The Radiohead Covers Vol. 9

Today, especially for BeckEye, Eddie Vedder sings Radiohead's Planet Telex:



Be sure to head over to Garney's blog to vote for the song you'd like to hear next week, in what may be the final installment of The Radiohead Covers.

Trainwreck Watch: Amy Winehouse (Vol. I Forget)

With gas prices rising, the dollar falling, mortgages foreclosing, cyclones … cycloning, war spreading and all kinds of other horrible things happening in the world today, it’s nice to know there are things we can count on. Things that will always be there.

Things like Amy Winehouse getting arrested.

It’s been a while since we checked in on dear Wino. I last saw her on the Grammy’s and thought she was looking well. Still in need of a sandwich, but less in need of a tranquilizer. (Unless of course she was already on them). But now it seems she’s digging weeds in Scotland Yard again, getting picked up and questioned about drug possession because of some video that showed her doing drugs at a party. And this comes after police gave her a stern talking to last month because she slapped a guy.



Come on Winehouse, I thought the goal for this year was to get the discography longer than the rap sheet. To spend more time in the studio and less time in the clink. OK, maybe that was my goal for you, because I liked Back to Black and would like to hear more. But honestly love, you’ve become the new LiLo, and that’s not anyone’s goal. Ever.

American Idol: The Aftermath

It's a sad day in Idolville. Jason Castro was sent packing (much to his relief it seems). The blue eyed troubadour who "shot Mr. Tambourine man" can finally get back to normal. I think it's good for him, though he will be missed.

In other news, Syesha (and her legions of voters no one can seem to prove exist) lived to sing another day, the Idol recap show continues to be the most boring hour of television each week, and Adam Levine of Maroon 5 officially creeps me out (he sings too high! and his clothes are too tight!).

Three songs next week. Can't we just skip to the finale already?

Smoke on!

Be True to Your School

Being the creative genius you all know and love, you'll be surprised to know I went to San Diego State University (I know this blabbering seems like Harvard educated blabbering, but it's not. Try not to die of shock). Yesterday, 75 people were arrested, and 6 fraternities were suspended, at my alma mater under suspicion of openly dealing drugs (apparently, one genius even sent a mass text message advertising a sale on cocaine. Ahhh, higher education). SDSU has always been known as a party school (though, being the complete dork I am, I never attended a college party), so I don't really find this story all that surprising. What I am a bit shocked about is the prevalence of cocaine these days. I mean, c'mon! Cocaine is so 80's. Unless you are Charlie Sheen, working your ass off to make it on Wall Street, pot or alcohol should really be enough. As Liz said when we discussed this story yesterday, "In my day, we had to settle for underage drinking and we liked it!" Amen, sister. Amen.

Rock and Roll Hall of Shame

I'm getting tired of writing these recaps, so I'm gonna switch things up and do more of a running blog thingy. Here goes:

First, what are the odds an American Idol contestant ever ends up in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? About a trillion to one?

Round 1
I was psyched when David Cook said he was singing Hungry Like the Wolf, as he is damn sexy just like Simon LeBon, but he seemed a bit low on energy and, like Randy, it was just aiight for me.

Simon is totally right (as usual). Syesha's Proud Mary WAS a shrieky, horrible Tina Turner impression. It started out okay, but totally fell apart in the second half.

Jason Castro is ready to go home. He said as much last week. Let's let him go.

Mark my words. When Little David hooks up with Disney and he will be the biggest thing since Miley Cyrus. He sounded great singing Stand by Me. As much as I want to hate this kid for being a soulless puppet, I can't. He is really good.

Round 2
Daddy David's (no? too creepy?) Baba O'Riley totally worked for me until the tempo picked up and it fell apart a bit. Still love him though. Man, that beard is working for him. Those UCLA skanks in the audience can suck it.

I am a big Sam Cooke fan, and while Syesha did her best, she was missing the soul Cooke brings to A Change is Gonna Come. Her emotion after singing was...nice? touching? a lovely change from the scary evil bitch we've seen for all these weeks? One of those for sure.

I actually liked Jason's Tambourine Man (except for the forgetting the words bit), but yeah, he's definitely in the bottom two, if not on his way home tomorrow night. Drunk Paula still loves him for being him...or something like that. I tune her out at this point.

How does Little David not know Love Me Tender? That's, like, un-American or something. He was damn good, none-the-less. Just give him the trophy already so we can be done with this effing show.

If America Got it Right, Jason would go home tomorrow, but I have a suspicion it's Syesha's time. Maybe Castro will just quit and we can go straight to the finale. Fingers crossed.

Song I'd Sing This Week - Either Go Your Own Way by Fleetwood Mac or Little Red Corvette by Prince.

What would you sing? Are you as tired of this season as I am?

Even this kitty is getting bored with American Idol.

This (mostly) Just In...

Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon get Hitched - He's 11 years her junior. This means my potential mate could just be graduating from High School this year. There is hope! (okay, I creeped myself out a little with that one).

Scarlett Johansson is Engaged - My long standing girlcrush plans to marry Ryan Reynolds (who was once engaged to Alanis Morrisette. I imagine Scar Jo is much easier to get along with. Less anger). I'm very happy for her...mainly because I was beginning to worry about her close relationship with Woody Allen. Talk about creepy.

Step away from the old man, Scarlett.

Project Runway News Gets Worse - Apparently, when the show moves to Lifetime, the producers who've made the show so great will walk. This means new producers will come aboard. Lifetime approved producers. I think we can all see where this is going and it ain't good.

The Shia Obsession Continues - Garney just informed me Shia LaBeouf will host Saturday Night Live this weekend. Now, SNL hasn't been funny in ages, but if anyone can give it a much needed boost, it's Shia. mmmm...Shia...

Gingers are Sexy - After the Gingers are Retarded debacle last week, someone found us by searching "Gingers are Sexy." Hooray! I feel I've made a breakthrough here, people.

The calendar still says spring, but the multiplex begs to differ

The first weekend of May is over so obviously the summer movie season has already begun. I contributed to Iron Man's $100 million opening weekend and wasn't disappointed. Here are a dozen other summer releases that I'm hoping won't disappoint either besides the two obvious ones (The Dark Knight and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull):

The Happening (June 13) M. Night Shyamalan is back, and he left the mermaids and villagers behind thank goodness.

WALL-E (June 27) I'm convinced that Pixar can do no wrong.

Hancock (July 2) Will Smith will prove once again he owns July box office, portraying an alcoholic superhero in a new film from Peter Berg.
Step Brothers (July 25) Will Farrell plus John C. Reilly equals funny movie.

The Rocker (August 1) Rainn Wilson finally gets to be the star in this film about a failed drummer given a second chance at fame, directed by Paul Cattaneo (The Full Monty).

Choke (August 1 limited) Actor Clark Gregg (another Iron Man cast member) directs his own adaptation of the Chuck Palahniuk novel with a cast led by Sam Rockwell.

Towelhead (August 8 limited) Alan Ball, who won an Oscar for the American Beauty screenplay before creating Six Feet Under, directs his own adaptation of Elicia Erian's novel about a young Arab-American girl struggling with her sexual obsession, a bigoted Army reservist and her strict father during the Gulf War.

Tropic Thunder (August 15) Robert Downey Jr.'s studio comeback season continues with a high concept big budget industry-insider comedy from costar Ben Stiller, as part of a great cast that also includes what is supposed to be a fantastic comedic performance from Tom Cruise.
Hamlet 2 (August 27 limited) Steve Coogan (also in Tropic Thunder, above far right) plays a high school drama teacher who writes a politically incorrect musical sequel to Shakespeare's tragedy in what has the potential to be one of the funniest movies of the year.

Traitor (August 29) Steve Martin is responsible for the plot behind this spy thriller involving the CIA and a terrorist group, and the film stars Guy Pearce, Jeff Daniels and Don Cheadle.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona (August 29 limited) I don't know which makes this new romantic comedy-drama from Woody Allen more promising: that recent Oscar winner Javier Bardem is in it, or that Woody Allen is not.

Tonight at 11 pm eastern time (that's 8 pm pacific for people who have a problem subtracting three) a new monthly feature will debut on the Oscar, Oscar blogtalkradio broadcast called 3 Guys & The Movies, in which host Jason O'Brien will be joined by myself and Jamey Duvall of Movie Geeks United. Tonight we will be discussing the summer movie releases in greater depth. Here is the link if anyone is interested in tuning in and/or wreaking havoc in the chat room during the broadcast.

Also, if you like the idea of a free online fantasy game where you create your own movie studio based on real life box office performance, be sure to check out Fantasy Moguls. If you join the Ultimate Movie Moguls game be sure and join the "UMMpire" league to compete with both myself and Red. The Box Office Moguls league I created (Dick in a Box Office) is already full.

It will always be Burma to me.

Look, I’ve never worked in a soup kitchen or built houses for Habitat for Humanity or dug wells for the Peace Corp., so I have no authority to ask people to donate time or money. But if you are feeling charitable these days, there was a really nasty disaster in Myanmar over the weekend and they’re looking for help.

Bad times.

Myanmar’s one of those sad little countries that’s been mired in civil war for pretty much forever, and from what I gather, misery is kind of the status quo. But as many as 10,000 people were killed by cyclones there over the weekend, upping the misery quotient to levels we (or at least I) can barely imagine. They’re ruled by a military “junta” - one of my favorite types of government to say; among my least favorites to live under – that’s very secretive and not formally recognized by half the international community. And so you know things are bad when even the junta is asking the rest of the world for help.

So, if you'd like to help, you can donate here, and while they haven't mentioned it on their Web sites just yet, here and here. No pressure. This isn't meant to be a guilt trip. Just thought I'd put it out there.

OK, mission to use blog for good: complete.

Raves (May 2008)

Congratulations! I've decided to make another raves column. Stop pretending like you weren't dying to know what's making my life worth living these days, and set your pupils to read.

Wolfe Parade – At Mount Zoomer: Due to a gracious donation from a friend who gets albums early through her job, I’m able to fulfill one of my lifelong dreams of helping to create “buzz.” The new Wolfe Parade album At Mount Zoomer doesn’t officially hit stores until next month, but I’m here to tell you that despite only having 9 songs, the sophomore album from everyone’s third favorite Canadian indie rock band* is a fitting follow up to their stunning debut. Brighter and poppier than its predecessor, At Mount Zoomer expands the band’s sound without alienating fans. You should buy it. You know, when it’s available to the unwashed masses. Suckers.

Season Three of 30 Rock: This show just keeps getting funnier and funnier. (And my woman crush on Tina Fey keeps getting more and more uncomfortable). The most recent season has had the tempo jacked up to eleven, with jokes flying at you so fast you barely have time to finish one laugh before you’re starting another. I know its sacrilege, but I’d go so far as to say it’s been funnier than The Office this year. Hit me with your best shot Dwight Shrute, Kenneth the Page will protect me.

HDTV: My gentleman sidekick (I don’t really like the world “boyfriend.” I’m trying to think of new terms. It’s a work in progress) recently bought a giant flat screen TV that for reasons varied and dull is being kept at my apartment. So I got an HD cable box and the results are, in a word, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. I’m always a little late to the electronics party so most of you probably already own - or have at least basked in the resplendent glory of - a big, flat screen, HD TV, but if you haven’t, do it. IMMEDIATELY!

Cillian Murphy: Those eyes! Those cheekbones! That accent! Swoon. I saw two Murphy movies in the last two weeks: The Wind that Shakes the Barley and Sunshine (both are good, though The Wind was a little predictable, and probably only makes sense if you know something about Irish history (which I do, because I'm a dork)) so he’s fresh in my mind. Though I’ve really been a fan since I saw him in the awesome Irish movie Disco Pigs in 2002. He’s growing into a phenomenally versatile actor who can play the villain in a summer blockbuster and a transvestite in an art house indie and be completely believable in both. According to his IMDB he’s got a bunch more films coming out. Looks like I’ll have to get to a theatre more than once every three months.

The Most Interesting Man in the World: Yes, I’m talking about the Dos Equis (XX) beer commercial guy. I’m admittedly very easily amused, but these things make me laugh so hard. Have you guys seen these ads? Most of you watch a lot of TV so I’m sure you have. “His organ donation card also lists his beard.” “He’s a lover, not a fighter. But he’s also a fighter so don’t get any ideas.” Priceless.

"Stay thirsty my friends."

* The first two being Arcade Fire and the New Pornographers, natch.

Imposing My Musical Taste on the World...Again

It's finally Friday! Tonight, my friend Annie and I are making 2 dozen cupcakes before grabbing Liz for a much needed Ladies Night (look out fellas of San Diego). Here's some music I will force Annie to enjoy during our pre-party (click on the link to hear them on Hype Machine. I'm not computer savvy enough to figure out how to let you listen to them as mp3s or whatever. Sorry):

You Can't Count on Me - Counting Crows: This is my favorite song off their new album (which is really good. Pick it up if you're a fan). My favorite lyric is "And I get off and you know why" even though I don't know why he gets off...or why I like this lyric.

July, July - The Decemberists: I've been loving this song for months now. It feels very "summer" and who doesn't like summer? (I was thinking the other day, as I walked to get some ice cream on a ridiculously hot evening, how much I wish I still had summer vacation. Sleeping in, getting hooked on some daytime soap, concocting crazy meals like dried spaghetti with melted cheese because my mom hadn't been shopping in awhile. Damn, I miss that.)

Always Be My Baby - David Cook: No, I will not stop with my obsession. Leave me alone!

Careless Whisper - Ben Folds and Rufus Wainwright: I absolutely adore this cover. Two of my favorite artists covering one of the greatest, cheesiest bands of the 80's. Pure magic.

Sweet Darlin' - She & Him: Another current obsession and the song that makes me cool with the hipsters...which is really my goal in life.

As always, your listening suggestions are coveted below.

Also, today is No Pants Day. Ladies Night with no pants should be very interesting...