Major Gale

From Sunday's Breaking Bad, Gale Boetticher crushing it on karaoke with "Major Tom (Coming Home)" by Peter Schilling or, if you prefer, Shiny Toy Guns.

In short, Gale rules.

Can't not be feelin' this

I could seriously listen to this all day.

The song is a snippet of "Feel It All Around" by
Washed Out, and while I like it just fine without lyrics on the opening of IFC's Portlandia, it's also quite snazzy with the lyrics.

Bonus review of Portlandia: I thought it looked insufferable in the commercials leading up to it, but I gave it a shot and thought it was pretty funny. A solid B, if I was grading Season 1. So if you avoided it for the same reasons I almost did, give it a shot. The first episode is strong like ox.

The opposites of dildos

New Soundgarden video for "Black Rain," the one previously unreleased track off their recent Telephantasm.

It's directed by Brendon Small of Metalocalypse, features a cameo by Dethklok and involves giant aliens fighting a Soundgarden-controlled mega-robot. So suffice it to say it's brutal. Song's pretty rockin' too. Watching it full-screen in HD recommended.

I can feeeel it

That new cop show Detroit 1-8-7 premiered last night. I have no interest in watching it, but it does provide a good excuse to hearken back to the golden age of West Coast gangsta rap, and another more significant premier. Dr. Dre introduces Snoop Dogg to the world on "Deep Cover," off the soundtrack to the Laurence Fishburne/Jeff Goldblum film.

I seem to recall the edited/MTV version of this song had Snoop saying "nickel-plated .22," which I actually prefer to the four-syllable phrase we get in the original version here. Seems like "nickel-plated" would be the more clever phrase to come up with. But who am I to deny Snoop his cuss words? Few have used them better.

Load up Celery Man, please

This is not unlike what unemployment feels like sometimes. Important work is still getting done, but sometimes it involves a hat wobble or a flarhgunnstow.

Paul Rudd, on Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job.

The sequel has become reality

While "Return of the Bud Fox" in the title might have psyched me up a bit more, psyched levels are high for Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. If you know how many times I've watched Wall Street than this makes sense to you.

NOTE 1: Videogum takes issue with the "greed is good" mention in the trailer. But, this being a Hollywood sequel, it was inevitable, no? What they should have mentioned was the awesome mobile phone sight gag. That killed and you know it.

NOTE 2: Eli Wallach is in the movie. Hell yeah.

NOTE 3: The short-haired actress is Carey Mulligan of An Education fame. I just watched her in an excellent, spooky ass episode of the current Doctor Who series from Season 3 titled "Blink." Even if you're not into Doctor Who, this is a damn good hour of TV.

NOTE 4: Bud Fox, aka Charlie Sheen, is in the movie according to IMDB. It may well be a cameo, but even so, that gets a double hell yeah.

Now why don't YOU get the hell out of MY office!

J.D. Salinger, R.I.P.

Marvel vs. DC: Late Night Wars

In case you didn't catch it on Conan the other night, here's a Taiwanese animation describing the whole late night talk show imbroglio, which steps up the action quite a bit from that Tiger Woods animation. If our news was like this, I might watch it more often.

Also, last Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien tonight! Go Team Coco!

It must be said ...

... Alicia Keys kind of rules.



No I didn't watch the stupid VMAs, but I caught this end performance.

Oh, Jay-Z — I don't think you made the Yankees hat more famous than any Yankees did, holmes. (I think that's what he said.) Let's bring it back down to Earth. Alright then.

4 on the floor

Get psyched. Venture Bros. season 4 preview trailer. We're only getting half of a new season before another hiatus, but anything from maybe the best show on TV is still welcome.

In related business, some stuff from the Venture Bros. Comic-Con panel, ostensibly about the upcoming season.

It's a lovely arbor!

Also: Drew Carey references the above. And, while he's not as consistent a bidder, this guy is pretty funny.

Can't stop the Easter

Tim and Eric, still flying high since Easter, rush the crowd on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last night.

We never said that

Watched the last Late Night with Conan O'Brien earlier tonight, and while I had worries about Consey dialing it back for the new Tonight Show gig, he ended the finale by assuring us this would not be the case. A strong way to move on. Stay strong.

I have less confidence in what Late Night with Jimmy Fallon will bring to the table, and less reason to find out with Conan over at 12:35. But in the spirit of not being negative, I'll keep an open mind. The below, at least, was funny, though mainly due to the Lonely Island dudes.

DJ Jazzy Jerks

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Stephen's Remix Challenge

Colbert at Christmas
Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen
Bill O'Reilly Interview

Amazing.

Free at last

Actor Patrick McGoohan died Tuesday, and I've been avoiding online discussion of the final episode of The Prisoner all day as I have yet to see it.

Incidentally, AMC has all the original Prisoner episodes available on its Web site in anticipation of its new miniseries. But I may just have to spring for the DVDs. I've seen about half of the original 17 episodes, and they are indeed weird and awesome.

As he himself has said, he'll always be best known as "Number Six" from that series, but he was pretty great any time I saw him. I especially liked him as the warden in Escape from Alcatraz, and as Longshanks in Braveheart. He also won two Emmys for his work on Columbo. Pretty much any Columbo episode is good times, but those I saw those episodes in syndication many years ago and they definitely stood out.

R.I.P Number Six.

UPDATE: AV Club's Zack Handlen posted a good write-up on McGoohan, which linked to another blogger's reaction. Interesting reads.

Clear the set

Baltimore photog The Hood Watch posted photos from a former soundstage used for The Wire, aka the best TV show ever. I can't believe all this cool stuff is going to waste. I would fill my apartment with this useless junk, after clearing it of the current useless junk.

The Baltimore Sun newsroom was an awesomely realistic set, and the photos of it here kind of look like my former place of employment ... while there were people working there. I wouldn't be surprised if it looks exactly like this pretty soon.

Via.

Belie dat

For some holiday fun of a different sort, the "Seasons of Belief" episode of Tales from the Darkside, circa December 1986. Are your doors locked?

Pierce the sky!

The Office is on its holiday break, so get a quick fix — or maybe pick up that last minute gift — over here. See also Boner Champ and Angela's online wedding album and, uh, this.

According to "the legend" of Princess Unicorn, she's from "a distant land on a distant planet, far away in the future." But she may well be from the Time of Legends, and related to Robert on the right here:

Potter catches a bad one

In honor of the holidays, the "lost ending" of "It's a Wonderful Life" from SNL. I might have posted the Glengarry Glen-Christmas sketch with Alec Baldwin reprising his "Glengarry Glen Ross" role, but the end of the clip is cut off for some reason. And I demand perfection.

It's the segregationist pumpkin!

I was looking for the Mr. Plow episode of The Simpsons on Hulu.com, but they only had clips. So instead I watched this year's Treehouse of Horror installment, which I missed when it first aired a few weeks back.

Not unlike most other current Simpsons episodes, I found it to be pretty forgettable. I did, however, enjoy the third part, "It's the Grand Pumpkin, Milhouse," based on the classic Peanuts Halloween special. Santa's Little Helper as Snoopy, a Grand Pumpkin who's racist against yellow pumpkins, Tom Turkey — the magical turkey who gave Pilgrims the technology that allowed them to put buckles on their hats — all good stuff.

Maybe the best part of the 19th Treehouse was the opening of the second part, "How to Get Ahead in Dead-Vertising," which was a quite awesome Simpson-ized version of the Mad Men opening.