PopDarts

Becki Newton and Michael Urie bring heart with a devious edge to a show that's overdosing on just lame ol' boring heart lately.

10. Becki Newton and MIchael Urie - Ugly Betty

9.  Joshua and Katee, So You Think You Can Dance - "No Air" - Not only did the routine, choreographed by stand-out SYTYCD newcomers Tabitha and Napolean, become a YouTube sensation, it also commenced a 10-week run that established the unlikely favorites as the two to beat on 2008's season of the most legitimate dance competition on TV.

8. Sandra Oh and Kevin McKidd (Drs. Yang and Hunt, respectively) - Grey's Anatomy.Because they're the only reasons we're still watching. And because we're hanging on every word they say despite the fact that they've used a combined total of four monosyllables since they began swapping spit back in episode 2 of the new season. 

9. The Cast of The Paper

One of the little known gems of the 2008 season, the red-headed step child of MTV's The Hills tracked a class of high school seniors through their final year in Journalism class. Awkward, pretentious and oozing of self-importance, these real life teenagers evoked curious similarities to their elder statesmen at MTV. But told through the point of view of over-achiever and Editor in Chief Amanda  — an outsider looking for an in to the cool clique — the sorta-documentary gave us a sometimes-embarrassing but mostly just hilarious reminder of our own days working for the student newspaper. 

7. Jimmy Smits - Dexter - HIs Season 3 arc gave the show a much-needed injection of thespian style. As Smitts chewed his way through Dexter's back-alley MIami scene scapes, star Michael C. Hall rose to his first real challenge since the show began shooting: going head-to-head with an actor who knows how to own a scene as well as he does.

6. Amy Ryan and Steve Carell (Holly and Michael) — The Office - Perhaps the most clever comic pairing since Carrell and Rain Wilson on, well, this show, their inside jokes, intermitent rap sessions and middle school-like courtship had us asking 'What's a Jan?' Here's hoping the show reconsiders her move to a new office and brings her back sooner rather than later.

5. Christian Siriano - Project Runway -  Who knew the endless bitchery of this diminutive diva would turn endearing halfway through the show's most engaging season yet? Seriously, who else could convince your mom that "fierce" is an appropriate word for casual conversation? That ain't easy. Ask Tyra  — she had tried, y'all. This miniature-sized caricature of a fashion designer not only proved to possess talent far beyond his years, his quick wit and quotable one-liners might just have earned him enough good will to keep a few of us watching as he attempts to prove himself as more than a 15-minute distraction.

4. The Olympics -- Highlights: Michael Phelps; Eight gold medals; Illogical scoring of Mens/Women's Gymnastics; Alicia Sacremone; Chinese toddlers as gymnasts; Swimming; Michael Phelps; his mother Debbie. Debbie Phelps. Michael. Phelps. Nastia! Keebler Elf. And last, but most certainly not least, Ryan Lochte!! And oh yeah, Debbie Phelps. 

(For the record: We love Debbie. We want her to read us a bedtime story and tuck us in at night.)

3. Chelsea Handler - We don't know where she's been all our lives, but we're glad we found her this year. Handler rudely takes us where no late night host has taken us before, devouring celebrity culture as if it were a fresh bag of vodka-soaked Cheetos on her E! talkshow Chelsea Lately. With a rotating panel of comedians to set 'em up, she spends every weeknight hittin' 'em straight at the very celebutards her network lives for. Good thing she's shackin' up with the head honcho there at E!...! (We point that out only because we know she'd love us for it.)

2. The Women of SNL - Tina fey, Kristen Wiig and Amy Poehler - If we have to say any more than that, you deserve to be sassed by the Target (pronounced: ter~git) lady.


1. Ed Weswick and Leighton Meester (Chuck Bass and Blair Waldorf) - Gossip Girl - I'll let them doing the talking...

Leighton Meester and Ed Westwick, Gossip Girl. 

Yes, that's the Best Show Ever up there, but will it be number one? Read on to find out.

Without further adieu and with a subtle tribute to one of the iconic shows of our generation, here are our picks for the best episodes of our favorite TV shows in 2008: 

10. 
Weeds - "The Three Coolers" - the one when they sit shiva, nancy beats the crap out of Celia and the show (temporarily) taps into the comic heart that made us love it three years ago.
Season 4, Episode 3

9.
Office - "Weight Loss" - the one when Kelly passes out. That is all. 
Season 5, Episode 1

8.
Fringe - “The Equation” - the one when it finally got interesting. 
Season 1, Episode 8

7.
Dexter - "Sí Se Puede" - the one when Dexter tests Miguel and Miguel proves his salt. So we think. 
Season 3, Episode 6 

6.
Secret Diary of a Call Girl - "Pilot" - the one that convinced us we wanted to know a lot about high class call girls. 
Season 1, Episode 1

5.
30 Rock - "Rosemary's Baby" - The one where Alec Baldwin achieves pop cultural immortality with a five minute reenactment of Tracy's childhood.
Season 2, Episode 4 

4.
Lost - "The Constant" - The one when Despond reunites (in real time..?) with Penny. 
 Season 4, Episode 5

3.
Mad Men - "A NIght to Remember" - the one when Joan gets to work like a man and Betty kicks Don out. Finally. 'Nuff said. 
Season 2, Episode 8

2.
We have a tie! Between the Best Show Ever and the Best Show Ever!

Gossip Girl - "Chuck in Real Life" - the one where Blaire won't say it and so Chuck won't give it up; the "long" joke I'm still not sure I get; the second, most excruciating "3 words, 8 letters" ever spoken; and the note-perfect homage to "Cruel Intentions" (but not Dangerous Liaisons). 

Gossip GIrl -  "Summer Kind of Wonderful" - the one in the Hamptons, with all the green; "Papparazi"; the first "3 words, 8 letters"; and the introduction of Vitamin water as the go-to beverage for all Gossip Girlers worlwide.
Season 2, Episodes 7 and 1, respectively

1.
The Office - "Customer Survey" - the one with the tiniest bluetooth; Kelly sabotages Jim and Dwight's Reviews; and Dwight freaks the eff out on a fake customer call.   
Season 5, Episode 6

Photoshop Victim and woman-scorned Jennifer Aniston topped off a banner month yesterday, scoring the best Christmas day opening ever at the box office.

Marley and Me (which, a few journalists have noted, also stars Owen Wilson) opened to $14.5 million yesterday, beating Anniston ex-husband and ageless superhuman Brad Pitt's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which grossed an estimated $11.5 million.

...All of this, despite Aniston's admitting to the ladies of "The View" this week that a recent GQ cover, in which she was featured nude, had been  — gasp! — Photoshopped. On top of all that, In Touch headlines read "The Feud Gets Worse: Angelina is Furious as Jen Makes Fun of her Kids" and OK announces to the world — as if we weren't already aware — that Jen is "Obsessed with Angie!"

Somebody's publicist has been working overtime to make sure her name stays planted firmly in the fore of your mind through 2009 (I'll tell you why later). So, hats off to you, Mr. Huvane, for embracing such a Clintonian approach to media relations at exactly the time your girl needed it most.

TBC...

Happy Holidays,
- Blitz(en)

A little surprise for ma petite...

(From Comcast)


(And Blitz...)

Because tomorrow, my dear, we say goodbye

The singer of "Santa Baby," Eartha Kitt, died on Christmas.... of all days.  Kitt also was known for her role as Catwoman on the TV version of Batman in the 1960s.

Video of Kitt performing the famed hit, which JUST went gold last week, included below.

--Ace

The superhero movie, based on a graphic novel, is one of the most anticipated releases for next year. But a gripe between 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros  may screw that up.

For Christmas, a judge basically shat on Warner Bros. (who shot the film) and gave 20th Century Fox a big ol present in the form of a ruling saying they absolutely have rights to the movie.

The two companies will have to duke it out quickly. The movie is set to come out in March.

Ace

Blitz is right about YouTube, I’ll give him that. And my favorite a capella group is living proof.

Straight No Chaser first started performing at Indiana University as a men’s a capella group. They mostly did little performances here and there and then broke up to get… you know, real jobs.

Fast-forward 10 years. The group posts a  video of their hysterical, not-your-mama’s version of 12 days of Christmas from 1998. (A new-ish performance of the song is embedded below for your viewing pleasure.) 8 million people saw the video, but one was their ticket to success. CEO of Atlantic Records Craig Kallman saw the group and brought them all back together 10 years after they started performing.

For all of the shiteous music we listen to, where artists’ voices sound no different from one to the next, or is synthesized so much you can’t recognize them, SNC offers nothing but pure, amazing vocals.

And now, they’re Christmas CD is the #1 album on iTunes.

Suck on THAT Tufts Beelzebubs.

-- Ace

"First it was MTV, then it was Apple, and now it's YouTube..." (Source: Reuters).

...So begins the latest Reuters article on Warner Bros.' probably-very-boring battle with YouTube over licensing fees for its music.

As this story develops (see earlier post here), the questions that come to mind are mostly along the lines of:

Do the labels really have anyone to blame but themselves for lagging so far behind the curve on this one? For not anticipating the rapid changes in Web-based technologies during the past 10 years? The past five years, even? Especially given that they had a fairly early heads-up in the form of the original Napster? 

But then I stop and remind myself that I never in my wildest wet dreams imagined that something called a Google would one day make my life so much easier (and me, so much lazier).

And I guess it's probable that, like me, the suits over at Warner and Universal and Sony — who also has quietly begun removing its artists' videos from YouTube  — don't have engineering degrees from MIT or masters in CS from Illinois. So, like me, they probably naively assumed that it couldn't get any better — or worse, in their case — than Kazaa and Morpheus!!! 

(Oh, college... ;-)

Alas, in the end, there's still a pretty big difference between those music execs and me: they have — er, had — money. Money to invest in R&D. In new talent (backstage; not just at the mic). 


But instead of spending it on developing ways to monetize online file/content sharing, they wasted it all on pursuing petty lawsuits against your idiot college roommate who simply forgot to deactivate the upload option on his Limewire install. 

Meanwhile, other smarter people were heeding the lessons the music industry refused to acknowledge, and as a result, you and I are now part of tiny little movement called Web 2.0. Together, we're proliferating the Web with so much content, the record execs can barely keep up with what we were doing last week, much less what we have planned for next year! So what do they do now? 

Well, like the Reuters article said, "...and now it's YouTube."

TBC

- Blitz

Ace says:

I loved the idea of releasing the first two songs on this album and their respective videos together, Beyonce, but it’s getting a bit repetitive. Put Sasha in a cage and just tell her to deal. OK? Moving on.

B, I love you girl, but WTF? Is it me or is there something strangely familiar about the video for Diva?

Hmm. Lets see.

Black leotard: check.  Two female dancers: check.  Black and white video: check.  Basic backdrop: check.

If the dance for Diva was anything worth learning, this video would be a straight up duplicate of Single Ladies. I love that video (and the versions on YouTube of gay men, women and little girls duplicating it) but I’ve already seen this.

And were you getting nostalgic with hubby Jay-Z for the ending of this video? Was the lighter throw into a car under the bridge a throw back to your hubby throwing a lighter into A CAR UNDER A BRIDGE on the video he did with you for Crazy in Love? Just a coincidence? Laziness? Thoughts? (For those of you curious, it’s about 1:55 into the Crazy in Love video.)