Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Media Bias

  • The Monologue:
    • It was announced today that the Oscars will be hosted by Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin. It's going to make for a very awkward moment when their upcoming movie It's Complicated wins Best Picture.
    • Kraft is holding a contest in Australia to rename Vegemite. They want a name closer to what it is, like "Oh My God I Can't Believe I Just Put This Awful Crap In My Mouth".
    • You thought I was going to make a Men at Work joke. Couldn't think of one.
    • Apparently Jon Corzine is going to lose in his race for re-election as governor of New Jersey. He was last seen speeding away from his headquarters without a seatbelt.
  • Random Pop Culture:
    • So far, ESPN has aired only five of its 30 for 30 series of sports documentaries dealing with major sports events over the last thirty years, with one movie for each year. I saw the first, Peter Berg's King's Ransom that was about Wayne Gretzky's trade from Edmonton to Los Angeles. It was good, but I didn't care about the subject too too much. I have yet to watch Barry Levinson's The Band That Wouldn't Die, about the Baltimore Colts Marching Band, but it's on my DVR. Tonight, I watched Kirk Fraser's Without Bias, about the death of University of Maryland superstar Len Bias in 1986. It is a very tough movie to watch, relentless in its presentation of what happened through the words of Bias' friends and family and local reporters. It's too much subject to cover in an hour, especially the discussion of how the death changed the US drug laws, but apparently it's shortened from a full-length feature. Either way, because it hits so close to home -- there is a Town Hall Liquors reference -- it is recommended viewing.
    • Watched the series premiere of V, or, as it's called in Rome, Five. I resent the 9/11 bit at the very beginning. Also, I seem to think that there was some religious imagery in there somewhere, but you have to spell it out for me at least twenty-one times before I get it; shoving it in my face twenty times just isn't quite enough for me to be sure. Still, Elizabeth Mitchell is as good as ever and the supporting cast, including Morris Chestnut and Scott Wolf (go GW!) with an appearance by Alan Tudyk, is strong. It was pretty cool, bordering on freaky at times, with a decent action scene at the end. The special effects could be better, but it's TV. Promising.
    • One year ago tonight, I was standing in a crowd of 80,000 at the Prince William County Fairgrounds to hear Obama's last speech before Election Day. A year ago, wow.
  • Random Music Video:
    • The album Keep The Faith was released seventeen years ago today. Rather than go for the title track, I decided to take it a cheesier route. With the second single, peaking at #10 on the Billboard Hot 100, here's Bon Jovi:

2 comments:

angie said...

You didn't read that article very closely. It was a contest to name a new variation of vegemite (vegemite with cream cheese or something like that), and the contest is over -- the winning name is Cheesybite.

Josh said...

Eh, I just glanced at the headline. Makes for a funnier joke than having the actual information.

Also, vegemite with cream cheese sounds like an abomination to nature.