So good! I was stoked to see they went back to a three-piece again, and hope their next album brings it back to their roots rather than continuing down this more refined-sounding path.

The Thermals - A Passing Feeling (mp3)

I get up early every morning to watch Saved by the Bell on TBS. I used to have better reasons, but now it's pretty much to watch TV and try and come up with something to write about here. While just about every episode feels like a classic, there are a handful of those moments that transcend the show and are their own legend. This morning was 'The Fight,' in which Zach and Slater go head to head over the same girl. Unlike R. and Usher, however, things get kinda violent...

Has there ever been a better on-camera television fight? This has to be one of the greatest, no? Especially considering the level of violence for such a campy show. Their little tiff at the end where they take turns letting the other pour punch down their pants felt much more approperate.

I went on a mini '86 Mets kick yesterday. I've been playing a bunch of RBI baseball lately, bought a Strawberry throwback tee at the Manhattan Mall and finally re-read this FHM article from 2000. If you've never read, even if you're not a baseball fan, it's a must read. To say that you'll never think of 1989 NL MVP Kevin Mitchell the same way is a GROSS understatement.

A reminder that, despite the ads that make the movie look awful, Superbad comes out tomorrow and it's one of the best movies of the year. No joke. I loved 'Knocked Up', but I thought this was a lot better overall. Especially over time. I will be going to see it again this weekend, and I hope a lot of other people do too. It's a teen comedy classic. I cannot recommend it more.

To Vegoose?

Brooklyn Vegan sorta summed it up, but to reiterate, the lineup for Vegoose is really tough to pass on. I know I travel a lot to music festivals, and one more does seem like one too many, but I have a free flight on JetBlue to use and it seems like the perfect time to use it. I've also never been to Vegas as an adult, and I have a hard time just going for a random vacation (so much else to do in the world!) This would provide the proper cover/excuse to make it there.

The lineup hasn't filled out quite yet, but what has been announced is a fairly unbelievable combination of, well, the most incredible live acts currently touring and a bunch of bands I'd like to see who I probably wouldn't if they toured through NYC. My justification for attending music festivals, aside from the atmosphere and locale, is just that. To see those few larger than life bands play in front of a massive crowd, and get a chance to check out those bands I'm interested in, but wouldn't wanna devote an entire night and ticket cost to it. Lemme break it down..

Tier 1: The best live acts today:
Daft Punk
Muse
Gogol Bordello*

Tier 2: Legendary bands I feel like I need to see once more (at least as an adult):
Rage Against the Machine
Iggy Pop

Tier 3: Bands I like that have gotten too big/expensive to see individually at home:
The Shins
QotSA

Tier 4: Bands I probably wouldn't pay to go see separately, but am very interested in checking out:
Umphrey's Magee
Mastadon
U.N.K.L.E.
Battles
Theivery Corporation
Sound Tribe Sector 9

Tier 5: Bands I just plain like:
Ghostface w/ a full band
Blonde Redhead
Ghostland Observatory
M.I.A.

*Based of rumor and reputation, not on personal experience.

So with half the lineup, more or less, up there, this seems pretty exciting. Sure, there are bands I could not care less about such as moe. and Cypress Hill, but that's about it. I'm excited to hear the rest of the bands announced. I suspect there will be a handful more tier 4 and 5's to be added. Its getting to the point where the only thing left to decide what hotel to stay at on the Strip...

The Hills is pretty awful this season

The fun of these shows used to be a bit more innocent. Watching attractive, relatively unassuming kids acting rich and spoiled and above their head was kinda cheeky and fun. Now that they're actually the c-list celebrities they once were trying to emulate, it's just kinda sad and boring. Everything seems even more set up than ever. LC even said it herself. She has her Roommate friend (formerly Heidi, now Adi) her home friend (LO) and her "work" friend Whitney. The problem is they're pretty much ditched the whole job angle completely, and "going to work" is really just a device for LC to hang out with Whitney (who seems remarkably tolerable until you realize she was literally an actor hired to be LCs friend in the first season.)

Back when they were on Laguna, believe it or not their lives seemed more real. Most of all, what you were seeing was more or less representative of their actual life. They were real high school students who where all living in the same town and going through the motions of late adolescence. No matter how fixed or rigged everything seemed, at least they were acting to be more interesting versions of themselves. At this point on The Hills, the show is still supposed to be about young people trying to make it in LA, except they're no longer "struggling" to make it. And everyone knows it. But they still play that role. So now, no longer are the conversation and the plot lines rigged and forced, but their entire existence is. Not as much fun.

As usual, the only person who is even remotely representing herself honestly is Heidi, who this season looks like she was dipped in plastic from head to toe and acts oblivious to the entire world. She IS C-list. And she's either too dumb to act otherwise or just doesn't care. Just looking at her makes you shake your head. Disfigured and dyed at 20 years old, going to some party or another every night, clinging to her PURE EVIL boyfriend who she is convinced she has to stay with else her life would fall apart. I can't even get into Spencer right now, who is probably the greatest modern era villain since Voldemort. I predict tho that when this show finally runs its course, he will change we way we perceive humanity as a whole. You know when there are those horror movies where the killer is never caught, so you're supposed to be scared forever that he'll pop up in real life? Well Spencer IS real life. He's out there, just lurking in the shadows at the club, waiting to get your daughter addicted to coke so he can blackmail her into having sex on camera with him. Be afraid.

So the show is pretty hopeless. I'll probably watch here and there, but I'm not going out of my way anymore. Where have you gone, Kristin Cavallari? How can you sit back and let LC get away with this??? I expected more from you.

At least J-Wahl is coming back. That guy...I dunno. I just hope MTV pitches in a bit for his legal fees.