RIP - Davy Jones

I was so sad to hear of Davy Jones' passing today at 66. I loved Davy Jones and The Monkees when I was a kid. He was always joyful and never seemed ashamed to be a pop star. I'll miss his smile. Here's my all time favorite scene. We'll miss you.

Song of the Week - Man or Muppet

Too bad I can't find a clip of Bret's speech. This was the award I was most excited to see Sunday night. Also, since I saw Flight of the Conchords live a few years back, I can now say I saw an Oscar winner in the flesh! Way to go Bret.

It's The Oscars!

I'm so excited for the Oscars tonight. I did manage to see all nine nominated films however, getting my reviews written and posted has been somewhat of a challenge. My day job has kept me very busy lately and regular blogging has taken somewhat of a backseat. I thought writing all the nominated best pic reviews would really get my butt in gear, but now I have floored with a very bad cold. For five days now I've been sneezing, hacking, blowing my nose and I've had very little appetite. I'm pretty miserable. So the reality is, I didn't get the writing done that I wanted so it will just need to come later.

What are you looking forward to tonight? The person I'm most looking forward to seeing tonight is Bret McKenzie. I think he's got a pretty good shot for Best Song with, Muppet or Man. The movie I'm rooting for the most is The Artist.

So, I'll have a box of tissue by my side but it will be for blowing and not tears. I hope to get back in the blogging swing soon because I have a lot of opinions to share with all of you.

Song of the Week - Domino/Jessie J

There's nothing better than a song that makes you want to get up and dance and this song fits the bill. My daughter kept telling me how great it was. Well, I finally caught the video on the VH1 countdown and I have to agree, it's a great pop indulgence.

Song of the Week - Turn Off the Lights/Teddy Pendergrass

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

Hey, if you're not sure how to spend time with your signifcant other this evening, Mr. Pendergrass has taken care of that for you. He's basically laying out all the instructions you'll need. Granted, sometimes it sounds like he's shouting. "Yes Teddy, I'm already turning the lights off." I think he's just anxious to get started. He's setting up a hot time. I never seen this live performance clip until I looked it up on YouTube, check out his moves! This has been one of my ol'school favs for a long time. Nothing is ever as romantic, or in this case sexy, as some classic R&B. Have a great time.

TV Bliss

I'm so excited for this week of TV. Tonight starts with the return of The Walking Dead, plus I can check in on The Grammys all night. Then Thursday Louis C.K. is back on Parks and Recreation! But now Leslie is with Ben. Geesh, Louis strikes with women on his show all the time. Now he's losing women on other TV shows. That's just messed up.

RIP Whitney Houston

I couldn't believe my ears as I was channel surfing a moment ago. Dead at 48, Ms. Houston has had a troubled existence for some time now. There's no details yet, I guess we'll all have to wait. How sad. All I can say is thanks for the music. This was the song that always blew me away. What a talent, what a voice.

SNL - Downton Abbey

This is the funniest thing SNL has done in months. I think I laugh harder each time. Especially about a third person always overhearing in the doorway.

*Update
Okay, NBC keeps taking this clip down from YouTube so it's pretty pointless for me to put it up. Go to YouTube and find it while you can. This is what I don't understand...Andy Samberg has single handedly showed SNL/NBC how valuable the internet can be for caputuring the younger demographic. Still, NBC constantly makes it difficult to share great clips from the show. This particular skit was the best one in months yet it was not available to even watch on the SNL.com website! Maybe there's licensing issues with the producers of Downton Abbey? If that's the case, I can understand, but their making a mistake too. The skit could drive traffic to their show. Grant it, most will be high, so maybe that's a concern. Anyway, I guess what I really want to say is let us decide what was funny and what we want to share, okay?

Song of the Week - Civil Wars/Poison and Wine

I've been meaning to make this Song of the Week for some time now. Not only do I like this song, it's a great video. I love the concept of them singing in separate rooms. It gives the video such an interesting tone. I was surprised to find out they were nominated for a Country Music Award since iTunes categorizes them as Singer/Songwriter. I guess they were surprised too, because they weren't at the ceremony. This whole Cd is pretty great. Keep an eye on them.

Smash - TV Review

NBC has been promoting their new series Smash for a year now. I remember seeing previews during The Voice and now The Voice is back for season two!

The big promotion now is that the premiere will be Monday after the Superbowl. Well, you can watch the full episode online, on demand and on Hulu, so I’m not too sure they’re creating enough mystery. I’m not quite sure what kind of ratings tomorrow’s airing will be in if lots of people like me, have already seen it.

A big selling point for me adding this show to my huge list of regular TV viewing is Katherine McPhee. I’ve been waiting for this talented, beautiful girl to break out and I think this may be her ticket. Coming in second to Taylor Hicks in Season 5 of American Idol, did little to catapult her to stardom. Her lackluster CD had disappointing sales. She has songs I loved liked Over It, which I will remind you of here. Really, this girl has a wonderful voice.


Unfortunately, her CD also contained horrible songs, like Open Toes. Yes, a song about shoes. She also went blonde for awhile in an effort to change her image. This show let’s her be the persona I like. So fresh faced and lovely, I could stare at her all day.

The storyline is off to a good start. A Broadway musical on Marilyn Monroe two young talents compete for the starring role. Karen Cartwright (McPhee) is the risky choice because her lack of experience, but she brings the innocence of a young Marilyn. Ivy Lynn (Megan Hilty) has the experience, the voice and the sexpot Marilyn down pat. The role seems tailor made for her and that alone may be why she would be too obvious of a choice.

Of course there are other stories of family, old friendships and power players in the business. There’s certainly enough to push the story along, but only time will tell if you will continue to be vested in these young ladies on their rise to fame.

Moneyball - DVD Review

Let me start by saying I love baseball. I also love a good baseball movie. Eight Men Out, Bull Durham, A League of Their Own, Field of Dreams, are all great baseball flicks. Sadly, I will not be adding Moneyball to that list.

Honestly, I do not know what all the hype is over this movie. Full disclosure, I am a huge San Francisco Giants fan and I was not particularly interested in seeing a movie about our rivals The Oakland Athletics. Still, everyone kept going on and on about how great this movie was. Then over course the Oscar nods forced me into the territory of my movie fan trumping my baseball fan.

I truly tried to view this as a movie and put my rivalry aside. Maybe because I’m openly professing my SF Giants love, you will believe my review here is bias, but I assure you that I stayed true to my movie lover side.

Moneyball was originally a book. I can see how people interested in the business of baseball may find Billy Beane’s ideas interesting. What I don’t understand is why anyone thought it was interesting enough to be a movie.

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Somebody That I Used to Know

I kept hearing about this video. I must admit, it's pretty cool.