Tuesday Tidbits

Somehow, my entry got deleted. It was posted, then gone, with only a headline left. This is sad because I spent a long time on that entry. If anyone anywhere knows how I might be able to get it back, I'm in your hands. In the meantime, here's The Weakerthans' "Tournament of Hearts." Songs about curling rule.

It's A Christmas Miracle!

I don't know why, but that phrase has been in my mind the last two days and I keep screaming it, which hasn't been the greatest thing for my parents. Eh, they'll deal.

Anyway, merry Christmas to all. It's before 10 a.m. and I got up about 20 minutes ago. Right now I'm staring at all my presents, but I can't open them till I eat breakfast, which is being cooked right now. Woo-hoo.

None of this is the reason I'm writing, though. The last couple days, I've been having a discussion with a friend about whether "Die Hard" is a holiday classic. I was on the fence.

Then, last night, I got back from my aunt's house and settled down for a night on the couch at my parents' house. Now, they've got lots of movie channels, and on Encore at like 11 was, of course, "Die Hard." I watched it. And, I have to say, it's awesome and, yes, a holiday classic!

Merry Christmas. It's breakfast time.

Merry Monday

I've been told to update this blog by a friend who needs things to read, so that's what I'm going to do right now. Do I have much to say? Nope. Am I going to look for funny things to write about? Yep. Am I busy as all heck this week because of the holiday? You betcha. Am I going to order food when I get home? Heck yeah. Did I just eat a green apple? It's in my belly.

Anyway, so it's the Monday before Christmas, which means Friday's Weekend section can be expected to have tons of year-end roundups. It's going to be a good read. You'll learn about my top 20 albums of the year, Joe Amarante's 10 favorite television shows of the past 12 months, and, of course, Todd Lyon's favorite new area restaurants. Good times will be had by all.

What else? Well, I'm a little depressed by the very real prospect of the Patriots finishing 11-5 and still not making the playoffs. I understand teams can't make the playoffs every year, but after this season of injuries and bad luck, if the Pats still win 11 games, they should be in the postseason. Go Brett Favre.

Is it wrong that I'm jealous of Jeremy Piven? Not for any success or something, but because he ate enough sushi over such a long period of time that he got mercury poisoning. I want to eat that much sushi.

"Yes Man" and Jim Carrey debuted at No. 1 at the box office this weekend, but that $18 million haul doesn't look so good. Blame all the snow that white-washed a lot of the country?

I've come to a conclusion today: Former Giant cornerback Jason Sehorn is far better at impregnating his wife than he was at playing football. Yep. Remember when Angie Harmon was on "Law & Order"?

Maybe the courts aren't pressing charges on Brad Garrett for assaulting a cameraman, but can we please sue him for not being funny, yet still trying over and over? I mean, he abuses me every time he opens that big mouth of his. Make it stop. Please make it stop.

Please, please, please let Sylvester Stallone star in the remake of "Judge Dredd." That movie was so dreadful, so ridiculous that it actually could be considered good.

You know, lots of people find Carmen Electra attractive. That's not a surprise. And, heck, I do too, but what does it say about someone when after she marries her newest fiance, the actress/model will have been hitched to Dennis Rodman, Dave Navarro and a Korn guitarist. I mean, two awful musicians and The Worm.

Here's Pitchfork's take on "Christmas on Mars." Please watch the movie and listen to the soundtrack. Both are great. I suggest drinking alcohol before the movie. Lots of it.

You want to play a fun little game? Well, go (caps for emphasis) ... NAME THAT MUSTACHE!

U2 will release its latest sure-to-fawned-over opus March 3. Yawn.

The Village Voice has published its worst lyrics of the year. Man these are hysterical. Warning, though, some of these are for adults only.

And I guess that's all I got today. Hope this makes everyone feel better.

Continuing my little hobby of posting performances from bands who put on the best local performances this year, at the top of this here blog is The Broken West playing "Gwen, Now or Then." That's Branford's Dan Iead in the middle.

Check This Out

I admit I'd never heard of this, but read an article in Entertainment Weekly recently. I've still yet to see the movie, but the trailer for "The Room" more than lives up to the billing its given in the article. Please watch and laugh.

A Nonstory Kind Of Story

So Nicole Buffett's surname is a well-known one. No, she's not the daughter of margarita-sipping star Jimmy Buffett, but rather the granddaughter of investor and philanthropist Warren Buffett. Well, sort of. Warren's son adopted her when he married her mother.

Why is this interesting? Well, because I happened to read this profile/story of Nicole in Marie Claire tonight. I obviously know that Buffett is one of the wealthiest men in the world, but is it really newsworthy that one of his grandchildren "struggles" to get by with no health insurance?Well, maybe. But if you were to read the real lede to this piece, you'd think that Nicole, a single woman, was living in poverty. Yet she makes a little more than 40K a year.

I could be just looking for something to write about here, but I just find this story pointless, rambling, self-serving and, seriously, somewhat insensitive. I don't care at all about one of the 1,083,039 32-year-old struggling artists in the world, no matter what her last name is. Of course, Nicole Buffett wants her name out there because she's obviously using it to sell paintings with articles like this. And by appearing in documentaries like "The One Percent."

But anyway, does Marie Claire think its readers are going to care about a 32-year-old artist making $40K a year, a figure most artists would kill for? Especially in these times? That's something to think about.

So what should we care about? Well, first of all let me mention that there will be no video this week. Basically it's a busy week for both me and the online department, so we'll return next week, which is probably the week you may predicted there wouldn't be a video. Well, you'd have been wrong. You just won't get one this Thursday. OK? Sorry.

My list will be out next Friday, the 19th, but if you're in the mood for an early best-of piece, one done by a local paper, head over and read the Advocate's here. Some of their choices I agree with, others I just think are people reacting to hype. I mean, I'm really sick of hearing about how great Metallica's recent effort is great. Really? Um, it just copies the older material and gives it a glossy sheen. I really believe this is a case of certain critics falling for record-label hype. But any list with Okkervil River and Kanye West is good by me.

The Advocate also did a local list, a long one of basically everything good released this year. I've been working on mine this week, and I have to say it's tough to get it down to 10 this year. Usually I don't have any problems doing that. It was a good year for local albums.

And speaking of great, great music, Mohegan Sun has announced another Britney Spears date. She'll be at the Arena May 2. Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday. Call Ticketmaster at (203) 624-0033 or log on to the Web site.

And with that, I'm done. Check out the video at the top of this entry. I decided I would start posting live performances by folks who put on my favorite concerts of the year. Enjoy Shearwater's "Rooks."

What's In A Name?

It's been a busy week, but I just had to share this story. Man, some people are so dumb. I have to say, though, I laughed out loud at the thought of a kid named "JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell." Way too funny. I plan to name my first born "Canteen Confederacy of Dunces Dirk Ferrucci II."

And speaking of dumb names, if you're going to change your name to something inspired by "Teen Wolf," why not go with the name, um, Teen Wolf?

Video Time

Um, P.S. ...

Right after I published my last entry, I checked my e-mail and my brother, Little Nicholas, nicely sent this link to me. Please, please go take a look. It's truly hysterical. I mean, I wouldn't want to take a bath in the sink. My dream would be to roll around with the fried chicken, eating each piece, one by one. That's heaven.

Thursday Tips

Hello friends on the World Wide Web That Al Gore Graciously Gave Us. I hope your day is going just peachy. I am currently on my couch, enjoying the first couple hours of my weekend. With that said, there's always more things to say here.

As you'll see in tomorrow's Weekend, there's a whole lot of stuff going on in the next few days. First of all, two films with clear Oscar buzz finally open here in the city. Those two movies are "Milk" and "Slumdog Millionaire." So that's something to do, of course.

And as many long-time readers know, I'm the only under-30 male on the planet, I presume, that still loves "Survivor." This is the best weekend to be a fan since a new episode is on tonight, and then the three-hour finale comes Sunday. Good times. This hasn't been the best of seasons, but I've seen worse, too.

What else is going on? Well, the Golden Globe nominees were announced. I'm going to refrain from commenting right now because I haven't had enough to go through them, and I really haven't seen enough of the movies yet. The next two months of my life is spent seeing a ton of movies, including the aforementioned couple sometime this weekend. Although I will say that I have this feeling "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is not going to be as good as the buzz, yet it's the exact kind of film those kooky foreigners who vote for the Globes love. Oh, and why is Heath Ledger a supporting actor? Are we actually going to call Christian Bale the lead in "The Dark Knight"? Come on, now. Really?

As you can see above, this month's issue of GQ finds Jennifer Aniston naked on the cover. Now, I'm not complaining. It's nice to look at. But I do want to mention she's also on the cover of this week's EW, and in that story she complains about the paparazzi, all the while sitting in some posh restaurant in Los Angeles. If you really just want to make movies and live a private life, don't live in L.A., pose naked on magazine covers and visit very public places. OK?

This story about Macauley Culkin's sister dying is kind of weird. Odd stuff.

In my favorite story of the last couple days, a Chilean cardinal thinks Madonna "rouses impure thoughts." OK, buddy. I mean, isn't this dude like 10 years too late? I remember having impure thoughts about Madge when I was like 14 or something, but 15 years later, in 2008, really? Isn't she just some woman who had a whole lot of plastic surgery and looks kind of odd now?

Connecticut made the national news because of Joanne Woodward. Good stuff, and this sounds like a good event.

One of my favorite songwriters, Carl Newman, announced his upcoming tour. Alas, I will have to drive out of state to hear the good stuff. Newman is the mastermind behind one of my favorite bands, The New Pornographers. The new record, "Get Guilty," is just waiting for me to listen to it, something I will do right when I'm done with this entry.

Oh, and lastly, Rolling Stone announced its 50 best records of 2008. Now, when you're choosing 50 albums, of course some of are going to be deserving and all. But some of these? Let's just say the "music" magazine that has recently put Obama, Britney and, next, Brad Pitt on its cover loses a little more cred each year. Yep. The Jonas Brothers, huh? I am seriously laughing.

So You Know

As I posted here a little while back, Mike McDonald of Manic Productions died back on Nov. 19. The reason I bring this back up is that Mark at Manic is putting on a benefit show.

One of Mike's favorite artists was Ted Leo, who he booked a few years back (that amazing West Haven show). Mark got in contact with Leo, and the songwriter agreed to do a show at The Space a week from today, Dec. 16, with proceeds going to the charity of the McDonald family's choice.

This is will be a great cause and great music. Make sure to attend. Here's something Mark wrote about the show:

"Mike McDonald was an integral part of Manic Productions, as well as a dear, close friend. In 2004, he booked Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, one of his favorite bands. In memory of Mike and all that he meant to us, we've asked Ted Leo to come back and play a show for Mike ..."